Lead Adventure Forum

Other Stuff => General Wargames and Hobby Discussion => Topic started by: Yarkshire Gamer on November 17, 2020, 05:47:20 PM

Title: The Great Wargames Figure Count
Post by: Yarkshire Gamer on November 17, 2020, 05:47:20 PM
(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xcp7c48hxzo/X62nHfvBKFI/AAAAAAAAico/Q4z0JlM8rFMGTTbuibWq7SLphB68om0hACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/20180616_150424.jpg)

(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_lI5c5dECu0/X62qe0Hwx3I/AAAAAAAAidg/KgxQzK5Ado41rJgqVu_TjKmZBEeSXTbrACLcBGAsYHQ/s1975/20190612_093117.jpg)

(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fZII_mK4pbQ/X62LUQVlKoI/AAAAAAAAicM/3STMh0gZXMsgth5gHee_kVVg-bLpscCiQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/20191029_145443.jpg)

(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-AhV_w54yLqU/X7MBnxI3VRI/AAAAAAAAijc/ZwdqAogHb5gGyx5R8dC5HZETmNZxA_qlQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/20201115_112856.jpg)

https://yarkshiregamer.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-great-wargames-figure-count.html (https://yarkshiregamer.blogspot.com/2020/11/the-great-wargames-figure-count.html)

Lockdown does strange things with the brain, and following a question I was asked in a Podcast style interview I have been pondering "how many painted figures have I got"

So in a moment of madness (well a couple of weeks) I started counting, painted only and part of my own collection (there are a few others who have stuff stored here).

I estimated 20,000, I was a way off, in true click bait style (lol) the final figure is at the end of blog post, why not have a guess before you look and let me know how close you were.

People will have more I know, this was more of a cathartic exercise for myself.

There's at least one picture of each collection, so if you are wondering what my 15mm War of the Roses project that was abandoned in the late 1980s looks like today come on down.

Regards Ken
The Yarkshire Gamer
Title: Re: The Great Wargames Figure Count
Post by: Inkpaduta on November 17, 2020, 06:25:26 PM
Wow! And I thought I had a lot with my 5,000.
Title: Re: The Great Wargames Figure Count
Post by: RSDean on November 17, 2020, 07:38:31 PM
My incomplete records suggest that I have ~3500 in 54mm down to 1/72 scale at this point, plus three minor 6mm projects with no counts recorded.  Honestly, storage is the main concern at this point, since I would like to have everything easily pulled out from well labeled boxes, and the secondary concern is that most of my games are on smallish tables (90cm x 150 cm, or 3 ft by 5 ft), so there are some physical limits to mhow many figures can be profitably employed at once.

I’m comfortable with the idea that I have a more limited choice of projects to take to a convention and use to host a 6x10 foot 6-8 player participation game.
Title: Re: The Great Wargames Figure Count
Post by: FlyXwire on November 18, 2020, 12:59:21 AM
I don't want to know how many I have, as I'll then be more apt to start thinking of when to start passing them along in the near (or distant future).  o_o

Title: Re: The Great Wargames Figure Count
Post by: Elbows on November 18, 2020, 01:25:20 AM
I only started keeping track recently (see signature).  However, I occasionally sell off old ill-painted minis that I've lost interest in...so I don't know how many minis I currently own.  I could count them relatively easily - maybe I will do!
Title: Re: The Great Wargames Figure Count
Post by: syrinx0 on November 18, 2020, 02:49:31 AM
Good to know what you have.  A great collection.  I started tracking only in 2011 and never got up enough energy to actually count what I have painted from before.  Most of my earlier stuff was sold though to other club members but even then it's under 3000 figures. 
Title: Re: The Great Wargames Figure Count
Post by: Dr Mathias on November 18, 2020, 02:53:55 AM
Holy Smokes, was I off on my guess. Far too low!
Title: Re: The Great Wargames Figure Count
Post by: Roo on November 18, 2020, 07:10:33 AM
Having checked your blog and some videos it is the quality of the collection as well as the size that astounds...great job and always worth counting up for insurance purposes!  Keep them coming.
Title: Re: The Great Wargames Figure Count
Post by: tomrommel1 on November 18, 2020, 07:25:00 AM
So many!!!!!! I only have about 1000 painted ,but I lost all the figures I had in 2010 during a plodding of my basement wargames room. Couldn't recover any as the basement was flooded with waist water.
Title: Re: The Great Wargames Figure Count
Post by: Dr. Zombie on November 18, 2020, 07:58:02 AM
Holy smokes! I thought I had a large collection. Turns out I don't - at all!

At the end of the year I usually do a tally of what I have painted all year. Perhaps this year I should do a grand total like this.
Title: Re: The Great Wargames Figure Count
Post by: levied troop on November 18, 2020, 08:18:30 AM
For any wargamer, the correct answer to the question "how many painted figures have I got" is always:

“Not enough”.
Title: Re: The Great Wargames Figure Count
Post by: fred on November 18, 2020, 12:26:30 PM
That is a lot of figures! Very impressive in quality and scale.

I have a question about methodology of counting (and I admit I am overthinking this) What is your definition of a figure for this? So is a 28mm figure and a 6mm figure counted as 1, and a 28mm tank counts as 1, what about guns with crews, is that 1 for the gun and 3 (or how many) for the crew? The same with cavalry is it 1 mounted figure, or is it 1 horse and 1 rider?

I’ve only counted figures on 1 of my 10mm armies, which is too big to be playable, and it is 980 figures. So the size of some of your armies feels huge!

Title: Re: The Great Wargames Figure Count
Post by: Yarkshire Gamer on November 18, 2020, 04:26:58 PM
That is a lot of figures! Very impressive in quality and scale.

I have a question about methodology of counting (and I admit I am overthinking this) What is your definition of a figure for this? So is a 28mm figure and a 6mm figure counted as 1, and a 28mm tank counts as 1, what about guns with crews, is that 1 for the gun and 3 (or how many) for the crew? The same with cavalry is it 1 mounted figure, or is it 1 horse and 1 rider?

I’ve only counted figures on 1 of my 10mm armies, which is too big to be playable, and it is 980 figures. So the size of some of your armies feels huge!



Hi,

I tried to not get too complicated and kept it as one model = 1 figure in the count. So a rigged Napoleonic ship which would take me say a week to complete counts as 1 when I could paint 40 or so 28mm in the same time frame and even more of a smaller scale, I think I have an even spread of scales to make that a reasonable way of counting, if they were all 6mm it would be a valid point but they are not.

A horse and a rider count as 1 figure, a tank / vehicle and crew count as 1 figure, a crew served gun counts as individual figures plus one for the gun.

The reason Some of my armies seem huge is, because they are  lol, my Napoleonic figures at my gaming ratio of 33:1 represent close to 200,000 men.

Regards Ken
The Yarkshire Gamer
Title: Re: The Great Wargames Figure Count
Post by: fred on November 18, 2020, 07:09:49 PM
Thanks for explanation Ken. Yes, there is no real way of comparing a sailing ship to a 6mm infantry man, so as you say, just counting models is the only practical way.

I can’t decide if I’m tempted to count figures or not. I did do some cataloguing not that long ago, and just did it at layers in boxes - with each layer being approximately A4, and got to 113 layers IIRC.
Title: Re: The Great Wargames Figure Count
Post by: Yarkshire Gamer on November 18, 2020, 08:51:36 PM
Thanks for explanation Ken. Yes, there is no real way of comparing a sailing ship to a 6mm infantry man, so as you say, just counting models is the only practical way.

I can’t decide if I’m tempted to count figures or not. I did do some cataloguing not that long ago, and just did it at layers in boxes - with each layer being approximately A4, and got to 113 layers IIRC.

If it wasn't for lockdown madness I probably wouldn't have bothered, but it was fun to do and I found some stuff I had forgotten about. I had to use and airbrush to blow the dust off the Riders of Rohan  lol

But it's done now and easy enough to keep up to date.

Regards Ken
The Yarkshire Gamer
Title: Re: The Great Wargames Figure Count
Post by: fred on November 18, 2020, 09:03:18 PM
If it wasn't for lockdown madness I probably wouldn't have bothered, but it was fun to do and I found some stuff I had forgotten about. I had to use and airbrush to blow the dust off the Riders of Rohan  lol


Indeed! I know that feeling of finding stuff that was forgotten - but it’s then pleasing to have found them again.
Title: Re: The Great Wargames Figure Count
Post by: Tactalvanic on November 23, 2020, 09:33:47 PM
Very helpful and feel much better about my "collection" now.

Can't wait to show my better half how small my collection is compared to a true enthusiast, she will be soo happy I don't have a collection to match yours.  :)

Just remains to say, well done sir, and long may you continue to enjoy them all.
Title: Re: The Great Wargames Figure Count
Post by: armchairgeneral on November 23, 2020, 10:14:50 PM
Very impressive collection Ken both in size and quality of painting.

Interesting the range of scales. Would it be fair to say most wargamers favour one particular scale?
Title: Re: The Great Wargames Figure Count
Post by: Yarkshire Gamer on November 24, 2020, 07:29:08 AM
Very impressive collection Ken both in size and quality of painting.

Interesting the range of scales. Would it be fair to say most wargamers favour one particular scale?
Hi Pete, hope you are well

Its a good question regarding the scales, a lot of my older collections are in smaller scales which would have been a financial choice. I try not to do the same period in different scales so I have not swooped for example to 28mm in Napoleonic.

As I've gone on I've switched to 28mm mostly because I can afford it and also I find 28mm so much easier to paint. I'm doing some 15mm Kursk at the moment and the Infantry have been a bit of a struggle.

Regards Ken
The Yarkshire Gamer