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Author Topic: Dealing with OOOH Shiney! syndrome in 5 simple steps  (Read 3348 times)

Offline SJWi

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1638
Re: Dealing with OOOH Shiney! syndrome in 5 simple steps
« Reply #15 on: November 16, 2022, 06:10:07 PM »
Martin, I will admit that sabots for large sized units can be a challenge.  I have the same sort of  issue with my phalanxes. However I find them fine for 10-12 figure units in 2 ranks.  I also find cavalry on 50 x 20mm mdf bases fit fine on sabots, albeit I don't store them, like that. 

Offline DivisMal

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 3216
  • Ghazkull‘s Favorite Brainboy
Re: Dealing with OOOH Shiney! syndrome in 5 simple steps
« Reply #16 on: November 16, 2022, 07:04:13 PM »
Step 1 - new book/ film/ figures/ rules trigger new project.

Step 2a - I read everything I can find on the subject. Things that will likely never figure in the project. Sumerian boat building, the feeding and watering of a Roman legion, the names and tonnage of every ship in the Spanish Armada and their English Opponents, obscure armour of The Great Patriotic War ... you get the idea. Outlay ... possibly greater than on figures and terrain.

Step 2b - In between reading create lists of figures needed for a modest force. The army of the Sumerian city of Shurrupak at 1:1 scale, Davout's Third Corp at Borodino, a Panzer Division with additional assets for the Kursk era. You know, nothing too big. They can always be expanded later.

Step 3 - Almost certainly going to be playing solo. Better get an opposing force ... or two

Step 4 ... or three or four or six or ten!   

Step 5 - Buy required figures ... and some extras .... because .... Ooh! Shiny! And some terrain.

Step 6  - Paint some test figures. Have a push about game to get used to the rules.

Step 7 - GOTO 1

Yep…that’s also my way!  lol

Offline pauld

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 486
  • Being disintegrated makes me very angry!
Re: Dealing with OOOH Shiney! syndrome in 5 simple steps
« Reply #17 on: November 18, 2022, 09:50:20 AM »
With lifelong dedication and the blessing of the internet I've managed to refine it to 2 simple steps -

1.   Oooh Shiny!
2.   Click

Never fails
No dear, they are not toys, they are models

Offline Pijlie

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Re: Dealing with OOOH Shiney! syndrome in 5 simple steps
« Reply #18 on: November 18, 2022, 12:28:17 PM »
With lifelong dedication and the blessing of the internet I've managed to refine it to 2 simple steps -

1.   Oooh Shiny!
2.   Click

Never fails

 lol You obviously don't mind an abundance of resources  lol
I wish I were a glowworm
'cause glowworms 're never glum
How can you be grumpy
When the sun shines out yer bum?

http://pijlieblog.blogspot.nl/

Offline FifteensAway

  • Galactic Brain
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Re: Dealing with OOOH Shiney! syndrome in 5 simple steps
« Reply #19 on: November 23, 2022, 02:11:41 PM »
All well and good (blog post and others posted here).

But what if you find out your main enjoyment of the hobby is identifying a period of interest, researching it (books, movies, etc.), determine what is available figure wise, deciding what to buy, buying it, and then sorting it out into units to be ready to paint? 

The actual painting and playing are subsidiary to that process.

Then you can be in serious trouble over time - and wondering what part of the household is no longer needed because you need the space for that next project. 

It grows worse when you start wondering if you really need your spouse to stick around since her stuff just gets in the way.  Oh, then true disaster lurks ahead.

With a bit of jest here and there above, that is how I've arrived at having 20 periods of figures (and all sides per period) - mostly unpainted. 

Of course, a lot of that is my retirement activity plan but the storage factor is a real challenge - I find, roughly, that what takes X space to store unpainted takes 3X space to store once painted.

So, if that is my "having fun" element, it is definitely time to adjust my focus.  I do like painting and modeling and I can enjoy gaming with others when they bring a sense of humor to the table and don't take it all so seriously. 

There is an upside to this 'affliction' - it helps keep figure and terrain manufacturers in business! 

However, sorry guys and gals of the manufacturing set, I've promised myself to finish one last collection and then join up to MACA (Miniatures Addiction Collecting Anonymous)! 

MACA, at this point for me, is rather a three step process:

A. You are retired and can't afford such largesse when the painting Lead Mountain Range (LMR) is threatening to break the rafters in the attic.

B.  The only remaining period of interest is already covered by using my AWI armies to stand in as SYW armies - with a quartet of heavy cavalry that isn't AWI specific.

C. You (or I) will be considered truly insane, not just hobby-crazed, if you buy anything else (except finishing that one project) men in white coats with a coat that buttons in the back will arrive to take you away to a room with rubber walls - without even so much as a single mini allowed.

That last bit should always be top of mind when ever the Ohh, Shiny virus rears its head.  Get that vaccination now!   ;)
« Last Edit: November 23, 2022, 02:14:16 PM by FifteensAway »

Offline ithoriel

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 378
Re: Dealing with OOOH Shiney! syndrome in 5 simple steps
« Reply #20 on: November 23, 2022, 03:34:22 PM »

A. You are retired and can't afford such largesse when the painting Lead Mountain Range (LMR) is threatening to break the rafters in the attic.


As a retiree, I have bad news for you.

I'm living on just under 50% of what I had when I was in gainful employment.

My outgoings are around 30% of what they were when I was working.

Ergo, I have MORE disposable income rather than less.

Despite my varied ailments I fully expect to shuffle off this mortal coil in an avalanche of lead, plastic, resin and cardboard resulting from an injudicious opening of a cupboard full of unpainted minis and unplayed board games!
 lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol
There are 100 types of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who can work from incomplete data.

Offline Pijlie

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1252
    • Pijlie's blog
Re: Dealing with OOOH Shiney! syndrome in 5 simple steps
« Reply #21 on: November 23, 2022, 05:37:25 PM »
As a retiree, I have bad news for you.

I'm living on just under 50% of what I had when I was in gainful employment.

My outgoings are around 30% of what they were when I was working.

Ergo, I have MORE disposable income rather than less.

Despite my varied ailments I fully expect to shuffle off this mortal coil in an avalanche of lead, plastic, resin and cardboard resulting from an injudicious opening of a cupboard full of unpainted minis and unplayed board games!
 lol lol lol lol lol lol lol lol

 lol lol

Offline Bravo Six

  • Supporting Adventurer
  • Mastermind
  • *
  • Posts: 1885
Re: Dealing with OOOH Shiney! syndrome in 5 simple steps
« Reply #22 on: November 23, 2022, 09:44:13 PM »
Be one with the Oooh Shiny. Cuz it's just gonna happen.

Offline The Dozing Dragon

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 3939
    • The Little Soldier Company
Re: Dealing with OOOH Shiney! syndrome in 5 simple steps
« Reply #23 on: November 24, 2022, 11:40:57 AM »
Having suffered badly from the syndrome, I have finally stopped purchasing stuff I don't actually need. A diagnosis of ADHD pointed me in the right direction... now I need to get rid of 45 years of clutter.

Offline manic _miner

  • Scatterbrained Genius
  • Posts: 3320
    • Four A miniatures
Re: Dealing with OOOH Shiney! syndrome in 5 simple steps
« Reply #24 on: November 24, 2022, 12:30:47 PM »
Having suffered badly from the syndrome, I have finally stopped purchasing stuff I don't actually need. A diagnosis of ADHD pointed me in the right direction... now I need to get rid of 45 years of clutter.

 I think i may well be the same as you Dave ;).So easy to buy into a new game or range of miniatures or even both.

Offline FifteensAway

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 4602
Re: Dealing with OOOH Shiney! syndrome in 5 simple steps
« Reply #25 on: November 25, 2022, 03:38:07 AM »
Here is the realization that really changed tracks for me.  Imagine my twenty periods all painted and game ready.  Now think how often will I really play with each collection?  If I gamed three times a week (not likely - though not impossible) that gives roughly 150 games a year.  More likely it will be twice a month and then only maybe.  That is only 24 games a year.  That is once a year per collection - with some favorites getting extra outings.  Now give myself 15 years of gaming like that, that means 16 of 20 collections get used only 15 times.  And four collections get used 30 times.   That seems a reasonable theory.

I think the reality is that very few people's collections (at least historical miniatures focused) rarely get to 15 total outings - and much rarer to get to 30 total outings over the life of the collection with its 'perpetrator'.

Which leads me to ask, how many of you have a collection of historical figures that has seen a game table 20 times?  Thirty times?  Forty times?  Fifty times?

By far, my busiest collection over the last thirty-six highly active years might have seen 60 or 70 outings but probably closer to 40. 

Remember, for most of us, our gaming pals want to put their collections on the table, too.  That cuts into our own collections table top time.

Maybe I'm just an outlier.  Well, I'm definitely out there given the numbers of figures I've collected, not the largest I've ever heard of but probably in the top five within my knowledge.

To return to the OP, I am trying to get myself geared to getting enough of each collection with at least enough painted to play a game.  That is a sound idea.  Now, can I make the transition and stick to it?

Offline SJWi

  • Mastermind
  • Posts: 1638
Re: Dealing with OOOH Shiney! syndrome in 5 simple steps
« Reply #26 on: November 25, 2022, 08:51:15 AM »
FifteensAway, I sympathise totally. I game maybe 70 times per year, with periods running from ancient Egypt to sci-fi.  I game ancients/medieval and WW2 most, but some of my expensively assembled armies hardly ever see the table. Several projects such as 10mm WW1 and 6mm ACW are finished but gaming them relies on others finishing their forces and finding decent rules.

Offline Pijlie

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Re: Dealing with OOOH Shiney! syndrome in 5 simple steps
« Reply #27 on: November 25, 2022, 10:15:53 AM »
I think the reality is that very few people's collections (at least historical miniatures focused) rarely get to 15 total outings - and much rarer to get to 30 total outings over the life of the collection with its 'perpetrator'.

Which leads me to ask, how many of you have a collection of historical figures that has seen a game table 20 times?  Thirty times?  Forty times?  Fifty times?

That is an interesting way of looking at things. I think I have few collections that have seen more than 20 games. However, for me that is not an objection against starting a period, as I tend to view my hobby as a combination of research, rules-tinkering, sculpting, scenario writing, gaming, terrain building, painting and collecting. I am, in a good German term, a totalhobbyist. So building a period and playing that 5 times before starting a new one is not a problem in my eyes.

But it is good to realize that minimum completeness might differ from person to person with regards to how one does define "minimum".

Offline FifteensAway

  • Galactic Brain
  • Posts: 4602
Re: Dealing with OOOH Shiney! syndrome in 5 simple steps
« Reply #28 on: November 25, 2022, 03:33:24 PM »
I guess you can say I've been doing a cost:benefit analysis.  And cost is more than the money, there is the time it takes to paint it all and the storage space.  The benefit is the gaming time and, sometimes, the ooh-ahh factor.  And, for me one of the best benefits is when I've finished a unit and it is fully painted, based, textured, and sealed and then taking a few minutes just to look at it and say to myself, "I did that."  That is a very important benefit.  But the big benefit is gaming with those finished figures (or buildings and terrain) and that is where the challenge arises.

How am I doing?  Well, I did just go nuts over the last few months acquiring a vast Star Wars collection in 15 mm (all unpainted except for some ships, many of which will either get weathered or repainted).  And I really have committed to finishing my German East Africa forces (animals, Portuguese and Belgians left to acquire, all else collected) and then be done collecting.

This matters for my long-term sanity and my wife's, too.  And then there is my other hobby, model railroading!  I need to have time for that (don't need more space for that, thankfully, it is already allocated - but I need to cull there, too.)

There is another 'rail' to consider with our miniatures.  They can be used to illustrate narrative games - that can be actual games with others, solo games, or just staged story telling.  That is a cool option I might explore at some point.  Will need to really up my photographic skills to do that - and maybe get some better equipment for macro photography.  Or I could really go full "nuts" and do some stop action animation with miniatures.  That would be super cool but it takes tens of thousands of photographs to do it right (30 shots per second, that is 1,800 per minute, so just a five minute 'show' would be 9,000 photos.). But it is tempting.  "One day, Arkadi, one day."  (bonus points to anyone who knows the name of the movie for that quote!  :D)

Offline Easy E

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  • Posts: 1928
  • Just some guy who does stuff
    • Blood and Spectacles
Re: Dealing with OOOH Shiney! syndrome in 5 simple steps
« Reply #29 on: November 25, 2022, 09:20:25 PM »
Well, I combat the Ooh Shiny system with the following steps:

1. I must have written my own rules for the period/miniatures
2. I have play-tested with Proxies/standees to make sure the game works and is fun
3. I have laid out the rules in a usable format, not just a Word Doc.
4. I have added Non-Copyright pictures, purchased artwork and self-made diagrams
5. My budget can only come from Hobby proceeds, no other sources

Then, I am ready to buy some minis and start painting them up, as these will be the final parts needed to finalize the rules for a release.  Typically, previous release sales are funding the next releases purchases.

That means I keep a pretty tight budget and schedule from year-to-year.   
       
Support Blood and Spectacles Publishing:
https://www.patreon.com/Bloodandspectaclespublishing

 

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