A conundrum of scale and collecting

[grant]

I have a conundrum. I have a good collection of French and Russian Naps, all Perry with a bit of Victrix, and quite a few are painted. Some are heavily converted. A fair amount of work involved. And then I have about triple what's painted just in boxes. It's a LOT. 

I also have a chunk of ECW and the Soudan.

Lately I've been thinking of dumping 28mm in favour of 10mm. I am torn a bit - should I sell my Naps? My ECW and Soudan I can part with. The Naps ... so much work done. So much great stuff still in boxes.

But the 10mm... I could have truly magnificent masses of infantry and cavalry. Proper batteries of guns. And would need less space to do it all in!

Anyone else find themselves in this boat? What did you do?

[Johnno]

Would 'dumping' the 28mm Naps cover the cost of full forces of 10mm Naps?
How much time do you have to paint?

[grant]

Would 'dumping' the 28mm Naps cover the cost of full forces of 10mm Naps?
How much time do you have to paint?

Oh, I have enough Naps, ECW and Soudan to pay for the 10mm probably 4-5x over.

Painting time... I can probably paint 10mm faster, honestly, so I could recover the lost time on the 28mm. Maybe.

[Cubs]

A lot of people (probably very wisely) do recommend only collecting one scale, so you save money on terrain, accessories and the like. This makes sense.

However, there are a few genres which I reckon lend themselves to skirmish stuff (ideal for 28mm) and some genres which lend themselves to big battalions (little stuff - your wee 10mm fellas).

Despite my feeble attempts to justify a smattering of 95th and 60th rifles, plus a token battalion of line infantry, in 28mm I would go for a smaller scale. I do have boxes and boxes of 1:72 Napoleonic plastics just in case I am trapped in my studio by a freak landslide (one that goes uphill) and have to spend a month or so doing nothing but painting.

[Onebigriver]

If you've already put the work in I'd suggest keeping the 28mm Naps for skirmish wargaming, perhaps using Sharp Practice or the free Capitan set. SP is a company level game so you could possibly part with some of your unpainted boxes.

[WillieB]

Don't sell anything. Been there, done it (just one big 1500 figure army, years and years ago) and regretted it ever since.
If needed try to sell of or your unpainted figures to (partly?) fund the new 10mm army.
I've been ogling the new Pendraken 10s as well but decided I'm too old now to start afresh.

 

[Pendrake]

Have you tried painting 10mm troops? Volunteer to paint a battalion or two for someone else --- find out if you can stand painting stuff that small --- before you go in on a full 10mm army.

[grant]

An update.

The sale was massively successful. I got triple what I thought I would for my painted stuff. I kept the Soudan; largely because I had so many lots of stuff it was hard enough to keep track of. They will be sold on as well...

I painted some 10mm before all of this came down, and am really enjoying them.

A day after everything sold, I felt like a great weight has been lifted. The oppression of having multiple scales and projects is gone!

My 6mm and 10mm will use the same terrain and buildings. I can be clever in fudging them to work with both. Unified terrain is a great thing.