How much is too much?

[Connectamabob]

How does one tally sub-projects that are like projects in their own right?

For example: if I'm building a submarine bay for a mad scientist's lab layout, and I have to (or want to) build a mini-sub to put in it, which would require 1/2 as much work as the room it's to go in. The mini-sub is effectively part of the room, but can be removed from the room to represent someone having escaped in it (or that that avenue of escape is no longer available).

Does the mini-sub count as a separate project, or as sub-project of the sub-bay project?

That is both a pun and a serious question.

[grant]

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[Grimmnar]

Now i know this is not a popular opinion and i am just talking crazy. And no i dont follow this either.
Wouldn't it be best to pick a project and finish it to completion THEN pick up the next project and rinse and repeat.
Just a thought.  :-)

Grimm

[Vanvlak]

Now i know this is not a popular opinion and i am just talking crazy. And no i dont follow this either.
Wouldn't it be best to pick a project and finish it to completion THEN pick up the next project and rinse and repeat.
Just a thought.  :-)

Grimm

That is the correct approach, which I aim for.
Trouble is that I never ever manage this, and I have yet to finish a project as even if I ever manage to complete a force (rare in itself, after 20+ years of modelling, I only have 3 forces I consider playable, or at least used to until the army compositions were changed) I directly extend its boundaries and size.
The real trick is not to overwhelm your painting and modelling space, which I again fail to do.
Ironically, I managed my best effort at completing anything yesterday: I managed to get all my models for one small force (the At-43 Therians, a totl of 18 models) undercoated (!). This will of course last until I convert or buy additions to these.... and they are still to be painted.

[WitchfinderGeneral]

That's how things are going, you see something on the internet or at a convention and say "wow, I want that too!" and there you have a new project.
Or you get something you initially didn't want, e.g. from a larger ebay auction, and think "with a little work this would be great for...". The same happens when you find stuff while cleaning the basement. The curse of a creative mind!
And then there are the projects which are never finished, like the odd warhammer army which just needs one more regiment finished or its general repainted or "oh, this monster would be a perfect mount"...

[fred]

Wouldn't it be best to pick a project and finish it to completion THEN pick up the next project and rinse and repeat.
Just a thought.

I think you have woken up too early on a Sunday, you need to make a nice cup of tea, and sit somewhere quiet, and drink it in a reflective mood.

You will then understand that this kind of thinking is the road to madness.

The idea of picking one. One??
And this completion idea - just mad.





Vanvlak - I do at least aim for playable forces - and I find this is best driver for getting stuff on the table (nearly used the completed word !! ) A playable force is great - you can (will) then add more bits to it, and it is often these that slow things down. Yesterday I finished off 6 new stands, and 6 rebased stands for my 10mm Forces of Nature army. This army is already perfectly playable these additions gave me a bit more flexibility in force configurations (and of course allow bigger forces!!).

[Arlequín]

Now i know this is not a popular opinion and i am just talking crazy. And no i dont follow this either.
Wouldn't it be best to pick a project and finish it to completion THEN pick up the next project and rinse and repeat.
Just a thought.  :-)

Grimm

In an ideal world maybe, but personally I tend to find I lack the focus to concentrate on just one thing for an extended period of time. With a couple of things on the go at the same time you get a break from each one as your attention switches.

That being said, some of my choices as 'the best projects out there' have that singular focus and in terms of figures, models and terrain, usually have far more depth in terms of what is produced for them.  

[eilif]

My problem is a lack of any real definition about what is a finished project, what is in-progress and what is a project that I will always be adding too.

For example, I have two 40k armies that are large and playable. I don't play 40k anymore, but there are other games that they could play in.  One could say that they are finished, but I have quite a number of units and vehicles for each army that are in boxes on the porch and have been for some time.  The same goes for my Void Junkers army.  It's playable in many games, but I've got alot of minis left to paint up for it.

My Squats are a mostly clearer case.  I've got enough for ITEN and small games of Warengine, but it's not big enough to play 40k or warpath yet, so I call it unfinished.  Then, there's teh case of my half dozen or so warbands for post apoc, sci-fi and fantasy games? They are all complete and playable, but most have got at least a couple of figures in the lead pile that I've picked up to expand them.

Don't even get me started on Terrain, which I always want to build more of and collect more supplies for.

The upshot of all this is that almost all of my factions and forces are grow-able, and have some unpainted units waiting for them in the porch.  By that standard I've probably got 20 "projects". However, the only ones I call projects are the ones that are presently completely un-gameable and the only ones I give any attention to are the ones that are presently on my painting table or workbench.  By that standard I've got 4 Projects going.

-17 Necromunda Van Saar and one Scum (1/4 done)
-A lot of 35 scatter terrain pieces for sci-fi and post apoc (almost done)
-1 terrain project for my friend (just started)
-1 post-apoc vehicle for the same (not started)

Seems doable, and not at all impossible. Really, it's the only way for me, because if I was always thinking about all the potential projects I've got to do, I'd never start anything.

[Connectamabob]

I've got... lessee... 1 mad science complex based on a modular boxes-for-rooms system (yes, that includes a sub-bay w/ mini-sub), 1 deceptively complicated Space Pod Crab kit which I want to modify for 28mm, 2 Lovecraft monster sculpts, 3 Hyborian fantasy god/demon idol sculpts, 2 or 3 assorted new figure teams, and a grab bag of ideas for future projects that may or may not derail the above.

Work on each is going quite slowly, so I actually do think it'd be a good idea to focus down hard on one or another.

[Conquistador]

How are you counting projects?

Good Question

1) My 1/600th Korean War to 1973 miniatures are all bought, it is just painting, decals, and terrain that I am working on...  just...  

2) VSF/IHMN - do I count painting my 25 mm figures and replacing 25 with 15 mm figures as two projects?  Let us stick with it as one for now...  Finding more replacement 15 mm figures and then selling off all non-Tarzan/Mowgli/Chinese Monks/Tibetan Star God Monks/Indian Army ("Core") themed Companies.

3) My 1/600th WW1 aircraft has been bumped back up on the list and is being re-started/continued...

4) My Galactic Grenadiers (25 and 15 mm) seem static for acquiring more so it is just painting and terrain for this project - do I count painting my 25 mm figures and replacing 25 with 15 mm figures as two projects?   Let us stick with it as one for now...  Little to no hope for buying more G. G. figures at this time.  

5) Same fate for 28+ mm GanTac/FGU/Stan Johansen's Blarads/Rauwoofs/Mekpurrs/Whistlers/Klackon figures for Science Fiction skirmishes...

6) 25 mm Soldados/Indios/Presidials/Zorro/Nueva España on hold currently for oh so many reasons...  including finding 15 mm replacements for 25/28 mm figures

7) "25 mm" Fantasy with Old Der Kriegspieler's and 1970s Ral Partha Dwarf/Smiley Faced Goblin figures has plenty to paint but right now I am trying to decide to

A) Dive into painting the masses    

B) replace them with 15/18 mm figures for war games and FRPGs or  

C) and/or do the same with 6 mm armiesfor war games and FRPGs or  

D) just store them.  

6 mm Battles for Combined Arms Science Fiction... so many figures, so many partially completed Battalions...

Uncounted - all the 15/18 mm and 6 mm/3 mm projects I am playing with figures to see how they look...

[HerbyF]

Can't count that high! Too hard to keep track. Every time I think I have finished a project I find more stuff I want to add. I have things on my painting table for at least 20 different projects. I get bored & distracted easily, so always have many thing in the works all the time.

[maxxon]

I can't really keep more than maybe a couple of projects actively going at the same time... but on the other hand if I keep doing the same stuff for too long I burn out and don't want to paint anything...

What's the definition of a project anyway? Perhaps it's because I'm not a tournament gamer, but I find my "projects" rarely have a definite end point. Even after painting a gameable force from scratch, some extras get bought and often forgotten in the shame pile.

I have so much stuff in the backlog (literally thousands of figures) that I've completely given up on any pipe dreams of ever clearing it. Frankly, it doesn't really bother me. It's my treasure trove where I periodically find fun stuff to paint. Again, not being a tournament gamer tied to "official" figures helps a great deal.

This year I have painted (finished)...

15mm Sci-Fi tanks
A fantasy diorama
Fantasy Napoleonics (Flintloque)
Modern cops, robbers and civilians
WWII era vehicles
Modern mercenaries and soldiers
Fantasy orcs
Sci-Fi drone
Tribal African warriors by the boatload
15mm WWII vehicles
Medieval men-at-arms
Boats
19th century explorers
Ghosts and elementals
1/1200 WWII ships
Plus various terrain items in 28mm and 15mm, including a table's worth of ice floats

Everything in 28mm unless otherwise noted.

Most of the stuff came from the backlog.

Most of it has not been gamed with and for much of it I have no clear idea which game to use it with. That does not bother me in the least.

Apart from Flintloque, where I specifically set to paint all the remaining figures, I still have more to paint for each of those categories and many more... (though I am also set to clear the Africans by the end of the year).

[Conquistador]

Not to mention I committed [such a too painfully true word] to 4 games in November (IHMN in 25 mm, Air War C21 in 3 mm, Air War 1918 in 3 mm, and A SF version of CRVF in 28 mm) which "ups the ante" a bit.

Gracias,

Glenn

[redeaston]

I am cutting back on the number of projects and getting rid of everything else*. I will be left with -

1/ LOTR figures for fantasy gaming
2/ 28mm WW2
3/ 28mm Anglo/Zulu

I don’t expect the projects above will ever be finished but that’s fine. There will always be something to add to all to them be it new units, character figures, terrain etc.

*slight disclaimer – I have a few small forces that I picked up because my son wanted to play particular games. 15mm WW2 Germans, 15mm SCi-Fi and some Deadzone. However these are all fully painted, each force fits in a single really useful A4 sized box and they get allot more games than anything I would actually call one of my projects and will be staying at least as long as my son wants to play the games.

[Gunbird]

Thx for all of the answers guys.

I've made my mind up for the rest of the year and I will stick to these 12 projects and write down what ideas I get in that period for later reference. I just want to organize my hobby a bit more due to the limited time I have, and get more stuff done. Also, I will set my goals to be smaller, so they are easier met. A bonus for me is that a lot of my projects can mix with other ones, so completing a task for one actually finished 2 or more. I will do one side project a month to spice things up, like a bit of scenery or something that can be cast, or whatever tickles my fancy in that month.

The 12 projects do vary in size a lot, 1 is labeled WW2, encompassing Late, Mid and Early for Russian, German and British, but another like my Chernobyl one is only a few dozen figures and scenic items, but that's were the smaller goals kick in.

It does bring out the manager in me, but at least I won't bore myself with graphs and monthly increasing goals on a decreasing budget!