Thread by @delaneykingrox

#miniaturePainting diary. Some thoughts on decades of collecting:

I spent today doing a Mary Kondo for my minis, both sorting through and organising my tubs, and evaluating what sparks joy.

I have some thoughts.

So, if you aren't aware my main obsession is collecting and painting miniatures, and I lot. If you have a "pile of shame" of unpainted warhammer minis you feel bad about, you would probably feel better for looking at what I have to deal with.

My collection is all in A4 sized snaplock tubs, each holding about this many minis, depending on base size. Around 80 minis per tub, if standing.

But that is the based minis. The real horror comes from the tubs filled with loose minis in baggies, and the sprue boxes.

So that stack of ten contains probably around 1000 minis alone, and that's based ones. And I have way more than ten. And a bunch of loose tubs.

So yes, I have a lot of minis.

Okay, so this could be considered a brag, but it would be a dumb one, because anyone can...

...blow a tonne of cash on a tonne of minis. Woop de doo.

But this collection is MY collection, and it comes from years of excitement, hunting, bidding, bartering, seeking and all that is linked to joyous moments in my long and weird life.

Because of this, every tub is filled with models that excited me, that I am just in love with, and look forward to painting and playing with.
They are full of imagined projects, excitement and wonder.

But also a lot of "shame".

The problem with 'shame piles' of miniatures is the idea that somehow a promise is broken by acquiring new minis without assembling and painting the ones you already have.

It's "We don't need McDonalds, we have food at home." for nerds.

I do paint my minis, and I do so to a pretty solid standard, however I usually do a few from each set and then get bored and move on. I have ADHD, so focusing my interest is extremely painful and difficult.

Lately I have used my sick leave up going back to finish off miniatures I have had in my collection for sometimes close to ten years. It is a cleansing, rewarding thing to experience. Not just closure, but having something pretty completed that I can be proud of.

And this is where the point of my essay arrives:

Mary Kondo does not work for miniatures, because a changing object with potential cannot answer the spark joy question.

Does it spark joy now? No.
Will it spark a lot of joy when you feel in the mood to paint it? Yes.

You see a mini and think... OMG YES I MUST HAVE THIS! You imagine owning a painted one, and that pleases you.

You buy it and you feel joy.

But then there is a barrier between opening the package and that joy. You have to go through the assembly, cleaning, priming etc etc

But then you dee the new mini and that initial excitement and daydream returns. OMG, that looks fun to paint OMG that will look cool in my army, OMG that will be a fun mini for my campaign. Etc.

So you have the dream and reality and a bit of hard work in between.

It can be hard to Mari Kondo a bunch of greying old models, when you know there is a chance that painting them up is gonna be a blast.

I mean these dwarfs spend years like (left) and I had a blast one night and got 80% done (right)

So the problem with a big miniature collection is a mental struggle between the miniatures potential and current reality.

It is hard for me to separate minis that I will never get around to from those I realistically can or should.

Especially when even a bunch of broken bits can be turned into a wonderful figure with a little putty and some practice.
These scraps are now one of my favourite paint jobs and minis of all time.

Liquidating part of it is a sensible move, however the vast majority of my collection was from a time when I was successfully pulling in a decent living, had a stable life and the dollar was strong against the pound. I was picking up rare items for peanuts.

But now even a shitty common mini costs a stupid amount to ship from the UK, where the majority reside.

Which means selling them back to the most common market in England is out of the question. I wouldn't be able to compete with local sellers.

I have managed to make some firm rules for dividing up my collection into keep/sell, so my own personal ideas on a models potential do not factor. Expect some Ebay notices from me :)

So here are my thoughts that may be of practical use to you.

1: think of "shame piles" as your collection. Collecting is a hobby regardless of if you paint the mini.

2: set aside a budget for your hobby, preferably a separate account that part of your wage goes into that you order with. Having that account separate means you cannot ignore your budget.

3: the biggest cost of a collection is usually the storage. Space costs money. I had to keep my collection in a storage unit for years. That adds up. Shelving costs money, tubs etc.

So think about storage before buying- especially terrain items like buildings.

4: if you want to paint everything, work in small batches of minis and do repetitive tasks like "paint all the leather dark brown" or "paint all the swords steel".

Here I am batch painting purples.

5: don't assemble minis until you paint up the last assembled batch. This helps you with space, and allows you to resell the sprues or unassembled minis for greater value than assembled.

Do so with the most inspiring model last. So, I have a lot of undead and will leave Lady Olinder until last as she is the coolest.

6: sort your storage options early and cheaply as possible. I used upended take out containers with models bluetacked to the lid for years. When I needed stronger options I moved to file boxes. Finally I upgraded to heavy stackable plastic A4 handy boxes.

7. Label everything as your collection grows.
I am just going through my tubs resorting them now and relabelled everything. Make the labels editable...
"Dwarfs" tub has grown and divided into "Citadel 80s dwarfs", "Chaos Dwarfs" and "Bob Olley / Grenadier / Ral Partha Dwarfs"

8. Very old metal minis with lead alloys are susceptible to "lead rot", a chain reaction of oxidisation that releases gas that slowly turns the model and its neighbours into toxic "sugar of lead."

It requires acids to begin, such as damp cardboard.

That grey-blue powdery looking stuff is tarnish, and may indicate lead rot has already set in.

Often models can be shined up with a wire brush, gloves and safety mask outside, and can be evaluated by poking with a sharp metal tool. If crumbling occurs, bin the model.

Once painted and sealed, a lead model will not get acid from your fingers or storage, and will not rot. Just make sure to get all the undersides of the model.
Citadel moved from lead based models by the 90s, and the models are harder, more silver looking have a tinny sound.

Lead based (left), non lead based white metal (right). Don't put either in your mouth and wash hands after handling unpainted minis.

Pretty much all Ral Partha minis from the 80s onwards are "Raladium" and are lead free. But it is still heavy metals you don't want to ingest folks.

Resin is also bad for you, so wear a mask when sanding, okay?

God you can see this model crumbling away in chunks. This is from ebay. The seller should be fined for selling toxic models that will fall apart.

I saved this owl but the body was tarnished, possibly by the blister pack getting damp and soon would have started to decay. She is was thoroughly scrubbed and primed, and has a long life ahead of her.

9. Make yourself a hobby menu.

This is a list of little projects to do for when you are feeling like a little hobbying but have a daunting amount of projects.

My current one is "night horrors" and "Skeletons" for Halloween.

So I have been gathering up all my night horrors and rebasing them, and plan to finish painting based on small menu items like "tonight I will paint the vampires" or "lets paint a tonne of skulls" or "a witch and her familliar".

Later projects on my list include...

"Finish the snotling pump wagon"
"A night of painting orc skin"
"A party of adventurers" and so on.

Small projects give you goals that are obtainable, giving some mental separation from your huge collection of "shame".

10. Set aside some easy wins.

Some minis take twenty minutes to an hour to bang out, especially in batches. These are "easy wins" and can pick up your spirits.

We all have stone elementals or mud golems, treasure chest or barrels that really shouldn't take long to do.

These can be be a big emotional lift and you can pat yourself on the back

These minis didn't take much to get checked off the list.

Done is done. Give yourself a win.

11. Have a pride of place shelf for jist your latest and greatest finished jobs only. Something at eye level you walk past a lot.

Change this up as you progress, and you will enjoy it much better than painting and packing them away.

12. And finally batch paint the basic stuff to "playable standard" and then circle back to do detailing and fancy stuff later.
This pirate is playable, but later I will give her a patterned dress, work hat, eyes, tints of skin colour and maybe a tattoo.

But she is "done".

Compare her basic three shade skin to the one I did on the right using glazes over the basic skin.

See? There is "playable" and then there is "okay, let's have some fun with shading"