I've been involved in the miniature wargaming hobby for twenty years as of this year. Over the years I've fallen victim to the "Oh, Shiny!" syndrome, been an employee of a game store where I was the coordinator of wargaming events, and otherwise started, stopped, and switched projects midstream more times than I can count. I've wracked up an impressive amount of models that have nothing to do with any of my standing armies. In fact, in some cases, those tidbits amount to standing armies of their own.
So what now? Well, lately I've spent an inordinate amount of time figuring up my desired army lists for each of the armies in each of the games I play. This allows me to do two things, plan my future purchases and the hard part- the purge.
So planning my future purchases allows me to focus on what I need and really helps me avoid those heat of the moment "That's SO Fluffy!" moments. At times I will still break down and purchase something unnecessary (like the Privateer Press Gen-Con exclusives) but overall, this method improves my willpower substantially.
Currently, I am sorting through my miniatures (yet again) and pulling out models that I have no intention of ever using. These could be models for armies I never plan on (re)visiting (either as allies or a main force) or models that I planned on painting for display purposes one day. They will go in three groups - Useful, Painting, or Removal.
Useful models are those that I will keep for the simply flexibility they give me when preparing army lists. For instance, I have around 8000 points of Eldar and another 8000 points of Skaven. I am unlikely to remove any of these from my collection since those are my two primary armies.
I'll keep the models in the Painting group because they are just that, models I desperately want to paint. Most of these are either collectible miniatures such as my Bugman figure from Bugman's Bar or Harry the Hammer from the 25th anniversary of Warhammer Fantasy. Some are just D&D models for use when gaming. Others fall into the category of "Cool Figure" like my Dark Emmisary for Storm of Magic or the flower Knight from Kingdom Death (I finally managed to track one down!).
Removal models will hit E-Bay, trading threads, local gaming auctions, etc. Many models find themselves in this category from failed projects, false starts, or other random reasons. I will announce when I start doing this, but otherwise the actual sale/trade of miniatures falls outside the scope of this blog.
In the end I hope to have a streamlined catalog of miniatures that will allow me to focus on the important projects while still allowing me to take some breaks and paint some fun tidbits and special projects like my Astartes shadowboxes I've had planned for nearly 6 years.
Now I just need to find something to make painting vehicles fun. Can anybody suggest a decent starter airbrush setup? I know almost nothing on airbrushes.