The Backlog, The Grey Mountain, Pile of Shame, and many other names all describe the same thing. We all know what I’m talking about: it’s all those miniatures (and accoutrements) which you have inevitably collected over your wargaming career. Yup, I said “you” because almost all of us have them. This series of articles is a little aside about my personal battle with my backlog, my philosophy on it, and my general drive to be backlog free. Some people like a big backlog, I can understand that and it this isn’t an attack on you…unless you’re Ben…
Scaling the Grey Mountain
Like so many of us have experienced in the past, I once stood at the metaphorical base camp of a large mountain of grey backlog. Warhammer armies and side projects in still in boxes, half built ambitions gathering dust while waiting for me to pick them up again. I tried to make plans of action to conquer the mountain many times, yet it seemed like for every bit I climbed the mountain somehow got higher. Personally I found this frustrating, but diminishing hobby time compounding with more projects I wanted to do just was not a viable combination.
One day, while sitting around a hotel room (I travel for work a lot) I stumbled across a video by a content creator I enjoy: Tabletop Minions. Here Uncle Atom laid out his thoughts on purging unused minis. For some reason (nervous glance at backlog mountain) this struck a chord with me. (Link to the video if you’re interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AK21GL5jQH8 ) This video wasn’t the start of my purging but it was a good reframing and a kick in the rear to do more of it.
There are three levels to the backlog purging I do:
1. Get rid of things I won’t ever get to realistically
2. Get rid of WIP I’m no longer interested in
3. Get rid of things which are unused (including painted miniatures)
1. Purge the Unused
I’m not sure about you, but I find having unbuilt projects in the wings a frustration. They feel like a grey cloud hanging over my hobby desk and the looming shadow of the backlog detracts from the joy of completing a different project. This step was the easiest for me, I quickly purged myself of unbuilt GW kits (this paid for my first resin printer). Nowadays this step includes extra things I’ve printed but have not painted. I’ve decided on that front I will try to only print things as I plan to paint them relatively soon after.
2. Purge the Abandoned
This step in my journey was a difficult one. I had two primary targets in mind initially: my Warhammer 40k Iron Warrior army and my Star Wars Legion Republic army. Both of these projects had been extremely interesting and exciting to me at their inceptions. Both had up to that point involved considerable effort in the form of painting and kitbashing etc. Yet for different reasons these slowly faded away for me. My Iron Warriors army, well, I overbought and the project had become a massive undertaking. No doubt it would have been wonderful to look at when complete but the sheer amount of effort that would take turned me off (how many hazard stripes can a man paint before going insane?). On top of that the game of 40k has never really grabbed me. I’ve tried it in 7th, 8th, and 9th editions and it just wasn’t it for me. I decided that since I wasn’t likely to play the game the project army would most likely sit in the partially finished state it already had for multiple years. In the end I pulled the trigger and sold it. It was the first large ticket sale of my purging…..and it turns out that purging is addicting to me….. So next came the Legion army of clones. I had been extremely excited for the clone wars expansion for Legion. It held a nostalgic feel and would allow me to flood the table with clones. Yet it was too little too late for the local scene. Despite the fact that I enjoyed playing Legion the local player base dried up ahead of the release. I bought in anyways hoping it would revive a bit, yet it never did. So the clones sat half painted for well over a year until, in the wake of my 40k sale, I decided to sell them too. After these two sales it became easy for me to purge various other WIP that were unlikely to come to fruition, and I’m happier for it.
3. Purge the Forgotten
For me this step was less difficult. I had already sold out of various Age of Sigmar armies over the years, so there was precedent. I decided on a new rule for myself: things which are unused for 18 months are evaluated for a possible purge. If I’m just not ready to relinquish it at that moment I allow for an extra six months of reflection/a chance to make an effort to use it. This quickly resulted in the sale of my Rebel Alliance force for Legion and my entire collection of Adeptus Titanicus (lovely models, fun game, I painted two whole forces, but only played a single time and there wasn’t another player in sight). The hardest purge of this style for me was my Age of Sigmar Idoneth Deepkin. I poured a lot of time into this army when it came out, I was extremely excited by it, and I played with it for basically an entire edition of the game. Yet I found I no longer reached for it, the play style had a “been there, done that” feel for me. Finally I decided an army I loved needed a home where it would see good use. I sold it to a friend who still plays a lot of Age of Sigmar, so I can still visit it if I want to.
This effectively ends what I wanted to cover in part one of what was originally going to be a single article. My hobby purging continues regularly in small amounts. Ben likes to tease that I’m the Marie Kondo of the hobby and maybe that’s true. In Part Two I will discuss what’s left in my backlog, and how I plan to tackle it. This is likely to be followed by a Part Three where I wish discuss the future of my backlog and how to avoid the same pitfalls of the past amongst the excitement of my dive into historical wargames. Until then keep purging….. -Evan
Iron Dice Gaming 