Tale of Four Gamers Month Two - Fez

Arrgghh! Splosh, Splash, Dunk, Splat! Damn it!

The sound of last minute painting echoed through the Fez house hold once again. The new hamster Callie (or .50 cal, depending on who you ask - Stug passed away last month) looks on bemused. I'm sure she'll soon get used to the painting lamp being on so late at night. My long suffering girlfriend walks into the room once again - "Why do you do this to yourself? I'm off to bed."

I clean my brush, look at the sorrowful brown base coated Panzersturm platoon staring back at me, and ponder on the question.

Brown platoon of SHAME

As you may have guessed, this isn't going to be your usual 'Tale of x gamers' update. A combination of real world events means that I've not had the painting time I thought I would, and have subsequently fallen behind the curve on my army project. All I've really had time to do it touch up my existing Volkssturm platoon a bit, so you'll have to enjoy those pictures to break up this text.

These guys are awesome

To me, the war gaming hobby has always been a way to combine two of my pastimes - model making and gaming. This way my models don't just sit on a shelf, but earn their keep by campaigning on 6x4's around the country. I've met some great friends, and even made the start of a great career off the back of it. However, there comes a point where you have to stop at take stock in where you are in the hobby. My living room resembles the stock room of a games shop - half completed boxes are scattered in piles of reference books and still in shrink wrapped product.

My addictive personality means that when I find myself short of hobby time, I've compensated over the years by shopping, meaning that I have a lead pile that could probably be classed as a health and safety hazard. Manufacturers have gotten better at releasing just enough new product to keep me buying, and the spin off's to keep things 'fresh' and different. Eventually you reach a point of critical mass. I hit that at the start of the year, (well, a few years ago if I'm honest, but denial is a wonderful thing!) and thought that I could increase my painting schedule to help clear my backlog, as per my new years resolution.

What I have so far!

The idea of selling my unfinished/started projects burns my hobby soul, however the idea of a full 'clearing of the decks' could do wonders for me. As Flames of War is my predominate wargame, I think I'm going to leave this till last, but the time has come this summer to bite the bullet and clear through my GW/Dystopian/Bolt Action/Netrunner stuff.

How do you guys deal with 'hobby overload'? I think its different than hobby burn out, and I don't seem to find FoW players suffer from it as much, but it'll be interesting to hear your views.

So sitting there, looking at my models, I thought about the question - why do I do this to myself? As much as I want to be able to show off my army on the blog, this hobby is still just that - a hobby. The Panzersturm models are lovely, and the last thing I want to do is rush them.

Lovely Kerr and King bases for more urban goodness

I've got a few clear weekends\ this month (and no business travel!) so I will be caught up for the final push. Now I just need to also finish my Art of War army. Oh, and that Necromunda gang for the Club campaign, oh and that Mars attacks kickstarter. Oh wait - what about Cold War Gone Hot......

Fez