Why do you do this?

You know, I'm starting to realise a lot of you guys are 'collectors', while I am not. I buy, model, paint, play, make campaign worlds for and stories about figures. I convert and scratchbuild and kitbash. But I have no recollections of what range figures are from, or what sculptor was involved, or whether I have the complete set. Most of my figures are not Citadel, many are converted, and a good portion were bought in bargain buckets at conventions or given by friends or whatever and so I don't know their origins at all.

All your posts re: which figures you are trying to get to complete this set or that range finally made this obvious to me. Of course, I thought, Oldhammerers - still Warhammering after all these years - are very likely to be collectors. And don't get me wrong, I understand where you are coming from and can imagine maybe one day I will suddenly feel I want to possess a certain range. But up 'til now my urge to acquire figures has been about game projects, campaign settings, themed armies, etc. Not collecting nice figures, but finding figures to serve certain purposes in my little worlds. My paint desk right now is filled with 'Briganti' for my new Tilean story-campaign project, as well as private militia guards, priests of Morr and Shallyan Sisters (actually Renaissance figures from Wargames Foundry or Perry).

So, this thread is about finding out the truth. Do you see yourselves as primarily collectors, like hoarding philatelists, or (as I suspect) are there all sorts of other motives and driving forces built in? Are you trying to recapture your youth, or cling on to it? Are you more keen on the painting or the playing? I like both, but if it were not for the campaigns and story projects I have been involved with over the last 10 years I do not think I would do either now.

Just interested, that's all.

Mine all stems back from I re-discovered my old Orcs in a box and decided to freshen up the paint jobs. Actually I had a little dalliance with Harlequin Dr Who minis and gaming for a while before getting back into the Citadel stuff - still love the GW shop assistants face when he asked me what I was painting when I went in to buy some new paint for my daleks!

Anyway, I decided my Orcs needed someone to bash up so I started buying up Wood Elves in a vague idea of making a Mike McVey style army (ironically the least completed of all my projects). I suppose I started off going after figs I remembered from old copies of WD and what I wanted for the games I was going to play. Then I must have bumped into some of the reprobrates who hang around here on LAF and began to catch the collecting bug and have ended up with at least a warband's worth of most of the Warhammer races...

I mainly go after stuff (pretty much exclusively citadel - some Otherworld, Ral Partha, Four A, etc) to fit in with the scenarios I have planned or am recreating - Orc's Drift and Magnificent Sven - although I am increasingly feeling the pathological urge to track down those last few minis to finish off incomplete sets I've bought on a whim on ebay.

It used to be about recapturing the good old days of playing with books for hills before big hatted Chaos Dwarves and overpowered Empire Volleyguns and squadrons of Steam tanks ruined the fun - now I get nostalgic about stuff I wasn't on the scene for when it came out!

I love the painting and writing scenarios and would love to game a lot more, so a bit of everything really.

Mmmm....good question.
I will enjoy reading everyones answers.

When I was a child I loved toy soldiers Britains, Timpo, Airfix.
Then I got into playing wargames before I got into any of this.
So I always liked toy soldiers. I also liked making models.
Then I got into playing Role Playing Games.
Then I lost myself in the fantasy Worlds, Middle Earth, Greyhawk, Forgotton realms, The Olde World.
Then I really got into the miniatures ... I still loved the toy soldiers.
I really got into the miniatures quite late in the day.
I could not afford the prices when I was a child.
As an adult I was able to buy the minis I wanted.
Then I started to collect all the minis I had wanted when I was a boy but could not afford.
Then I started to collect things I didn't even know I wanted.
(Thats when I first realised I had a problem!)
Then I wanted to get them painted.

Now ... I am a collector first, then a painter, then .... when I get time I still like to play wargames.

My story is very similar to yours, Harry, very similar indeed - from Britains and Airfix right up to roleplaying, right up to having a LOT of figures for WFB. But where you turned into a collector I instead combined RP with WG and got into the web campaigns. Thus my many projects over the last 10 years, including all the stories and pictures, and the new figures I have were all obtained to that end too.

Yet ... there is still a part of my mind that thinks just the same way as the little boy I used to be, dreaming of how I will line these soldiers up in battle, or how neat those soldiers will look all painted up to match. I still occasionally get to sleep at night by thinking of toy soldier projects to stop my brain worrying over more important things!

Not so different ... even now much of my collecting is really focussed by army building. I am actuall much more into painting armies rather than individual minis. I love the spectacle of armies with tight schemes, on the table. Actually I think I like looking at a game more than I enjoy pushing the soldiers around.

For me its all my dad's fault... He was, and still is in fact, a railway modeller. So the sights and smells associated with this hobby where mine since birth. The young boyish fascination with paints, brushes, knives etc really held me. The trouble was,I didn't like trains! One day I found issue 108 of WD in newsagent, the one with the blanche titan cover, and fell in love with the contents. Who hooked me was the combination of the background, the models, the ways in which those models were painted and the fact that there were a range of games that could also be played. These days I primarily collect and paint, largely with the view to be able to play all these great games with my son when he is old enough, but with the growth of the oldhammer community its only a matter of time until these models see semi regular or even regular gaming...

Orlygg":1zuh1gxd said:

... I primarily collect and paint, largely with the view to be able to play all these great games with my son when he is old enough...

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I have a similar motive, having already secretly begun painting figures for a Bretonnian army for one son. Cannot decide what to do for the other son. (They're 2 and 4 right now.) Someone gave me enough 1980s and 1990s plastic to make a big Greenskin Army, but I don't want my sons to have armies that are automatically, always enemies. I would rather they were potential allies so that they could fight against each other sometimes, but then ally together to fight against one of my many, many hordes. I want the boys to feel like they are princes who rule their own little realm in our own little world.

Harry":1zuh1gxd said:

Not so different ... even now much of my collecting is really focussed by army building. I am actuall much more into painting armies rather than individual minis. I love the spectacle of armies with tight schemes, on the table. Actually I think I like looking at a game more than I enjoy pushing the soldiers around.

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I too like putting armies together from scratch, although adding to existing armies is a joy as it ain't so much work. I have repainted things several times, or just altered them, so that they fit a scheme.

I once painted an entire skaven army in secret so that my friends would be surprised when it appeared - I even had some half painted High Elves I would clumsily hide away when they visited so that they would think they knew what was going on. I tried to theme it, though I suppose theme is quite easy with a skaven army.

This was the army I painted in secret (though a couple of the units might be more recent) ...



Red for the warriors, black and grey for monks, earthy colours for the slaves. Different coloured banners for each warrior regiment.

Since then I have added the machines and a few more units ...



My favourite unit is my recently added yellow regiment of elites. Yellow is the obvious colour for tough skaven - the enemy can see you better, mark you out from the rest. Not a traditionally skaven yearning! But one which shows you are tough - the colour of the hateful, burning sun.

Painting armies in secret is a great idea - I bet with those amazing scratchbuilds your mates were maybe even a little uncertain as to their capabilities, as opposing generals seeing them for the first time would have been!

Nice idea for your two sons too

I'm a collector first, a modeller second, then a painter, then a gamer.
But I'm not a typical collector. I bet that my collection is the smallest on this board. I try to complete projects for gaming purposes, I'm not going for complete sets. I don't care that I don't have all the different Skaven from the 2nd Ed. of Blood Bowl; however, I do care about having a complete team made up of Jes Goodwin Skaven from the same period. I really enjoy gaming, but these days it's hard to find an opponent, so I spent more time collecting and fiddling with the minis than I do gaming.
I like to re-purpose minis, I love to convert. I'm not a good painter, so I don't get as much enjoyment out of painting as I would if I were really good at it. I like to improve, though, and I like the sense of achievement I get when I complete a batch of minis.
I like the old minis because I am a collector. I like the 'hunt': to discover some hidden gem in a pile of crap nobody bid on on ebay, I looove mis-labelled auctions with blurry pics, or bins of used minis at dinky toy stores. I compulsively bid on minis that I don't really need for gaming simply because I know that I can re-sell them at a profit should I want to. I collected my elf team by bidding on any mess of mis-matched minis that contained one or two elves, kept those, cleaned and re-sold the rest. That way, I got my elf team for free with extra cash to treat the missus to a night on the town every couple of weeks.
I love the fact that broken minis go for low, low prices - I can repair pretty much anything and I like doing it. I don't care that the result isn't 'original' any more.

I'm a Yankee so my history is a little different. I picked up a Citadel promotional magazine on a family trip to Dublin and ordered my first Wood Elf spearmen over the phone when I got back to Vermont. That was my first hobby experience (and led me to do a little roleplaying and historical wargaming later). I definitely consider myself a player first and a collector a distant second. I'm more enamoured of the 4th edition models that I started with, but I have to say 3rd edition rules push all the right buttons for me.

Ti Pouchon":2o15jjo8 said:

I'm a collector first, a modeller second, then a painter, then a gamer.
But I'm not a typical collector. I bet that my collection is the smallest on this board. I try to complete projects for gaming purposes, I'm not going for complete sets. I don't care that I don't have all the different Skaven from the 2nd Ed. of Blood Bowl; however, I do care about having a complete team made up of Jes Goodwin Skaven from the same period. I really enjoy gaming, but these days it's hard to find an opponent, so I spent more time collecting and fiddling with the minis than I do gaming.
I like to re-purpose minis, I love to convert. I'm not a good painter, so I don't get as much enjoyment out of painting as I would if I were really good at it. I like to improve, though, and I like the sense of achievement I get when I complete a batch of minis.
I like the old minis because I am a collector. I like the 'hunt': to discover some hidden gem in a pile of crap nobody bid on on ebay, I looove mis-labelled auctions with blurry pics, or bins of used minis at dinky toy stores. I compulsively bid on minis that I don't really need for gaming simply because I know that I can re-sell them at a profit should I want to. I collected my elf team by bidding on any mess of mis-matched minis that contained one or two elves, kept those, cleaned and re-sold the rest. That way, I got my elf team for free with extra cash to treat the missus to a night on the town every couple of weeks.
I love the fact that broken minis go for low, low prices - I can repair pretty much anything and I like doing it. I don't care that the result isn't 'original' any more.

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Yes ... all of that.
I like broken minis too ... and minis caked in paint.
Firstly I love trying to restore something to its former glory. Uncovering this gem underneath layers of paint. Brings out the archeolgist and archivist in me.
But also 'need is the mother of invention'. When I can't restore something I am forced to find a solution, do a conversion, develop my green stuff skills, etc I enjoy making something from an unlikely starting point.

Like many it all started in the late 70's with Airfix kits and plastic soldiers and I've always enjoyed painting models and building terrain. As a child I always enjoyed historical warfare and I loved it when my parents would take me and my sister to the ruins of old castles, old battlefields, re-enactments of medieval or ECW events etc etc. I got into fantasy in the early 80's when a new kid turned up at school who was obsessed with D&D, Tolkien, and this weird magazine called White Dwarf. It occassionally contained pictures of scantily clad women wielding swords which was a big plus when you're of a certain age!

My current return to older versions of popular systems is due to my dissatisfaction with where both 40k and WHFB were going so I decided to return to roots to the editions when I found the games to be fun. This meant WHFB 1st to 3rd edition and Rogue Trader. I'd kept most of my original 80's Undead army, that I was still using to play 6th and 7th edition, but had sold off both my 80's Empire and Dark Elf armies along with most of my RT Space Marines long ago when I was a hard up student. Thankfully I'd kept all of my old rulebooks, but as they were in very poor used condition I re-bought them in as new condition on ebay to stick on my bookshelf. I re-bought my old Dark Elf and Space Marine armies on ebay over the space of a couple of years. I get a real kick out of cleaning up, restoring, and painting old models I've bought on ebay as well as models in my own collection that were liberally coated in thick enamel paint in the mid 80's. So, why use figures that relate to those version of the game? Well, although sculpting and casting has come on leaps and bounds since the 80's I honestly prefer the 80's sculpts because they're so characterful. I'm drawn toward modern sculpts that have that 80's look to them. The modern GW sculpts have no soul imo, half the time you can't tell who designed them, and that's before I get on my hobby horse about how much I dislike cut'n'paste CAD created plastic models! That said there are some exceptions, the new Krell is tempting (but Finecast, which I won't touch it), the Black Knight models are rather nice, and the Cold One Knights were snapped up when they were £12 because they have that 80's Dark Elf look to them.

The collecting aspect with me is more that because I own so many models from the range I may as well go the whole hog and own all of them although I'm not sure I'm obsessive enough to collect the really expensive stuff! I do mix and match models in my WHFB armies though, I've got 6th and 7th edition models in my Undead army that sit comfortably with my 2nd and 3rd edition models. Strangely, with my historicals armies, I tend to prefer to build armies based on one sculptor so that it has a consistent look.

With Epic I've been wanting to collect the models I could never afford at the time and I'm in the process of building five Imperial Guard armies:

1. The classic Space Marine 1st edition Horus Heresy list (using the WD list) using models from that era.
2. Using Armies of the Imperium l'm intending to be able to field every company type plus support that cannot be made into companies using 1st and 2nd edition models.
3. The EpicA list using Epic40k and EpicA models.
4. Baran Siege Masters using Baran Siege Master models.
5. Death Korps of Krieg using Epic40k, Forgeworld and Forumware models.

Both 4 & 5 combined along with some other models will also allow me to field pretty much any era of Imperial Guard army. My project for this year is to paint 4 & 5 along with finishing off 1, 2 & 3.

It's a similar story with my Epic Space Marines but I'm not buying new GW models because the casting quality is mediocre and their prices are nuts:

1. The classic 1st edition Horus Heresy list (using the WD list) using models from that era.
2. Using Armies of the Imperium l'm intending to be able to field every company type plus support that cannot be made into companies using 1st and 2nd edition models.
3. The EpicA list using 1st and 2nd edition models.

So, basically, I'm building WHFB, 40k and Epic armies using models I like to play versions of the game I enjoy. Good luck to those stuck in GW's constant cycle of upgrading every so many years along with powercreep, I'm more than happy playing "stable" versions of the games.

I guess I'm a collector first, modeller/painter second, and as time allows a gamer third.

Stunning army!

Padre":1x5j598k said:

So, this thread is about finding out the truth. Do you see yourselves as primarily collectors, like hoarding philatelists, or (as I suspect) are there all sorts of other motives and driving forces built in? Are you trying to recapture your youth, or cling on to it? Are you more keen on the painting or the playing?

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As for me miniatures are pretty "new" thing where I live: sure, in the age of global village you can get just everything everywhere but about 15 years ago when I got hooked there were just some Warhammer players (minis were so expensive for polish wages back then) and then Warzone - there are still people playing Warzone here btw

Anyway my first game was Warzone, then after my friends dropped playing (both tabletop games and RPGs) I started collecting some Warhammer Fantasy but always considered WFB rules bit silly so the next step were skirmish games.
Now there's only me and one guy here playing Necromunda - we're running multi-gang campaign. My plan was to finish big gaming table so I can start writing battle reports again but with 1 year young kid aboar there's not much hobby time anymore.

Also really like painting stuff - mostly post-apo and Necromunda, but again: because of the kid I ended up with few buckets of unpainted lead under my desk

I think for me the reason i love the old stuff is because i missed out on them the first time around when i first started collecting when i was 9 and just didn't have the cash aka pocketmoney for them.

But i don't collect as such, i buy the old stuff and actually use them to make a modern rules army/force (Such as my Genestealer cult usesthe current Guard Codex). So Current rules and old figures is my way.

Collector/Painter/Hobbyist equally. Gaming isn't a priority at this point.

Collecting older armies & creating an artistic theme for the force brings back that Golden Age nostalgia from when I first found GW & Citadel miniatures. Being in the U.S., most of what I now collect wasn't locally available in the early-mid '80s, even though it was tauntingly splashed in the pages of White Dwarf & Compendiums! Not until Citadel launched it's Collector's Series did stuff GW start showing up in West Coast hobby stores.

Painting & building = peace. You can't really think about much else while you are trying to paint eyes on a 28mm mini or stick rivitz on a 6mm Stompa . You have to be in the moment & that's primarily what's kept me interested.

I have to second Ti Pouchon & Harry's passion for restoring old minis. Nothing is better than taking a crusty mini with smooshed detail in spots & bringing it back with some sculpting & good paint.

Because after a long non-gaming hiatus I looked at what Warhammer had become and it didn't do what I needed - open flexible armylists I could build around the minis I have. Also looked at SoBH or HoTH and decided, sod it I'll just use old stuff I've already got.

Naagruz":2nd2oz9c said:

Painting & building = peace. You can't really think about much else while you are trying to paint eyes on a 28mm mini or stick rivitz on a 6mm Stompa . You have to be in the moment & that's primarily what's kept me interested.

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Interesting thought. I think I'll have to concur - I always thought that it's about 'doing stuff by hand', much like cooking or fixing furniture or lamps or somesuch. Being busy all day interacting with strangers or straining one's brain makes handiwork relaxing by comparison. And I always thought that the brain kinda 'shuts off' when working on minis. But you're right: it doesn't. It just focuses on something very 'present' which nonetheless demands attention. Strange though that modelling doesn't exhaust me the way writing does, even though both activities demand focus and attention. I guess you're right: modelling is about the "moment" and writing isn't - but then, old lead modelling isn't just about the moment, it's also about the past. When I cut up an old mini, I can't help but wonder what its previous owners have done with it, what previous projects it's been involved in, what's going to happen to it once I die. Sounds silly, but them's the brakes.

For me, its a combination. I'm definitely a gamer and background fanatic first. I love to tell a good story. Following this, I am an addict for collecting lead! I do also enjoy painting, though I paint so slowly. The reason I play is for the feeling the games create through the visuals of the miniatures as well as the universes background. I like to weave a rich story that doesn't feel isolated but exists in a big world. I suppose that's why Rogue Trader, Epic and 3rd edition Fantasy draw me in.

Today's 40k and Fantasy are pretty much one dimensional, melodramatic and dull – it's all “Grimdark” all the time and the recent models look, in the main, very much like toys. I wouldn't be surprised to see a “Batteries not included” sticker on their boxes at some point. Another modern phenomenon that I really dislike is the "If its not a recent miniature, why bother/you shouldn't be allowed to use it". It's turning something that should be a collectible, enjoyable pastime into a disposable commodity (something that horrifies me). Though it should be said I have found Forgeworld's recent line of books and releases to be trying to emulate the older way of weaving stories and ideas to be quite enthralling. Earlier editions of Fantasy didn't have this huge Grimdark doom and gloom tone but definitely felt richer in presenting a bleak mysterious world where anything could happen and no tale seemed too far-fetched. It's the same with Rogue Trader. For example: I occasionally look at some of the graphical panels in the book that describe brutal races between Human Hive Gangers and Orks in Helsreach hive on Armageddon (something that I used to create a game of nothing but bikes – much fun and skid tests!). You don't get that kind of thing these days.

With Epic, it was my first real war game and one that always felt the most playable. Couple that with the Titans and you had a winner for a young teenager! I loved the spectacle of endless tanks and Titans with infantry fighting it out. One thing me and an old gaming mate used to do was, during 2nd Edition Epic setup, we used to place Objective 8 right in the middle of the table with no terrain or cover and counted it as double VP's if you captured it. A huge bloodbath and endless turns of excitement ensued as we battled repeatedly for one objective – my Guard against his Squats.

Fast forward to recent history – I had a huge blowout in around 2003/04 where I decided I was too old for little men and sold off all my old gear. Then, in 2007, I started getting curious as to what was out there in the world of miniatures and started looking on forums and on eBay. Before the year was out, I had a near complete run of all 3rd Edition Fantasy, Epic 1 and 2 and Rogue Trader books as well as a pile of ancient White Dwarfs. I started re-reading the old material and remembered why I enjoyed this stuff. I have, to date, amassed a large force of Rogue Trader Imperial Guard, a huge pile of Epic, all editions of Space Hulk, a Warhammer Quest set and am now looking to get some Realm of Chaos style warbands started up for some long term campaigns. Older Citadel miniatures, for me, are a lot less fussy, definitely a lot less skully and are simpler to paint. I also happen to like metal models over plastic and, like the others, there is a certain satisfaction you get when you get a beaten up old miniature that looks like a disaster and you completely restore it and give it a glowing paintjob - you can almost hear them thanking you for rescuing them and making them feel relevant again! It also helps that they remind me of a certain time when miniatures were miniatures, Crystal Maze and Knightmare were on the telly and I was younger! My current future wish list consists of:

• An ‘ere we go and freebooters style force of Orks built from the miniatures released at the time (got to love Ork Chaos Champions, Ork Genestealer Hybrids, Madboyz and all the rest!). The three Ork books – Waaargh!, ‘Ere we go and Freebooters were a brilliant series of books and I just loved the background stories and Paul Bonner's artwork.

• Finish off my Rogue Trader Imperial Guard force. What's interesting is that, to make a legal army for Rogue Trader, you also inadvertently make a legal army for the current edition baring the odd tweak!

• Build a Slaanesh and Tzeentch Realm of Chaos warband for a series of Campaigns

• Assembled a force of 4th Edition Fantasy Goblins (I love these miniatures, don't ask me why)

• Finish off my Epic armies (Guard, Eldar, Marines)

• Finishing off my Titans; Loyalist Warp Runners, Warmongers and Iron Skulls vs. Traitor Firemaster and Tiger Eyes Legions. Not forgetting the Great Gargants and Phantom Titans for some additional Adeptus Titanicus fun (did you know there was a Codex Titanicus 2 planned with rules for the infamous Psi-Titan called the Nemesis as well as an Atlas Class Titan, Legatus Class Titan and a Vulcan Class Titan)

• Finally, finish off my Genestealer Hybrids for my Spacehulk games as well as finish off my Warhammer Quest set

Although, I'm not a complete Oldhammerer – I do game with the current Epic edition as well as playing Battlefleet Gothic. In fact I have recently had my first game of 40K, 6th Edition to be precise, since 1997! I'm also waiting for Mike McVey's new game, Sedition Wars, to arrive. I'm also getting enthralled in Mierce Miniatures new line – their miniatures and background were drawing me in with their bleak mysterious feeling.

God, that was long. TLR? I like little men, especially older style little men!

Usual progression, airfix, RPGs, miniatures. I was collecting modestly as pocket money and later paper money allowed, mainly citadel and playing warhammer third & RT. I’ve always collected everything so my forces seldom grew very large and in this time period I became perhaps a little obsessed with warhammer armies deciding early on that I would collect a large force for every army and contingent available. I also had a bit of a dalliance with folio works and Fantasy warlord so these are also in the collection.

I continued to collect any thing that fitted in with my original forces so the new 90’s Empire were great, the cartoony orcs of 4th were OK to an extent the later non-Kev Adams sculpts were beginning to get a bit too big I think Nelson’s Biguns were the last proper GW orcs after these things got to big. The big dwarves, skaven and darkelves that came out from marauder in this period were not part of the collection though in later years I see them in a new light and would consider adding them in the future. I did quite embrace the look of 2nd ed 40K my guard being a mix of RT and Cadian until I could afford separate armies of both that is. That’s when I started collecting every army in the 40K stable, and Epic. By the mid 90’s I was at University and spending most of my cash on going out so almost by necessity my purchases were second hand. I discovered a wide network of 2nd hand stalls in market places and side streets all over the country. OK in Brighton where I studied and Luton/Dunstable where my dads house was. Anyway it was a great time for 80’s lead at way low prices. Most of my dwarf, wood elf and sea elf armies come from this period. I also discovered harlequin at this point and happily added there stuff to the collection.

By the time I got my first job the first multi part plastic regiment sets were coming out, I still like the Chaos warrior set, they fit in nicely with 80’s stuff even if a few of the weapon options are a little large. The empire stuff by the Perrys was also great. The armies I talk about on here don’t include models from this time period but I love quite a lot of them and have them in the collection. Indeed after insisting at my club that I’d only play 3rd my mates eventually persuaded me to get into 6th and I have very fond memories of this game and collections to suit though my armies were normally 80’s 90’s hybrids.

I was really excited about the goblin regiments to be released, until I saw them that is, the first wolf rider plastic kit left me underwhelmed so I decided to order some old stuff from mail order. I had the money now and I’d make great big orders of stuff to go into my existing collections. Only Mail order kept telling me they didn’t do old stuff anymore. If you got the right person you could sometimes persuade them to take your order so I never bought the line the that moulds were destroyed just company policy changed, fine but be honest!.

So it was back to 2nd hand shops until I discovered Ebay about 10 years ago. Then the collection exploded from big to silly and it continues to grow, one garage and on cellar are not enough room. It is all to game with but painting has to compete with other time commitments and historical stuff I enjoy and collect too. I do miss the days of second hand shops though, picking through bargain boxes of loose lead for a hidden gem.

So that’s why I collect, to game with and to paint. It’s the same collection I started as a 10 year old there was never a break and I’ve never sold anything, done swaps but never sold anything., also I collect units not single figures so I’d wager it’s one of the biggest collections here I can now field something legal and in most cases sizeable from every army and contingent in warhammer armies for example. The collection is not always the most exciting made up mainly of grunts but I’ve begun to get the bug for collecting interest pieces and characters so that’s changing.

I often wonder about it and to be honest, I'm not sure if I know the answer. The birth of my son in 2008 has definitely something to do with it. The driving force behind my hobby activities are fond memories from childhood. I figured, if I wanted to share this with my son(s) at some point in the future I'd better make sure I had something to show for. In 2007 I set out and made the following plan:

1. Create a Gaming table (check)
2. Create enough scenery to game with (check)
3. Create Warhammer 3rd edition rule reference for easy game-play (check)
4. Create Warhammer 3rd edition Army Builder files (check)
5. Collect Heroquest, Space Hulk and Advanched Heroquest (check)
6. Collect complete Dwarfs and Dark Elves Maruader armies (check 70%)
7. Paint the Marauder armies
8. Paint Heroquest, Space Hulk and Advanched Heroquest miniatures
9. Collect more Citadel miniatures
10. Paint, game, have fun during retirement and die happy!

I like all kind of miniatures and game systems, but I tend to stick with the plan, otherwise I probably just collect and get nowhere. I'm no real collector or gamer, but more of a painter and hobbyist first.