It has been several years since I have written anything on this blog, so why now? Well, I am honestly in a weird space with the hobby. If you look at the start of this blog you will find someone extremely energized by the seemingly endless possibilities with the hobby. I was enthralled by the stories, ecstatic about the miniatures, and in love with the game. However, I fallen prey to an issue I believe is all to common with most in the hobby. I call it – Ineedthatitis. I have bought and sold more miniatures than I have ever played with or painted. To highlight the madness, the following is a list of armies/game systems that I have owned in the past three years.

Age of Sigmar

Stormcast Eternals

Blades of Khorne

Empire

Seraphon

Kharadron Overlords

Idoneth Deepkin

Sylvaneth

Everchosen

Slaves to Darkness

Beasts of Chaos

Disciples of Tzeentch

IronJawz

40k

Astra Militarum

Admech

Salamanders

Deathwatch

Deathguard

Harlequins

Craftworlds

Drukhari

Genestealer Cults

Grey Knights

Necrons

Malifaux

Outcasts

Guild

Arcanists

Resurrectionists

Gremlins

Infinity

Haqqislam

Nomads

Aelph

Ariadna

YuJing

Other game systems

Star Wars Legion (large armies for both sides)

Runewars

Deadzone

DarkAge

Guildball (large collection)

Dc Miniatures (large collection)

Batman Miniatures

Fallout Wasteland Warfare

WarmaHordes (large Trollkin army)

Shadespire (full collection)

Necromunda

Bolt Action

Blood and Plunder

Kill Team

Are you starting to get the picture? I sold and traded all the time. My wife eventually commented that I had made trading my hobby over painting or playing. And it was true. I was addicted to the idea of “finding a good deal”. It took less time to find a deal and buy or trade for it than it did to actually use the models in a game or set aside time to paint. It got so bad that I had a large plastic storage bin that I dubbed “my box of shame” because it was full of things I would never make time to paint or use.

For all the game systems and armies I owned, I never made or had time to play. So I would go three to four months with no painting or playing but still buying and trading. But my view on the hobby changed greatly on Oct 10th this year.

Hurricane Michael made landfall on my hometown on Oct 10th and would prove to be the third most destructive hurricane in US history. It wiped out everything. No home or business was spared. Our lives were changed dramatically. As we began the recovery process, I rediscovered my love for the actual hobby (not the trading hobby I had created). My son and I would build and paint together and it was a welcome distraction from the destruction and despair around us.

Losing so much made me realize how unimportant stuff is. I was in tears and just thankful that my family was alive after the storm. As we began repairs to our home I came across my box of shame and made a new promise to myself. I would sell of or giveaway things I would never complete. I would stop living in fantasy land and make a game plan for finishing the models I would keep. No more thoughts of “Man it would be cool to start this army project or start this game”.

I created a way to organize projects and decide if they would stay or go. If I hadn’t used them in the last year they were gone. What I found was most of my items I hadn’t used in 1-2 years. It is crazy that we tend to hoard up things and hold onto things as if they have some benefit sitting on a box or a shelf unused for years. Just let it go. The collection of stuff I had wasn’t bringing me joy but what did was spending time with my son building, painting, and playing with a sprues-worth of models. That is what’s important and that is what I plan to do more of.

I plan on doing more painting and posting regular progress on this blog as a way to keep me focused on clearing the backlog of models I still have. Hopefully someone is inspired by all of this and can take the leap to clear out the things that will never be done and focus on what matters.