Brent: On Stuff – How Much is Too Much?

The Blogosphere loves to describe the many faces of the miniatures gamer; to divide, and label, and categorize – and subcategorize.  I’m not complaining, being more guilty than most over years of writing articles.  Still, let’s do it again.

Perhaps hobbyists can be divided into two distinct categories, those who keep their toys over the years and those who don’t.

Yours truly, the host of Bell of Lost Souls’ Terrible Tuesdays, is certainly in the former.  I keep stuff!  And frankly, I can’t understand those who don’t.  It has to be liberating to unload models or armies one no longer uses…

…but how do you guys know you’ll never want to use it again?

I’m seriously asking.  This article won’t touch on you guys who sell armies.  I have a buddy, Evil Homer, who has literally owned his favorite armies over and over again.  He buys, sells, and trades on Barter Town, and he has absolutely no problem divesting himself of an army he’s spent countless hours working on.  He’ll just get it again if he needs it.

Another buddy is like a merchant of old; he uses his collection as a ready source of income, constantly looking for someone who wants to buy or sell models.  If he can buy low and sell high, he’s making money.  And he does.  He has a stupid amount of stuff, but his actual cash investment in this hobby is fairly low.

That’s not me.  So please, in the comments, if you’re one of these guys, help a brother out and shed some light on how you do it!

I keep things.  Now that I’m at a point in my life where a comfortable income is a given, I buy things.

But along with the keeping and buying is the organizing!  I have a game room, but the more I put in the harder it is to keep it workable.  I tend to work on armies at a time, so when the mess hits a certain mass, it’s time to clean and organize.  That’s where I’m at right now, so being a Blogger I naturally took pictures.

So starting from the left.  I have bins for Bitz Box items.  The BoLS box has my Guard tanks.  The Adepticon Battle Foam bag houses the Necrons.  The three card boxes – which is a great storage solution – have a bit of everything, but right now it houses my Nids, Dwarves, Orks, and Beastmen, along with other odds and ends.

My Tablewar Case… love is too weak a word to describe my feelings for it.  Check out the LINK here.

So, backing up a bit, the chaos becomes apparent.  I recently added a work desk for putting together and basing miniatures.  The extra organization for my tools, plus the much-needed table space, has helped me churn out Guard and Tomb King models right now.  Note the Battle Foam case… love is too weak a word to describe my feelings for it.  Check out the LINK here.

This is my actual painting space.  I purchased the brick-a-brack shelves at a garage sale for 15 bucks this weekend… thus the cleaning, therefore this article… so everything is getting shuffled around.  I used this table for actual painting, both traditional and airbrushing.  Note the bins underneath for completed terrain.  I can throw these in the back of my truck without concern.

The two bins up top are for terrain parts.  I have cases for completed armies  filling the rest.  The cabinet was my old painting solution, now used for storage.  It’s got to go, frankly.  I need the space!  But my setup for pictures rests on top of it… where would it go?  *sigh*

My new (old) shelves.  I needed something for supplies and paints, but I’m still going through all this.

The iPod, for listening to Podcasts like OffTopical Podcast, the Anti-Semantic Show, and of course Bell’s new podcast. My airbrush compressors are hiding in this pic.

So that’s where I’m at.  As you’re reading this, the room has been decompressed and organized.  But all the stuff is still there, waiting to burst from the seems and clutter the space.

But I can’t just get rid of it – can I?

Many of you know my family went through a scare last year when my father had a cerebral brain hemorrhage.   We were very, very lucky that he lived through that experience with no real deficit to his functioning.  That said, he can’t really tolerate Texas heat anymore.

Last night dad sold his metal-working tools.  I gladly loaded this stuff up, as it sitting in his garage was too tempting for him.  I’m pretty sure his hobby would end up killing him (remember what I said about the Texas heat?) so out of sight, out of mind.

I think he was happy to unload it on someone who would get some use out of it, but he still seemed pretty bummed.  Some of this crap he hasn’t used for years, so I couldn’t understand it.  He told me, “When I was young, this is the shop I wanted.  I worked for years to build it.  Just having it gave me some satisfaction.”  He shrugged, and that was that.

He comes from that generation; they don’t talk much about the things that matter.  It didn’t occur to me until later that I was him.

I have the game room I always wanted.  I can afford to buy the things that make me happy – all that junk I wanted so bad, all those times I was broke!  There’s stuff in my room that I’ll never conceivably find a use for.

But I know it’s there.  I think about my collection.  I plan armies and design paint schemes… and if I’m being honest, I do more of that than actual painting.  And I do a lot of painting!

Maybe it’s not well-adjusted.  Perhaps I’m selfish.  Maybe I’ll end up on one of those hoarding shows.  I don’t know.  And maybe one day I’ll have to load it on a truck and get it to someone that will use it.

And maybe someday I’ll play Apocalypse!  Thoughts and comments?  Hugs and gropings?

Author: Brent