Collecting and Counting

As I am going to show you my individual armies and lists I will just give a general overview of what I have and what is painted..... Which isn't as much as it used to be as I have spent a fair bit of time stripping models that I painted up to 12 years ago when I started the hobby at the age of 10. Hopefully you can imagine I am better painter than I was back then, plus personally I think I have improved within the last 18 months dramatically too!! After talking to GW staff, watching the GBHL Podcast, GenrationShift and other YouTube videos, I finally understand how to layer paints and use washes properly.

The whole point of showing you my collection is to inspire me so that I can paint up as much as possible in this year and I will keep track of what has been done, whilst working towards targets each month.

Right, let's get on with it and start with my display case.

This is where I keep the majority of my models and placed in their respective armies. I LOVE theme with armies and even when playing friendly games I try to stick to theme (providing I have the models in my case at the time). I try to keep as many models in this cabinet as it means I can look at my work and makes me paint the stuff that isn't done.

Next is one of the drawers in my desk where I do all my hobbying.

Here is just a collection of metal models that I have stripped and are waiting to be base coated and re based. A lot of these heroes and elites are from the Gondor and Fiefdoms list as I am applying them to home made bases which will be shown to you later down the line. Plus the tissue paper allows the models to dry and soaks up the remaining Dettol before painting.

Finally (I think), are my cases that hold "extra" troops that are just doubles of models that are in my cabinets such as another 48 Morannon Orcs and 48 Mordor Orcs.

The cases are all different not entirely by choice as I bought a old standard GW case (right) years ago to move models around and just generally carry. The KR case (middle) was bought after my love of cavalry massively increased and the original GW case just doesn't compensate for them. Finally, during a job lot buy on the LOTR Trade group on Facebook I acquired a Hobbit Strategy Battle Game case (left) that has a specific tray for Thorin's Company, Radagast, The Three Trolls, The Goblin King, The Goblin Scribe, Grinnah and a Goblin Captain.

So this week has lead me to do something that I have never done.....count my collection and how much I have for each army and each specific troop. It may sound ridiculously boring but actually really intrigued me to find out just what I have!! I used the 'Numbers' on from Apple to create a simple spreadsheet that includes every army (even if I didn't own any models from it, you know, just in case for the future). I will include a downloadable copy in a future blog to show off the spreadsheet as a whole.

Nevertheless, at the end of my counting and inputting data I found out I have about 1200 MODELS!!! I knew I had a lot but this does astound me but also makes my little nerdy brain awfully happy....then I think about all the painting and it sinks a little. However, none of this puts me off because from the start I have always wanted big armies just for the thematic look it can give. To give you an insight to my thinking, I started a Rohan army at the end of the summer and my plan was to get 48 Riders of Rohan with Rohan Royal Guard and Outriders on top of that!!! Safe to say I am ambitious.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing the size and numbers of my force, plus my thinking into the scale of my hobby.

I came. I bought. I painted.

All photos have been taken on my iPad until I get a new charge cable for my camera.