A wedding and two new games

I was gone last weekend - we went out of state to attend a wedding.  Fortunately, it was in the town where I went to college, which meant that I could see friends and nearby family, and revist the old stomping grounds.  Most of the game stores (hell, all of them, I think) that I used to hanfg out at are all gone.  But new ones have arisen in their place, and I wound up with two new games - Boss Monster and a Pandemic expansion.  Both will be getting played soon.

Anyway, continuing on my thoughts about Kanban boards and being overwhelmed, I need to take a pic of the current board and decide what to do.  I did get some stuff built the last couple of days, and I should be able to prime later today.  I think that, for the most part, this week I shall concentrate on getting some paint onto some Malifaux figs.  Next week, I think I will concentrate on FSA (and hopefully Planetfall).  The week after that, Warmachine.  And then I think it is on to GenCon (or near enough), so I will also be spending time the next few weeks getting ready to put things up for auction.

With that in mind, for today, I have two or three Ten Thunders models to assemble, and about a dozen of them to prime.  I plan on doing that today, plus basing some of the Kings of War models, and putting some base colors on some Malifaux figs, though I don't know whether it will be more Ten Thunders or the Latigo posse.  Or Gremlins. 

Now - as a sidebar - I said that I would be concentrating on Malifaux.  That's largely true, but I should have my Rhulic colossal coming in the mail tomorrow, so when it shows up, I might start putting that together.  Because I want to field it. 

A little overwhelmed lately.

It's really a side effect of the kanban board.  See, the more organized I am (or, the more I can write down what I am actually working on), it can go from overwhelmed (but not knowing why) to actually seeing the scope of what I need to do.  So, on one hand, it's nice seeing the progress of things across the board, but it's also depressing, because no matter how fast I assemble and prime, painting is a bottleneck.  And, no matter how much I assemble, I have hundreds of models to go. 

So, I'm keeping the board idea.  (What?)  Yep.  But I might change it up a bit.  Maybe I try to schedule and list only one game per week.  Maybe I cap the board in its current state, and nothing that is not on it can be added until something comes off.  I don't know.  I do know that, so long as I make painting and modelling a daily (or almost-daily) activity, then sooner or later, stuff actually does get done.

Still on track for lots of updates

First off, my board has changed a little bit since last week.  Let's take a look, shall we?

Big change - something is in the "To Base and Seal" category.  It would actually be done, but it's been pouring or humid for the last few days, and I can wait for better weather to seal it.  Likewise, all of the Bayou boss box is now assembled, with most of them waiting for better weather before priming.  I am putting test colors down on a Tesknes and a Goristi model, just to see how I want to paint them.  Most of the Wrath of Kings models are assembled, but not yet primed, although I still have about 35 or 40 to go.

But yeah, I now have an almost completed model on there.  The first since probably mid-April.  For a game I don't even play.  But I need to get more done - 3Haley and some other models are on the way.

(Don't bother complaining about mold lines.  I didn't care about this guy, I really just wanted to see how the Bones material took different paints and effects.)

No board update this morning

I might take a pic of the board later today, but for various reasons, the board did not change much yesterday.  The bottleneck is kind of obvious - I can assemble and prime minis much faster than I can paint them.  So, while I put together a couple of things yesterday, I tried to spend my hobby time painting.  I'm not even painting minis for a wargame; I've been painting up a couple of Bones minis, even though I haven't played an RPG in years.

No matter.  Painting is painting, more or less, and it's making a dent in the enormous backlog of plastic and lead.  I am using that time to think about what I want to take to GenCon and play, as well as beyond.  Once I decide that, and once I decide on a scheme for the Wrath of Kings minis, then those will start moving from the "To Paint" section into "Painting in Progress" fairly quickly, although they will then hang there. 

Hopefully, tonight or tomorrow, my post will include at least one finished miniature.  I really need to get something done soon, just to help maintain momentum.

Two in a row!

Too soon to call this a habit though.  Maybe if I can be publicly shamed (or at least the threat of it exists), then I will actually continue to advance in my painting.  I have several projects for GenCon that I really need to start on, so some of these new ones are definitely going to stall out for a bit.  Still, a quick look at the board status this morning shows that I definitely got some stuff assembled and primed yesterday.

What's missing is whatever army I take to GenCon.  If I take CoC, they are mostly painted, and I can take a painted Cryx army with only a little work (mainly re-gluing a few models that have come apart), but I am not sure what I want to take at the moment.  I need to decide by the end of the weekend, so I can start getting some games in with them, and so that I can start painting them if they are something else.

The other PG and I are also talking with the store about what we want to see played locally.  WM/H, of course, but we are also wanting to have Firestorm Armada and Planetfall, plus probably Wrath of Kings, Kings of War, and Infinity.  I am also looking at adding some random Mad Max style game (possibly Warlands),  just as an occasional, let's crash some cars, kind of game.

I'm hoping to move at least a couple models into the base and seal category here in a day or so, and I really need to decide at the beginning of the day what I am going to build.  I could probably build (which includes trimming, pinning, etc)  3-5 models per day for the rest of the year, and still not catch up on everything.  But I hope to make a dent this summer, that's for certain.

Well, until my Wrath of Kings KS comes in.  And whatever I buy at GenCon.  And if I decide to paint my SDE and Rivet Wars models. . . .

New year starts whenever, right?

So, summer is here, kids are underfoot, and GenCon is fast approaching.   I'm going to start making an effort to update a lot more often, because that way I can document some progress.  And, to help limit what I am trying to do, and to visualize progress, I took a spare white board, and made a Kanban board.

I have more categories than "To Do," "In Progress," and "Done," however.  But, if I take daily (or near daily photos), then I should be able to actually track progress of some projects across the board, and, more importantly, I can attempt to limit what is actually on my plate at any given time.  If I don't do that, then I can easily wind up with a several dozen different projects at each stage, and that's just too much.  Now, at the moment, there are full KS boxes that are in the "To Build" category, and as I pull a few models out of each per day, they will slowly move into the primed category. 

In the meantime, at the start of the day today, this is what my board looked like:

I should at least be able to add a few more to the "Build in progress" or "to prime" categories today, and some of the ones waiting for priming will be moved onward to "To Paint"

The more, the better.  Later this month, I have some Warmahordes stuff coming, and I have at least one Kickstarter coming before the end of the year.  Plus, I buy stuff at GenCon, and I am still dumping stuff that I don't play for stuff that I hopefully will. I need to start working on this backlog of lead and plastic, before it buries me.