The infamous "Lead Pile"

With London on lock down and club events postponed there has been some chatter among my friends regarding what they are painting (and buying!) to pass the time until we can start playing again. One of them, Martin, even claimed that he might be able to paint all his unpainted figures by the time the lock down ends!

This made me think about how much unpainted lead I have. Some of it (mainly 15 mm Napoleonic's, some 28 mm figures for Sharp Practice and Chain of Command) is under my painting desk and is in line to be finished eventually.

However, there is also an 18 liter "Really Useful Box" hidden away which is my guilty secret. It contains all the figures I have bought and not got around to painting with no current plans to paint them. Dragging it out and dusting it off revealed the following:

25/28 mm Figures

1. A mixed bag of very old Museum Gauls and Hinchliffe Sassanid Persians (I did consider painting the Gauls a while ago!)
2. A bag of 28 mm WW2 Finns on skis and bicycles, the remnants of the ones Dave kindly gave me. Interesting figures but perhaps too poor to paint
3. A bag of Hinchliffe ACW dismounted cavalry. The infantry and artillery for this army were painted years ago but have never had a game as they have no opponent.
4. A small bag of Front Rank SYW Austrian Grenadiers. These did have some infantry as well but they were painted up a year or two ago as Hessians and Continentals for Sharp Practice after many years gathering dust
5. A Wild West chuck wagon from Dixon. 

15 mm Figures

1. Some Spanish Civil War figures from Peter Pig, the remnants of armies that I painted a long time ago.
2. A large bag of mainly Freikorps mid 19th century figures. Most of them are 1859 Italians with some Austrians, French, Prussians and Bavarian's. Thinking of something to do with all the Austrian's, French, Prussian's and Bavarian's I did paint is an idea I return to now and then.
3. A large bag and a box of assorted abandoned Napoleonic figures from a variety of manufacturers, mainly odd figures and some I just didn't get around to finishing or where I don't have the right number of figures to make a unit.
4. A box of AWI/ F&I War figures from Essex. Why did I buy these when I have large 28 mm armies for the period?! I can't remember. Some of the British even got painted.
5. A box of assorted Essex mainly TYW figures, some complete units and lots of odd figures. If I was still playing FoGR I might have finished off the extra cavalry units and they may get painted one day.
6. A box of Mike's Model's Landschnect Pikemen and Gendarmes. Again, if interest in the preiod revives they might get painted.
7. A box of assorted Essex Eastern European Medieval infantry and cavalry. Again mainly odd figures with some complete units. The remnants of my various DBM Medieval Eastern armies.
8. A complete Donnington HYW English army for ADLG. One unit got undercoated before this army was abandoned largely due to my lack of enthusiasm for ADLG.
9. Some AB Sassanid cavalry and Donnington Byzantine cavalry. Could be useful but I probably don't really need them to play.
10. An Inca DBA army from Lurkio. I won these in a competition, nice figures but I don't play DBA and have no use for them.
11. A box of Forged in Battle Greek Hoplites and Thracians.
12. A box of Friekorps Hellenistic Seleucids.
13. A large bag of assorted abandoned ancient figures, remnants from completed armies.
14. A box containing a complete "Evil" fantasy army. Oddly enough I might paint these if I could think of a theme to paint them.

3/6/10 mm Figures and "Others"

1. Some 10 mm figures for a Sassanid army, the rest got painted, played two games I think of the GW rules and have spent the following years gathering dust in a drawer. It's a shame as they are a very nice looking army.
2. The remnant figures from my 6 mm Austrian Napoleonic army.
3. Remnants from my 3mm WW2 Western Desert armies for Rommel
4. Some Renaissance Galleys, not sure what scale. Was put off by having to make them but having experienced rigging the Black Sails ships maybe that is less of a challenge than it was!

That's what you get when you rarely bother selling anything and always keep odd figures just in case you might want them one day to add a stand or two to a unit!

How long would it take me to paint them all? Hard to say, I think a long time. One thing I must say though is that sometimes, now and then, figures that have been dormant for years DO emerge blinking into the light, get painted and get used on the table so you never know!