Of How I am Insane

The nerve center of the man cave.

This title could also be "How the Fuck Did I Get Myself Into This Position?!"

The Evolution of My Man Cave:
So I think it is fair to say that most of us have a man-cave of sorts. Mine is a two parter. I have my main area that I spend most of my time, which is in the corner of what used to be the dining room of the house. It's great. A little L-Shaped table with a pretty nice painting station and a nicely set up computer system pretty much fulfills all of my needs.

But then I've got the staging area, which is the scary basement that this home is built over. My house was built in 1912 and being in Calgary it's one of the oldest buildings in this neighborhood. I wish I could say that it was a historical landmark. Sadly, it's not. It's more of an eyesore, I am sure, to the majority of the neo-yuppy hipster variety of pukes that live in this community. But the rent is cheap and it lets us save for a property of our own.

The Blair Witch Project:
That being said, that basement feels more like something out of the final scene of the Blair Witch project than anything else, so trying to make that space look homey is a bit of a feat.

Still, it has made a pretty convenient area to store all of my bits and bobs, unopened boxes of models, unpainted projects that will eventually be painted and terrain for the many games that I play. Lately this area has gotten a bit unruly and I've been meaning to get it a little under control.

It was a little bit of a two birds for one stone kind of thing. Not only do I earn wife points by showing initiative and cleaning up an area of the house that she typically tollerates but is still displeased with the mess, but it also gives me a chance to organize my models and figure out what I'm going to focus on in the year.

The conclusion?

Our Finding Are Conclusive:
The conclusion is that I have a metric fucking ton of models! Oh my dear God in heaven, how the fuck did I acquire so many god damned toy soldiers?! Seriously! A little over a year ago I had just my German Flames of War, some Warmaster armies and, okay a pretty epically sized Epic Armageddon Eldar army. BUT STILL! In terms of hardcore gamer addictions, I kept my shit under wraps pretty well.

Hell, when we moved from Ottawa, I managed to fit all of my gaming stuff (along with the rest of our worldly possessions) into the back of my Honda Fit! Now? Now I'm intimidated by just how much stuff I have to paint!

The Resolution:
I don't know how good it is to make a resolution to myself, or on my painting blog (Likely as good as promising a podcast) but I found it a little bit freakish that I'd acquire so many man-toys if I didn't have every intention of finishing painting them.

So what does that mean? I think it means I have to commit to what I've already purchased. I have no less than 4 dystopian armies, 2 flames of war armies and 1 heavy gear army that I'm all quite interested in. So taking a page out of the book of success with my 1000pt American army in 24 days I think I need to block out my painting projects for the year and stick to them.

The Plan:
So here is how I see it. I have 3 interests right now in the next 3 months.

1. I have this burning passion (really, it's unhealthy) to play some science fiction robots lately and what with the Heavy Gear Slow Grow Escalation League starting up at our local gaming store Imaginary Wars I love that I have the opportunity to build a fully painted Heavy Gear army where I get to play in a tournament at the end! Woot!
2. Flames of War Americans: There is a tournament coming up in March in Edmonton. And honestly I am totally fucking burnt out of painting my Americans but I'm ALMOST THERE for a 1780pt Late War tournament list that will be pretty epic and kick some serious ass! If I pushed hard for a week, or even went casually for 2 I could finish it and tuck it away in plenty of time for the tournament.
3. Dystopian Wars Demos: I am totally dying to start doing some demo gaming at my local gaming stores for Dystopian Wars. The genre and game is just cool. It's fun. The models are awesome and the scale is fucking wicked. And I have 4 STARTER BOXES! Did I mention that?! Four?! So really I should get them all done in order to have some good options when doing those demo games. May as well, since I've got the table all done up.

Anyhow, so that's the plan. I'll write more about planning and calendars and stuff. Do you guys do this kind of thing? Do you plan your projects ahead of time? I find it really helps and feels incredibly satisfying when you complete a project.

So I guess that's this year's overall project: Finish painting what I own. I know that sounds crazy, especially what with the video below, but I'd just love it if by 2014 I could go to the gaming store guilt-free and buy something knowing that everything at home was already painted.