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How to tackle your pile of shame

A practical plan for getting the unpainted models off the shelf and onto the table.

Every painter has one: the shelf of boxes still in their shrink-wrap, the half-built squad from two summers ago, the sprues you bought because they were on offer. The hobby calls it the pile of shame. It doesn't have to be shameful, and it doesn't have to stay that size. This is a plan for getting it moving that doesn't take the fun out of painting.

1. Count it, honestly

A vague sense of "too many boxes" is hard to act on. A number isn't. Go through the shelf, the cupboard and the bits box once, and write down every kit, squad and character, with how many models are in it and how far along it is: still in the box, built, primed, part painted or based.

Most people find the pile is both smaller and bigger than they thought: fewer boxes than it feels like, but more models in them. Either way you now have a starting figure, and every model you finish from here on makes that number go down.

2. Pick one project with a finish line

The quickest way to stall is to work on everything at once. Choose one project and give it an end: a warband for a skirmish game, the next 500 points of an army, the terrain for one table. Small is better than impressive. A finished ten-model warband does more for your motivation than a quarter-painted 100-model army.

Give it a date, too, if a date helps you. An event, a game night or a club challenge is ideal, because someone else will notice if it isn't done.

3. Paint in batches, stage by stage

Treat the project like a production line. Build everything, then prime everything, then basecoat everything, and so on. Each stage goes faster when you do it ten times in a row, the setup and clean-up happen once rather than ten times, and a whole squad moving forward together feels like real progress.

Keep the stages simple and the same for every unit: in the box, built, primed, painting, basing, done. Then you always know what the next job on any model is.

4. Decide what "done" looks like

Perfectionism fills more shelves than any sale. Decide before you start what standard this project is painted to. For most rank-and-file models a clean basecoat, a wash, a highlight on the raised edges and a finished base looks great on the table at arm's length. Save the blending and freehand for the characters and centrepieces you actually want to spend an evening on.

5. Short sessions count

You don't need a free weekend. Twenty minutes after dinner is enough to base a squad or put a wash on five models. Leave the desk set up so you can sit down and start, and stop while you still know what the next step is, so the next session starts easily.

It helps to see those sessions add up. Timing them, or simply ticking off each stage a unit moves through, turns "I barely painted this month" into a list of what you actually did.

6. Buy slower than you paint

The pile only shrinks if fewer models come in than go out. Some painters use a simple rule: one new box only when one old box is finished. Others set a monthly budget. Writing down what you paid for each kit is a sobering exercise, and it makes the next impulse buy a little easier to resist.

7. Celebrate the finished pile

Take a photo of every unit when it's done, and keep them together. The finished collection deserves as much attention as the unfinished one, and looking back over a year of photos is the best motivation there is. Share them with your club or your gaming group too. People notice, and their encouragement keeps you going.

How Hobby Double helps

Hobby Double is a free miniature painting tracker built around this plan. Every unit has a stage, from in the box to done, and the dashboard shows your whole pile as one bar, so you can watch it shrink. Projects give you the finish line and a board to drag units across, and stats, levels and trophies count the models you paint and the sessions you put in.

Paint and army names in the examples are made up for this article.