Staying Home and Tackling Your Hobby Backlog

As we continue to live history, it seems a lot of us in the hobby have extra time to take care of those un-assembled, un-painted models sitting in boxes and tubs. Scrolling through the social media and forums I frequent, there has been a renaissance of sorts with the hobbying aspect of our industry. While we all know why getting a game played has been difficult, to nearly impossible for most of us, it also shows why our hobby is so great.

The strength of miniature gaming is the many different ways one can spend their time. There is the playing, of course, but that is a result of information gathering, purchasing of models and materials, list building and Meta exploring, and most importantly, the assembly of these models, followed by painting. I know some in the hobby are only here for the building and painting, which is only strengthening my case. However, I know more than most would rather throw dice with a sea of gray than fully finalized armies.

Watching boxes of models go from dust magnets in closets to finished minis these past few weeks has stoked my un-boxing flames. I have spent a lot of my extra free time putting together minis that I would have rather paid someone else to assemble. In my humblest and laziest of opinions, the least favorite part of miniatures is the cleaning and assembly. Painting and playing is where it is at for me. With more time than I know what to do with, I have garnered a whole new appreciation for the minutiae of the process. This has led to a lot of armies built and painted, ready for action once we are able to play at the warehouse again. I feel this is the first domino that must fall in order to get to the gaming. I am excited to see fully painted units hit the battlefield, and just think of all the crazy lists that will be attempted!

With this new found wealth of finished models, I have come to realize that storing plastic sprues is much easier than fully assembled kits. This led us to create our "Hobby Hoarding Load Out" for just this problem. I don't have a need to transport everything my industrious hands have put together, but I still want to prevent dust, light, and my late night snack hunting stumbles from impacting my hard work. This bundle is simple. It includeds two of our Large Stacker Boxes with a mix a troop and pluck foam trays. The pluck foam gives me a lot of versatility and the troop trays save me time. I can worry about custom foam trays down the road, but this is a great way to get a lot of minis packed away nicely before my significant other "puts them away" for me. I wonder how many Space Marines I have lost to the void due to my leaving them cluttered for too long.

In closing, I wanted to wish everyone good health and hopes that we all come through alright once this is over. I know I will appreciate a lot more little things in life, such as the ability play a pick-up game as well as a sweeping campaign. Battle Foam is still going strong! We are open, producing, and shipping, albeit with proper schedules and sanitizing in place. Stay safe out their Generals, and may we be throwing dice in person sooner than we expected!