Clearing the Backlog, Part 11 – Backlog Admin

After two busy (but not at all hectic) months of painting, March was a much more relaxed month in terms of getting through my backlog. This time last year, I was battling with burn-out after I'd painted 70-odd models in the space of just a few weeks. This time however, it was more a case of real life getting in the way of hobby time, something which happens to all of us. Sometimes you're just too busy to sit down and pick up a paintbrush, or any painting time you do get isn’t quite enough to achieve what you want to. 

Whilst I made a start on some models in March, I just couldn’t find the time to get them finished, with the exception of one model – Khamul the Easterling. This is probably one of my favourite Ringwraith models, and I found painting him to be quite fun. His robes consist of multiple layers of cloth, so for each layer I added an extra highlight to try and give a sense of volume – the end result turned out great!

Whilst my hobby time may have been limited, that doesn’t mean it wasn’t productive – I managed to find some time to organise my hobby storage space and put together a host of models that were otherwise cluttering up said storage space with their boxes and blister packs. Which leads me onto the main theme of this post – how exactly does someone manage and keep track of their backlog? Keeping track of what you've painted is easy enough, but when your backlog is as big as mine (and that is really not meant to be a boast!), some extra admin is needed. Models in my collection tend to fall into five separate categories. Or rather, I've mentally put them into five separate categories…

Category 1: Still in the damn box…

Fortunately there's not too many of my models in this particular category, but there are a few. Models like these tend to be either miniatures I've bought purely for the sake of painting, or models for future army projects – one of the main reasons for models ending up in this category was an urge to buy new models when they go on pre-order – the fear of missing out on new models can be a serious problem for a hobbyist! Thankfully (from my wallet's perspective at least!), I've managed to teach myself some self-restraint over the last year, telling myself that I don’t need to buy the models immediately – they'll still be on sale when the time comes to start that new army project. 

Category 2: Assembled. Just assembled.

You wouldn’t think this would be a category, but it is. One thing I've tended to do in recent years is take a model out of its box or blister, assemble it, and then just put it back in storage. Because boxes take up a lot of space, I end up assembling a whole bunch of models just so I haven’t got loads of boxes lying around. Unfortunately, this means that in my head I'm reducing my backlog because there aren’t loads of boxes lying around, whereas in reality I'm just moving them from one category to another. There is however some satisfaction about putting models together – you get to see all of the details a model has, and you're already working on how to make them stand out when you paint it. 

Category 3: Undercoated

Finally, we’ve got some paint on the model! Well, we've undercoated it at least. Models that end up in this category tend to be for a single reason, and that's because I tend to prime my models in batches, depending on what colour spray primer I'm using. For example, if I have a model that's predominantly going to be painted with light colours, I'll use a white primer. On the other hand, if it's got a dark colour palette, I'll use a black primer. Sometimes however, you'll have a model that you're not intending to paint immediately, but you'll undercoat it anyway as you're using the same colour to undercoat a load of other models. Those models will then get painted, whilst the other model (or models) goes back in the box for another day…

Category 4: There's some paint on it…

Now we come to the largest category in my backlog – half-painted models. I've mentioned in previous posts about painting projects that get started, and then halfway through get abandoned for a multitude of reasons, including other models taking priority, a lack of time or the boredom of painting the same models over and over. Sometimes as a hobbyist, this is where perseverance pays off – I'm determined this year to try and get through the various half-painted models that have been cluttering up my desk for ages. Even if I'm only painting single models, I'm still happy to get it finished as I no longer have to feel guilty looking at it every time I'm painting other models…

Category 5: Finished!

My favourite category – it means the model is no longer in my backlog! This is probably the easiest category to track as I've been keeping a close count of models I've finished over the course of this series – I painted over 250 models over the course of 2022, and have managed nearly 50 so far this year. As to the total number of models in this category, that's probably a little harder to track – I've built up a large collection of models from most of the Middle Earth factions over the years. I'm not exactly sure, but I think I own at least one model from every army list in both Armies of The Lord of the Rings and Armies of the Hobbit. 

Repainted Models

I don’t technically count this as a category, but I probably could – one thing I tend to find as I pick up new skills and techniques over the years of painting models is that you become dissatisfied with a previous paint job when you compare it to your most recent work. This then results in me stripping the old paint job off the model and giving it a fresh new look – one such example is Khamul the Easterling – I repainted him after having improved my technique of painting cloth over the years. 

So that about wraps it up for this month's blog – not a lot of painting content, but hopefully you've picked up some useful tips that might help you manage your backlogs!