Skitarii - How many projects is too many?

Yet another 40k temptation I've failed to resist! Last weekend I went and got myself the 'Start Collecting Skitarii' box set.

Why must you tempt me so!?

For those that have missed out, these 'Start Collecting' box sets are a fantastic deal (in so far as anything made by Games Workshop can ever be referred to as a 'deal.') For £50 you're getting around £78 worth of miniatures and all wrapped up in a formation you can actually field to boot!


Despite the savings, and the beautiful models (I love that Tech-Priest Dominus!) I have serious misgivings about introducing yet another project into my cluttered, overcrowded and mostly unfinished hobby life. This marks the fifth Warhammer 40k army for me along with a small collection of Infinity Nomads, some random Space Wolves (half of the Stormclaw box because why not?) and the hazy dream of a Khorne Berserker-biker army that never really materialized into anything more than a bunch of ebay purchases that hide under the bed.


Other considerations are starting to come to the fore as well. I am rapidly running out of storage space for my miniatures collection, so potential purchases are often weighed against the amount of room that they will occupy on my, increasingly groaning, shelves.


Inevitably, any plans I have made for past projects tend to spiral wildly out of control. As my Night Lords collection shot past the 3000 point mark I swear I heard each and every unpainted miniature cry out 'Get a hold of yourself man! We were only ever supposed to be a 1000 point skirmish force!!' I have reconciled myself to never reaching the end of my collection of Tyranids and my Dark Eldar, though limited in scale, require a punishing amount of time to paint to the standard I have set. So with all of this in mind, what possessed me to add another army to the hobby pile?


As I was in the midst of my hobby crisis. Desperately wanting to build and paint Skitarii but trying (and failing) to force myself to paint Night Lords someone told me: 'I say go for it with the Skitarii - I mean life is here to be enjoyed and it's not like they're expensive or anything.' This really put things into perspective for me. Even if they just become another unfinished project (who really finishes their hobby projects anyway?) I will enjoy the process of building, converting and painting them. The games they are involved with will be fun, or at least give me a story to tell. Undoubtedly I will learn new painting and modeling techniques as I go (every army I have collected has broadened my skills in ways I hadn't imagined).


With that firmly in mind, I ordered the box and have set about building and painting them with very pleasing results so far. To finish this article I'd like to come back to the question in the title. How many projects is too many? Is there even such a thing? I'm still not sure, but I fully intend to enjoy searching for the answers.