The Pile of Shame

Among the miniature painting community I have seen the phrase pile of shame referring to an accumulation of as yet unpainted miniature figures. It's a pile that grows as more unpainted figures are purchased despite not having completed painting the already owned figures. I now have a growing pile of shame.

I decided in the fall of 2021 that despite the physical ailments and obstacles I have, that I would throw myself into painting minis to use in my campaign. Sure, there are tons of pre-painted minis available and I have been buying a bunch to use as well, but sometimes what you want to represent isn't available pre-painted. So far I have completed zero.

I am afflicted by Essential Tremors which kicks in mostly when I try to do detailed work with my hands. As if that isn't enough of a problem when it comes to painting miniatures, I also have Tardive Dyskinesia brought on as a permanent side-effect of taking a certain anti-depressant. The shaking from one set of tremors gets highly amplified by the other. You should see me try to chop veggies up for stir-fry, it's terrifying waiting to see who'll get maimed.

As the process was getting started and some terrain was being completed, Dwarven Forge and stuff from 3d printers, a couple of minis started getting paint thrown on them. First I repainted a few of the pre-painted minis to help build some positive encouragement and then started on three Reaper minis to represent opposition for the characters in my game. That's when  disaster struck.

I also have Diabetic Retinopathy and it hit me hard. I had sudden severe hemorrhaging in the left eye and some small amount in the right eye. I couldn't see well enough to do anything detailed or to even trust myself driving a car. This was a major emergency since without taking immediate action I could easily have gone blind, and definitely would within three years.

Well, an invasive eye surgery and laser surgery on my retinas, as well as medicine delivered by needles into both eyes, and I can see again. Painting has resumed and is proceeding slowly as I build back the enthusiasm I had prior to the vision problem.

There is a to-do list of specific miniatures and terrain for an adventure I want to run sometime in the not too distant future. It includes three people, a dog, another creature, and a bunch of terrain. The terrain will come after the people and critters since even if not completely painted, the terrain will still be fine for my purposes. No expectation exists that the paint jobs will be anything special, but good enough for the table would make me happy.

Will the pile of shame be diminished? Not by much, but at least the effort is underway.