#6MMRPC - Week 5: The dead walk!

As with last week, I’m going to talk about my mountain and organizing it before getting to this week’s progress. So if all you’re interested in is the pictures, feel free to scroll down.

I had a couple of questions/comments last week about setting up my spreadsheet. I spend a lot of time in real life dealing with spreadsheets, and I know how massively interconnected and arcanely complex they can get. Usually to the detriment of their utility. The best spreadsheets are the ones that are simple and easy to understand at a glance. Next, they should be easy to update without breaking.

It all goes back to utility. If the sheet doesn't help you do what you want it to do without being a pain in the ass, why use it?

My sheet has 2 main goals:

1. Quantify the mountain of miniatures I’m trying to chip away
2. Track my progress at chipping away at the mountain

The first two tabs I created for the sheet were for the Bones I and Bones II minis. I picked these first, because I want the Bones minis to be the main focus of the challenge. These sheets were easy to create, since the list of minis had already been compiled by others. I just went and snagged them from the websites listed on each of the tabs. Once I cleaned out the info from the lists I didn’t want (like the sculptor names) I set up a couple of columns to show the info I wanted: number of minis, number painted, and numbed completed as part of the challenge.

Bones II was easy, since I don’t have any painted yet. Bones I took a little bit of time, but not much. Then I added the totals at the bottom. The formula for this one is easy. Type the following into the cell you want the total showing: =sum( then highlight the cells you want to add up, and hit enter.

Getting back to the simple, take a look at my Lord of the Rings tab. It’s a much smaller sheet since many of the minis are all the same type. I don’t need to spell out which warriors of gondor have spears, swords, or bows. I don’t really care for this sheet. Sure, I’ll want to know if I’m playing Lord of the Rings, but honestly the answer is “enough” for whatever I want to field. On the flip side, it’s good to know that I have only 1 Gimli to paint versus 3 Legolas minis. Characters are far more important to note, since they get a far greater level of attention and effort.

If I were focusing on an army specific project, say a space marine battleforce, I might set up my sheet listing each squad & vehicle, and keep track of it that way. My Mantic sheet is kind of like that, especially since I included an “assembled” column. The Misc. tab is for those random minis that aren't part of a specific force or manufacturer. I plan on adding more sheets as I continue my inventory. I know there will be a Battlefleet Gothic sheet, probably 40K and WHFB sheets, and I might even do a Chainmail sheet since I have a lot of those minis too.

The totals sheet was created by listing out each of the tabs, and then pulling the totals for the challenge. The totals are linked to the individual sheets, so as I update my progress on each sheet, the totals page updates automatically.

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And now, for this week's progress!

October is in full swing. I've assembled 7 skeletons, 10 zombies, and 10 ghouls from mantic, and primed them. I also worked on some of Reaper's Bone Zombies and Mummy.

Once again, crappy cell phone pictures. I really need to rig up a light box. They were all pretty simple to paint up, but that's 6 more minis done!