Surfin' the Gray Tide with a Kanban Board: Sweet Waves!

Now that things at work are situated, I have more time to devote to my home and hobby. I've been knocking out my honey-dos' around the house, and have actually had time to look at my 40K collection. And let me tell ya, is it a sea of gray plastic!


Fortunately, I recently listened to episode 82 of the Independent Characters in which Carl and Geoff discuss the use of a Kanban board to track hobby progress. Curious, I followed Carl's link to the free website and started my own. As a matter of fact I copied Carl's column topics as my own, as they fit my needs for now. I really like this program over my excel spreadsheet due to the amount of customization that I can achieve. I can add notes and information without each subject getting too busy for the eye. So, here is what my Kanban board looks like:



I color coded models/units by army type for personal preference.

I'm very excited about this tool. It has already helped me organize my 40K units visually, which will help me stay focused and see them finished. Sadly, the Commissar and Yarik are both models that I purchased to give to Six-Deuce as gifts in years past. Man, I hope that old saying, 'better late than never' is true.

Wow. I have a lot of plastic to paint! Notice that I kept the 'To Acquire' box empty. As much as I may want a Riptide, or the new Space Marine plastics (set to release in a couple of weeks), my goal is to put together and paint the stuff I already own. I'm going to focus primarily on power armor units in anticipation of the Space Marines dex release- I want all of my available toys ready to field. In 2009, I wanted to paint my Space Marines as Blood Ravens so that I could field them as vanilla, as Blood Angels, and as Space Wolves. Now, I'm not sure...I have come to appreciate and really like the different Chapter color schemes.

I'm really at a loss. Financially, I should choose one Chapter and commit to it's colors and heraldry (but it is soo difficult). Maybe I should split my resources amongst the Chapters that I would like represented on the table top, and do so by unit? For instance, Tac Squad 1 would represent the Ultramarines. Tac Squad 2 would represent the Imperial Fists...

I think, bottom line, I should stop procrastinating and finally slap some paint on my gray tide!

Interested in using the Kanbanflow program yourself? Follow this link: Kanbanflow!