The Good Life Gamer June/July

Good Life Gamer – June/July

Due to the monumental increase in temperature at the start of July everything is late so I thought I would catch up both months in one post.  In short I have been on a massive bender.  I have spent my entire bankroll and then some.  It all started reasonably but then it descended into a spending frenzy and finally into madness with the Empress Kickstarter.  Read on and I will attempt to explain how it happened.

 

Buying

It began sensibly; I have been storing two of my 15mm WW2 armies on trays which are convenient for moving around and placing on the game table.  As we play in a garage – a large garage with three 6ft x 4ft tables –dust accumulates on the figures over time and there is always a risk of dropping the whole army.  To keep the figures clean and safe I bought two more KR Multicase figure boxes.  See that’s a respectable if not exciting purchase with my gaming money. 

Having bought Battlegroup Overlord previously I decided to expand my 15mm British Airborne force with some jeeps and 75mm howitzers.  I priced up what I needed and for only £15 more I could get them painted.  I have used a chap based in Spain previously.  The figures are an acceptable standard and his prices and turn around are very good.  So I placed an order.  Lazy?  Yes a bit but the figures will be consistent with the rest of the company and the additional cost was so little.  I guess the Spanish economy is part of reason the price is so low.

When I was at Salute I resisted buying any of the modern troopers from Hasslefree miniatures but my resolve crumbled as an email newsletter collided into my diminishing willpower and rapidly waning bankroll.  It was fine, I still had some money and the figures are wonderful.  It’s just that I don’t have any plans for them which is in direct contravention to my Good Life Gaming mandate.  I just had a bit of a cold that day, that’s all.

 

Thankfully June was nearly over but regrettably my spending wasn’t.  Following a troubled night’s sleep an email from Lordybloke woke me and the subject heading “have a look at these” was not helpful.  So there I was at gone midnight purchasing some Gamezone Dark Elves to finally have a Blackguard unit.  I haven’t touched my WFB army for a long time I am sure this will be the catalyst I need to use them again.  I am sure it will be.

As I snuck into July filled with buyer’s remorse I vowed to rebuild my finances and that my midyear crisis was over.  It was unfortunately a forlorn hope as once again I found myself in the breach; this time temptation took the form of the Empress Miniatures Kickstarter and soon I was pledging like a man with an inscrutable plan for 28mm Modern US Marines, Chinese PLA and Australian Infantry.  I don’t have a plan and more importantly I had spent my bankroll and more.  To solve this lack of planning  I will fall back on well tested ploy and drag one or more of my friends along the same path and doom us all.  By doom I mean start a great new game that we never realised how much we wanted to play.

 

Selling

Despite everything I did bring some money in but it wasn’t enough to staunch the outflow.  I sold my Gaunt’s Ghost figures for a very pleasing £77 and sold some 40k sprues for an equally pleasing £40.

 

Modeling and Painting

The hot weather sapped my will to paint and the couple of occasions that I attempted it the paint dried faster than I liked which led to frustration and ultimately abandoning my paint station.  Once the heat wave was over the Battlegroup Kursk campaign deadline hove into view and set me into a panic.  This saw me complete the Tanks that have languished on the paint station for over a month in only a matter of hours.  With the Panzer IV’s and Tigers finished it leaves only the Artillery observer’s Panzer IIF to do. 

  

Planning

All my projects have stalled mostly because of the weather already mentioned.  With my balance sheet in tatters I need to finish the remaining figures for Matt’s 28mm Bolt Action SS army.

I need to have a good hard look at what I have left to sell from my boxes in the loft.  I have covered most of the easy to dispose of items but I will now be considering armies.  These have both an emotional attachment; memories of when I was building, painting and of course the games played with them.  Then there is the thorny financial attachment, armies never seem to reach their true value.  Some of that is because the market for a £500+ painted army is far smaller than the unit purchasing market. 

I have my eye on the Chain of Command rules from Too Fat Lardies which appeals because it looks to be a different game to Bolt Action but will allow me to use my existing figures.

In summary I’ve had a relapse to my old buy it now paint it whenever self but I will be back on the wagon in August, September at the latest.  I am sure it will finish well by the end of the year.  Probably.