And On The Seventh Day...
Oh it feels good...
Having literally not stopped for a proper break since 11th August 2017 (Yes, I know I had a break at Christmas, but that was the start of 3 months solid of flu and bronchitis which very nearly put pay to me) I now have 3 weeks of R&R to properly unwind and de-stress, as well as take stock of my life. I have worked ridiculous hours for the last 6 weeks to clear the decks as well as having to deal with Kayte's 'near miss' a fortnight ago.
Kayte is doing OK, but her recovery is slow and she is tiring very easily. I have suggested she take early retirement in 5 years, which will mean a lower pension but with the lump sum we could clear the mortgage and have about the same monthly income as we do now minus the mortgage payments. But that's just thoughts and discussions at present.
You may recall that about 18 months ago, I drew a line under my wargaming excesses and vowed that from my 50th birthday I would not buy any unpainted lead unless it was going directly to a painter and that in fact, I didn't want to buy much at all.
Well, this Saturday sees me hit that target and to the surprise of those who know me or who are nearest and dearest to my flinty old heart I've done it in style.
1. I've tracked down the majority of the roleplaying stuff I want.
2. I have purchased almost a thousand Perry ECW castings and they are with the painter as we speak, all paid for and in good order.
3. I have also (in an unplanned project) paid the painter to paint 500 or so 28mm Dixon Samurai and acquired 100+ painted models. I am collecting them from Mr Dixon on Wednesday and as soon as I have them sorted into units, off to the painter they go.
4. We have the quote for the log cabin wargames room down pat and are just waiting for things to drop into place.
Now each year, I will possibly allocate £3600 to acquiring painted figures, but if I am brutally honest, I don't need that much. I think 240 Samurai and 600 ECW will complete everything, so it may not be the state of play for more than 18 months. Jeez, listen to me
I never would have placed or taken a bet on that being the situation, but this year has been an odd one in which I have found a zen-like state of hobby satisfaction.
In the last week I did treat myself to a few little gems as metaphorical amuse bouche whilst I read up and studied what could be seen as the biscuits, cheese and port to the hobby year. I picked up the Skytrex Renaissance galley warfare rules, a copy of the old Reaper fantasy rules and the icing on the big jam-filled bun, Starforce 3000 and the rather rare Starforce 3001, the precursors to 40K.
And this is where it goes pear shaped...
I had noticed a while ago that Tamiya were releasing their old 80s radio control cars. I had one back in the year that I started gaming. Alas, it met a sticky end in a 20 foot death plunge into a sewer excavation and vanished from my life.
Well, I read a few magazines and it seems that in fact, Tamiya are more stuck in a time warp than I, and that the once reviled ready to run models are now the cutting edge of the hobby. So, I looked at what was on offer and decided that I liked the idea of an off-road vehicle that was not fast but was rugged and capable of scale performance comparable to a real vehicle.
All the reviews and online videos pointed to the Traxxas TRX-4 chassis which is available with a Landrover Defender 110 body shell and which looks rather nice indeed. The next best model would need about another £700 of modifications to be of the same standard as the TRX-4 out of the box, so that was my decision made. It was going to cost me around £500, around £200 more than a Tamiya before any mods, but what the hell.
Then, I did a search too far and found a black and orange limited edition which pushed the price to around £700. Right - deep breath, remember you are going to no more shows this year Mark and allocate your hobby money to covering the bill. After all, I am always saying you should either do it right or go home.
I'd originally planed to get past the Partizan show and then order the car, but after looking at the list of traders - about as inspiring as plain boiled noodles to be frank - it was decided that we would give it a miss. Thus, I brought forward my plans, and decided to do a last bit of investigative enquiry.
Bad move!
I then found that Traxxas also produced a 1970s Ford Bronco based on the same TRX-4 chassis and like a bunch of grapes held in front of Tantalus, it had the classic 'Sunset' paint work.
I made a few calls, and located one of the limited edition Landrovers at a VERY reasonable price and also one of the Broncos, also enticingly priced.
The RRP on the Landrover should have been £599 with £120 for the battery and charger = £719
The Bronco was £499 with again, £120 for the power and charger = £619
So, with £100 in it between the two, I had a decision to make.
After some negotiations with dealers I bought both, yes both for a grand total of £1160.00 including 24 hour courier delivery.
What the hell. I have 20 years in front of me at best I think, and I saved £178 on list price. Think of i as my 50th birthday gift to myself, and I'l have it paid off by the end of October.
These are 1/10 scale models which come in at just under 2 feet long, so there's a lot of detailing work I can do and what's more there are so many upgrade kits that it could keep me very busy for the next five years.
Here are the two models I've purchased:
Having literally not stopped for a proper break since 11th August 2017 (Yes, I know I had a break at Christmas, but that was the start of 3 months solid of flu and bronchitis which very nearly put pay to me) I now have 3 weeks of R&R to properly unwind and de-stress, as well as take stock of my life. I have worked ridiculous hours for the last 6 weeks to clear the decks as well as having to deal with Kayte's 'near miss' a fortnight ago.
Kayte is doing OK, but her recovery is slow and she is tiring very easily. I have suggested she take early retirement in 5 years, which will mean a lower pension but with the lump sum we could clear the mortgage and have about the same monthly income as we do now minus the mortgage payments. But that's just thoughts and discussions at present.
You may recall that about 18 months ago, I drew a line under my wargaming excesses and vowed that from my 50th birthday I would not buy any unpainted lead unless it was going directly to a painter and that in fact, I didn't want to buy much at all.
Well, this Saturday sees me hit that target and to the surprise of those who know me or who are nearest and dearest to my flinty old heart I've done it in style.
1. I've tracked down the majority of the roleplaying stuff I want.
2. I have purchased almost a thousand Perry ECW castings and they are with the painter as we speak, all paid for and in good order.
3. I have also (in an unplanned project) paid the painter to paint 500 or so 28mm Dixon Samurai and acquired 100+ painted models. I am collecting them from Mr Dixon on Wednesday and as soon as I have them sorted into units, off to the painter they go.
4. We have the quote for the log cabin wargames room down pat and are just waiting for things to drop into place.
Now each year, I will possibly allocate £3600 to acquiring painted figures, but if I am brutally honest, I don't need that much. I think 240 Samurai and 600 ECW will complete everything, so it may not be the state of play for more than 18 months. Jeez, listen to me
I never would have placed or taken a bet on that being the situation, but this year has been an odd one in which I have found a zen-like state of hobby satisfaction.
In the last week I did treat myself to a few little gems as metaphorical amuse bouche whilst I read up and studied what could be seen as the biscuits, cheese and port to the hobby year. I picked up the Skytrex Renaissance galley warfare rules, a copy of the old Reaper fantasy rules and the icing on the big jam-filled bun, Starforce 3000 and the rather rare Starforce 3001, the precursors to 40K.
And this is where it goes pear shaped...
I had noticed a while ago that Tamiya were releasing their old 80s radio control cars. I had one back in the year that I started gaming. Alas, it met a sticky end in a 20 foot death plunge into a sewer excavation and vanished from my life.
Well, I read a few magazines and it seems that in fact, Tamiya are more stuck in a time warp than I, and that the once reviled ready to run models are now the cutting edge of the hobby. So, I looked at what was on offer and decided that I liked the idea of an off-road vehicle that was not fast but was rugged and capable of scale performance comparable to a real vehicle.
All the reviews and online videos pointed to the Traxxas TRX-4 chassis which is available with a Landrover Defender 110 body shell and which looks rather nice indeed. The next best model would need about another £700 of modifications to be of the same standard as the TRX-4 out of the box, so that was my decision made. It was going to cost me around £500, around £200 more than a Tamiya before any mods, but what the hell.
Then, I did a search too far and found a black and orange limited edition which pushed the price to around £700. Right - deep breath, remember you are going to no more shows this year Mark and allocate your hobby money to covering the bill. After all, I am always saying you should either do it right or go home.
I'd originally planed to get past the Partizan show and then order the car, but after looking at the list of traders - about as inspiring as plain boiled noodles to be frank - it was decided that we would give it a miss. Thus, I brought forward my plans, and decided to do a last bit of investigative enquiry.
Bad move!
I then found that Traxxas also produced a 1970s Ford Bronco based on the same TRX-4 chassis and like a bunch of grapes held in front of Tantalus, it had the classic 'Sunset' paint work.
I made a few calls, and located one of the limited edition Landrovers at a VERY reasonable price and also one of the Broncos, also enticingly priced.
The RRP on the Landrover should have been £599 with £120 for the battery and charger = £719
The Bronco was £499 with again, £120 for the power and charger = £619
So, with £100 in it between the two, I had a decision to make.
After some negotiations with dealers I bought both, yes both for a grand total of £1160.00 including 24 hour courier delivery.
What the hell. I have 20 years in front of me at best I think, and I saved £178 on list price. Think of i as my 50th birthday gift to myself, and I'l have it paid off by the end of October.
These are 1/10 scale models which come in at just under 2 feet long, so there's a lot of detailing work I can do and what's more there are so many upgrade kits that it could keep me very busy for the next five years.
Here are the two models I've purchased:
The rest of my holiday is going to be spent visiting galleries and museums all over the place. We visited 3 local exhibitions this morning, wanting to stay pretty close to home this week where possible so that Kayte can be in easy reach of base camp if she starts to tire, but next week we'll be going further afield. I'll hopefully get a few hours figuring out how not to wreck the new toys, but with gears, lockable differentials and cruise control, the gods of mechanical things will no doubt 'mark my card' if possible.
Anyway, I'll bid you a fond farewell for the present as I have a salami sandwich and a glass of pretty damned good red wine waiting for me.
TTFN
Well - you can’t take it with you...so what the hell. I love that you achieved hobby zen then immediately found something else to spend your hard-earned mullah on. As for me, I’m looking at air pistols I could never afford when I was younger.
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