Welcome to the wonderful (and expensive) world of 28mm AWI CANCELLED

Well, that is it then.

After a year of selling off stuff, slowly building back to be able to paint and game again, and making plans, Kim (after much pushing of her best mate) put her foot down last night and proclaimed the attic must be cleared of all excess stuff pronto and I'm not allowed to buy anything anymore for quite some time. Else there would be consequences for our relationship. Her friend had gotten pretty mad at me for...well, various reasons, and pushed her into acting, for our mutual benefit.

Where I come from this is called emotional blackmail, she said it was in my best interest.

Always trying to avoid problems, I cancelled all trades planned for this and other projects, but spent a lot of time and today thinking about this. Is this really fair? Ok, I have a lot of stuff, and stuff needs to be sold, but I have sold over 2K of stuff in the last year. Does this show? No, of course not, it is all about miniatures...small things. I have a steady rythem of selling and a good thought process if I want to buy things (only current projects, only if I start them within a year, only from funds from sold items). I've made vast improvements to my hobby room. I'm actually looking forward to painting and playing again. It was Kim who told me I should get out more, which is what shows and the AWI project are all about. Or maybe I'm just being dense here, but being told to sell 3/4 of my stuff feels to me like a random figure of someone who has no grasp to what this hobby really is.

Collecting, painting and gaming.

As far as anyone I know or talk to, they all have quite a bit of space, shelving or attic devoted to the storage of their hobby. And it is not like having to sell 3/4's of it will me stop me wanting to buy new things, or go to cons, or learn new games and have evenings of fun with likeminded individuals. At least I hope not.

For some reason or other telling her this hobby is a big part of me and is the one last thing (next to my girls) that keeps me sane and gives me a good reason to get out of bed each day seems to be falling on deaf ears. It actually does with 9/10 of our combined family. Back in college many people were amazed I had the patience to paint such small things, now all I hear are things like "waste of money", "childish" and more comments like that. Not being helped by the fact the room is messy, and the attic does have a lot of stuff in it, and all my painted stuff that people used to wow about is stored in drawers cause I want to keep them safe. So you dont see what is going on in this room.

But threatening to do something about our relationship while we have 2 kids to raise made me snap somewhere in the middle of the night. To have the balls to say something tells me how detatched she is from our mutual reality. Or as Piers said, i should help her pack her things so she can leave. Nobody messes with my hobby. I never tolerated it from previous girlfriends, why would I tolerate it now? Well, because we have kids, and I go out of my way to avoid problems really, I've been bending over backwards for a solid year not to get on her bad side.

Having said that, I say, fuck it. Sales are good at the moment and I will list much more in the coming month. I'll grab a nice share of that for Crisis and have fun one last time this year, and buy what is on the list and maybe a few thinsg that fancy me, and put the rest back into my account for another day. I'll keep clearing stuff at my speed. I work all do, come home to cook and do chores, and have a few hours a night to myself. if I can't even have that, then what's the point?

So, no big group project for me. I can live with that.
No more purchases for some time. Fine, so be it.
No more hobby? Over my dead body.

Welcome to the wonderful (and expensive) world of 28mm AWI

Now that I have gone and joined the Dutch 2016 AWI project, and selected Colonial Militia, I'm for a world of hurt. Not only do I have to brush up my AWI knowledge (currently just hovering over 0), but I also need to find, base and paint enough miltia to fit a scenario of my choosing. And learn how to play the game. And not break the bank!

Yeah, no pressure!

Fortunately, because I can focus on Militia, I've now been told I can mix and match uniformed and ununiformed in the same unit. And because I will have no fixed paint scheme, it may not be as fast but there should be enough variation for me to keep going for a while (my aim will be a base a week, anything else is a bonus. If that base will be 4 figures (as Piers does) or 6 figures ( as the locals do) is yet to be decided). Fortunately, I have a lot of time till the game is started in August or September. I've already scouted a fine chap in Portugal who has 60 Militia and Continentals lying spare, so that would be a great start.

Planning this lead me to ponder what to do for Crisis this year. Sgts Mess won't be there this year so no impulse binging on little 20mm WW2 parts. Sofar I've got 50 pounds in my Paypal for pre orders and 110 euros spending cash (which inlcudes the 10 euro entry fee). I thought I would need to double that for all of my wants. So, I did the smart thing and made a list. And some terms to focus on.

Graveyard which technically falls under Mordheim/Frostgate, and 20mm Sci-Fi. So, 2-3 terms.

Just shopwise, that narrows it down to Brother Vinni, Crooked Dice, Fenris Games, Ainsty Castings and Magisters Militium. When I added up the list I was pleasantly surprised. 75 Pounds for mostly graveyard stuff, plus some merchants for Mordheim/Frostgate and some Robots. Even less if I'm honest cause I already have quite a few Brother Vinni stuff lying unpainted, so I'm looking at about 60 Pounds. Add to that some paint, some PSC 20mm armour boxes, a bag of bases and I'm up to 100 pounds.

The last time I pre ordered from Foundry, there was only a 1 figure bonus, so the only saving you really have is on shipping. Having said that, there are some AWI packs I'm interested in. As always, do I buy them now or do I wait when the lot is painted. Decisions, decisions. Not helped by the fact the Dutch AWI group is planning a group buy from Perry.

Thing is, I'm going over each and every possible purchase with a fine tooth comb. Will I build it within a year? Can it wait another year? What are the chances of this item showing up second hand coming year? Where will I find the money? How can I save money?

Well, the last things should not be a problem. I have a big box of Epic stuff that I will be selling soon, and also a lot of other GW boxes that I really have no need for (What do I need a 40K Predator tank for if all I do is skimrish? What do I look like, a Bolt Action player?). And I'm saving money by my decision not to buy premade 3rd World slums (at 4-5 Pounds a hut) I've been holding off for over a year now but by just buying a 10 sheet pack of fine wave cardboard for 2,50 euro and making my own. I want a dozens of buildings so I just went and saved myself more then a 100 Pounds. The items I did pick will be for this year, barring the PSC stuff that I buy for my German army, that is for next year. And you never know what the Bring and Buy will bring. Always a dangerous one, that Bring and Buy.

At least one thing will be free, Jasper from the WSS magazine has some Steel Master magazines for free that I will gladly take off his hands. I love reading those, with my high school French :) Pretty pictures too.

So, did I mention painting? A lot of painting? Thank the Lord for Christy.