Oh for a limitless hobby budget - Admiral Drax

I'm sure that Drax was referring to the lovely things that he could buy, should his resolve weaken sufficiently. But it got me thinking along a tanget.


OK. So if you follow Col Corbane's Blog at all you'll know that he has what he refers to as a "plastic crack mountain". A phrase that I have shamelessly stolen from time to time.


This has the unfortunate habit of growing, by fits and spurts. I cannot purchase one box of 10 catchans or canadians. I have to buy enough to make a formation that fits in with the policy, rules and organisation of the army they are for. (ie the fluff). I do not buy one tank. No army with a shred of self respect deploys one tank. Tanks operate in numbers. Whether Kursk or not, my battles involve slightly more realistic numbers of tanks than the FOC allows for.


So I buy in numbers; because in my fortykay, units have rational sizes. This is a dire thing if one is trying to limit the cash haemorage and reduce the scale of the "plastic crack mountain".


I have been good. The giant numbers you might read in the summer 2009 posts in this blog relate to a time when I received a regular cash injection on top of my salary. I spent a stuipidly large sum of money on stuff that I still have not put together, much less painted.
(ie, 'stupidly' in that I bit off more than I could chew. Or glue. Or paint.)


So I'm not missing mortgage payments or starving Mrs Z. But I can see that without the other distractions that my life involves (mostly to do with Mrs Z, dogs and exercise of varying degrees) I might become just a little too aquisative and end up in financial trouble just feeding the 'collector' within. The wolf one feeds is the wolf that grows stronger. I do not want my indulgance to become an obession that slides into addiction. Whilst all well and good for GW employees, I won't get paid for it, I'll get fired and then loose my house. A good subject for one of Jervis' surmons, perhaps.


Some time ago (I may have mentioned it in a previous post) I decided that I would buy no more until I'd finished what I already have. Well, last month I bought a box (three boxes) of the new greatcoated soldiers from the Wargames Factory. Like I mentioned, enough bodies to make a viable unit. (five squads and a command section [using the Baneblade commander] in IG terms - another valhallan platoon perhaps).


The road to hell may be paved with the intention not to buy any more until the exisiting is all painted nicely. But if "Spearhead" includes a re release of the Emperor's Fist Armd Coy then I'm getting one this time. So there are conditions where I'm happy to break my moratorium, as long as I can greater benefit. (I never for a moment considered that all of the Apoc super sets would go out as one issue and not be there forever, silly me)


My point is that despite my spare time being a greater limit on my progress than funding, money should be an issue. I have proved beyond reasonable doubt that I can spend (indeed, lets swallow our indignation and use Mrs Z's word - waste*) money on an ever increasing plastic crack mountain.


What I might do is begin saving up for a pro paint job for one of my formations. The DKK are the obvious candidate. So that would be spending the available (and depriving me of the opportunity to add to the mountain) whilst reducing the amount work required.




* I have tried buying things from othere sources that I thought would go well. But it turns out that 25mm or 28mm truescale figures look horribly out of place. So yeah, there is some waste. And if the Devos IV campaign is never fought, it'll be a waste. And if the mountain is still there when I snuff it, again, a waste.