Never skip a leg day...

 

Isn't she beautiful ?

 

I am, hopefully understandably, quite excited.  Astor Tyrannis looks quite beautiful in the hands of the Fabricator General.  Reaver 3623 looks set to walk a lot sooner than I had anticipated.  

Death of the 40K bloggosphere

 

Ah, that would have been an ok picture without the washing line in it.  Oh well. 

This blog started over a decade ago.  I was embarking on my 40K project - Devos IV to provide a backdrop for my games which had a touch of realism to it, even if it was a Forge World realism, rather than a real realism. 

My internet searches showed me blogs by other hobbyists.  Encouraged by feedback from Karitas and Admiral Drax, upon whose blogs I commented, I began the creation of the armies and scenary for Devos IV and the story of the rebellion or insurrection, depending on your point of view. 

The next few years put me touch with hobbyists from elsewhere in the world, notably the USA and Austrailia.  I've been helped and encouraged by others and hopefully have managed a bit of helping and encouraging myself along the way.  I won a Liebster once for Devos IV, so that's a highlight.  

I suppose the height of 40K blogging was the From The Warp blogging circle.   But the guy running that burned out or found something else which sucked up more of his time.  Gradually other bloggers stopped blogging, overtaken by Real Life or other games systems which were not as cartoonish and awkward as later editions of 40K seemed to be.  Like most the FW books, Devos IV is rooted in 5ed.   

I think a lot of people transistioned to Instagram and so on.  

It's been over a year since I posted on here.  I'm still modelling and painting and obviously had an idea of where the Devos IV was going.  If you've been a long time follower, hopefully the sense of  'impending acheivement of imperial war aims' will have come through the writing.  Not as expensive in blood and treasure as Vraks, but nowhere near as long, either. 

Why am I writing this ?  If there's anyone out there who was interested in this blog, perhaps you might be interested to know that the hordes of little men grow every bigger and that the cadres of giant killer robots are still getting inadequate but homogenous paint jobs.  Or they will, once I get around to it. 

I may end up posting again.  And do hope that anyone who ever read this found it interesting or amusing or it gave some small spark of pleasure or inspiration.  

And of course, an annual post keeps it where I can find it, in case I win the lottery and can afford to turn it into a book.   

 

 

Colours 2023 - Newbury Race Course Sat 09 Sep 23

Well for a start finding the right car park at Newbury Race Course is not easy.  And visiting the alternatives means fighting your way back onto the main trunk route through the town each time.  But I suspect most people research the location a little more rigourously rather than follow the 'race course' signs.  Like that'd work ! 

The following is full of wild generalisations in order to make an arguement, it's not intended to be a dig at a certain demographic (within which I'd probably be counted) or even a certain games system: it's just my perception.

Anyway, I went to meet Admiral Drax, who is now to found contributing to Wargames, Strategy and Soldiers.  So he goes to a lot of these as part of his contribution.  Newbury is an hour south for me and quite a trek north for him, so the chance to meet at Colours 23 seemed to serendipitous to pass up.

But you're here for the show, so a few words about that.  I managed some snaps, the first groups were two very impressive Vietnam tables, one out in the boonies centered on the downed Huey and one set in Siagon itself.  The detailing on the Siagon table in particular were worthy of a diorama, let alone being used as wargaming scenary.  

The ground floor was packed with stands for vendors, but I have perviously learned by lesson when it comes to these shows, invariably something bought here is never used or ends up being passed on, so the only thing I did buy was a book.  For research.  

I have noticed that prices for things have generally increased.  Which makes things pricey for me and I'm not badly off.  If I was me of even ten years ago then a single purchase or two might be ok, but I couldn't afford a new game system/army/whatever.  This is relevant for my later diatribe.

The clientele was overwhelmingly white, male and at least middle aged.  Which is perhaps not a surprise, as we noted at the time, these are the people with the cash resources to fund a pricey hobby like this in the first place, the time resource to actually build and paint their armies and tables and the space resource to store all of the this stuff and also get it all out and play with it.

This in and of itself is not neccessary a problem.  As long as there are more old white men coming into the hobby to replace those who get too old (or just keel over).  But that might be a problem in the future, it is almost certain that those people have been wargaming for decades, so didn't enter the hobby as 'around retirement age'.  ie twenty years ago, the demographic of a historically based wargaming event like this would have included a significant tranche of persons twenty years younger than those present in 2023.  The average age of the historical wargamer would have been lower. Fight me.

40K, as we all know is specifically targeted and marketed at new players, who tend to be in their teens.  People who might ot might not explore wargaming more generally, who might or might not wargame consistently thoughout their lives and who might or not 'leave the hobby' for years or even decades and then return.  And the constantly changing meta encourages behaviour like having the prime army for each edition or update of the rules, rather then what we see in hisotrical wargaming where the same army might be used in multiple rulesets or formats.  So the paradigm within which the games are played is different.  And some people might struggle with that.  If you start a conversation with someone about 40K they will assume that you're both talking about the latest edition.

So then there's the general state of society and the economy (stoopid).  The next potential generations of wargamers for this type of thing are much much less likely to have the resources (money, time and space) as the current players, even when they get to the same point in their lives, perhaps they will be short on one of these at least.  

So given the likely constraints on their future resources, the 40K paradigm of  'sell your army and get another one each time the rules change' makes sense: less space, some ROI.  You only have to look at ebay each time there's a new edition or new flavour of the month codex.

This constant churn is possibly the antithisis of historical wargaming.  Your ECW army might be good for multiple rule sets and be used for more than one depending on what type of game you want to play that day.  And by adding in or leaving out cerrtain units you could use most the ECW army in the Wars of Spanish Succession or even 30 Years War.  A markedly different paradigm and one suited to the more available time and space for it as well as the cash to acquire it in the first place. 

So perhaps in the future there is going to be less appetite for historical wargames, new wargamers are not moving into it: I see the evidence of that everytime I visit one of these.  Salute (not been for years) has a much stronger SciFi and Fantasy vibe and has much broader demographic.  It's still almost all male, still almost all white, but there is a much broader age range.  And there are historical wargames there.  And historical wargamers (still oldies) so it superficially looks like 'wargaming' as a healthy future.

But I would contend that what is seen at events like Salute is not the real picture, that events like Colours show that there is very real chance that historical wargaming in the form it currently has (and it's a great time for the hobby with new manufacturers of just about everything and 3D printing as well) is unlikely to survive another twenty years.  It's just seems not to be getting new players.

Do I think its doomed ?  Amongst all the new stuff there is a lot to appeal to those who are fed up with the revolving door nature of 40K - a host of new games in short play, skirmish format based on commando raids, weird WW2, Dr Who, Blakes 7, Flash Gordon and so on. Currently a lot of these games appeal to certain demographic (Dr Who, Blakes 7, Space 1999 and so on certainly date us all to between Quatermass and the Pit and Star Wars).  But products like the Star Wars games, like the GoT game by CMON and others which may follow on might just be enough to spark some interest in historical gaming and keep it alive. 
 

The Queen is dead, Long live the King.

Environmental concerns - extra post, to give a chuckle, perhaps.

 

So the sorry saga begins here and I soon decide that I need to stop and get some gloves on. 

 And yeah, I've been washing them in a bucket - forunately the weather is pretty benign at the minute, I can rise them, leave them on the Brick of Scrutiny's table to dry and they can stay outside in the shade.  The main culprit was already deceased, probably through ingesting plastic.

He/she may look peaceful, but these little twats have eaten most of Admiral and Mrs Drax's worldly goods as well as most of Austrailia.  And their behaviour in my garage isn't condusive to a long lasting peaceful co-existance, either. 

That's not weathering, it's mouse shit. 

Needless to say, a new plastic container with a fitting lid has been obtained for the air armada.

Well, that's awkward.

 So this blog is intended to catalogue the Imperium's response to rebellion on Devos IV.  Making planetfall, campaigning across the prarie and the investiture (as in seige) of the pillgrimage city that is the seat of the rebellion.  

So I've been concentrating my creative efforts on gathering information and ideas to try to bring the seige of the city to life.  I'd got to the point where I was about to begin commiting it to Word and hence to here.

Now, if you're searching the internet in the 2030's (assuming the internet is still here), as I write this, Vladimir Putin's Russia invaded the Ukraine about two weeks ago.   

So given the plight of the people of Ukraine, especially it's cities, I've no stomach or desire to continue with the narrative I've been preparing.  It would simply be not in good taste.

I've mentioned before that games about The Troubles, Iraq and Afghanistan are, IMHO, poor taste; I know people who may now be home, but in some measure are still fighting those conflicts.   I just don't feel like writing about destoying a city, even it is an utterly imaginary one on a different planet tens of thousands of years in the future.  

On a slightly brighter note, I've been heartened by the number of smaller mini manufacturers and 3D printing enterprises who are doing Ukraine benefit things.  

I hope that things are drawn to a good end; that the Ukrainians are left alone and that it doesn't drag on too long.  It'd be nice to go an visit the Cathedral of St Sophia at some point.

Meh

 So, there's this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7fTOsNykZw

Which is fine; a very modest group of Black Templars and a dreadnaught.  Plus the obligatory rules and lore update, which, let's face it, isn't going to deviate too far from the existing.

Regular readers will know that Devos IV started in 5Ed and has been more or less played in 5Ed since then.  

And now apparently my FW account has disappeared; I'm supposed to create a 'Warhammer!' account.  A small thing, but I liked my FW account, I liked scrolling back through the orders and seeing the long term project take shape over the years.  And be embarrassed by the amounts I've blown on the resin crack over the years.  

I've tried to use the FW website over the last few days and I've not been able to navigate to any page other than the one I started on.  Maybe the firefox ad-blocker, maybe it's just not working properly now unless you're signed into your new 'Warhammer!' account.  It doesn't really matter, I'm not going to find a way around the problem because reasons.  But things like the FW phone line, as used by all us FW customers for twenty years to get things sorted and place the occasional order during a lunchbreak has now just gone.  poof.  And no, live chat is no substitute, there is nothing in writing that can convey the sarcasm or vitriol in someone's voice. 

And there's the takedown of the independent hobby animators youtube channels and their replacement with 'Warhammer Plus' which appears to be, and it's only my opinion, check it out for yourself, shite by comparison.  'Warhammer Plus' does appear to be nothing more than an advertising tool to which the customer has to pay a subscription.  

And that takes me back to posts by the likes of Admiral Drax and others who, over the years, commented that they felt that WH40K wasn't for them any more.  Well, I'm now at the point where I'm not just 'not the target audience' but that my hobby is just not being supported anymore.  

This is fine, change is usual etc.  But yes, it does hurt a bit when the message you're getting is despite the investment over decades, they're not even going to support my hobby in any form of legacy product(s).  It must be like being WHFB player when they decided to just blow up the Old World and do away with all those decades of world building.  Oh well.  

Does this mean the end of Devos IV ?  Nah.  Like those still fielding Norse, Kislev and Nippon armies on the battlefields of the Old World, I'll keep going for the time being; back to the Inquisition next week. 

"Oh Zzzzzz ! you sad old duffer, can you see no joy in the future ?" I hear you cry, from all over the globe.  Well, there's 3D printing.  It's going to be the future of the hobby and it turns out that Mr Lee will resin print little men (for those not in the know, plastic (FDM) printers are ok for vehicles and terrain, but actual little men need to be in resin).  So it's fairly easy to see that other games systems will gradually erode GWs market share if they're not careful.  And I don't think that taking over the world and/or chucking out cease and desist orders like confetti is any sort of long term strategy for success.  It may take a couple more years, but we're already seeing the beginning of the new model for GW. 

WTF ?

 One of the more obvious consequences of recent political decisions taken here in recent years is the invalidation of the peace process in Norn Iron.

No matter that the GFA and the peace process were imperfect, nonetheless we have had a much less tense existence since 1992ish.  The basic tenant of the arrangement was that as both sides of the border were actually in the EU and therefore the rules around just about everything were the same so which side of the border one lived was not so important.  But changing the rules has picked at the scab and the wounds have re-opened.  

So browsing table top fix, I was slightly surprised at the timing of this as a release.

https://www.compassgames.com/product/the-troubles-shadow-war-in-northern-ireland-pay-later/

Whilst the game seems to be well researched, I was left wondering how the families of victims would react ? But gaming is really pretty niche and they are unlikely to learn of it's existence.  Given that there were already table top skirmish games out there when we still had boots on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan (were still losing friends and relatives), I possibly should not be surprised.  

I know I've said before that people's hobbies are their own.  And now turning around and holding something up as, in my opinion, poor taste might seem hypocritical.  But the 'it's only a game' line is unlikely to impress those mothers, sisters, daughters, fathers, sons and brothers who are still our neighbours and colleagues.  If I remember some of the victims names, those in the province will tell you what they had for breakfast the day they were murdered. 

This is not a case of 'get over it' for those involved.  People are still being killed (by 'accident': "Sorry, we were aiming at a policeman.").  And our current government appears to not understand or care that their continued mismanagement is making things worse.

We should not pretend that these events did not happen, but turning them into a game is just going to play into the hands of those on both sides who have no interest in how clever and balanced your card game is, they will just use it as one more small piece of ammunition, one more piece of kindling in the very real idealogical bonfire of what is still part of the UK. 

Careless at the very least.

Unpacking DKK now that the Kill Team release has been announced

 If you read this blog with any frequency at all, you've either seen this or made a conscious decision not to watch it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA3RmSKVnOw

And knowing my penchant for the DKK, you could be forgiven for assuming my unbridled joy.  

So as you follow me down this particular rabbit hole, do please remember that I'm a middle aged, self aggrandising arse with an unjustifiably high opinion of my own opinions.  And we need to wed this to the fact that I'm not GWs target audience.  And if you've read this far, you probably aren't either.  

The first hurdle to unbridled joy is my own innate snobbery.  We all like it when we know a really good pub or bar and no-one else we know is aware of it.  Or we support a local team in the national game and can feel like we're more of real fan that the thousands of Man Utd fans who've never been to Manchester.  Well, for me for a long time it was the DKK; despite not being the Steel Legion I was looking for their Forge World niche-ness and resinous awkwardness were something to revel in.  I was hooked and spent a lot of money having them painted by someone who was good at it in order to revel in the Glory that was my DKK collection.  So mainstream plasticality means the end of the FW lines and the inevitability of the DKK becoming more widespread.  Just me being an old fart. harrumph.

Allegedly, the new sprue has an interesting and diverse selection of parts.  On some of the kreig FB groups some people seem to think that they can see Grenadiers.  FW haven't stocked Grenadiers for over a year and there are no grenadiers in the selection as far as I can make out, so it's not even as if you could build one in ten as Grenadiers; y'know, buy eleven boxes to build ten rifle squads and a Grenadier squad.  Of course two or three in ten (given the modular nature of the minis) might be better (?).  But I already have Grenadiers, engineers, a platoon in summer uniform, Uhlans and so on.  There's nothing here I need...

And of course the elephant in the room is that the DKK attract a lot of inappropriate attention due to their aesthetic, which is viewed by some as redolent of Nazi militarism.  This is not helped by the fact that their name is the German word for war.  It's possible that I contribute to this myself by using German unit designations and giving the character models vaguely German sounding names.  But there do seem to be some people out there who latch on to the visuals, hear the name 'Kreig', read the backstory and instantly turn all brownshirt.  I'd like to stay away from all of that but the advent of plastic Kreig is just going to ramp it up.  Maybe.

And the last thing is that the plastics are going to be bigger and chunkier than the FW resin fellas.  Of course this is not an issue, people are different sizes.  Admiral Drax is bigger than me and Mr Lee is bigger than him.  And it won't really matter on the table top as even as a player, you are normally 4' or more away and small differences are hard to spot.  And I'm not really a subscriber to the 'they're all clones' idea either.  I'm just old and resistant to change.  To be honest I'm not sure that I'm even cheesed off that they are plastic from now on.  These days a GW plastic army is possibly as expensive as my resin one was when I bought it.  It's just me being a grouch at my loss of cache.

Having said all of that, you're still wondering, aren't you ?  Of course I've asked Col Gravis for a box.  But only one.  for a look.  

Catching up with old friends

I like to think of the books I read in my teens and early twenties as old friends.  They are familiar and reliable; I know what they're going to say on a subject.  I can share their pain, their struggle and eventual triumph.  It's important to look after old friends.  

I became aware that there was going to be another filum of Doon/June/Djoon in the middle of last year.  Oh crikey, I thought, I'd better re-read it so I can pompously pontificate (as is my want) from a position of less ignorance than I'm under right now.  I remember that the Lynch film was a bit like the pop video of the book; that it was well produced etc but due to being less than 14 hours long, failed to capture the nuances of the book.  Re-reading the book, I was right.  Compared to most space opera epics, not much really happens in Dune.  What you do get is a fascinating insight into certain aspects of the his world(s) that Hubert wanted to talk about.  It's good.  It's attention grabbing enough even if it's not as utterly compelling as Abnett.  There's certainly a lot of Dune in the 1984 RT book.  And the Daniverse, for that matter. 

 

My old Dune and Dune Messiah were the older, green cover types.  I've obviously lent them out at some point, possibly back in another life when I was a Tom.  So I had to buy the new one.  Which is nice.  I'm kinda hoping that I can pick up a copy of Dune Messiah in the same style/imprint.  

For Christmas 1983/84, my mum bought me Magician.  I suspect that she asked in the FLBS what the hot sellers in fantasy were and picked it that way.  I was more than happy that Christmas Day and certainly cannot remember what else I might have got.  The adventures of Pug/Milamber and Thomas/Ashen Shengaur were more immediate and accessible than Tolkien's more Edwardian characters.  Of course I now realise that I possibly have more in common with Aragorn and Bilbo than with Milamber and Thomas, but meh, they were great.  And even the midst of the riftwar was sometimes preferable to the real world.

Decades later I saw the revised edition in Waterstones somewhere and instantly grabbed it.  It sat on the shelf with it's much loved older self for over a decade until, putting Dune away, I picked it up.  Once again, the transformation of the two young boys into their adult selves and the machinations of Macros the Black (is Pug ever going to find out that he is Macros ?  Who knows...) and the clash of Kingdom of the Isles and Tsurani Empire sucked me in like quicksand in Harold Lloyd film.

So that arc pans out with these two books, tying all the loose ends up, restoring Guy the Bastard, making Jimmy the Hand, securing the succession in the Kingdom and generally proving that former foes can be allies etc.  Epic.  All the subsequent books are up there as well, But it's got to be daughter/servant/mistress of the empire next. 

Ok, you're thinking, fair enough, but what brought this on in the first place ?  A couple of blogs I frequent from time to time had mentioned that they were re-reading old favourites in lockdown and making observations/suggestions etc.  I commented on one that I might go back over the Belgariad, as it's a comfortable read which does not demand of it's reader in the same way that LOTR or Dune does, it's a much easier ride. Which it is.

So after Midkemia, it was off to the Alorns and Murgos and poor ol' small kitchen boy Garion being fed to Torak, the Dragon God of the Angraks. The humour is outstanding, the characters are ace, the dun- dun- daaARR ! is there.  I hadn't previously spent quite so long considering the implications of the theological aspects.  Still a lovely journey with old friends.  The Mallorean is up there on the shelf as well, so I'll have to have that out as well soon.

The only 'new' read here.  Once again the ghosts, forlorn, sent on another one way trip.  For what, I ask you ?  I suspect that real answer by now, decades after the great enemy destroyed Tanith, is that they have forgotten how to do anything else.  But again, the nods to the rest of the 40K universe - Gaunt remembering seeing DKK engineers using Hades breaching drills as a cadet etc - make this another ripping yarn from Kent's favourite sleep-thief. 

Which brings me to here.  Having put The Victory (part 1) on the shelf and assured myself that (part 2) is not yet available, my hand strayed those few inches to where my love/hate relationship with Abnett started.  Oh my god what a rollercoaster.  As I write this, the whole lot of them have been captured and the baddies are going to crash the wounded Hinterlight into a local star.  This is still as good as when I first lost a weeks sleep to it decades ago. 

So, rather than a page about airbrush failures, I thought I'd share this with you all.  After a decade or so of nothing more than military histories, revisiting fantasy and sci-fi is great.  There's a bit of 70s stuff in there, L Sprage deCamps, Harry Harrison, Ursula LeGunn, Michael Morcock, Fritz Leiber, Eric Vanlustbader.  So I might try a bit of that next. 
 

No change here...

Stolen pict - this by Arkuion from the 'Doom of Sevarus Prime' project.  Worth either a google or just look him up on deviantart. 

I'm still suffering from an excess of Real LifeTM and now the weather has turned too cold and wet to allow any work in the garage.  I hope all of you out there are getting some me time/hobby time and all that good stuff. 

Random Aquisition No2

I went to a 50th birthday party the other week.  Well, actually, I went to the prep and then came home again, I didn't actually go to the party, but that's not the point.  My host is one of those childhood friends I grew up playing D&D with.  And the early WH.  and then MERP and so on, one of the four Apocalypse Generals. 

Anyway, it turns out that during his ten year project to refurb his house, he came across these.  I think that looking at the prices (99p for a multi model blister pack) and that Mark Copplestone is working for Grenadier at this time.  And that the model line is Grenadier Future Warriors, these could be comfortably dated to between 1986 and 1990. 

I was given these by his better half as I left.  The only way he'd ever build and paint this lot is if I did them anyway, I suppose.

So with the increase in Rogue Inquisimunda Team, these are welcome addition.

Hopefully, I'll be able to make a start on these before 2026.  

Looking at the Closet of Doom (TM), I think that's a decent target date.  

And if you do click the picks and have a look, you'll see one blister is entitled 'Killer Bimbos'.  Which with hindsight seems a little jarring to the sensibilities of 2019.  How very 80's. 

Christmas Post 12 - It's a bit late for that, I know.

My attempt to spend less has worked, although the figures still seem a bit high. 

Adding up the little box I added to the blog gives a 2018 total of £601.00.  I've gained (bought) Isenhorn and the Kromlech Triumphant Archway as well and also bought two sets of FW Punisher cannons (pushing £40, just for that) so with the odd bit of paint and glue, I'm possibly looking at the other side of £700.00.  Ouch.

Others have been far more successful:

http://www.40kaddict.uk/2018/12/hobby-spends-2018.html

In other news, I did get one of these for Christmas:









From the fearsome Mrs Zzzzz.  Which hopefully is an indication of future birthday and Christmas things.  I'd have loved to pick up Blackstone Fortress and a couple of 'muda gangs but I still have a huge 'to do pile' hidden in the garage ('Closet of Doom' ?  Pah !  I'll see your cupboard and raise you a double garage....) and cannot justify adding to the pile.

I'll retire in 2035, so hopefully will have it all done by then....

I will be doing to expenditure tracker again.  And I've already started, those DragonForge Chimerae variants are too good to pass up, so they'll likely be first on the list - I get paid in the middle of the month these days (changed job, not career) so here we go again.

Progress report

OK, so whaddave I done ?

Here's the list:

Mad max post apoc scavvies                    WIP, some built. 
Post apoc war rig 
DKK Engr, golliaths, Hades Drill               Engrs Done, rest is WIP. 
2 DKK Engr Chimera
DKK Gren                                               Built
DKK re-arms                                           Un-built, need arms.
DKK Hvy Wpns                                        Need to be un-built
Jornathi grunts                                       Built
Meridian Infantry Coy
Delaques                                                WIP
3 BP BFGs
BP BFG Crews
BP Bradley                                             Opened the box
Blood pacters                                         WIP, but at least they're not shiney any more
Last thunderer
Assorted civvies & pilgrims                     WIP
7 BP Half tracks
4 Esienkarn APCs
2 Lynx HQ vehicles
1 Chimera HQ vehicle
Ad mech bodies 
6 SAM launchers                                     3 Done
2nd regt rebuilds
2 Chaos spawn (bones cthuloids)             2 built, 1 painted
4 Star Wars Vendettas
ARC 170 fighter bomber
2 Thunderhinds
=I= Gun Cutter (Millennium Falcon)          Needs more work
TGG Nuns with guns                                Done
And an entire Space Wolf army.

And some added things:

3 ASL STuGs                                          Done
DKK LRMBT                                           Done
6 Mortian 'King Russ' MBT                       Done
Gregor Eisenhorn
Loki the Trickster

Actual Thunderers

So these are the last of the 'moments of weakness' acquisitions from the DKK facebook page.  The vendor was floggin' 'em cheap as he was pretty sure that they were knock offs.

Now I've held forth before on why we have a moral duty to buy original products from their title holders; the corollary being that to keep buying knock offs will put the actual creators of our hobby stuff out of business.  And that if that were the case, we the tax payers would end up supporting those creators and their dependants etc.

Plus illegally copying other peoples work/products is reprehensible in it's own right and therefore using these dirty things is really on a bar with pirate DVDs or other knock off goods.

So what makes these knock off's ? some of the panels are thin, the interior of the castings is not clean like a FW casting, it's blobby like a six year old's craft project.  And whilst they came with track sides, FW ones come with a complete LRMBT kit including accessory sprue.  And these don't even have hatches on the cupolas.

I had to fashion the bottom from plasticard, along with the front glacis plate.  There were a lot of gaps to fill and an area across the front which I tidied up with a section of plasticard 'u' section.  Three spare parts from the chimera kit lend a more heavily riveted look to the front glacis.

So what's to be done ?  I'm undecided at the moment - I was going to turn them over to FW, but then I built them.  The Ozark Mountain Daredevils, that well known Combat Engineer unit, could do with them.  Ho Hum.  When I surrendered the knock off DKK Death Rider Commissar to FW, I was able to give them the name of the e-Bay vendor.  So they had a chance to follow the trail back to the counterfitter.

The guy in the FB group gave them up because he wasn't too pleased with them.  He doesn't deserve an unsolicited interruption and the trail back to the actual counterfitter is likely tortuous and/or broken anyway. Awkward...

There's a problem...

So regular readers* will know that I have rules of acquisition.  The rule is that hobby expenditure is only allowed in order to complete existing projects.  It's always been a sort of 'if you want an excuse not to buy something' sort of thing.  Only with two small girls I ought to cut down my spending (after all the plastic crack mountain is huge already).

The rules took a shoe to the knackers when the Knights came out. 

Mastercrafted STuG hull without weapon. 

So for 2017 I was supposed to follow the rules more closely.  So let's see how I did:

When	What	How Much
17-Feb-17	Inferno !	89.6	GBP
13-Jan-17	1/35 E50 Deposit	10	USD
07-Jan-17	6x Vampyrum SAM conversions	294	USD
Jan-17	Gathering Storm Fall of Canada	30	GBP
11-Mar-17	3x Mastercrafted STuG	57.5	GBP
11-Mar-17	Red Tithe	18	GBP
03-May-17	3x Chimera Chassis	32	GBP
30-May-17	Track Guards and doors	95	USD
14-Aug-17	3x Chimera Chassis	32	GBP
25-Aug-17	Victoria Lamb bits	100	USD
25-Aug-17	Anvil Pouches	14	GBP
30-Aug-17	Blood Pact half tracks	204	GBP
23-Oct-17	Pig Iron pouches	21.28	GBP
09-Nov-17	3x M7th Chimera	140	USD
26-Dec-17	Shedu Gate	98.51	EUR
29-Dec-17	3x Thunder kits	75	GBP
29-Dec-17	Light box (Cheers Drax !)	6.99	GBP
2018 KS	3x Mortian MBT	154	EUR
		1471.88

Some people finance their hobby buy selling on armies that they are no longer using.  I'm not necessarily talking about the new army/net list phenomenon, either.  Although even that in itself is not necessarily a bad thing, the turn over of stuff putting money into 'the hobby' at several levels.  There are plenty of people who use the completion of one army to finance the new, but; I'm not one of them.  For a start none of my armies is ever 'finished' to my way of thinking - so that makes me a collector, rather than a player or a painter. 

I have had a go at thinning it all down, I have given chunks of armies away where I thought they might find a loving home.  I have thrown away what might have been ebay lots elsewhere.  But this not withstanding, there's still a way to go  to eat the plastic crack mountain I already have and I'm starting to run out of space in a double garage now...

Vampyrum SAM Launcher

So that's three new projects there; the SAM Launchers, the STuGs and the Mortian tanks (who knew he'd do a kickstarter ?).   But a grand and a half is still too much.  So next year following the rules will have to be a little tighter.  

The Mortian MBT

So take this as a statement of intent.  Expenditure to deliver existing projects is OK, but new stuff isn't.  Cue plastic sisters...

I think putting the spend in the little box on the blog has helped, publicly displaying the amounts, erm, invested, has kept the money haemorrhage in my mind at least. So that stays. 

*You can insert your own toilet humour - at 6 and 9, the sylabols 'bum' and 'poo', in any circumstance at all, produce fits of giggles and hours of tedium for adults as the smalls shout 'bum' and 'poo' at each other.  Such is my life.  I blame the parents; trying to teach them about humour.