A Year of Open Accounting - May (with a bit of April)

How Frugal is this - 2 months for the price of one. You didn't even have to pay me for the first 10 months either to get the first one!

The numbers:

I missed the April report as it was a quiet month and I got carried away doing other things so didn't get round to it. Money wise nothing was sold as I was looking to sell my wares at Carronade at the start of May (rather optimistically as it turned out). Purchase wise I kept it pretty tight, but managed to fall to a couple of naughty impulse buys. Well one, as "grass effect" mat was more of a chance discovery than impulse, but it's been a great bargain buy and I have no regrets. The other was an Ebay lot of 31 vintage figures. I'd just finished painting an old Ral Partha Ogre and was swept away in a fever of old school mini's. For the price they were still good, and although a few (most!) are unremarkable (elf archers, dwarves) the two Tree Shepherds and the Giant are great. I've been looking for some old Tree Ent like figures for a Forrester themed warband I've planned so very happy. I may even try to sell off some of the other figures to recoop some of the cash (and decrease that lead bought number as well!)

May began with one of my highlights of the year: Carronade in Falkirk (Scotland). Something different this year, as I had along not only ArabianSquire, but also a non-gaming friend of his, so the pressure was on to find the entertaining games. I still wanted to shift so of the Hobby Shed surplus, though. So I booked a Bring & Buy table for the first session to get it out of the way and provide maximum flexibility during the rest of the day for game playing. The sales were not too forthcoming. Having just the first hour of the show to sell was not the best, as most people show up 30 minutes or later after the doors open, look round the halls and traders, THEN have a peak at the B&B hall. Really the 2nd or 3rd slot would have maximised the single hour of selling (I noticed a quite few people have tables for at least a couple of hours). A grand total of £14 was raised which at least paid the modest table rent, my unplanned purchases at the show and cleared a (very) little amount of shelf space.

Bargain Beastmen

After the stall was packed up we had a proper look round the halls. Now ArabianSquire's friend had previously played Heroscape a few time (which had been very much enjoyed) and was the basis of his attendance. He managed to highlight a couple of things that make our hobby confusing to the uninitiated. The first was the statement in the car on the way "I want to buy a game". I had a bit of difficulty explaining that most games there didn't work in that way. Relative expense was a second problem, as the £5 he'd pulled from his piggy bank wasn't going to go too far. I did of course just try to get him to hold back his spend. He ended up with a bag of Halo Clix figures that I didn't sell as a gift as he was so keen, and the generous man at Gateshead Gaming didn't charge him for the 3d6 he wanted to buy. A very generous gesture to a young lad new to the scene that didn't go unappreciated. It meant that his carefully folded blue note went back home with him as well.

As for games played, all 3 of us enjoyed a Great Escape game from RAF Leuchars and trying out Full Thrust, from the Glasgow Wargames club. Despite the fact we arrived 10 miniutes before opening and finished rolling dice 10 minutes after closing everyone had a really enjoyable day. I big thanks to all concerned at Falkirk for their efforts again. Even the new boy was happpy at the end after over 6 hours in an unfamiliar setting. I'll have to come up with some simple rules for his new soldiers, and we'll have a new gamer in town - hopefully.

Bargain Orcs

Now obviously this is a Frugal Accounting post, not a show review, so let’s get down to spends. The bulk of the spend was taken up by a show pre-order from Pendraken Miniatures in the form of a 10mm dungeon booster pack and a couple of figure booster sets. The Bring and buy threw up a few bags of excellent old Orc and beastmen figures (which were marked down 25% on their already bargain price) and a bag old Space Hulk Genestealer pieces for 50p - enough to make a few 'stealers to add to my horde. To cut down on cost (and fussy 9yr old eating habits) we'd taken packed lunches - which was a nice break outside in the sun away from the claustrophobia of the show. My other wish list items never came up (or at least not within my price range) so that was it (barring entry, fuel & a quick snack).

With a purpose I fell upon Ebay to fill the gaps in my want list. And a reasonably priced Dreadnought and fix-up Rhino both were in shed before too long. In fact I enjoyed my Super Smurfy marines so much I picked up some shoulder emblems (and a nice captain figure) to round off the force. This pretty much takes me where I want to be with my Space Marines (which are just really a pleasant quick distraction), bearing in mind I have at least another half dozen old Terminators in the Shed waiting for paint.

Bought and painted in the same month.
We may never see its like again

So to sum up, May was costlier than usual, but not unexpectedly so. My net May bill still came to less than £50. Sales were a bit disappointing, but mostly covered the purchase of 2 fantasy warbands and a 40k Rhino, which isn't bad when you look at it that way. The "figures bought" column took quite a bashing with the vintage lot, a load of 10mm and the fantasy bargains, but in the run up I'd painted a bunch of 10mm (to justify buying the booster pack) and quite a few 40k quick paints, all of which have seen table time.

In the coming months I really must extract a digit from my posterior and get some more of the dwindling Hobby Shed surplus out for Sale to get some more cash in, before the buying urge happens again...

A Year of Open Accounting - March

On the financial ins/outs this month it has been pretty quiet. As forecast I purchased the new Gladiator rules for Red Sand Blue Sky (still unplayed), and towards the end of the month there was the unexpected arrival of some old Rogue Trader Space marines. I took March off from the Hobby shed sales which may have cost me in incoming column, but freed up some time that I could relax, and sometimes paint, in.

Talking of painting, I briefly, for a few hours, had one foot in the hallowed ground of more figures painted than bought (the Space Marines knackered that). Clearing the table blockage of a few Warmachine Warjacks has felt like a good strong dose of ex-lax, and I'm back feeling enthused about putting paint to bristle to figure again. Hopefully some quick painting of the marines and the push to finish (or almost finish) my 10mm Dungeon pack should see me push back to that heady moment of painting accounting again.

10mm Skeletons, patiently waiting around for company...

That brings me on nicely to April's plan of action. School holiday's are just about to descend, so that is going to hamper a bit of hobby time as . I want to finish my Space Marines for playing with Arabiansquire. I also want to get the bulk of my 10mm dungeon finished (assuming you can link 10mm figures and the word "bulk") before Carronade in May. Also, looking toward Carronade, I think I'll have to get some more old Hobby Shed stock up for sale to help finance the show. It could/should put a large dent in my gaming cash reserves and I'd rather prepare for the plummet towards the red figures with a bit of a buffer.

Building a Talos in a Week - Day Three

Okay, it's not perfect, but time is pressing!  Here's my Talos at the end of Day Three.  I'm planning to paint the greenstuff on the head and back as beaten bronze (to cover my terrible sculpting skills).

Tomorrow will be priming and basecoating.  And perhaps a bit of panic re-sculpting...

Building a Talos in a Week

Hi all, a bit of a strange one this week.  Last night while at the local gaming club, I was having a game of 40k with Shiny.  After we'd finished (I got beaten.  Twice) we were asked if either of us fancied a game next week, as it turned out we decided to team up.  To cut a long story short, we now both need to bring our 1000pt forces up to 1250pts.  To go some of the way towards this I decided to knock up a Talos for use in the game.  Of course, this means that I now only have a week to build and paint a Talos from scratch (as well as the usual hectic mix of, you know, real life and stuff).  Agh!

Here's my progress at the end of day one.  It's a mix of chaos spawn, giant parts, odd Dark Eldar pieces and bits from a 1:35 WW2 German Sturmtiger kit:

There's plenty more to do, I'll update again tomorrow.

Happy Gaming!

The Period Drama Challenge

With the inclimate weather hitting Scotland this weekend, I sat Arabiansquire down to continue painting his space marine, having finished his first one a few weeks ago. After 30 minutes he'd done the blue and the guns on a couple of figures before the need for a break and a biscuit. The painting gear was left out, and took the brush down time to walk the dog for half an hour. So imagine my surprise when I returned to find him sitting finishing off his FOURTH figure on my return. How did that happen? He'd used a few speed painting short cuts (reduced palette, etc), but they are painted and will be good on the table.

Now where am I going this? Well I'd spent the marine painting time assembling a trio of old Terminators I've had lying about. Suddenly I'm behind, but "salvation" was at hand. ArabianQueen wanted to watch a Period drama (about Dylan Thomas) that night. So I wondered if I could speed paint the 3 terminators whilst "watching" it - 1hr 45 mins. (Question: why is a Dylan Thomas love triangle film set in WWII a period drama and hence OK to watch whilst Saving Private Ryan isn't and gets the thumbs down? The injustice of the world!) .

Now as this desperate plan was forged a mere 30 minutes before program start I didn't have time to test any colour plans, etc - just grab some paints I thought would work, equip the laptop painting station, pour a large drink and sit down before curtain raise.



Title sequence runs

An hour in

 
  My initial plan was to dry brush the background parts of the terminator and just use the main colour on the most forward sections of the armour. A drybrush of dark marine blue was rubbish. So I repeated with Space Wolf Grey. It also looked rubbish, so I abandoned this plan and went for a covering of Dark marine blue (the clock was ticking) on the armour and Space wolf grey as the base for the helmets (the intention being the helmets would be white) and a white shoulder pad. Next up was hopefully the final colour shade of Space Marine Blue. It didn't take me too long to realise that this was going to be too dark, but in the interest of consistency I painted all 3 termies in it. On the opposite end of the contrast range I also realised that Space Wolf Grey was way too light to pick up the sunken detail of the helmets, so I gave them a wash in blue. Whilst all this was drying some aged gold was applied to the motif on the shoulder. Gun bolt metal was also brushed on the weapons. Time was running out now, and I'd started to run out of options on my rushed palette. The ink wash had dried on the helmets so some white highlighting was done. A quick dash through the house had me "borrowing" ArabianSquires blue that he'd been using for his marine earlier in the day, which I only managed to get on one marine before the end credits had finished rolling. I'd failed!


15 mins to go

The final credits roll

  Or had I?

Well, yes I had. But as compensation after less than 2 hours I had 3 mostly painted Terminators and I had learned some valuable lessons. I was always going to be tight for time from the start. Next time I should convince my other half to watch Gone with the Wind (although that's actually a film worth watching!). Spending so much time applying coats of paint (and the subsequent drying time) did me no favours. Having a rough idea of what sort paint colours you are going to use is no substitute for knowing what paint colours you are going to use. Also, not playing 40k, the models are not very familiar to me, especially all the small details in the sculpts that are not immediately apparent when they are bare metal. All these problems were all symptomatic to the fact I only thought of this with half an hour before the whistle blew.

And just to finish the piece here's a picture of the finished Terminators after about another hours work. No great shakes, but table worthy (see below):

The key to the timed speed paint is preparation. You must know your model, paints and methods. Know where you can save time with a big brush and what parts you can get on with whilst other areas dry. Know how long it'll take to work round fiddly bits or how you are going to tackle them. Know where you can shortcut with washes and a dry brush. With a plan you know will work you can efficiently get the paint on.
 
And to finish, a picture from the following day as both sets of newly painted figures got table time.


Space Marines and Terminators take on the Nekron menace

A Year of Open Accounting - February

Again mixed bag this month. Somehow I suspect every month will be! First of all lets look at the hard facts:

• Outgoings: £51.07 
• Incomings: £101.68 
• Figures painted: 10
• Figures bought: 15

On the positive I managed to clear out a bit more space in the hobby shed. With a bit more re-arranging I'm on the verge of being able to re-organise some of my gaming gear to a more organised set-up. Result! It's also brought in a small amount of additional funds which never hurts.
 
Purchase-wise I've made a couple of "planned" no guilt buys - a magazine and a cheap(er) copy of the core Rapid Fire! rulebook. My lack of willpower, however, has led to an increase in my unpainted Cryx army courtesy of hanging about ebay too much monitoring by sales. Maybe at bargain price (for Warmachine mini's anyway) but I can't help feeling somewhat the guilty. Another unexpected buy was a set of Critter Commandos. However, although they most definately don't fit into any current project they can join my other unpainted CC figures. They are such fun and full of character that the anticipation of painting them makes them worth the price (and another bargain one at that this time). I may have to just have them on display to put me in a good mood everyday.
 

So what of the next month, I hear you ask? Well no more Cryx purchases for a start! My painting table is over flowing with them, so is my guilt trip so a purchase ban has been put on. March will hopefully see a few move to the painted cabinet. There's been a bit of a log jam caused by trying to paint a Slayer, Reaper and DeathJack all at the same time, but the corner has been rounded now (ie all the base coats are finally down) so I'm now optimistic about completing them and moving on this month. Two Hour Wargames have the new version of Red Sand Blue Sky release scheduled for March. Judging by the batreps being posted it looks pretty good, so that will probably be purchased and adopted for my running campaign. Aside from that I'm hoping to keep it to a minimum. I'm pretty sure the Post Office Workers are as fed up seeing me as much as I am making the journey to see them, so I'm also taking a bit of a break from Ebaying. This will have to effect of dropping the incomings, but also should stop potential outgoings as well. In Theory!
 
I'm also mindful that Falkirk Wargames Club Carronade show is but 2 months away (Saturday 7th May) which will hit my budget somewhat. I've mentally promised myself that I have to finish off my Pendraken 10mm dungeon pack before then so I can justify ordering up the expansion for show pickup. Also I anticipate some 1:72/20mm purchases. After all, Easter is the time time of "Fast before Feast".

More Cygnar proxies

Way back in the sands of time (last November) I flung up a post about proxying Cygnar trenchers.

As promised (surprisingly) I managed to carve out a few more.

First off we have the Trencher Officer and Sharpshooter Unit attachment. Looking at it now I think the sniper scope is a tad long, but hopefully it'll look better once painted.

Next up in the Trencher Master Gunner. Blunderbus, knife and head from a GamesWorkshop Empire set.

 

And lastly the Trencher Rifle Grenadier.

All these figures came in at the spookily familiar price of 41 pence, totaling £1.64, instead of the retail of the official figures of £19.85. I think I've pretty much done the trenchers now with these plastics (barring repeats to take advantage of field allowance). 

Any further proxying will have to come from a different figure source. And be cheaper than the official figure price.

A Year of Open Accounting - January

Let the excuses begin...
We'll start with the cold hard facts first, then flannel out figures afterwards.

The month started off on the wrong foot, spending wise, with a ream of Warmachine purchases. Now I had always maintained that there wasn't going to be any more purchases for my Warmachine Cryx until I had finished painting what had already been bought and I was half a Death Jack away from fullfilling that pledge. However the proposed start of a Warmachine league at my Local Store brought forward some purchases that had been anticipated for later in 2011 (namely a unit of Mechanithralls and a second Warcaster). Also on the list of ideal next buys was a Cryx Warjack. I had thought about the new plastic Warjack kit and using magnets to give me 3 different options, but I ended up with 2 Ebay bargains of the same model types for less total cash spend. I don't know if "ideal" purchases count as frugal, but it was a bargain (dangerous words to use I know) and as they were pidgeon holed for 2011 purchases anyway I can give myself a pat on the back for being ahead of schedule. Sort of.

To coat these new purchases I also needed so spray primer. I sometimes use Grey Auto Primer from Halfords but I wanted black for the Warjacks and they don't do black Auto primer, so Army Painter is was (that's what the Local Store sold)

After all these outgoings on the account books I was starting to get nervous and guilty. So the Hobby Shed clearance sale was put into action. Items were targeted with bulk and space taken up as priorties, so a few games were put up for sale (shelf hogging boxes) as were a vaste array of Cthulhu RPG books I had sitting around to sell for someone else (for a % cut). It's been a while since I've sold on Ebay, and I'd forgotten just quite how much work it can be. Searching through ebay and finding their Turbo Lister software helped though. The old debate of how long to run an auction and what day to finish on reared it's ugly head as usual. In the end I plumped to finish on a Saturday night, as that would give me some time to pack the wins (hopefully) on the Sunday and get them out. All a bit of work, but the ball is rolling now, and with more modest auction numbers to come hopefully it'll take up less time over the coming months. More importantly I brought some money in to cover the Warmachine purchases and provide a nice buffer for the next couple of months.

All this has somewhat curtailed my painting time and energy. My six purchased Mechanithralls were done before the Ebaying started but there has been a distict lack of brush cleaning sounds comng from the painting corner of Arabian Towers since then. That and the progress of my DeathJack has been tortuously slow. That beast may have to have another brief hiatus to get the "numbers painted" count up.

Frugalnomics Lesson 1 - False Economy

It’s nice to have the position of power that I do.  But as Spiderman famously said ‘With great power, comes great responsibility’, so as part of my ongoing mission to educate the masses, I’m launching an intermittent series of articles on Frugal Gaming basics.  I’m calling it ‘Frugalnomics’

Basically it’s like Scientology, except that it’s free and there’s no big secret at the end.  By the way, if you’re wondering, the big secret at the end of Scientology is that Bruce Willis is a ghost.

The first lesson is ‘False Economy’.  False Economy is (according to Wikipedia)

...an action which saves money at the beginning but which, over a longer period of time, results in more money being wasted than being saved.

So how does false economy relate to gaming?  Well, perhaps you bought some cheap miniatures on a whim, only to realise the quality was rubbish and they never got used.  Not only did you spend money unnecessarily; you now have to spend the money all over again to buy better miniatures that will get used.  Or how about this; you buy a cheap set of tools, they’re difficult to use and break after a few months of use; you need to buy them again.  As the old saying goes ‘Buy cheap, buy twice’.

So how do you prevent falling into the false economy trap?  The main way I’ve found is to have a look at how much alternative products cost.  If you find a particular product from one retailer, have a look around and see what other companies are producing it. 

The tricky bit is trying to decide which offers the best value for money; so not necessarily the cheapest or the most expensive, but the one that offers the balance of quality and price.  A recent example from my own frugal existence is superglue.  I’ve been using pound shop superglue for years and it’s always produced terrible results, breaking easily and requiring me to buy more.  After the last bottle ran out I decided to go for a more expensive brand and dished out £3.20 for some thick, slower setting superglue.  Since then, it’s been a pleasure to use and has been much more effective.  I only have to glue once and it stays stuck.

 Have you had a false economy situation?  Let me know via email, or post it below. 

Class dismissed.

The Appy Gamer

Since starting this blog I’ve received a lot of emails, and I often busy myself in the evenings learning about products that promise to ‘Boost You’re Manhood’ or ‘Make sure she pleasure EVRY time!!!’.  Sometimes though, I like to relax and read an email relating to gaming.  One such message came to me last week from Thomas who has started a Frugal Gaming blog.  As well as adopting a ‘buy one, paint one’ approach (this is the ‘Wax on, wax off’ mantra of the Frugal Gamer) Thomas has also installed an app on his smartphone to track his spending.
 

Like many of you out there, I use an excel spreadsheet to keep track of my finances (with general entries such as ‘rent’, ‘cat food’ and ‘bike maintenance’) and have now extended this to include my monthly gaming purchasing (remember that I’m planning to only spend £20 a month on gaming) so the idea of an app on my phone intrigued me.  Thomas recommended Daily Expense Manager by Tech Ahead for the Android OS.  After a little bit of internetting I found a similar app for the iPhone (or iPad, if you’re a real hipster) and I’ve started using it myself.

These apps are free and will help you track what you’re spending (often helpful, frequently scary) which can only be a good thing.  I’m going to give it a try for the next couple of months and see how I get on.  Why not try it too and let me know the results?

You may notice that I’ve gone over my budget this month, but hey, rules were meant to be broken.

 

Happy Gaming.

Mantic Undead - Bare Bones Cost

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years you must have noticed the huge range of non Games Workshop plastic 28mm kits now available.  The first I recall hitting the geeky streets were the Perry ACW kits swiftly followed by the Warlord Ancients.  Mantic Games were the first to come on the scene with fantasy kits and have been very well received. 

As my goblin army has been nearing completion (more on this next week), I’ve been looking for a new army to start work on.  I’ve always fancied undead (not in that way), ever since I painted up some zombies and skeletons for Advanced Heroquest back when I was a lad.  I really liked the plastic undead range by Mantic Games so I decided to see what I could get for my Frugal pennies.

The Mantic undead range has been reviewed so many times that I won't go over old ground, suffice to say that I can confirm that the quality is fantastic, even if the range of poses is a little limited.  As this is a Frugal Gaming blog I’ll be looking at the price.  I ordered my figures at the end of last year, but I’ll use the post VAT increase prices to make my point.  Looking at the various deals available, the prices break down as follows (click on the picture for a bigger version):

As you can see from the deals available the best price per individual figure is the Undead Army set, giving a mighty 110 figures for a measly £50.  You don’t get any of the bells and whistles with some of the other sets (such as catapults, cavalry or metal army command group) but to act as the bulk of an army I think it’s a fantastic deal, and I can always pick up the other bits and pieces as I go along.  The other sets offer loads of great options and if you're looking at picking up a huge force then you'd be wise to go for the Liche King's Horde; the revenant cavalry models are amazing!

Frugal Conclusion
Simple really, with prices and quality like this you can’t go wrong, get some.  Oh, and I’m looking forward to seeing their forthcoming Orc and Goblin range as well!

Frugal Afterthoughts
To get an additional discount I’d recommend going to Wayland Games, I bought my Undead Army Set from them before the price rises and (with their discounts) only paid £39 with free delivery!  The customer service was excellent, even with the bad snow my order arrived within 24hrs of me ordering it online.  Thanks guys!

Happy gaming!

Dave

P.S. Don't forget to check out my twitter feed.

Frugal exposure

After Von's sterling and frank review of his frugal year, it's time for me I suppose. I'm going to cut to the chase by completely ignoring last year and making a few frugal promises for 2011.

• The Second Great Scottish Clearances: It's sad to say, but I have had to finally agree with Mrs AK. that the Arabian Towers Hobby shed is too full of "stuff". I'm going to have to take that tough, heartbreaking journey to ebay (and in some cases the charity shop) to make the space more habitable. On the up side this'll hopefully bring in some cash and assuming that the British Goverment don't start an new hobby tax (best not joke, actually) this'll help balance the books.
• Open Accounting: which seemlessly brings me onto my second grand plan. Although I try to keep costs down I've never been brave/bothered enough to keep note of what I spend on my hobby. Some stones are best left unturned as they say. Well it's time do bring out the lifting gear and tip this mighty menhir over this year. In an attempt to see what the true cost of gaming is I'll be keeping a running spreadsheet of comings and goings. What's more I'll be airing this dirty laundry in public with a linked page from the top of my own blog. Here's hoping that I don't end too many months with my head in my hands muttering "Oh no, what have I done. The wife'll kill me!"
• Playing more games: This isn't just a bid to wrack up the hours spent rolling dice. To get full "Value For Money" the gaming resources need to be used, so I'll be looking to play a variety of games to get the most from my figures. To start off I've joined a league at the local store which will force me to play at least a game of Warmachine each month. Good start.
• Bought v Painted ratio: Which start of year list would be complete without this old chestnut. I think I did OK last year but without having accounted it I can't be sure how well. So this year I'll be keeping a note of that as well in the aforementioned accounting page.

This should all, in theory, bring frugality to the fore, as oppossed to being just a consideration. I'll see I suppose - and so shall you!

A New Year of Frugal Gaming

Hello all and welcome to a new year of Frugal Gaming.  For those of you new to this blog, the aim is to reduce your spending on gaming products while simultaneously playing more games and improving the quality of games played.  I (and my small but select team of Frugal contributors) aim to help you achieve this by giving you hints and tips on money saving projects, reviewing products to make sure you’re getting the best value for your gaming money and generally giving you something else to read on the internet to prevent you straying onto ebay when bored at work.

This site has been running for two years now and we’re still growing so have a look around using the search box  on the right hand side of the page, the tag cloud at the bottom of the page or the tabs at the top of the page. and remember you can always get in touch with me by sending me an email.

Last year was a pretty good year for me and this year I want to do more of the same, my ideas for the forthcoming twelve months are as follows:

More Painting: I’ve got a lot of unpainted figures at the moment. My Orc and Goblin army for Warhammer is nearing completion and I’ve just started painting all the Dark Eldar for 40k that I’ve had stuck in boxes for ages.  In addition, I’ve also got a lot of undead to paint up, but more about that next week.  I plan to not buy any more for these armies until the units I already have are fully painted.  No more unpainted models on the table!

More Organising:  At the moment my painting desk looks like a refugee camp with a large number of unconnected projects on the go, I’d like to focus more on each project and finish one before I begin another, perhaps only having two models or units in the go at once, rather than the ten or so that I have at the moment.  If anyone has any tips on setting up a painting rota, I’d love to hear it.

More Gaming: I’ve been playing a lot over the past year, but I’d like to get more gaming done!  I’m considering going along to some of the local gaming gaming clubs, (work and my hectic social life permitting) to get the best out of my newly painted figures.

More Learning: As I say I’ve been playing a lot, but I’d like to get better, I’m planning to get a  notebook to keep a brief run down of each of the games that I play so I can learn from my mistakes and understand how a battle can turn on a few key moves.

Less Spending: I’m not quite sure how much I spent on gaming last year, but this year I’m going to set a budget and stick to it. I think £20 a month would be a reasonable figure, and I can always bring in more from selling my old bits and pieces on ebay if I have a big purchase I’d like to make.  I’m not sure how it’ll go but it’s worth a try!

So those are my aims for the year.  What have you got planned?  Drop me a line and let me know, all the best for the new year.

Happy gaming

Dave

The Proxy Vote

No, not a mid-term election article, but an age old frugal debate.

First a bit of background. I generally play generic rulesets. I loath being tied into one particular range of minitures when there are so many lovely sculpts not attached to any game. Yes, yes I know that they tie in with the background fluff of the game and provide (can) provide a continuous feel across the army, but sometimes it feels that these factors are used to "extract the michael" somewhat whan it comes to pricing.

The past 6 months has seen me take up Warmachine, a game very much with it's own style. I've been happily collecting a small Cryx (undead) force, but for a few reasons have decided to expand to a small second force, Cygnar (tech humans). Now my main army is the Cryx force, which have very distinct figures, but the human Cygnar are slightly more generic. So to keep costs down I am going to find and use proxy miniatures in this army where possible.

This opens up the whole proxy debate:
PROS: Cost, choice, fun research
CONS: irregular force theme, wrong miniatures, difficult/irritating for some opponents, illegal for tournament play, in some cases quality of sculpt is worse.

As far as I'm concerned in this instance, as long as the replacement miniatures are reasonable representations of the official figures I'm good with it. As such, I don't plan to proxy the warjacks (robots) as they are very distinctive. I've bought some appropriate bases as well, as base size and position is important in Warmachine. I've already bought the Cygnar mkII Stat card pack.

Another good frugal reason to use proxies is that I already have some suitable minis waiting to be used. A few years ago I took advantage of a free postage offer from Prince August for their bag of 80 plastic Warzone figures - 40 Imperial, 40 Bauhaus. The Imperial Trenchers are WWI theme based and, to my eyes, ideal to replace the Cygnar Trenchers. I also have a load of them pose and customise, as the Cygnar forces have quite a few varying Trencher based troop types.

We'll start with the basic Cygnar Trencher. 5 Grunts and a squad Leader. I've snipped the gun slightly to make it less M16-esque and given a squad leader the head from the Warzone trencher heavy machine gunner to help him stand out. Cost per figure (inc full base cost) 41 pence - squad cost £2.46. Official squad RRP ~ £18.

Next is a proxy for the HMG wielding Captain Maxwell Finn. All I've done is take the Warzone HMG trencher and replaced the head (which is now on the Trencher squad leader) with a spare from an old, partially used GamesWorkshop Fantasy Empire militia boxset I had lying around. Figure cost 41 pence, Official figure RRP ~ £9.

Next is a Journeyman Warcaster. He is armed with a pistol and a sword, so I've given my Imperial Trencher Officer a spare GW sword and a spare GW head (both from the same box set as the Cpt Finn figure). Total figure cost 41p (can you see a pattern developing?), Official figure RRP ~ £6.

And Lastly I have clipped the weapons off of an unused Mage Knight Steam Golum to proxy as Squire. No idea what I paid for this (it was in a job lot years ago). Official RRP ~ £6.

Next proxies? Well it doesn't take a great deal of imagination to see that the a carefully place bead or putty blob on the end of a rifle will make a Grenadier, and if I can find something to use as a sniper scope I'll have an officer/sniper Unit attachment (the peaked cap of the Warzone officer will come into play here), and perhaps even I'll manage a blunderbuss/sword conversion to make a Trencher Master Gunner. Moving away from the plastic trenchers, Void Viridian snipers could make a slightly cheaper alternative to Cygnar Rangers, and I'm toying with the idea of using ACW troops with their long muskets as Cygnar Long Gunners.

Any other suggestions are warmly accepted.

How to Make a Million on ebay

Step one: Send me £10 for my amazing ‘Secrets to Ebay Selling’ DVD. 

One of my Frugal Gaming aims is to ‘Make Money from Gaming’, and until the call comes from Fantasy Flight to become their head of games testing, it looks like I’ll have to be selling on ebay.

There are lots of auction and selling sites out there, but the big one is ebay.  I’ve only had experience of ebay, but if you can recommend other good sites for buying and selling, let me know.  Here’s my 12 top tips…

Be realistic. 

You are not going to make your fortune on ebay.  Sorry.  If you’re working, consider how much you would have to sell on ebay every day to match your wages.   Keep it as a hobby.  Ebay is an excellent resource for clearing out items you don’t want or raising money for something in particular.  I bought my copy of the new Warhammer rulebook using money from ebayed items and I have a smug sense of pride from knowing that I effectively got it free. 

Count the cost.

If you’re selling to clear out unused figures, games and sets of rules then any money you make is a bonus.  However, if you buy items specifically to sell, then you have to be very careful with your finances.  The money that comes in MUST cover the initial cost of the items, plus postage, plus ebay fees, plus paypal fees, plus any packaging.  If you’re only just scraping even, then you’re wasting your time. 

Good photographs.

A fantastic photograph can make all the difference.  Take the time to set up a couple of lights, and consider investing in a cheap camera tripod to stop wobbling.

Strip paint.

If you have a metal model that’s badly painted, it can be worth stripping the paint, as many buyers will want to paint it themselves.  It could easily add a pound or two to the final selling price…

Paint it.

Then again, many people like buying prepainted figures, a nice cleanly painted, based figure may also bring in a few extra pounds.  However the extra money brought in may not be worth the time you’ve had to put in.

Buy big.

If you want to buy something, try and buy in bulk.  Even if you want only a couple of units, it can be worth buying a whole army and then selling the rest.

Sell small.

When selling, the opposite is true; it’s best to sell items individually or in single units.  You’re likely to get a better overall price, though it does add to the time you spend list and packing items for sale.

Sell overseas.

Of all the items I’ve sold on ebay, perhaps 60% are to international buyers.  If you only offer to sell in the UK, you severely restrict your market and the final sale price could suffer. 

Accept cheques/postal orders.

There are a few people that don’t have paypal accounts or don’t have funds in their account.  Allowing alternative payment methods increases your number of potential customers.

Local delivery.

I have sold a couple of items total buyers, this has a number of advantages.  The first is that if you get paid in cash you won’t have to pay paypal fees, secondly (and perhaps more importantly) you end up meeting people in your area that play games!  I met my Necromunda opponent Matt by selling him some figures which he collected in person.

Sniping. 

Now this may upset a few readers, but sniping is one of the best things you can do on an ebay auction.  Sniping is watching an item and only putting in a bid at the last minute. People hate it, but it often works and since this is a Frugal Gaming blog, not a nicey-nicey blog, I’d be wrong to exclude it.  You’re not breaking any rules, and there’s always a chance your ‘sniping’ bid won’t be high enough anyway (someone else may have set a higher maximum bid).  I always do it and find it effective, give it a go.

Set a limit. 

Decide what you want to pay for an item and stick to it!  It’s easy to get caught up in a bidding war and end up paying over the odds for something.

So there you go, my top tips to buying and selling, if you have any more, let me know.  Happy gaming!

Hive Fleet Níðhöggr - Why Nids Aren't Orks

Remember, these aren't models.  They're parts.  Just because the box says three doesn't mean you can't build six...

Basically, in the midst of my epic plan, I did a bit of analysis and worked out a) that the Orks would be time-consuming to paint and b) they'd have too many kits that cost a lot of money for not many in-game points.

£20 for a 40 point Trukk is not a good investment.  I tend to rate kits based on how much of a game-worthy army they constitute, and transport vehicles tend to come off very badly when viewed in those terms.  About the only one I have any respect for is the Land Raider: it may set you back £35, but it's also a two-hundred-plus point behemoth of a kit that constitutes a good chunk of army for the investment and actually does things in games that aren't just 'ferry infantry around the board'.

The Ork Battlewagon's in a similar bracket, I suppose, although less imposing on all counts... which is sort of the problem, really.  I could have built a smashing looking army, but it would have a lot of fiddly little kits that didn't eat enough points in it, and I'd also have had to buy almost everything in one go in order to have all the parts that I needed for it.  Not terribly economical and would have resulted in a huge, demoralising pile of plastic to work through.

Wanting to avoid the whole tangled issue of over-priced, under-valued transport vehicles entirely, I hit on the idea of either doing Daemons (who'd pull double duty as a second WFB army, but not offer me that many modelling opportunities - and that was the point of this 40K project, if you recall) or Tyranids (who would be committed to 40K and 40K alone but also have some excellent plastic kits and some big scary monsters which don't have proper models, therefore demanding some modelling).

I sat down at the computer, poked around some good netlists (remember, there's no shame in it), looked at a few conversions to give me ideas, and then it hit me - I could easily build a Tyranid army in smaller, self-contained, self-managing units, without needing this kit to give me spare arms for that kit which would mean I could use those third-party minis to free up bodies for t'other conversion.  It seems far more sensible than the alternative, anyway.

For the first chunk of the army - the first thousand points - I'll be needing two Tyranid battleforces, recommended retail price £60 each.  First way to save money - buy from Maelstrom and revel in their 10% discount.  First obstacle - they don't have any in stock, and I could do with having this project ready to go by Wednesday.  M'colleague and I have also discussed how to set an example to the kids we're running our club for, and he reckons that encouraging them into the hobby centre to play games and socialise is important, so actually visiting said hobby centre might be a good idea.  I'm not convinced, myself, but the fact of the matter is, they have the miniatures ready to go and I have a deadline here.

Second way to save money - look at building expensive things out of cheap things.

This is a Hive Guard.  They're quite good.  They're also £12 each.  Tyranid Warriors, meanwhile, are £6 and small change each, similar sized, and look similar enough to get away with.  Loads of people have done the conversions already, and I'm not one to avoid jumping on a bandwagon if it'll get me some half price elite choices, so I'll be using the two Warriors with Venom Cannons that I get from my Battleforces to build a couple of these lads.  A third will be providing a stop-gap HQ choice (hello Tyranid Prime, later to be one of a second Tyranid Warrior unit) and the rest will be ordinary Tyranid Warriors.  Four Force Organisation slots from six minatures.  Not bad going.  I have similar plans for the second stage; two Carnifex kits (£54) will be building me something like four hundred points' worth of monster meat, again inspired by some of the conversions I've seen around the Net (although I'll be adding my own unique stamp to the Tervigon I've designs on), and potentially giving me a second HQ choice to mess about with.

The third way, of course, is the time-honoured 'buy a bargain and sell what you don't want' method.  Those two Battleforces will furnish me with rather a lot of Tyranids, including eight Genestealers and twelve Hormagaunts that I'm not sure I have a tactical purpose for.  They might find themselves converted up as alternative weapon options for other units, or they might find themselves going on eBay, unassembled, to try and recoup some start-up costs.

On a final note: while I've been looking at plastic sprues to jazz up this post, I've also seen a picture of the Stealer sprue and discovered its lack of enough tentacly heads to suit my purposes.  I'd need four, not two, boxes of Genestealers to build eight Ymgarl 'Stealers - not very economical at all.  I'll either have to sculpt my own or pick up some resin alternatives from Chapterhouse: either way, let this be a lesson about the importance of research, finding out what parts you actually get in a kit before you buy it, and seeing kits as parts rather than as foregone conclusions, models already built.

Isn't this where we came in?

Three Points and One Rule

Purgatus of Yes The Truth Hurts (apparently it is supposed to be missing that crucial comma) has recently given forth some helpful advice on hobby project management for those of us who find ourselves committing to too much at once.

As a man with half-painted Dark Elves (Been Painting: Cauldron of Blood crew), half-painted Skorne (Been Painting: Cyclops and Titan) and, VERY SOON NOW, half-painted Tyranids* (About To Be Buying: Cheap Nids), and limited time to work on any of it, this sort of thing is highly beneficial.

The first stage of Purgatus' three point plan involves finding a little time every week to do something.  My times, at the moment, are Wednesday night (I'll be running a school club as of next week, and so have a couple of designated hours to work on models while refereeing for the kids - we'll see how well THAT turns out after this Wednesday) and a good chunk of Saturday (early afternoon's working quite well, that seems to be when the new living room gets the sun), and I try to have a couple of models on the go during those times so I can work on one while another's drying.  I painted the first two beasts for my Skorne army and the Cauldron crew over the course of last weekend, and while I now have red fatigue, they look pretty good (pictures when I can get to a decent camera).  This week I'll probably be building/priming Tyranids and painting another Cyclops.

Second stage: don't get judgy about unpainted models, as long as progress is being made.  A few years of living in the Real WorldTM  has more or less cured me of any painting snobbery, but there's still the ghost of a hang-up in there.  As long as a project is making progress, as long as slightly more stuff is painted this week than last, it's okay: hence devoting some time to the Dark Elves last week, since they'd been neglected since I left Plymouth.

Third and most crucial stage: don't neglect playing.  Playing games is important because it gives the painting a purpose (unless you buy to paint, in which case you probably don't have the obligation, the need to learn to love the grey), gives you some motivation, gets you all excited about your Dark Elves (which reminds me, I've a game report I still haven't written) again and willing to put a lick of paint on them.  There's a similar, inverse effect from knowing that you have a game coming up and you want to paint something for it; witness my actually bothering to base the rest of my Cryx army because I knew there was a tourney in the offing.

There you have it.  How to stop worrying and love the grey.  I think it's important to have a Frugal brake on the proceedings, and mine is the Rule of One: one army per game played, which is holding up fairly well (if you consider Hordes and Warmachine as one gaming system, I'm cheating a bit, but I think the dynamics are different enough to get away with it, and having a small Hordes army does have the effect of reminding me how the Hordes rules work, thus improving my game).  I've been in Purgatus' shoes, where I've had seven or so armies on the go but haven't actually been able to pay the rent, and I don't want to go back there again.


* - yes, I did say it was going to be Orks, didn't I?  My next post will be on the various reasons why I changed my mind, as well as the plan for keeping the project moderately Frugal.  There's no lying about it - it's definitely a breach of protocol, but it's for professional reasons (school club a-go-go!) and the original plan to manage expenditure should hold up for them better than it did for the Orks.

Building on a Budget: Part One

This man is not enjoying his game of 40K.

G'day all.

While still mired in that 'paint what you have and build what you need' place where I'm actually doing things instead of blogging about them (and, incidentally, doing this blog has been pretty damn good for making sure that I stay boring and actually paint things I buy and build things I scrounge for) I must confess that I've bought some test models for a longer-term project that I want to muck about with next year (or whenever I have a proper job again).

I'll get to what the project actually is later, but for now I want to share something about the way I've planned it.

See, starting a new army has some implicit risks in it. When you're young and foolish and new to a game, you rush into your Local Nerd Emporium and pick up whatever looks coolest and, if you're feeling particularly devil-may-care, you jam together a legal-if-you-squint army list and try to play some proper games with it.

When you're older and marginally less foolish, on the other hand, when your beard is ever creeping neckwards and you justify your toy soldiers to yourself by taking them semi-seriously and writing long, involved blog entries about them, you actually start planning army lists and thinking about how you're going to play the game and what your priorities are.

For me, one of those priorities is competing. I don't feel an urgent need to crush all who stand in my way or anything, but I don't enjoy spending whole games doing little more than remove casualties either.  These days, I'm increasingly reluctant to spend money and time on buying, building and painting things that are frankly not up to snuff on the tabletop.  Avoiding this is more of an art than a science, and we all have a few clunkers in the cupboard (mine are those six Revenant Crew that I'm never, if we're honest, going to use), but there is one way to do it: use someone else's army.

I don't mean go round their house and steal their miniatures or anything, that would be foolish.  What I mean is to keep your weather eye on the tables, the blogs and the forums.  Look at what people are using, what they're winning with and against what, in what conditions.  You have to take this information critically, of course.  Someone boasting a 98% win record but never posting a battle report is probably reluctant to admit that all their opponents are twelve and fielding two Battleforces, a special character and the biggest tank in the range against their well-honed, target-saturating, mechanised-death Space Wolf netlist, whereas someone who's putting up detailed reports of their games and showing you how they use their army to overcome a similarly able opponent, presenting you with the opponent's list and point of view so you can see how they thought the game went, how they saw through or were completely foxed by the list you're interested in liberating.  If you've a competent local who runs a good list and doesn't mind lending you their stuff, rejoice - you get to let the beast out and see if you can ride it.

Sometimes a list that does well in someone else's hands isn't for you; all the reading up on the dominance of Empire gunlines is meaningless if what you really enjoy is mobile short-ranged-to-melee armies.  Borrowing people's armies to find your style isn't a sin.  Proxying isn't a sin either, but if you're anything like me it's confusing; I couldn't look at my Dark Elves and think "these are Dwarfs today".  I'd be trying to play them like what they look like and failing with them.  Borrowing's more my style.

Eventually, you should find something that has proven its competitive worth and is close to something you want to field.  Maybe you want to make a few changes - and provided you understand what the essentials of the build are, that's okay, just don't close off tactical options or take out essential capabilities in the name of some illusive and elusive 'uniqueness' or 'originality'.  At the very least, ask, test and understand the principles behind successful lists - when you come to build your own, you'll understand the opportunites that are available, the capabilities you need and the weaknesses you need to either cover for or accept.

There's no shame in netlisting.  If you're going to drop time, money and effort into a project, you really ought to be eliminating the risk that it'll be a total clunker - which is why I've been looking at Ork armies on blogs all week.

Grimskul is sad.  Four Boys is not a very big WAAAAGH.

There are certainly better choices for the ultra-competitive gamer, but that's not my only priority.  I quite enjoy conversions, even if mine aren't a patch on Dave's or Shiny's, and there's nothing quite like Orks for doing a lot of those.  I also have some ideas for wringing maximum efficiency out of all the spare bits on the Ork sprues, and some coloured spray paints that should speed up the process of getting them on the board nicely.  It also makes more sense, to me, to look into a third system rather than owning two armies for one that I already play.


This is definitely a hobby project.  Doesn't mean I don't want to put up a fight on the table, though, so I've also been watching the recent run of tournament logs on Strictly Average, 3+ Save and Yes The Truth Hurts, working out which of the decent-looking lists I'd most like to build, or which can be adapted to something I want to build without losing out on what they need to make them good.

I shan't bend anyone's ear about the tactical aspects of that process over here, but I will at some point be putting up a post about the list I'm interested in doing, and the way I plan on building it whilst getting full mileage out of my purchases.

Von's Frugal Year: Month the Sixth

Spend Less - haven't spent a penny all month.  Bladder beginning to ache.  Ho ho.
In all earnest, time and money have both been a bit tight this month and only one of those is not an issue (in that I now have lots of time, but not masses of cash), so June and July are going to be about getting the most out of what I already have, rather than running off and buying new things.

Game More - one WFB game, painted up my Executioners and made a good start on the Shades and Witch Elves, the expected brace of Dark Heresy sessions, and quite a bit of World of Warcraft (I seem to have acquired access to the beta test for the next expansion, so I'm going to spend a few days knocking around on that and see if there are any gaping holes left for me to stick my electronic finger through).

I've had to endure quite a lot of mid-year, end-of-year, mid-module, end-of-module, end-of-course, hey-look-it's-Thursday-and-we-haven't-had-a-review reviews during the last few months, but one more probably isn't going to kill me: my Frugalism is going fairly well, with lots of purchases being held up and examined for genuine value, lots of things that I really don't need being brushed off like the worthless chattels they are, and the plan to invest time and money and energy in a board so I can actually USE my miniatures at home has paid off.  I've had my moments of weakness - the Dark Elves were a bargain but they were still a fairly hefty expulsion of cash, and the board wasn't as cheap as it could have been, but I've behaved better than I did last year, which is a start.

The biggest change to my habits has probably been the emergence of a Look, But Don't Touch behaviour pattern, in which I can allow myself to plan new armies and roll new characters, but I don't oblige myself to go out and buy them or play them. After all, most of my ideas are sparked by something I read or see or hear about, and then gutter out within a week or so.

Now, I could tell myself that a given idea is a flash in the pan, and that I can't do it and should stop thinking about it, but that makes me sad.  I'm excited about and inspired by something, and stemming one's inspiration isn't healthy.  Gets me all angsty and guilty and yearny.

So, rather than telling myself "no, this brilliant and exciting idea is a flash in the pan, don't waste time on it", I try to ride the wave out by doing things like writing a character profile, making a list of miniatures I'd need or thinking about conversions, and - this is the important bit - identifying the time, money and energy costs involved in the project. 

Theory-gaming, while it gets a well-deserved sneer from the sensible people who think that actually playing a game is a prerequisite of knowing how to do well at it, does have its place.  It lets me enjoy that rush that comes with a new OH SO COOL IDEA, and lets me let myself down gently, discovering the obstacles as I explore the idea and do something creative rather than just telling myself NO.

It also means that I have a plan on the table, should circumstances change.  If I'm still interested in doing something three months later when I have the time and money to do it, chances are it wasn't a flash in the pan after all.  If it was... well, I got to enjoy it while it was enjoyable and let go of it when it got boring.  I call that a win.