A Year of Hobby Expense Report

Where was I?
no sooner did I announce to the WORLD that I was back to blogging when I was stuck down by boredom and sickness and totally lost momentum.  

Mostly sickness, mostly pneumonia.  

No matter.  I'm back above ground now, like new sprouts pushing up in a new year. And our parasocial relationship can stand the break.

But still just as just as bored.  

Now let's talk money.

Hobby Expense Report

Alternative title: Holy Sh-  How Much???!! 

Back in January of last year I had the idea that it'd be interesting (and not at all scary) to track how much money I spent on hobby stuff throughout the year.  Kinda like a New Years Resolution.  But unlike those other resolutions like diet and exercise and being nice to my children, I actually did it.  

The rules were simple: doesn't matter what was purchased, but if it was purchased for the purpose of hobby-ness then it made the list.  If the item has other uses that's all well and good, but if I got it in the first place because it was a hobby need, then hobby purchase it was.  NEED say I.  Like breathing and water.

Here is the of purchases with the initial organization just the sequence in time as I purchased things throughout the year.  

-$20 bouncy balls
-$16 storage tubs
-$70 more paint pens
-$68 more Quar Miniatures
-$360 more Wooden Wars
-$30 Hot Lead and Cold Steel ACW rules
-$45 Bolt Action 2nd Edition rules
-$30 Drop cloth
-$30 House paint 
-$60 Quar tractors
-$95 plastic Quar Miniatures 
-$50 Army painter dark-dip
-$47 More Quar Miniatures
-$134 Proxxon Hot Wire foam cutter.
-$17 paint brushes
-$17 balsa wood stripper
-$10 Balsa wood sheets
-$78 XPS foam
-$78 lumber
-$58 Shifting Lands Guider Pro (MDF fence for the Proxxon)
-$20 Spackle and Liquid Nails
-$20 Craft sticks
-$38 Magnetic miniature bases
-$7 Coffee stir sticks
-$25 Hydrocal plaster
-$50 Bolt Action V3 rules 
-$28 storage tub / metal sheet
-$50 more Quar Miniature
-$300 Pacificon convention
-$15 spray glue
-$20 coffee grounds
-$300 Army Painter paint set
-$72 More Quar Miniatures
-$25 Vetcon
-$40 resin fences 
-$60 Midgard heroic battle Rules
-$105 terrain making scenics from Scenic express (flock and stuff) 

And not to bury the lead, the grand total is $2,410.  

Which I am not sure how I feel about.  It's definitely more than I thought it would be at the beginning of the year (about 150% more than initial estimate) but less than a Disneyland vacation for the family. I'm sure I missed a few things here and there. I don't see spray primer on that list and I'm pretty sure I bought a can of Krylon matte Black spray primer sometime.  Or did I? 

Kinda shows that if I just stopped buying stuff for a year and just painted what I had, I could have saved a not insignificant amount of money. 

Now that I have data, I can do my best impression of Johnathan Freitag and do some maths and analytics.  or it is data?  I never know if it's data like Dah-tah or if it's data like Day-tah.  

here are some broad categories:

Money spent on....

Miniatures:

Quar: $392

Wooden Wars; $360

Rulebooks:  $185 (4 total)

Paints: $350 

Attending Conventions:  $325

Proxxon Cutter and accessories: $192

Terrain Supplies (including the trench boards):  $418.

I could go into more details I guess, but it's doesn't seem all that interesting to actually do so.  

And I have no idea if this represents a typical year of my hobby spending or maybe I was a spendthrift or maybe, even, I was incredibly restrained.  

So I'll do it again this year.  

Like last year I'll keep a little tally going on the right side of the blog.  

And then maybe next year there'll be more to talk about.  This post is just convenient online storage.  

Thanks for reading.

Double thanks for writing a comment.

Till next time.

Resume!

 

New year, new season. same boring blog. 

Is January almost over already?  Damn, that seemed to go fast, but somehow, wasn't long enough maybe? Depends on how you feel about boring wargaming blogs. I know right?  I'm not sure I like them either.

I don't do blogging over the winter.  I get busy and frankly, I just lose the vibe. It's like having seasonal affective disorder but only applied to miniature wargaming.  

But winter is over.  mostly over.  It's over here in California.  Time to rejoin the blogging world and shake off this malaise.    

I'm sure someone, somewhere, while they were unable to sleep one night due to having caffeine too late in the day wondered to themselves.. 'I wonder what that Stew guy is up to, I wish he would post something so I could chuckle at his stupid jokes.  And then he can comment on my blog and we can be the bestest blogging buddies again."  "I mean, as long as it's not still those lame Anteater dudes."

Well!  Here I am again! Whoohoo!  and by 'lame anteater dudes' you meant "awesome Quar." 

And it is more awesome Quar.  See,s like you get a litle good and a little bad.

It's like you rolled a 6/1 on the random outcome table.  

And's that a joke that only Quar players will get, if that. so, eat it.

Quar

I continue to be invested in Quar.  Not only because I like the rules and the miniatures (and because I'm a super slow painter and builder and in general it takes me forever to do anything), but ALSO; because I've somehow gotten myself involved as something like a play tester, or like a promoter, or a like junior volunteer assistant developer looking for college credit.  It's my first time interacting with a miniature wargame as something other than just a consumer.

And it's kinda cool.  

I don't expect to get anything out of it other than my name in the acknowledgments paragraph in the introduction.  Maybe it could be Stewart "really cool nickname" Blain.  

Over the winter break I painted exactly 6 miniatures:

I painted two farmers and some livestock.
The green things are supposed to be some sort of fluffy pig.
The other is obviously some sort of giant beetle.  

And two armed civilian dudes.
technically these are "partisans" but I'll likely use them as armed farm hands.
which is kinda the same thing, I guess.
I'm rather proud of Gilligan hat.

And to start off my wargaming season, the other weekend I had a small game at my house to play test some stuff.  It was last minute, and in the sad commentary of my life I emailed like 8 people just to have 1 be available.  So it is.  I guess I can count myself lucky that I had 8 people to even ask.

Table Set Up:

Two squads of crusaders in the road being ambushed.

Left and Right,
Left an' Rght,
march, march, march.

random in game pics;

All Caught Up

And there ya go.  Now we all caught up with each other.  

Told ya it was boring.  Probably put that guy who drank too much caffeine too late in the day right to sleep.  At least I can say I did some sort of public service. 

Welcome back to the blog of Terrible Loss.  I'll go check out what's been up on your not terrible blogs.  

Quar stuff

 

Man is it cold around here.  Colder than a brass toilet seat on the shady side of the iceberg.  There was like one week of Fall, where the weather was nice.  Now wet and cold.  Cold like the heart of a tax collector.  

I was gonna work on some terrain in the garage, but I wimped out as it was too cold in there.  Instead, a little voice sounded in me head and said "You know, you only like need like 3 more miniatures painted up to complete that third squad."  Another voice chimed in "throw in a Sharpshooter and an itsy-bitsy AT gun?"

"Deal!" They both said at once.  And what I was doing was decided without me.  Just like most of my activities.

Quar Stuff

Of course it's Quar stuff.  Why would it not be Quar stuff?  It's all I do these days.  I CANNOT be distracted.

Coftyr Rhyflers

These 3 cuties complete another standard squad.  But what squad of humanoid Anteater-ish things would be complete without a specialist?  "It wouldn't be complete" is what you would say.  So we'll add a Sharpshooter.

Coftyr Sharpshooter

All of my Sharpshooters have a snazzy hat and gauze wrapped around the scope for some reason.  This gives me 3 Coftyr forces of around 300 pts all painted.  Which nicely matches the 3 Crusader squads of around 300 points that are also all painted.  Funny coincidence that.

Say Hello to My Little...

With the Playtest rules for Tractors (tanks) being released for This Quar's War: Clash of Rhyfles, it seemed time to upgrade.  The Coftyrans have the only Anti-tank / anti-infantry gun so far in the form of a small thing officially called "RCO m60" which is short for "Royal Coftyran Ordnance Field Howitzer Model 60."  

Basically, it's a mini howitzer, on some sort of track system, with a comically small shield.  

I played around with the basing, adding in a LOT of brush, like these guys had set up in a thicket and tried to do some camouflage.

"I am in a thicket,
Trying to trick it,
cus I'm gonna stick it,
right up his..."

Fence Fail

In Quar battlefields I have been using my ACW/AWI worm / split rail fences, because it's either those or some Dark Ages wattle type fences.  I wanna get away from those to dispel the "this Quar's American Civil War" appearance.  Who knew that yet another type of fence would be needed?  sheesh.  It's starting to seem like one NEVER has enough of the right terrain.  

I had all this balsa wood from a previous stupid purchase just lying around, so I thought I would give it try and construct my own.  I know what kind a fence I wanted.  I didn't want a typical fence that has vertical posts and horizontal beams which seem easy to make and that probably why everyone does that.  I wanted all the fence boards to all be vertical, so it matches the trench boards and that's how my fences look at home.   How hard can it be? 

I made these:

I also messed up the paint job some.

And I hate them.  I just couldn't get the amount of detail I wanted into the balsa wood, and it was becoming obvious that to get the look I wanted I would have to cut out all the individual planks and them glue them down.  Which seemed like a LOT of tedious work, which is probably why no one does it this way.   So I scrapped the idea.

Time to rely on the tried, tested, and true problem-solving technique for any problem.  Used by governments, husbands, dictators, and churches.  Throw money at it.

I bought these from the internet, and fit the bill nicely.

The right height

They're about 5" long and I bought 13 of them (5x13 = 65" or about 5 feet).  I'm happy with them.

Distraction

I hardly ever get distracted.  But there are two things that I can never resist: strawberries dipped in chocolate and new dark ages mass combat rules.  

I picked these up through a pre-order because they were all over the internet and looked really good.  Having a read through and trying to not think too hard about all those dark ages troops that I have, just waiting to be played with....

These aren't written for the dark ages specifically but one of these tool kit rules that let you re-create battles where units engaged in hand-to-hand lead by heroic leaders.  

Time to Eat

Here in America, it's the week of Thanksgiving.  When we all try to be appreciative.

I appreciate you reading.

I double appreciate you writing a comment.

And till Next time.

Mainly Vet Con AAR, mainly Quar

 (scratching my head and thinking)

 "What was I doing again?"   "Oh yeah!  Writing the best damn wargaming blog on the internet!"

Except for all those other ones, which are equally as good.

Fine.  They're BETTER even.  Go read all those why don't you.  OH you do?  Well, good, you should.

Good blogs probably wouldn't go a whole month without posting, except of course when they do.  Like I just did.  Here's a mega update, but mainly a Vet Con AAR, and mainly Quar. 

 VET CON AAR

Every time I go to a convention, I think I should try to be a good blogger and take pics of ALL the games.  I start off well enough, but then I get distracted and stop.  Unless I'm standing right there next to it then I don't see or hear it, just like small dogs and miracles.    

Vet con ran Friday night through Sunday, and that lends itself to a fine structure...

FRIDAY:

Broke free early on the Friday afternoon from my home life, and safe in the knowledge that my in-laws had come town to help my wife with the children, I prepared for a holiday weekend of gaming with no responsibilities other than driving safely (and I barely did that).

I had brought my Quar stuff for a Friday game but the nice man I was supposed to play could NOT break away from his own responsibilities, so instead I jumped in a game of Gunfighters Ball (a Cowboy game) hosted by the Mr. DP who was running the con... 

along with socializing and saying hello to people, I'm a regular chatty Cathy at a wargame convention.

My two bandits making off with a wagon

I named myself the King of the Banditos as my two bandits actually stole a wagon and got it off the table while everyone else was getting shot or throwing dynamite and getting themselves blown up.

Gunfighter's Ball is a fun game.  When you get shot you draw a damage card, and I swear every other card is getting shot in the ass or balls.

SATURDAY:

Most of Saturday was spent playing a Bolt Action 3rd edition tournament.  3 games, each about 2.5 hours.  Tournaments can be nerve racking if one trying to do well.  Fortunately for me this was not the case as I just wanted to learn the game better.  It was nerve racking for me because I did not have a 3rd edition rulebook nor a 28mm WWII army.  I didn't have the rules because despite ordering them in JULY from Osprey. and them being released in September, apparently the books from Osprey were somehow delayed, and delayed again.  Even while I'm writing this sentence I still don't have my book. 

As for the army, I know all about how these WWII types operate and saddled up to one and said "Hi. My name is Stewart, and I'm you're new best friend.  SOOOoooo, got a spare army?"  And he did.  Mr. R kindly lent me a Soviet army that was very beginner friendly. 

In actual fact, I had arranged with the Organizer Mr. SM ahead of time to borrow an army.  That morning, he did have a spare army but also said "that man over there also has like 4 armies that he said people could borrow, try him."  Mr Said that it was nice for him because he had all these armies that hardly ever see the table, and it was nice to see them used.  I said, "well, as long as you understand that I'm one doing YOU a favor then we're all good."  No, I didn't say that for reals. 

Nothing says WWII like Hedgerows.
Hedgerows and machinegun noises.

The red bobbles are pins, so you can tell that I'm doing really well.

In my last game, I played Mr. SM and his British Commandos.

The BA tournament was super friendly, super fun, laid back.  Lot's of people were still learning the 3rd rules so I didn't stand out too much with all my nagging questions.  

And then, because it was too early to go home, I once again played a game of Gunfighters Ball in the same scenario.  I loudly announced that last game I was the King of the Banditos and to watch my example.  After lecturing everyone that no one should be throwing dynamite, the game began where I was the first cowboy shot dead.  

Strangely, all pictures of this game are lost. 

OTHER GAMES: 

Before we get on with Sunday, here are some pictures of other games that I did manage to photograph...

A 54mm WWII game that everyone seemed to enjoy

Star Wars

Some AWI

I know, it's such a lack luster effort.  There were others, LOTS others, I just didn't take pictures of them.  I'm just not naturally inclined to take a bunch of pictures unless it has something to do with me.  Because I selfish. I never share my french fries.  

Lots of pics of Sunday though, because on Sunday I hosted two games of Quar: Clash of Rhyfles.

Sunday is Quar day

To refresh your memory as it's been a month, a Quar is a Humanoid Anteater-ish thing in WWI-ish tech.  Like so:

Some recently painted Quar.
Over exposed, as I was playing with the setting...

I set up a scenario for 5 players, where 3 payers would play the crusaders, and their job was to assault across a river and take the center ground of the two players playing the royalists.  The scenario ran in the morning through afternoon, and again late afternoon till evening.  

Table Set up.

Each player had a 300-ish point force of 11 miniatures (so 600 pts on defense vs 900 pts on attack). 

Just a closer look.

The game was just kinda but not really, but just barely; local enough tothe Developers of Quar miniatures and Rulebooks, so the guys who are Zombiesmith, Mr. JQ and Mr. AB, came up to have a look-see and have a chat.  Which was very flattering.  I mean for them, because how often do you get to meet a famous blogger like myself with an international blog read by a dozen people?  

I pretended not to be starstruck.  It's rare you get to meet the people who make the stuff that you enjoy so much.  Mr. JQ and Mr. AB were very nice and we go to get in some good chat when I wasn't distracted by actually having to run the game.  

Mr. JQ pinned a Crusader badge onto my collar.  It felt like being knighted.  

I didn't get any pictures of us together.  Which is unfortunate because it would have made me a very minor celebrity in some very small circles.  Very-very small circles, more like dots.  But still, my wife thought it was cool when I told her all about it.  Repeatedly.  

Some Cadier (Horse equivalent) are tethered by the bridge for some unknow reason.

Me in the purple shirt.
Pointing with intention.

The Coftyrans are defending the bridge.

In the evening game, One of the local players, Mr. NB, brought his newly painted 
Arnyaran faction to try out.  We swapped out one of my crusader forces for his force.
The Tractor (tank) was just for fun looks.

Two lone Royalists try to hold out.
Can you be lone if there are two of you?

Trying to get across the river

At one point, it felt like it was getting really late.  "Man, it feels late.  What time is it anyway?"  "6:30?!!"  "We all need to man up, my children aren't bed yet so I can't go home."  

Quar moving through the woods.

Some Crusaders trying out the bridge.
because crossing rivers is for suckers.
Why get your feet wet AND be shot at?

We were the last game to wrap up and we few players closed out the convention.  

So Vet Con was a great success.  Lots of fun, and in typical convention fashion you see a lot of people you seem to only see at conventions.  I made some new gaming friends, I sold everything I placed in the Bring and Buy so had enough cash to pay for all my drinks.  

Monday is Veteran's Day

Woke up early, put flowers on my father's grave who served 20 years in the navy, and then off to a parade.  My older children were marching in the local parade as part of Scouts.  It was cold, wet, and raining.  

Question: What does an almost middle aged, kinda out of shape, definitely hung over, father do in a cold, wet, and raining parade?

Answer:

He carries his 4 year old for 2 miles.
Not all heroes wear capes, but I bet they all have sore backs.

After we got home and put on warm dry clothes, my oldest son (6 years old) demanded that since I was gone all weekend playing games with other people that it was now his turn to play.  So out came his favorite game King of Toyko. 

Where he beat me three times.
He can barely read but he knows what ALL the cards do.

Thanks for reading.
Double thanks for writing a comment.
Till next time.

And then I

 Hello again. 

Ever take one of those writing classes in school where there was an exercise where a writing prompt would be provided, and you had to fill in the rest?  

I know, those are lame and were never fun.  But let's try it anyway, wargaming blog styles.

And Then I

was super annoyed because I had to skip out of playing remotely in Jonathan's Freitag's remote ACW game.  I had to skip out because my wife volunteered to host a baby shower at our place at the WORST possible timey given mine and JF's schedules.  It just became impossible. Now children that aren't even mine are ruining my wargaming.  And I was in need of a good ACW game.

Does it even count as an ACW game without me?!

yeah, I mean, of course it does.  

And Then I

had to take my actual children out of the house on the day of the baby shower for 6 hours.  Spending the day with your children is, in theory, not the end of the world.  It is a challenge to find activities that a 3-year-old, a 6-year-old, and an 11-year-old can all do together.  

Plus, it was 100 degrees outside. 

In October.

So the usual ploy of packing a lunch and going to a park was off.  Instead, I cheated and did a bunch of indoor activities like Chuck e Cheese arcade, The Mall, a "Make your own slime lab" and spent a LOT of money.  

On basically nothing.  But the kids were tired at the end of the day, so I guess it bought me an easy bedtime routine.  

And then I

Went to a Gaming Convention.  On a Saturday I attended Conquest Avalon to host two miniature wargames.  I can say without reservation that I had the BEST miniature wargame of the con.

Because it was the only one.  This was a very small convention and centered on roleplaying and boardgames.  When I checked in the nice lady laughed and expressed "oh, I didn't know we had a miniature game."  So I had brought a miniature game to a roleplaying convention. 

I set the game up, another game of "This Quar's War: Clash of Rhyfles" for 4 players and waited...

Everyone there was super nice but not interested, kinda like I am when people talk about their pets.  And 10 mins after the game was supposed to start, I had no players, and was juuust about to start cleaning up, putting my phone down, when lightning struck, and 4 players arrived.  "We're here to play in your game."  Awesome.

Covering faces, because I forgot to ask...

other in game pics:

And it was kinda a great game.  Everyone enjoyed themselves, everyone had the right attitude, and the game is really just fun to play.

I was supposed to run the game again in the afternoon, but this time lightning did not strike twice, and 15 mins after the game was supposed to start, I was sitting there alone.  I packed it up.  I could have stuck around and found a game to play but I decided to go home early for extra hubby points. I'm low on hubby points anyway.

And Then I

played Quar again.  As I had missed the aforementioned remote game due to wife, I guilted her into another game day.  I arranged for the day after the convention game for some new friends and Quar fans to come over and play some more of This Quar's War.  Another 2vs2 game but this time I got to play.

yeah, it's all the same terrain. so what?

and it was a great day.  Once again the wife took the kids out so we mostly gamed in peace until they came home.  My wife also spent a bunch of money on the kids but at least it was on clothes.  

My gaming circle increased by 3 more dudes, and by 3 more dudes that like WW1-ish anteaters.  What are the odds? 

I'm really liking this game.  And it's kinda fun to go all in on something.  

And then I 

went crazy.  Super crazy.  And bought all new miniature paints.

There's like a brush taped on the outside of the box.
Thought that was funny

For a variety of reasons.  None of them really good by themselves but taken all TOGETHER, then maybe.  Overall, I wanted to start over.  And the price was good during Amazon Prime days.  

Still too expensive.  But we just spent all this money on children, and I just spent the last two weeks doing extra on call shifts, so maybe I get a treat.  

And maybe, just maybe, this will make painting easier and more enjoyable. 

And then I

ended the post.

Thanks for reading.

Double thanks for writing a comment.

Till Next Time.