First up, Pug number two is finished:
Click the Pic!
The bases will all be finished together so that they match the scenic base.
Next we have a WIP Big Robot:
Click the Pic!
He's the one on the right... The one on the left is another robot conversion. Obviously, I still have a way to go but it is getting there. These two have also caused me to think about putting together a small band of warrior robots... a bit like the ABC Warriors... but I have only got as far as these two and possibly the embryo of a larger one that I have had on my mind for a very long time... but only time will tell what happens there.
The hobby. It is just two words. It means different things to so many people but to me it is a habit that I have built up over the last thirty years or so. What does it actually mean to me? It is a way to pass the time... but it is also a massive time-soak that I could be using for other things. I often look at my hobby stuff and despair... this is my living room (I am not even going to mention the state of the loft):
Click the Pic!
The three cupboards are completely full so I have no space to tidy away all the mess on top of them... and this is my dinner table:
Click the Pic!
If we have friends around for a meal, that stuff gets plonked on the computer table. My life is dictated to by the amount of hobby stuff that I have... it stares at me everyday and there is no escape from it. Last week I was talking to a workmate about it (he's not in the hobby) and I referred to it as an anvil around my neck that I had no emotional attachment to. I simply continue to do the hobby because I have got into the habit and it has cost so much that I feel obliged to keep going with it. I then said that if someone turned up and offered me a fair price for the lot of it, they could take it all away and I wouldn't miss it... it would probably be a great weight lifted from my shoulders.
I think there are many such things in life that you allow to take control of you and it is only when you start tripping over things and are forced to confront them that you realise just how unimportant they are.
To put it into perspective, lets's take a box of plastic space marines (ten tactical marines):
- You buy the box of marines.
- You have to decide how you want to build them... so you need a codex.
- You then need the tools to remove them from the sprues and clean them up.
- You then need glue to assemble them.
- You then need to undercoat/prime them.
- You then need to paint them.
- When they are painted, you need to base them... so you need basing materials.
- When they are finished, they need to be varnished.
- The remaining components need to be stored (either on sprue or clipped off into a storage box).
- The tools need to be stored.
- The glue, paints and basing materials need to be stored.
- The troops need to be safely stored.
Before you know it, you have to think about all of the things above and until everything is finished and stored properly, there is stuff to get involved with. That doesn't take into account having to transport everything (something that happens quite regularly in the military).
All that, just to have ten plastic marines to game with. It makes you think.
I look at my collection and I despair because a lot of it doesn't have transportation storage... so I have to sort it out this year OR sell the stuff.
It's all on a knife-edge at the moment.
If I get rid of everything, I can start again... but will I get a fair price? If I don't get a fair price, will I regret it? Will the new 'freedom' justify the lack of a fair price? Do I just suck it up and get storage for everything?
So much to think about.
If you are interested in buying some of my stuff... here's my Ebay link:
Things are going slow so you may get a bargain if you are quick!
See you from Lobo's Space Bike!
