Hi!
I've been giving my prospect of an almost no budget hobby some further thoughts and decided to post some additional rumination to my original post.
As a quick recap, its becoming increasingly clear that my hobby budget has been squeezed by Real Life and the general cost of living so I've been casting around for cheaper but still satisfying wargaming/sculpting projects that still give me the option to enjoy my hobby and the much needed tranquility and satisfaction it brings while not breaking the bank.
In my previous blog post, i rambled a great deal about my Tiny Troops which have breathed new life into so many stalled projects and have been giving me some real inspiration for taking it further and making stuff I'd wanted to collect and paint for decades but didn't either due to cost, availability or whatever.
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| A small part of the Rule Horde |
With this in mind, I thought I'd take a peek at some of the esoteric projects that never got off the ground and how they are suddenly achievable!
First up, I've been blogging for 18 years now, which is mildly terrifying and looking back, there are several projects I've wanted to do which either stalled or never got started:
Leviathan, a game I've been obsessed with for thirty plus years but never managed to get an actual warband painted, let alone fully fleshed out armies! The closest I've managed was back in 2011 when I had the bits for an Orc horde but Uni got in the way and the project died. Over the next decade or so I tried to revitalise it and get myself moving but it's never been doable.
Saying that, with my new approach to making my own miniatures cheaply and quickly, I suspect I could make a decent stab at it if I tried. I may need to do a bit of experimentation basing wise but it may be something to put on the backburner for later in the year as the prospect of actually having enough painted miniatures to play a game of my holy grail of hobbying is awfully tempting!
40k 2nd edition is another perennial temptation for me as I have really fond memories of playing it back in the 90's and my ragtag Imperial Guard getting hammered by my friends Space Marines, Eldar or Chaos. He got pretty much every single new 40k release from GW from 91-97 while my pocket money would only stretch to whatever hodgepodge of figures I could afford but it didn't matter, the games were fun and my Guard fought bravely!
The Oldhammer movement has sadly moved collecting my dream army well beyond my meagre budget these days and my assorted attempts to paint forces have been fairly desultory to be honest.
Saying that, I've already made a start to a new Guard regiment and have a small platoon worth of them made and have been beavering away with some Orky boys to face them in classic 90's battle but without the cheese power gaming of my erstwhile opponent who I've not spoken to now for almost 30 years!
This project will keep ticking over but I'm keen to not bore myself which results in nothing at all getting done so have been swapping out what I'm working on regularly.
Rusty Robots is another small project that I've pootled about with since uni but i's never really taken off but with a simplified approach to making robots, I think I can make a fresh stab at it!
I made the little blue tribe robots using a simplified approach to making and while they're a bit smaller and simpler, they're rather fun and I want to sit and make more of them, hopefully getting the five core warbands made, painted and some games done too!
While simplified and hyper stylised figures are giving me a much better grip on my hobby, I also want to go back to my Somewhere on the Border project as I have a genuine soft spot for all the work that went into the sculpts, and want to see if I can challenge myself with some more sculpting in a similar style as it's great fun, just as long as there's not the added stress of having the intention of getting them cast and up for sale...
The exploits of the Boar Company and their dreaded rival Marik Goldhelm has made for a brilliant ongoing gaming narrative over the years and I want to delve back into it as I've so many ideas for similar quirky and fun stuff and I'm hoping that my rediscovered joy of making things will help me reengage with making more fun sculpts.
Finally I've got a few bits and bobs that I've got on the backburner in the form of my imagination games in 6mm and 2mm scale. These will be my only outgoing in hobby expense for the foreseeable future and I'm planning on using Rebels and Patriots, Lion Rampant and Land Ironclads for some mixed era shenanigans once I get round to it.
I'm finding it rather refreshing to get the hobby mojo back and with a vengeance and I'l try to keep it going throughout the year. The only side of things that needs work is the fact that I've only managed to play a single game thus far in 2026 but with the assorted little forces I've made thus far and my gaming table finally being back in use, I suspect that's going to change soon!
I suspect I'll post more on this as I go through the year and I'm sure there will be triumphs and tragedies ahead in the hobbying year but if I can keep up the level of enthusiasm that I've had in the last six months, I think I could be onto a bit of an epic year!
In the meantime, All the best and thanks for everyone who still reads my ramblings and offers support as it's most appreciated!
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