The Hobby With (almost) No Budget

 Hi!

We're into June already and I thought I'd spend a bit of time rambling about my hobby choices for 2026 and on.

A lone adventurer in Stump

Sadly my budget is being increasingly squeezed by the cost of living and the dreaded Real Life and one of the cuts I've had to make is my hobby budget. In years gone by, I'd have £25-£40 a month to pick up new figures and whatnot which led to an ever increasing number of projects I'd want to try out but thats now being spent on necessities and I was faced with the real prospect of having to just abandon any hobby stuff until things improved.

My hobby is really important to me though as its my way of relaxing and de-stressing from said Real Life shenanigans so I started rummaging round for ideas for wargaming on not only a micro budget but also with limited amounts of space as our spare room, my mancave is pretty packed with books (the perils of being a bibliophile and working in a bookshop for 20+ years!) so my gaming board is 3'x3' and I'm never going to be able to get anything bigger, let alone the gold standard of a 6'x4' board.

My ramblings initially brought me to the solo RPG option and I've played quite a few now and really enjoy them but its not quite wargaming so I migrated onto combining the two, as can be seen with my Inquisitor Fisher campaigns which combined small numbers of figures into a narrative driven campaign with a lot of RPG lite additions and its been great fun. 

Stump Art Scribbles

The increase of cost of living and a bad case of loss of gaming mojo last year saw even this outlet curtailed as I found myself completely de-motivated and everything I tried just seemed to go nowhere.

I'd considered moving scale for my figures but 15mm and even 6mm figures are ramping up price wise to a point I realised that I couldn't really justify.

Things were looking a bit grim until January this year when I decided to do something completely different and just make some tiny figures that would quickly tick a box for a project I'd wanted to do for years and I made my Star Mogul Farpoint Salvage crew over the course of a week between work, quickly followed by Bossman Salvage, their sworn rivals.

Farpoint Salvage

For the first time in quite a while now, I felt the return of my hobby mojo, I was enjoying making, painting and creating entire narratives about these tiny, blocky guys and I realised that I'd found the answer to the malaise that had been effectively ruining my hobby for so long and answering the question of how do I keep the hobby that I've been immersed in for the last 30+ years going.

Bossman Salvage

While the Tiny Troops aren't too detailed, they do have a certain charm to them and with miniatures being so expensive these days, they'll do the job!

Men at Arms

Now I'd love to be able to collect and paint armies of old school figures, or pick up new games and whatnot but I just cannot afford to do so and my tiny figures have enough of a feel of wargaming miniatures to do the job.

I've used about £5 worth of materials and constructed and painted 108 figures in five months which is pretty good going covering fantasy and sci-fi. I've got the beginnings of entire armies that I never thought I'd get round to done for the fraction of the cost of doing it with actual miniatures.

While they may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I seem to have found real pleasure and a sense of achievement working on them and suspect I'm going to be making a lot more of them as time goes on. Handily I've now got my gaming board back up so I expect to be able to play some actual games in the not too distant future too.

I must admit that I've been seeing quite a few folks branching out into a more crafty hobby approach either making their own or kitbashing everything from pebbles to army soldiers and its been fascinating.

Hopefully I'll get chance to post some more pics of my next batch of stuff soon but in the meantime, All the best!

2025 Review

 Hi!

Well it's been a bit of a year of it with all sorts of real life shenanigans taking centre stage and my hobby being very much crushed into the dirt beneath it for most of 2025 but I seem to be ending on a bit of a high so I thought I'd post my year in review and ponder on some possible challenges for the new year to get my back on track again!

Figures Painted

First up, I managed to paint 116 things ranging from 2mm up to 1:32 and everything from fantasy to Sci-Fi to Historical and Steampunk which is actually surprising considering how naff of a year it's been hobby wise.

While I got stuck in the doldrums in the middle of the year, the last month or so has seen more enthusiasm and success with painting than I've had in ages, even if I've not had much chance post about it so I'm going to take it as a bit of a win.

I've begun my Spruequest challenge and have rather enjoyed putting together the first little warband which seems to have had another figure added to it which had sat unpainted but built in a box for at least the last 12 months! I'll post a complete breakdown of the project as I get the chance as well as the thinking and process behind it but that's a post for another day!

Looking at the painted total, a fair whack of them are small scale but I'll take it as a win none the less at this point so won't complain. Sadly quite a few of the bits and bobs I've painted thus far haven't made it to the point of being photographed but hopefully I'll get chance to remedy this in the new year as I crack on.

Speaking of the new year, I have a few bits and bobs sitting that I'm keen to try painting up but I need to finish my last two Frostrgave soldiers first before I embark on getting them painted up.

Games Played

Sadly I only managed a piddly seven games from three systems this year and they were very hurried sorts of affairs that I threw together on the occasions I had a moment to spare but they're an improvement on 2024 so Huzzah for small wins!

A large part of the problem has been that our spare room has been out of action for a mancave over the year with the spare bed meaning my gaming table was unavailable for extended periods but we have a plan that should see the room emptied and turned into a more usable space in the new year which is very exciting and will hopefully allow me to keep my table up all year and play a lot more games too!

We've also reorganised our living room fairly drastically this year which has allowed me to finally get a small painting desk up and it's been really making its impact known as I can now get up and paint with a proper light first thing for an hour before work rather than while trying to sit on our sofa in the evenings too.

I've also begun working on organising my rulebooks and having a look through the dauntingly large collection of old and largely forgotten games and plan on doing something about breathing some life into them in the new year too with some possibly daft but also fun ideas!

Plans for 2026

Now I had hoped to make a go of 2025 for the year of Leviathan and various other obsessions but it turned out to be a year of not much at all so I'm not wanting to make too much of a fuss about planning ahead but will just potter on painting whatever I find interesting and trying to get back into the swing of things rather than having any great plan and then not managing to make it turn into anything!

Instead I think I'm going to try to just have a bit of fun and paint what I want and aim to beat this year's miniatures painted and games played total and will take it as a win if I do.

In the meantime, thank you to the 178 blog followers, occasional visitors and random passers by who have taken time to read my nonsense! Its lovely to hear from you and thank you for all the support and kind words over a challenging 2025!

All the best!

Richard

SprueQuest

 Hi!

So I've been having a bit of a rummage as we finally get round to clearing out a decade worth of junk from the flat and I have found a plethora of sprues which has given me a bit of an idea for a project for 2026 which will not only clear up some of the stuff I have kicking around but will also hopefully give me some interesting gaming opportunities!

The plan is to rummage out all the sprues I have and over the course of each month construct and paint one of them. Further I want to create a warband or squad using just the stuff I have and then stat them up for either Brutalquest or Planet 28, create a small character bio and then hopefully play some games with them (once our spare room/library/mancave is fixed up!).

I think this could be a fun little project to do with low quantities of figures, next to no expenditure, at least initially, and it also means I can start clearing out the surprising numbers of bits and bobs I've got kicking around that I've not done anything with thus far.

To get the ball rolling, I will be painting up a sprue of Frostgrave Soldiers, of which I still have a couple:

Earlier this year I actually painted several of these chaps to use in my Longmyre setting which sadly kind of stalled out but hopefully I'll be able to kick things into gear with a bit of a mini challenge over December and into January 2026!

Longmyre Militia

I'm interested to see how things go with the project as it's got lots of random components from different genres and theres also the option of doing some converting and kitbashing too as the random bits I have left over get used up too.

Longmyre Militia Art

In other news, my previous post mentioned a Weird Western project I've been contemplating and its still going to go ahead but in 28mm rather than 15mm scale as I was saddened to realise it will actually be more cost effective to work in the larger scale than in the smaller one!

Instead of stressing about it, I plan on picking up a couple of the Gunfighter sprues produced by Great Escape Games and adding them into my Spruequest.

As an added bit of incentive to play some games, I also hope to produce a piece of scatter terrain each month that will eventually add to my collection and make for some interesting games.

Hopefully the low model count and lack of focus on any single subject or genre will get me 

A Return to Basics

 Hi!

I can't believe it's been a month since I've updated the blog! Its been a busy wee while as we get closer to the festive season and I must admit that hobbying has had to take a back seat. 

Looking back at the year, I must admit that its been a pretty naff year for my hobby with pretty much any project that I have decided to work on having been without fail utter failures which has been incredibly frustrating and left me dreading even thinking about a hobby thats supposed to be relaxing.

I've had this sort of thing happen to me before so I have taken a break and rethought what I want to do as the whole point of my hobby is that I should enjoy it but as the month went on I just couldn't summon up any real enthusiasm to explore the options.

With that said, I do think I'm going to aim towards a project that will be easy to complete for next year but I am still settling on what exactly it will be...

There are a few ideas I've got swirling around in my head at present but I do need to bear in mind that it requires to be quick and easy, small in scale and not take up much space as my gaming table is currently packed away so my gaming surface is going to be limited to one of my mini pinboards.

I'm currently leaning towards some 15mm scale bits and bobs as it is a scale that got me back into gaming back at uni in 2007 and I have a hankering to play some really small scale skirmishes but we shall see what I can come up with.

A Grand Day Out

 Hi!

Apologies for the lack of updates recently but work has been properly busy! Coupled with a manic day of culture, museums, food and monster trucks in Glasgow last week I've been utterly shattered which has resulted in complete lack of hobby time.

Nice bit of Rennie Mackintosh

While the enforced lack of hobby has been kind of frustrating, it was brilliant to get out about and run all over Glasgow and indeed ride their underground system followed by an evening of Monster Jam, a most exciting show with monster trucks, motorbikes and a wall of sound!

Windswept and Bearded, Just Like Me!

By the end of it, I looked a bit like the chap above but it was a really great day. I also picked up a couple of RPGs in Forbidden Planet including the new edition of Colostle which was really nice to see and I do hope to get chance to delve into them at some point, possibly the end of October when I finally have some much needed hols!

Stunning artworks have been perused, all the while having an organ recital in the background which was pretty novel and rather fun too and I wish we'd have a bit more time to really enjoy the Kelvingrove as we had to kind of rush from one room to the next while trying to take in as much as we could in the time we had.

I thoroughly recommend Koko House, an amazing Japanese cafe which serves Souffle pancakes which were absolutely amazing and worth the trip just to eat there! Behold my Souffle Pancake below:

Japanese Souffle Pancakes

After a full day of running around, we ended up at Monster Jam, possibly the noisiest thing I've ever experienced. Imagine six massive monster trucks hammering around a stadium revving their engines, jumping ramps and doing donuts! Mad but brilliant fun!

Monster Jam!

Now while the Glasgow trip was great fun, I do realise that I've not been blogging or in fact doing much, if any wargaming, painting, sculpting or the usual stuff that I would do for much of this year which is pretty sad as I really enjoy it but with Real Life, work and whatnot, I've just not had much of a gaming year.

I've gone through several gaming slumps over the last few years, and it seems that this year is probably the biggest of the lot. With this in mind, I plan on taking a small break to refocus and try to get a small project done and finished.

I've got so many ideas floating around but a total lack of focus on which one to concentrate on actually getting done that it's making my head spin but I think that I want to focus on a small one that I can complete with relative ease.

We shall see what I end up coming up with but I have a hankering for something that I can make myself and have a bit of an idea of what I'd like to do!

Hopefully I'll be able to post an update in the next few days but I'm back at work tomorrow and will no doubt be running about like an idiot!

In the meantime, All the best!

Pondering Arcady

 Hi!

We're off on our holidays for the week and we went off to the rather wonderful Erddig yesterday and while wandering the magical grounds it got me thinking of a new setting to investigate, namely Arcady, a strange, endless grand garden inhabited by strange and wonderful beings.

Surrounded by high red brick walls, doorways that lead to nowhere or further gardens, hidden nooks or mysterious and long forgotten potting sheds, Arcady is a seemingly endless land of grand gardens, orchards, hedge mazes and greenhouses.

The land itself seems largely uninhabited but strange beings stalk the land, topiary beasts roam the terraces, rare intelligent plants grow in abundance while statues move and fae creatures flit between the hedges.

The human inhabitants of the land are the Royal Order of Gardeners, a brave adventuring bunch who are tasked with maintaining the land, controlling pests and exploring its constantly shifting landscape. Wielding spade, trowel and garden fork, they roam the land searching for rare plants, managing the wild flora and getting rid of pesky Outlanders from beyond the Wall who seek to despoil the beauty and peace of the garden.

Wicker Bee and The Sleeping Lady

Beyond the Great Outer wall, lies the Wild, a great forest that teems with life, wild and untamed. The Wild is largely unexplored but who knows what new and unknown things could be discovered by those Gardeners brave enough to venture into its green depths?

Garden Wall and Rose Triffid!

Its a rather whimsical sort of a setting and would require me to make a board that is very different from my usual wargaming terrain, not to mention the figures I'd need to use would be pretty unusual too with bands of Gardeners armed with agricultural tools fighting strange vegetation or other worldly beings!

We'll be coming back up north on Sunday before getting back to work on Monday but I may yet return to the setting and expand some of the random ideas that I've found myself pondering on!

In the meantime, All the Best!

Back To Work!

 Well after a weeks much needed but not very restful holiday, I'm back at work! 

Its been really busy but i have managed to sneak in a couple of small skirmishes of an evening.

With most of my terrain and miniatures still packed away following the guests visiting, I didn't have much to hand but threw what I could find onto the table.

The isolated mining outpost of Sigma 12 lies in the slime forest that girds Farpoints equatorial region like a smelly green belt. The miners extract valuable Promethium and Chobite from the slimy terrain while fighting off bands of outlaws, mutants and Orks, not to mention the scaly denizens of the slime forests. Unfortunately many of these outposts are unregistered and unscrupulous corporations have been squeezing many of the independent outfits so they can get a monopoly on the region. 

Combined with the shaky political situation in Freeport City where the new Governor General Laars von Dorn is still trying to wrest power from the disgraced former ruler, Alexandr Vosk and the crime cartel led by Lucius Goldburg, the boondocks of the Slime Forest have become a low level battleground between mining teams and corporate goons.

Now a corporate asset stripping outfit has arrived at Sigma 12 to make the yokels an offer they cannot refuse.

Bauhaus Asset Retention Team

The corporate goons are well armed and equipped and in theory should make short work of the poorly armed and equipped miners (one of whom is wielding a crossbow for pities sake) but will the miners doughty resolve and determination to keep their mine hold out against the might of corporate greed?

Gunderwick Mining crew

I didn't manage to take many pictures of the action unfortunately, simply enjoying playing a fin little game but surprisingly the miners trounced the corporate goon squad.

The goons, over confident rather brashly marched into the heart of the mining camp only to be ambushed from three sides.

The ensuing gun battle saw the miner with the crossbow go down but only after he'd managed to stalk and kill two of his opponents. Seeing they're facing stiffer resistance than expected, the goons withdraw under the cover of their heavy stubber. Surprised by the result, i played the game a second time and the same thing happened, the guy with the lowest tech weapon killed two opponents, this time my rock miner got blasted into rubble by the goons heavy but the miners still held their camp.

Brilliant fun and so good to be back to wargaming after an enforced break!

Hopefully I'll get chance to play some more games in the coming month but until then, All the best!

Off on Holiday!

 Gosh! It's the longest day of the year and we're off on our holidays for a week!

Alas I've not had much chance to do anything hobby related in what feels like ages so this will be a nice opportunity to relax, refresh and hopefully refocus as I'm really keen to kickstart some much needed wargaming shenanigans.

In the meantime I'm packing some reading and drawing materials and hope to enjoy a sunny week in Shropshire.

I'm hoping to be able to get some firm ideas for my Longmyre setting so fingers crossed, I'll have some updates upon our return but in the meantime, All the best!

Tiny Dark Ages Project Part 1: A Man With a Plan

 Hi!

Well somewhat surprisingly I've found myself with a bit of spare time to post a quick blog ramble! 

Our car passed its MOT with no faults which came as a bit of a surprise so I found myself with an actual hobby budget for once and decided to pick up some Lancashire Games Little Wars figures for my 10mm Lion Rampant army.

Having shopped around a bit, I settled on these little guys because they seemed to be just about the best value for money I could find and I liked how characterful the tiny guys looked!

Here's some pics of their painted Vikings from their website as an example:

I love how dynamic the figures appear and the mixture of weapons and gear which suits a bunch of pillaging Vikings!

The tiny figures literally ooze character and I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the Saxons in the coming week or two!

I ended up placing an order for one of each of the following packs which should give me enough to put together a nice size warband for Lion Rampant.

Saxon Command

Thanes with Axes

Thanes with Swords

Greater Fyrd 

Lesser Fyrd

Now while I'm waiting for the figures to turn up, I've been reading my way through some inspiration to get myself into a Dark Age mindset!

First and foremost, I've been listening the Wolf of Wessex by Matthew Harffy and absolutely loving listening to the quest of Dunston, a grizzled and aging loner who becomes embroiled in a quest for vengeance in 838AD. Matthew does a brilliant job of bringing the period to life and creating a gripping story as well as a cast of characters that are really enjoyable to read, especially Dunston himself.

Secondly, I'm reading my way through Bloodfeud by Richard Fletcher, an eminently readable history of a family feud that lasted three generations and saw a ridiculous amount of bloodletting and also brings the period vividly to life.

I've got a load of other bits and bobs to read and have ordered a couple of Osprey books to help with reference and they're always a great way to get to grips with a subject.

I've still not settled quite on what basing I'm going to go for but once I have the figures in hand, I'll have a better idea of what I'm working with and what will work best.

Once the figures arrive I'll post a mini review and then see if I can paint up some test pieces to see how I get on with things but until then, All the best!