Relative Hobbying

One of the common complaints about Warhammer/40k is that it is expensive.

And in truth it is not cheap.

But having spent the past couple of days surfing the net in search of various bits and bobs to make terrain with - oil drums etc - I have reached the conclusion that actually far from GW ripping people off, they are actually selling reasonably priced models.

For instance the new Battlewagon is £37.50 RRP which no doubt sends the internet warriors nuts. But it isn't the price of the kit I resent so much, more the price of the Deff Rolla, which you can only get from GW direct and costs £8. My first thought was to build my own, but then I had the bright idea of buying a kit of a Sherman Crab, sticking the flail on the front of the Battlewagon, and using the rest of the kit for terrain and conversions.

Well that was the idea until I went in search of a kit.

Have you seen the price of Tamiya models lately?!?

And they don't actually make the relevant model. But I found a link for a conversion kit for the flail. It was fifty some odd quid. Yes that's right FIFTY QUID!!!! Just for the flail.

'Nuts to that' I thought, or words to that effect, I'll make one out of sprue, nick the engine out of one of my kids Dinky cars, stick that on the side and dangle some chain off of a bit of dowling.

And the same goes for model railway stuff I have been looking at.

If you think GW building are expensive, try looking at the price of O guage railway kits. They are in general at least 25% more for buildings and in some cases we are talking over £100 for something like a station. Even the bits and pieces like drums are on the pricey side.

However having picked my jaw off the floor this research has given me a number of good ideas. For instance I noticed wheely bins and dumpsters, which would be perfect for a space port.

I have to admit that I haven't actually started making any of the terrain as yet. I need to get a few bvits and pieces first, like floor tiles and some foam. And I want to get some textured plasticard too.

One thing that I was sad to see is that Airfix have not re-released their ruined house model in 1/32nd scale - or indeed the excellent Bamboo house they made way back when.

Still it has kind of put the cost of a Warhammer/40k army into perspective. Ok it is relative, since with a model railway you don't really need so much stuff, and perhaps that explains the extra pricing, but I have to admit that I was rather surprised to find that GW was cheaper across both military models and railway accessories.

peace:)