NEW MODEL FUND: Death from above

It's been about six weeks since I updated my New Model Fund and there has been lots of activity to report on.

The good news is that I have managed to get a good run of auctions going on eBay. I am putting up two items a week which isn't a lot, but if I keep it up it will amount to over 100 items per year. It keeps things manageable without taking over my life. It'll also keep a steady income stream coming in to fund my model purchases. So far I have made over £50 by selling old role-playing books and I have plenty more to sell.

The bad news is that I bought some models. Expensive ones.

I finally succumbed and ordered two Aeronautica Imperialis fleets from Forge World. One was Imperials, naturally, and my wing now boasts four Thunderbolts, two Lightnings, one Marauder Bomber and one Marauder Destroyer.


I deliberated over their opponents for some time. Chaos was an obvious one as they fit into the narrative of the Skolarii Sector and my main opponent plays Chaos in 40k, but I understand they can be tricky to get the hang of; they have a horde of cheap and nasty aircraft and then one ginormous bomber. At the other extreme the Eldar are very powerful and elite to the point where some of their craft have had their points values changed. Because I wanted two evenly matched factions I was left with Tau and Orks. I finally plumped for the Orks because they fit in with the Skolarii Sector background better.

My Ork wing consists of six Fightas, four Fighta Bommers, a Bommer and some Grot bombs.


I hope that the two wings will be balanced opponents and have enough different models, and play differently, in each wing to compete with each other in a variety of missions.

Did I mention that they were expensive? These two armies set me back almost £150.

Here is what all that activity has done to my fund.

• Total income from sales (and my penny jar) £436.08
• Less selling fees £34.32
• Less models bought £515.12
• New model fund -£113.36

Ouch! I've never been in such bad shape with the fund. So time for some belt-tightening.

I really need to not buy any models for a few months until my eBay sales catch up. Fortunately I have a birthday coming up so I may be able to convince relatives to buy some for me, and this could be very good timing for the 40k Battle for Black Reach boxed set. That is packed with so many models it is an unmissable deal. It will thicken my Blood Angel army nicely as well as adding lots of new models to my Ork army. Other than that I will just concentrate on painting the models I have and not buying any more.

The second part of my plan will be to ramp up my eBay sales and bring out the big guns. As well as the RPG stuff I have a few non-gaming items to sell which I will put toward the NMF. These include my old mobile phone, my old film SLR, my old MP3 player and the old RAM from my computer. I'm confident I can wipe out my deficit with just these items alone so I need to get them up for auction ASAP.

I'll be back in another month to tell you how I got on.