Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Hobby Update, February 2020

Hi All,

Sorry to have been absent from the bloggisphere for so long, it was not my intention but life sometimes gets in the way. My hobby, such as it is, has become more of a background thing as I am trying to manage my son and his growing teen angst about things.

One of the hardest things about parenthood has been feeling unable to effectively help my children overcome the issues of what I see as my worst traits. Wanting my kids to feel better about themselves than I ever did/do. But anyway, as one of my friends put it "life is managed failure." It sounded more uplifting when he said it.

Enough with the downer part.

While I haven't done a whole lot, I have played a few sessions of WFRP. Our game master has his own blog, It always rains in Nuln, and wrote a nice piece talking about our party of deceased characters from when I joined the group that is still currently playing. You can read it here.

If you are interested in hearing our scintillating live play you can find it here. Just look for the Thousand Thrones.

I am still collecting bits and pieces of my Skaven force, trying to fill the odd gaps in what I will loosely call a collection. I also found the Skavenblight Scramblers models I'd buried and partially forgotten about, so I'll be adding them to the queue. If only I could find my Ratskins, year of the Rat queue would be complete.

I've also gotten a fire under my ass to get back to my Mighty Empires campaign. I know, I know, I've been talking about this for years. I made some progress on my map but realized it was at the wrong scale after finding and reading trough (again?) Charles Grant's Wargame Campaigns. I'm still trying to trace my old hex map into Worldographer and got it pretty well sorted before I realized it wouldn't work at the scale I built it at. I almost shelved it again, but I'm going to keep on plugging away now that I have a pretty clear picture of the path forward. I'll try and share that more moving forward.

As for actual paint on miniatures, I'm not sure what the hold up really is. I'm really struggling with feeling like I have the time and space to get cracking. Last years effort to move the hobby and try to be more engaged with the family while doing so didn't really work. I got the lighting in the garage sorted, but it is still a horrible mess in there. I'm still trying to dig things out.

I've also been thinking about trying different techniques to help me get a little faster in putting out models. If I can't lower the indecisiveness time, I can at least make the actual painting go smoother.

Anyhow. I'll try to do better and also get back to reading and commenting on other hobby blogs.

Paint 'em if you got 'em.

Peace out!

12 comments:

  1. Gotta put the kid's first, the trick is to teach them to care, but not worry, and it's no easy trick! Best wishes for that one!

    H

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    1. Thanks Hugh. Yep, gotta put the kids first.

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  2. Good luck with the offspring, mine are all grow-up parents now and it still doesn;t get any easier.
    You should try my method of getting in a t least some time painting on a regular basis (I try to aim for an hour a day -Tuesday to Friday and on the other front -
    I too used to be indecisive, but now I'm not so sure.

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    1. Hi Zabadak, yes my parents still worry about my brother and I. I will try to get back to a regular schedule, you are on to something there.

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  3. I hear you about managing teens...
    I find my precious hobby time is a welcome relief.
    Good luck Sean!

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    1. Hi Maj Guiscard, thanks. I was letting myself get frustrated by normal hobby stuff. Time to get back to then zen of doing in the moment.

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  4. Good to see you in action again. Contrast paints are quite a wonderful tool for boosting painting output. Give them a go

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    1. Hi Anthony, thanks. Yes, I just need to take my time and play with them more. I had a lot of advice before I started, but you really have to actually use them to understand how each color works.

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  5. Arg. My post got eaten.
    Best of luck with the teenagers, they are amazingly resistant to good advice. =/
    The year I was most productive for painting I made sure I painted at least 1 mini a week. It was part of a challenge so I needed to submit it each week. Then I'd just piggyback extra models onto my painting time as I felt possessed and wanted to use up the paint I'd dripped out and didn't want to waste. Paint what you feel like painting definitely seems to be helpful for me.

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    1. Hi Dave B, sorry about that, I hate it when that happens. Yes I've been looking at ways to just get started. I'm taking a break from challenges/competitions because I feel like the deadlines are getting in the way of enjoyment. Also I can't just drop something if I'm not in the mood. I think I'll start by trying to finish off some low hanging fruit, models that are almost finished. Thanks for the advice.

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  6. Thanks for the mention, Sean! Playing with You, and the rest of the gang, is a privilege. Also, your blog rocks. Just sayin'. ;)

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    1. Hi Xathrodox, I've also really enjoyed playing WFRP with you and the group. Thanks for the kind words about the blog. I feel like it is in transition.

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