Thursday 28 June 2012

I, Squirrel


Miniatures wargaming is a strange hobby. You spend countless solitary hours shut away in some dark, probably disordered and no doubt isolated part of your home toiling away on painting, terrain or simply research and contemplation; only to reemerge to join many other such individuals to play together at large gatherings and share what is really your own individual endeavour.

It is also, for the most part, a foul-weather hobby. For those fortunate to be in climates which have nice, or even hot weather year round, most activities are done whenever the feeling allows. But for us in more differing patterns of cold, rain and snow, the hobby takes a somewhat more seasonal aspect.

When the weather is nice and sunny, thoughts turn to outside tasks and pleasures, gardening, sports and the like. When in winter, cold and rain, the comfortable surroundings of the painting table seem a wonderful idea. Thus for me, my wargaming routine changes much with the weather. I try to avoid spraying primer in the house and so I spend much of the summer preparing (using a knife to clean up metal figures, or gluing plastic ones) and primering them, attaching to painting strips and storing away for the long winter months. I am as a squirrel with nuts. I like to have many miniatures in supply so that whichever interest I have, I will have units ready to paint. Of course, in the meantime I will have added even more to the 'ready collection' so that I still have armies which I have available in boxes ready to hit the painting table from 18 years ago (!) ...but such is my mania.

So, lately I have been busy prepping figures for the winter and with work interrupting my life (sigh) I have not really had anything interesting to blog sorry to say.