Read all of this before you start as it will save you any trouble later.
First thing you must do is make your “pledge”. It can be anything gaming related, big or small, and you don’t even have to finish it. No, in here, happiness is the road. Have fun doing whatever it is, but it is not a race. Accompany your work with pictures or we might think you are do something sinister and just using us for cover.
You are also presented with a few questions. It is to get the conversation started. Try and keep your answers ‘conversational’, no text speak, and certainly no “basically”. This is how we all get to know each other better. While you are here feel free to tell us a story, show a picture, joke, tales of love or woe, or just add your own little bit. This is the whole point…in here it is just us.
If you have never taken part before we may bark and bite, but we also like a cuddle! It is all done in the best possible taste and it is character building. feel free to give as good as you get.
A few other things to note: NO RELIGION & NO POLITICS! Glasgow pub rules are in effect. If you need to make a better point then it is fine, but don’t take the piss. And always keep it civil.
Play plenty of music to go with your work. Loud and through proper speakers. Write us a playlist of things we might not have heard before.
Now, after all of that there is only one ‘real’ rule in here and it cannot be broken: NO DICKS! (Exceptions may be made for little fighting men with little plastic/resin/metal wieners)
And don’t forget the highlights of the weekend: The Weekender on Friday and XLBS on Sunday. And the little show that is the unofficial Hobby Hangout over at twitch.tv
### End of shameless copy and paste ###
Questions:
Having just seen how fast your hobby/passion can drop to a total zero[*]: Is your hobby insured? Will you get some compensation when your hobby room catches fire, is robbed or some form of elemental damage due to natural disaster.
At what point does an “unofficial anything” (like uHH or this thread) get “official”?
And this one is a real spicy one and really just “food for thought”: if BoW/OTT where to transit to a new homepage/forum/project system (for what ever reason) and had to start from scratch, would you join in again or would that be a point in time where you’d reconsider being part of it?
* A techhobbiest by the name of Mark Fixes Stuff (guest on RMC and with his own channel) just lost everything. It’s heartbreaking.
And now back to the show. Any typos you find or weird wordings are yours to keep…. I’m barely awake XD Thanks again to @blinky465 for catching the thread last week
Pledge: maybe get more sleep instead of playing Skyrim XD
Answers:
I think so. The household as a whole is insured but I’m not sure on how much I’d actually would get back if I can’t bring proof of ownership :S
god I wish I knew…
Again: this is just a brain tease, I am John Snow and know nothing. Would I rejoin? Very probably. Would I resub as a CoG? Maybe. But it all depends on a) why it happens and b) how it’s communicated. [*]
I need more coffee…
[*] I need to make a sublist on this subject.
Site gets an overhaul so that everything works better, faster and more stable. Users get 4 weeks warning to be able to download all their stuff. Would be ok.
Site suffers a catastrophic failure and all is lost. OTT is upfront about everything. Would be ok.
Same as 2. but OTT would keep quite and not answer question: hmm…. naaaah. that leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
Change in ownership (again) and new leadership wants to do 1. with a long warning period. Would be ok.
Same as 4. but the change suddenly happens and all is gone. FLOCK YOU!
Early weekend for me because of stuff that happened earlier this year.
I’ll try and see if I can get some proper hobby time in though. I’ve spend plenty of time just thinking about doing stuff and it’s about time I started building and painting things, isn’t it ?
Not sure how much of that is going to happen because me is good at procastinating …
(1) Having just seen how fast your hobby/passion can drop to a total zero[*]: Is your hobby insured?
Short answer : nope
Even *if* the things I have could be ensured there’s no replacing them. First edition original copy of Rogue Trader ?
Nope, and while I could get the reprint that GW did … it’s just not the same.
I wouldn’t know how to start again though. Probably just start collecting stuff again with the possible added advantage of only having one thing …
Haven’t even thought of how I’d do that.
And to be honest … even if I had you only know if any backup plans are functional once you need them.
Time to think and plan while we still can, isn’t it ?
It is kind of related to ‘cleaning out your hobby space’ and ‘dumping whatever you’re never going to finish/use’ …
(2) At what point does an “unofficial anything” (like uHH or this thread) get “official”?
The moment the actual owners of the IP hire you to do the same thing you’ve been doing as a fan.
Or you get a license to do such things and the company lists you as an official licensee (sp?) with all the associated trouble that comes with such things (ie : staff meetings, documentation, rules lawyering, etc).
I’m not talking about simply having permission to slap a logo on your website/thing and calling it done.
I’m talking about a two-way street of effort in communication from both sides to keep you in the loop of things that are happening.
That’s when you know you are “official” … anything less is merely a fan product that is allowed to exist until the powers that be decide your fate.
(3) And this one is a real spicy one and really just “food for thought”: if BoW/OTT where to transit to a new homepage/forum/project system (for what ever reason) and had to start from scratch, would you join in again or would that be a point in time where you’d reconsider being part of it?
as long as the soul of the original is still there … why not ?
Anything of mine that is on the site that I’d want to retrieve is more like research (collections of links and ramblings) that I should have been saving on my own system anyway. With digital systems you need to operate under the same assumption as backing kickstarters : can I do without that stuff ?
And if not … what am I doing to ensure I can retrieve it ?
It’s kind of how I approach my digital collections ….
The stuff on DriveThru, Bundle of Holding and GoG is probably the only things I can retrieve and backup off-line.
Everything else is in the hands of fate, because technically you don’t get to ‘own’ them anyway ….
I’ve done nothing hobby wise these last two days, just been too tired, but I’m keen on getting something done over the weekend.
First I want to finish off a Reaper Miniatures drone for Stargrave, it’s kind of like a large robotic floating golf ball. There’s not much left to do on it, just finesse and a few highlights.
Then I want to paint a miniature that closely resembles a goblin guard from The Labyrinth from Northumbrian Tin Soldier.
Lastly I have one of the big Reaper Bones dragon models to clean up and assemble.
Also this Saturday evening I’ve been challenged to a game of SPQR my Romans vs my Friend’s Gauls.
Having just seen how fast your hobby/passion can drop to a total zero[*]: Is your hobby insured? Will you get some compensation when your hobby room catches fire, is robbed or some form of elemental damage due to natural disaster.
I don’t have contents insurance, I prefer to have emergency savings instead. I’m always in two minds when I comes to insurance, in my mind it’s a gamble (and good luck trying to prove that you had the items if it came to a claim). Also similar to what @limburger said, some things cannot be replaced, for me that’s my painted miniatures. If the worst was to happen then like a lot of people I’d just start collecting again.
At what point does an “unofficial anything” (like uHH or this thread) get “official”?
It’s like the difference between amateur and professional but instead of free or paid it’s a signature on a bit of paper or document.
And this one is a real spicy one and really just “food for thought”: if BoW/OTT where to transit to a new homepage/forum/project system (for what ever reason) and had to start from scratch, would you join in again or would that be a point in time where you’d reconsider being part of it?
I’d probably join again if the content was just as good. Anything I want to keep I do so anyway when creating a project (I actually write out my project first in a Google Doc before copying it to the project system). It would be a real shame if everything just went and was lost forever though.
Also that video @sundancer was devastating. I don’t think I’ve watched any of the guy’s videos but my heart goes out to him.
Having just seen how fast your hobby/passion can drop to a total zero[*]: Is your hobby insured? Will you get some compensation when your hobby room catches fire, is robbed or some form of elemental damage due to natural disaster.
*My* hobby passion? It hasn’t dropped, mate. If anything, it’s gone up. I’m painting more minis, more regularly than I think I have done at any time in the last thirty years or so! My hobby is gear isn’t specifically insured. Sure, I’d be gutted if it got destroyed (moreso than if it got stolen – a few years ago, a few teams of my Blood Bowl minis I’d painted back in the 90s appeared on eBay; I’d long suspected a ex-housemate had stolen them when he left abruptly but then over the years, forgot all about it – until my “pro painted” Zug and Griff Oberwald and a human team and a skaven team appeared for £140 each!)
I used to have a “life purge” every few years – almost like a “self destruct” button, just to see if I still had the ability to start again from nothing, so losing everything (materially) doesn’t – or at least didn’t – hold much fear: I gave away my entire belongings (ok, everything but the bricks and mortar of my house) one time and went to live in France. Gave everything away to move back to the UK. Did it again, to “downsize” to move onto a narrowboat (seriously, if your belongings are more than an acoustic guitar and a couple of books, don’t even consider living on a narrowboat!). Gave the boat away to move back on land.
Hell, I even gave my house away (though it turns out, to my partner of 25 years who is now my wife in all but name). That’s actually quite interesting, legally!
All that said, I think I’d be a little less cavalier these days – but if my home (ok, Nick’s house) survived – and obviously everybody is unhurt – I don’t think losing a little hobby gear would have *that* much of an affect on me. I’d save up, buy a 3d printer and have a starter set of paints pretty much straight away though!
At what point does an “unofficial anything” (like uHH or this thread) get “official”?
When you’re asked by the owners to create it, I guess? I mean, more and more it’s content like this that keeps me coming back to the site – it is actually starting to crack at the edges and is soooo slow at times. It’s a long while since I posted anything in the projects system; and that’s mostly because I got so sick of losing stuff when it failed to save while posting. I’ve sort-of lost interest in the weekender videos, even, so it’s stuff like this and the hobby hangouts that keep me coming back.
And this one is a real spicy one and really just “food for thought”: if BoW/OTT where to transit to a new homepage/forum/project system (for what ever reason) and had to start from scratch, would you join in again or would that be a point in time where you’d reconsider being part of it?
This feels like a bit of a leading question! Seeing how closely you and Gerry work on your “unofficial” stuff, and how much more “in control” Gerry seems to be since the Brothers Johnson took a step back… it feels like someone is testing the waters here, more than a hypothetical question? Cheeky!
I’ve said for a while, I came for the content, and stayed for the community. I have flirted with the idea, in the past, of cancelling my subs and moving on elsewhere. But it seemed awfully petty, for the price of a coffee and a bun (though in recent months, just the coffee – thanks to runaway inflation in the UK, caused by some mysterious event that is in no-way politically related that stops us talking about it). I quite glad I stayed, even if engagement is relatively low at the minute (it’s been waning ever since Discord was introduced, but we’ve been over that one ad inifinitum).
The current forums/projects system really *do* need an overhaul. I’m never a fan of niche sites built on “frameworks” – so much potential functionality is lost because everything is limited by “we don’t have a plugin for that” or “that plugin breaks this one so we had to leave it out” – WordPress was ok for the 2000s but it’s not really a platform for a multi-user, multi-function site. If it were me, I’d build my own site entirely from scratch (but then again, I’ve been messing about with technology and websites for 30 years and currently have a lot of time on my hands!)
I guess the short answer is “I’d probably give it a go”. But – much like when you lose everything in a house fire and re-evaluate what’s important to you – I’m starting to think about what matters to me at the minute, which hobbies really excite me, and which need a purge (this constant feeling of not-enough-hours-in-the-day is quite tiresome!). But it’s always nice to have something comforting to come back to.
A little more engagement from the new site owners would be important – since I don’t “do Discord” it feels a little like Warren has fallen off the face of the earth and the rest of the crew aren’t around on the forums like they used to be. It is a little peculiar that we had the whole “cult of games” idea forced up on us, then the cult leader abdicated!
Here’s your music:
I have three sisters. The youngest discovered this track in my CD collection a few years ago. Now when we all get together (encouraged by my mum and the aforementioned “wife” if it’s a family occasion) she always insists that I have to put “my favourite track on”.
This feels like a bit of a leading question! Seeing how closely you and Gerry work on your “unofficial” stuff, and how much more “in control” Gerry seems to be since the Brothers Johnson took a step back… it feels like someone is testing the waters here, more than a hypothetical question? Cheeky!
I swear that was/is a totally innocent question. Myself, I have hell no intentions to recreate a community… been there, done that, not again. It only came from discussions I had with a few members here, on discord and in private messages about “should, could, would OTT be renewed etc”
A little more engagement from the new site owners would be important – since I don’t “do Discord” it feels a little like Warren has fallen off the face of the earth and the rest of the crew aren’t around on the forums like they used to be.
For the most time it’s primarily Gerry on discord and occasionally John. Warren is MIA since the new house and his internet that is delivering packet via courier.
From what I see: Gerry is active on discord, Ben on Twitter, Instagram and Twitch and John on discord in the remote controlled toys channel… the rest I don’t really see much anywhere. But I am also very passive on Facebook these days.
I’m still trying to get my MOTU Pop Minis finished but couldn’t help but print and start painting this month’s release from RNE Studio – back to the 80s! Overall, I’m quite pleased with progress so far (photos are soooo unforgiving!).
@blinky465 I can only dream of painting up to that standard …
it’s even got eyes and painted lips and then there’s that eagle headdress with eyes. .
maybe it only looks bad to you because you are aware that you can do even better ?
Photos from minis that make them look bigger than life size also tend to show more ‘flaws’ compared to looking at them from tabletop distance.
I used to hate painting faces – eyes especially. Then I caught Lyla Mev’s video on how to paint eyes and now I love it! Sometimes I feel like I only paint the rest of a mini so I can get it out of the way and start on the next face 😉
I know where all the flaws are in the mini, so when I look at the photo, I can seem them all magnified about a thousand percent. But paint some eyes on face and it immediately grabs your attention and won’t let it go! I’m not unhappy with the final mini – just that the photo doesn’t do it justice because – as you said – it really does highlight the flaws (which are all I see because I know where to look!).
In fact, it spurred me on to get my Pop Mini MOTU (set one) finished so I can spend this weekend painting the rest of *this* (slightly more realistic, heroic scaled) set. Who knows, I might even put some effort into basing this set properly 😉
I finished up a Stark Outrider yesterday, so I’ll get pics of him posted up tomorrow. I really wish there was better light in my flat/basement/hole, but for now I’m stuck where I am…so the pictures are all a little darker than the reality of the paintjob… Not sure what I’ll be able to get up to this week as I do have a few assignments coming up that I had to push aside last week because of tests, but I’ll see if there’s anything I have lying around. I don’t have anything primed, and the weather is getting a little chillier…
Questions!
Having just seen how fast your hobby/passion can drop to a total zero[*]: Is your hobby insured? Will you get some compensation when your hobby room catches fire, is robbed or some form of elemental damage due to natural disaster.
I’m not rich enough to afford my hobby; insuring it in anyway is just a flat no for me. I suppose when I lived with my parents it MIGHT have been covered there, but with an Absentee Landlord? Fat chance…
At what point does an “unofficial anything” (like uHH or this thread) get “official”?
I suppose once it gets formal backing and recognition from the parent group, or more simply just permission to use the likeness/network/IP of the parent company. That’s sort of a dictionary definition, though, albeit a dictionary written by a tired, nearly mentally illiterate student. It’s probably a good thing they don’t let us write dictionaries…
And this one is a real spicy one and really just “food for thought”: if BoW/OTT where to transit to a new homepage/forum/project system (for what ever reason) and had to start from scratch, would you join in again or would that be a point in time where you’d reconsider being part of it?
I’d probably follow over simply because this has become almost an extended hobby-family over the years. I’m not always around, but it’s nice to have a place like this with a welcoming community and some rather talented peers.
I really wish there was better light in my flat/basement/hole, but for now I’m stuck where I am
Get yourself one of these (or something similar):
I paint in what we grandly call my wife’s “studio”. It’s an extension we put on the back of the house for when her mother came to live with us, but it’s south-facing and gets sunlight. I thought this would be awesome for painting minis but what it means is, unless I sit in the window (where my paints dry out super-fast) everywhere I sit, something is casting a shadow!
I tried all kinds of different lights – overhead, desklamps, freestanding lamps with bendy necks… this thing was a game-changer. It was the best twenty quid I’d spent on hobby in a very long time! I hear your protestations of student poverty. This one costs £20 and you can change the “warmth” of the light and has about five different brightness levels – all the functionality of a “pro” lamp, at the cost of a super-budget one 😉
@blinky465 I do need to invest in a good ‘painting light’ like that, just haven’t really gotten around to it. I’m hoping (big hope) that I can get my own place soon with a bit more space to have a painting area that isn’t a large chunk of my small room, so we’ll see what I can do in the future!
On that subject, I messed around with the brightness levels on the pictures a tad and it’s better, though not perfect. I’ll work on a project post in a bit, but here’s a sneak peak, so to say:
panzerkaput 3 years ago.
