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Weekender XLBS: What Inspires Your Hobby?
January 20, 2019 by lloyd
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First. Happy Sunday all. Looking forward to this. Inspiration is such an important element of our hobby. It is what gets us started on a project. When it runs out we can be utterly stuck but if it strikes again we can be totally focused.
There is a lovely article by @johnlyons in the new Dave Taylor book Armies & Legions & Hordes on this topic. Highly recommended. If you missed it on Kickstarter it should be in retail at your FLGS shortly.
Happy Sunday
What inspires me? Really, you have to ask?
It’s the Beasts of War crew of course!
Also, movies, books, history, and my own imagination that dreams up some stuff based off of everything around me.
But Beasts of War has been a big part of that since that fateful day I stumbled on the BoW youtube channel.
The naughty the 3rd Reich just bastardised the Prussian Seven Years War era flags
Always something to learn. If I had an interest in the period and those books to hand I’d have a very different guard force to paint.
Yep. And if you look up Russian flags during Napoleonic Wars, they were very heavily inspired by the Prussian style flag.
I try to stay away from Russia, that’s how you end up with frostbite and no army
Truer words have never been spoken!
Happy Sunday
Happy Sunday!!
As someone who has been uninspired to do any hobby for almost 9 months (apart from collecting boxes with bits in…) this is a pertinent question. I’d got out of the ‘habit’ of hobby during a period of pain and discomfort after a bad attack of RSI like symptoms.
I’ve finally spent my evenings over the last week assembling a FoW Desert British force and you know what? I didn’t know why until you asked the question! A bit of self-analysis reveals some boredom and lack of anything decent on the TV made me want to do something.
So I now realise I inspired myself back into my hobby habit by picking a project with personal significance and with a specific goal. That is: To be able to table a tournament ready FoW force (with a few options within 96pts) featuring a miniaturised model of my Uncle who was an artillery gunner during El Alamein.
He died nearly 30 years ago. But he was a keen photographer and I remember him showing me his albums of photos as an ordinary lad travelling through N Africa and then Italy with some friends and a big bit of hardware paid for by the government.
HAPPY SUNDAY.
What inspires me? It could be anything, from a book, to a comic or a movie, sometimes videogames or just the look of some awesome models.
I belive the Netflix Watership Down and @brennon talking about Burrows and Badgers inspired me to get into this game (Redwall isn´t a big deal here in germany, but Watership Down gave me childhood war flashbacks).
My problem is, I get inspired to much, every other day a new project… dang it. ^^
I feel you, my man cave is a shrine to half remembered unfinished projects 🙂
Talhoffer is great, and a great read.
And I get what Justin is on about holding the sword by the blade and swinging like a mace seeming to not make sense, but When Kingdom of Heaven came out it made it all make sense – there is a bit during the ambush at the start where Baelin does that move, and it turns the pommel & quillions into a fairly deadly bludgeon. It helps that he was wearing heavy leather gauntlets so the risks to the hands was mitigated…..
White Dwarf used to inspir me, back in the day. Nowadays my tastes are more eclectic and artwork of all sorts tends to get me going.
One thing I read recently was that John Stallard was inspired to produce Cruel Seas by a story he read from the old Warlord comics he (and I also … I’m a similar age…) read in the 70’s. Its alll stored up there!
What inspires my hobby? This week, yellow blankets.
I would take everything in those Documentaries with a tonne of salt. We today have hundreds of books about Sci-Fi Spaceship design. We have everything from the Death Star to an X-Wing designed down to the nuts and bolts but it doesn’t mean we built any.
Historical manuals were full of jokes, cons and gimmicks like the “Pommel Throwing” and without an actual example I wouldn’t give this Tower of Death any more credibility than an X-Wing. The Diving suit is a pretty common sense idea but without pressurisation it’s just an interesting concept. We have concepts for Star Destroyers and Plasma Guns but we can’t build them it doesn’t make us genius’s.
Don’t get me wrong that’s cool as f*** but I highly doubt A) it could be built and operated and B) that it was ever built or operated.
Speaking of History ruining things welcome to the club @lloyd . I tried watching (WARNING WARNING) The Patriot the other day and made it about fifteen minutes before throwing the remote and walking away. Historical Fiction is normally extremely good. Flashman (especially), Sharpe, Hornblower, Starbuck, Last Kingdom are all fantastic books when it comes to both History and entertainment. Especially when you’ve got a game like Sharp Practice tailored to play the battles you read about.
A few years ago I did an University assignment on Music and Nationalism and there are a handful of songs out there about The Anglo Zulu War if you want to check them out for gimmick value.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vmGpBAlMAi4
There are other manuals written in the 15th century like
https://publicdomainreview.org/collections/italian-fighting-manual-ca-1410/
There is the Hussite( Named after the famous GW character of course) War Wagons of the 15th century which I suppose could have been adapted to add further weapons
Have you tried the History Buffs youtube channel? The guy takes movies and examines the history elements.
I whatched one about Master and Commander the other night. Was pritty good, covered the types of ships etc and encounters between real ships the book/movie where based on and how/why the USS Constitution wasn’t used.
He’s got a great Channel. His “Death of Stalin” and “Gettysburg” video’s are my favourite.
If you’re interested in the American Civil War “Blood and Fury: America’s Civil War” is a great series (6 Documentaries). Starts at First Manassas/Bull Run showing the chaos at the start of the war, Antietam, Fredericksburg (Opposed river crossing then house to house urban warfare then Irish v Irish at the famous wall), The Sharpshooters at Gettysburg, Nashville (one of the first actions of the United States Coloured Troops) and Petersburg (Proper trench warfare). They normally pick a handful of men who left journals/memoirs and follow them so it’s not just a dry documentary, the first one especially has a heartbreaking moment in it.
I’ll have to check out his video on Master and Commander.
Happy Sunday!
What inspires me? There’s this flippin’ website where bunch of dudes go on about toy soldiers every weekend…
Other than that, reading about history and especially traveling, visiting museums and battlefields. Another thing is seeing visually inspiring gaming tables, at wargames shows, on magazines and on the above mentioned website.
Happy Sunday. Good show today and yesterday. I didn’t comment yesterday as I don’t play LOR and I live in fear that someone will take my blankie, so I can’t see myself taking Justin’s away from him.
Seeing other people enjoying playing a game. Whether that’s in a video or in person, more so if it is at a local club.
Good morning everyone…. I’m primed on coffee and ready for anything.. let’s watch this!
“Unless you are controlled and precise as I am” is that the same @avernos that some time in the last year stated in a twitch feed “I have to many rooms with stuff. Rooms as in plural”?
Sir, I call this humbug! 😉
?
Like Gerry everything inspires me and transfering historical battles to fantasy and sci-fi is always interesting,even moving historical battles to another period or front. We’ve played Arnhem set in Poland for something a little different.
But whatever I read it see the phrase ” There’s a game in that” is never far from my thoughts)
So I’m not the only one that hears that phrase “There’s a game in that”.
Ha! My lovely wife was wrong!!! I’m not insane……..I’m a GAMER!
LOL that takes me back, many many years ago; are Christmas game; bring a unit, whatever we had decided to fight that last Sunday of the year, one unit was used (A little drinky smoke cigars and Christmas cake; in them days “History” when one could smoke inside). the Golden Hammer Christmas special. Yes if you killed it; it was yours(?)
Who died (could be if one felt like it, be handed back over one figure for one figure).
(and each figure was painted at least with three colours, Skin cloves and weapon and most where painted wall the way).
But the rest after packing up and before heading home On The Bus; i must admit some scores throughout the year, were put to bed that time.
PUT UNDER THE CEREMONY Christmas HAMMER. (painted gold).
After writing this and reading it again MUST say Airfix figures LOL
Happy Sunday folks!
My inspirations, 99% of the time it comes from books/fluff from the game and movies.
For example, one of my lists I’m working on for my HH Iron Warriors was inspired by the end of SW:Attack of the Clones, when the clone troopers are flying in aboard their gunships. Translate that to HH, and you have legionnaires flying onto the table in Storm Eagles (using the Angel’s Wrath Rite of War).
@dignity – there’s a great adage in life, but especially relevant when it comes to list building, “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should”. If you give your opponent fair warning that you wanted to try this list in a specific scenario then fair enough, but if you rocked up with that kind of list against me at a club night, I would shake your hand, say congrats and not even bother taking my minis out of their case. Never forget that you’re not the only person wanting to enjoy the game 🙂
As for traitor legion geneseed fighting for the Imperium again, they have been for some time – look up the 21st “Cursed” Founding. Minotaurs are Iron Warriors geneseed (have had it confirmed by the late Alan Bligh and Andy Hoare from FW), the Red Scorpions are all but confirmed as Emperors Children descendants, to name a few.
Great discussion, always great seeing Lloyd and Gerry bouncing ideas off of each other. I side with Gerry on the what inspires ideas, it could literally be anything, a set of colour combinations I want to do but what should I paint them on? Other peoples collections (I’m currently trying to track down pictures of an army from around the storm of chaos campaign, Empire almost entirely metal, each on from a different area of the range, survivors of the storm it was called). Film, Orks drift was good, also in Warhammer World there was a display board for imperial guard Black Orc down, inspired by black hawk obviously. Organising my collection onto shelves in grouped together projects also inspired me, because I could actually see what was there!!
Which Storm of Chaos was it?
I have an unbroken run of WD so if they were showcased in there i should be able to dig them out for you.
The original one worldwide campaign, I think it was in an issue around the 290s.
found it, issue 324. I’ll scan the pages in later and post a forum thread for you. Mix of elves, bretonnians, Empire, Mordheim, Dogs of War and anything else he could lay his hands on in a green, white and red colour scheme.
I had once upon a time an unbroken run, sadly however through several moves and nefarious individuals I shouldn’t have trusted I have a less than complete set these days, thanks for finding it though.
@longlivethesheep Yeah it’s great bouncing of Gerry.
You love it
How funny is it that I mentioned Rorke’s drift yesterday and today we start with it… Happy Sunday! I’m snowed in and feel awful but I love this show. Having tea and enjoying the rest of my day.
Since we were running on a bit I dropped a few things from my list. Sports teams are a great one if you’re a bit of a die hard fan. Being a county Down man the red and black of Down features fairly often, and for certain forces and particularly sports games it’s a very easy way of putting colours together. You don’t even need to know about colour theory and if the colours go together, because someone already has and they clearly do. The other big thing for me is other peoples work. There are certain miniature painters that I follow almost religiously, my friends call it miniature porn and I’ve been looking at it for years. Jen Haley is one of the first that I knew the name of outside of the heavy metal team and golden demon winners. I would scour her Paintrix (now sadly gone) blog on a daily basis. Even if you aren’t in the same league painting wise seeing what people are doing or how they approach some things can be a big help. Her work on a monochromatic jailer from Cadwallon stayed with me so long that when the walking dead all out war arrived I immediately thought of doing that with my own minis, albeit at a much lower skill level. The Blackadder: the warhammer years was a golden demon entry that blew me away for the way he turned models like the Warhammer Quest nobleman into lord flashheart. No conversion needed just the right inspiration and paint job. I will offer a note of caution, I tend to overdo these things. I start looking for inspiration and then I keep on looking and looking and looking and by the end I’ve not applied paint to a brush. But when you do go looking for something save the links, save the images, I have folders with pictures saved for Dark Eldar, and Romans, Submarines and Ogres. When I found the idea I may not use it straight away, but stockpile them so I know where to find them without the hunt again next time.
I would recommend the Saxon Dog Face book page
as well as his blog
http://saxondog.blogspot.com/
I like his work on Claymore seen it before, didn’t realise he had a blog, thanks for the link.
@torros cool link lots of class armys to drool over 🙂
Love it. What a cracking Sunday weekender. Great show chaps.
Looking at the Weekender inspires me ?
I just saw Timelines history of the Talhofer manual. Being into martial arts I already knew of Talhofer, but not his medieval tank and other designs. Now I challenge the fantastic miniature companies out there to produce a range of medieval/fantasy vehicles, siege engines, knights and other assorted fighters based on Talhofer book. Ive got my wallet ready, patiently waiting for a Talhofer Tank.
paint your wagon BoW style. ?
I think Lloyd is moving into the offices guy’s ???
Very nice Mele’ bags (sp?) Gerry! That’s a skilled painting hand. As for the yellow blanket, can it reverse the polarity? ;p
don’t for get the romans had concrete for the parathions domed roof @lloyd
@zorg – roman concrete for the WIN!
What else did they use it for?
The may have had a water mix for harbour’s setting with sea water around the shuttering.
Found the link @lloyd
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jul/04/why-roman-concrete-still-stands-strong-while-modern-version-decays
a great fun show guys.
love to see someone to do the Night watch picture but as the Discworld version
Its on the front of the Nightswatch book
i know buddy thats why i said i’d love to see the discworld version, Sam Vimes ect
The Nightswatch flash mob is one of the best I’ve seen
https://youtu.be/a6W2ZMpsxhg
Holy crap @lloyd ! You’ve sent me down a YouTube wormhole tunnel with that Guédelon Castle mention. It’s amazing! Hmmm … I speak French and I can drive ….. ???
NICE!
I think Channel 4 did a series on this
Danish Dueling Covenants, and Sword Anti Armour Technics (Murder Stroke) put your guard into your opponent is fun
Centurion Devastator Squad, counter by Howling Banshee no Overwatch + a Couple Vehicles is the counter
I can highly recommend painting the entire encounter table from Frostgrave. I have one mini left to do, but it’s much bigger than any I’ve done before. Getting the skin not to look shite is so far beyond my abilities
Ben: inspired by the site
Gerry: inspired by books, history and art
Lloyd: inspired by medieval gimp suit telly
Justin: inpired by … oh mate no
🙂
(Mostly visual for me – stuff I *think* I can make look neat)
Nice summary there @somegeezer – 2 hours in 5 seconds reading lol
Get to the Royal Armories in Leeds and you can watch the proper HEMA martial art.
Swords were only sharp at the very tip, so holding the blade further down was just holding a blunt, they weren’t holding sharp sword, that way they can use the sword in the hand and half technique, and it negates a lot of the disadvantage when someone gets into close range where the length of sword is a hinderance.
Cheers for the compliment re my Harad army Lloyd! Its a fun and somewhat vibrant looking army that really stands out on the tabletop, though not necessarily on the league tables.
Actually music from soundtracks very much inspires me while modeling/ painting. Agree on all the others except finding the one crazy thing in list building. I defined games like that no fun as with Death Star units there are so few units on the board you end up not having much variety to your games and less tactical maneuver.
Great show guys.
6 Centurion devasators with two Lascannon and Hurricane Bolter is costing 804 points, the 6 hurricane bolters only give 72 shots at rapid fire…
10 Scouts with Sniper and Camo cloaks is 180 points…
A belated Happy Sunday! Wonderful episode as ever, good to hear about all the different kinds of inspiration.
I have to say I am with Justin on the fun of list building and theory-crafting, it can be a lot of fun both on and off the table. It relies on everyone approaching it with the right mindset, and I am lucky enough to have some friends who do, and it can be a blast.