Reply To: Hobby Weekender 19/10/2018 – The Directors Cut Limited Edition Box Set

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Good evening, one and all.

Okay, the Boot Camp and all supporting material … done.

The last-minute scramble to build some front-page content to mark the upcoming 100th Anniversary of the end of the Great War … done … finally.

First “SitRep” Modern War Podcast with Gianna @stvitusdancern and Chris (apologies, don’t know his BoW / OTT tag) … done.

SITREP PODCAST EPISODE 9: Talking Skirmish Sangin & Upcoming Kickstarter.

It’s been a helluva two months, let’s leave it at that.  This weekend I literally fled the house, fled the office, staying at a Fort Lauderdale beachside hotel.  No work, no writing, no graphics, no videos, no hobby (well, maybe play a little Valor & Victory) … seriously time to decompress a little.

So, question and answer time:

1. Approach for hobby projects?

100%, full speed, full attention, 2:00 AM in the morning for as many nights as it takes, go.  Just GO.  I do not take on more than one project at a time.  I do not get distracted.  That said, a project more or less has to get done in a week, two tops.  If it will be more than that, I typically do not attempt it unless it is an article series.  Even then, I crush it out literally as fast as humanly possible.

I guess I just think and work “vertically” instead of “horizontally” if that makes sense.  If I have three things I want to get done, I absolute cannot tinker with all three at once, switching back and forth.  I HAVE to drill away at one and only one and nothing else in the world even exists until that ONE thing is completely finished, never to be touched again.  Then on to the next …

One trick I’ve found is to attach a given hobby project to an “external” deadline – like an article series or a Boot Camp.  Time is a merciless mistress, if you let her make you “her bitch,” she’ll definitely help you get more work accomplished. 😀

 

2. Props in gaming – do you use any bolt-on game hacks like customised or scratch-made turn counters, objective markers, condition markers, tokens, deployment points …

That’s literally all I do use.  I do not buy games designed by other people, or even gaming supplies until I started miniature gaming, and that was quite recently and only part-time.  The games are usually my own design or at least my own modification, all the maps are mine, all the pieces are mine, etc …

 

3.  What part of hobby gives you the biggest uplift?  – My work as Historical Editor, and once in a while seeing a real effect on other people’s hobby or gaming or just general appreciation for military history.

People will read one of my articles and a month later a new project will pop up on the thread, someone on another continent was prompted into reading a book or checking out some YouTube documentaries and next thing you know they’ve bought a new Flames of War or Bolt Action or Black Powder army for a given period or conflict.  My name comes up in the description and it always makes me smile.

People find out that a relative of theirs or a local figure from their town or a regiment raised in their part of the country fought well in a particular conflict, they reach out to me for some information.  I do what I can, and next thing you know their campaigns (and my name) are popping up on YouTube, Twitch, or other online media.

Probably the best are the people who find boxes of memorabilia left by a late relative.  They have a shoulder patch, a medal, a document, but otherwise know nothing about what great-grandpa did in France or Italy or what have you.  I can’t find any personal records, but I can usually find the unit that person belonged to and provide a pretty detailed history on that unit, allowing the family to understand some small part of what their relative might have experienced.

Grind or a chore?  Sometimes painting, I won’t lie.  At least the first half of it.  Once you reach that tipping point where the model starts to look good or the army really starts to gel and come together … that’s when things start to get better for me.