Reply To: Calling All Hobby Heroes – A Hobby Holiday Weekender Type Thing

[onlyonepinman 18062xp 4]

Hello all. It’s been a while since I got involved in one of these.  Over a year in fact.  Life’s pretty tough right now and I don’t really get much time to myself at weekends because that’s when I get to see my daughter.  But rather than getting full weekends I get this really awkward Friday night to Sunday morning thing which basically just blows up the whole weekend every weekend.  I’m going to try and change it in the new year but unfortunately it’s going to take money to do, money I just don’t have at the moment.

 

But it’s Christmas and things are a little different.  There’s going to be days when I do very little.  And days when I get some time to myself to indulge in hobby.  So I’m stepping into Christmas Hobby Weekender.  I would say it’s a special guest appearance but I wouldn’t wanna get anyone’s hopes up.  So I will make a few Cameos here and there as I try and reconnect with part of Beasts of War that I used to love so much .

 

So let’s get some caveats out the way.  I actually have a reall busy schedule from now until the day after Boxing day.  This evening, hopefully, will be an evening spent playing either Conan Boardgame, star Saga or Imperial Assault (I will let my guests choose).

 

Tomorrow I shall be mostly going to see my lady friend, who due to circumstances I don’t get to see nearly as often as I would like.  We have a very special evening planned at a black tie event (I will post pictures before we go) so probably no hobby tomorrow.

 

Then on Sunday I have to go and visit family before I go on a tour around the Etihad Stadium (a birthday present) and after that I collect my daughter and she’s staying with me on Sunday evening.  I might get a little hobby time when she’s in bed.

 

Monday my cousins are arriving from London and we will be spending the day with them – they love seeing little Katie so that should be nice.  My daughter goes home before bedtime and then Christmas Eve will be spent mostly roasting various meats ahead of Christmas Day.

 

Christmas day I will be going out for Christmas dinner and then putting on a buffet (consisting of the aforementioned roast meats) for all the family.  So no hobby although should any hobby related goodness appear under the tree I.shall of course present evidence here.

 

Boxing day my little girl gets a second Christmas so will be going to my parents with her.  And then we usually have another party with games and general silliness so no hobby.

 

Thursday should be a little quieter although I will still be the responsible parent so won’t get much hobby done during the day however Katie is usually in bed by 7pm so hopefully I have some time then.

 

Friday 28th I take my daughter home and I have a whole 2 days to myself!  I am trying to arrange a d&d session on one of those days and the rest of the time I shall be painting.

 

Sunday I collect my daughter again and have her until Monday evening. However I haven’t actually made any plans for New Years Eve. Hand on heart Christmas is proving to be a massive struggle this year, first one since I separated from my wife. I know that after Christmas I am going to be so drained that I honestly can’t face it a second time. So I shall spend New Year’s Eve quietly and will probably crack out the paint brushes and just focus on that.

 

So that’s my hobby times. What can I actually do in that time? Well I have several projects on the go. The first is some vehicles by Kore. Some of you may remember the LARC VTOL and
Tabletop Vehicles Kickstarters from the last couple of years. I had been slowly painting mine and posting on their Facebook group. I received a message from Kore around about June asking if I would like to be their official car painter. We had a bit of a chat about it and what I could and could not achieve given my circumstances and available time and we came to an agreement. Generally speaking I don’t do commissions but this is a very, very informal arrangement, I have full artistic licence, there’s no pressure and so it really works for me. Also, it really helped my then failing self esteem and gave me a little bit of focus. I have 2 more 32mm scale cars to do and then a set of 15mm scale vehicles which I really want to finish by the end of the year so he can have photos on his webstore and a set of models to take to shows and conventions. Next year I have offered to help Kore paint some of their most recent Kickstarter, their Large Vehicles (some really impressive models) as well as already having been supplied with some 3D prints of their next Kickstarter, Sci Fi vehicles, which I cannot reveal but can assure you are absolutely amazing. The intention is to paint them before the Kickstarter launches so that is REALLY exciting for me.

 

Then, in order to take breaks from the cars, I am working though Imperial Assault still. The next one to be painted will be Greedo and, as a character model, he will get extra effort spent on him. But there is an assortment of models to be painted for Imperial Assault and so I have a lot of freedom to paint a large variety of miniatures.

 

And so there you have it. For onr week only, @onlyonepinman is returning to the Hobby Weekender 🙂