Reply To: Hobby Weekender 21/6/19 – The Shortest Night of the Year

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@robert thanks appreciate the nod re southern hemisphere winter. was six below here a couple of days ago. currently 2.5 below freezing at 7 in the morning… Questions!

1. Do your hobby habits change with the seasons?

Most definitely. As alluded to above locally it is below freezing during the winter and gets to north of the mid 40’s in summer. So you are looking at a roughly 50 degree temperature variation in the year. From late December to maybe early Feb it is so hot and dry that you can’t really paint properly – even on a wet palette paint will dry before you can brush it on to a model. Conversely in winter because you need to shut doors and put on heaters you are in an environment where there is poor airflow, so playing with a whole bunch of glue or fume causing varnishes or thinners is not the smartest strategy. Other ‘seasonal’ impacts are the large levels of procurement that happen between November and January as a result of Black Friday/Christmas sales and then Cancon. I don’t usually have too much time for hobby over winter anyhow as this is peak period for me at work. So for me Summer is usually buying and assembling a whole bunch of minis and actually getting games in too. Autumn and Spring are where most of the heavy lifting gets done as far as painting is concerned, with Winter being a time to just chip away at higher priority projects as the opportunity presents.

2. Would you play a summer olympics style game?  I’m imagining players taking the role of Greek gods and creating beings, both human and mythical, to compete over a series of events to see who is the top god!  How would you design such a game?

Doesn’t sound like something I’d be drawn to immediately but what you are suggesting does sound innovative and like it could be quite fun. I’d probably go for a randomised build phase for the hero (each god gets a hand of seven cards and must select three to form their hero or similar). Then you’d need a series of challenges diverse enough that the game didn’t just come down to min/maxing on build stats. Maybe a resourcer management element or some sabotage mechanics and it could end up being quite engaging actually…

3. What is your ideal summer’s day?

No hotter than mid 30’s and with only moderate humidity 😉 I guess ideally one where I’m caught up on all the housework and can hit up hobby or get a game in or just do whatever.

@sundancer any progress on a dedicated hobby space?

@robert are those mushrooms for the garden or gaming? If the latter have you got a strategy lined up for storage?

@tuffyears nice haul! How are you finding the Fyreslayers to work on? Love the burnished metal look you have managed to achieve on the pizza oven 🙂

@woldenspoons Hope the game went well and good luck on the tourney prep 🙂

@mage enjoy the time with your son 🙂 Nice paint scheme on your test Carcharodon.

@limburger nah 42 degrees is justifiably hot. If the temp doesn’t drop locally of an evening (some nights it doesn’t drop below mid 30’s here) make sure you get a small fan to keep air circulating while you sleep. Also if it’s going to be really warm consider getting some plastic water bottles, filling them 75-80% full of water and freezing them. Then when you go to bed just wrap one or two of them in a tea towel and put them in the bed next to you. Think hot water bottle in reverse. Also keep hydrated (sorry just drinking more coffee doesn’t count…). Look after yourself!

@carlospictor great work on the overlords! Nice to see the contrast paints working so well. I’m not actually sure if we’ll all be getting our collective piles of shame painted now or if we’ll just use contrast paints as a rationalisation to stockpile more minis. Time will tell I guess 🙂

Hobby-wise I managed to get the sand on all the bases I needed to and assembled two wizards. Will try and get them primed today and maybe also look at pressing on with a test unit of pirates I’m working on once the bases are finished. Hope everyone has a great day ahead!