Reply To: [unofficial weekender] Sing praises of unsung heroes!

[blinky465 17178xp 3]

Pledge. Re-introduce myself to the community. I’ve been away for what feels like a very long time.
Lots of work- and family-related stuff going on last year, not least involving leaving lovely sunny Brighton (ok, Southwick) behind for a move further up north (to be nearer to said family). So had to buy a house, south of Birmingham, kit out the garage into a workshop, start a new bungalow at the bottom of the new garden for somewhere to hang out and paint….

It’s still ongoing (and probably will be well into next year).
But I’m determined to dig out my paints from the loft and hunt down some tiny 0805 LEDs and get back into “the hobby” again.

I already printed some Blood Bowl proxy teams but have been paralysed by indecision. In order to get my painting chops back up to speed, I can’t decide whether to try slapchop/contrast with highlights, or go proper old-school and layer, wash, highlight.  Then I returned to the forums last week and saw this… https://www.beastsofwar.com/forums/topic/paintcomp-july-2025/
and figured, that’d be a fun way of easing myself gently back into things – rather than worry about choosing the wrong approach and spoiling the teams I’ve got, I can try out the different techniques on some “fun characters” and see which works best.

Hobby Hero?
Well, there’s that guy from The State of Play. I love the stuff he does. And the guy who sounds like telly chef Glyn Purnell’s twin brother from Crooked Staff Terrain. Always interesting and entertaining. And the waffle-y guy from Miniature Hobbyist, who showed us that slap-chop and done is actually good enough got me to enjoy just messing about with minis again.

But there’s only one who stands head and shoulders above the rest.
And that’s our own @sundancer
What that guy does for our hobby, our community and this little corner of the internet in particular is nothing short of heroic.

It’s nice to be back. And great to see this community is still bumbling along, even after all this time.
And it’s only fair to give some recognition where it’s due!