[unofficial weekender] Springtime 2026

[sundancer 44424xp 1]

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First time visitor to OTT? Then please introduce yourself in the New Member Thread and look around in the Project System. Then come back and read on…

https://www.beastsofwar.com/forums/topic/introduce-yourselves-new-member-thread/

https://www.beastsofwar.com/project/

Read all of this before you start as it will save you any trouble later.

First thing you must do is make your “pledge”. It can be anything gaming related, big or small, and you don’t even have to finish it. No, in here, happiness is the road. Have fun doing whatever it is, but it is not a race. Accompany your work with pictures or we might think you are do something sinister and just using us for cover.

You are also presented with a few questions. It is to get the conversation started. Try and keep your answers ‘conversational’, no text speak, and certainly no “basically”. This is how we all get to know each other better. While you are here feel free to tell us a story, show a picture, joke, tales of love or woe, or just add your own little bit. This is the whole point…in here it is just us.

If you have never taken part before we may bark and bite, but we also like a cuddle! It is all done in the best possible taste and it is character building. feel free to give as good as you get.

A few other things to note: NO RELIGION & NO POLITICS! Glasgow pub rules are in effect. If you need to make a better point then it is fine, but don’t take the piss. And always keep it civil. This includes no philosophy, no home computer culture wars.

Play plenty of music to go with your work. Loud and through proper speakers. Write us a playlist of things we might not have heard before.

Now, after all of that there is only one ‘real’ rule in here and it cannot be broken: NO DICKS! (Exceptions may be made for little fighting men with little plastic/resin/metal wieners)

And don’t forget the highlights of the weekend: The Weekender on Friday and XLBS on Sunday. And the little show that is The Hobby Hangout over at twitch.tv

If you fancy to see some nice WIP pictures go to the WAYPN thread https://www.beastsofwar.com/forums/topic/what-are-you-painting-now-2025-edition/

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Question of the week:

• Spring clean challenge 2026 is upon us! Have you plans ready for it?

And now back to the show.

[sundancer 44424xp 1]

Pledge: finish the space hamster and then some.

Answer: I have way too many open projects. More if I count all that is sitting here and is no project on OTT XD Maybe a dice roll will help?

Music (for reasons)

[grantinvanman 10157xp 2]

pledge: no more commissions, no matter how much grovelling is involved! No!

Spring makes me think of The Producers and their wonderful song…

 

[pagan8th 14584xp 2]

That song could be sung by a different leader now who has global ambitions…

“I want piece…”

I’d add more lyrics and name countries… but @sundancer would tap the ‘No politics’ sign.

No idea about Spring Clean Challenge.

No time for gaming pledges… been doing to house stuff.

[limburger 22467xp 3]

I think my current project is last years’ spring clean challenge … so I will have to pick something else 😀

lots of things to do if I want so, we will see.

[zoidpinhead 12880xp 3]

Pledge:  Get on with my Spring Clean Challenge project!!!!  I want to get minis based, undercoated and the first unit done this week as a minimum.

Answer:  Yes!!!!!!!!!!  Can you tell I’m super excited about Spring Clean Challenge 😀  I’m so ready, I’ve already started.  I’ve gone with Dogs of War this year as the personal rota has rolled round to fantasy as a main theme.There is a fun quiz for lovers of Oldhammer fantasy miniatures in the first post.  Sadly someone has already won the prize as you’ll see from the comments.  You can probably guess who.  Check it out 🙂

[jeffersonpowers 621xp 2]

I’ve got several potential spring clean projects, but I think the one I’m most interested in is dusting off some of the many rule sets I’ve bought over the years thinking “I could play this game with miniatures I already have” and actually play them.

The other one I really ought to do is the 3 boxes of Test of Honour models I bought in 2020…

 

[danlee 22857xp 1]

This week’s pledge is to continue with the Heroe’s 3 minis.

 

Not sure I’ll do anything for the spring clean challenge this year. The only two outstanding projects I have are the two I’m already actively working on.

[limburger 22467xp 2]

wait … that can’t be right.

one can never ever have no projects left to start.

that’s just wrong

it’s like having all of your minis painted … 😉

[pagan8th 14584xp 1]

This is kinda spring related… as it involves a photograph I just took… and it’s spring.

I know AI is touchy subject for a lot of people, especially when it comes to denying artists money by using AI, but I have a question.

Suppose I was creating a book for an RPG and wanted to use some photographs that I had taken, but there was something in the picture I didn’t like and asked AI to remove it (an example will follow). Is that wrong?

So here’s the original photo (reduced in size to match the AI altered image) taken with my phone…

And here is the one after I asked it to remove the urban aspects of the photo…

Is that inappropriate use of AI?

And taking it a step further… if I took a picture of me… and asked AI to make me look like a troll, dwarf, elf etc… is that wrong?

[sundancer 44424xp 3]

Your example does something you could do without AI. It would need you to learn Photoshop, GIMP or any similar software and basically copy the tree from picture 1 to a backdrop picture and you’re done.

Changing you into a different being is something different. It’s way more complex and needs a degree of artistic skill. And here is where AI gets problematic: machines of today can’t create. They only copy-pasta from human works. And these human works have, in almost all cases, been grabbed without consent, consultation or any form of payment. It’s stealing from other humans.

But that is “just” the moral aspect of AI. The enormous amounts of resources that are burned for “that one funny picture” is mind boggling. Especial if you consider that “the first created picture” rarely is the one people put out there.

Please take a look at this article (or any similar article you may come across)

Unpacking the Energy Footprint: How Much Energy Does AI Use to Generate an Image?

One image accounts roughly for watching a 2 hours HD video or running your washing machine 1 time. Or charging your phone 30+ times.

So you usage of AI (especially if you pay for the tokens it uses) supports burning energy and intellectual theft. Is that wrong?

Hell, yes it is.

Now, to take step back: the pure tech of LLM/AI as a theoretical construct is (like many other things) not bad. It’s just used in ways that is. Let’s say a LLM is trained on every bit of information of one specific disease. It might come up with a cure. Or early diagnosis. But when you train it on the complete medical history of every person ever it will “know” things it shouldn’t. Caught an STD because you where unfaithful? LLM knows.

It’s not the tech that is bad or wrong. It’s how it is currently used, marketed and sold to the people. It’s how morally wrong the companies worked to get AI to a level where it today. By stealing other peoples work like it’s nobodies busyness.

Different example: Newspapers. Newspapers are not bad or evil. They inform you. They share news. Unless the company behind it uses it in a malicious way to spread lies, hate and fear. The newspaper doesn’t care. It’s just paper with ink on it.

Is using AI wrong? As a broad moral theoretical question: no. But the reality is different. Because a small group of people us it to get richer than god. Because it’s used like a gallon of gasolene to get a BBQ starte.

So, back to the OG question: is the use of AI in 2026 wrong? In my opinion YES.

 

[grantinvanman 10157xp 1]

I’m firmly against AI as it is unfolding now. The concept was sound, the reality has become horror.

As @sundancer said, Photoshop is the better way to do what you need, and more ethical.

[pagan8th 14584xp 1]

I don’t own photoshop. I’ve never used it. the learning curve is high.

It was more a theoretical question as I’m not planning to use it for a book when I haven’t even figured out all the rules yet.

The energy requirements do seem implausible.

[limburger 22467xp 1]

except these days Photoshop has built-in ‘smart’ filters that do the work …  (I think it is a ‘magic wand’ tool?)

they may have relabelled them ‘AI’ for marketing purposes, but some of that tech definitely predates ‘AI’.

I’ve used Claude Code at work. It is an amazing piece of technology.
We cannot undo any of the unethical training data that was used. 🙁
And because our management demands we use it I’d be out of a job (and given the impact won’t ever have a job if I ever make this a deal breaker).

Software engineering is not going to recover from this. It’s intellisense on a whole different level.
Not using ‘AI’ to assist is like trying to write machine code when everyone else is using high level languages.
Only the exteremely brilliant could hope to compete in that kind of market.
The genie is out of the bottle.
Pandora’s box has been opened.
There is no going back to the before times.

Yes it sucks that we can’t run these things locally (well some of these you can if you got a semi competent cpu, plenty of ram and a good gpu).
And the energy usage is beyond absurd. (one more reason for me to want solar power for my home 😉 )

You still need to know what the heck you’re doing in order to judge its output.

The only good news is that privacy laws are the one thing that might stop this from escalating.
Unfortunately privacy means nothing to shareholders when there’s money to be made.

/rant
That’s all I will say in the context of this thread while not having to tap the ‘no politics’ sign.

@pagan8th I’d say it also depends on how you’re going to use the results from your ‘AI’ usage.
Are you planning to use them as the final result ?
Or are these placeholders / templates to build on?
You could hire an actual human artist on a site like Fiverr … but that has its own ethical issues as folk doing that as a hobby often don’t need to charge what professionals would have to.
(and you won’t ever know if they used ‘AI’ to generate the image).

// —

In other news : I’ve managed to keep all my limbs and not cut myself with the powered mitre saw.
It was a ‘cheap’ thing (as these things go), but it cut the wood like it wasn’t even there.
Of course I made the basic mistake of not measuring what lenght  I needed … but that is a me problem.

[pagan8th 14584xp 2]

It was theoretical. no publishing in my immediate future. ai always spark conversation and that’s what forums are for.

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