We are a unique group of individuals, you and I. We collect little things, play with little things, obsess with little things :)
I love collecting small scale miniatures. The assembling and painting, well...it doesnt always happen, but I'll spend hours pouring over army lists and working on finding proxy models, etc. Once these armies have been ordered, they usually sit :( BUT I have them, and they'll be ready when I am.
The frustrating part of this hobby is finding or getting into a game years after it's heyday has passed - in my case, Epic Armageddon and Warmaster come to mind. You'll find someone's post about the perfect model to proxy for something, but the company that makes that model disappeared years ago, or something along those lines.
The closing announcement of Exodus Wars this week brought this little truth to light once again:
http://www.taccmd.tacticalwargames.net/viewtopic.php?f=76&t=29959
We, as a community, are served by some pretty amazing people; people with skills, talents, dreams, motivation, and even personal lives, tragedy, concern, loss and failure. We are niche community, hungering for more and more, but all in all, things in this hobby are fleeting. The items wont be around forever, nor will the creative minds who bring us these things.
As far as Exodus Wars goes, I have 2 huge armies in bags waiting to be assembled, so I'm good there - but I've wanted models from Microworld Games and now Onslaught Miniatures for some time. I know I don't have the funds to grab huge amounts of models that I want, and who knows - maybe in these individual cases they'll both be very successful and I'll have my decade to wait - but maybe not.
Then there are the giving souls who make being a part of this gaming community so rewarding. As I've delved into the world of 10mm fantasy, I have decided to stick with 6mm terrain as I don't find the size difference too jarring - and I do have an awful lot of 6mm sci-fi anyway. In particular, dealing with and purchasing from Mick at Leven Miniatures has been fantastic. His customer service and responsiveness has been refreshing, and his models, well...so cool!
The most recent treat was during a recent order, I asked if a particular building type (a forge or blacksmith's shop) would ever be on his radar - to which he responded that he was actually already in the process of making one! He kept me appraised during the creative process, and is shipping out a prototype with my other stuff this week. It's stuff like this that makes me want to continue contributing with my dollars to this community of ours, so that it can keep growing and thriving.
I'll wrap this up with a few of the "small" people that I'm happy to have interacted with recently - not a complete list, not trying to dis anyone by omission, etc...:
Leven Miniatures for levels of awesomeness as already described
Brent Spivey of Bombshell Games for his group rules and responsiveness on the forums
Pendraken Miniatures
Robert at Shogun Miniatures for his great magnetic bases
Yea...this is a pointless task because soon I'll be thanking the entire world.
Let me wrap this up:
Buy now - the items you want may not be available forever!
About Me
- Kealios Achilles-Fang
- My name is Gavin McClements. I am a wargamer and family man, living in Los Gatos, which is a suburb of San Jose, CA. Building terrain is one of my favorite aspects of the wargaming hobby - in fact, lately I've become more interested in making my battlefields "pop" than in actually playing.
Oh Gavin, where do I begin! The long and inglorious list of my own collection(s) would fill a page! As for myself I (now) just buy what looks cool to me and bash the rules together to make it playable, and as I am retired army and the vast majority of my
ReplyDeleteold gamming friends have moved on I do allot of solo work...) That said EBAY is my
constant friend to find the obscure and OOP , and as I almost never use them as intended by the manufacture it works for me....But you are right about one thing , buy
it when you see it and horde it ....)
Love it. This was actually one of those ramblings I posted (just today) that I really didnt even expect to be viewed, let alone commented on :)
ReplyDeleteI'm a huge proponent of "Build You Own" games, so Mayhem by Brent Spivey for fantasy, and Im desperately awaiting Polyversal for sci-fi - but yea, cool looking toys take the cake! Thanks for taking the time to reply.
A pleasure.
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