Here’s to growing up with the tabletop miniature hobby…
Childhood. Another rainy day. A group of you. Packed into your friends bedroom.
Sprawled out on the carpet, battle rages. On all fours, you manoeuvre your forces through the crude cardboard terrain.
Your army advances. Barely a quarter of them decorated in your rustic painting style. Most of your troops wearing that uniformed plastic grey. The odd metal warrior gleams amidst their ranks.
Hastily glued together. Visible mold lines. Lumps and bumps from their birthing sprues. You drive them forward.
The chunky rulebooks you barely understand. Play pauses to debate a point of conflict.
You lie that you read something in White Dwarf. A special that rule lets you wipe out an entire enemy unit because you rolled a 3. There are no smartphones. There is no internet. Who can prove you wrong?
The rain lets up and cabin fever sets in. It’s back outside to play. But there’s a rematch a few days later. This time on your mum’s dining table.
Nearly two hours to set up. Everything just right. Those same armies size each other up from opposite ends of the table.
Everything just right? Well, maybe not. Adjust a few pieces. Do we have any more scenery? Standing over the table. Admiring.
Finally, battle commences. It’s turn after turn of tape measures. Advancing. Moving into position. Closer and closer they get. But then it’s dinner time and you’re ordered to tidy it all away. Not an arrow fired. Not a blow struck.
You’re going to paint your army. All of them. You’re going to get it all done. Soon.
A large Goblin Green stain adorns your bedroom carpet. There was trouble when it happened. You were more upset about the paint.
You’re going to get more miniatures. When you have the money. You’ve picked them all out. Pouring over the catalogue pages at the back of White Dwarf. You’ve even filled in the postal slip form.
The years roll by. Older. Other interests turn your head. The worlds of relationships and alcohol begging to be explored.
Gradually less painting. Gradually less gaming. A slow thing at first.
Then college, university, or work. You move out. Or decide to decorate your room. Either way, things have changed.
Your still largely unpainted force go into a box. Veterans of many campaigns. The unpainted infantryman with the bent spear. That cavalry regiment who shed infinite amounts of flock. The hero with the eyes painted like he’s undergoing an eternal prostate examination.
All of them, into the box. At ease, soldier. Stand down.
They stare up at you as the box lid shuts. The world goes black.
Ring Any Bells?
Alright, so no two hobby experiences are the same. But there are many similarities.
Similar childhood experiences. Similar reasons for stopping. Similar reasons for eventually coming back.
Maybe you have kids of your own now. Maybe you simply walked past a shop and curiosity got the better of you.
Whatever the reason, there comes a point where you open your first paint pot in decades, and think to yourself “here we go again”.
Once you’re back in, you realise how much has changed.
A monthly magazine once told you everything there was to tell. But now there’s the internet. Social media, blogs and podcasts keep you entertained and up-to-date around the clock.
So many companies. So many games. So many incredible miniatures.
You marvel at every photo you see. Everyone a master painter now. Were people always that good?
The Tabletop Miniature Hobby’s “Recently Returned”
The tabletop miniature hobby is a bit like a necromancer. It raises us from our long slumber. Adds us back into its ranks to fight once more.
Once resurrected, one of the first things I learned about was the fate of the Warhammer Old World. I remember thinking “wait… what!?”. But companies change. Things move on.
Then I discovered the concept of ‘Oldhammer’. The blogs and communities.
It was a joy to find the aesthetic that meant so much to me still being embraced and celebrated. In fact, the style is still alive and well in modern companies like Knightmare Games. They produce some fantastic miniatures.
I discovered incredible games like Mantic’s Kings of War, and Open Combat, by Second Thunder. I love these for a number of reasons.
Firstly, they helped exercise the demons of those chunky rulesets from back in the day. The having to wing it. The never actually finishing a game.
Their sleek, succinct, fat-free rules make them accessible to the beginner. And yet, they are difficult to master. Both addictive challenges that make you want to play them again and again.
There’s a more relaxed culture too. “You can use what you already have” is a refreshing break from the treadmill of always just needing that one more thing. “My hobbying will be great, as soon as I…” is a road that never ends.
Yes, many companies make their money from selling miniatures. And yes, there are more Kickstarters out there than there are stars in the sky. But jumping in maybe just doesn’t seem like the mountain it once was.
This is an entire subject of its own, and is well covered in mini series around Sustainable Gaming on the superb Paint All The Minis Podcast.
If you’re just back from a long hobby exile, I’d also recommend How Do You Start (or Get Back Into) the Miniatures Hobby?, an episode of CryinMo’s Tabletop Alchemy Podcast.
Mines are simply the ramblings of an enthusiastically returned tabletop miniature hobbyist. Nostalgic for the past, but excited for the present and future. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed, and perhaps even related to them.
And if you have, please share it out and give us a follow on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. I’d massively appreciate it 🙂
It sure does ring a bell; welcome back! I kept the fires burning for tabletop gaming when my mates turned to other things (World of Warcraft has a lot to answer for…). Starting a family sure does change your priorities though.
I’m not so much a returnee as a never-really-left, but all that about unpainted minis fighting across floors and dining tables… That was definitely a nostalgia trip for me
This is excellently written! Definitely cast me back under a wave of nostalgia lol. Welcome back from one returner to another lol. Looking forward to your new perspective on things!
Hi. So much here rings true I’m worried you other hobby is watching my house. I have recently been convinced to start minatures again by my D&D group, it’s almost 20 years exactly since i sold my Khorne army. I now have a couple of games of Open combat under my belt and plan on starting a Burrows and Badgers campaign soon
We had quite a strict rule that all models should be painted driven by our local store who would not let you play with unpainted ones, no matter how long you spent explaining the grey ghost chapter to them. We did however have many battles of Spacemarines vs all comers in the early days. All wanting to be marines against an Ork horde bolstered by a smattering of Tyranids, plauge marines, a great unclean one and a hand full of sqauts. I remember being drawn into the hobby by the weight of the solid metal (lead) models, two in particular the dreadnaught and the great unclean one were passed to me with the excited phrase ‘and you need to see this one’.
I remember many games ending early. One because a multi melta blast had done d20 damage and one shotted the greater deamon of Nurgle and without it the badies had no chance to pull things back. Another because the Callidas assasin was sat upon and the owner was too distaught to play on without her. Such drama for young boys.
In later years we would again all want to be marines but this time Chaos. New models had been released and we all began collecting. Khorne for me, Nurgle a Tzeench for my friends. We found freinds at school to join us in great six player slug fests which would last all day. The rules arguements would last all week.
My goblin green stain was in my dinning room. Caused when i pulled the chair away just as my friend sat down. The horror as i realised he had stood to reach an open pot of paint still makes me smile now. We used every bit of kitchen roll in the house but still could not soak up the watered down stain.
I think it is a shame i don’t have a single painted model from those days (I still have a gamesday Nob from my trip to the event). My painting was rushed and basic back then, just wanting to get the models ‘done’ for next weekends battle. My painting is still fairly basic but i now take my time for a bit of shading and with the aid of Youtube am slowly learning new skills. The eyes I’m afraid will always be a smudge of white and a dot of black which at best gives the model an alarmed look suggesting they have soiled themselves. At worst each eye will look in different directions like a crazed loon searching desperately for a way out. There is no Youtube video for this affliction, but maybe with practice ….
Very true. I understood so little of the rule books back then. I read rules for games I owned no figured for. I purchased figures for games I had no rules for. And I loved the setting, the story, the figures told me. I struggle to re-invigorate that passion and imagination, while understanding the rules and how to paint more than ever. Life, it is never ending change. Thank you for sharing!