This evening was a wash hobby-wise. I had planned to work on some
Gambusian campaign stuff. Instead, I took my daughter to swim practice,
followed by dinner, followed by planting strawberry seedlings at 7:00 in
the evening....in the rain. Long story, but I had to get that done and
over with or I'd never hear the end of it.
So, by the
time I checked over my daughter's homework, played a little with son (as
much as one can play with a two-month-old), and answered a number of
annoying work-related emails, it was too late for anything.
Additionally, my mother-in-law is using the "Soldier Room," as my
daughter calls it, as her bedroom, and she likes to retire early. Its
10:10 PM and I should be making up a lab exam for tomorrow. Instead I've
been reading the various postings over TMP. There is an interesting
post on the message board: "Why haven't you started that period?"
It got me thinking about projects past, present, and potential, and why
I continued with some and not others. Here is my list in roughly
chronological order of various projects over the years with very brief
status for each. I will try to make it as painless as possible:
1.
Fanatasy/medieval 25mm. Began in the 70s and collected a lot until the
mid 80s, or whenever Ral Partha went out of business. As much as I loved
painting them, they were getting too expensive to build large armies,
and I really didn't have the space to game with them. Had a few battles
over the years. Now sit in storage in my parents' home.
2.
Napoleonics 15mm/20mm. Started with 15s in the 70s; ended up with 1/72
Arfix. Never collected enough for a decent game. Interest died out by
the time I graduated high school.
3. WWII Microarmor. Started in the 70s and I am still
actively collecting and painting, however, I have not had a game in
several years. I have a pretty good collection of American, British, and
Germans. More recently, I started on the Soviets, but have not worked
on them much.
4. WWII Naval 1/2400. Started in the 70s and was very
active until the early 90s. Built most of my own ships! Had many epic
sea battles in school parking lots on weekend with friends. Never really
lost interest, but no one to game with. A number of new rules out there
occasionally tempt me.
5. Fantasy/medieval/ancient 15mm. As I was burning out
on 25mm, I turned to 15mm and never looked back. I am not as actively
working on them lately as I used to, but I have probably about five
different armies, maybe 10 if I use DBA or HOTT rules. Over the years,
I've played a number of games. I don't expect to ever tire of them.
6.
Modern microarmor. Twenty years ago, I swore I'd never be interested in
modern (post-WWII) warfare. I take back my words. I started about five
(?) years ago, and have grown more and more interested. I have no clue
what got me interested, but here I am.
7. Modern air combat 1/300 & 1/600. Grew out of my interest in modern microarmor.
8. Modern naval 1/600 & 1/6000. Again, grew out of my interest in modern microarmor.
9. WWII 15mm. I started collecting and painting them about eight years ago. I thought they'd be more visually appealing than microarmor. Yes, they are, but then I remembered why I gave up 25mm fantasy and medieval figures. The same reasoning seemed to hold with these.
10. Sci-fi ground combat 15mm. Very recent; maybe the
last year or two. OK, why these when I gave up WWII 15mm? I blame all
these 15mm companies and their great figures that they continue to put
out. Besides, I don't feel like have to put large numbers of troops on the field to have a sci-fi game.
11. Sci-fi/post-apocalyptic skirmish 28mm. I keep
planning to have this multi-player game during my holiday visits back to
the Motherland (Chicago). I keep forgetting to bring the figures with
me, but I keep painting up new figures for the occasion when I remember
to bring them.
Projects I have yet to start or never started:
1.
Starship combat. In college, when not playing D&D, we would play
various boardgames. There were a number of starship combat games that we
liked to play. I am also a sucker for epic space battles, both on the
silver screen and in science fiction novels. I think about it a lot
lately, especially in conjunction with my 15mm sci-fi.
2. American Civil War/American War of Independence. I've always enjoyed reading up on the history of these two comflicts. When I was into boardgames, two of my favorites were Avalon Hill's Gettysburg, and 1776. I think what's holding me back is just the idea of starting another project, both in terms of time and money. I
would definitely want to play these at the regimental or brigade level.
Recently, I bought some Civil War ironclad naval rules. I'm tempted to
build my own ships, like I did for WWII. I reason that they'll be a lot
more simple and faster to build than WWII ships.
H-m-m. I can't think of anything else. I am sure that many of you out there are like me: moving from one period to another. I'd be interested in hearing how far your interests meander and where you've taken your meanderings.
Tolkien about Heroic Fantasy
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*“One game to bring them in….and in the expansion, bind them!” The 1st
edition base game and the Battles of the Third Age expansion*
Some time ago I a...
11 minutes ago
Sounds something like me, I have collections in.
ReplyDeleteAncients - 1/72, 15mm
Medieval - 1/72, 15mm, 28mm
Samurai - 15mm
Napoleonics - 15mm, 1/72, 28mm
ACW - 1/72
WWI - 1/72
WWII - 15mm, 1/72, 28mm
Sci-fi - 15mm, 28mm
Space ship gaming
Fantasy - 15mm, 28mm
I keep getting drawn into different periods and scales by the minis, and other peoples work, I would like to reduce my collections to 1 scale per period, but just can't bare to part with my collections.
My favorite collections are 15mm SciFi, and 15mm/28mm Napoleonics, I love Sci Fi for the freedom of converting and creating anything you want, and the Napoleonic period for the style of warfare and range of uniforms, WWII comes in a close 3rd, I grew up making WWII plastic models, and have maybe 400-500 unmade plastic kits in my collection.