From ChrisW: Work space & introduction

 

No mountains or buttes this year!  (I promise)

Hello everyone!

My name is Chris and I hail from Ottawa, Canada. I have been in the hobby, on and off, since the early/mid 1970's. I have a  BLOG under my alter ego Menelduir, that I try to post to regularly, but these last 3 years have seen less gaming activity to report on. This main blog also has links to my other blogs that cover off on painting/building,  role playing games and VSF.  Please visit anytime and if you do please feel free to leave a comment.

My gaming life started with this book by Terence Wise. From there I progressed through Airfix rule books, various other historical games and then Warhammer. I have of course branched out beyond these early days into any number of genres with unfinished projects in all of them! A current favorite is Pulp Alley a small skirmish game for which I have amassed few hundred miniatures (exact numbers unknown but gads it must be 500+ at least, madness!) I have recently experienced a revival of interest in fantasy gaming courtesy of Fantastic Battles, a fun little game. As a result of this renaissance I have been dusting off my old collection, rebasing, retouching and in some cases repainting many of my old items. Occasionally I get around to painting some new items, maybe in this challenge!

As I approach my 62nd birthday I look back on my hobby life with mixed feelings. I certainly have had fun gaming and painting over the years but despite my long time in the hobby (at least on paper) I must confess that too many things interrupted my hobby activities (marriage, divorce, work, dating, family, human interactions, dogs, etc) resulting in my not gaming or working on my hobby craft skills nearly as much as I should have.  Now that I am retired, relatively settled, and dog less, I technically have more time to embrace my hobbies, but all too often I lack the motivation and/or focus to get things done. I still do not play enough games and gaming has always been the main inspirational driving force to increase my production. That is where this challenge enters the picture, it is the impetus I need to get stuff done.

But enough of this introspective rambling, on to brighter things!😀

This is my second AHPC that I have signed up for, AHPC XII being my first. I had a great deal of fun last year and was more productive than I could have ever imagined. However that production did not carry on after the challenge as I quickly returned to my old bad habits. So once again I rely on the challenge to force me to be more productive. Last year I was, perhaps, overly active in the challenge, pushing myself to the limit, and becoming quite compulsive. It came with a price as there were times when I could feel the muscles throbbing in my neck and back from being hunched over so much, but no pain no gain, right? 

This year I hope to be not so focused that I miss out on the rest of the challenge. Last year I summed up my involvement admonishing myself for not having looked up from the painting table long enough to see what other participants were doing. That will not happen this year. This time around I will take it a bit easier, I will look in on others throughout the week, I will take the time to 'smell the paint' so to speak, and wallow in the skills and accomplishments of others.

So this was supposed to be an introduction and a presentation of my painting area. I seem to have gone off on a tangent haven't I? Well here is my new painting area. 

Guides to the left, photo booth to the right, basing materials above, assorted supplies below and space for me in the middle.

I may have a paint addiction!

This was set up in June of this year. HERE is the post that talks about the 'great reorganization' of my room. The painting area is a brighter more spacious set up than I have been using for the last 10 years and marks a high water mark for my hobby areas in general. It is excessively lit by daylight bright LED lights (it has almost no natural light). There is room to have all my paints in easy reach, along with all my flocking basing materials and hobby guides. It also has plenty of space for many of my partially painted projects and I have room behind my chair to allow me to kick myself away from the table when a break is required. You can see a small TV and a stand with my Kindle Fire while my stereo is within reach to the right so I am surrounded by entertainment while I paint. I find that I sometimes like to listen to audio commentaries while I paint, along with listening to music and even listening to old favorite movies that I do not really need to be watched to be enjoyed. The kindle fire is where I cue up YouTube how to videos.

My previous painting area was crammed in next to the gaming table, merely turning my chair often resulted in the knocking over of anything near the gaming table edge. 

 

Dark, chaotic and cramped!

No room to 'kick back'

This new area is the culmination of decades of progression from small trays that had to be put away in between hobby sessions, to slightly larger small tables to repurposed desks that really never suited the task. In those days the process of setting up and digging out what I was going to paint often kiboshed the activity before it started.

I am fortunate to have found a spouse and a house that would allow me the space to set up such a permanent hobby area. Only 50 some odd years in the making!

So, what will I be focusing on this year you might ask? Well when I stop laughing I will tell you. 

You see, I have no ability to focus on anything, this will be another squirrel year for me. My one good quality is that I try to always prime and base anything that I buy as soon as possible. It allows me to immediately start painting something should the urge grab me. I dislike prep work and in the past it has been an obstacle to starting projects, so better get it done early. However I have found a few hundred miniatures that I missed and I have been priming them this week, just in case.

So possible items to paint this year

1. 17th century sailors
2. French/Indian war
3. Silver Bayonet
4. Renaissance pike and halberd units
   
5. Dr Who
6. Pulp
7. 20mm WWII
8. Warhammer fantasy
9. Epic 40K
10. WH 40K
11. All Quiet on the Martian Front
12. VSF
13. Back of beyond
14. Frostgrave
15. Dystopian wars
16. 15mm sci fi
17. Wild west and any number of other genres just lying about the gaming room
    

 I can hardly wait for this to start, have fun everyone!

 

Oh I just remembered maybe I can work on some Napoleonic 1/700 ships, or maybe the 28mm ships, then again there is also the...oh never mind😉