BartekR - Challenge XIII FNG deployment - “Hey Sarge, which end of the brush do I point at the enemy?”

G’day,

Next up at the crease/batting plate of introductions: I’m Bartek (or Bart, or BartekR in case there is another Bartek here), from Canberra, Australia. You can also call me 'The FNG'. Long time lurker, having followed the challenge (and Curt’s gaming shed build) from the shadows for some years, first-time participant. Excited but with no small degree of trepidation.

This pretty much sums it up

The hobby space – where it will all go down

My hobby room, library and study/office are all wrapped up in a compact 2.9 x 2.4m space, with a desk reserved for what I think is a decent hobby set up. All the essentials are there - paint and tool racks, and reference books - as good as it is, some of the other posts have prompted workstation envy. My PC table in the middle, the opposite wall is an ongoing battle for shelf space between more reference books, wargames rules, role-playing titles, magazines and boardgames. Given space constraints, this is not were my hoard lives, and the real challenge with the Challenge will be what I do with anything I paint – we (two cats, two humans) live in a small (by Canberra standards) 1950s ex-government cottage. But, that's tomorrow's problem...

Compact...and largely untested

Gaming pedigree – please allow me to introduce myself…

Being heavily hooked on to military history since childhood, I was an easy mark to get into gaming (I grew up in Poland – in the bad old days – and everyone in my grandparents generation and above were touched by war, so accounts of Poland’s historical conflicts were as ready as mother’s milk). I got into gaming in what I suspect is pretty much a well-worn path for others around my age. Gateways of scale models, plastic 1/7X figures, library loans (Ospreys, Featherstone’s Wargames Through the Ages and Quarrie’s Tank Battles in Miniature title on Russia  were repeat loans) and second-hand copies of Sven Hassel novels and Military Modelling. Early ‘wargaming’ was fairly hands on and kinetic – I like to think of it retrospectively as harking back to H.G. Wells: trench systems dug in the back yard were plastic soldiers would be exposed to fireworks, lighter-and-spray flamethrowers and sniper rocks or marbles. My first Citadel set (Dungeon Adventurers Starter Set) came courtesy of CANCON ’86.

Somewhere in all that along came Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader (Battletech came a poor second, on the back of memories of the Robotech tv series). Games were played on dining tables and floors with often reckless interpretation of the rules –and yes, we did use repurposed household items as vehicles (all fear the Imperial Army’s latest mark of tracked shampoo bottle armour, with its heavy converted Panzer IV turret!). Alongside this reading, a steady drip of reading (but not playing) RPGs (Warhammer Fantasy, Twilight 2000, and Call of Cthulhu).

Fast forwarding montage through the years – uni, time in crap campus bands, relationships/breakups, group houses, booze, jobs. All very much devoid of gaming bar PC games, easy empty calories and no storage impost. Then, in 2003, I found myself doing shiftwork with access to eBay on the work system (long blocked) and some extra pennies. Thus began the last two decades (minus) of the Golden Hoard(ing) - interspersed with more of the above real life distractions, deployments and postings overseas. Given I fall foul of the butterfly ‘oh look so shiny’ effect like a cat to an unsupervised steak, the end result is a somewhat overwhelming stash of historical, fantasy and scifi miniatures and models.   

The problem with all this accumulation (pile of shame, stash etc) is that embarrassingly little hobby has been done over the time). Insert here a touch of imposter syndrome – feeling like the MAMIL with a $10K bike which is only ridden down to the local café. [I’d echo ChrisW's intro post remarks about regret at not building up skills in the time given; for me, with often failing motivation despite best wishful thinking]. Lack of habit and headspace (mindfulness/focus...call it what you will) to hobby regularly has been a big issue. Doing something about this is a 2023 resolution, as is finding time to do the things I enjoy around other demands.

Cat companions Oscar and Satchel - counting down the days

Approach to the Challenge – eating an elephant

Reading about people’s prep has reminded me of that old saying, ‘prior preparation prevents p… poor performance’ – well…I’m definitely the recruit running down the road trying to work out how to wear webbing. To date, not a single figure has been undercoated so far. (In my defence I did get back a few months ago from 2+ years of FIFO work overseas so the past weeks have been spent getting back into normal life rhythms, doing work around the house including lining the (bloody) legacy metal shed before it become a sweat box in summer – I did at least set up the painting station set up. 

So, what’s my approach to the Challenge? The adage ‘slow is smooth, smooth is fast’ (if slow is baby steps stumbling all over the place) is a good one here: building habits and getting better is my aim here. Beyond its motivational boost, it’ll be very much an exercise in staking out painting/hobby time as a regular habit and (re)developing basic skills – a crash course in painting techniques across scales and themes. I’ll also using it as a vehicle to revive a very defunct (and currently utterly empty) blog (by all means, take the bait and click the link – it’s mostly an empty page with a fancy font title).

Given that aim, I’m not looking to progress projects per se rather spreading myself across scales and genres for the practice. And having read the AHPC Studios Challenge, I suspect know I will be sucked into that. The shortlist includes:

And so onto the elevator to hell…going down. YAAAHOOOOO...