In the Grim Dark Future, there is war, and blogging about said war. Also blogging about anything and everything else going on. Blogging is a thankless job most times, and while our online community is pretty awesome in general as we celebrate all things Grim Dark, hobby, and miniature related. Seldom is the curtain pulled back to shine a light behind the scenes. The people who devote themselves to the dark god's of blogging work away frantically keeping the posts flowing. So in this series we will be speaking to some of our communities most dedicated. Getting a small glimpse into the minds of our fellow bloggers, and pillars of our online world. To get this glimpse a short series of questions went out into the warp, and these are the bloggers who responded.
Today we speak with 2501 from Musings of a Metal Mind
Musings of the Metal Mind is a fantastic conversion site. 2501 does painting and conversion work for a price. (Everyone has a price) His work is fantastic and speaks for itself, he generally has a mecha theme or mechanical conversations. He has done some really fantastic Admech stuff and normally has sprinkling of mech stuff in general showing up on his site not just 40k related. This is definitely a site you should be following for some hobby inspiration.
Please list all the sites you write for.
Well, Musings of a Metal Mind (my blog) is the only site I write for. I've been approach to write for others (and had other people ask me to write for mine) but the latter would go against the intent of the blog, and I've little time these days to commit to the former.
What originally got you into blogging?
I've always written as sort of a hobby, and when I was laid off from ‘09-’11, it became more of a therapy tool to keep myself sane. The sense of purposelessness during that period was very depressing, as anyone who has been unemployed well knows, and I was really doubting whether the whole deal (yes, I mean life) was worth continuing. Blogging kept me engaged day by day and gave me sense of purpose.
Is there a story behind your blogs name?
I kicked around a bunch of names, and this is the one that stuck.
Can you name two articles you have written in the past you really enjoy and why?
A lot of people really responded to my Tyranid/Necron hybrids, the Tyracrons, (especially General Grievous )and while the project is mostly over, new ones continue to trickle out now and again as new Necron units (and of course, the new Tyranid codex) show up. People really loved the things, and I’m already at work on a new General-class unit.
How do you keep up with blogging and how much time does it take up out of your personal life?
Sadly, I haven’t been able to keep up with it as much as I want to, due to having less time to dole out to hobbies and personal life now. I want and mean to get back into it more, and have a backlog of models to photograph and document. Usually photographing, photo-processing, and the actual writing takes several hours, which means finding an entire afternoon/evening to devote.
Are there some really great blogs that inspire you or that you would like to shout out?
There really are too many to list, but I’ll try to hit the main ones. I’m always amazed and astounded by the work of Klaus Fischer over at Deci Grecii Most of his work is scratch built from card and green stuff, and he’s been working on this amazing airship, the Athena, forever. It’s been a real journey watching him refine the features and details of this thing.
Dave Taylor was the inspiration for my AdMech Imperial Guard army, and continues to turn out fascinating projects.
Mordian 7th turns out excellent work at a prolific rate, building up excellent armies and then ebaying them to fund the next one, a practice that mystifies me, but is also a great way to produce the broadest spectrum of work.
Tears of Envy’s blog(NSFW) is an excellent collection of the esoteric and wonderfully strange, with a bit of old-school sci-fi and fringe culture thrown in. If you haven’t been to her blog yet, go there now and poke around. She’s also an excellent designer in her own right with a portfolio full of interesting projects from the gaming industry and beyond.
There are many others that I do include on my blogroll; these are just the ones at the front of my mind.
If you had one tip for a newer blogger what would you tell them?
If you had one tip for a newer blogger what would you tell them?
For the hobbyist; a picture is worth a thousand words. Get yourself a decent camera with a great macro setting (not hard to do) and lighting setup (you can get lights on the cheap, and shelf paper and a cardboard box for next to nothing). Learn a little Photoshop so you can compensate for anything that goes wrong during shooting, and in general have fun with it.
Type as you’d talk and be as verbose as possible; we can’t hear what’s inside your head, so tell us! More than that, read as much as you can and refine your command of the language; it goes a long way towards making your blog intelligible and interesting to read. Keep it fresh and entertaining so we’ll want to come back and keep up with what you've been doing.
Lastly, get out there and be active in the blogging community; cross-promote with other blogs, add them to your blogroll, and comment in their comment sections. You don’t have to do it every day, but don’t forget about people either. This is a cooperative community, and you’ll learn a lot by just being active and communicating with people.
Any final words before we wrap this thing up?
Any final words before we wrap this thing up?
Don’t limit yourself. You might start with GW models or Reaper fantasy minis, but branch out and include other things. You’ll be surprised at what you can do and the feedback you’ll get when you head outside your comfort zone and really try something new.
Special Thanks to 2501 for taking the time to chat with us. It's always vastly interesting to see who inspires other hobbyist and what makes them continue to do what they do. In this case we saw how the online community and blogging actually helped one of our own through some hard times. Something that has to be respected, it can be so easy to forget that another person put time and effort into what we can be so critical of when we randomly jump on to a site. Blogging can also quickly turn into a chore, so it's really cool to see the other side where it was actually used as a outlet and some therapy.
If you haven't seen them before the two articles he mentioned above can be found below.
Ghost in the Shell Tachikomas building a Fuchikoma model out of Tau battlesuit parts
http://musingsofametalmind.blogspot.com/2012/02/tauchikomatic-tutorial-how-to-build.html
General Grievous
http://musingsofametalmind.blogspot.com/2010/07/tyracron-update-general-grievous.html
Special Thanks to 2501 for taking the time to chat with us. It's always vastly interesting to see who inspires other hobbyist and what makes them continue to do what they do. In this case we saw how the online community and blogging actually helped one of our own through some hard times. Something that has to be respected, it can be so easy to forget that another person put time and effort into what we can be so critical of when we randomly jump on to a site. Blogging can also quickly turn into a chore, so it's really cool to see the other side where it was actually used as a outlet and some therapy.
If you haven't seen them before the two articles he mentioned above can be found below.
Ghost in the Shell Tachikomas building a Fuchikoma model out of Tau battlesuit parts
http://musingsofametalmind.blogspot.com/2012/02/tauchikomatic-tutorial-how-to-build.html
General Grievous
http://musingsofametalmind.blogspot.com/2010/07/tyracron-update-general-grievous.html
If you aren't already following Musing of a Metal mind you should head over there and check it out!
Thanks for joining us today and keep an eye out as we have several of these coming down the pipe for the series. As always feedback, and comments are more than welcome, and if there is a blog or blog author you would like to see highlighted please feel free to speak up or shoot me an email and I will see what I can do.