Becoming One With The Hobby

Immersing ones self into this hobby of ours is a wonderful, but also potentially hazardous journey. Let me explain... so, as mentioned previously in my post about painting progress, momentum and how easy it can be to get bogged down, I feel that there is a huge 'mental' element involved in painting/hobbying for a lot of us toy soldier collectors. The exposure to, whether on Blogs or Facebook groups for example, gorgeously painted models and thus the ability which many experienced hobbyists possess can be quite off putting if compared to ones own standards (if they aren't quite as good).

I was having a conversation in the pub recently where I was showing a couple of non hobbyists work chums my work (specifically my Cypher and Drod Pod) via photos on my iPad. This conversation took place a good 4 or 5 pints in to the evening so was rather lively but I remember saying that although objectively I am happy with my standard and I can see that my ability is slowly improving, on one level I am always disappointed with my models and that they are a million miles away from the quality of some painters. I cant imagine that I am alone in feeling this way and so find it fascinating that something which we love doing can elicit such contrary feelings.

Of course the flip side of any potential negative effects of getting balls deep in to the hobby is that there is no limit to the potential inspiration one can find out there on the t'interwebs. All our hobby blogs, Facebook groups, gaming clubs etc are such a wonderful source of ideas, tips/tricks and general awesomeness.

Personally I love seeing what others create and the blog scene is fantastic and I would love to hear anyone's thoughts or experiences relating to what I have written in this post.

Thanks for reading :)