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Just wondering what it is that makes people love their mini painting/wargaming hobby?

For me its the painting, i find it so meditative. Coming in from a hard day at work, putting on some music and having a beer whilst painting some minis really chills me out. Then using these models in sociable games with friends is incredibly satisfying.

The community.

Pretty much everyone I now know is directly or indirectly through gaming at my local GW - gamers past and present.

In terms of the hobby itself, definitely building the kits. There's just something satisfying about it.

For me it's creation. Pure, limitless, multi-faceted creation.

All my hobbies have involved this to some extent, photography, fiction writing, music production/DJing, (even computer games like Minecraft, Little Big Planet and NWN1). But none do it as well as Warhammer.

I create miniatures through building and painting. I create squads and regiments by grouping them together and then I create armies. I can create back stories for my miniatures, I create gaming suppliments and rules (like my Hinterlands project), I can create photos of my miniatures and logos for my projects, I get to create blogs and battle reports and articles and with my opponents I get to create an exciting narrative in my games.

No other hobby can offer anything close to that. :-)

The chicks.

I mostly love modeling and painting, rarely get to play that much these days.. that doesn't stop me from buying of course. But when I'm playing more often my buying is more focused on one game/army, rather than now when it's more like anything that looks pretty. It was tough to resist that new lord of change. I managed to, but I still hear him calling sometimes in the dead of night when I'm alone.

It's a hobby I kinda/sorta share with my father which is cool (he does normal model stuff, and I do wargaming stuff). Gives us something to chat about, we buy each other hobby tools for birthdays and holidays etc. Trade tips of painting, lighting, brushes etc.

Painting is a good way for me to zone out , even though I don't really enjoy it. I love finishing something...just because I now have something I didn't have before. I can't paint very well freehand and I can't really draw so applying paint to a model is about the closest thing I'll do to being artsy.

I like the people. My gaming group is excellent even though I'm now 200 miles from them. We're all quite different people from completely different walks of life with vastly different political views etc. None of that really matters when we get together to play a game or three. It was with my current group that I came to appreciate the "host the game" mentality. I enjoy catering to people when gaming. I like running large, spectacular looking games. I like hosting small events at my place, etc.

I like conventions a lot. I think I speak for a lot of folks here when I say that I feel extremely comfortable at a gaming convention - the "my people" feeling. I'm old enough now that I don't care if someone thinks I'm odd because I play with toy soldiers. They can piss off.

The best bit is building the models. Back in my Lego days, I followed the instructions, and tweaked the original designs a bit. With wargaming, I use magnets, and a bit of kitbashing to get the same result.
Painting isn't really my thing, but it is the middle part of the models and the games. Fielding unpainted models looks wrong. Tinkering with airbrushes helps there. Hardware to make the painting less of a chore.
The games are a reason to model (and paint), and get me out of the house. That might be a good thing, depending on who is asking.

Mordian2016 wrote:
Just wondering what it is that makes people love their mini painting/wargaming hobby?

For me, its a combination of the painting and modeling aspect and the social aspect. That's why I chose miniature gaming over video/computer gaming. I've been painting and collecting miniatures most of my life and I've met some really great people I call friends over the years as a gamer.

Definitely love the building of the miniatures, they look awesome, and its really cool to see the lore ive been reading for over a decade come to life. It also helps that now i all adult like i can actually afford to buy some new miniatures nearly whenever i want =D I used to love lego and micromachines when i was younger, so probably a natural progression. And its awesome looking back and seeing how much your "army" has grown in all its majestic glory, all laid out in formation. Everyone has that inner kid in them somewhere when they see something like a cool car or army gak and just go "AWESOME MAN".

Also although i dont get to play to often i do really enjoy the actual game. Its wonderfully complicated but kinda exciting because after crunching all those numbers, and planning out the "perfect" force, you're still at the mercy of the dice gods, and if you have not paid enough of a tribute, they will most definitely abandon you xD

Personally, im not a fan of the painting, its sometimes nice to get a six pack and paint for an evening, but i find the building more relaxing/enjoyable. I could do that gak for days.

Buying Games workshop models. Spending money on new purchases.

From a collecting standpoint, I really like building the miniatures, and applying base coats and most of the painting that is relatively easy. I get a little frustrated at times with some of the detail work - I have shaky hands - but it's still rewarding to finish a model and feel good about it.

The toys.

The rules give me something to do with them, with friends.

Painting makes them look good.

But in the end, to me, they're a bunch of toys I get to imagine and play with.

-The Spectacle of painted armies clashing on beautiful terrain.
It's what got me into wargaming and I like it so much that if I'm as happy GM'ing a convention game as I am playing myself. I try to achieve a high aesthetic level with every game I play.

-The friends I've made through wargaming.
Many of whose wives have also become friends of my wife and I.

-Building terrain.
My favorite part of the "hobby" itself, especially toybashing. I love hacking apart and recombining castoff toys into dystopian sci-fi futuristic terrain.

Two of my biggest passions in life are gaming (particularly strategic/tactical games with lots of depth) and art... and its a wonderful combination of both.

I've always been drawn to things that have a high level of mastery and I feel like this hobby has that in abundance, wether its painting/sculpting or mastering complex game systems. In recent years I've been more and more disappointed with video games and their focus being on everything but what i consider the most important part of a good game... THE GAMEPLAY MECHANICS, which have unfortunately become very dumbed down and shallow as it has become more mainstream.. TT games are just raw unadulterated gameplay without all the bs and I love them for that.

Meeting and spending time with like minded people is always a good thing too.

I also feel like this hobby is very beneficial to staying mentally sharp as you age,

I've always loved the painting, individual figs, squads, armies. I've also always loved playing with toy soldiers, from the days when I would cover the living room floor with little green army men to hauling a bag of miniatures half way around the country for an event.

Assembling, ideas, planning. Conversions and kitbashing.

Coming around on painting but, I'm just not there yet.

 Stormwall wrote:
Assembling, ideas, planning. Conversions and kitbashing.

Coming around on painting but, I'm just not there yet.

Seconded.

All the level-headed, well-argued discussions I can read online.

Reminiscing.

The people whom i play with is what makes me stick with this hobby, i get to hang iut with nice people. play a few games on a almost weekly basis. In addition i like the bulding and such, although it takes a lot of time

Actually getting to play. I hate building and painting but won't play unpainted stuff.

Last year I had every model I owned painted. Now I've got 15 Battletech minis, 19 GSC cultists, and 22 stormcast eternal vanguard models to paint.

 privateer4hire wrote:


Last year I had every model I owned painted.

How come you're not dead?

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:

 privateer4hire wrote:
Last year I had every model I owned painted.

How come you're not dead?

Being dead doesn't stop some people from posting...
Or, there's a level of deification from finishing a collection.

I'll take the second one....it's in keeping!

(for those unaware, it's a well known fact that when a hobbyist paints every model in their collection - they die)

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I'll take the second one....it's in keeping!

(for those unaware, it's a well known fact that when a hobbyist paints every model in their collection - they die)

The modelling, the "making" aspect of it.

The playing is something I get to use them for afterwards, but isn't the reason for the making. It's a bonus.

The trolls, they work their little socks off making idiots of themselves for everybody's entertainment.

"to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly game where no one has gamed before"

I have been playing with my dad for nearly 20 years. IT is literally the only thing that kept my family together through many rough years.

Also it is a lot of fun, the 40k universe is so great and I have learned a lot about life and dealing with my emotions from the novels(especially the gaunt's ghosts books) and in a warped way they helped build my empathy. Because if I can understand the mentality behind a genocidal inquisitor I can learn to have SOME empathy for people on the other side of the political spectrum.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
I'll take the second one....it's in keeping!

(for those unaware, it's a well known fact that when a hobbyist paints every model in their collection - they die)

There's a loophole. If you have everything painted then it means you won't be able to find any gaming within whatever systems you use.
Thus, I had to expand into games I'm not really keen on (don't hate 'em just don't love 'em) to find players in my stuff.
That's why after years of trying and selling off battletech stuff I now have multiple mechs and battle armor.

My gaming buddy likes BT Alpha Strike and I like AoS. Swapped him chaos for stompy robots so now I have stuff to paint again.
That and I picked up the expansion for Stormcasts when they came out