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So whilst I'm sure many of us have been burying ourselves in various warhammer and wargame and model interests during the lockdown (or to escape from the madness of essential work during lockdown); I'm sure w'eve also dipped our toes into some other hobbies and interests. Perhaps using the time to rekindle a past interest or try something new. So come one come all and lets share what else we've been up too!



Myself I've dusted my moth trap off and started getting some photos of them. A few runs earlier in the year didn't get me many to the trap, mostly Muslin and Hewbrew Character moths.




However running it today got me a much more diverse haul including quite a few hawkmoths including multiple Poplar and one Puss Hawkmoth





For me this allows me to merge two interests, natural studies and photography, into one focused activity. Getting to both discover new moths and names (to me at least) and slowly expand my horizons, whilst at the same time also being able to get the camera out and mess around with lights and setups and see what I can get. Always aiming to improve what I've got. The higher magnification stuff you can see above are very challenging to get and at some point I want to get back into doing focused stacked high magnification, when you get a series of shots with that razor thin depth of field and digitally stack them to add it all together - the photos you can get with that can be awesome in the detail and depth they show that, otherwise, is nearly impossible to get otherwise with the same level of clarity.

Hmm
Video Games is the obvious one.
But my big other interest is true crime and learning about serial killers
Recently my work found out about this and I cant stop hearing the end of it!!!!

Most of my other hobbies have been affected by the shutdowns in the UK
Strength training/power lifting. Gym is shut and I havent done a deadlift for 9 weeks

Vintage. Me and my wife, aswell as most of my family, like to attend 1940s and 1950s events and clubs. We can all jive and sometimes enter contests.

some other things I've dabbled in are:

Power carving wood using my Dremel.

Leather craft. I have made my own watch straps and repaired holes in my wifes leather jacket. I also paint pin ups on leather jackets sometimes.

Sign writing. I enjoy painting letters, and have done a few pieces for friends/work colleagues. Even sent a butchers cleaver that I painted to Oregon in the US. Ties somewhat into the whole vintage/nose art iconography that I love.

Engraving. Mainly simple things like copper and brass plaques. old shell casings etc. I also engraved a Gurkha khukri blade as a leaving gift for some officer when I was on det.

Anything craft or art related I'll have a go at. I enjoy anything that combines my artistic side with my engineering hand skills.

Started painting with oil paints during corona lockdown.

First one. Mother got it as mother's day present.


Second one. 5yo niece practically stole this one She just lifted it and declared this goes to her room. Kids! Well not that I minded. Sorts issue of what to do with canvases ;-)



One for my dad.



And birthday present for daughter of my japanese friend.



In addition to this gym and books are big ones.

They are nice. I've wanted to try working with oils since I started using them on miniatures. Don't think I could work in that loose abstract style though. I'm too obsessive on details. I'd like to try some classical oil study pieces. oil paints are expensive though.

tneva neat work - interestingly Bob Ross has been appearing on UK TV's recently and has a very similar style to several of your paintings.

 Overread wrote:
tneva neat work - interestingly Bob Ross has been appearing on UK TV's recently and has a very similar style to several of your paintings.

Well that is easy to explain I ran into Bob Ross twitch streams on february so when lockdown started I followed his streams(there's some minor differences here and there on those). These are unashamedly Bob Ross style. Hell my little brother(18) said seeing "oh Bob Ross style" when he saw them I was surprised he even knew of Bob Ross as he's more into music and computer games. Didn't expect him to have heard of Ross...but then again it seems like I'm only one who hadn't known him (interestingly he was very popular in japan, another tidbit my little brother told, though there his voice wasn't heard as it was dubbed)

Base for all are from various Bob Ross episodes. Differences are like in 3rd picture I didn't cover whole water with the ground area on bottom, on 4th went for 2 smaller hills rather than 1 big mountain and cabin on right instead of left(this came during painting ad hoc decision due to left becoming too crowded).

Still plenty to work on though. Trees are particular nightmare for me.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
They are nice. I've wanted to try working with oils since I started using them on miniatures. Don't think I could work in that loose abstract style though. I'm too obsessive on details. I'd like to try some classical oil study pieces. oil paints are expensive though.

I'm happy to try abstract. I have never been good at drawing/painting so even this is pushing me hard. Thankfully Bob Ross style is reasonably easy to follow as long as you don't mind the more abstract result.

And yeah oil paints are expensive. About 12 colours Bob uses, around 8e each here(13e for 200ml rather than 40ml tube but not all colours. But for white this is money saver) and I'm on second tube on several colours. Then also liquid white/black/clear which I need to order via amazon/ebay. Well so far I have used just liquid white. The 4th one uses acrylic black paint as base over which I put various transparent colours like phtalor blue/green. So even in the black areas there's actually blue/green/crimson but they don't show on black undercoat unless you stare REALLY close. But bit of white on top of that and then grab and pull causes that northern light effect. That was technique I found interesting. But means also everything is basically painted on top of blue/green/crimson so had to keep in mind especially when I started putting white on top to ensure I don't end up with crimson snow Thinning the white(with liquid white) was needed to ensure it stays there rather than mixes with the colour below(mud mixing as Bob calls it)

And for prices...Well then number of brushes(I hate washing and easier to ensure I have clean dry one available), painting stand, plastic sheeting to cover floor, liquid to clean brushesh...initial investement was quite steep but luckily quite a lot can be multi used.

Not many things I really think of as hobbies, to be honest.

I play a few instruments but that was my full time job for a long time and after two burglaries I hardly have any gear anymore. It's an occassional passtime now, I guess.

Powerlifting is a big part of my life but I really just think of it as being healthy/grooming.

Going to gigs? That's just being a person, and promoting was also an occupation for several years.

So I guess it's really just the toy soldiers.

Comes straight to mind...




...but seriously. Jogging, chilling out in the garden, visiting National Trust locations and Duxford. Making little programs for the ZX Spectrum and Sega Megadrive.

The big thing in my life is Virtual Reality. Love my Oculus Go to bits as it has bought a childhood dream to life. Freescape games, The Lawnmower Man and Myst Exile had a huge impact on me growing up, while Star Trek's Holodeck was definitely a guiding light. I wasn't all that struck on the show back in the day, but that part facinated me. I have two skills which are computer programming and 3D modelling, and thanks to VR I can pursue both.

Here's a hint. Oh, I made this myself.



Most people would not consider my current PC project a high end one, but sod 'em It's the best I could afford and dollar for dollar it'll crush most "game rigs" that sell in stores covered in flashy lights and full of junk parts that were installed by baboons and configured by gorillas.

Programming, albeit as an amateur. Python is my jam, followed by Java and then R. It's incredible the number of things you can come up with if you add a bit of imagination. All three of these languages are also free, if anyone else feels like giving them a shot.

Used to make tabletop games when I was a kid, but mainly for myself. If I couldn't buy a video game, I would turn it into a board game. No Pokemon Mystery Dungeon? Bootleg Dungeons and Dragons with phoned-in Mystery Dungeon stuff. No System Shock? Steal the cyber-module leveling system and convert to a tabletop RPG. I'm trying to get into this habit again to reduce the amount of time spent in front of a screen. I mentioned in an earlier thread converting the Necromunda rules to Team Fortress 2, and I'd like to see if I can get put a Crusader Kings board game together.

tneva82 wrote:
Started painting with oil paints during corona lockdown.

First one. Mother got it as mother's day present.
(snip)

Second one. 5yo niece practically stole this one She just lifted it and declared this goes to her room. Kids! Well not that I minded. Sorts issue of what to do with canvases ;-)

(snip)

One for my dad.

(snip)

And birthday present for daughter of my japanese friend.

(snip)

In addition to this gym and books are big ones.

Those are gorgeous! I love the way the mountains "pop out" like that. Nicely done!

I've been doing basically nonstop gardening and home improvement. We managed to squeak our move to our first house juuuust before the lockdown went into effect, and went and rented a van from Home Depot and bought a couple thousand dollars of supplies for various projects I've been working on with my partner.

So far, we've:

-Repainted and resealed our deck
-Added poles and hanging lights to said deck
-Made a stone path through our backyard
-Planted a vegetable and a flower garden
-repainted the entire interior of the house
-Repainted and replaced the hardware on all the kitchen cabinets
-Tore up the entire downstairs carpeting and sanded and stained the underlying hardwood
-Installed new moulding around the new floor
-Regrew probably 75% of the lawn from bare dirt

I've also got a new charcoal grill as we now have a deck to permit it, so I've been playing with learning to cook with that.

Like pretty much everything I've tried as a homeowner that I've heard dudes brag about, it is just about the easiest kind of cooking I've tried. Basically every project I've gone into there's been some kind of very serious bearded youtube man making hour and a half long videos about it, and then I get into the project and it's like... you'd have to be a baboon to feth this up, what the hell?

I'm a bit of a mixed bag with hobbies.

I hike, spearfish, fish, and do some wildflower photography (with the occasional snap of wildlife).

I also read extensively.

Cool photos of the moths, I'm always fascinated with wildlife, that's pretty sweet, those are some fearsome antennae, tneva82's oil paintings are also quite impressive. .

Outside of tabletop wargames, RPG's & videogaming, I'm also into fencing/HEMA, primarily Italian military Sabre and German Longsword (had the current pandemic not happened I'd have been in Prague last month for a Sabre tournament).

Here's my current heap of fencing gear sitting sadly unused for the last couple months. I've got a number of actual sharps as well, but they don't live with the training gear



And by far my most expensive hobby...shooting/firearms collecting.


I'm a pretty big animation fan, almost anything animated I'm into as long as it's not super kids oriented, and will watch stuff that I couldn't stand live action if it's animated. I've been glued to Adult Swim's stream of Aqua Teen Hunger Force rewatching that for some time now while painting Grey Knights. All sorts of anime from various Gundam shows, Space Dandy, trashy 80's cyberpunk like Bubblegum Crisis or Angel Cop, Overlord, Attack on Titan, Black Clover, Hellsing, Jojo's Bizzare Adventures, or VOTOMS, to stuff like Earthworm Jim, Superjail, Black Dynamite, the Heavy Metal movie, Archer, Rick & Morty, Aeon Flux, Venture Bros, Ugly Americans, Futurama, Ren & Stimpy, Drawn Together, Duckman, Mr.Pickles, Phantom 2040, Sealab, Tripping The Rift, HBO's Spawn, Space Ghost, Adventure Time, etc .

History podcasts and Scifi audiobooks are my other big media jams, I'm a voracious consumer of these

There are other things I do..... but I do not necessarily enjoy them. For example, DIY Home Improvement and gardening.

I do actually like hiking but I take it pretty casually and do not spend money on it.

I also watch a lot of B-movies for fun.

 SkavenLord wrote:
Programming, albeit as an amateur. Python is my jam, followed by Java and then R. It's incredible the number of things you can come up with if you add a bit of imagination. All three of these languages are also free, if anyone else feels like giving them a shot.

Used to make tabletop games when I was a kid, but mainly for myself. If I couldn't buy a video game, I would turn it into a board game. No Pokemon Mystery Dungeon? Bootleg Dungeons and Dragons with phoned-in Mystery Dungeon stuff. No System Shock? Steal the cyber-module leveling system and convert to a tabletop RPG. I'm trying to get into this habit again to reduce the amount of time spent in front of a screen. I mentioned in an earlier thread converting the Necromunda rules to Team Fortress 2, and I'd like to see if I can get put a Crusader Kings board game together.

Potential for a games designer, methinks.

About 9 months ago I got into building battlebots (aka combat robots).

I'm just in the smaller hobby classes, 1-pounders and 3-pounders. But even at that scale you have to worry about losing a finger or eye from carelessness.

Corona has killed off any major competitions around me for the time being.

 SkavenLord wrote:
Those are gorgeous! I love the way the mountains "pop out" like that. Nicely done!

Thanks. As with other Bob Ross stuff it's surprisingly easy to get decent result but still plenty to learn. He has couple ways to do mountains but the base one goes roughly like with painting knife start with mix of brown, black, crimson and blue(weird colour mix...) with which you define the rough shape of mountain pushing hard and making sure not leave too much. Then with brush you pull it filling in center. During this you make initial shape of the mountain figuring where lighter part and darker parts are but these can be done and redone at ease at this point. Then with pure white with knife you LIGHTLY(and this is the trick. My first piece(the one I gave to my mother was basically 2nd oil painting ever in my life. 1st one was similar practice piece though orientation was flipped accidentally) I screwed up this part) pull it along the parts you want to be light. No pressure. Too much pressure and you mix the colours(mud mixing as Bob calls it). Soft enough and the original colour shows in random spots. Then mix of blue and white and same for shadows. Done.

Quick, easy and gives surprisingly good effect if you aren't obsessed with details(nothing wrong with that if you can and prefer that ). It's definitely more abstract giving impression rather than aiming for realistic details but that's the Bob Ross style in general.

Vaktathi that's quite the collection of guns! It must make you go cross eyed keeping track of all the different kinds of ammo you must have lying around. I got my firearms license last year to open up job opportunities in security, my previous field, but then became a postal worker. I still want a K98 though!

My biggest hobby after toy soldiers is writing. I recently hit a milestone for myself and got to 150,000 words in the manuscript for the fantasy novel I'm working on. Super excited for that. Hand in hand with that hobby is reading, of course. I'm currently nearing the end of the second book of Wheel of Time. It's been a good ride so far, though I don't think anything will ever touch Gentlemen Bastards for me. That series is absolutely sublime.

Like most on here I also enjoy video games. I've been catching up on my massive Ps4 backlog lately. Since December I've played through Spider Man, God of War, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Uncharted Lost Legacy. Next up is either going to be Horizon Zero Dawn or Shadow of the Colossus. Well, after Last of Us 2 of course.

I also play guitar, though nowhere near as often as I used to. Music was my life in high school and I still really enjoy banging out Master of Puppets and Cowboys from Hell on my axe.

Besides the obvious video games, I’ve taken up painting:



That was supposed to be an anniversary present for my grandparents but it turned into a tribute to my grandfather when he passed away. But I can’t show it to gran yet on account of the virus.

I’ve also taken the time to indulge in reading again. I’m currently reading 20,000 leagues under the sea. And I’ve developed an odd fascination with reading the history of British car manufacturing.

 creeping-deth87 wrote:
I don't think anything will ever touch Gentlemen Bastards for me. That series is absolutely sublime.

Very much enjoying Scott Lynch's work.

If you've not tried him yet, give Joe Abercrombie a go. As far as I'm concerned he's right up there with Lynch.

Read the First Law trilogy so you know what's going on, but I personally reckon the books that come after are better - especially Best Served Cold and The Heroes.

Crispy78 wrote:

 creeping-deth87 wrote:
I don't think anything will ever touch Gentlemen Bastards for me. That series is absolutely sublime.

Very much enjoying Scott Lynch's work.

If you've not tried him yet, give Joe Abercrombie a go. As far as I'm concerned he's right up there with Lynch.

Read the First Law trilogy so you know what's going on, but I personally reckon the books that come after are better - especially Best Served Cold and The Heroes.

I've already read the First Law trilogy and really, really liked it. Logan was a fascinating character. Haven't touched any of his other work. I may get around to that once I'm done with Wheel of Time. Also been meaning to give Malazan another whirl. Read Gardens of the Moon a few years ago and while it did enough to keep me going to the very end, it definitely didn't hook me in the way Name of the Wind or Lies of Locke Lamora did.

 creeping-deth87 wrote:

Crispy78 wrote:

 creeping-deth87 wrote:
I don't think anything will ever touch Gentlemen Bastards for me. That series is absolutely sublime.

Very much enjoying Scott Lynch's work.

If you've not tried him yet, give Joe Abercrombie a go. As far as I'm concerned he's right up there with Lynch.

Read the First Law trilogy so you know what's going on, but I personally reckon the books that come after are better - especially Best Served Cold and The Heroes.

I've already read the First Law trilogy and really, really liked it. Logan was a fascinating character. Haven't touched any of his other work. I may get around to that once I'm done with Wheel of Time. Also been meaning to give Malazan another whirl. Read Gardens of the Moon a few years ago and while it did enough to keep me going to the very end, it definitely didn't hook me in the way Name of the Wind or Lies of Locke Lamora did.

Gardens of the Moon can be confusing on a first read; second time through is much easier because you've got some casual (even if only half remembered) reference info on what's going on so the start goes a lot easier. It's a fantastic and huge series just don't get thrown with the second book which goes to a new cast of characters - same world same setting and a good few from the first appear in the second but its detailing a separate war.


I didn't like the First Law Trilogy. I loved the Glotka segments, but almost all the other character felt like they spent 3 books running around doing nothing very much at all. They didn't feel like they had any real purpose in the story or gravity to them - whilst Glotka kept fighting in his corner and doing his best; even if he actually had the least amount of choice in the story as to his role and position he was the most active and engaging and interesting character by far.

 creeping-deth87 wrote:
I've already read the First Law trilogy and really, really liked it. Logan was a fascinating character. Haven't touched any of his other work. I may get around to that once I'm done with Wheel of Time. Also been meaning to give Malazan another whirl. Read Gardens of the Moon a few years ago and while it did enough to keep me going to the very end, it definitely didn't hook me in the way Name of the Wind or Lies of Locke Lamora did.

I could never get through Gardens of the Moon, personally. My fantasy series of choice is R. Scott Bakker's Second Apocalypse though, but it really isn't "for everyone." I like Lynch, I'll read the next one that comes out, but I am definitely not holding my breath for it.

My actual first hobby is Magic: The Gathering though. Warhammer and miniature is general is really secondary to me. But my collection is really all paper cards, so I have not been playing in quite a while. But I have been working on the ever-present issue of storage/organization.

 H wrote:

My actual first hobby is Magic: The Gathering though. Warhammer and miniature is general is really secondary to me. But my collection is really all paper cards, so I have not been playing in quite a while. But I have been working on the ever-present issue of storage/organization.

I got into magic with a fwe others when Ravnica (first time it came around) came out. It was a good fun block and I've always enjoyed collecting things. Sadly I've found that magic has a few major problems

1) It cycles so freaking fast. If you're casual about collecting a block is over in a year and then there's hundreds of new cards.

2) A lot of clubs once you leave the education system tend to only attract more competitive people. The result is that if you're not really good you end up falling behind a lot. It's one thing to enjoy a challenge; its another to be at the bottom every time. Esp when you don't nessessarily want to play the whole "build the best most evil and powerful deck by buying specific ebay cards".


I still tinker with the idea of casually collecting sets, but I know I'd never complete sets and the cost would eat into other interests in a big way (unless one gets really organised with selling cards).

 Overread wrote:
I got into magic with a fwe others when Ravnica (first time it came around) came out. It was a good fun block and I've always enjoyed collecting things. Sadly I've found that magic has a few major problems

1) It cycles so freaking fast. If you're casual about collecting a block is over in a year and then there's hundreds of new cards.

2) A lot of clubs once you leave the education system tend to only attract more competitive people. The result is that if you're not really good you end up falling behind a lot. It's one thing to enjoy a challenge; its another to be at the bottom every time. Esp when you don't nessessarily want to play the whole "build the best most evil and powerful deck by buying specific ebay cards".


I still tinker with the idea of casually collecting sets, but I know I'd never complete sets and the cost would eat into other interests in a big way (unless one gets really organised with selling cards).

Well, I got in in '96, out in about 2001 and back in around 2006. I agree with everything you said, for the most part. However, I think one of the best features of Magic is how plastic it is, in term of playability.

That is, the game itself is pretty open to all sort of levels and ways of playing. You could play highly competitive sanctioned formats, or ulta casual formats with friends and basically everything in between. I happen to have a very large collection, so playing competitively isn't much of a tax on me or my collection. However, it is horrendously expensive in term of buy-in, now.

It sounds, to me, like you might enjoy a more casual playground, perhaps an EDH (now called Commander) group with a decent mix of casual and casual-competative players. That, or find a good group that Cube Drafts.

 Overread wrote:


I didn't like the First Law Trilogy. I loved the Glotka segments, but almost all the other character felt like they spent 3 books running around doing nothing very much at all. They didn't feel like they had any real purpose in the story or gravity to them - whilst Glotka kept fighting in his corner and doing his best; even if he actually had the least amount of choice in the story as to his role and position he was the most active and engaging and interesting character by far.

Glokta was absolutely beautifully written, can't argue with that. I disagree with your take on the rest of the plot lines though. I think the 'lack of purpose' aspect was intentional:



As I said though, the books that come after the trilogy are better. Best Served Cold is a fantastic revenge tragedy, and The Heroes is an account of a single battle that decides the fate of The North. Both are absolute must-reads. Red Country, that comes after them, is also a good story and finishes off a hanging plot arc - but it's essentially a fantasy Western, which was a little jarring to me.

Music! I'd say wargaming, reading and music are my hobby holy trinity.

I listen a lot of music on cd, vinyl or tape, love buying obscure records. Going to gigs/festivals and buying merch like shirts or patches are also a big part of it. Less so nowadays, but a few years back it was almost an addiction. I was even looking into making my own DIY record label! Huge money sink (more than wargaming!) but quite worth it. Only have a few instruments, mostly sticking to drumming. It's a huge world if you go deep

Crispy78 wrote:

 Overread wrote:


Glokta was absolutely beautifully written, can't argue with that. I disagree with your take on the rest of the plot lines though. I think the 'lack of purpose' aspect was intentional:

Spoiler:

The subversion of the typical fantasy epic quest trope was beautiful. A party of adventurers makes a long and perilous journey to the far corner of the world, in search of a lost item of great magical power... And it's not there. Doh.

Spoiler:

I agree on that front. I just felt like even with the quest failing and all the rest of the characters weren't driven to their roles but more were just drifting through the story. Granted it all plays to the wizards tune; but I think it make the other characters feel less because basically they were just there for the story to work rather than for reasons of their own importance. Like I said Glotka, whilst having the least choice of where he was to go and what he had to do for all the characters; in the end was the most forward and active. The others just felt like they were in a dream drifting along with it. My main problem was by the end I was enjoying Glotka chapters and not really enjoying the others as much.

Wargaming is definitely my main hobby, but while we've been on lockdown I've started playing guitar and making music again. Currently slowly repainting my crappy old electric guitar, having taken it to pieces, hoping it will all go back together again in the end.