Navel gazing?

The latest bout of man flu has bought my painting to a complete halt sadly. Hard to see the figures and brush through a streaming left eye I found! It left me with some time on my hands and I fell to thinking a bit about our hobby and how we see ourselves...

I guess I ought to come clean about my own stance firstly: I play games with model soldiers. Games rooted in history, not Hollywood, but games none the less. I really have left attempting to recreate specific battles from history behind me now and prefer to concentrate on the game itself. I liked the cartoon below when I found it on the net, I thought it apt to represent the opposite end of the spectrum to me, those gamers who hanker after simulation, as if pushing little lead men about a tabletop battlefield can possibly get near the horror and mayhem of war!

However, our hobby is a broad church and thankfully there is room for all of us under its sheltering eves, though we would all benefit from a dollop of tolerance at times I find. For myself, I really cannot see the point of figures below the 15mm sort of size, but I know Jon has a large Marlburian collection in 6mm I think, despite him happily pushing my 28mm giants about the tabletop battlefield here in GHQ. Tolerance in action of course both ways.
That’s not to say though that I aspire to canonisation, I have my own hobby blind spots I have to admit. I was discussing one such with Matt recently, the endless rise of bijou ‘games in a box’ which I really think are overwhelming my hobby as I understand it. The main culprits of course are Osprey with their almost endless production line of ‘50 figures is an army’ rules and Warlord Games with Bolt Action and it’s ilk and other spin offs from the great evil which is Games Workshop. Matt reminded me kindly that I was almost 50 years down the hobby line and for many starting out the bijou game and the thirty figure army are easier routes into the hobby than collecting and painting the Grand Armee over several years. And you know, I’ve come to realise he may be right, though I may not live to see them fully come over from the dark side! Tolerance you see can even reach old farts like me...
Well, almost. I still can’t warm to plastic figures, they seem lightweight and impermanent to my eye, but having received my free sprue on the last Wargames Illustrated I confess I can see their appeal in creating unique figures and forces for those with the patience, creativity and lack of excess thumbs which affects the likes of me! Tolerance breaking out again it seems... I must be getting soft in my old age! Well, not entirely you will be pleased to know, I still can’t warm to space fairies and gnomes and the like.