Why ?

[Paul]

Here´s a question, why do we do this ?, the hobby I mean. Why not oil painting and then setting up a gallery, becoming famous and then making tons of money? Why small bods? Just a thought

[ColeF]

For me, it's the history part. And wargaming. 1/32 is too big for that, and 15mm is to frustrating to paint well. 1/72 is perfect.

[T. Dürrschmidt]

I always liked playing with plastic and metal soldiers. And I always tried to bring some realistic look to the one-coloured bods. This hasn´t changed much during the last 25 years. OK, now it´s a more professional way.....but the difference is not huge

[Konrad]

We are born all in the wrong century.
The figures are the bridge into the world of our dreams.

[Valion]

I always liked playing with plastic and metal soldiers. And I always tried to bring some realistic look to the one-coloured bods. This hasn´t changed much during the last 25 years. OK, now it´s a more professional way.....but the difference is not huge

I could not have said it any better. Even those 25 years suite me very fine.
It's also that in thinking of new projects, I find a certain level of "mental peace". It's as if I can change the world. A world, at least. My world.
I've got plenty of ideas, and even if I close to never find the time to paint a single figure, I've got thoughts of how I'd paint that dress or convert this horse close to all the time.

Not to forget it's hobby I share with my girlfriend, and doing stuff together makes it even better !

Paul, that was a fine question !
It brought that "ancient" essay back to my mind I read years ago on Kai Fuhrmanns site.
It's written by Frank Gießmann, and it's in German:
http://www.fuhrmann-figuren.de/willkomm ... _1zu72.htm

I'll finish with his conclusion:
"It's not important what you do, but how you do it !"

Gruß,
Marc.

[west1871]

when I was a boy many many moons ago,I used to look at the boxes and catalogs of painted advertising soldiers and wished that I could paint like that.I have always wanted to get to "that levell",still not got there yet but I will keep going.

It also helped a lot when I gave up smoking a 1year 7months sixteen days
and 9hours ago

[Fenton]

Here´s a question, why do we do this ?, the hobby I mean. Why not oil painting and then setting up a gallery, becoming famous and then making tons of money? Why small bods? Just a thought

Well mainly because I cant draw to save my life...But I suppose it comes down to having Timpo knights when I was a kid, then getting a Donald Fetherstone Book, then later in life finding people who also did wargaming..Oh there was a lot of D&D etc in between for many years as well

[Susofrick]

Why do people have hobbies? Why do people play in bands that neverever will leave the rehearsal room (guilty!)? Why do people play sports in the lowest series? Why do we read fiction? I think it is because we must let the brain take a rest and do something else for a while. Recreation! So when I paint my brain is on vacation on Bahamas (which probably shows sometimes ).

[Adam]

Why do people have hobbies? Why do people play in bands that neverever will leave the rehearsal room (guilty!)?

I can answer that one- because making music with some like minded dudes is the best thing and being famous for it is only a by product, and to the sane mind- one with many drawbacks.

For me its making things, as I kid I had figures and I would make gaming boards, and I had a sand pit I would carefully dampen and make desert trenches and ravines and shell holes in. I would save up cardboard and make knight Armour and castles and armored cars for my he-man and action man. My granddad and dad would make wooden shields and swords with me, and help me fashion Indian headdresses from feathers and all sorts.

History I grew to love, mainly through knights and castles, from visits to castles with my parents, and latterly world war 1 and 2.

This sort of combines those two things for me. Even as a child I never "gamed" much with my figures. I would make great terrain, and paint them, but my "playing" would almost be setting up a series of snap shots of a battle progressing, not the "arhhggghh he shot you your dead" sort of stuff.

It is very true as Thomas said, my motivation has changed little in 20 odd years, only now my Armour is sheet metal not card, and my figures are much better, based on this pattern I do not invisage a whole deal of change in my focus over the next 25 years or so

[Susofrick]

Oh, I forgot the main reason. It's fun!

[je_touche]

For me it's a keen interest in history + visual fantasy + probing/ enhancing of my manual capabilities.

When I was ten years old I read an essay on the battle of Waterloo (from Elizabeth Longford's biography of Wellington), and my interest in history has been growing ever since. First, it was the Napoleonic Wars mainly, then the French Revolution too, and nowadays it's next to everything from early Middle Ages to our day (not just military history). Becoming an academic historian was sort of frustrating since I find large parts of what is done and written within the Academia way too far away from the actual historical experience of living men. I love to research how people of former periods actually looked like, how they dressed and lived. Reconstructing specific situations is the ultimate pleasure for me because it brings together painstaking historical research and visual imagination.

Historical re-enactment is beyond my financial means, so it's the little figures for me. Never to forget the aesthetic pleasure derived from model making and painting.

[Maurice]

why?

We would have no life at all if we didn't have these small pieces of plastic?

Nah, just kidding. Like the others, it goes back to childhood and a love for history.

I used to have most Esci and Airfix sets and even some Matchbox and played with them a lot as an 8 year old. Even tried to paint a couple of years later, you know, with glossy Revell paint, way too thick and all the wrong colors.

[Peter]

There is a simple answer on this question; we're all full grown boys! This conclusion was made when Konrad asked the same question at the meeting at Kampen!

It's because I want to do something with my hands in a calm way that I paint figures and creating little dio's and vignettes (that's the fault of this forum! ). Rather than lying on a sofa watching a movie or reading a book, I like to do this things.

Why? Because it's fun, that's why!

Greetings Peter

[nybot]

For me its a bit of a longer story.

When I was about 4 years old my dad got quite ill and was unable to work for a time. He decided to build me a battlefield and paint the Airfix figures for the battle of Waterloo so I could fight out the battle.

The battlefield was made of paper-maché covered with a grass sheet and consisted of two small hills to fight over. It fit under my bed and one of my earliest memories is pulling it out to fight battles on. Often watching Waterloo on VHS at the same time. As you can imagine over time I lost many of the figures and lots of them had no paint left on them at all.

When I got to about 11-12 years old my dad took me to Hamleys before Christmas and we came across the ESCI Waterloo figures and Dad asked if I would like some to paint. I jumped at the chance and my Christmas holidays were pretty much all filled up there and then.

By the time I got to 16 I had grown out of painting soldiers and making models and found Booze and Girls much more interesting. But about 4 years ago I went Freelance in my work which gave we some periods of free time between jobs so I went back and bought some figures which quickly became lots of figures and now I can't keep up.

So really my answer to your question of "why?" is my Dad.

Nybot