rocketandroll
New member
Dear all....
Ok, this has been some while in the making, and a few of you already know about this.... but it\'s finally time to announce this to the world!
I\'ll start with a short pre-amble!...
I got back into painting two and a half years ago after an 18 year odd gap. Realising very quickly how far things had moved on in those intervening years, I quickly treid to learn all I could from anyone who would teach me.
Obviously, as we all know, the wealth of skill and information available online is massive, if you know where to look... but as helpful as CMON and other forums were... I began feeling this was a very lonely hobby (cue violin music
I began heading down to my local GW store to try and meet other folks with an interest in serious painting and modelling... and that\'s when I met the rest of our little team. Over the last year and a bit myself and five other local painters have started getting together on a regular basis to chat over our work in progress, discuss techniques and generally geek-out about the hobby. These meetings have not only proven to be one of the most fun parts of the hobby for me, but have massively boosted my painting and given me access to the opinions of other skilled painters who aren\'t afraid to tell me I need to fix something if one of my models is looking a bit shabby.
When our group attended GD Spain earlier this year we were luck enough to make it along to the \'painters banquet\' the night before... some of the world\'s best painters were there and had minis with them which they were happy to show people up close and discuss with everyone... I learnt more in that hour than I had the previous year.
It dawned on me, and I know it\'s dawned on others, that meeting with other painters face to face, and being able to sit down, with each other\'s work there in front of you, not inside a badly lit glass case, is the best way by far of improving one\'s painting.
With this in mind, there was an impromptu meeting between our group and a few other UK painters who were at the event, and some input from Brian Aderson, GW\'s Warhammer World events manager, on the subject of trying to organise some kind of painting/modelling related events in the UK to help everyone from the newbie to the GD winner to intermingle and hopefully for everyone to feel a little more like part of a community and to learn some new things.
Originally there was some talk of trying to form a \'UK painting team\' styled after those in other countries, but we didn\'t feel that was what the UK needed... We felt those teams tended to increase the \'celebrity level\' of a small handfull of already very highly skilled painters but didn\'t actually do much (other than provide inspiration) for the up and coming painters (like us.
So... we formed this idea of getting together a national organisation that has the simple remit of organising events for UK based mini painters... nothing more.
Ideally, we want to encourage everyone to form small local groups (I klnow there are already quite a few) like ours to meet up regularly, and then give them these quarterly national events at which to show off their work and meet other painters from across the UK in a friendly and social atmosphere to discuss the hobby.
Anyway, after a couple of trips up to Nottingham by a few of us to negotiate use of the venue etc, and with the help of Brian at GW, we are now in a position where we have the first event organised for July 27th this year.
This will hopefully be the first of many quarterly events.
So... below is a press release about the organisation and the first event... we\'ve got a \'work in progress\' website up at:
http://www.platoonbritannica.org.uk
And we\'ll post more info about the event on the \'CMON Conventions\' forum as we get closer.
A couple of quick things only because I know folks will ask:
1: No one is making any money from this, we have genuinely just decided to do this because we think it\'d be great for the hobby.
2: Yes, GW are happy for painters to bring up and display non-GW miniatures at the event... the only stipulation is that it\'s a mini that vaguely fits in with one of the GW rule sets (which is pretty much everything), they\'ve been really good about helping us out with getting this off the ground.
3: So what are they getting from it? I know, cynical hats on all round... the bottom line is, they are getting their venue filled with people passionate about the hobby who may well buy stuff whilst there, they are also getting access to lots of very good painters and modellers who may be able to provide content for them to display or publish in the future. That\'s it.
So... please feel free to pass this press-release and details of the event to anyone and everyone you know. We\'re going to try and get this posted on any and all forums where UK painters may lurk.
Myself and a couple of the other guys who helped organise this will be at Salute at the weekend with \'Platoon Britannica\' t-shirts on. We are not there officially and will not be going around forcing flyers into everyones hands but if you see us, and want some more info or want to chat about the idea... please come say hi.
Other than that.... really hope to see everyone who can make it up in Lenton in July!!!!
All the best
Ben
Ok, this has been some while in the making, and a few of you already know about this.... but it\'s finally time to announce this to the world!
I\'ll start with a short pre-amble!...
I got back into painting two and a half years ago after an 18 year odd gap. Realising very quickly how far things had moved on in those intervening years, I quickly treid to learn all I could from anyone who would teach me.
Obviously, as we all know, the wealth of skill and information available online is massive, if you know where to look... but as helpful as CMON and other forums were... I began feeling this was a very lonely hobby (cue violin music
I began heading down to my local GW store to try and meet other folks with an interest in serious painting and modelling... and that\'s when I met the rest of our little team. Over the last year and a bit myself and five other local painters have started getting together on a regular basis to chat over our work in progress, discuss techniques and generally geek-out about the hobby. These meetings have not only proven to be one of the most fun parts of the hobby for me, but have massively boosted my painting and given me access to the opinions of other skilled painters who aren\'t afraid to tell me I need to fix something if one of my models is looking a bit shabby.
When our group attended GD Spain earlier this year we were luck enough to make it along to the \'painters banquet\' the night before... some of the world\'s best painters were there and had minis with them which they were happy to show people up close and discuss with everyone... I learnt more in that hour than I had the previous year.
It dawned on me, and I know it\'s dawned on others, that meeting with other painters face to face, and being able to sit down, with each other\'s work there in front of you, not inside a badly lit glass case, is the best way by far of improving one\'s painting.
With this in mind, there was an impromptu meeting between our group and a few other UK painters who were at the event, and some input from Brian Aderson, GW\'s Warhammer World events manager, on the subject of trying to organise some kind of painting/modelling related events in the UK to help everyone from the newbie to the GD winner to intermingle and hopefully for everyone to feel a little more like part of a community and to learn some new things.
Originally there was some talk of trying to form a \'UK painting team\' styled after those in other countries, but we didn\'t feel that was what the UK needed... We felt those teams tended to increase the \'celebrity level\' of a small handfull of already very highly skilled painters but didn\'t actually do much (other than provide inspiration) for the up and coming painters (like us
.So... we formed this idea of getting together a national organisation that has the simple remit of organising events for UK based mini painters... nothing more.
Ideally, we want to encourage everyone to form small local groups (I klnow there are already quite a few) like ours to meet up regularly, and then give them these quarterly national events at which to show off their work and meet other painters from across the UK in a friendly and social atmosphere to discuss the hobby.
Anyway, after a couple of trips up to Nottingham by a few of us to negotiate use of the venue etc, and with the help of Brian at GW, we are now in a position where we have the first event organised for July 27th this year.
This will hopefully be the first of many quarterly events.
So... below is a press release about the organisation and the first event... we\'ve got a \'work in progress\' website up at:
http://www.platoonbritannica.org.uk
And we\'ll post more info about the event on the \'CMON Conventions\' forum as we get closer.
A couple of quick things only because I know folks will ask:
1: No one is making any money from this, we have genuinely just decided to do this because we think it\'d be great for the hobby.
2: Yes, GW are happy for painters to bring up and display non-GW miniatures at the event... the only stipulation is that it\'s a mini that vaguely fits in with one of the GW rule sets (which is pretty much everything), they\'ve been really good about helping us out with getting this off the ground.
3: So what are they getting from it? I know, cynical hats on all round... the bottom line is, they are getting their venue filled with people passionate about the hobby who may well buy stuff whilst there, they are also getting access to lots of very good painters and modellers who may be able to provide content for them to display or publish in the future. That\'s it.
So... please feel free to pass this press-release and details of the event to anyone and everyone you know. We\'re going to try and get this posted on any and all forums where UK painters may lurk.
Myself and a couple of the other guys who helped organise this will be at Salute at the weekend with \'Platoon Britannica\' t-shirts on. We are not there officially and will not be going around forcing flyers into everyones hands
but if you see us, and want some more info or want to chat about the idea... please come say hi.Other than that.... really hope to see everyone who can make it up in Lenton in July!!!!
All the best
Ben
