Why so many born again painters?

[Dr. Bob]

\"I used to paint minis 10 or 20 years ago, but then stopped for a while. Now I\'m back into the hobby!\" - that\'s me and it seems like a hundred other people on CMoN.

Is there some kind of mini-painting renaissance going on? If so, what triggered it?

(In my case, the fire was lit when I ran into the Chainmail minis in my local EB. Hadn\'t even thought about minis for a decade. Now I\'m hopelessly addicted again.)

 

[wiccanpony]

ah! the good old days..when minis were minis and men were??????

I started out painting minis in collage when D&D became the rage and my then BF was a hopeless addict and turned me to the Dark Side (with out to much effort, I must add).
Then a horrible horrible thing happened.....gasp...Real Life, mugged me.
Now I’m older retired and have the time to please just ME! for a change.:bouncy: wwweeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!

 

[PF]

I\'d say that the quality of sculpts and paintings improved really in the last ten years and even more since 1983...Well I know some still think old days were better and I\'m afraid of being flamed so to agree a bit with them I\'d say old days were cheaper or at least minis were.
Hum...Edited my post when I realized I had misunderstood the \"born again\" meaning.

 

[No Such Agency]

I painted as a teenager (my Testors Enamel period) because I liked the hobby, and to be honest, I wasn\'t social enough to really have anything else to do. When I went away to university I changed my lifestyle a lot, so it was mostly drinking and studying. I remember doing some minis for a girlfriend once but overall did very little painting. I started to get back into painting in grad school (partly as a form of procrastination) but didn\'t *really* get back into it until I got my first job and suddently had (relatively) lots of disposable income, and free time. Disposable income is key in this hobby

And yes, minis are a lot better now. Some of the old sculpts would look bad even if God painted them. I can easily see people abandoning the hobby because no matter how they painted, the results looked like ass.

 

[finn17]

I think that is an important point.

Originally posted by No Such Agency
Disposable income is key in this hobby

When I was a young teenager I would have loved a hobby like this, but a) it didn\'t really exist and, b) I didn\'t have two beans to rub together.
As a (technically) mature professional I do have a couple of beans, and I could either take up collecting vintage cars and be an absolute failure (I don\'t have that many beans) or indulge my obsession for shiny miniature things and (within reason) indulge my every whim.
I have to admit that my passion for minis also shares my time with my passion for photography, fly fishing, playing bass and dogs. I also occasionally find time to talk to my wife

 

[Shroud]

Drinking, studying, girls at university (not in that order!).

Years later, I\'m a home-body, married, have lots more money, and like the fact of selling them on ebay - it\'s fun to do!

Jarrett

 

[airhead]

D&D 3.0 & my Kids

I played D&D (and ogre & battletech & ...) all through coledge and somewhat beyond. Then it was pactra & flowquil & humbrol enamels. I had a roommate that worked for one of the casting companies at the time that tought me to wash & drybrush. I thought I was a pretty good painter.

Life & kids came along. Time & money became much more precious.

[wavey lines ala garth] About the time that the first LotR movie came out, my girls discovered my old D&D stuff in the top of a closet while they were moving bedrooms. They asked if I would show them how to play. [evil grin] Also at about the same time, D&D 3.0 was released (maybe slightly before the movie?)

They needed character figs. I discovered the newer \"lead\" in epic scale (Reaper) and found the D&D boards at wizards and Peter had a link here. I have learned how much I didn\'t know about painting, but am making up time quickly.

 

[slidedog]

I had never painted a mini until about 2-3 years ago. I was pretty artistic and like building models when I was younger, but then all of that career, marriage, kids stuff kept me pretty busy. Then my son and I were in a hobby store, saw some minis, and thought it looked like fun. Bought a couple, started playing mini games, and it\'s been a downhill slide since then. How in the heck did I get so many little bits of molded metal invading my basement so fast.???

It is astonishing how quickly my hobbies turn into obsessions these days, having more disposable income seems to allow me to cut loose with impunity anymore, as long as I don\'t choose an expensive hobby like as Finn said before vintage cars, or young mistresses

Well I am glad I found the hobby, I am having a ton of fun and meeting some really great folks!

 

[vincegamer]

Like most of us, I had little ability to do much but game with friends on weekends in high school so I painted minis to go with the RPGs

Then college came and I had more freedom (time and a car) and a broader range of things to experience (studies & athletics). I barely did any roll playing in college.

Now I haven\'t played a roll playing game in a decade. (last year I overcame my packrat tendencies a bit and sold my RPG stuff) However, I\'ve alwasy lugged these minis around with me and in the mean time this internet thing sprung up and I can actually talk to people who paint these things. I am in live contact with no one who paints so the internet has really allowed my love of tiny things to reemerge.

 

[War Griffon]

I stopped mainly because of the lack of time to fit everything else in then when life calmed down a bit I started again as I had always intended to do.

An ambition of mine is to retire early and just paint mini\'s selling them on E-Bay might be nice to supplement the pention but I also suffer from figmentia so unless I have a few of a particular mini I can\'t see that happening although the wife wishes otherwise.

As for nostalgia Hmm, I think I would have to agree with some of the comments about sculpts being better now than before but having said that casting techniques have improved over teh last ten years as well along with the type of casting medium and not being a sculpter myself I dare say though that those that do so and have done so for a while will probably tell you that the stuff they work with has also improved over time.

As for cost I can only wish for the time when mini\'s could be bought at shows for as little as 30p each.

In fact looking through the garage yesterday for a particular reference for Shaz I came across an old blister pack for some Orks with the price tag still on £1.99 for 3 figures!!!

 

[yrret]

The Internet Happened

Hi my name is Terry and I am a Miniaholic.
I think the pages like this one that let mini painters build a sense of community is helping to build up a great hobby. Granted painting is a somewhat solitary hobby, but sharing with others that appreciate the same things is pretty rewarding I must say.
Being able to spread the word is the reason I started my news site. Being able to see the workbench so to speak of people all over the world is fascinating I think.
Plus like Jarrett said. I am older now, and I have the cash to indulge myself with the hobby.

 

[KatieG]

Heh, for me it was actually the mini-painter group on yahoo. I don\'t remember how I found it, but listening to people talking about painting and learning about all these techniques that I didn\'t know about when I painted when I was in high school, really made me want to get back into it.
--Katie G.

 

[supervike]

internet is the key....

I still know of no other person in the flesh who paints, collects, hordes, or knows anything (or actually cares) about painting minis. I kind of stumbled onto this hobby as a kid, and all my friends couldn\'t have cared two licks about it.

I joined the Yahoo mini painters group a while ago, and found this site about a year ago.

So, yeah, the internet is what has turned this into a \'semi-normalized\' hobby. But, I do believe we are living in the \"golden age of mini production\".

 

[Demigod]

Yeah, I reckon It\'s the quality of sculpts. On a different topic, has anyone ever seen any GW megastores? I\'ve only ever seen tiny little shops stuck away in some corner or alley