Well it’s that time of year – time for some pompous ignoramus to wax lyrical about all their thoughts that nobody really wants to read. So here I am!

I am now about halfway through my tenure as president of IPMS Santa Rosa / IPMS Sonoma County (delete as applicable). It has been a humbling experience and I have greatly enjoyed it. The club is not the largest in IMPS or even in our district but I enjoy spending time with each and every one of you. We have seen a few new folks starting to come regularly and, I think, started to rebuild the club activities back beyond the more restrictive offerings that we had during the trials of the pandemic. I am keen to keep developing both of these things but I can’t do either alone.

Are there things that we need to change?

Are there things you’d be willing to take on?

Please, please let me know!

I am excited at the prospect of resurrecting our club show and this is another area we need all the help we can get! A huge thanks to all the people that have been active in the planning during our business meetings. Chris, Ray, Jack, Randy, Greg, Mark, Mike – This show wouldn’t be happening without your participation. If you aren’t on that list and want to help out just come along to one of our business meetings that are the hour prior to our regular club meetings.They are open to everyone!

One of the things I have been mulling over for the last couple of months is encouraging folks to branch out into areas they may not normally try. We started this a little with the Super Deformed quarterly contest at the start of the year but I would love to build on it. We have folks that love Ships, or Gundam or BiPlanes… I’d love to see everyone in the club dabble a little bit in a lot of these areas so we all relate to each other that little bit more and maybe, just maybe, discover a new subject passion!

Thank you all for joining me in this hobby voyage through 2022. Here’s hoping we make 2023 even bigger and better!

Hello Folks!

I suppose this is the space for me to post my thoughts and musings to any who might find them of interest.

I have really struggled to do much in my hobbying this year. Some commissions and occassional teaching gigs have really put me in a place where I was no longer prioritizing the hobby itself. I was still coming up with plenty of ideas for things to work on, grand plans for dioramas and of course purchasing plenty of kits that will no doubt live out the rest of their days on my shelves, slowly gathering dust. So I had ideas, I had kits and yet… nothing was getting done.

Why?

Was it that freehanding details on my thrice cursed 1:72 Fokker Eindecker was the worst idea in the history of ideas? Was I just another millennial blaming ‘Burnout’ for what was really just another facet of laziness? Probably…

So how to fix it?

Well there lies the rub… There are a few things that I’ve done in the past to help me out of a rut:

• Work on a totally different subject that’s completely new to you! Try a Gundam kit or a Submarine subject, maybe give figure painting a go?
• Work on something low stakes – a beginner kit maybe or something from the backlog that maybe’s been superceded by a nicer, newer kit.
• Try a new technique! This combines great with the previous option – get yourself a new kit and test out a new gap filling method, or practice panel scribing, maybe work on a new camo style. And if it doesn’t work? Well it was just a test kit! Give it to nephew or a cousin to strap some fireworks to and move on to the next thing!
• Work on something super familiar. A bit of a pivot from the previous suggestions but sometimes going back to a familiar kit or subject can take a lot of the pressure off and just make for an easy subject – Just ask anyone who’s built a Zaku before! For me, it’s often a case of going back to gaming pieces, I have a seemingly infinite supply of them, they’ll get use on the table and I can bang a squad out in a weekend.
• Work to a deadline? This can cause even more stress for some but for others this will really drive people to get through a model and call it done. Maybe they’re doing it for an IPMS show, or to gift it to someone or even just for your local IPMS show and tell next month.

Not an exhaustive list and I’d love to hear your suggested additions. 

What have I done to break out of this latest funk? Well I’ve returned to the familiar and have an added deadline! I am working on a host of Warhammer Underworlds miniatures that have been sat in a drawer for far too long. In a week I’ve already painted a half dozen pieces of terrain, a half dozen warriors and another dozen or so nearly completed!

This is where the Very Important Presidential Thoughts are written.