Goodbye 2018, Hello 2019

We're already two weeks into 2019, time for some new year's resolution.

It's fair to say that 2018 got me back into the hobby. With the announcement of Star Wars: Legion in 2017 it was only a matter of how deep I would go... ...and I went as deep as I could. I've gotten into terrain building, started and almost finished my Rebel army, got introduced to the rabbit hole called 3D-printing and even got hooked on GW systems again at the same time. 

The more time I spent with Legion, the more I got talking with fellow hobbyists about how the hobby had changed while I was on standby. To my surprise I actually liked some of the changes a lot. GW, which had almost driven me out of the hobby for good with ridiculous pricing and lacking support of LotR/The Hobbit/Middle-Earth, actually made a huge turn for the better and seems to have remembered to adress their customers as hobbyists first before taking all their money (Yeah, I know what I signed up for...). I loved releases like Kill Team or Blackstone Fortress and actually consider giving the whole Middle-Earth thing a second chance. I even like going to their stores now...^^ 

But how come and what does this mean for 2019? 

Although both Legion and Kill Team are very competitive, they have great potential for narrative play. As someone who invests a lot of time into his miniatures because he wants to get immersed into a game's lore while playing. This takes me back to my RPG days and the time I started wargaming and I love that narrative play and miniature based RPGs seem to be so popular right now. I'm thrilled to dig deeper!

On the other hand, 2018 made me aware that my hobby-related media consumption has changed a lot since I had my hobby break. I used to be very active on forums and draw a lot of inspiration from there. This has changed, sadly. Although I love those communities, I hardly seem to find time to participate as much as I would like to. Same goes for this personal blog. I had some very productive months but abandoned it completely for most of the year. Instead I posted a lot on facebook and got inspired by other people's work there while listening to podcasts or watching clips on Youtube... Convenience seemed to be key, especially in busy weeks when I didn't find time for the hobby myself. 

Despite knowing that, I will not abandon this blog. I like showcasing my miniatures here and writing up tutorials from time to time. It's as much part of the hobby for me as reading a rulebook is. And yet I want 2019 to be the year that I expand my media portfolio and give other platforms a try too. I just made a start by (re-) activating my Instagram account: Finiatures on Instagram. There you will find all that stuff that usually doesn't make its way to the blog: Gaming, WIPs, con visits... Nevertheless, this place stays my Black Library...

Well, nuff with that... TLDR anyways... Time for pictures:

First weekend in January is Szenario-Con weekend. The Con started out as the annual meet-up of a community based around the LotR SBG by GW. It has come a long way since but still feels like coming home for Christmas. This year, some fellow hobbyists and I had a dedicated Star Wars play-area to get super geeky in...

Shifting Lands and Tabletop-Fantasywelten had a great terrain building workshop. I didn't know I want a Proxxon so bad...

Star of the show was HvM's Jedha table. He took terrain building to the next level. This is closer to the movie set than it is to a gaming table...

@the_red_hut finally took his Mimban table for a spin. My pictures didn't turn out great, but check his Instagram account. Awesome scratch builts. I really love the WWI feel of his terrain and minis.

Wait, there's more...^^ arts-n-more's Batuu table is just as awesome. Matthias XPS skills are unrivalled... Being trapped between Geboom's terrain building workshop and this flawless craftmanship took a toll on my sanity... I just don't have the space for a Proxxon... gggnnnn...

It needs to be said that poor Matthias was quite busy hosting Legion games while we sat back and did some more hobbying. Shame on us!

Well, what did I do that weekend? It had been my first weekend of hobbying since October, so I decided to finally paint some minis:

This is just a fraction of what happend at Szenarion-Con 2019. If you want more photos, please check Frank's gallery at https://szenario-con.de/2019/01/bildergalerie-szenario-2019/.