TIM’s Miniatures & Musings (No: 139)

Featured by theimperfectmodeller, posted in Uncategorized

This Posts Mini is …

… another mounted knight.  Once again this is a Footsore, Baron’s War figure and compliments the one I previously posted quite nicely I think.  I did toy with the idea of making a vignette of the two figures but decided in the end to keep them seperate and just place them side by side as you can see in the photos below.

I’m still lacking inspiration for a project to sink my teeth into but at least I’m motivated enough to keep painting some of the figures I have had sitting around for some time.

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WordPress Capacity

According to word press I’ve used up 93.6% of my 6GB allowance, this despite deleting some photos from some very old posts a while ago.  It would seem that before too long I will have to choose again to either delete some more images or upgrade my package.  At present I’m not sure which way I’ll jump.  I do know that I would like to make some alterations to the layout of my site and doing so may determine how best to proceed thereafter.  For now though there is no rush.

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Blog Stats

Way back when I first got into blogging I found myself quite addicted to the various statistics produced by WordPress.  Gaining followers and receiving likes, comments and views were initially all very motivational.  The feedback meant people liked what they saw and that motivated me to produce more content.

Several years on and I no longer get that buzz.  I do check my stats occasionally and it’s clear to see that my followers aren’t increasing and my views and likes are in decline and returning to pre-Covid levels (actually I think they are lower than that).  To some extent that was to be expected but more than that I think blogging is now dieing.  It’s no longer the social media that it was and has been taken over by whatever the latest trend now is (I wouldn’t have a clue now the kids have left home).  Add into the mix that I operate in a niche hobby and my content might be of little interest to most people out there and that has left me wondering why I’m continuing to bother.

So, what is it that keeps me going?  Two things really, one more important than the other.  The first and the least significant of the two is monitoring where in the world my blog had been seen.  I’ve mentioned it before how I get a kick from seeing the far flung places where my blog had been viewed even it was only by accident as a punter searched in vain for a “model” porn site (imagine their disappointment at discovering one of my “mounted knights” instead of some scantily clad mounted vixen).  Currently by the way I’m on 98 countries having recently added Macedonia, San Marino, Namibia and Somalia  to the list.

The second thing, and the more important one, is the small but exclusive community which has formed.  Most of my posts now attract (for better or worse 😉) the same core group of bloggers when it comes to views, likes and more significantly, comments.  This group goes deeper than simply sharing the same niche interest it also reaches out.  And who knows, one day we may even meet up in the real world for a beer or two.  Of course that could be a good idea or the kiss of death!  Nevertheless while the sense of community exists I shall continue to blog, even if that is less frequently than I used too.

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Well It Made Me laugh

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Plymouth Model Club

In an effort to get some aspects of my life back on a familiar track I attended a meeting at my model club.  lt was good to see some old faces and catch up a little as I haven’t been to a meeting for at least six or seven months but to tell the truth I found it pretty dull and boring.  Maybe in my next post I’ll explain why.

In the meanwhile, however, the club and I have Telford and the nationals coming  up.  My hotel is paid for but I’ve seriously got to get my act together in terms of what I plan to take as the event is only a few weeks away now.

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And Finally …

Have you ever wondered how blind people know when they’ve finished wiping their arse?

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Until next time.

TIM

43 thoughts on “TIM’s Miniatures & Musings (No: 139)”

  1. I see I’m not the only one who likes the see the world map on the ‘all time views’ info page get slowly filled in over time! Will anyone from Sierra Leone ever visit? I guess we’ll see!

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  2. Another wonderful looking Knight Dave, the heraldry is very crisp and detailed. How much have you got left to paint for your army ?
    Hope you get everything ready for the shows, and have a great time.

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    1. Thanks Dave. I think I’ve got another 7 or 8 mounted knights and several duplicate foot figures from my original purchase plus I bought another dozen or so a while back for want of something better to do. Not sure it was my intention to expand the army but that’s the way it’s going until something else grabs my attention.

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  3. It’s really cool how the 2 go together. It’s like you planned it or something!
    I’m proud to be one of your repeat offenders/viewers but I fully agree that the blogosphere is a dying place, at least it seems for our hobby. I’d say more than anything, Instagram has taken its place. I’ll still keep going as at the very least, you are in control of your blog and it gives me a place to track my own progress more than anything.

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  4. Hi Tim, it’s been a while since i could read more of the people i follow’s blogs and comment, but I am still lurking in the background. Nice that Namibia has joined in your blog, and me being from South Africa but view your site from The Netherlands gives you a plus one in my eyes… Keep up the blogging man. Also, if you want, check out what I do for some of my posts by using instagram, yeah its just another site and account you have to make, but the mini part over there is equally huge, and it saves me a hell of a lot of “gigs” regarding the saved pictures space…

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  5. Very nicely done on the knight mate and seeing the two together is very cool.
    Social media sucks arse for the most part mate and honestly this here blog is the best of the bunch. You nailed it too, the best thing is our own little club. Sometimes people drop off and new ones turn up. Sometimes people drop off and then come back. It’s a funny old thing but I’m glad to read you’re sticking with it. It really comes down to quality over quantity for me and the people on here are quality. It would be an absolute dream to meet up with you one day mate. Cheers 🍻

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    1. I think you’ve pretty much summed up where I’m at with it IRO. I’m not sure blogging turned out how I thought it would but then again, more by chance I suspect, it has gone in a direction which is far better. I’ll certainly keep posting, albeit less frequently for now, as time doesn’t allow otherwise. There’s a beer is waiting for you here mate but no rush as we don’t serve our ale that cold! 😉

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      1. Think of it this way, if you hadn’t have jumped into blogging you never would’ve made a friend like me and everybody needs a friend like me 😊👍🏼 Warm beer 🤢 If it’s too warm we can have a scotch instead aye

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  6. Lovely figures mate they make a great little pair. How about you tackle something a bit different, you have mentioned doing some cars? how about a “Mad Mad” style vignette? (just an idea if you ignore it I wont be offended (much🤣🤣)).

    Do you know I’ve never looked at the “stats” on my wordpress account, so have no idea of the countries who’ve looked or how many followers I’ve got! I just do it for the the community that all talk to each other through our blogs, I’m not very competitive like that (sad in a gamer really isn’t it!) .

    I believe “Tik Tok” is the new “thing!” though how you make it relevant to what we do I have no idea, I think it’s all silly 20 second video’s (but never looked into it so that could be wrong.

    I’ve met a few other Bloggers and they’ve always been really nice people tbh (even the southern ones!😉) , Dave Stone fielded the idea of a bloggers meet-up a couple of years back but the something happened (some lockdown or something) and it all went quiet, so you never know..

    Best of luck with Telford, and I’m interested to hear why your club visit was a let down.

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Thanks Roger. The idea of something very different could well be the answer 🤔. Food for thought. Tik Tok? Heaven help us. I’ll ask one of the kids about it but I’m not sure this old dog is up for a new trick. Nice idea of Dave’s I must say. As for the club I’ll pick up on it in the next post but probably more to do with me being a grumpy old git! 🤣

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  7. Lovely models as always and I really like the display. There are a number of hobbyists I follow on Instagram, but I find I enjoy this space a lot more. Maybe it’s the difference between sitting down at my computer with a coffee to peruse the blogs of my favorite hobbyists and their musings, rather than simply scrolling through pics and captions on Instagram on my phone.

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    1. Thank you. I can’t say I follow other media as such although I do check out Pinterest as a means of inspiration sometimes but overall I’m with you all the way about blogging.
      It is an enjoyable space and so much more engaging. We’re fortunate to have found like minded people. 🙂

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  8. Lovely Knight mate! I had that same thought process a while back, & decided to up the storage & keep the blog going. I think a well written blog is still a good thing 😊

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  9. Oooh, I do like this knight! Very nice, Dave! 🙂 I’m surprised you didn’t add these to your Barons’ War army though, although the two above complement each other very well when placed next to each other. Am looking forward to catching up on your news, and if you didn’t post on your blog we’d have to get two tin cans out and a long piece of string!

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    1. Thanks John. The reason for not making them part of the army is because the plan is to take either one of them up to Telford. The sculpts are great though so I may well buy them again for the army. I’ve given up trying to work out how long I need to make the string so I’ll keep blogging! 😉

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  10. I know he’s a dreadful swine who paints orks faster than I can, and on those grounds alone I cannot recommend him as a person in anyway, but I have to say IRO’s description of social media is bang on. Social media is the bane of our society and should be banned forthwith in all civilised nations. A well written blog however remains a thing to treasure, and if most people can’t be arsed to read it that’s their loss. Honestly if I write a blog post and I enjoy it that’s good enough for me, and if just one person in the world reads it and gets something out of it, then it’s served its purpose. If I was to sit in a pub with just one mate and put the world to rights over a pint or two would we say the time was wasted because thousands of people weren’t listening in? Getting lots of likes is a nice feeling for a couple of seconds but it doesn’t feed your soul.

    Anyway, well done on getting Somalia on the list, I like to think you’ve now been read by an actual pirate! Cracking job on the knights too, love the way that by pushing the bases together they match up to form a little diorama.

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  11. I don’t think I can ever get tired of seeing you paint up knights! You always do a great job with them and you’re right that the two recent ones could make a great duel scene as well.

    I don’t pay close attention to my stats either. My views and likes are pretty stable/static and nothing I have done seems to really grow them much so I just embrace the group of strangers who keep showing up on my website and getting their two cents in 😉 A meet up would be very cool. I think some of us might need to come up with a strategy to get their wives on board but outside of that, I look forward to visiting your country for the first time one of these days.

    Good luck on preparing for the next model show! I’ll be curious to hear why it was boring as well. I remember not so long ago when that was something you really missed during the lockdown but all things change with time.

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  13. Hmm, which to comment on first? I’ll go with the Knight(s)! The new one looks great and you’ve once again put some envious freehand into it. I actually think you made the right move to keep them separate. They look pretty amazing that way and I love how they line up. Ok, blogging. Pulls up a chair. “How long you got?” Wudu fell asleep, IRO is looking for the bathroom….nope, he found a corner… anyways, some more pints and let’s chat! Most hit the nail on the head, and for me it’s really about the people in our circle and the comments they leave or the comments they leave in the comments of each others blogs, like we’re doing now! I follow Reddit, checked out Instagram, etc. but they leave me dead inside mostly. So many minis get posted, but there is no back story. So, I’d be thumbing through on my phone, maybe see your cool Knight, hit “like”, move on. Instead of the blog, where I’ll take the time to read through your stuff, learn something about the way you work, the process, the pain and joy you went through to actually make something pretty damned amazing. I think blogs actually ‘died’ a time long ago. So did a number of my hobbies, like comics. They’ve been saying that comics are dead and have gone digital. Yet there are still artists out there making them, and comics stores. Maybe someday they will be actually gone. Maybe blogs too. But for now, I’m going to enjoy them and the people who make them what they are!

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    1. Glad you like the knights. As for your comments on blogging can only agree with all what you haves said. That said I’ve never heard of Reddit but will happily remain in ignorance of it. As for the future of blogging, and comics for that matter too, one day I hope people will realise and appreciate the quality of both and ditch all the other stuff having seen that it’s all instant crap.

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      1. Oh, I’d actually recommend Reddit! It’s the only social media I pay attention to, as it’s got some good communities for games, minis, and terrain building. The terrain building is probably one of my faves, as people make a lot of stuff out of ‘trash’ (recycled materials). https://www.reddit.com/r/TerrainBuilding/ There is probably one for dioramas too. It’s got a lot of niche groups, which is cool. Anyways, I think that was the other thing I was going to mention is that with these niche hobbies we tend to place a lot of value on them and hope that we find a large enough group of others to share that hobby with. Hobbies will definitely rise and fall in popularity. D&D was not that popular for awhile but has really grown, which in turn sparked more interest in miniatures. However, that sometimes has a negative effect as a bunch of idiots join the hobby and end up mucking it up.

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      2. Interesting what you have to say about Reddit and I’ll check out the link. As for blogging I suspect like many things it will dip in and out of fashion and be rebranded to look new as well. In the meanwhile the important thing is the current set up works for us. 🙂

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  14. Ohhh, that’s nice painting Dave!
    Yellow and blue go so nicely together, but the white Cross is just great, you’ve even done the perspective deformation through to the cloth folding. That’s fabolous! I also like how you weathered and aged the mini on parts of the horse drab.
    And if not enough, you also made it a modular-diorama with the previous knight, to have them fight.
    Top work, as always!

    Good joke again. 😀

    I also look into stats, though I don’t really get much traction, but I also don’t really do anything to gain more. It is similar to you, just an interesting gimmick. Though I’m happy for every click – this gets the dopamine flowing, like I’m a girl on instagram (which I refuse to use lol). ;D
    But yeah, blogging and niche blogging is very much dead, because social media monopolys with their addicting and attention grabbing-formula (i.e. making many very short posts in short intervals and making it flashy) have found the better way to speak to modern brain chemestry (no joke for once). So if you’d wanted to maximise your traction, you’d need to do Instagram and Twitter, with all its stupidity, utilize blinding tactics, the most flashy painting techniques (doesn’t look good, I mean ‘evay metal looks shit and only does look shit, because they are doing contrast-maximising and not proper realistic painting) and then you’d have to paint only the most famous models – follow ‘trends’ and even then, you’d need luck, because it’s better to set trends, than to follow them.

    Yes, I enjoy speculating and analyzing, how did you know? It is my job anyways lol.

    Oh, interesting, about the modelling club. Am I gonna see you on a magazine cover sometimes?
    (Sorry, couldn’t resist.) What I’d like to know: You stated, it was somewhat boring, does this mean, that the club is also only persueing mainstream-stuff? Nothing out of the oridnary, your run of the mill GW or Airfix modelling?

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    1. Thank you. Glad you like the mini. Enjoyed your take on social media too and find myself in complete agreement. As for model club I’ll cover that off in my next post as a couple of people have asked why it was I found it boring. Suffice to say you’re on the right track! 🙂

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  15. Another excellent knight, the free hand is great.
    And very impressive that it works with your last one!
    I know what you mean about blogging, I also used to get a bit excited when I got a new follower or more likes than last week, but now I think the conversations with the regulars is what is more important to me as well!

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  16. Top painting as usual. I especially love the little touches like the mod splatter on the bottom of the horse’s barding. Was it intentional to have those two knights look like they’re fighting, or was it just a happy coincidence when you finished painting them?

    For blogging, I always think that you’ve got to do it for yourself. Even huge blogs don’t make any money (especially if you consider the amount of time needed to actually do them) so it’s only worth the effort if you value it. I like to use mine as a kind of hobby diary, and the amount of money I have to pay WordPress for the convenience is acceptable. I’m definitely with you on the engagement from ‘the regulars’, and I love being a part of the community and seeing what other hobbyists are up to.

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    1. Thank you. No it wasn’t a coincidence as originally I bought them with the intention of making a little vignette. I then changed my mind and decided to keep them seperate and then had the idea of lining them up to look like they were in battle.

      Spot on with your blogging comments. That’s exactly what I’ve come around to thinking and it seems most others have too. 🙂

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  17. Brilliant work on the knights mate, there is something that appeals to me when two scenes can be view as stand alone or joined as one.
    i have been out to long! I had forgotten how you crack me up ! I to have thought about folk mistaking the modelling bit with Porn!! Its luck Fi monitors me as I have got into trouble thinking that young women are really interested in my stuff!!! Only to have here burst in laughing and putting me straight!!Phew!
    It wasn’t long after I started making the big Dios that I realized that as they may be different they are a thing of the past and not of interest to the young. It came back to me two weeks ago when we had a family reunion up here on the block with young kids to my last elderly aunt at 96, I had two of the largest ones out on the work bench as they needed some restorative work, one being the Lord of the rings charge against the Orcs. I was getting more beers from the shed when a couple of young lads were passing, I said come and cast your eyes over theses! Well they looked for a moment, said Wow and then shot out chasing each other around the property! Ha HA Ha !!
    Later on I I spied a young girl admiring the Beer can ones in side, she was fascinated so I gave her one so she could take it to school for show and tell. The funny thing was what took me half a year had no appeal but something I could knock of in two days was amazing!
    I bet you forgot how much I rabbit on EH! Ha Ha! Cheers mate and as you say its the small nucleus that keep wanting you on the blog.

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    1. I think the only attraction women find in our hobby Pat is it keeps us from getting under their feet! If there ever was a day when modelling skills turned the head of a young women then I think I can safely say they are long gone although I’d be happy for Fi to prove me wrong! 🤣🤣 Not even the young lads have that much interest which in some ways is quite sad given so many just play pointless computer games with no outlet for their imagination. Still us old fools are doing our best to keep the hobby alive. Glad you like the knights mate. Have great Christmas. 🙂

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