Warning, long, long rambling post about… er… about elitism or something like that.

Whilst waiting for the Bases to dry on this lot

I had another notification from a well known Social Media Platform that rhymes with… well as I can’t think of anything … it was Facebook.

In one of the groups someone posted the following…

“Hi quick question, do any of you think that 3d printers will kill off terrain builders like us.”

Now it kind of made me think (it does happen occasionally) and I replied in a somewhat rambling post as to how it wouldn’t as it is a tool and it might be seen as a way to support the building of terrain. As you can imagine views were pretty much split yes and no with a nice smattering of who gives a shit.

But it did get me thinking about Elitism In hobbies. Will my sub £200 Ender 3 supplant the artistic talents of some amazing terrain builders out there, Hell no and I wouldn’t even pretend it might. But it does mean if I have half a dozen things I want, I can set it away and come back a few hours later and voila there it is on the bed.

Some people have said to me as a ‘joke’ that 3D printers are somehow cheating. Now claiming that you did all the work when all you press is start is a bit arsey. I am happy to say my models etc are there because I am standing on the shoulders of giants, but I am quite proud of my 30mm bases 😂😂😂. But seriously cheating!

Am I cheating, err no, unless you count MDF and card buildings cheating and if that is the case then shop bought flock or tufts or trees are too. I have in fact made all of these myself and although relatively easy it was a right pain time wise.

Part of me wonders what the original question was posted for, it seems weird, some did take it as a deliberate attempt to stir the shit a bit. Maybe it was, who knows

But it isn’t just in this hobby, my wife is a very talented knitter and it has hit their world too. On one of the forums someone was berating those people who used Aldi’s cheap wool to knit a jumper when they should obviously be using hand spun, hand dyed, drawn strand by strand from a 4 year old sheep in a full moon in late May or some other pretentious shite. Who gives a flying fling, it’s about what you can a – afford and b- what works for you. A Printer is the same. My desert houses. I paid the designer $10 for the pattern and I can print as many as I want. But I want about 6 to 8 of them. Now this has taken away a bit of business from other people, but it has technically saved me a hod of cash …but this is where it gets interesting…..

Building on the left printed on card by me and glued together. Building on the right made by me out of cork tiles. Because I made the one on the right, I have taken away further business from the designer on the left. But according to the poster on Facebook the one on the right is better as the card one is killing off terrain builders like him.

But it goes beyond that, IRO posted not that long ago about saving a blog, the blogger had written this…

“A while ago I came across a post on a fellow bloggers site informing the world of a cancer that was driving away real wargamers from the internet…”posers” who though claiming to be gamers were in fact nothing but shameless self-promoters, who like some sixteen year old girl posting endless “selfies” of themselves, merely used their blogs to showcase their latest figures and bask in the praise of other bloggers rather than posting “Batreps” of the games that they played.”

Well that is me buggered sideways, backwards and probably upside down. I therefore apologise whole heartedly for my shameless self promo… you know what bollocks to them , I shall keep on sticking my figures up here. If anyone would like to know a blow by blow account of how the elf wanted to save the donkey instead of the maiden from the wolves let me know.

But it is exactly the elitist bullshit that is creeping in. I call myself a gamer and apart from getting back into the RPG’s I have played in one HOTT tournament and one Games day since probably this time last year.

In conclusion, my favourite Facebook post was the following…

Yes – 3D printers are evil and only for untalented people who want to pretend they are crafters.

Is that the sort of thing you were hoping provoke? Virtually the same subject was brought up 2 days ago in Dragonlock Group.

It’s all just tools.

So there you go … It’s all just tools….

One last photo for JNV 😂

That is my painting snack sorted out for tonight 👍