Just come back from a few months on placement with work, in the Northeastern US

Oh, and I'd say model railroading and more realistic wargaming is seen in a pretty bad light. There's a term -- "anorak" -- that applies.

I'm gonna get attacked for this, but on /r/eddit there was a gif on the front page of a model train with a snow plow pushing real snow out of the way. All the top comments were about how it was cool, but lame. "I'd be into model trains if I had nothing else in my life" Sad. Model trains, rpgs, wargaming offers so many different things for different people: world building, creative painting, etc, but a lot of people will never experience it because of the stigma

Nice cherrypicking gaylord. Pic related is a table i put together recently to play on in Amuuurica

The stigma I can deal with.

The cost and time investment is another thing. I'm not a very good painter, and painting cool models is the huge appeal no?

Also the cost.

>Oh, and I'd say model railroading and more realistic wargaming is seen in a pretty bad light.
>There's a term -- "anorak" -- that applies.

Why, of all things, "anorak"?

Fuck em, theyre normies anyway

Jesus fucking Christ burgerland.

I think it's actually because UK GWs instituted a rule that models had to be painted to be played in-store sometime in the early 2000s. And independent game stores are less common than GWs, relative to the US.

Wikipedia says it stems from train enthusiast wearing ugly anorak parkas while out trainspotting.

>Wikipedia
I know, I know, but it's a start.

I'm nearly 40 and a retired infantry combat veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan. I'd love for some fuckstick to talk shit about my toy army men.

My uncle has a massive triple garage with a first floor (2nd floor for Americans) and had it converted just for his model trains and a seperate room with a computer where he would control lines and what not. While he didn't do that, he would be playing train simulator.

Bit of a weirdo but nice enough.

Yeah, but I bet you play guard.

What are the stereotypes for army picking in the military? Same as with us civvies?

I think the big issue there is the fear of spending a bunch of money and finding out you suck. Art is really personal. Painting a bad space dude is like an indictment of your soul. Probably part of the reason people shit on the hobby. It's the reason people shit on art in general. Ask somebody to draw something and he'll immediately hedge by telling you art is bullshit

if you just don't paint you don't have to worry about someone saying your painting is shit. That being said paimting mans is easy. I think just about anybody who's not an invalid would be pleasantly surprised with their results if they did some research and watched some Duncan before their first attempt

>USA pic is skinny dudes in their teens/20s
>UK pic is fat dudes in their 40s
That's why you got a difference in quality

>even unglued is the norm by people who play.
Unpainted is one thing but how do you get away with unassembled models on the table

I just buy a sprue from ebay for 2 imperial guardsman, and use each piece to represent a whole guardsman. ex: an arm - 1 guardsman, the legs = another guardsman, etc

>t. adolf hitler

I think uncle Adolf would've taken the hobby aspect seriously.

honestly, that sounds more like something Mengele would do

...

I've been playing since the rogue trader days started with Ultra Marines then Squats. Currently tyranids and Genestealers. I'm a big Empire and Bretonnian playe0 win WFb and now KoW. Can't bring myself to touch Age of Sigmar. Alot of Marine, Guard, Eldar and Tau are probally top pics amongst military gamers.

how do you guys feel about partially painted armies. I don't paint that often but i try to put a base down on everything at least.

I think it's more painting is incredibly time-consuming and everyone starts out shitty as fuck. Not many people want to go through the ordeal of dumping an entire evening to paint one or two minis and have them look like complete shit.
Even painting an army to GW minimum standards to play in the store can take some time for a 1k army.

>Unpainted models being an 8th thing
Did you miss the unpainted Riptide spam of 7th?

>but on /r/eddit there was a gif on the front page of a model train with a snow plow pushing real snow out of the way
Fuck this thread, I wanna see that. Have a link for a fellow user?

In my experience, it's a US thing because we have less free time to really dedicate to the finer part of the hobby. Most folks get into minis games to *play* them, painting is secondary since it is far more time consuming and fiddly, so when they have some free time (which is limited, given our workaholic culture in the US) they tend to gravitate towards playing the game rather than painting it. The guys in the US who have a full painted army of whatever game they play tend to be people with more time on their hands or more dedication and interest in the hobby. Since this population of more dedicated/more free time people is not the majority, you get barely painted minis on more boards than not.

There is also the stigma, as noted by others in thread, that painting minis is somehow unacceptable for adults. It's a stupid stigma, but it exists. Fuck, I get it for BattleTech all the time.

only basecoated
no shading
no hilighting
no detail work

2/10

Not only UK. Here, in Russia reenacting is a well-respected thing(biggest ones are even reported on federal TV) and modelling of any kind is considered a completely normal hobby. I don't really understand why Burgerland is so unfriendly towards it.

Is that why we see 10/10 models into cosplaying and reenactment in Eastern Europe?

Probably.

They prefer real guns and shooting black people

>I’ve noticed every time I want cool tabletop accessories they come from UK. It is a much bigger hobby there
It is ridiculous how much bigger wargaming is in the UK than the US. If you take GW sales (just because we have decent data) the UK isn't far behind the US in sales and it used to actually be higher. When you consider the population difference this is crazy.

In my last job there were 4 of us on the team including my manager. I've played since 1st ed, one of the guys was just starting, one of them had played since 3rd ed and one of them used to play but was now painting minis for his son.

When I worked at HP I had a big coaster with a lasercut aquilla on my desk and random people would see it going past and stop to ask me what armies I play.

That is what is called the absolute bare minimum.

Also, put some LoS blocking terrain in the middle of the table for fucks sake.

Trainspotters.

It really isn't. Get over the fear and knocking out decent models fairly quickly isn't hard.

>"I'd be into model trains if I had nothing else in my life"
What do they have going on in their life? Shit posting on reddit? Lame.

I've noticed that when I started playing 40k.
I got into the hobby with historical stuff, mainly WW2. nobody I've met in the historical community would think about placing unpainted plastic or metal onto the table. in 40k I constantly play against people with grey plastic or one colour spray primer. it's very unsatisfying and I'm starting to lose my enthusiasm for the game.

>
They can't do model trains and whatever other shit they're doing because the people they do that other shit with might call them nerds.

It might be due to the historic popularity of military models (as in, a period of several decades where it was THE normal hobby for boys and teens)

I've never seen anyone go out of their way to shit on reenactors in the US, the whole hobby is usually just ignored by anyone who's not an enthusiast. As for modeling/wargaming, if it's not grilling or watching sports/the latest hot TV series, normies just call it nerd shit and ignore it. It's kind of a saving grace really, because American normies are obnoxious as fuck and ruin most of the hobbies they actually try to get into.

I suspect its a bigger hobby because the country is smaller so its easier to find people to play with.

If you live in bumfuck nowhere USA its hard to find people, if you live in New York its still hard to find people.

Here you get in the car and within an hour or two you can find a group.

Thats a great table

Its seems a cultural thing too. Best painted armies (GD level armies) Ive seen where in France and UK. GW being based in UK is no coincidence either. Though Poland is full of creative sculpters too.

don't

That's an excuse. If it were true then it'd be thriving in big cities. That's not the case.

Problem with American cities is the black/white divide and the income level problems, especially in the 80s and 90s when gaming got started.

I understand most whites lived in the Suburbs during that time period which again divides up the player base and prevents it reaching the critical mass when it can become a "normal" hobby.

Couple that with the American cultural differences between black and white and the American tendency towards more insular or active hobbies (gun ranges, bowling/baseball/sports)

Even here in the UK most players are white middle class, despite us having a large(ish) Indian middle class and not quite as many problems with the Black population (which still earns less than it should be doing)

>only undercoated
This is why you lost Hitler. Fucking Speer WAAC fag.

>"I'd be into model trains if I had nothing else in my life"
What do they have going on in their life? Shit posting on reddit? Lame.

An exaggerated sense of self importance. Life is short, do what makes you happy. Painting my army men, building terrain, playing tabletop games with friends, drawing nerd stuff, Fantasy/sci-fi books and movies, vidya these things make me happy. I could give a fuck what someone else thinks of my entirely wholesome hobbies. It’s residual high school cultural bullshit. My neighbor spends his time and money on restoring rusty old cars that are total money pits. To each his own.

this punk teenager at the hobby shop that said “do you paint your monopoly pieces? I’m here to play not paint”. These people are human trash.

>Gw minimum standards
Pic related. That's not a high bar to meet.
Man I'm not one for derailing threads but this really is a crazy train
youtu.be/J4PM_Wn4j-I

>Unpainted riptide/knights/eldarspam at the ass end of 7th
>T.assmad tosser thatwas dumb enough to play against a lost of 3 or less models without AT.

Reinactors are good for TV extras in historical films and actually did a lot to keep Civil War history alive...

But the Civil War is all America cares about.

I started in 3e, and the only painted units in my 40k army were done by other people. Grey/black/silver is lazy, but it doesn't look anywhere near as bad as my self-painted Fantasy.

Why not to play with buttons and Lego bricks then?

It's been quite big over here for a long time desu mate. Seems still fairly new in the USA.

Wrong. I’d rather my opponent had blue and yellow Ultramarines painted in a centimeter of house paint than bare / primed models. You’d be surprised how quickly you progress in skill too.

Miniatures and scale models are quite big in Spain too.

>I dont think you have a sightline

TTWG are bigger in the UK than over here. Most people who know of Warhammer for example only know it because of the games or Age of Shitmar. It's more of a niche in the U.S. whereas in the U.K. it's a fairly mainstream hobby. It also doesn't help that you tea-drinkers insist on jacking up the export rates for all your cool TT scenery and products.

Consider the fact that what you see on the left costs as much if not more than what you see on the right.

Warhammer's incredibly fucking expensive here.

Fairly new? Welp I’ve been playing 40k since 1992 in the US. It’s not fairly new.

I think he means in a longer view of history. Modeling goes back farther in the UK.

Americans are a notoriously lazy people

Did scale modeling start in the UK? We’ve always had plenty of models here in the US. I’m 40 my bed room growing up was decorated with planes and helicopters on the ceiling that I built.

>most innovation comes from USA
>most wealthy country
>average working hours much higher than Europe
>averse vacation time much lower than Europe
>people here often uphold working as the highest virtue

One of the reasons USA is so fucking fat is everyone works too much and therefore eats unhealthy, easy food options and feels they have no time to exercise.

The story of injection molded plastic (polystyrene) scale models begins in the early 1950's when two businessmen (Lewis Glasser in America, founder of Revell) and (Nicholas Kove in England, founder of Airfix) decided independently of each other to use their injection molding equipment to produce toys that the purchaser would put together with a suitable adhesive . Initially, painting the toy or model was an option only if the purchaser was able to obtain suitable household paints or artists oil paints.

clubhyper.com/reference/historyormodellingjl_1.htm

I think the difference was that Airfix was always decidedly military oriented and Revell still does a lot of civilian cars.

>most innovation comes from USA
Most innovation comes form a select few people not the entire society.

>most wealthy country
There are countries that have higher average income and higher living standarts for its populance. That is what counts for the citizens really.

>people here often uphold working as the highest virtue
Probably in previous generations of americans.

Reason USA is so fucking fat is fast food companies have you by the balls to the point you have no alternatives.
In a country where it takes extra effort and money to eat healthy food this is the result.
Poor are fat and rich are fit as a result of that.

A lot of people here do not have much time for hobbies. When they finally get a day off, they often just want to play the game rather than sit at home painting minis.

there is no need to paint figurines? I personally would want to commit personal time to something else than something vanity like painting figurines. that said, it's only a personal opinion,so you can't use it as a solid base.

Your opinion sucks. Playing against painted armies increases my enjoyment of the hobby; If I wanted to look at a field of unpainted plastic, I'd play a boardgame. Painting isn't hard, and if you're not willing to commit time to it, I'm not willing to commit time to play against you.

>Nah it's a 8th edition thing

The fuck it is.

Youre not helping

This. Nopainters view the hobby fundamentally differently from painters. They aren’t injecting and of the imagination into the game, but merely treating it purely as a game, like a competitive video game or something. It’s best just to separate from these people.

>playing a game as a game.

M8 it's a hobby where you should express yourself, play with coins or blocks of wood if you're not going to bother with an entire half of the damn thing

>youtu.be/J4PM_Wn4j-I [Remove]
I find it amazing that this guy built his model train set in his yard, probably exclusively to do this with. That's some dedication to your hobby right there. Damn, that's honestly pretty cool.

As opposed to
>telling a story
>developing your dudes
>representing the source material
>creating a visually appealing and imagination-inspiring spectacle
>and yes, having a friendly competition

Ive been in the hobby since I was a kid in the middle/late 90s. I love the lore/game/hobby aspects, but I just don't have the time anymore to paint most of my stuff. I barely find the time to put them together. I guess I mostly look at my games these days as a chance to hang out and shoot the shit.

>this is what clapistanians unironically believe
Best Korea -tier delusion

>video game without its graphics
>comicbook without pictures
>a play without set design, costumes or audience

I have literally no clue why people sperg out about wikipedia as a source of information for daily use. No one should question info when their friend looks up how funnel cake is made and their source is wikipedia, they're not writing their doctoral thesis on it.

>This is a nice board is Burgerland

Citogenesis.

Burgerperson here. I load my terrain with way more than that, with large building or large hills and cliffs to block line of sight, although I play privately. I’ve noticed FLGS often don’t have a good amount of terrain, and if there’s lots of players there isn’t enough to go around. The terrain they do have is often heavy on the forest / crater side of things and less on the line of sight blocking side.

>In this topic shitlords pick and choose shit from their local meta to complain about.
>B Austistic morons who can't make friends
>Don't understand why they aren't invited to places with nice things.

The US is pretty large. What one LGS does completely different from the next. There is a store I used to go to in NY that had massive table space and lots of players. Some times you had to slum it on a crappier table with not so hot terrain.

A few towns over where I lived a dude had every 40k army four custom tables with a shit ton of terrain. We would play very competitive tournies at a few stores, invite back our friends for narrative stuff. Some times we would paint stuff for narrative tournies in another story for Bolt Action.

Don't confuse lack of money and time for lack of desire for nice things. Yes some people aren't painters because they are too afraid to try, but given the opportunities nearly everyone would like to play on a nice table with well painted models.

How much tv do you watch? I set up a painting tray in the living room and all of a sudden I have time again!

I really dont watch tv. Haven't had cable in 15 years lol.

>about 40 cases in 5.5 million articles
>anything that fails once every 137,500 times is unreliable

Time to throw out flu shots I guess.

The virgin Brit, plays for fun
The chad American, plays to win

chad plays to win with fully painted models.

>Best Korea -tier delusion
>he says as he posts on an American website using a global computer network devised by Americans, while probably using an operating system designed by an American

to be fair america just poaches talent from all over the world by offering them way more money than they can make at home.

American entrepreneurship drives the ventures, the the talent comes from many different countries.