For you, John!

A short trip to the club to wish a happy new year to friends.

I have been painting but nothing finished yet. 1914 French for Square Bashing 2. Looking rather spiffing in their red trousers. I may try a small tutorial tomorrow night as Lisa has a friend over from work enabling me to ensconce myself in the office.

I've been following some interesting threads on forums over the festive period. It does amaze me how heated some of these discussions get. A favourite is the message boards on The Miniatures Page (link over to the right). A couple of posters on there have quite a reputation for argumentative posts and downright rudeness at times. Of course the phenomena of the 'internet warrior' is something that has risen noticeably over the years. But why people get so heated over what amounts to armchair history and toy soldiers is baffling.

One particular annoyance for me is the 'opinion stated as fact' posts by these internet warriors. This usually looks something like this....

1. "The figures made by XXXX are rubbish."

2. "The rules written by XXXX are stupid. They dont work and are not realistic."

and such like.

No opinions are like backsides. We all have one. But I do feel some people forget that opinions are just that. A subjective point of view if you will. I have opinions on figure ranges and rulesets. They are mine and mine alone. If someone likes another set of rules or figures and not the ones I like, thats fine. Neither of us is wrong in our opinion. In fact the above two examples would be much more palatable if they read like this....

1. "The figures made by XXXX are rubbish in my opinion because....."  or

2. "The rules written by XXXX are stupid in my opinion because...."

My mantra of wargaming being a broad church doesn't seem to be a widely held view as people seem to be happy to entrench themselves in their own little world where only their opinion is valid. And in the case of two contributors to The Miniatures Page, if you happen to disagree with their point of view, you are liable to derision, abuse and ridicule. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth so it does.

In brighter news, Peter Pig have resculpted their AK47 Professionals.

And very nice they look too. I may have to look at a tidy up of my AK47 armies. As ever so much to do and so little time.