Post by gloriousbattle on Oct 25, 2018 20:22:22 GMT -9
"…than lead or plastic?" which I really think is kind of a skewed way to put the question. I have been a minis gamer all my life. Though I only got into paper minis -somewhat sporadically- over about the last 10 years or so. Rather than framing it in terms of a comparison, I'd like to ask the slightly different question of what attracted you to paper soldiers for their own sake?
To backpedal into the comparison issue for just a moment, yes, I got into paper minis for all of the reasons so many people do. Light weight and easily portable, extremely durable (that one stumps a lot of gamers. Paper is more durable than metal? WTH? I once dealt with that one by issuing the following challenge to a guy who raised the superiority of metal at a convention: You throw my collection onto the concrete floor (of the high school gymnasium where we were playing), I'll throw your collection onto the floor, and we'll see who cries uncle first), inexpensive, speed and ease of preparation, etc.
However, and again, those are all just comparisons. And there certainly are comparisons that come out in favor of solids, such as realism.
But, again, was there something that actually drew you to the paper hobby?
I answer with a resounding yes. For me, it was nostalgia, pure and simple.
My grandfather was a German immigrant, who joined the U.S. army and rose to the rank of colonel before retiring. However, he knew how to make metal soldiers, and passed the theory on to my father, who passed it on to me. I had to r4create the practical application of it, and spent many happy years making metal soldiers.
But the family als had many books on collecting toy soldiers, and I spent many happy hours devouring the pictures with my eyes.
Those books, of course, usually spent some pages on paper flats, which, while not the earliest actual toy soldiers, were definitely the earliest toy soldiers to be mass produced. I tried my hand at drawing some, but was never an artist. When my father leased an early color Xerox machine for his business, I tried making some, but quickly discovered this wouldn't work without the ability to create a mirror image, which those primitive machines did not possess.
Many years later, I discovered that Windows Paint DID have this ability... and I have been happily making figures with false-left-and-right-sides ever since. I know it makes me (mildly) a pariah on this site, which really enjoys fronts and backs, but you'll have to forgive me fellas: I'm already where I wanted to be all those 45 years ago!
And that's really it. Paper soldiers take me back to my childhood, and, combined with their many conveniences, and the fact that I am now just too old but still too busy to spend time making and painting metal solids, they provide me with a great deal of fun.
What about you?
www.amazon.com/My-Toy-Soldiers-Me-Second/dp/9992031123/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1540531132&sr=1-9&keywords=toy+soldiers
www.amazon.com/Soldiers-Forbes-Collection-Richard-Scholl/dp/0762418796/ref=sr_1_12?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1540531241&sr=1-12&keywords=toy+soldiers
www.amazon.com/Paper-Empires-Years-German-Soldiers/dp/0764347403/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1540530962&sr=1-1&keywords=paper+toy+soldiers
To backpedal into the comparison issue for just a moment, yes, I got into paper minis for all of the reasons so many people do. Light weight and easily portable, extremely durable (that one stumps a lot of gamers. Paper is more durable than metal? WTH? I once dealt with that one by issuing the following challenge to a guy who raised the superiority of metal at a convention: You throw my collection onto the concrete floor (of the high school gymnasium where we were playing), I'll throw your collection onto the floor, and we'll see who cries uncle first), inexpensive, speed and ease of preparation, etc.
However, and again, those are all just comparisons. And there certainly are comparisons that come out in favor of solids, such as realism.
But, again, was there something that actually drew you to the paper hobby?
I answer with a resounding yes. For me, it was nostalgia, pure and simple.
My grandfather was a German immigrant, who joined the U.S. army and rose to the rank of colonel before retiring. However, he knew how to make metal soldiers, and passed the theory on to my father, who passed it on to me. I had to r4create the practical application of it, and spent many happy years making metal soldiers.
But the family als had many books on collecting toy soldiers, and I spent many happy hours devouring the pictures with my eyes.
Those books, of course, usually spent some pages on paper flats, which, while not the earliest actual toy soldiers, were definitely the earliest toy soldiers to be mass produced. I tried my hand at drawing some, but was never an artist. When my father leased an early color Xerox machine for his business, I tried making some, but quickly discovered this wouldn't work without the ability to create a mirror image, which those primitive machines did not possess.
Many years later, I discovered that Windows Paint DID have this ability... and I have been happily making figures with false-left-and-right-sides ever since. I know it makes me (mildly) a pariah on this site, which really enjoys fronts and backs, but you'll have to forgive me fellas: I'm already where I wanted to be all those 45 years ago!
And that's really it. Paper soldiers take me back to my childhood, and, combined with their many conveniences, and the fact that I am now just too old but still too busy to spend time making and painting metal solids, they provide me with a great deal of fun.
What about you?
www.amazon.com/My-Toy-Soldiers-Me-Second/dp/9992031123/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1540531132&sr=1-9&keywords=toy+soldiers
www.amazon.com/Soldiers-Forbes-Collection-Richard-Scholl/dp/0762418796/ref=sr_1_12?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1540531241&sr=1-12&keywords=toy+soldiers
www.amazon.com/Paper-Empires-Years-German-Soldiers/dp/0764347403/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1540530962&sr=1-1&keywords=paper+toy+soldiers