Misc: Solo vs Social?

One thing I omitted in my cogitations as featured in my recent 100th post was to reflect on having recently joined the local Wisbech IPMS. Undoubtedly this has been a relatively novel development for me, as I'm generally s bit of a lone wolf, always flying solo, to mix my metaphors.

Prior to this I had made the odd individual friendship based around my mini-military hobbies. Interestingly all the social developments have been on the modelmaking not the wargaming front. The IPMS development is unique however in its group nature. I've never been much of a joiner, and, to be frank, groups have pretty much always freaked me out.

As a musician this has made my life tricky, and especially so as a drummer, whose role is almost always to support others. Me being an ornery ol' mule, and possibly something of a perfectionist control freak. Albeit admittedly a somewhat unfocused one inclined to lazily abandoning my own supposed high standards.

Joining the IPMS community has been a challenge for me. And one I'm still not entirely comfortable with. But it has also bought all sorts of unexpected benefits. For example, recently Sean - an ex-serviceman whose legacy from his time serving includes advancing blindness - has sold me some kits, and even given me some, some of which I've then gone on to build fairly rapidly.

This connects also to a form of motivation: the IPMS group has a 'show and tell' segment on the first of their twice monthly meetings. This has definitely motivated me to finish stuff, such as the recent 54mm Napoleonics (some of which were also, incidentally, amongst the models I got from Sean). And not finishing stuff has been a long-term bugbear of mine.

Joining this group has even had non-hobby related benefits that were entirely unforeseen. On one occasion I was showing John (Mayfield, another ex-army chap) around our house and garden, having invited him round for tea and a chat, resulting in him seeing that we had large sections of fencing missing. He was having new fencing put in, and very generously offered to pass on his old fencing to us. In due course I collected and then installed said fence panels. 

Now that really wasn't the sort of thing I had anticipated happening on joining the group! I think it nicely illustrates, however, the possibly unforeeen benefits simply getting out and connecting with people can have. And in a way that's what this blog does, allowing me to make 'virtual' connections worldwide through these interests. Once again that provides both information and inspiration.

And perhaps the best thing is that it can help drive motivation towards completing things. Starting stuff but not seeing it through is, I guess, one of my chief failings. My bète noire, if you will. But, to end on a positive note, to all the talented and motivated folk out there, both those who also blog and those who don't, thanks for the inspiration and motivation!

Misc: Wisbech IPMS, etc.

This evening I did something most unlike me, and went along to a kind of club... Wisbech IPMS, to be precise. They hold their fortnightly meetings in The Community Room at the Wisbech Tesco. It's a soulless room, alas. But it's free, and there's even free tea, coffee, biscuits and wifi.

I was a bit anxious about meeting fellow modellers. From my experiences of going to model shops and shows over the years, I know we can be a funny mixed old bunch. And so it proved to be. There were even some women present. Women!? That was something I really wasn't expecting, and something that's decidedly rare and unusual, in my experience of both modelmaking and wargame figure collecting, etc.

A pretty friendly bunch, I was able to get on with my model - I'd been advised that everyone brought along models to work on - and occasionally engage in conversation with various other modellers. Once about eight or nine of us had arrived (quite a lot, they told me), there was a kind of semi formal 'everyone takes turns to introduce themselves and their model' round-robin thing.

It's funny how hard I find it to share my interests socially. It's a trait I've always had, with all my interests. Despite everyone there being modelmakers, I find that unless their modelling interests intersect with mine... well, how to put it? Erm... I'm really not very interested. I think that can change, and occasionally does, albeit very slowly. As, for example, when my buddy Paul's interest in plane models helped me get into the aviation side of 1/72 modelling.

I'm pretty useless at remembering names, so I'm not going to even try! One guy is very into modern civilian planes, another favours nautical subjects. One of the ladies was building an RAF ground crew set, which I can relate to (it's a set I'd like to build myself). But another was making a sabre-toothed tiger, which I find harder to be excited about. But there were enough WWII era models and topics of conversation to keep me reasonably happy.

The anorak/nerd vibe in the room was, as one might anticipate, way up into the red. As a Tesco member of staff unlocked the room for us, one of the guy's joked with him about this. I kind of wish he hadn't! Modelmakers shouldn't apologise for themselves or run themselves down. I know I've done it myself often enough. Hearing someone else do it made me realise I/we really shouldn't.

I hadn't realised that the show and tell portion could/should include a more developed project. But I got around that by showing a picture of my three Elefant tanks on my iPad. The kit I'd taken with me proved to have some damaged parts, and these were parts that I was meant to start with. So I spent most of the 7-10pm session scratchbuilding replacement parts! In the end I completed very little of the kit. But I probably worked at much the same speed I would've done had I been at home.

Overall I did enjoy going. Although I did, as I feared I might, find the socialising aspect the hardest most challenging part. And I think I will go again, though when exactly and how often, I'm less sure of. I'll probably go to the next one, and continue the kit I worked on tonight then. It's not a great kit, to be honest. But I think in a way that makes it more suitable to such an occasion, as it doesn't matter too much if my attention is divided whilst I work on it.