They have a cave troll!

Orcs, hobbits and preventing burnout

On a day-to-day basis, I find myself predominantly sitting at a desk in front of a screen, attending virtual meetings, writing Jira, emails, and code. This is good insofar as I work as a software engineer, but it wasn’t holistically good.

As it happens, I also used return from work on a daily basis, and find myself sitting in front of one of the various screens at home. Again, not entirely healthy.

A couple of years ago, Rosie and I were in Hobbycraft buying jam jars (we had made a few kilograms of blackberry jam, but that is a different story!), when I saw the Airfix sets. As a kid, I had never been allowed to buy these plastic self-assembly toy cars and planes—my mother’s reasoning was: “you wouldn’t do it.” To be honest, she was probably right. This time, however, I decided to give it a go.

I have always wanted a Jaguar E-Type, despite their impracticalities as a commuting car (and their extortionate cost!). This seemed like the perfect opportunity to tend slightly towards my dream. Much to Rosie’s dismay, I spent about £15 of our hard-earned cash on an Airfix 1:43 scale Jaguar E-Type starter set. After a few hours of cutting, gluing, painting (and a bit of swearing), I had assembled my first model.

As I’m sure you can see, it wasn’t the best. The paint was lumpy (apparently you’re meant to layer it!), and it just looked like someone a fifth of my age had cobbled it together. However, I had been bitten by some kind of bug; apparently there was a cathartic nature to cutting plastic off a sprue, dissolving it with some sort of (likely carcinogenic) chemical, and eventually painting it.

A few day’s later I was back at Hobbycraft for more! It is not in my nature to take baby steps, so this time I came home with a 116 part, 1:25 scale Ford Mustang from Revell. I was also keen to learn from the mishaps of the previous build.

Complete with a number of tricky water-transfer decals, and an entire scale-replica engine, about six weeks later I had finished. This time, I actually felt like I had achieved something.

My next project was an Airfix Hurricane. I had never really been an aviation geek, however this nearly turned me into one! It was simpler than the Mustang, given its 1:72 scale, and the cockpit wasn’t particularly detailed. It was, however incredibly satisfying to paint. The matte two-tone paint job was a step up from the Mustang, which itself was a step up from the Jaguar, and I was quite proud of it. It now sits on Rosie’s desk.

At this point, I discovered Warhammer. Warhammer is the name for a family of table-top miniature wargames produced by Games Workshop. Given our general enjoyment of medium-heavy euro board games, this seemed like a natural fit. However, there is a minor hitch. The pieces for the game come on a sprue. Warhammer is essentially the IKEA of board games.

For Christmas, Rosie bought me a starter kit, and I had more things to paint. By this point, this little hobby had become a source of joy for my wife, as it “keeps him busy”, and thus she was keen to encourage it at every step.

This starter set contained a small contingent of Stormcast Eternals and Gloomspite Gitz (that is orc in the vernacular). While this was fun, there was something incredibly fictitious about them. The creatures I was assembling and painting (which now live on a shelf on our stairs), felt like they didn’t exist, they felt like they came out of a story. As a result, I felt I had no attachment to them.

But then I found a solution. Games Workshop also hold the license for MESBG, an awfully un-catchy acronym for Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game. This is a game set in the very real realms of Middle Earth, and what could be more real than hobbits?

On a trip to Warhammer World, the national warhammer museum on an industrial estate in Nottingham, I picked up my first resin model. A diorama set of the four hobbits hiding under a tree to avoid being caught by a black rider. Far more realistic than some Gloomspite Gitz!

Over the next few months I found myself acquiring more and more hobbits, orcs, wizards and elves, to sit alongside my little cars. Though it was somewhat embarrassing when partaking in a Lord of the Rings themed pub quiz, I could answer the colour of Legolas’ quiver as I had been painting him the night before!

Had someone told me a few years ago that one of my pastimes would be painting and fighting with toy soldiers, I would probably have laughed. At the very least, I would have been bemused. However, I can honestly say I have really found myself enjoying this!

I have always enjoyed making things, and this is I guess a natural (and cheaper!) extension of the Lego I used to build as a child. I don’t work on my miniatures every night, I even go weeks at a time without touching a paint brush or a craft knife, but I rarely find myself without some kind of project on the go.

I think what I enjoy the most is that I can escape to my office, put on some music or a podcast or something, and sit there focussing on whatever model sits on my desk. I can forget about whatever is going on in the world or at work, and just enjoy bringing some grey pieces of plastic slightly closer to life than they were before I sat down. The painting is far from perfect, but I guess that’s part of the fun!