Rick the Grumpy Gnome

The first blog post of 2024!

I can not get over just how busy I have been. Mostly good stuff but there is just never enough time for everything I want to do…. especially as I have been feeling the familiar pull of an old hobby that I have taken a five year break from. More on that later but for now, let’s focus on…. Quar!

Yes, the plastic Quar starter box from Wargames Atlantic and Zombiesmith has arrived! Joshua Qualtieri of Zombiesmith has a good unboxing video…

Excitement and relief for arrival of a long delayed project aside, how do I feel about this set? I love it!

All the game components match the thoughtfully grimsical nature that makes the Quar so lovable in my opinion. And the plastic sculpts themselves are excellent. Crisp sculpting with fine details. Both WGA and Zombiesmith have done a brilliant job with their partnership on this.

On top of that, the new thermoplastic Quar from Zombiesmith have also arrived!

I am very pleased with the sculpts… so much to love and so much more to look forward to. Joshua Qualtieri has really knocked it out of the park!

Unfortunately I do not know when I will find time to build and paint them. Much of my free time is still being taken with getting rid of old projects to fund the new ones and now as to that old hobby urge that has reawakened in me…

I have quite a history of larping but Mrs. GG and I have taken a break for about five years now. It was in fact ConQuest 2010 where I met Mrs. GG.

And I used to larp in the UK. Not only as a player but as something of group organizer with an amateur interest in marketing as well as costume design. If you look closely you will see me briefly in this video from the Empire larp in the UK…

Empire LARP by Profound Decisions in the UK

While a lot of my new larp kit has started as off the shelf purchases, I am trying to modify and personalize things in a combination that hopefully will create a fresh and memorably iconic costume for my new character. One thing I love about larp is collaborative story telling and for me costume is a fundamental element of that, 80% of communication being non-verbal as they say. Costume gives cues, hooks, for people to use as a form of shorthand to understand a character… be it in a movie or a larp.

One decision I have to make now is whether or not this blog will pivot to cover my return to larp or not. This is tied into whether I will be rejoining various social media platforms in general as part of this return to larp. I have felt quite cut off from the tabletop wargaming community by not being on Facebook but it seems even worse with the larp community. And it has been disappointing how few people have responded to the emails I recently sent reaching out to various individuals and organizations.

And this would also likely mean surrendering the anonymity I have cultivated for the last five years.

Feel free to share your opinions in the comments below as I am curious what you think of this.

In other news….

We watched Boss Level and I quite enjoyed it. Mrs. GG enjoyed it more than I expected but not as much as I did. In fact I was surprised by just how much I enjoyed it.

Boss Level is good!

It was much better than I expected. Frank Grillo really deserves more leading roles in bigger budget films. At times is really subverted my expectations but no so much that it felt gratuitous or immersion breaking. My disbelief was effectively suspended despite the ridiculous premise. I wish more films could do that and I can not really say why this one worked. Maybe it was in part how much I like Frank Grillo, he should have been cast to play the Punisher in the current MCU. Or perhaps he should make a Mack Bolan film!

Wheel of Time Season 2… better than Season 1 but that is not saying much.

Wheel of Time, Season 2… watchable, barely.

I still think this show does not do the books justice. But this season was something of an improvement. Movies/TV shows really need to be outstanding to get away with deviating from the source material, be it books, comics or computer games. Peter Jackson managed it with Lord of the Rings but failed with The Hobbit. Wheel of Time keeps getting it wrong in so many ways I wish they had just made their own IP inspired by Wheel of Time rather than calling it Wheel of Time.

The Last Duel… not as good as The Duelists but ok if you can deal with so many unlikeable characters. Some decent costuming and set dressing, but dark and somewhat monotone thanks to the cinematography.

Also some decent scenes with good acting but it felt disjointed overall. Not knowing the real history behind it let me enjoy the final resolution of the story come as something of a surprise. Adam Driver certainly did a better job in this than as Ben Solo. I put it down to the writing rather than his acting. So much of the writing of the last three films of the Star Wars Skywalker Saga is just rubbish.

Unfortunately there were some times in the film where I identified with Matt Damon’s character, especially in the section when it is told from his perspective, which made me feel uncomfortable. It made me seriously question how I may see myself and my actions compared to how others may see me.

Preparing to get back into larp has made me remember how some folks seem to really like me and some folks really do not. I used to be very extroverted but I have become introverted the last five years, for me the Covid lockdowns never seem to have ended. Now I am beginning to feel more extroverted again and craving the kind of connections I had with people before I quit larping. Yet I am also hesitant to return to some of the challenges of dealing with people that strongly dislike me. My self confidence is not what it once was. The Last Duel is good art, even if not a great film, for making me consider this. Good art should challenge you to think, to feel.

The Creator… not as good as I hoped. Neither as a movie technically or as art in general.

It looked gorgeous, the set dressing and costuming being brilliant. Skilled actors. But the writing was terrible. I know I went in with high expectations and set myself up for disappointment but the movie really could have told a much better story. It had so much potential.

We are currently watching the new version of Shogun… and greatly enjoying it. Easy for me to recommend it and I wish more shows were this good. At first I did not think I would like the actor playing Blackthorn because he sounded like he was doing a Richard Burton impersonation instead of acting but he grew on me thanks to his excellent facial expressions, although I still feel like his voice has been dubbed when watching the show. The writing for the Blackthorn character could be a bit better though. His military and combat experience seems to vary depending on the scene and is so inconsistent as to be immersion breaking. All of the Japanese characters are fascinating to watch, even the ones I do not like. The Spanish pilot was ok but the Portuguese characters are a bit bland and forgettable. The costumes and set dressing are absolutely gorgeous. It is a visual feast to watch. Some folks may find it slow but I like the thoughtful tempo. It is a sad and cruel story though, so be warned.

Not long now until the Fallout TV series and I am so hyped up that I am probably setting myself up to be disappointed but HOPE DIES LAST!

28 comments

  1. Great to hear you now have your hands on the plastic Quar, you have been waiting for GG, and hopefully you will find a little time here and there to work on them.

    Hope you enjoy your return to LARPing, for me personally would enjoy seeing posts on it, as dabbled a bit many tears ago. As for Facebook it is becoming a very negative space, and I only use it when I need to.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    • Thanks mate!

      I have been focusing so much on larp kit the couple of months that tabletop gaming seems a bit distant but I tried to keep up on gaming news at least. GW continues to surprise me…. which in and of itself surprises me. My love for Quar and Anyaral has only grown as my taste in the whimsical grows.

      That said, I am unsure how whimsical my larping will get. I am struggling a bit with a compelling Gnome larp character concept that would be fun to play for an extended period. To be honest I see my day to day self right now rather Gnomish. Part of me wants a break from that but at the same time I also do not want to just lazily slip into a character too much like my last long term larp character.

      I dread a return to Facebook. It may or may not happen. But I will need to strenuously avoid politics… and I question whether I have the self discipline for that.

      Thank you for taking the time to let me know your thoughts on it!

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  2. I, too, am not on social media. I left Facebook in 2019, prior to the pandemic. I’m so thankful I got off before lockdowns went down. I have some friends and family who have only gotten more extreme since then. It’s sad.

    I do also think about going back from time to time. There has been some hobby opportunity I’ve missed out on because I wasn’t aware, and had I been part of some Facebook groups I’d have been able to take part.

    I only post on my blog and LAF and even though it feels a bit like a desolate wasteland out here sometimes, I take a little solace in the fact that my content is easily findable by anyone and turns up in search results whereas pictures behind FB or Instagram walls wouldn’t.

    I don’t know what the answer is for you, I think I’m probably just going to stay away. I’ve been gone for five years, and my hobby output is gonna start dwindling, so my peak online hobby participation years may have been behind me.

    Good luck with the return to LARPing either way!

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

    • For the curious I am fiercely moderate in my beliefs… so I tend to upset folks on both the Left and Right. And I have a bad habit of wanting to “correct someone on the internet that is wrong” and then furiously typing like a madman… which tends to irritate Mrs. GG.

      You make some excellent points.

      That said, I was starting to feel a bit too much like prime hobby years were behind me…. but now I feel like I better get on with living or I might as well get on with dying. So I will probably end up in the hospital trying to larp fight with folks a few decades younger than me.

      Thanks for the well wishing though and thanks for sharing your thoughts!

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

      • I don’t mean to go on a tangent here, but want to clarify why my hobby output is gonna start dwindling. I turn 50 at the end of the year, i’ve been at this hobby for about 40 years (though you couldn’t tell by my lack of talent. ha!). I feel by the end of this year, I’ll have completed all my little dream projects. Spending more time painting models is gonna hit the point of diminishing returns. I have enough minis painted I can play games for the next 20-30 years and not be bored. I’ll have more models painted than I’ll probably ever actually use.

        I guess during the pandemic, along with everyone else, I had a bit of introspection. Or maybe it was just finding myself in middle-age. The end result, there are lots of things on this ball of mud that I haven’t done, but thought I would. Play an instrument well, learn a second or third language, many books I have yet to read.

        Ultimately, I realize if any of these other interests are going to happen, the paint brush has to be put down. I’ll still paint the occasional model, or team, here or there, but no more “projects”, no more queues. Just the occasional one-off for what I already have. It’s time for me to focus on a few other areas before I shuffle off this mortal coil. 😉

        Liked by 3 people

      • I’m a bit older, but just got back into painting 8 years ago. I don’t have the stockpile of minis I would like to have, but gaming with my kids has helped me to get near there. At some point I mind end up in the same boat though, since I paint for games and there are only so minis I would probably need for such. I mean honestly, when I look back at our early D&D gaming sessions, I would guess we only had 40 painted minis at most and we used those for every game we played and every character. I have way more than that now. But yea, there is probably a light at the end of that tunnel, and then I would like to devote more time to other stuff like learning guitar, running, etc.

        I also hear you on the social platforms. They were great for keeping in touch with old friends, but I feel like I lost control as my network expanded to coworkers, etc. It got to the point where I didn’t like reading the posts and had to be careful of what I posted. Since it wasn’t fun anymore, I just gave it up.

        Liked by 4 people

      • I have so many miniatures and terrain I want to paint, so many games I want to play. Never enough time.

        My problem is that I often fall into the all or nothing trap and things get hard to manage, and that includes hobbies as well as social media platforms.

        While I will never learn to play the guitar I will enjoy watching Little GG do so, he already has a much better ear for music than me.

        Liked by 2 people

      • I can understand that. There is just never enough time for everything we want to do in life. The older I get, the more I realize that. Time is one of the most precious resources.

        Liked by 2 people

  3. I liked Frank Grillo in the MCU, I haven’t seen Boss Level though. Might have to check that one out. I’d say, it’s your blog and you certainly get to choose what you’d like to do with it. I see a number of people posting about things not directly related to their blog, so I wouldn’t worry. I guess the only issue is if you are hoping to attract other LARPers with a LARP focused blog. But I’m not sure how popular blogging even is these days. I think it’s the better platform for more in depth material, but I like to read content instead of quickly “liking” a whole bunch of pictures. So what do I know?!

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    • Boss Level is thought provoking fun with a decent moral core message as well as a lot of violence.

      I have always thought of this blog as “my place to share artwork and ideas”. It started with minis and terrain but pivoted to include tv/movie opinions after some negativity I received in discussions of such things on a couple of hobby forums.

      On Facebook I used to devote a lot of time and energy on larp… now I feel like talking about larp again but I am not keen to rejoin Facebook. However, I did join Reddit for the first time yesterday.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      • Reddit is the only one I watch. I don’t see a lot of politics in the sub reddits I follow. Which is cool, when I just want to learn and share about a hobby.

        Liked by 2 people

  4. Glad you’re enjoying Quar! I want to also give some props to a friend who is Josh’s partner, Anthony Brown – who is also a sculptor, rules creator and perhaps the best miniature painter I have ever met. The two of them work great together and do a fantastic job of making things beautiful.

    I am also happy to hear you’re getting back into larping. My time with GE is still one of my most, if not the most, cherished memories and experiences I have had. I’ve said it multiple times to you and others but I doubt I would have had a tenth of the fun I did if it hadn’t been for you, Mrs. GG and your other regulars. I may need to plan a trip in a couple of years to come along with you to Empire to experience a new game and say hello to old friends.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • Thanks Mark, you are right Anthony Brown deserves some of the credit.

      And we appreciate your kind words regarding the GE. Just a little clarification, at this stage we are planning to return to Mythodea here in Germany but not Empire by Profound Decisions in the UK. But I think you would enjoy Empire if you fancy going. It is a very different experience from Drachenfest and Mythodea… but I have heard even better than when I used to go. And of course you are welcome to visit us here in Germany!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  5. Good to see the Quar have arrived – I think you’ll enjoy working on them! If you want to get back to LARPing, and you enjoy it, then go for it! I have now got to the point where I don’t waste my time correcting people, basically because they don’t want to be corrected and they think they’re right, so I’d be wasting my energy and they can find out they’re wrong the hard way!

    As far as social media’s concerned, I don’t bother with it! I have seen the harm it can cause and have worked out that at least 95% of it is something mundane dressed up to be the most important thing ever! So could be you might just have to see how it all goes with LARPing and take it from there.

    So, two paragraphs gone and absolutely nothing useful from me! I am, however, hoping to start watching Fallout since it’s available now in the UK!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • The Quar are so brilliant. I like the original metal sculpts and I also really like the thermoplastics… but the plastic multipart kits are going to be kitbashing gold!

      You make a fair point about correcting folks. Critical thinking is not a widespread practice. I have wasted far too much of my precious time in the past and generally alienated more people than enlightened. It is annoying to miss out on information but I just do not need more negativity in my life. So far I have a new Google Account (and therefore YouTube) and Reddit. Perhaps commenting in those places will encourage some folks to answer my emails.

      We watched the first two Fallout episodes… loving it. Not perfect but close, far better than I was expecting.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    • My love for the Quar is quite…. extreme. Grimsical for the win!

      With Fallout Amazon to me has proven it can be done (As did Jackson’s LOTR), tv shows have no excuse for being rubbish. It just requires hard work, attention to detail and being faithful to the source material. If you deviate, you have to make the deviation worthy of doing so… which is incredibly difficult to do (as Jackson failed to do in the Hobbit).

      While I have only seen the first two episodes of Fallout, I am loving it!

      Like

      Reply

  7. More Quar sounds great to me! I look forward to seeing you work on them. Hopefully you don’t have too many more old projects to clear out? I still need to work on clearing out some of my stuff but real life has mostly gotten in the way of it lately.

    I know nothing about LARPing and it is not something that I think I would enjoy personally. I’m too self-conscious, vain, and don’t enjoy acting, if you know what I mean. With that said, I fully endorse you doing what you love and if that includes LARPing, I say go for it. You might try to find a Discord community for local LARPers to avoid FB. Facebook is losing its hold over people, especially Millennials and younger. Eventually, the FB groups may even have to migrate elsewhere though I think we’re a ways off from that.

    I really enjoyed The Last Duel and so did my wife. Well, the subject matter is unpleasant but the movie was well done and it makes you think. The complexity of the issues that The Last Duel raises are very timely too. I also liked the duel scene unsurprisingly and the overall visuals of the movie even if it is not a Marvel or Star Wars movie.

    I started Shogun and thought the first episode was good but not quite great. I’d like to watch more but my time is stretched pretty thin as it is so I fear I may drop off the show even if I think I would enjoy it. Such is the life of a busy adult with things pulling us in many different directions all at once.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • The Quar are so brilliantly just my kind of thing. So excited that more are being made.

      I am admittedly quite vain but I enjoy amateur theatrics.

      Success with Discord has always eluded me. But I am finally trying to figure out Reddit properly. I will continue resisting FB for now.

      The Last Duel does deal with unpleasant people in unpleasant situations but I agree, it is thought provoking.

      Shogun is slow but I am loving it, perhaps not as much as Fallout… but still worth the time in my opinion.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  8. I expected a GG post when the Quar starter box came out, then I expected a blog post when The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live started, and what do we get? A Larping one!

    Go where your passion leads you, be that painting, larping, etc. I’ve read that is harder for people to start being social again after covid, myself included.

    I was never on Facebook, read more and rarely comment on Twitter (never on anything political), have dabbled in Reddit but find any thread/post immediately digresses, I’m on Instagram but that is becoming more ads than content.

    Not knowing that much about Larping, I would be interested in reading about it in your blogging.

    on the viewing front, have watched all of the new Walking Dead series, so that says something about that.

    Started to watch the Last Duel, wanted to really like it as I like the actors and the Director but the color grading prevented me from enjoying it so never finished it.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • Well to be fair, I was waiting in part for the thermoplastic Quar to arrive but yeah the blog post is a bit dominated by my larp diversion. I have not seen any of The Ones Who Live yet… but it is encouraging to hear you watched all of it.

      The color grading in the Last Duel was problematic in my opinion but I suppose it was designed to try to set the tone of the movie. Ridley Scott is such a inconsistent director. Some of his stuff I love, other stuff I really dislike. I thought Matt Damon was better in this than he has been in some other movies.

      I suspect I will add some larp content to the blog. It is now more a question of what exactly to talk about. Kit reviews and costume design come to mind immediately.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • I would think costume design and kit reviews would have quite an overlap with painting and kit bashing of miniatures.

        Just because you can doesn’t mean you should – I wish more film directors would remember that. I remember seeing publicity shots of Vikings and remarking how much brighter they were vs the show itself. I went to Dachau years ago and was glad I went on a sunny day, didn’t need a clouldy day to set the mood.

        Liked by 1 person

      • My wife said the very same thing about cross over but in a slightly different context. I found myself being a bit more critical of my costuming than I had been before and she suggested it may be because of my time kitbashing and painting minis. Now I need to transfer some of those miniature modeling skills to life size props.

        I put some ink washes on jewelry to make them look less like “cheap mass produced modern costume jewelry” for example. And I am going to try leather antiquing gel on some of my new kit once I get time.

        You are absolutely right about just because you can does not mean you should… I would add, less is more. A lesson Peter Jackson seriously needs to learn from Steven Spielberg.

        Like

Leave a comment