Monday, 1 July 2024

(Lead) Mountain Musings - "CoolMiniOrNot" July 2024

"In Marvel United you take the role of iconic Marvel Heroes."

Despite a somewhat encouraging start to last month's plan to re-energise my hobby enthusiasm, which surprisingly even included 3D printing a number of models to be added to my increasingly long painting queue, my desire to put a brush-tip to any miniature whatsoever eventually once again died away to nothing. Much of this apathy was undoubtedly caused by my urgent need to manually cut'n'paste approximately 500 postings over to this blog from my "Wix" website after I was told I'd need to pay a whopping £273.60 by the end of July simply to maintain it.

Initially therefore I've spent a considerable amount of my recent free time simply publishing old articles and their pictures (back) over to "Blogger". However, even that plan has had to be radically changed following news from "Wix" that they actually now want £403.20 and "may" be deducting it within a fortnight of the renewal date. Obviously, I needed to therefore cancel my plan, but not before I at least had all the missing posts (minus photographs) safe and sound before I did so - just on the off-chance "Wix" simply deleted my content early in a 'hissy fit'.

"CoolMiniOrNot" WIPs - Daredevil, Ultron and Beast have all been primed

This currently means I have 280 drafts awaiting their pictures before I can (re)publish them, and not much time to paint during my hobby time as a consequence. Happily however, this 'slog' has taken me down some wonderfully invigorating trips down memory lane, and infected me with a desire to both continue my current Monty Python’s Flying Circus expansion set for Zombicide 2nd Edition, as well as recommence another "CoolMiniOrNot" project involving "Marvel United" figures.

I've also decided to see whether mixing the content of my postings up a bit might help 'keep me going', and by that I mean not just produce an endless string of finished models. But actually return to plenty of Battle Reports (possibly weekly) and other hobby-related articles, such as product reviews and my experiences with 3D printing. I think this move would take the pressure off of me having to repeatedly finish pigmenting miniatures, and encourage me to actually paint more for the games I'm playing.

June 2024 - Due to a lack of productivity there's no change at the top of the table for the second month
With this in mind, I have already plucked out my "Marvel United" models for Ultron, the Beast and Daredevil, with the intention of adding these to my battles as part of an ad hoc campaign I hope to cover over the next few weeks. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given my 'all-in' attitude to anything I attempt, I've also grabbed a few less 'monotone' figures from my huge Kickstarter Exclusives box, simply so I can potentially potter away on them too if the mood takes me.

Alongside all these comic book and comedy-based characters, I thought I might also scoop up a handful of 'close-to-completion' miniatures which have been loitering around my hobby desk for far too long. These partially-painted side-projects are predominantly metal so should help me 'break up' an otherwise all-plastic affair, and help me scratch the itch for a number of genres/subjects I've rediscovered a liking for having been neck-deep in so many old blog posts...

10 comments:

  1. Hope the move of all the posts goes well, and will then free up more hobby time for you, remember when I moved the 171 posts from the cupboard to my site it was a real pain, so hope it all goes well for you. Hopefully once this is sorted your enthusiasm will return, especially if getting things completed for games helps.

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    1. Thanks Dave. I think the hardest part is now complete, and will hopefully have the time over the next few weeks to simply (re)upload the pictures before my Wix plan expires. I just don't believe how much they're demanding for their product..!?! Utter madness imho.

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  2. Great to see some news from You!
    My son love Marvels stuff and I don't want to go to kindergarten just to get the new Hulk ;))

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    1. Cheers Michal. Hopefully my dive back into Marvel United will help get me back into the hobby. It certainly seems to have done so far as I have several of the game's figures on the go currently.

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  3. Cheeky sods. I have to admit to being slightly dubious about some of these Web hosting services, as they always offer a good introductory 'offer' that soon makes way for a blatant cash grab. As the WordPress/Jetpack app has a 'Reader' option that ties into blogs and websites, a return to blogger makes it easier for me to see and comment on your posts, as curiously it doesn't support the Wix websites.

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    1. Thanks Jez. I think Wix's problem is that it seems to have completely changed its focus from being simply a website designer, to a shop - so whereas when I first started it was all about front pages, project pages and blogs, it's now about charging people for stuff behind paywalls, selling products and spending cash on advertisement campaigns to bring in more potential customers - none of which I'm remotely interested in. Over the past year or so there's also been a major decline in views and (most importantly) comments - with numerous people complaining about not being to use Wix to comment etc.

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  4. Wow I thought you'd been quiet for a bit Simon, now I realise why, that's a lot of posts to move back across mate, but can't say I blame you after that extortionate amount they are asking! I too prefer you on blogger as your Wix website started doing some very odd things when I tried to view it on my phone.
    Hope your painting plan works too mate, if it get you painting and posting again (as well as getting some games in) sounds like a win. win. win all round.

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Cheers Roger. Bizarrely I received more visits back on this blog in the first few weeks than I had for the entire three years on Wix. LOL!! So that goes to show how difficult it was trying to attract people to the website - without spending money on advertising campaigns. In addition, main websites like Wargame News & Terrain contacted me to say they couldn't link to my blog posts anymore as Wix wouldn't let them. Something which really riled me as that's where I get a lot of my traffic.

      The painting plan is certainly working currently, as I'm already building up a backlog of painted figures once again. In addition, the desire to get something painted so I can pop it in a BatRep is definitely motivating me, so fingers crossed everything will improve. Plus, once the 300(ish) missing posts are published, I'll have over a decade's run of my hobbying on this blog for people to look at should the mood take them.

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  5. Sorry to hear about your troubles with Wix. Hopefully you can put that behind you and move on. Your plan sounds good to me and I can't wait to see some of those Marvel United minis painted up as they are so full of character.

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    1. Thanks Undercoat. The plan certainly seems to be working currently, as I've polished off a few Marvel United figures already.

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