All Fur Coat and No Knicker- part two.

One size knickers fits all.... NOT

The recent discussions on Steve the Wargamers anf Robbie Roddiss' blog have highlighted a darkeness at the heart of our hobby. Not that this is new. Such minor cheating has been around for years. Buying a trphy is not new. Should we be surprised? I'm not after all this kind of low level skulduggery is endemic in real life- Politicians do it all the time- likewise soccer clubs, pop stars - most of those in the public eye. Why should we expect that wargamers are paragons of virtue whern the real world is not.?

Further I'd ask doea it matter?. It leaves a nasty taste in the mouth sure but does it matter. The playwright David Hare tells us that "Morality is not about telling others how to behave but about how you behave yourself". To me this is self evident but apparently not so to others who live in the Warhol world of "Famous for 15 minutes" . Even at such a minor level as ours this I'm afraid obtains.. I'm still not sure that it matters. We might OOH and Aaah at the pretty toys but don't actually care. For myself I don't give a bugger. I've done enough display games in my time and won enough prizesandbeen beaten to know that throwing money at it does work as in all thjeatres of endevour but not doing it yourself is less than satisfactory- at least for me. Now I can and do use painters- less so now than in the past- but still prefer my own stuff.

Now on to the scales thing.

I sometimes wonder if the glossies have any contact at all with the Grass Roots. Its pretty obvious that WI doesn't MW - the new one- not sure yet perhaps "selective contact" with knarly OFW trees. WSS again selective contact - but more widespread- WSS does operate a letter column on its website as I've used it. To be sure technology has changed the face of "Letters to the Editor" so despite Robbies remarks you wonder if such are relevant anymore when the bloggersphere exists.

BUT and its a sizeable but this 28mm only in the mags thing is becoming a little out of date.. The other sizes are alive and well - as was noted in WSS a couple of issues back . Of the glossies WI is the most guilty of "Scale snobbery" in the same way as it is most guilty of "figure Fascism ", but, frankly thats to be expected as its little more than a house organ for the Nottingham Mafia none of whom are interested in sizes other than those they produce.

Now out here on the thin lead line its veryt different. Isell figures in many sizes 40mm 25/8mm/30mm 15/18mm and 10mm and of course I'm far from alone- I don't do 20mm - others do nor do I do 6mm others do . Now speaking only for myself here ALL of the sizes I sell SELL, otherwise why would I offer them 15mm sells at least as well as 25/8/30 sometimes better. A good half of our Salute sales were Bluemoon 15/18mm yet working in this size barely gets a mention in the glossies- certainly not in WI Can't speak to new MW yet but WSS has had a go or two. Steve may be right about the dash for plastic having something to do with this - many younger chaps can't work in metal and seemingly would rather fart about sticking arms on than drinking beer or meeting girls(or boys or sheep or hamsters Whatever blows your skirt up Dude!)

The separation of the grass Roots from the glossies is now pretty total and in a sense there is a smaller separation from the Bloggersphere. Many chaps don't blog, a good many read the blogs but never comment. I'm always gratified at shows when a chap says - read your blog the other day- or somesuch sop the gap is smaller. Yet the GRs carry on doing what they do and enjoying it- or why would they still buy soldiers? . I've become of the opinion that this happens in spite of the glossy magazines and that most peole still buy em for the adverts - plus ca change !!!