Brent: Community Meet and Greet: ‘#2501’
Though I’ve said it before it bears repeating: the best part about the hobby is the people. So it stands to reason, the best part about blogging is getting to meet a bunch more of ’em than you could one night a week at your local game store.
Brent here again, ever on loan from Strictly Average and bringing down the value of a Tuesday timeshare… it’s a life.
If you’re not that familiar with my schtick, I should warn you my goal has always been to help promote the positive aspects of our shared community; the Blogosphere is in its infancy, after all, and I look forward to seeing what it’s going to be in 5 years!
Ah, but all that is for another day… today is about Mark, otherwise known as #2501, the mad technocratic-cyborgy-biopharmacological nightmare… dude behind the very cool blog, Musings of a Metal Mind.
I love everything about this dude’s vision – I really do. His style and take on modeling, converting, and painting are both unique and accessible, and I’m happy to have finally landed this fish! Without further ado, here’s the interview, interspersed with as many photos as I could fit in one article.
Brent: So, here’s a good place to start. How long have you been playing?
Mark: I’ve been playing since 5th edition, but collecting since the late ’80’s/early 90’s. My first model was one of the old cobra hood-backed metal Terminators.
Brent: What kind of player are you?
Mark: The casual kind. I like to have fun playing a relaxing, friendly game with the minimum of rules-lawyering and other shenanigans the tournament scene is notorious for. I used to play in Battletech tournaments back in the day, and the glut of hyper-competitive, poor sportsmen types with no social skills (and poor personal hygiene) killed the game for me. That’s sad, because, flawed as it was, old-school Battletech was a lot of fun. I think a lot of people get too wrapped up in the competitive aspect of it and fail to see it for what it is: a way to get people together and have a good time. This isn’t to say that you can’t have fun at a tournament; everything I’ve heard about NOVAcon said it was a great time. It’s just not the scene for me. Also, I’m too lazy to get up at 7am and play 40k for 12 straight hours.
Brent: What aspects of the game do you enjoy, and why?
Mark: The hobby aspect. One of the things about me, artistically, is that I love to get ideas out into tangible form, where I can touch and see them, whether it’s through writing, drawing, or modeling. I find building and modifying models immensely satisfying, and the 40k universe is such that there’s no upper limit on the projects you can conceive of.
I also enjoy the social aspect getting together and playing the game, not to mention the particular feeling of gratification that comes from blowing away Eldar.
Brent: You bring something new and different to modeling; where did this come from? What is your background?
Mark: I was a brought up on a steady diet of Speed Racer, Transformers, Voltron, and Star Wars (the first three), so I was drawing spaceships and giant robots since I was little. I read old issues of Popular Mechanics and Popular Science when I was 7 or 8, and my old elementary school library was crammed with ’50’s and ’60’s-era futurist books on rocketry, aerospace and other things, and I devoured all I could get. All that air-brushed, modern age stuff leaves its mark on a mind hungry for flights of fancy, and I think it’s what led to my getting into design. In addition, it got me into the habit of researching things I was interested in so as to learn they are the way they are and how they work.
I have a lot of studio art and art history education under my belt, and I’m a working graphic designer and video editor. My first job was coloring covers and laying out text for a small company that translated Japanese comic books. Not very high-paying, but it was a lot of fun and I travelled all over the place. I also got to meet a lot of giants in the artistic community, both here and in Japan. I’ve also written sourcebook material for Dream Pod 9’s Heavy Gear line.
Brent: How does that reflect in your work?
Mark: Besides looking cool (having a sense of design and aesthetics certainly helps that), for me there has to be a reason for things to be the way they are. Why are the back legs heavier than the front? Why is that gun mounted there? Where does the pilot sit? You have to consider these things when you’re coming up with something from scratch. When something’s out of place it bothers the eye; anyone can tell when something’s just tacked on there and it bugs them. “It just doesn’t look right” is such a common phrase because people have an innate sense of composition, and know what looks good what doesn’t (most of the time). When I’m working on a project, I try to imagine the thing rumbling around in real life, and that influences my aesthetic decisions. One of my favorite artists is Shirow Masamune, not only because of his cutting edge style, but also because he explains why his mecha and tanks look they way they do. I try to do the same thing when blogging, so the reader will understand why I make the choices I make.
Brent: What are your favorite armies and/or models, and why?
Mark: I’m a huge fan of tanks, mecha, armored suits, all sorts of things like that. Because of this, I enjoy a variety models of various stripes, but I suppose I tend more towards the Imperial factions. GW has done an excellent job with the “future gothic” motif of the Empire, with its scrolls and spires and little ornate gilded things. Their war machines vary from the unnecessarily ornate of the Inquisition to the very utilitarian, gritty Imperial Guard, and that appeals to me because it’s such a broad range to work with, and I never get tired of it. Overall, my favorite production model from the Imperial side has to be the Terminator; I have over sixty of the things, and I’ve found no end of ways to convert them. Of the conversions I’ve done, I’d have to say I still love my GunHEDs the best, even though I’ve never, ever used them in a game. They’re based on an old mecha design that I love, and even though they’d never, ever possibly see game use, they’re up there among the crown jewels of my collection.
My favorite Xenos race has to be the Necrons, because they’re so very dark an unapologetically evil. They’re also one of GW’s most under-developed lines, which is a shame, because they have a lot of potential. I tried to explore that by welding them with Tyranids, creating the Tyracrons. Both model lines shared the prevalent rib-cage motif, so it seemed like a no-brainer. When I was sussing out the initial Tyracron Warrior design, I got a blog comment that went something like: “You have to figure out whether they’re Tyranids with a robot infection, or vice versa”, and that really resonated with me. I try to keep it in mind every time I start a new project for that army; maintaining that balance between organic and inorganic. It’s really yielded a lot of fantastic results. To this day, my highest-traffic blog post continues to be the General Grievous Hive Tyrant model, and it remains one of my favorites as well.
I started off playing fantasy before getting into 40k, and I tend to go with “mad scientist” races like the Skaven and Dwarves. I always thought the dwarf army suffered from under-development though; for a race so well-versed in war, where’s their cavalry? Other war-games have them riding pigs, rams, and bears, and GW can’t seem to wrap their minds around anything beyond the occasional new cannon. I suppose that’s why the Goblin Hewer was a surprise delight. A war machine that fires a hail of axes! How badass is that? Why wouldn’t you field one of the damn things?
Although the Dwarves will always be near and dear to my heart (thanks, D&D) it’s been the Skaven and their ramshackle monstrosities that have really fired my imagination. My Skaven army expands every so often with the odd model, and the last major thing I built for it was the Doomtrain, which started out life as a Chaos Hellcannon kit. I loved it so much I started building a Vampire Counts themed army around it, complete with skeletal Skaven infantry and mounted rat knights. I was excited when I saw they renewed the range, especially the ground-up redesigns of the Doomwheel and Warp Lightning Cannon. It might be time for me to delve back into Fantasy again, although players around here tend to be more into 40k.
Brent: Your blog is Musings of a Metal Mind. How long have you been blogging?
Mark: Since 2009. It started more as an extension of my writing hobby, but really took off when it turned into a 40k/WHF hobby blog. There’s a sense of fellowship among the hobby bloggers that I enjoy; it reminds me of being back in art school again. That said, it’s a different community from the 40k forums, which seem tt more often than not descend into a lot of mean-spiritedness and petty squabbles. Every so often someone pops up and says something mean in the comments section of the blog, and I zap it in short order. It’s not that I don’t respect different opinions or want feedback; I do. I like hearing new ideas and different points of view. However, some people revel in insults and love being dicks for the sake of being dicks, and this isn’t that kind of blog. I’m out there to exchange ideas and opinions, see other people’s cool work, and offer tips to help where I can. I’m not there to trade barbs and insults with some 14-year-old with no social skills. It isn’t that kind of blog. I want to keep the tone friendly, and if that means hitting trolls with the banhammer, then that’s what I’ll do.
Brent: Does blogging inspire you to convert and paint or visa versa?
Mark: A bit of both? I was converting minis and larger SF models long before there was even an internet, so I’d be doing it even if I wasn’t blogging. However, I enjoy putting my work out there, getting and giving feedback, and I think it’s helped me become a better modeler. There are so many talented people out there, and some of the things I see inspire me to go back and try something I otherwise wouldn’t have tried before.
Brent: On your work, what do you use as inspiration?
Mark: I have a HUGE library of art books covering everything from architecture to WWII-inspired daydreams of Hayao Miyzaki. I’m also inspired by movies, old historical photos, models from other lines… just about anything, really. Luckily GW has built such a rich universe in both its Fantasy and 40k lines that just about anything can be inspiration for a modeling project. I was playing the PS3 game Valkyria Chronicles, and the tank designs served as inspiration for box-turret Chimeras of my own Mechanicus army. There are scads of tanks and things that never made it beyond the concept stages back during WWI and WWII, and those make fantastic fodder for 40k projects. I’m kinda sad that the main game doesn’t really support aircraft, because it’s such an important part of modern warfare.
Brent: Do you enjoy the process of converting and painting more than playing?
Mark: I do, and more so than even the finished model (although that’s certainly nice) I think it’s the creative process that’s so enthralling. There’s a Youtube/FORA.tv video of a presentation from Mythbusters’ Adam Savage where he talks about the process of researching and creating things. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29SopXQfc_s ) It’s really a fascinating watch; he touches on a lot of things that I as a modeler and craftsman see reflected in my own process. What’s more, he really drives home the exhilaration of getting into a project and building it from the ground up. I think it’s best summed up by this quote; “…achieving the end of the exercise was never the point of the exercise to begin with, was it?”
As far as playing the game goes, I think it’s the social aspect of the game that’s a such big part of it. Blogging, and in this case, hobby blogging, takes that social aspect and brings it into the hobby community, and allows us as hobbyists to share the process through WIP photos and step-by-step tutorials, and get caught up in the act of each others’ process. There’s an amazing hobbyist by the name of Klaus Fischer (http://fischers-design-shop.blogspot.com/), who puts out these fantastic photo logs of his hobby projects. They’re always incredibly detailed, and he has several in the pipe, but the reason his blog is so fascinating is that you can see these incredibly detailed models taking shape literally from bare sheets of plastic, and as the viewer you’re being brought into that firsthand. True, it’s not like throwing dice and moving tanks around, but for a creative, it’s very much the same thing.
Which isn’t to say that I don’t enjoy blowing the Eldar off the table with a torrent of autocannon fire, because I do. Veerrrrrry much.
There you have it, folks! Please take a moment to stop by Musings of a Metal Mind… then kick off your shoes and stay awhile! Look around – it’ll be worth your time.
I’ve got another interview in the works… and I don’t want to say a word about it, ’cause it’ll ruin the surprise. It’s safe to say these dudes are well known; controversial even! There’s also a guest article in the wings, in the same way Porky Poster and the Back 40K dudes dropped by for a word or two. Next week, however, I’ll be back with a more traditional editorial: what, exactly, is breaking all the games?
So, thoughts? Comments? Hugs and gropings?
