I prefer how Nazis were dealt with in the past
I miss physically owning software, movies, and music, not having to pay a subscription for car features like heated seats or more horsepower. I miss getting a complete game that was usually mostly glitch free on day one you got it on CD/DVD.
Socializing.
No social media to distract people. Nobody staring a phones. Nobody recording themselves for streaming.
You memorized phone numbers or wrote them down. You called or got called to meet up at some place and everyone went from there.
True
Programming. Telling a machine “build x feature” is nervewracking because I do not know what it’s doing and more importantly boring because it takes all the joy out of writing code. Even the LLM completions I do not use because I have seen what it has done to my coworkers’ brains. I will think about the problem. I will write the code. I will know what it does. It will be of me, not of some averaging machine.
May the LLM era end in darkness and the gnashing of teeth amen.
You sound like a C developer complaining about interpreted languages lol
Amen
Photography. Film was so advanced, having a layer for each major colour, every film stock has a different feeling. The only downside was cost, but you only took a picture when you were sure it is a good picture. Now we have tons of digital garbage because we take 100 pictures at once.
I feel the opposite. Film sucked so bad. I love pointing my phone at things and shooting a hundred shots and finding something good there or not finding anything and continueing with my day. Old photography was a pointless torture.
The old family picture books had so much value, now I can’t remember if I ever even looked at any past photos I took with my phone, it’s all just digital waste now
Film is crazy advanced. One of those “how did humanity figure this out?” kind of things. Smarter Every Day YouTube channel did a thorough tour of Kodak and it’s pretty fascinating all that goes into it.
The deliberate act of shooting that the financial and time cost definitely makes better photos. You can do that with digital as well but it takes more discipline. Far easier to shoot a dozen and hope one works than to think and come up with the right one from the start.
Both have their place I think. Any time I shoot a race, wedding, or a once in a life trip I’m so glad it’s digital! Being able to do a 10 shot burst and nail the facial expression is pretty awesome. Then slowing down and going on a local hike and setting up my 4x5 to take one shot, or a photo walk around town with an old SLR is a blast too.
Maybe I just like photography?
Fixing a car.
I’d much, much rather twist some carburetor screws or replace a fuse than have to try to troubleshoot some encrypted CANBUS acceleration sensor that is required for my suspension to work properly.
My last car with a carburetor was decades ago, are they not all fuel-injectors now?
Not the ones from decades ago!
Duplicate post, sorry!
I liked connecting to irc servers and setting up a znc bouncer (also an on ramp into self hosting!) way better than anything matrix and discord do.
We had mumble for voice chat and that was perfectly serviceable.
In the 90s, I felt like I knew so much about computers, both the hardware and the software, but I’ve definitely fallen off from all the improvements in the past 20 years, and I’m so Goddamn lost now. I miss those simpler times when it was more about the physical aspects of a PC and less about the technical aspects.
What do you feel like you’re out of the loop on?
Shaving with a double edged razor rather than a cartridge one. The whole process is much more meditative and rewarding when you actually focus on the moment and take the time to do it properly. Gives a better shave too.
Just pop in a magnetic screwdriver bit holder and you have strong power and perfect control.
It countersinks with ease but without the risk of screwing too deep like its electric counterpart all too easily does.
Ventrillo / Teamspeak > > > Discord
Modern tabletop miniature painting is dominated by contrast paints and airbrushes. This is especially true of small time commission painters.
I personally only use my airbrush for priming, and only use contrast paints for intensely limited purposes like glazing. For the vast majority of my painting I use methods taught in the 80s and 90s.
I personally like the results, and I like to think my methods give my pieces a “voice” that helps me stand out from other local commission painters which deliver interchangeable looking results.
I don’t dislike airbrushes (which I know were used by certain niche painters back in the day, but weren’t in common use generally) or contrast paints. I know some people take the time to get good results with them, however I think the majority of people applying them do it in a sloppy manner and the effort it would take to prep or clean up the results to a standard I would accept seems like more work than just doing it traditionally.
I got into painting minis back in the day but didn’t stick with it. I miss it a lot though.
What types of paints and methods are you reminiscing about? I’m not knowledgeable enough to even know what you’re saying you prefer, or how it’s different from the off the shelf stuff, even assuming that what’s on the shelf today is the same as it was 20 years ago when I painted.
I skimmed your post history and saw a couple OC minis you painted, they look great, but what’s different about them? I don’t have a trained eye so forgive me I’m not trying to be rude.
And uh, ignore the Aliens minis and GCPD. Those were self admittedly a rush job.
Here’s some better examples of what techniques I try to apply look like.
Contrast paints are a new formulation that’s gotten popular in the market. They are like a glaze with wash properties. The idea is that you can simply paint them over a white priming and you’re done, all the shading is done for you.
I find the average results I see in real life to be underwhelming. The colors can often be patchy especially if applied to large flat surfaces like for example Space Marine armor. What is more is that contrast paints only contain one shade of pigment and the darker or lighter portions on the model just relate to pigment concentration. I prefer to shade and highlight by adding different colors to the base paint. I find that it offers more control and greater range over the colors. The control relates also to how highlights are placed. Many people either skip them entirely by relying on contrast paint, or they copy the modern GW Box Art style which highlights pretty much every single hard edge rather than trying to give the impression of a light source. I like to give the impression of a light source.
For traditional touches, blacklining is a practice of tracing a thinned black or near black paint on the borders of different objects of the mini to help give them definition. This can be especially important when painting in bright and saturated color schemes to keep them from assaulting the eyes with too much brightness.
I underpaint, which is related to mixing for shading but means to paint certain areas a particular color in preparation for another color to support it. For example Caucasian skin is usually a red-brown or purple before the first actual flesh tones go on.
Sometimes it’s just things I consider absolutely basic like basing a mini at all in any way. All I my minis are based with texture in some way (any you see in my history that don’t have basing texture were specifically requested such by other people) and have at least basic drybrushing or flock. A lot of people just paint the bases now, or simply just leave them bare.
I also like putting segmented colors, camo patterns, or other simple freehanding on minis. This draws a lot of attention in real life as many people are so used to just contrast painting that they never learn fine control and as such never even attempt freehand.
I do have a few paper copies of older painting books I reference along with various PDF scans. All the the exact paint recommendations are out of date, but the general concepts are still valid.
I partially blame army bloat and the FOMO treadmill in Warhammer 40k for creating unmanageably large armies that cause people to treat the painting as a chore to be finished with rather than something to enjoy and get better at.
Oh! Ok so I’m totally out of the loop on contrast paints, I paint(ed) with many of the same techniques you do, but less advanced. I would prime usually with a black undercoat and then do my base colors, then I’d do detail work and finish with washes, dry brushing, and mixed color highlights. I didn’t realize there was another way to go lol. I never got good enough to try and really work from a light source perspective but I was aware of the technique, but mixing paints was a chore because of how slow I was so my shit would be constantly drying up so I didn’t do a huge amount of different shades, just a few, which limited my ability to gradually lighten stuff up. Also I sucked at getting my mixes right/consistent.
Your minis look great, better than mine ever did and I’m sure you’re MUCH faster than I was. I really took a long time because I didn’t like them looking sloppy and I worked mostly using the games workshop kit I started with, along with one or two other brushes I bought without any real education, and some more paints. At the time I learned techniques from the GW books and some old forums. I was always surprised by the lack of effort people put into painting their minis but I guess people were rushing because they wanted an army and didn’t want to get crap for fielding unpainted sets (or bad luck).
I think some of my favorite work was actually the terrain pieces I made. I think I have a really good eye for weird bits and bobs and garbage that looks great as detail for terrain more than I ever was at painting technique.
In general even though my painting was slow I didn’t think it was a chore, my struggle was finding folks that I enjoyed playing with. I lived in a small town with a single games shop, they did an open mini game day 2x a month but the people that showed up were just not fun to play with, the worst kinds of stereotypical neckbeardy folks and I don’t mind me a good nerd but gross obnoxious assholes suck whether they’re nerds or not. I know it’s much easier to find folks these days than it was in the 90s but it’s a discarded hobby for the time being, life is too busy and I do miss it but it’s on the shelf for another phase of life, for now.
Thanks for taking the time to explain. I doubt I’d get into contrast painting either, your description of the downsides sounds like the benefits wouldn’t outweigh the pace.
I think I have some (really) old 40k minis I saved somewhere, if I run into them in my garage I’ll snap some pictures and reply in another post.
Happy painting!
I would prime usually with a black undercoat and then do my base colors, then I’d do detail work and finish with washes, dry brushing, and mixed color highlights.
This is the traditional way for sure. I also usually prime with black as well even. What you think of as normal though is surprisingly lost on a large number of newer hobbiests who only started recently. They know some bits and pieces but a lot of the painting flow has changed, especially for people more interested in finishing huge armies fast rather than actually having interest in the painting for its own sake.
didn’t want to get crap for fielding unpainted sets
So nowadays part of it in official tournaments people have to have minis painted to a minimum standard to enter. Which means a lot of people painting minis to just reach that minimum and no further.
I didn’t realize there was another way to go lol.
It’s been a major shift in the last I’d say ten years. Airbrushes for painters became really common, helped along by YouTubers making tutorials. Then the contrast paints came out from GW with a heavy marketing push; all of the new GW official painting tutorials on YouTube make heavy use of contrast paints. They were successful and soon after the other paint brands all started selling their own versions.
you’re MUCH faster than I was
Thanks, and yes it depends how fast I want to go, there is certainly a quality/speed sliding scale but I try to work efficiently with batch painting and assembly line painting for the basics to get things done as fast as I can.
I think I have some (really) old 40k minis I saved somewhere, if I run into them in my garage I’ll snap some pictures and reply in another post.
Yes and I run the !warhammer40k@lemmy.world cimmunity which always needs new posts.
If you want to get back into the scene with limited minis, skirmish games are popular these days. GW offers Kill Team, and other rules like OnePageRules have put out their own free skirmish rules meant to use 40k minis.
What is the point of tubeless tyres on bicycles ?
They’re rock hard to put on, then you have to add sealant otherwise they leak.
Because of the beading and the sealant they are much heavier, and rotational weight is the worst sort of weight.
People say they don’t get punctures, but that’s because of reinforcing, you can get tube tyres with reinforcing so what is the benefit ?
Not having a tube allows the tire to flex more so it’s more compliant. It’s not that you’ll avoid punctures, but that they often seal themselves. Tubeless definitely isn’t necessary and probably isn’t super beneficial for most people but there are definite advantages for some uses.
Most users of tubeless tires I know ride mountain bikes and on pretty aggressive trails. As the other comment stated it’s not about avoiding punctures all together but they are significantly easier to repair and ride through.
I’m a big fan of manual machining over CNC.
I prefer pressing buttons and turning nobs in the car.
It’s actually safer to have tactile buttons, too.
My old civic is so nice.
One of the many reasons I’ll hang onto my 2012 Toyota Corolla until I drive it into the ground. It has a touch screen for just the radio and Bluetooth, but it must be some sort of gen one prototype because it’s pretty awful. Thankfully, everything else is tactile. I can’t imagine giving it up.
Fwiw, I’ve just got a '22 corolla and everything has a physical button. I love it.
Don’t get me started on those fucking digital handbrakes
Those fucked me up so much when learning to drive. Ah yes let’s try starting uphill with the handbrake. Could not do it because I had no fucking clue when it was going to release.
First time I had to do it in my dad’s car which has a normal handbrake I had zero issues.
My 2004 F150 just works, no guessing what button does what, twist the fucking knob.
