Gaming for Mental Health – Wargaming Recon #245

Gaming for Mental Health - Wargaming Recon #245 Download (2712)

IMPORTANT NOTICE

WE ARE NOT MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS. IF YOU ARE IN CRISIS, PLEASE USE THE EMERGENCY NUMBER FOR THE AREA YOU ARE IN (911 IN THE US, 999 IN THE UK, ETC…)

In this episode Jonathan is joined by special guest Dr. Allan G. Hunter; counselor and therapist with a PhD in Literature from Oxford University. Dr. Hunter wrote The Sanity Manual, Life Passages, Gratitude and Beyond as well as collaborating on From Coastal Command to Captivity, which was written by his father.

In college Jonathan had Dr. Hunter as his literature professor and that brings him here to discuss how the tabletop gaming hobby can help those battling anxiety and depression. After discussing the topic in depth then they go on to answer Listener submitted questions.

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The Muse’s Miniature Musings: The Tools for Mini Painting Success!

This is a multi-part series which will cover the basics of miniature painting from the materials to techniques to finishing.

So you’ve decided to take up painting small plastic or metal heroes or villains of the realm? Excellent! Welcome to one of the greatest and arguably most supportive communities around. I’ll bet you just can’t wait to pick up a brush and a miniature and start applying paint to it.

But wait! Where do you even begin? Why, with a shopping trip of course. You need brushes and a mini and paints and….uh….um…..er….what do I need again?

Fret no more. Allow me to guide you as to what you will need to launch your mini painting hobby.

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Rebels & Patriots – Wargaming Recon #244

Rebels & Patriots – Wargaming Recon #244 Download (3503)

Jonathan and Adrian are together to review Rebels & Patriots & Song of Drums and Tomahawks, thoughts on hobby hoarding, feature another Lumber Mill segment, provide a Kickstarter update, reveal upcoming guests, and ponder why the Purple Shirted Eye Stabber isn’t more prevalent in gaming.

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Goals, motivation, and progress: The road to 350.

January is seeing some slow but steady progress on my goal of 350 painted miniatures this year. I’ve prepped a bunch of Ground Zero Games old school 25mm Star Grunt minis and started painting a squad while waiting for some 6mm Battletech minis to dry between paints and washes. I’m batch painting both projects so it’ll add up to about 15 miniatures done for the week, which is a good start to the year!

Ground Zero Games 25mm Star Grunt figures getting primed

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Deciding what to do next…

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The Feels!

I have a lot of minis available to me. At some point, I’ve bought them because I’ve got excited about painting them. Then, I’ve bought more minis because I also got excited. Now, I have many unpainted minis and sometimes I’ve actually forgotten they exist. Other times I’ve been so overwhelmed by choice I don’t know what to do!

The thing is I want to do a nice job on them. Each piece doesn’t have to be THE best.  But, I still want it to look good.

Back in the New Year, I talked about using KPIs (see That New Year’s Feelin’) or hard targets to measure my hobby and how that really doesn’t make me feel happy.

When I tried this in the past, I think I misused the term; “Done is better than perfect,” in a way to convince myself it was ok.
What makes me happy is completing a mini and not feeling like I need to rush it.

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