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Today I’m excited to have on the site Aaron from Project Wargaming, a YouTube channel that is a finalist in the Caesar Awards for Best Painting Tutorial. In his tutorial he paints 2mm French Napoleonics, and it absolutely blows me away how good he can get those tiny little soldiers to look. (I experimented once with 6mm WWII and it went… poorly.)
Project Wargaming is a channel that is dedicated to all things historical and all things small scale. As Aaron says in the interview, he’s much more interested in the terrain than the miniatures, and the terrain truly is incredible (see his Battle of Berlin board in a photo below).
#1. How did you get into the wargaming hobby, and what keeps you coming back?
I first got into wargaming by coming across the miniatures in a local game store when I was in elementary school. I noticed a package of 1/72nd WWII figures and asked salesmen in the store what they were for and he showed me the boxed set of rules for “Command Decisions” and I was hooked. I had been playing “DnD” and “Axis and Allies” but was ready for army men with rules. Honestly I enjoy the creative process of building/painting/modeling the most so that drives me and keeps me coming back to the hobby. Also my hobby has been driven by running games at conventions. GenCon is our “local” convention. The club I belong to has been running games there since it moved to Indy.
Here is a link to an article in Polygon about a game I regularly run at GenCon. It does a good job of showing both my love of building and running big games for folks. I have since built another of these boards based on the second edition of the game. Of course you can also see historical examples such as the Normandy game or the Battle of Berlin game, both of which were built for conventions.
#2. How did you get into YouTube, and how has being a YouTuber changed the way you hobby?
I believe I started my YouTube channel 4 years ago. I think it was just after watching some Little Wars TV videos. I had a blog but I had gotten into YouTube by then and decided to jump over. I have been way more faithful in my vlogging than I ever was in my blogging. I found that through video I could help others improve their hobby skills and maybe inspire them to keep going in the hobby. Trying to post a video a week also keeps me on task and helps me be more productive.
#3. Your channel focuses primarily on historicals. What draws you to historical wargaming?
I’ve always been a history buff. I find that wargaming helps me to understand a period better. The research you put into a period helps to understand that era better and playing games in the period helps to understand the complexity of warfare in the time period, even though it’s a very abstract game.
#4. Your finalist video is painting 2mm Napoleonics, and much of your channel is devoted to very small scale modeling and painting. What attracts you to these smaller scales?
Both I and my father love the smaller scales because they do a great job of giving you the feel of truly epic battles. instead of focusing on a single miniature you focus on a unit. We like playing large scale battles and I think these smaller scales do the best job of giving you the look of a massive battle. I also prefer to focus on the terrain rather than the intricate painting of a single model.
#5. What makes you most optimistic about the hobby?
With the rise of geek culture I find that many folks are way more open to playing a game today than they were when I was growing up. I was in a small midwestern town and to my knowledge I am the only one who has ever played miniatures in that town even to this day. Finding people to game with was a challenge back then but now I think it’s much easier to find folks to game with and the internet has helped to break down some of the barriers for folks to get into the hobby.
#6. What makes you most pessimistic about the hobby?
I think my main concern would just be the culture that surrounds history. History has become a pretty hard place to have balanced discussions. We all can bring a lot of baggage with us when we discuss history no matter what side of the political spectrum we fall on. History is fascinating because of its complexity and messiness. Even wargaming might become anathema in the future just because it deals with the terrible reality of war and all the awful decisions and circumstances that lead to that war. I am afraid that people might see wargaming as glorification of war. But for me it has helped me appreciate just how awful war is by the research that goes into the period and realizing that when troops are removed from a table that means generations are being destroyed.
#7. What content creators (YouTube or otherwise) do you feel don’t get enough attention?
I know this will sound odd but since I am a YouTube creator most of my time is spent creating for YouTube which leaves me less time to explore others. That being said there is one little channel that I always find fun and the guy is one of the most supportive folks on the wargaming circuit. His channel is Phil R miniatures
#8. If you could make a change to any one IP, what would it be and why?
My change would not be to one IP it would be to most and that is to make all the rule sets more miniature agnostic. I know this can go only so far. After all, a skirmish game at 2mm would not really work. it’s a pipe dream as many businesses are built on the miniature arms race but I think it would open the hobby up to more folks. 3D printing is starting to do this and it will be interesting to see how this new tech changes the hobby.
Thank you again to Aaron for be willing to be interview. You can watch his nominated video below, and here are his Twitter and Facebook links.