Do you spend 10-15-20 hours (or MORE!) painting and detailing each single figure you buy ? Is the correct shoulder epaulette color an obsession; do you smugly berate a fellow gamer because he used a shade of blue CLEARLY incorrect for that Guardsman unit , at at that time period? Or are you that 'throwback' gamer who leaves your miniatures in 'gray', and just plays the rules? In other words, is it the appearance of your miniature battles or is it the flow and tempo and 'feel' that matters most to you?

I , myself , am not a good painter. I can never hope to detail my figures as beautifully as those you might see in one of the color hobby magazines. I don't even try anymore. I've messed up more pieces than succeeded-it gets frustrating, especially when I compare, or meet the afore-mentioned 'berater'. Nor, actually, do I have the time to spare. And while the appeal of accurate, stunning 'little armies' is not lost on me, my tight family budget does not allow for me to 'hire out' that facet of the hobby. But I am content to wage my wars in 'gray', and actually feel okay with that now because I think it allows for me to not only buy more figures but more importantly to play them too.

I may be scorned by those hard core miniatures gainers whose colorful armies look almost as real as a photograph; but I'll wager that both the sheer number of figures I own, and the rules sets to go along with them, far outpace most of my critics.

My outlook is even more important when you consider my wide choice in topics: I like battling with Vikings, dueling with battleships on the high seas, fighting in the trenches of WW I, going to Moscow with Napoleon, trying to control Stalingrad, and knights armed with sword, mace, and battleaxe. The cost (in time and money) to accurately scale and detail all of those would be staggering , if not prohibitive altogether. Not being so picky about appearances has let me play more, and experience thrills far greater than sniffing paint ( I know-cheap shot-just kidding, guys!) .

It gives me great satisfaction to pore over the rule books, 'see' the battle in my mind's eye, and 'command' the forces on the table or floor. I guess, in that respect, I am really nothing more than a counter and hex wargamer who chooses to sometimes 'visualize' my games in 3D. In a segment of the hobby many view as oddball', I suppose I am an oddball among oddballs. I like to think that I just march to the beat of a different drummer - a plain gray one!