Improving the breed: results

Well, the last poll has closed and I've gotten a whole lot of useful data to help tailor TFH so I'm meeting the requirements of the readers.

Basically, I'll be adding both Modelling For Hippos and Painting For Hippos; modelling will get preference as more people voted for it.

I'll still be doing most of the terrain in 28mm, but 15mm is popular, and there's some interest in 6mm, so I'll be getting some smaller scale things built along the way.

Finally, the majority of readers play SF games, followed by fantasy. I've already noticed this and tried to get more SF up (remember SF month?). The historical period votes have been interesting - a lot of people are playing world wars; more than Steampunk, which suprised me for some reason (I guess I never thought I had so many historical gamers popping by!) I suppose it's probably flames of war, so I'll try to get 15mm WW2 stuff happening, but I'll try to get other world war things going. I'll also try to get some napoleonic terrain happening, along with some medieval and dark ages. Not very much interest in Ancients, so I think I'll just leave it at the Greco-Roman temple from last ishoo for the moment.

By the way, I've just gone and caught model railways again, so it might be a while before the next ishoo. We shall see.

Improving the breed... even more!

The final poll in the three part series I've been running to help make some decisions about improving the blog is now up - this time I want to know what eras you play. I've kept things fairly general - you'll notice it goes straight from 'Napoleonic' to 'Renaissance' - this is partially to keep it simple, and partially because the type of terrain used doesn't evolve all that quickly. Please vote - I'm going to base my decisions on future projects on the poll.

Improving the breed: new features poll

As part of my on going quest to make TFH even better, I've been playing with some ideas for new features of the blog. Rather than just unilaterally add whatever the hell I feel like, I thought I'd see how much interest there is in some of these ideas.

One benefit of some of these new features is that they will mean I post more frequent updates. You know all those long stretches where no terrain get's built? Usually those are because I am painting or modelling something else, not that I have given up on my hobby all together or I just cannot be bothered with terrain.

Anyway, here are the ideas. You can vote on them on the poll at the top of the blog, but I thought a bit more explanation might be helpful.

MODELLING FOR HIPPOS:

This would be a semi-regular series of pictorial articles, just like the main terrain ishoos, but dealing with all aspects of modelling. Now I do not claim to be the world's greatest modeller, but I thought people'd be interested in seeing how I build some of my things. I've got a few ideas for articles already; making Kislevites, scratch building 15mm vehicles, and scratch building vehicle accessories in 40K to name a few.

PAINTING FOR HIPPOS:

Again, this would be a semi-regular series about painting. Again, I do not claim to be any good at painting, but I figured it might be good for those who are just starting out. I thought I'd concentrate on beginner level sort of stuff for this. I don't have any really definite plans just yet on content, but I certainly want to handle 15mm figures.

BATTLE REPORTS:

Any of you read the Battle Of Champignon report over on The Hoodling's Hole? I wrote that. Well, the battle part anyway. There are a lot of people out there posting battle reports on their blogs, so why not me? Okay, I am one of the worst wargamers in the history of the universe (this is not fashionable self criticism, I am genuinely terrible at the game part of the hobby!), but I'm sure I can knock out some entertainingly off-beat reports and generate plenty of pretty pictures of my terrain and figures in use.

PRETTY PICTURES OF MINIS AND TERRAIN:

Fairly self explanatory this one, I figure a lot fo you guys and girls out there are wondering just what the finished terrain looks like in detail and in action. So I figure I'll try to post more pics of it. I'll also try to post more pics of other projects; conversions, scratch builds, and any other modelling project which gets in the way of the flow of ishoos.

Please take the time to vote; I'm using this data to make the blog as good as it can get. It;s a multiple choice poll, you can vote for any number of options. There'll be a new poll up in a week or so about what eras you play so I can try to tailor the terrain output to the readership. Please vote on that one too!

Until next time, Hippo fans!