I have a history with plastic scale modelling. My father was into models, I built models as part of my interest in military aircraft and later armor and vehicles. I've never been really good at modelling but I enjoy it. It helps me understand the scale and how these things go together. I fell out of plastic modelling when I started getting into role-playing games. I painted a couple of minis, but generally focused my time elsewhere. After my kids were born, I started to game less and less. Now it's pretty rare that I get to a game. Lately, I've been reaching back to my scale modelling as something I can do by myself to fill that hobby hole. It's nice because it not dangerous like firearms, it's fairly inexpensive, doesn't require going places and what supplies I can't order online are mostly available to craft, hobby and hardware/home improvement stores.
I like using models to tell a story. I like telling stories to justify the choices I make in models. This intertwines gaming and model-making for me. In my search for kits I have started to find interesting things in wargaming. Wargaming strikes me as a great place to find a mix of storytelling and model-making. There are some interesting challenges and trade-offs. The smaller scale means that it's harder to build and paint the models, but easier to assemble a lot of them. I can create scenes and diorama without needing huge amounts of space. I doubt that I'll engage in actual games, but I do have thoughts about the games, and this is as good as any place to talk about them.
I like WWII and modern military models and figures. Throw in some Weird War ideas and I think you have some really interesting gaming potential. I'd love to have a Airborne team versus Nazi zombies or some sort of other weird science pulpy scenarios. OTOH, I'd hate to ask someone to play Nazis, I'd really be uncomfortable with every Nazi win, I just can't separate wanting the German team to win in a wargame with wishing the Germans won the war. Which is unfortunate for a couple of reasons. You need an opponent to play against and the Nazis had some really interesting vehicles, equipment and organization. Being "Weird War" would help, but it's still rooting for Nazis. In scale modelling I got around this by making "German" models captured and repurposed American/Allied equipment, mostly in an apocalyptic setting. I got to build interesting German vehicles and didn't have to deal with appearing like I support the Third Reich. I also got to work my storytelling around other things
The nice thing about fantasy and sci-fi settings is you get to avoid all of that historical baggage. Even if Star Wars Stormtroopers are designed to look like Nazi troops, they are fictional. Nobody has ever really died from Warhammer Chaos legions scorched earth campaigns. Weird aliens or robots that want to wipe out humanity aren't really as bad as actual genocide-supporting groups being simulated. That's not to say that these settings are free of bigotry. We can see all sorts of sexism and coded racism in everything from the outfits the female characters wear to the way that orcs are are a stand-in for so-called "less evolved" races on earth. These are things that need to be addressed from the manufacturers down to the players. I don't have any solutions (and I do have a shelf full of Orcs waiting to be built), but I'm looking to have conversations about fixing these issues.
This has just been a rambling primer on other posts I may make on wargaming and models.
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