"Miniature Painters Derided!" Topic

I happened to watch an episode of the Sitcom "Married" on television yesterday evening (Season 2, Episode 2). I found one aspect of the show highly offensive!

I'm not a fan -- this is the first episode I've made it through beginning to end.

Last night's story revolved around a Married couple and the wife's impending 40th birthday. The wife's lady-friend decides to throw her a birthday party. The lady-friend has obvious issues -- she and her husband are headed for a break-up.

The lady-friend's husband -- a highly successful executive type; is also a miniature figure painter (54mm ACW). The lady-friend continuously dumps on her husband for his hobby, calling him "Autistic." The actor playing the lady-friend's husband is obviously frazzled by his wife's hatred of his hobby. Despite the gorgeous home he's provided her, with built-in swimming pool, and exquisite furniture, the woman goes on ad nauseaum about his childish hobby, allegedly going so far as to feed his painted 54mm Confederate general figure to the family dog, a huge mastiff, who obligingly "passes" the figure while "dropping a deuce" during his evening walk.

It seems figure painters draw fire from Hollywood, and are stereotyped as being meek, insipid, gay, strange, weird, insidious, evil, or neurotic -- such films as "Groundhog Day," "Ronin," "The Living Daylights," or the American-version of the mini-series "House of Cards."

It seems it's time for figure painters to stand up for themselves and declare, "I'm sick and tired, and I'm not going to take it any longer!"

Maybe we need our own superhero. Perhaps one who paints figures by day, and fights injustice by night. Maybe he can animate his painted armies to rise from their gaming tables to hunt down wrong-doers.

Anyway, that's the last episode of "Married" I plan to watch.

I did not think the figure painter in Ronin was neurotic or insidious, even though he was helping a CIA agent. Perhaps the painter in Three Days of the Condor was evil, or was he just a business man with specific ethics.

Most figure painters are old, euro-American, male, heterosexual, omnivore, Judeo-Christian. citizens. Hardly the stuff movies and tv shows are based on.

Didn't Wesley Snipes paint miniatures in one movie as a good guy?

Also, it seemed like miniature painting was the closest Spacy got to being human in "House of Cards" and when he was forced back into being what he was, he destroyed them. They were too good for him once he again embraced evil

The reference was pretty off hand in Groundhog Day, unless you read something in to the fact the waiter was also gay. And the HoC scenes seemed pretty benign. He rows, drinks, plays video games and smokes too.

Who cares what Hollywood thinks. Of us, or anybody else. Don't watch their crap and they can't bother you.

Snipes was doing a diorama of First Bull Run and a model of the White House; which is how he knew about the secret tunnels that the Secret Service didn't.

Or something like that.

Gee wiz!
Horrywood disapproves of my lifestyle!
How can I cope?

I am 65 years old.. I have been painting miniatures and making buildings/terrain for over 30 years.Never gamed. I was blessed with meeting another guy who is a painter and has gamed for many many years. For 5 or 6 years now we game several times a year with his son and my son. He is my best friend. I have never enjoyed our hobby more than I do now. Now and then over the years I had doubts about my hobby. Family, and other friends and wondered what they really thought of all this. I can definitely say you shouldn't give a crap what anybody thinks. If it gives you some peace of mind and happiness in this crazy world that is really all that matters.

I used to spend quite a bit of money on the occasional trip to the strip clubs, before that I used to go out drinking 5-6 times a month spending a couple hundred bucks. Now I paint little toy men…

Didn't know I was gay. Okay….

It's a TV show. Isn't there something else more important to get outraged about?

That portrayal of gamers is pretty tame compared to the lambasting video game players have been subjected to lately.

Law and Order:SVU has done a couple of episodes depicting all video gamers as rapists and stalkers.

Some miniature painter gets portrayed as having chosen the wrong spouse? Pretty lame in the grand scheme.

Utter Drivel…

Some miniature painter gets portrayed as having chosen the wrong spouse?

My thoughts exactly. The minis guys is an extremely successful executive, the wife is a joyless, ungrateful witch. Clearly an attack on hobbyists.

Then there's Steve Carell's character in The 40 Year Old Virgin, who is the most remarkably kind, decent, and unselfish person in the film. Or the dad in the Wimpy kid movies, who's hates heavy metal and video games and dislikes teenagers and his sons' weird friends, but loves his family deeply. What an unrealistic monster!

Edit: I think the show is hilarious.

Of course.I could spend my time endlessly texting on my phone,so much so that I ignore my child and walk into water fountains….

I guess you all never saw the 40 year old virgin. The pants on the soldier are blue!

"As the lady-friend inspected her self artistry in the mirror after applying makeup, she added some touch-ups and highlighted the deep base blush (etc.)"

Yes, pretty sure that she has just as much experience painting her face as he does minis. The terminology for both is almost the same… :-)

Also suspecting that her deep-seated disdain and hatred had to do with hubby accidently(?) leaving a can of primer near her hairsprays one day… (and I know what you are picturing happening next. ;-)

For classier television, watch The Avengers. John Steed usually has painted figures around his flat, as well as a lovely collection of figures from his childhood (don't recall if they were colonial or Napoleonic)and two fleets of waterlined sailing ships.

Grelber

"Maybe we need our own superhero. Perhaps one who paints figures by day, and fights injustice by night."

I'm a police officer and work midnights, (though not a hero by any stretch of the imagination), is that close enough?

On a more serious note:

"Who cares what Hollywood thinks. Of us, or anybody else. Don't watch their crap and they can't bother you."

I would, respectfully, disagree with this thought. When our pop culture turns on a group it can cause problems for that group long term. Just a couple of examples; from Animal House to today frats are portrayed as drunken sex monsters. Does anyone here, who hasn't been part of a frat, see them as anything else? For the last thirty years Hollywood has had a pretty consistent attack on the South and the confederacy as red neck, racist, and backwards. Think Deliverence. The numbers at ACW reenactments has fallen off sharply in the last few years, and you can look at the attacks on the battle flag due to the actions of a single POS in which they found a single picture of him with the flag. While I don't think we're under attack by Hollywood, ignoring them is a bad idea.

You're looking for rational, logical, considerate balanced thought from Hollywood?

You should hear what I think of the people in Hollywood. I can't tell you because I'd get dawghoused for a decade

A hero whose army comes to life and fights injustice? Its been done. 1960s British comic hero General Jumbo. A boy with an army of toy soldiers who are remote controlled from a unit on his wrist. I can't recall which comic though. Part of the reason why I got into wargaming if I'm honest.

Edit – just googled it. The comic was the Beano and the stories ran from 1953 to 1979.