There has been quite a lot written about the hobby's ageing. Having been at the funerals of two Chairs of our club in the past year, the message is being driven home rather starkly. On a more positive note, we do have a few young members, and quite a lot of our newer members are joining, or returning to the hobby in later life.
All of this indicates that we should be doing more to take the hobby beyond our normal comfort zone at wargame shows and into other events where we can expose members of the public to what wargaming has to offer. I am particularly attracted to hobby shows held in museums, which is a win-win for both parties. I once got to the show held at the Tank Museum in Dorset, which was excellent. My local model railway club does something similar at the Maritime Museum.
Last Sunday, we took a stall at the Glasgow Vintage Vehicle Trust's modelling Open Day at their Bridgeton depot in Glasgow. This isn't a museum in the conventional sense. It only opens on Open Days to show off the fantastic collection of vintage vehicles, mostly buses. We took a collection of wargames figures and a small participation game of Pillage to give visitors an idea of what is involved. While it's not a game I play, the handful of figures needed make for an excellent introduction for those who might enjoy it but be put off by one of our big games with hundreds of figures.
Other hobby clubs in Glasgow also attended, with some fine military modelling, model railways and engineering of all types. And of course the buses!
We had some excellent conversations with members of the public, most of whom had never heard of wargaming. It was also an opportunity to promote our Napoleonic Open Day on 31 May.
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