How many 'youngsters' do actual paint nowadays, they don't seem to have the patience for it, as they live in an 'instant' world.
Certainly in the UK there are many very talented young painters, in one of my local clubs some are stunningly talented. However, they mostly don't play "Old-Man Historical" games or if they do, not that often. Kings of War and Age of Sigmar have many figures often beautifully painted, doubtless consuming many hours. So I am going to play the "that is B0!!05K3" card.
PSC Pacto boxes and Pacto, as a fast play enabling format, may attract some new historical players from their ranks but don't make the mistake of thinking that the 15-35 demographic does not paint: they do, just not Byzantine cavalry or Qin infantry en mass.
Maybe to help attract this demographic we should be "telling-the-story" of the great armies and tactics. Low-brow battle history in game, and audience, friendly terms might be more attractive then the deep (and to me interesting in a "glad I haven't had to do the research" kind of way) debates about weapons and tactics evolution and the representation of them on the table-top.
Some of the recent MeG reenactments of known battles are a step in this direction but are still couched in terms of justifying the game as an historical representation. We don't have write-ups of Bjorn and his Viking marauders being fought off by the brave, tattooed, Pictish defenders of Fidach with tales of daring do with fortune and the fates intervening. We tend to write like historians rather than bards: there are some very entertaining exceptions (Fluffy's adventures on Will's Blog for instance and Madaxeman) but perhaps more would broaden the church.
Now I am not volunteering to lead or write all this, I am neither entertaining enough or time-rich enough, but I would be interested in participating in some way should others take up the baton.
Well that evolved from "I know some talented young painters" to a call-to-arms rather quickly
