 Hello everybody and welcome to another hobby cheating video. This week is going to be something a little different. This week we celebrate, and I give thanks for finally hitting the milestone of a hundred thousand subscribers. So we're going to look back on a little history, talk about where we are in the channel, and where we're going in the future. Let's get into it. The strict techno-mancer that is Vinci V. Let us get to the technique and learn it Vinci V style. So let me just start by saying I am eternally grateful to all of you who are subbed to the channel, who watch the videos, engage with the content, who comment, who like stuff, who share it. It means more to me than I could really ever express in the sort of feeble words that I have to offer. It has been a long journey. This channel is very particular. I'm very particular in the type of content I make. As I discussed recently, I always think of my content as a little more boring, a little more straightforward, more like a college professor or something than really being for entertainment. So the fact that so many people watch it and draw value from it means everything in the world to me. So thank you all for helping me reach this milestone. It's incredible. It's absolutely beyond imagination. I never, ever, ever, really never for even a second when I started out doing this thought that this would be a number or a place I would ever be. And that's because of this incredible community of hobbyists and miniature painters and all of you. So I thank you so much. You have my eternal gratitude. And I only hope I can continue to live up to it and to produce stuff that you like. All right. Let's talk some stats because I thought that would be fun. Let's talk about some stats of the channel. We're here at 100,000. Let's talk about some interesting stats from the channel. So first off, January 28, 2015, that was the first episode of Warhammer Weekly. So we recently celebrated our eighth anniversary. We're in our ninth year of making Warhammer Weekly, October 16, 2015. That was the first hobby-cheating video. Boy, oh boy, have we come a long way. This is what the first hobby-cheating video looked like. Yeah. And this is what the first hobby-cheating video sounded like. Individual pieces on. So it could be like, you can see I just stuck a paperclip in it and right now it's all gross because I had something on top of it that I haven't scraped off yet. But I can use it. Not the best production quality, but I didn't know what I was doing and let's be honest, I still really don't. So I have recorded more than 846 videos since the inception of this channel and done 1,359 live shows, meaning that all told I have done more than 2,100 different videos on the channel. Not bad for the time that I've been doing this. 384 of those recorded videos were hobby-cheating videos, though one you're currently watching is number 384, and of course there's a lot more to come. We've done 8 years now, as I mentioned, of Warhammer Weekly. Every Wednesday, every week, never missed an episode. So pretty proud of that. 8 years, 52 shows a year, you can do the math, but we never missed a week. And I hope we never do. If it can all be avoided, I will be here every Wednesday talking about Age of Sigmar because it's a game I really love and something I have a lot of fun with and a community that I'm very passionate about being a part of. And that really leads me to sort of the next thing I want to say, which is as I reach this milestone it made me reflective back on the history of this channel. And whether we're talking about the hobby side or Age of Sigmar or Warhammer specifically or whatever, there's been a lot of series on this channel that have come and gone, some things that might be in temporary cold storage, but I hope to bring back. But I've tried and experimented with lots of different forms of content, and it's great to see people respond to those or not. But regardless of the content I'm making, the people I've met in this hobby, the other Wargamers, the other miniature painters, I really count among my closest friends now to this day. One of the great tragedies of the modern world we live in is that we've become more disconnected. 25 years ago, the book Bowling Alone came out. And it was about how people, especially Americans, but not just all around the world, as technology has spread and a society has modernized, we've separated ourselves off, detached from the communities that we previously would have had and been parts of, be they, you know, political or religious or anything, like whatever, your local neighborhood, whatever, you know. And people were just much more lonely and much more solo. And I have to say that's not my experience at all. Because of this community, I have felt more welcome, like I have more friends, more people to share and exchange things with, whether that be over the internet, whether that be over comments and YouTube or in person at tournaments or at painting classes or at conventions. I've never felt like I had as big of a social circle as I do now. More people that I call friend and mean it. People that I hope I still call friends 20, 30, 50 years from now if I'm still around, which I mean probably not. But hey, let's hope, right? And I think that's really incredible. Through the recent pandemic, I never felt cut off or alone because I always had all of you. And I always had this content and I always had this community. And it was a real treasure, something that was a gift. And as I reached this milestone and look back, it really was the friends we made along the way. So, hey, I guess that was right all the time. So where are we at now? Well, right now, as I record this, what I'm doing is fighting with a Golden Demon project. I'll be honest with you. I've decided that I don't like painting for Golden Demon very much. It's not really my painting style. It's not how I want to paint. It's not kind of how I enjoy creating projects. And it requires me to do things that I don't find as compelling. So I'm fighting my way through my last Golden Demon project in hopes that I can finish it, clear it out, and get onto stuff that I really want to paint. I've found that I really have come to love experimenting, playing with colors, playing with light, and really just having a great time with the miniature and exploring this sculpt. And so doing one-offs has become a lot of fun. And that, by the way, that could be for an army, like a character. That could be for a display. That could be for competition. It doesn't matter. But just the journey of exploring a new sculpt, of painting something and challenging myself, where I'm at right now is really just trying to live in that world and push myself harder than I ever have before to keep learning and keep growing. If I can ever get this Golden Demon project done, which fingers crossed. I also find myself at a strange crossroads where on the Warhammer side I have something like 21 armies, and 20 of those are for 19 of them or whatever, yeah, that's right, are for Age of Sigmar. And so I'm looking for a new army project. As much as I love painting single figures, there is something really rewarding about having an ongoing project, about crafting an army and its story and its themes and conversions and color schemes and everything else. Everything down to the basing. And so I'm trying to find something that catches my passion and gets me really interested to get painting another army again. Hopefully something that comes out soon will catch my eye, and you'll see that content here on this channel. So what's the future of this channel? Well, hopefully lots more videos. Why stop at 2100? Let's go for 4200 or 10,000. I don't know, let's just keep going until I just die, I guess. But I'm going to say, for me personally, I think one of the things I've come to is that I'll probably do less gold and demon stuff in the future, but I might do more other competition content. So you might see some more display painting, using a lot more dramatic lighting or colors or rough styles or things that I want to explore and find compelling. As I continue to always grow and suss out, what exactly is my style? I definitely want to make sure that this channel is always the home for painters of all levels. So what's coming in the future? Content focus on everything from beginners to intermediate to masters. That will never change, it is the mission statement of this channel. We will always focus on tips, tricks, techniques, and the elements of painting that help you with whatever challenge you have. When I was asked recently what was sort of the mission statement of my channel, I think the answer is I kind of want to build a library of Alexandria of content. What I mean by that is just an encyclopedic reference of all the sorts of techniques people would want. So when they come to YouTube and type something in, whether it's how to paint with fluorescent pink, or why am I having trouble with white, or how do I get a good base coat out of red, or how do I do non-metallic gold, like whatever the particular thing is that might be challenging someone at that moment, I want to have a video that answers that question. I want it to be delivering all the information they need to answer all of their questions. And if not, as always, you can put those questions in the comments, I do answer every comment. As a point of fact, there was no way for me to total how many comments I'd answered. YouTube doesn't have a way to track that. But I would estimate it to be somewhere in the 120,000 to 140,000 number. So that's pretty interesting, fun stuff. At any rate, I want to keep making that content, keep making stuff that informs and that helps you with whatever challenge you have in the hobby. That's my goal. That's why I'm here. And the channel hopefully will continue to grow. We always grow pretty slowly. This is the channel of the tortoise, and I'm just fine with that. I'm going to keep making the content I love making. Hopefully you like it and draw value from it as well. And that brings me to the final thing I want to touch on in this video. What do you want out of the future? We've hit this big milestone and I want to check in with all of you. Whether you've been with me from those early awful videos, or whether you're a brand new subscriber, that's fine. I want to know what you want me to cover. What's the topics, the techniques, the tricks, the cheats, the whatever. That I haven't discussed before or maybe that I discussed a long time ago and you think I should do again. Drop that stuff down in the comments below so I can go ahead and build a new list and keep making content that hopefully you all find interesting and more importantly answers the questions and the challenges you have as you engage with the miniature hobby. Once again, thank you so much for helping me reach this awesome milestone. I am eternally and beyond grateful. Give this video a like if you liked it, subscribe for additional hobby cheating in the future. I promise next week we'll be back to good old-fashioned tips, tricks, and techniques. Don't worry about that. We got a lot of fun stuff planned over the next couple weeks. Hey, if you're interested in supporting the channel, there's a Patreon link down below. That's focused on taking your next step on your hobby journey, on review and feedback and giving you the help you need. As always, I thank you so much for watching this one and we'll see you next time.