"Painting Support Group"-chat?

[Ithmaril]

Hey people,

I'll start off with a question- are you aware of any active, GW/40k-centered hobby-related chatrooms with a decent community spirit? My google-fu failed me on this when I got the idea and started searching. So, let me go a little more in-depth on what I'm looking for.

"My name is Ith, and I have a problem. I hate painting alone."

Back when I went to school, we had a young and vivid 40k community, and I was surrounded by friends there. Apart from regular gaming and hanging out at the FLGS, we had painting sessions, spontanious ones as well as planned, whole hardcore painting weekends. Man, do I miss these: Having company while painting those figs really made a difference. Discussing, joking, watching TV, lots of laughing, and time flew by, while models got painted by themselves, and we really had a good time.

Things are different now: Studying in another city, I have new gaming buddies, but as I am with University, Projects and freelance work, which are very flexible and involving time-wise, most of the people I play with suffer a similar fate. Apart from having little time, I either paint quite spontanously for an hour or two ("finally done with that, let's get some paint on those miniatures"), or, when required and planned, mostly at nighttime. My point is: It's difficult enough to get some regular gaming these days, time scheduling wise. There's no way regular painting sessions with fellow gamers fit into this.

So, it's mostly me, internet podcasts, forums and the movies for distraction and inspiration. That's okay, but I still miss the company.

Here's the deal: What I'd love to have would be a chatroom to hang around in while painting, with people who do the same, to type a message here and there between models, paint pots and cigarette breaks. Even if topics would be not neccessarily painting-related, it would be comforting to be among fellow hobbyists. Forums are another thing, responses mostly take too long to feel like you're really among people, and with some bad luck there are none at all. Getting some opinions on techniques, hints, or just some motivation. Even ordinary chit-chatter. Sometimes, you have quite a lot of work on models ahead of you, and there are those days when I give up before I even get started, or need that extra "dude, you've come this far, pull off that last hour, you can do it!" from someone else than me. Also, immediate response on posted pictures via chat, even in a very short form, is a great thing to get.

Now, I'm aware of the fact that you don't get anything done by chatting all the time, but if participation would be, let's say, a dozen people at any time from different time zones who hang around at one time, there would be always someone for a quick exchange of friendly and/or helpful words.

So, my questions would be:

1. Does a place like this exist?

2. Can you relate to that, or am I just crazy?

3. It's not exactly difficult to get an irc room registred and running. Would you like to participate in such a platform?

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to build a new community here and drain BoLS members, it's rather a need for a communication platform that works differently and helps me to overcome "PLS"- painting loneliness syndrome.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

Cheers,
Ith