Fiddly Bits

“Fiddly Bits” is a short ethnographic documentary about hobbyists who play the table-top miniature wargame Warhammer 40,000. The film focuses on three hobbyists and their conversation as they assemble and paint miniature figurines for use in the table-top game. Most broadly, “Fiddly Bits” considers how identity is navigated, negotiated, and constituted through the medium of miniature wargame figurines. Topics discussed include political geographies of the local wargaming community, gender stereotypes and counternarratives among hobbyists, and the extent to which customizing one’s miniatures may or may not be an articulation of the self. The film also depicts hobbyist techniques of sprue cleaning, assembly, painting, miniature organization, tool usage and maintenance, and error correction in comparative perspective.