What Is The Story Of Tippy Club?
I’ve tried writing this a couple times now, and it’s hard to make it not sound like I’m trying to have a pity party, because yeah, some crappy stuff has happened - but that’s how it is sometimes! When things are looking dark, we change things up and try to make things better, and honestly, that’s what Tippy Club is about - making things better, be it making painting models better, making scenery on your table better, or just making you laugh at something I post.
But my sharing of model photos to a wider audience started in 2018. I had been sharing photos of my painted models on YakTribe (Yakromunda at the time), and my Instagram was there, gathering dust. My earliest photos are from 2012 and there’s a couple Orlock models from Necromunda, and in 2016, some Mars Attacks models, but nothing like what I would begin to upload. In 2018, my relationship ended and I had a lot of time that suddenly became free. I was already painting models, but now I had more time for it. I began painting more of my The Walking Dead All Out War collection and sharing them on Instagram. I was trying to share 3 photos a day, from a range of game systems. I was even digging out some of the scenery I had made for Necromunda, where I was recreating the original card terrain with Plasticard, adding 3D elements to them. My D&D stuff was being shown off! At this time, I was self employed, working with my brother in our comic shop, which was a massive struggle in itself, and it was part of the strain on the relationship. I began to resent the comic shop for a long time from this point onwards. It would always take more than it gave, no matter what we did.
One of the early photos
Before I had my lightbox I would just take photos on my paint-splattered cutting board. This paint station was set up on a cardboard box next to my bed.
Comics, Pops… Games?!
Being a comic shop, we had access to the Diamond Comics catalogue that would preview upcoming stuff, including games. One of the games I saw happened to be the game I was spending time painting and playing - The Walking Dead All Out War. I had backed the game in the Kickstarter and went all in for it, getting all of the expansions that were unlocked. The expansion that was advertised in the catalogue however was Fear The Hunters. I posted about it on the Facebook page for the game, and one of the Mantic guys got in touch with me to become a stockist, even if it was to just get the discount for myself. My brother and I discussed it and we went for it. We both enjoyed Mantic Games systems so could speak passionately about the games in the shop and on the blog. We couldn’t afford to have a mass of stock on hand, because space was a premium, and it was hard enough selling some of the stuff we had anyway, which made it difficult to get it into people’s hands, plus sharing space with a vape shop with a poor layout meant we didn’t have space for people to actually play games. On the Sundays I would be working in the shop, I’d take a game in, set it up in the middle of the floor and try to run demos for people, but the thing about Wallsend High Street is, it’s dead through the week. And on Sundays, it’s worse. Sundays were a waste of time and money most of the time.
I would begin to make tutorials on Youtube linking off to the shop’s website (the little alien character was our mascot), and looking back at these first videos, it’s good to see how my videos have come along. My sound quality has improved (the sound in the above video is horrific), and how I set up my camera is so much better. I mean in this video, the camera is basically over my shoulder, painting in such an unnatural position. Hell, at times I remember having to stop recording just to charge the battery of the camera. How things have changed!
Eventually, we’d catch the eye of Games Workshop, and they’d reach out to us about stocking their products. Now, where Mantic Games products may be a hard sell to people who don’t recognise the games, Games Workshop being the most recognisable brand in tabletop gaming would make getting people to take a chance on picking up a game or some models we figured would be easier. And while we did sell more Games Workshop stuff than we did Mantic, it was by no means easy to move products. It would however provide more content to talk about on the blog, and more content to make videos for. But by the end of 2018, the strain from the business was reaching breaking point.
Mental Breakdowns, Financial Stress, Working From Home.
I would try to move closer to the shop, which would reduce the cost of going to work, and make it a lot easier to get there and back, rather than two Metros and a 2 hour bus ride each way (where I would get most of my sleep) making for 13/14 hour days, then working on content that I didn’t finish in the shop… Living nearby would make things so much easier. I got a flat, took some clothes, bedding and The Walking Dead: Here’s Negan to play. I spent two nights in that flat, had a mental breakdown from the stress, broke my nose in a fight, reset it myself and had 2 black eyes and moved my stuff back home… At Christmas. I had no money, had been putting stock onto my credit card… My mental state was absolutely shot. Anxiety through the roof, I basically didn’t want to be alone, even being sat in my room was too much. I’d sit downstairs with my parents, nose in a book (I smashed through the first Walking Dead novel) from waking up to going to bed for about a week, sometimes napping. My face was a total mess for a while until swelling went down, so I wasn’t working in the shop, but working from home, updating the website, working on blog articles and making painting tutorials. Through January, I would start going back to the shop once or twice a week. Then basically just stopped that, too, working purely on the site and videos. Working from home allowed me to create my first couple Let’s Plays, playing the first two Narrative missions of The Walking Dead (I will continue it at some point) but I needed money to get my credit card paid off… I ended up working at McDonald’s and would make my last few videos for Carsun’s Bazaar. Also, in this time, I put Here’s Negan away and wouldn’t play it again until 2021 because of the memories it held.
Money, Guilt and Rumbleslam!
I started McDonald’s in March 2019, and I kept my head down and worked all I could. Every 2 weeks (that was the pay rotation) I would pay a chunk off of my credit card each time, and once it was cleared, I decided I’d treat myself to something I’d had my eyes on for a while… A copy of TTCombat’s Rumbleslam. I had a few building kits from TTCombat which I’d use mainly for The Walking Dead All Out War, but this would be the first of their games that I’d jump in to. But buying it gave me so much guilt. After spending so long not making much money, being unable to treat myself to things, and lack of money and being able to afford to do things being what killed off the relationship in 2018, my relationship with money was severely warped, and for quite a long time, whenever I’d buy something, I’d have an enormous pang of guilt hit me. I’ve since got over this, as I’m in a much better state right now, but at that time… It was rough trying to get my head around it. I would record a couple videos still naming Carsun’s Bazaar in them, but I would do a couple batch recordings and in that time, if you look at the thumbnails, the Carsun’s Bazaar mascot is gone, and in its place, the Tippy Club logo. Even from then, it would take a little while for changes to creep in and the videos would take on their own visual style. Throughout 2019, I’d record a handful of videos as Tippy Club, but in 2020 Tippy Club really found its own identity. I would begin to use a Synthwave aesthetic, moving from my bedroom wall to using my green screen that I got for Uni. In the back end of 2021 I would have a bit of a redecorate and get some nice shelves up and a desk for painting at, and they are what I film against now. I like to think that Rumbleslam helped Tippy Club make its identity what it is. My Instagram is full of Rumbleslam models, and I even caught the eye of TTCombat themselves, with my seemingly endless #CatFolkOrRiot campaign to get a cat folk team into the game, which they announced they were doing (not because of my campaign) and they very kindly sent me the team a little early, which was so fantastic!
But Where Does “Tippy Club” come from?
Wrestling. It became important to me when I went to University, and since then. And I loved the Bullet Club from New Japan Pro Wrestling. And from Bullet Club, basically every promotion would end up with their own (X) Club. NJPW of course had Bullet Club, WWE would have The Club (Gallows, Anderson and AJ Styles), even What Culture Pro Wrestling had Pacitti Club. A couple friends and I would joke about these Clubs and make our own for anything. Ryan and I has Scythers on Pokemon Go, so we made Scyther Club (Mike wasn’t allowed in it because he hadn’t caught one), but the one we’re here for is Tippy Club. And who is Tippy?
This is Tippy!
Tippy was the cat Mike and I would have! He helped me through some very dark times when I lived in Leeds, and he’ll never know just how much he helped me, or how important he is to me. He’s more than “just a cat”, he’s my best friend and my confidant. I had to immortalise him on the internet. I mean, hey! The internet loves cats, right?
This was also the first incarnation of Tippy Club. I had already made the Tippy Club logo to put it into WWE 2K16 for me, Mike and Ryan to have in game. We were a poor man’s Shield.
What Is Next For Tippy Club?
Well, I’m going to continue with what I’m doing now! Painting models that I love, playing games that I adore, and sharing the experience with all of you - my friends. Plus making merch that I don’t expect to ever sell! I said at the start of the article that Tippy Club is about making things better, and it’s definitely made me better in all aspects of the hobby, in my filming and editing, and just enjoying my life and petting all the cats I can.
