This is me. I know, shocking.
About me
The name is Mato (he/him) - just imagine a British person saying “to-mato ” and you nailed the pronunciation (it’s a short form for Matthias).
I’ve returned to most of the hobbies of my childhood sometime between 2018-2022. First it was Magic the Gathering, which peaked with me playing in competitive Legacy tournaments. Once Covid hit and we all hid (inside), I had trouble transitioning to the Discords, which continued competitive MtG with webcams, so I moved into other hobbies. Around that time I found my roleplaying crew, for whom I became their forever Game Master, which ended with us playing a 6-year-long campaign all the way through the pandemic.
In 2022 the algorithm realised that I might have some ancient history with Warhammer Fantasy Battles. As a young teen I dumped every cent of my money into Dwarfs and Tomb Kings, never playing, only painting the minis and staring in awe at the art of those old army books. As an adult it took me a year to realise how drastically things have changed since then. Being chronically online, I discovered that there was also a whole other side of the hobby, free of the restrictive rules and “official” lore of Games Workshop.
Everything around the 28mm scene , the blogosphere, the creativity of people kit-bashing and sculpting their own minis, the DIY-ethos and events that felt like a get-together of friends – I was hooked.
Since then I have lined up more games to play and more projects to finish and more events to visit than my lifetime will permit, but aren’t we all just here for the ride. Outside of this hobby I have a jobby in tech (lol), and share my life with my wife Sophie and our two lovely kids. We live at the northern edge of the Black Forest in south Germany.
Why this blog?
Because social media is a menace to society and to your mental health. If you have any interest in my creative endeavours, neither an algorithm nor a paywall should hold you back. Pick any free RSS reader of your choice , and you can follow along my hobby journey, both in long-form posts or micro-blogging notes . This blog is also based on an open-source framework and template . I respect your privacy and do not collect any personally identifiable data. The blog originally existed on Wordpress, but I have retired this page and moved the previous content over.
Wtf is a grob?
Grob means grave, coffin, or burial place in many slavic languages .
Think of it as a cheerful one-man black metal band name, with one single CD-release.
That no one has ever listened to.
Where else can I find you?
Email - Instagram - Bluesky - YouTube - Discord: matoautomato
Say hi, don’t be shy!
Acknowledgements
My mugshot is by the very talented Daan Gersem (@mesreg )
The avatar artwork of this blog is by the very talented Morgvl (@grim_hive_miniatures )
Built with GoHugo and the BearCub theme.
Header font is Mina is Gone .
Thank you for reading this. You are awesome.