As I sit here in a rare moment of calm with the months (years?) of UK Lockdown™ behind me, I think to myself "why didn't I start blogging sooner?"
Aside from trying to home educate an 11 year old (stupid, stupid Secondary School bullying shenanigans) and trying not to go insane, managing a restaurant and also trying to assist my lovely wife in opening a refill store, I have managed to get a little bit of hobby time in. And I think this (gestures around at the small blog) will be a good place to collect my thoughts or just randomly dump them at least. 😁
In the beginning...
My hobby career started sometime in 1990/1991ish. I've forgotten exactly when. But I do remember being at a summer camp and one guy having a few of Games Workshops 'White Dwarf' magazines. Again I can't remember the exact ones but it was in the heady days of bright coloured Fantasy models and I think also the early/hayday for Epic - I vividly remember the red Imperator Titan on the front cover and the battle report in that magazine being a showcase of the classic Imperial vs Orks: Imperator vs 2x Mega Gargants.
When I got back I did a little digging and found that there was a GW store in my own home town of Croydon..! I think it was my Nan that took me there first during one of the holidays - she had to literally drag me out of there to go and get lunch - I didn't even realise I was hungry. I was just sponging up the atmosphere, models and books - this was in the days when most GW's had 'store copies' of the army books that you could peruse or borrow (depending on the team).
The next week I picked up another issue of WD and again spent a few hours absorbing what I could. The biggest take away from all this? My eyes settling on the vouchers/coupons for a new store opening! x% off this and that, 3 for 2 on boxes. Birthday at the end of October and went to a store opening in November with my cash haul. And there began my addiction proper. A nice haul of Dark Elves - one piece static warriors, metal With Elves in blisters, the original metal Cold One Riders box and I think both Rakarth (guy on Dragon) and Morathi.
And then...
From there it was a snowball. Dark Elves led into Empire and then Goblins. Somewhere down the line I slipped into 40k - and this is where my fluff addiction started - with the monopose marines from the 4th (5th?) edition box. Marines, codex, more marines and a vivid imagination and I was one of those kids making their own 'Primarch' (yeah I latched onto the II and XI being expunged).
Everything then segues into one. New editions came and went. Armies were sold to finance others. Dark Elves and Empire went. Bretonnians and Beasts of Chaos came. Original Marines went. Thousand Sons, Dark Eldar and Tau (both from the original release) came. Tyranids became my first proper "I'm-spending-time-on-this army". And then Genestealer Cult came round the first time in plastic. I think it was that year that was the most painful - can't remember the release schedule but I was barely over the financial pain of Christmas (the first as a teenager 'I want to buy proper presents for everyone myself') when in the space of the first three months of the year GW drops new Tyranids, Beasts of Chaos and GSC. Add to that family birthdays in January and February and I was a wreck.
Time moved on, I dabbled in some Warmachine but due to lack of local players it was mostly assembled then gathered dust until it was reluctantly sold (I did love the early Khador sculpts). I also fell for GW's Specialist Games. Pitslaves and Cawdor for Necromunda95, Chaos for BFG (continuing my Tzeentch love), Beasts and Outlaws of Sherwood for Mordheim, but the biggest draw was Bloodbowl - I've owned or played almost every team except for High Elves (I have a special hate for them). I've had three Orc teams and two Goblin teams. I still have my Pro Elves and Khemri in storage - hopefully I'll get to air them out at some point.
2006 saw me married to a partner who was bemused but accepting of my hobby - in her words "it could be worse - you could be out drinking". Then 2010 saw me embrace Fantasy again with my Bretonnians and Beasts - a few vets from our Croydon Store ran a map campaign that I threw myself into. 2010 also saw the birth of my daughter LJ. Needless to say hobby time took a hit - I did manage to get to the store for the release of that years edition (7th or 8th I think) - a midnight release, play several games and rock up home at 9am to be given the baby and told "she's your problem now". 😴
And up to date...
Forward a few years, throw in a rage quit of my two fantasy armies (Beasts and Bretonnians) and I dove headlong into 40k Orks and GSC, with the release of Dark Imperium throwing me into Death Guard. Now whilst the Orks have since been sold on, the latter two are the armies that I'm taking proper time over, both converting, painting and fluffing.
So what now..?
Well I've decided to put down the thoughts in my head on a blog in order to both get them in line and also make them available to others for comments. Please be patient; I'm still getting used to this format. 😅 Certainly anything labelled as fluff is going to be a WIP - I'll try to add notes for any major changes I make. Once I can get a hang of the image side I'll get some posts up about the modelling and painting side of things - certainly with the Death Guard there is a lot of things that are new to me and outside of my normal comfort zone.
Well thanks for joining me on this journey. See you in Wonderland.
