Well, I'm not entirely sure what made me finally decide to join Dakka, particularly at just gone 02:00 on Boxing Day, but I've been lurking around the forums for long enough* that I figured I might as well make a profile. And, well, it only seems polite to do what the friendly automated script tells me to do and introduce myself (with a suitably overwrought post).
I'm from the
UK, I first got into the hobby back in '96/'97, when I was still a little-un (thirteen-ish or so). I started collecting a Space Marine army (Ultramarines, to be precise - I liked the colour blue
), built a small skirmishing force (from memory: two tactical squads, three(?) bikes, a devastator squad, a land speeder and a whirlwind), got as far as painting the
tac squads and the whirlwind before realising that a) I lacked the money and b) was too poor a painter to continue. And so I left the hobby, returning to my original twin loves of books and computer games.
Years passed, and I was always aware of
GW thanks to computer games (hell, it was the Atari
ST and
PC versions of Space Crusade, Hero Quest, Space Hulk and Shadow of the Horned Rat that got me interested in the first place), but the price kept me away. This continued as I went to university, until the point where I got my
MA and finally got a wonderfully low-paying job teaching English as a foreign language in France (hurray recession, and hurray completely non-vocational degrees).
Low-paid as it was, any income was an improvement on none at all, and I found myself with a lot of time on my hands stuck in the middle of nowhere, France, so in February thought to get back into the hobby. Invested in a fire warrior squad (one, I love the design of the fire warriors, and two they were new and exciting for me, as the Tau were introduced after I'd left the hobby), got some contacta plastic cement, clippers, a knife and a cutting mat, put them together, then promptly forgot about them again.
Until I came back to the
UK.
In August, I decided I was going to really go for it, and bought the £100 Orcs & Goblins Brigade, and set to work. As an added bonus, being back in the
UK I was able to fish out my ancient complete paint set (the one in a box depicting Bretonnians fighting Lizardmen, fact-fans!) - many of the paints had set, but most are just
very thick - a liberal application of water and heavy mixing has fixed that issue, and so I had relatively few paints to buy, aside from primers. Downside - finding out paints I've been using are no longer manufactured, like all the inks, bad moon yellow and such. But still, saved a lot of time and money.
Since then I've built my brigade, added extra black orcs, fanatics, river trolls, goblin and orc shamans (in the old style), a blorc warboss and a giant. Fully-painted are: 38 night goblin archers, 20 black orcs, a chariot, the warboss, the wolves (who I've not stuck riders on, don't use, but just really like the old design so felt the urge to paint them up...), eight orc boys and one and a half trolls.
I've also started a Dark Eldar army, as the new miniatures were just too gorgeous to ignore (a unit of wyches, of incubi and one archon so far; one incubi and six wyches painted. Idiotically I've decided to paint all the wyches in unique, bright colour schemes, as I figure they're gladiatorial warriors who want to please the crowds and stand out, so...).
On top of that, I had to grab a unit of Jes's Grey Knight Terminators, as they're just fantastic models. One painted so far.
Oh, and I've literally just started (as in, I bought myself two kits for Christmas, which I opened up yesterday) a Gondorian army for War of the Ring - primarily because I wanted to start working on my use of metallics and 'realistic' shading, as the other armies I've been opting for exaggerated, cartoony colours and shading, to match the exaggerated features of the miniatures.
Um, and that's it! I don't really game much, except against my brother, but as he's 11 that doesn't tend to be much of a challenge. I'd like to play more, but at the moment I just feel a bit too, well, rubbish to play others in store (I just feel as though I'm wasting their time, as my orcish army bounces off them). I'm looking forward to trying out
WOTR, though, and to fielding a glass-hammer army in my Dark Eldar once they're finished, so hopefully as my armies grow so will my appetite for gaming!
Anyway, that's more than enough wasting of everybody's time. If anyone did actually make it this far: thank you, and sorry for having you read all this! May Gork and Mork/the webway/the black walls of Gondor protect you!
*I first started semi-regularly visiting, ooh, nine months ago or so, while I was working in France and just rejoining the hobby after the extended hiatus I describe later
Enjoy the site mate.
5000pts 
Thousand Sons 10000 
Grey knights 3000
Sisters of battle 3000 
4250 points of Blood Angels goodness, sweet and silky 
1000 points of Teil-Shan (my own scheme) Eldar Craftworld in progress 
800 points of unassembled Urban themed Imperial Guard 
675 points of Commoraghs finest! 
Waaagh! Skarshak - Back after being lost in the Warp, an' ready to Krump sum 'eads! 