Hello Dakka community,
I’ve been lurking on these boards for almost a year now after I came across nice articles on how to strip paint from models here. Since then I’ve become a little addicted to the painting and modelling thread and enjoy reading many of the posts made in the
40K section. (and viewing with awe some of the beautifully painted and converted models)
I started collecting
40k a long time ago when I was at school. My brother brought home some Rogue Trader era space marines that had been dunked in some kind of thick purple paint and a few weeks later he brought the Rogue Trader rule book (not dunked in paint) home too. I was probably about 10 at the time and he was 13 and we spent the next 5 years burying our head in
RT and what I believe is now called 2nd Edition. Our painting started off really bad and only really got a little better as in, we just about managed to paint within the lines with the use of washes being introduced after a few years of painting. I remember a friend of ours bringing the concept of points and army lists into our games which was revolutionary to us at the time. I mainly collected orks but also some marines and some imperial guard, my brother Eldar and some marines + imperial guard, together we could field 4 armies and the variety of our games was great. Having a ‘fair’ fight was quite alien to us and we revelled in the last stand, ambush, try to cross the board type of scenarios. A couple of times when our parents were away we turned the top floor of the house into a huge multi room battle field and 5 of us battled out our games across the landing area trying to capture the space port before the whole world collapsed (m parents came home). I have so many anecdotes about that weekend long battle i could fill a forum thread with them alone!
When my brother turned 18 and half our gaming community (his friends of the same age) went off to university our gaming slowed down and over the next year
40k became a thing of the past to us. Occasionally in the holidays we’d try to revive some paints and sit together chatting about games. We would be repainting our atrocious minis but i think by the time i was 16 all our stuff was put in the loft and I’d started up with new things.
Last Christmas, i got a surprise present from my wife and brother combined. A pack of ork boyz, the codex, a few brushes and enough paints to base coat the boyz. The first thing i did was read my codex cover to cover, do a few searches on how to do ork flesh well and few others tips and on the 27th Dec I headed down to
GW to get the paints and washes i needed. Oh the joy of having a decent amount of disposable income. As a kid I’d have to save months to get what i can easily get now without even thinking about it. I did make myself a promise not to buy more than one kit at once, assemble, paint and base it before getting another. The plus side of the this deal to myself meant that if i do want something (paints or kits) then i wouldn’t hold back and get it for myself, my wife agreed... ish =). It works really well and I've mostly stuck to it. I think by approaching the hobby the way i have it has made it not seem expensive. With a very flexible ‘budget’ of around £40 a month, i have filled hundreds of hours with something I’m really enjoying.
I’m 37 and its now well over 20 years after I consigned our
40k to the loft and I think it’s fair to say I’ve been bit by the
40k bug again. The kits are overpriced and I feel very sorry for children these days who want to collect.
GW should really allow cheaper access to the hobby. It annoys me no end the exclusion of kids without well off parents, who I think the hobby should really belong to.
In the first 2 months of starting again I worked hard and fairly quickly to get 30 boyz, a warboss on bike, 5 bikes and 2 deffkoptas done. The models are beautifully sculpted beyond compare to the ones i had before. So detailed and well made. My previous orks were mostly from the ‘space orks’ box with 36 models and enough bits to last a lifetime (anyone remember this? ). I had my first 500pt game against my brother (3 games in a weekend) in early march. They were awesome. I won’t give the full run down but i now have a nice 1500 points list (including 80 foot slogging boyz) with loads of interchangeable elements, so i never play the exact same list twice. I’ve loads of things left to get and also a load to convert. I’ll be quite busy for the next year. The last 2 months I’ve dedicated to making some terrain and I’ll make a board in spring when i can work outside a bit more. I also went to the ‘battle brothers’ event at Warhammer world in November with my brother (ork and chaos) and it was great fun.
GW may have many faults but the event was well organised, a lot of fun and with really great enthusiastic and helpful staff, (again i could start a whole thread talking about the event..). My hobby is now in full swing, much to my wife’s supportful regret (is there a more succinct way of expressing this emotion?)
So after a year of stealing awesome ideas from dakka threads and reading with quiet amusement how competitive and full of angst some people are over the current state of the game in the
40K threads, (my god the ‘You make da call thread’ is completely misnamed) I’ve decided to join and hopefully contribute a little to the community.
I love the painting and modelling side and the gaming comes a second to it, but i do enjoy it very much too. I’m far from a good painter and my ‘skills’ are just using my own combination of great techniques learnt from the truly great and innovative painters in the modelling and painting threads. This year my wife bought me a ork deffdread (it was her favourite looking model from the range of kits that i gave her that were in the £20-30 range...) and i think it’s my best work yet, though far from finished. If any other keen painters want to give me any hints or suggestions for how to proceed (particularly with the teeth at the front) i’d be quite honoured =) I was thinking perhaps white, with the flaking paint effect of the rest of the red and yellow parts, but i’m unsure how well it will work. I'll use a better camera next time too.
If you read this far.. thanks!
TLDR Hi.. nice to meet you!
(edited to read a little better)
- 22nd Rhayé Storm Division : 2000points (Spetsnaz-themed IG)
- Ordo Xenos : ~700pts
