What initially was going to be something for me to do as a part time hobby has turned into full blown uber geekdom. I now spend at least 10-15 minutes before work at the local store staring at what I can possibly add to my army. Then whatever free time I have (much to the dismay of my wife) I spend painting my minis. I dare say I've been sucked in, and I blame all of you! Nah, not really. Just wanted to say this is an awesome hobby and completely wish I would've started sooner! Thanks to all who've helped usher me in, without a single word of 'noob' or any derivitive(sp?) of. Anyways, anyone else want to share their stories of neglecting the real world in favor of painting the masses?



-Reaver

Yeah, I can share my little hobby-storie... It started out when I was 15. I have always been interested in painting modelplanes and tanks and making different dioramas, but was getting a bit bored with it at a point. I went past a local gaming store (a GW retailer) and went inside on a wim. I got introduced to a world of dragons, chaos warriors and trolls, and bought some paint, and a chaos dragon with rider model. Just to paint (didn´t even realize it was a game at first). After a couple of months painting models, basically picking the once I like the most (which was chaos for some reason), I had some of my friends over.

They saw the models I had painted and was wondering if I played Warhammer Fantacy... I was like... what is Warhammer Fantacy, and they told me about the game, and that 6 of my friends had been into the hobby for about a couple of years now, but figured I wouldn´t be into that (they were a couple of years older than me). Well, they let me in on a game, using my own models and borrowing some of theirs, and that was it... I was hooked. For years now, I have been a huge fan of the hobby, and started playing 40k aswell for about 6 years ago (I was studying in Australia, studying and getting into a new game-system with a new army... not a great idea... haha, but I managed somehow). Right now, 40 K is my favourite, but with the chaos "codex" being published in White Dwarf last time, I will pull out me massive horde and start playing Fantasy occationally.

I have Orcs, Dwarfs, Tomb Kings and Chaos in fantacy, and Tau and Deathwing for 40K... I will eventually try to sell off my Tomb Kings (fully painted), but the rest are my babies and they are staying with me. Working for GW for 2 years didn´t really help... I have soooo many models still unopened, that I could easilly do a full Space Marine army for 40 K. But time will tell...

I got sucked into the warp 20 years ago via reading things like the Fighting Fantasy books. After writing my own ones and then picking up a copy or two of white dwarf I soon got Rogue Tradar and then Fantasy Battle and have been neglecting the real world ever since.

I've collected and got rid of more armies than I care to remember. I've played most GW games (or tried them at least) since the day I started. Played BattleTech on a non-GW couple of years and got really involved in that, penning bat-reps and stories for the UK Comnet magazine and helping run MechForce UK events.

While at Uni I worked as a part-timer in the Brighton GW store which is where I met most of my current gaming crowd.

My wife started playing Blood Bowl for a bit and then we had a year of playing Warhammer Quest with friends but she lost interest after that. She now let's me just get on with it and leaves me to it!

Having weekends of gaming or family life (with two kids) is a balancing act which family usually wins out on. Monday nights are reserved for gaming night though so I get a regular fix I find that finding time for painting is the hardest thing for me right now....


...that and having so many projects on the go at once and knowing what to focus on!

Wow matt, a wave of nostalgia just hit me. I had some of the old Steve Jackson FF books too

Prior to GW I used to play Runequest with a couple of friends, and tried D&D once. Magazine wise I hadn't found WD in a shop at that point - I was reading Warlock magazine (I still have issues 11, 12 and the final 13 at home), Adventurer, and a couple of others that Citadel/GW regularly advertised in along with Ral Partha and the other major players at the time.

The first issue of WD I bought was 100 (Apr 1988 apparently), and not long after I got a subscription; back in the old days when you got free stuff for subbing - over the years I had 28 Eldar (when the Aspects were first released, GW sent me 5 Dire Avengers, 5 Banshees, 5 Scorpions, 5 Fire Dragons, 5 Swooping Hawks, and 3 Dark Reapers) and 3 Blood Bowl teams (Humans, Dark Elves, and Elves).

I only played 40k once back then - we used to regularly play WH Fantasy Roleplay, Bloodbowl, Space Hulk, and Adeptus Titanicus though, supplemented with extra rules from my growing WD collection. I had quite a few 40k figures (IG plastic box, Marine plastic box, Ork plastic box, Rhinos, Land Raiders, and a load of other stuff) but it was more a case of liking the models than playing 40k. No GW stores within hundreds of miles back then, just a couple of independents (one of which was about 30% computer games and 70% wargaming with a good selection of Citadel, GW, Ral Partha, and loads of other stuff, and I used to travel the 10 miles on the bus regularly to spend my paper round money, and later my pay from weekend work, on stuff).

When I went to Uni in '90 I took a load of my gaming stuff with me, I joined the Wargaming club but they were, to put it bluntly, a bunch of geeks who were avid D&D players and didn't want to touch anything else, and I ended up spending more time with the Heavy Metal society going to gigs. I still bought 40k and BB figs from time to time, but there was no local GW store so it was just a small amount of shelf space in a gift shop.

In 1994 I left Uni, and later spent a lot of time at the newly re-opened GW store in Wolverhampton - on the re-opening day I bought the 40k 2nd ed box + Dark Millenium and a load of other stuff, must have been around £400 of boxes at the time (it was buy 2 get a 3rd free day ). While I never played 2nd edition, I did build up my 40k collection. Not long after that I met my now close gaming friend Slate and again my 40k stuff was put away in the attic while I delved into playing Decipher's Star Wars CCG.

I joined the alt.games.wolfenstein spawned #agw channel on Quakenet (my first foray into IRC, and I've been there ever since, but that's another story), and one day Ric posted up pics of some Marines he was painting - so started a few days of me dragging all my 40k stuff out of the attic and posting pics. Not long after that Ric turned up at my house and we had a game of 40k 3rd edition, and I haven't put anything away since.

Everything else is a bit of a haze. At some point I started playing Necromunda with Slate and some other friends. One day they came round to my house to play and we had a game of 40k, and it snowballed from there.

We used to play regularly at my house, but now we tend to play at the local gaming club instead. "Tend" is an odd choice of word here ... I've actually played only one game this year, although I pop to the club from time to time to drop off stuff I'm lending out, pick up stuff I've lent out previously, or collect money and drop off GW stuff I've ordered for the group. With all the DIY around the house, and spending time with my wife and kids, and work getting in the way, it's not easy finding time to play any more. And don't even get me started about painting

I bought my first GW models back in the late 80's I think. I don't remember what they were, but the first I definatively remember was the Terminator boxed set. Still send me dreaming - 12 metal Terminators for £10.

I didn't know there were rules to the models for years, as my local model store only sold the figs.

I played a bit of RT & 2nd ed at school, but the best game I ever played was Space Marine with Adeptus Titanicus bolt-on, both my brothers played & we had weekend-long games in the dining room. It was awesome. We played 2nd ed mega-battle-3-ways too. Lost most of my models in various house moves & a memorable house-fire.

I'd like to get back into Epic, but no-one really plays it that I know & I don't have the time to paint up a whole army to play at veterans night.

I dropped GW around about the age of 15-16, but started again at Uni, as 3 of my housemates had done the same & we all still had armies. Played 2nd ed at uni 95-98 - we only played at home (we weren't the best-off students) so we had a lot of proxies (and a lot of cheap beer & other 'recreationals'). Then at various 40k stores where I lived around London after that. So all in all I've been playing with GW's toy soldiers for about half my life now... And spend about half my earnings on them too

Ljundhammer wrote:I bought my first GW models back in the late 80's I think. I don't remember what they were, but the first I definatively remember was the Terminator boxed set. Still send me dreaming - 12 metal Terminators for £10.

I still have that box, very nice figs and I used to use them in games of Space Hulk instead of the ugly plastic walking eggs. I've got about 40 or 50 of the metal termies, including the later Dark Angels ones.

Wow Spack, Star Wars CCG! I must have well over 2,000 cards put away somewhere. Actually got to meet Mark Hamill ~10 years or so ago and got his autograph on the 1st ed. Luke Skywalker card. Every 6 weeks or so in school my mom would slip me about 10 bucks if I made good grades to encourage the good work and what not. That always translated into two packs of fresh cards!


-Reaver

Spack wrote:I still have that box, very nice figs and I used to use them in games of Space Hulk instead of the ugly plastic walking eggs.

Sounds like we all bought the same stuff!

And being 32... more than half my life has been playing GW stuff

My first issue of WD was 103. I have since purchased back-catalogue ones though and still have all of them. There is a gap while at uni where I was spending money on food not magazines but my games room hosts loads of the things...

I still have all my Space Marine (Epic) stuff and would love to play a game again at some point

reaver13 wrote:Wow Spack, Star Wars CCG! I must have well over 2,000 cards put away somewhere. Actually got to meet Mark Hamill ~10 years or so ago and got his autograph on the 1st ed. Luke Skywalker card. Every 6 weeks or so in school my mom would slip me about 10 bucks if I made good grades to encourage the good work and what not. That always translated into two packs of fresh cards!

I've still got all the cards I collected - complete sets of Premier Black Border and the first four expansions (all Black Border), plus some of the harder to get items like the promotional sets such as the Rebel Leader packs (I've got a few signed too), and crap loads of spare cards. I still have a SW collection all stuffed away in the attic (it's about half the attic space, including every Lego SW set up until they started releasing the prequel sets, and yes that does mean I have the UCS Star Destroyer )

mattjgilbert wrote:My first issue of WD was 103. I have since purchased back-catalogue ones though and still have all of them. There is a gap while at uni where I was spending money on food not magazines but my games room hosts loads of the things...

I only picked up 97 and 98 on the back catalogue, and I stopped regularly buying at 234 (I think I have every single issue from 100 to 234 in the attic, although some are likely missing pages due to the amount of useful content they used to have that filtered out into the games I was playing).

mattjgilbert wrote:I still have all my Space Marine (Epic) stuff and would love to play a game again at some point

I sold all mine a few years back - a whole Marine chapter + support vehicles, some Reaver and Warhound titans, and a fishing tackle box full of Orks.

I think I said "food" while at uni. I actually meant "beer".

Sorry.

Gaming history?
way back about 1988 ish, a buddy used to buy WD. I remember issue 100. He and his brother used to collect the models but not really play. We did play one game of fantasy (2nd ed I think) I was using some of the plastic dwarfs, a baby green dragon and a giant scorpion. I liked the scorpion model so much that I bought two later on.
We did play one game of rogue trader with the plastic marines and orks.
The prices back then were too expensive and shops too far away for me (no pocket money you see..... ).
Later when I went to university, I had a local GW opposite the campus. I went in to have a look and sadly didn't escape!
I was invited to play in the fantasy roadshow ' Battle for Bugmans Brewery ' I was in charge of an empire mortar which blew up some hobgoblins. I ended up buying some skaven, then later an undead army.
A few months later I was invited to become a redshirt.
The interview was:
Manager: What are you doing this saturday?
Me: Nothing much.
Manager: Wrong, you're working here.

As a redshirt, with a staff lead order facility my training in the darkside was complete. I later started necromunda and then 40k 2nd ed. I got my brothers into the hobby, and even bought all the stuff from my old school buddies who didnt play anymore. I gave my brother a rogue trader book and a squat army! I only kept a few squats and an imperial robot for myself.
I dropped out of fantasy for a year or so when the undead changed into vampire counts and my undead force which was tomb king themed was half redundant and my circle of gaming buddies didnt play fantasy. I left GW not long after (an epic tale in itself).
Despite some second rate employment, I managed to keep playing and collecting.

I wish now that I knew how valuable some miniatures have become, as I could have lead ordered enough squats, chaos dwarfs and epic to build Indy's lead fridge back in my redshirt days.
The bonus of being a staff member though is that I have ended up with lots of armies, some free games (2nd ed 40k, gorkamorka) and loads of terrain such as 3 odd sets of necromunda buildings, about 4 sets of space hulk floorplans and the special resin bunker send out from head office for the sisters of battle release.