The Beginning

I got started in Warhammer 40K about five years ago. I was hanging out with my friend and his brother and they had a couple of models and some paints sitting on a card table.

“What’s that?” I asked.

They looked at each other and back at me. “Dude, it’s Warhammer 40K, but you don’t have to get involved.”

I laughed. They had gotten me into playing World of Warcraft and, after that money and time sink, I didn’t see any harm in tiny army men. A few hours later and a hundred dollars lighter, I was cursing at a Catachan trooper that refused to hold his goddamn gun.

I eventually built up 1750 points worth of Imperial Guard, we played maybe half a dozen games and then I moved to Boston and forgot about Warhammer 40K.

But the seed had been planted.

One day, I received a box from my parents, filled with half painted Cadian and Catachan troops, along with my paints and brushes. I started to glue back on arms that had fallen off. Just to fix them, you understand. And then all that grey plastic started to bother me. So I blasted them with some primer and got to work.

I found a 40K podcast to listen to while I painted (specifically The 11th Company). They always talked about the community and tournaments they played at and tactics and strategies and they seemed to have a lot of fun and I kept painting, muddling my way through the best I could.

And an idea started to form. I wanted to get into the hobby and I wanted to document it, if only to be a part of the community that these podcasts kept talking about. I knew I was enjoying the painting and model building, though I knew I had a long way to go after looking at the pictures posted on DakkaDakka.

I’m going to start painting a new army and trying to paint it well. I’m going to learn how to do basing and learn how to use green stuff. I want to make great looking models, maybe even dabbling in conversions.

The next part will be harder for me, but, I want to actually field that army. I’m not a social person and jumping headfirst into an established group gives me the shivers. But I want to play. I doubt I’ll ever play a tournament, but I can see myself playing at the local gamestore.

And I’m going to document it all here and I’m doing it for everyone else who ever wanted to join the hobby, but was intimidated by the sheer size of it all. Hell, if I can do it, then anyone can.

I’m going to start with modeling and painting entries exclusively.

And then we’ll take it from there.

-D-