The Beginning Part 2: a Workshop for Games?
Having covered my origins in buying manga, I thought it fitting to also cover my first exposure to miniatures. Like so many others this first exposure was through Games Workshop. Initially I was at a friends house and he brought out his older brother’s games workshop catalogue- most likely for the year 2003 or 2004. We spent hours poring over this book, blissfully unaware of the depth of the rabbit hole we were looking in to.
A few weeks later my grandmother took me to the local Games Workshop store where we purchased my first miniatures. A blister pack containing 2 miniatures, Space Marine Tyranid Hunters. Fortunately (or unfortunately) my original paintjob did not survive to the current day. However, I have recently repainted the exact figure and here it is along with a selection of recent figures.
As with many (most?) others that get into the miniature hobby, I fell out of the hobby for a number of years. I would then return in 2018, around a year after the end of my undergraduate degree. Since then I have branched out into miniatures from many other manufacturers and games including, Firestorm Armada (RIP), Stargrave and Infinity.
One of the most valuable aspects of the miniature wargaming/painting hobby in my mind the ability to create your own fun, especially in games between friends. Don’t like a rule? Change it. Don’t like existing faction emblems or heraldry? Replace it with your own. The creativity and authenticity of the community is something to behold. The idea of crafting your scenery, playing with miniatures that you selected, customised and then painted with a group of like minded individuals strongly appeals to me and even if your ability in any one of these fields is amateurish, when taken as a whole the final product is always greater than the sum of its parts- a sort of community magic if you will.
All of this is to say that I look forward to posting more on the topic of miniatures and would be excited to receive comments from all of you on what you would like to see in the future as well as thoughts on the articles I have already written.
