N40Kstalgia

Capital move, dear chap! But now I will shift this beastly crypto-pachyderm six paces

towards your dastardly iron canine, as to deliver the soundest of thrashings! What-ho!

Apologies chaps, I’ve been away for the first 2 weeks of July for my holidays, hence no update.

However, I gots me my 40K-fix when on holiday visiting my family, by teaching both my 13 and 9-year old younger brothers to model, and paint, their Black Reach models and Space Marine battleforce sets I got them for their birthdays previously!

I thought them the basics of proper basecoating, washes, drybrushing, highlighting, etc. For some reason, when I listened to my youngest brother talk about how the White Scars chapter are his favourite, by he’d really like to paint his marines in Raven Guard colours as they look ‘cool’, brought back memories of my early Warhammer 40K days.

Misty water-coloured memories..

Back then, it was 1992 and I was a youngling 12 old years, and I started hanging out at a friend’s place who was into WHFB with his bunch of friends. While I was quite excited at the background and battles of Fantasy then, the sheer volume of models, seemingly-complex rule-set, and the hours and hours of time invested to play a single skirmish didn’t really capture my interest in the way I thought it would.

Fast-forward a year later, I was introduced to 40K when said friend started playing around with Eldar and Orks, with Howling Banshees and Shokk Attack Guns galore. Quite naturally at the time, I gravitated towards the ‘upright Lawful-Good kewlness’ of Space Marines and somehow got myself a boxed set of a Devastator squad of marines to ‘join in’ as allies to my friends games. Being both knowledgeable and cheerfully ignorant of the Rogue Trader origins and history of the Adeptus Astartes, I then made up a chapter to call my own I christened the ‘Mercenary Marines’, painted a set of Devastators green, and peppered dollar and yen signs over the shoulder pads as chapter symbols. Oh, how we all laughed.

Later, when I got into the game more seriously, my lone Devastator squad expanded to include Assault Marines and a Tactical squad, with a Terminator-armour-clad Inquisitor counting as a ‘Captain’/’Hero’. Then, I had firmly positioned myself as an Ultramarines player, and played small 500-800 point games.

I think by the time I was almost 14, the Space Wolf codex (1st ed. I believe) had just come out, and I added Ragnar Blackmane, Njal Stormcaller, Wolf Guard terminators (with cheesybeard Cyclone missile launchers), and Blood Claws to my Ultramarines and set myself the task of repainting them all Space Wolves. 1500 point games beckoned, with Mighty Heroes and Cannon Fodder of these fine lupine warriors spilling Ork, Eldar, and Zoat blood aplenty.

I had then started to add an Eversor Assassin to my growing, increasingly-Inquisitor led collection, and started to add tanks and Imperial Guardsmen to my collection.

But by then, the more pressing concerns of college (and girls!) increasingly pushed my childish obsessions away, and I abandoned 40K...

Killa Kan, or Kannot? That is the Kwestion.

But! Leap forward ten years later, and that 40K bug bit me again! But that is another story for another time.

Suffice to say, I am glad I found some time, even just for a tiny bit, to share my 40K passion with a new generation of budding modellers, collectors, and gamers, passing along secret knowledge (like drybrushing techniques!) to eager learners, siblings they may be, while I was away on my holiday.

Until next time!

Menzies