I started gaming when I was nine years old. My dad played D&D when he was younger, and he thought I would like it. He went out and bought the Third Edition D&D Starter Set. We played the adventures that came with the set. I'll always remember the first time I played- my party had to rescue a unicorn being held captive from a group of orcs. After that, we progressed into graveyards and dungeons. After that first game, I was hooked.
My Dad stopped playing when he was younger, and picked it back up when we played 3rd Edition. His brother, on the other hand, never stoped playing. He still plays (a combination of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Editions). For Hanukkah that year, he bought me a starter box of the new Dungeons & Dragons Miniatures (commonly refered to as Plastic Crack, with good reason). This added to the experience, as Dad and I had been using the paper tokens that came with the Starter Set. These tokens had pictures of the monsters on them, but that wasn't as exciting as using the plastic miniatures.
After we finished up with the starter set, I bought the 3.5 Edition Player's Handbook. I poured over those pages over and over again. Then I purchased the Dungeon Master's Guide, and then the Monster Manual. At this point, I found out that my best friend played, so we started gaming together. He was usually the DM, although I did occasionaly step in. I slowly added to my library with a supplement here and a campaign setting there. My collection of the D&D plastic miniatures grew rapidly.
Things stayed the same untill Fall 2007, when 4th Edition was announced. I was so excited- the game I had been playing since I was 9 was about to see major changes. I preordered my books as soon as I could.
Flash forward to early Summer 2008, when the new Edition launched. Reception was mixed. Many people (myself included) see it as an upgraded version of the game we love- the game that has been played for over 30 years. Many others, however, view it as a conglomerate of World of Warcraft and Magic: The Gathering. I disagree with this idea, but I digress.
Then, in late 2008 or early 2009, I started reading about how Wizards of the Coast was going to stop supporting the Skirmish game you could play with their plastic miniatures. This news wasn't particularly bad, as I didn't play. I found out that the game would now be supported by the community, with the leaders being the people at http://www.ddmguild.com/. It was this site that got me interested in painting miniatures.
Every month, DDM Guild showed a picture tutorial of a repaint of the plastic miniatures (which come pre-painted). This interested me, as some of the paint jobs on the miniatures were less than spectacular. I research everything untill it dies, so I looked at the different brands of paints, which lead to the different miniatures companies.
I fell in love with the Night Goblins from Games Workshops, used in their Warhammer Fantasy game. They look very.... German Fairy-tale. I bought a small set of 10 Night Goblins from the local game store.
Next, I needed paint. I was going to buy them from the game store, but my Dad suggested going to Michael's and buying acrylic paints there. I bought a set, and tried using them. They were awful. I did more research and found out that miniature paints (like I would get at the game store) have smaller pigments, so they don't obscure details. I bought a set of Games Workshop paints, and continue to use those.
I painted those Night Goblins very slowly. In fact, at the time of this posting, I've only painted 4 of them.
I developed an interest in Warhammer 40,000, another game made by Games Workshop. I bought a starter set for that, and started playing it down at the games store. I don't go regularly (who has the time?), but I still occasionaly go. My Space Marines army needs painting at the time of this posting.
I later bought a starter set for Warhammer Fantasy. All of those miniatures need painting, too.
All of this ranting leads to why I started this blog. I'm hopelessly hooked to miniatures of all sorts and all brands. I have so many that need painting, and can't justify buying more untill I get paint on the ones I have. I need to develop my miniature painting skillz as well (I've finished 4 minis so far). I'll post pictures of my minis here, and hopefully this blog will inspire me to finish painting so I can throw more money at Games Workshop and Reaper Miniatures.
Here is the laundry list of what I need to paint:
12 Dwarf Warriors
10 Dwarf Thunderers
8 Dwarf Miners
Dwarf Thane
Dwarf Dragon Slayer
Dwarf Cannon and 3 Crew
46 Night Goblin Spearmen
20 Night Goblin Archers
10 Forest Goblin Spider Riders
Night Goblin Big Boss
Night Goblin Shaman
Troll
Space Marine Captain
20 Space Marines (forming 2 Tactical Squads)
5 Space Marine Terminators
Space Marine Dreadnought
Space Marine Ironclad Dreadnought
Wow. Typing it gave me a new scope as to how much I have to accomplish. It's a little disheartening.
This list isn't truly complete. The 40k Starter set I bought also had a small Ork army, but I have no interest in them and won't paint them. Or if I do, it will be practice for the other armies. Heres a list for those Orks:
Ork Warboss
5 Ork Nobz
20 Ork Boyz
3 Ork Deffkoptas
I also bought some individual models, but I will probably wait to paint them untill I have more expierence painting (they are kinda special). Both are from Warhammer Fantasy
Josef Bugman, Dwarf Brewer
2 Empire Wizards (the Empire is one of the Human armies)
My enemy is time. With school, I don't have time during the week to sit down and paint. This leaves weekends, during which I'm usually busy with something else.
Wish me luck- I've got 175 miniatures to paint.
