Back To The Hammer is a series of articles entirely made up of the good people of the Fluffenhammer Facebook Group. Enjoy!
How Did You Start The Hobby?
When I was in primary school in the early 90s my neighbour who was a few years older was into the hobby and I remember reading his copies of the Realms of Chaos books, playing early epic scale stuff and Blood Bowl. The Realms of Chaos books and the ornate grimdark setting was a massive influence on a 9-11 year old.
Then in high school, I saw a box of Imperial Space Marines in the wee model shop (mostly model railways and stuff apart from one wee corner with GW & RPG stuff in it) in my town and bought them and I started playing Space Crusade with a friend from school. Then I started buying White Dwarf with my pocket money and got the 3rd edition starter box for my birthday and the rest is history.
What Games/Armies Did You Play?
Over the years I’ve played most GW games at least once, but I was primarily a 40k player, playing with the Space Marines and Orks out of the 3rd edition box, augmented with stuff from Space Crusade and the occasional freebie from White Dwarf – I remember one Chaos marine in particular. The fluff justification for some of those alliances was dubious at best…
What Made You Leave?
I didn’t much like the atmosphere in my local shop and was always more into the background stuff than the actual modeling & painting (which I was rubbish at) and playing (which was no fun, probably because of the poor atmosphere in the shop.)
Plus, I was going to university and things like beer and gig tickets seemed a far more gainful way to spend my spare cash.
That said, over the years I’ve stayed in touch through online forums like Warseer and sites like BOLS and had a look back at getting into painting & gaming, but invariably been driven away by all the worst stereotypes of the denizens and staff of GW stores being proven real and just not having enough money or time. Some pals have tried to get me into games like Malifaux but the money/time issue kinda torpedoed that idea.
What Brought You Back?
Like I say, I’ve been keeping in touch with things and over the past few years I found myself listening to GW lore videos online as background noise when I’m doing housework (look who got old) and I found myself paying more and more attention to what was actually going on in the hobby.
The furore over Age of Sigmar was one interesting, but it was the general feel that GW was changing for the better, the return of Blood Bowl, ideas like Kill team and Shadow War: Armageddon all caught my attention to the degree that I climbed into my storage cupboard to see what old 40k stuff I still had and start thinking about painting it.
What Catches Your Eye Since Returning?
At the moment, I’m just bowled over by how great all the stuff surrounding 8th edition looks but I’m really enjoying things like Duncan’s painting videos, and looking at the Citadel Painting Chart with hope that I might be able to actually paint a halfway presentable model.
Game/faction wise, I’m very interested in Shadow War: Armageddon but I also hope there is a Kill Team variant for 8th edition, because then I could collect small forces for lots of factions rather than one big army.
Some of the recent models, especially Magnus are really impressive and I’m excited to see Mortarion when he arrives and whatever comes next.
Yes, I know I need to do something with the tactical squad of Space Marines I have undercoated and not progressed further with and then deal with all the other stuff I’ve had sitting on sprues for a decade before I even consider buying or attempting to pain a showpiece model like that, but it’s nice to look.
That sounds a bit Slaaneeshi… maybe I need to buy some purple paint?
When I was in primary school in the early 90s my neighbour who was a few years older was into the hobby and I remember reading his copies of the Realms of Chaos books, playing early epic scale stuff and Blood Bowl. The Realms of Chaos books and the ornate grimdark setting was a massive influence on a 9-11 year old.
Then in high school, I saw a box of Imperial Space Marines in the wee model shop (mostly model railways and stuff apart from one wee corner with GW & RPG stuff in it) in my town and bought them and I started playing Space Crusade with a friend from school. Then I started buying White Dwarf with my pocket money and got the 3rd edition starter box for my birthday and the rest is history.
What Games/Armies Did You Play?
Over the years I’ve played most GW games at least once, but I was primarily a 40k player, playing with the Space Marines and Orks out of the 3rd edition box, augmented with stuff from Space Crusade and the occasional freebie from White Dwarf – I remember one Chaos marine in particular. The fluff justification for some of those alliances was dubious at best…
What Made You Leave?
I didn’t much like the atmosphere in my local shop and was always more into the background stuff than the actual modeling & painting (which I was rubbish at) and playing (which was no fun, probably because of the poor atmosphere in the shop.)
Plus, I was going to university and things like beer and gig tickets seemed a far more gainful way to spend my spare cash.
That said, over the years I’ve stayed in touch through online forums like Warseer and sites like BOLS and had a look back at getting into painting & gaming, but invariably been driven away by all the worst stereotypes of the denizens and staff of GW stores being proven real and just not having enough money or time. Some pals have tried to get me into games like Malifaux but the money/time issue kinda torpedoed that idea.
What Brought You Back?
Like I say, I’ve been keeping in touch with things and over the past few years I found myself listening to GW lore videos online as background noise when I’m doing housework (look who got old) and I found myself paying more and more attention to what was actually going on in the hobby.
The furore over Age of Sigmar was one interesting, but it was the general feel that GW was changing for the better, the return of Blood Bowl, ideas like Kill team and Shadow War: Armageddon all caught my attention to the degree that I climbed into my storage cupboard to see what old 40k stuff I still had and start thinking about painting it.
What Catches Your Eye Since Returning?
At the moment, I’m just bowled over by how great all the stuff surrounding 8th edition looks but I’m really enjoying things like Duncan’s painting videos, and looking at the Citadel Painting Chart with hope that I might be able to actually paint a halfway presentable model.
Game/faction wise, I’m very interested in Shadow War: Armageddon but I also hope there is a Kill Team variant for 8th edition, because then I could collect small forces for lots of factions rather than one big army.
Some of the recent models, especially Magnus are really impressive and I’m excited to see Mortarion when he arrives and whatever comes next.
Yes, I know I need to do something with the tactical squad of Space Marines I have undercoated and not progressed further with and then deal with all the other stuff I’ve had sitting on sprues for a decade before I even consider buying or attempting to pain a showpiece model like that, but it’s nice to look.
That sounds a bit Slaaneeshi… maybe I need to buy some purple paint?
 | Chris ‘Crowing’ Napier is a science communicator, writer and ecumenical geek who’s writings can mostly be found here. (https://chriscrowing.wordpress.com) |