The Community.

On our clubs trip to Warhammer World, I had previously mentioned about a couple I met and got talking too. James and Angela Askins, a couple who live in Nottingham and are both incredibly embedded in the hobby, couldn't get rid of me for many minutes, and I apologise for keeping them from sculpting and painting! I think James gave me a wee present to get rid of me, and here it is.

I wish (and hopefully will soon have) a photography set up to take much more detailed pics so I could give this justice, but you can still probably see how awesome this looks. James (who is a member of The Dogs of War) was telling me that he'd had a tryout for a miniatures designing position at Games Workshop, and one of the things he was tasked with was to copy the Grimgor Ironhide model. This head is the decapitated head the Black Orc waves cheerily in his hand. As soon as he showed me it I was impressed, the slight sneer on his face, how you can sculpt that much detail I'll never know. However, seeing how impressed I was at this face James said I could keep it as a momento of the day. What an absolute gentleman! His partner Angela was also incredibly lovely, talking about painting, showing me her current project (which was looking sick!) and they both shared stories about the hobby, from Games Workshed to John Blanche and even vikings hanging out with Gandalf. Which is the subject of this post. 

As someone who has been into videogaming for a very long time, and seen the birth of online gaming, it often appalls me at how people act on there. Swearing and abusive comments being commonplace. Incredibly annoying I'm sure you'll agree. Well, experiences in wargaming, for myself, are very much the opposite. Everyone seems genuinely helpful, either to give tips, gaming advice etc. You only need to be on here to find this out. 

FTW, WhiteScars, Faeit 212, Sons of Isis, and Wargames and Migraines have all been incredibly helpful in any matter I have so wished help with or simply been amazingly friendly to talk too. It really shows just what a great hobby this is to be involved in. You only have to walk into a Games Workshop and fight the over friendly staff off to see what I mean! I've only been re-involved in the hobby for about 8 months and already I feel like I never left it for almost 10 years, the people at Tredegar Wargames Club have been so welcoming and helpful, and its an honour to say I'm now a part of this. Part of what we do at the club is to try and make it grow, from gaining new members to improving what we have to enhance the gaming aspect, everything is being looked at and its an honour to be able to help the club in this way. 

When I was young and was first shown the hobby by my brother in law, I felt that this was something I wanted to do in more than just a past time way. That feeling has started to resurface, hence why I'm blogging about it, and trying to get the club I'm a part of improve as much as possible. 

Cheers everyone I've mentioned and also to the people I may not have.