Humble beginnings

Now... Where to start my blog rambles? I suppose from the beginning.

I must confess that I was not "born a gamer". Don't get me wrong, I had my fair share of boardgames and plastic army men, but in essence I never got round to playing regularly in my early days. I didn't even, know about airfix kits on my early days. Shock and indeed horror!

I remember from those old days, the obligatory copy of snakes and ladders, monopoly and risk, to name but a few. We did have at the time, a portuguese publishing house that helped with getting those more commercial titles on our hands. Its name was Majora and they just found a new breath of life in recent years, when it was picked up from bankruptcy. Fingers crossed, it will be around for a few more years.

Nevertheless, at the time, there I was happy with life and content with LEGO and GI JOE toys. I had the briefest encounter with this hobby of ours, when I was no more than 10. My parents offered me my first scale model, a Revell 1/144 scale Sea Harrier. Sadly my knowledge and skill were somewhat lacking at the time and the model met an untimely end at my hands. No picture or even the model survived the passing of time sadly.

 Then, one summer day in the year of 1996, it all changed. There I was enjoying my summer holidays in the south of Spain and browsing the local magazine shop, while the parents were doing the shopping for the day. I came across the most wondrous (at the time, at least) of publications. Right there in front of me, was a copy of the spanish White Dwarf 18, featuring a garrishly illustrated, Space Hulk cover (straight from the cover of Space Hulk second edition).

Suffice to say that it caught my eye. Cool cover illustration, a miniature featured on the front cover, with the word "Free" above it. What else do you need to convince a youngling that the magazine has to go home with you? The miniature was missing by the way. :( So this was not to be my first ever gaming miniature, but was definitelly my first wargaming magazine. Half an hour later and I was lazily browsing through the magazine at the hotel's swimming pool garden.

From all the articles, news, adverts inside, all I could think was, what a treat! To top it all, who could resist this masterpiece? 

A massive battle report ran by some of what are now, some of the most well known faces in the wargaming/modelling industry. Is there a doubt that when I returned home, the first thing I did was crank up my 56k modem and search for Games Workshop? That black background page with the blood angels terminator that came up, would soon have me down the plastic and metal crack road.

Oh! And did I mention the amazing wood elves display on the back cover?

Many years afterwards there are countless other miniatures and gaming systems on the market, but for that one moment, my hobby was elected.

I now play many other gaming systems, which I will explore in later publications, but for now that's it. This is where it all started for me.

Let me know if you had a similar experience and when did you start down this crazy and very rewarding hobby of ours.

War Penguin signing out