Time and again, the games industry proves itself to be a nerdy subculture in its own right; a rich tapestry of shared norms and inescapable patterns. I managed to resist one such trapping for years, but in the end I succumbed to the grimdark temptations of my peers… I’m nose-deep in Warhammer 40,000.
In truth I first met this hobby 25 years ago — ironically, while trying to fit in at secondary school, with a crowd I was entirely unsuited to. That’s quite possibly the reason why I never engaged with the lore of 40K back then, nor honed much of a painting craft… nor even managed to play more than a handful of games. But I found the miniatures fundamentally interesting, and assembling them even had given me a pleasant (if distant) connection with my railway-modelling grandfather, now sadly deceased.
As the new millenium rolled on and Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings impressed itself upon my geeky soul, I shifted over to DeAgostini and Games Workshop’s magazine partwork, Battle Games in Middle Earth. My hodgepodge army of tactical space marines, vehicles, and a sole Battlefleet Gothic vessel made way for elves, Rohirrim, and several depictions of the films’ main cast — all of whom arrived by post, instead of requiring trips to the tiny shop with its malodourous patrons. Splendid! However, this was a time when I was also at my most absorbed in video games, and each new fortnightly issue brought another set of sprues to be stacked upon a growing pile of shame.
In the end I was overwhelmed. The mismatched and unfinished denizens of Middle-Earth were packed away along with my entirely unshaded (and mould line-riddled) Ultramarines. Neither collection would see the light of day again for over two decades.
Now, in 2025, a lot of stars have aligned to get me back into this hobby. To be honest, very few of those ‘stars’ are actually positive or good things, but perhaps grimdark is as grimdark does. My struggles with anxiety and depression reached new heights this year, right after I was thrust into unemployment by a studio closure. I remain a freelancer without client, and as the months dragged on my creativity had dropped to zero. But then I rediscovered these models of mine, and it felt like a wealth of opportunities opened up.
So this is now my latest obsession… again. I’ve resurrected this rather start-stop blog of mine in order to chronicle my descent into ‘Newhammer’. What began with breathing new life into old Space Marines shall soon morph into novel (to me) painting techniques, exciting new (to me) armies, and — hopefully, eventually — some actual games using these miniatures.
I’d best crack on, then.