My first warhammer 40k painting and modeling experience

This was my first step into an expensive tabletop gaming hobby I've always wanted to try. I remember being 8 or 9 and going to the wizards of the coast store in mission valley to buy magic cards and pay to play on the n64 there, nothing better than playing super smash bros (oddly enough I always wanted to try superman 64 but never got around to it, how lucky am I?), but I always saw the awesome looking super soldier toys (Warhammer of course).

Now, 10 years later (wow I'm old) I have finally tried my hand at it. Below are some of the pictures of how it happened and the final result.

These guys are Imperial Space Marines of the Crimson Fists chapter. They were nearly annihilated during a rocket accident during an ork invasion of their homeworld so now they are trying to recover their former strength. They rely mostly on elite units but also field many scouts, as they are the initiates to become space marines. Anyways, I liked the idea of stoic defenders that place an emphasis on scouts as well as preserving as much of the army as possible while inflicting the most damage.

I recently posted the last image to Dakka Dakka forums for advice and tips on how to improve. A few things I already knew like filing down the lines on the models. But there were many little details I missed, and for these guys I completely ignored highlighting all together.

All in all I'm glad to have gotten into this hobby. Its a great way to keep my mind off school at times and has lowered my stress a little bit I feel. Everybody needs a creative outlet, I guess tihs one is mine!

A few pictures

Day 12

Berlin
We took a really interesting tour of Berlin today, both sides of it. We went to checkpoint charlie and the museum there which had a lot of artifacts from the conflict. We learned about this legendary walking man, the east german walk symbol on the streetlights that is a cultural phenomena. Interestingly, the funny cartoony figure that the walking man was appeals more to children and they follow its instructions better than the normal ones. We saw tons of historic areas in berlin but the best was the Berlin wall of course. Its amazing to think that just a few years ago that wall was still standing and now its being restored so they can remember their history, when i say restored i mean the grafitti and to preserve the wall itself. This was a pretty fun last day.

Day 11

Berlin/Dresden

Yet another driving day. Although it was much shorter than most of them have been. We stopped in Dresden for 2 hours or so and wandered around and ate bratwurst at a stand. It turned out to be quite good. The city itself wasn't particularly interesting because most of it was annihilated during the Second World War. Then we got to Berlin and ate a very good dinner that was probably extremely expensive. After that we had free time and the 9th graders, Bev, and I went to Starbucks and had some coffee, tea, and pastries. The Starbucks here are different and I prefer it over the ones back home.

Day 10

Prague

Got some food, wandered around. Went to the dancing house which took quite a while but It was worth seeing because it was actually pretty architecturally amazing. What made it so amazing was that it was surrounded by all the old buildings so it made it really stand out. Afterwards we went out to dinner and then saw this Black Light Theater thing. It was actually really interesting and quite entertaining. It used black lights combined with mime and pantomime to make a really interesting display. It broke the 4th wall with “rain” and spider actor guys who actually crawled out into the audience. It was pretty surprising and fun. It was definitely one of the better performances I've seen, all it really needed was a bigger budget for live music. That probably wont happen nor will we really see a performance like it in America.

Day 9

Prague
Drove all day and went to the capital of Slovakia. Then we went to Prague ate dinner and went to bed. We really had to drive through some hellish weather that was extremely dangerous for us in our big bus.

Day 8

Budapest
Took a tour of Hungary that we did the day before but learned some history and went to a few new places. Then we went to the same market as the day before. I ate a ton of food, some of the best gulosh I've ever had and got tons of souvenirs. I spent almost all of my forints which is pretty amazing and fun. Got some plates and other random little gifts. I got a pretty cool Russian hat that I pretty much love right now.