If you have ever thought of starting miniatures painting and table top gaming, welcome. There are many brand of models, games systems and miniatures in the market. For me, I choose to stick to one brand, Games Workshop, and not other brands. Reason being, dont want to loose focus, and besides if you collect many other brands, it sort of make the focus lost and you will end up collecting for the sake of collecting.
This reminds me back to the older days where I collect my comic books. I still have my collection with me though. Which reminds me, been a long time since I open those comic defences boxes and have a look. When I was collecting comic books, I got to a point where I would end up buying almost every brand of comic and hero. After a while, yes, focus is lost, I began collecting for the sake of collecting. When my collection started to pile up, then I ask myself what am I doing. After much review, I decided to stick to only certain hero and brands of comic only. This got my collection more focus and I began to be able to catch up reading my comics…
Same for when I first started collecting, gaming, painting miniatures, I decided what I wanted already and stayed focus to only one brand or gaming company, Games Workshop. I know there are many other even nicer miniatures out there, but I always remind myself, Stay Focus, just have a look and don’t be distracted. Don’t wanna make the same mistake again.
Before you dived in to start buying miniatures, spend some time researching on the gaming company, game system and the miniatures design. Like it, then find out more about the universe.
For me when I started, I believe in humans, so I chose only races that were human. (Last year, I got tempted into the undead & vamps…hehe). Once you have decided on a race, dont run straight to the store and buy. But first thing you should buy is the Army Book (for Warhammer) or Codex (for Warhammer 40k). Read about the race history and origin and tales of the famous hero. After that, spend some time, build a simple army list with the Army Book or Codex. You can search web forums for sample army listing for various races. I always read forums at www.warseer.com. Then you are ready to decide what or which box or army you should start.
Start by buying one box of models of troops level, or blisters hero level. Assemble them up and paint them slowly. It will slowly get you into the kick. The trick is to assemble, paint, complete it, then built again, then paint and repeat the cycle. Once you have enough to make a simple 500 points army, trying playing or gaming with it. There you will learn the thrills and fun of the game and race. This would motivated you to paint more miniatures.
In a nutshell, that’s how to keep the hobby alive. If you gonna assemble a lot of miniatures, and you see you have so many to paint, it sort of does not motivate you at all. Just remember, the objective is to keep the pace going and hobby alive as long as possible. Cheers!
