The Weekend Begins!

Finally, the weekend is here! 

I probably should not be celebrating too much as it looks like I have my work cut out for me for the next couple of days. Thankfully, I have a strategic reserve of our Old Guard Minions who have graciously agreed to step into the breach to allow me time to get our first theme round organised for display tomorrow. Many thanks in advance to my Grognards for all their help.

I've really enjoyed reading the short bios of this year's merry band of deviants, and so to stay in theme I thought I'd say a few words about my history with the hobby. 

Like many, I collected and played with Airfix soldiers as a young boy (Afrika Korps and British Paras). My mother, who was a teacher and head of our regional library, brought home 'Little Wars' for me to read, which I absolutely loved. The first figures I painted were Ral Partha and Grenadier adventurers for our D&D and AD&D campaigns in the early 80s. I ordered those direct from TSR in Lake Geneva and painted them with toothpicks and sewing needles (pathetic, I know). 

A 15 year old version of me and my first painted minis. 

In senior high I was a big enthusiast of Avalon Hill's boardgames (ASL, Arab-Israeli War, Wooden Ships, etc.) which I often played solo for lack of opponents (tiny town = low nerd quotient).  After graduating I moved to Winnipeg and upon securing a government grant for young entrepreneurs, started a game store, 'Medieval Works', with two other friends - I turned 19 when we opened the shop. It was around the same time that Rogue Trader was released. We were completely fearless, feckless and fierce - lambs to the slaughter, really. Many of the friends I made while at the store I still have today - it was an absolutely fabulous time. 

Me with part of our first big order; the interior of our shop; and a group of us playing a game at the front of the store.

During the store years, and amongst those early, heady days of Warhammer/40K, I fell hard for Napoleonics, which remains my favourite historical and gaming period to this day. Anyway, we ran the store for about 3 years before growing bored of being perpetually broke and so moved on to other distractions. At around 25 I took a hiatus from the hobby to chase girls and go to uni, but came back to it with a vengeance in the midst of graduate school. I hosted a gaming group at my home on Thursdays which became The Fawcett Avenue Conscripts. This group is still going strong after 20 years and is made up of several current Challengers (GregB, ByronM and MikeF, to name but a few). After moving to Regina I started another group, 'The Friday Night Raconteurs' which is composed of another band of terrific guys (PeterD, SylvainR, JeremyM and StacyS). Great years filled with great friends.

There you go, a silly snapshot of my nerd years. 

Okay! Enough banter, let's get on with today's posts!  You're going to be spoiled with the wide variety of wonderful eye-candy today, so stay tuned throughout the day as the entries roll-out.

Curt