Friday 10 May 2013

Share the lead: Lurkers, Realm of Chaos 80s needs you!



What a couple of weeks!

I've just started a new job. I am a teacher by profession and have spent many years teaching children aged about ten or eleven. I've made the decision to have a go at teaching much younger pupils and have moved to a new school so that my new class if full of six or seven year olds.

A very different challenge than the older ones. But enjoyable nonetheless. Now the government here in the UK have a bizarre notion that testing children formally at the end of the year is a good idea. So in May, all schools have to organise their children (particularly those in Year 2 and year 6) and force them to complete examinations for the benefit of short term ministers in Whitehall.

Subsequently, it is a very busy time of year. Now over the last few weeks I have been tentatively been stretching out to experiment with the notion of trading miniatures with other collectors. I have a wodge of Royal Mail 'We missed you!' red cards sitting in my kitchen as well as loads of packaged up minis to send out. So a trip to the post office is high on the agenda for tomorrow.

As I have said, I have really enjoyed this process, largely due to the fact you get to interact with new people, often from all over the world. It turns out that the Oldhammer Movement has spread much further than just the UK or the US. And very pleasing it is too!

This got me thinking about all the people I met at Salute last month. Much to the bemusement of Dan, I was stopped by other Oldhammerers and we had a good few chats about Old School goodness. This was wonderful! Though I must admit, all of the people I met were self confessed lurkers. 

So this post is a call to arms for all you old school lurkers! 

You know who you are!

 You read and enjoy the blogs and forum activity but prefer to stand back.

 Well I want to hear from you. What is YOUR story? If you dabble in painting old school Citadel lead but have never posted anything on line now is your chance! 

 Email me at realmofchaos80s@yahoo.co.uk 

Or make the effort to get a Google account and tell us your story below!

Orlygg

19 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing the idea. I posted my musings about why I do with warhammer 3rd on my blog as it is simply to long to post it here.
    http://dicewarrior.blogspot.de/2013/05/old-hammer.html

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    1. Thanks for that. Musing are indeed a vital part of spreading the concept of Oldhammer.

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  2. Hi – I’m a big fan of the oldhammer stuff and collected and painted the golden age minis for some time now. The playfulness and creativity of these are sooooo much better than the world of plastics of today. I just very recently discovered that there are people out there how writes about the days of glory and read these blogs daily including yours. I also got inspired to start my own as well- (http://realmofcitadel.blogspot.se/). Thanks for a great blog!
    By the way – I’m Swedish and started back in the second half of the eightes.
    Oldhammers of the world, unite!

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    1. Wow! You have some impressive painted lead there! Thanks for sharing your blog with us too!

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  3. Hi my name is Sybou34 or Sylvain and I am a lurker too. I began the warhammer citadel adventure since the year 1990 more or less.
    I was struck by the orginality and the coolness mainly of the now oop chaos goodness from fantasy. Years later I came back to the hobby, exploring different ways of the hobby. I dedicated a part of my time to track down oop miniatures like those i used to have, Jes Godwin warriors, Bob Olley's beastmen, Kev Adams Orcs and gobs, and much more...
    Yesterday (i am not kidding) i threw myself in the word of blogger with my own blog (http://sybouslair.blogsport.co.uk) and I planned to show the advance on my different projects. The blog is all very new but I will make new photos very soon.
    I like your blog because us something different and more close to what i am looking for. I aslo enjoy the blog of Eldritch Epistles who is very cool. I am from France.
    Oldhammers assembled! Exclesior (... so cheesy)

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    1. Looking forwards to checking out your blog when you have some more stuff up.

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  4. Good luck in your new job!

    Also, good luck dragging lurkers out of the shadows.

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  5. I have a reputation for painting and using old minis, most are 40K, but some are old Chaos or even Ork & Goblin sculpts from the early 90s or earlier. I put some on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/muskiemckay/sets/72157622094863135/ but most of my really old stuff isn't photographed or even painted particularly well and having stripped and repainted many Nurgle Renegades I won't be doing the same for my other old armies, I may touch them up, but I have a hard time finding time for the hobby. I haven't played or painted in years, everything is in storage.

    Here is one more link to pictures of old stuff

    http://www.muschamp.ca/Muskie/MiniatureGallery/MiniatureGallery.html

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    1. Thanks for the link, those renegades go for a pretty penny now on eBay.

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  6. I'm not so much a lurker (although I was for a while), as I've commented on your posts now and again. I'm also trying to keep my own blog going, when I can find the time for it!

    I've been painting and gaming since the age of about 12, and as I'm 31 now, that's a fair number of years spent gaming, painting and terrain building. And I don't regret a single day of it! I started with 40k Rogue Trader and something like 5th edition WFB, but I've always been fascinated with the times and games that I was too young to remember. I frequently flick through my old white dwarfs, looking at the madcap antics of people at Games Day '86! And the crazy games and rules for Dark Future, Realms of Chaos, Judge Dredd RPG, Rogue Trader, Call of Cthulhu, etc are endlessly enthralling!

    That said, my main love has always been Chaos, although only for Fantasy gaming strangely. I've never had a 40k chaos army. But I do own a WFB Chaos Warriors army and one for Warmaster too.

    At the moment, my friends and I are playing a Necromunda campaign (which is surprisingly drawing in new players all the time!) and also GMing some Rogue Trader scenario games that I've written. Which is a lot of fun, considering I'm not actually playing it!

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    1. A good game with exciting miniatures will always attract players. Hence the need to expand the Oldhammer Community. Your story seems very similar to mine.

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  7. I'm probably in quite a minority, but I've arrived here from another direction, initially from being annoyed with GW's business direction, and having a big interest in the expanding world of old-school gaming, initially RPGs. I've been into wargaming for about 16 years, starting with 2nd ed 40K, I used to lust after all the old games and mini's but had no money or access to the actual games in my youth. Was crazy about 2000AD, fighting fantasy and things British fantasy. I'm not actively collecting old mini's (yet!) but I'm trying to bring more fun and old-school feel into my hobby now, and Oldhammer is the place for inspiration! I hope that there are other like me, an offshoot of the Oldhammer movement who look to it for inspiration as much as nostolgia. Excelsior!

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    1. Hi Jason - I checked out your gallery - really nice stuff. What medium(s) do you use for your illustrations? /Hans

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    2. Thanks Hans, it's all digital, usually Photoshop and Artrage. I need to add a hobby section sometime!

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  8. I've been in this hobby since 1992 and started with Warhammer 4th edition/40k 2nd edition.
    Right now I'm about to learn the rules to the sixth edition of 40k.
    I also got the 8th edition of WFB but have not play-tested it yet.
    I'm mainly a collector of so-called retro toys, mostly vintage Star Wars and Mattel´s Big Jim, but also comics and Airfix 70s toy soldiers.
    I have a rather large collection of Citadel miniatures and most of it is painted (no master class)
    Love the early rule books, the characters and the amazing boxart (hurrah for Ebay).
    My favorites among the older figures is Orcs & Gobbos/Undead and I'm also a fan of Marauder Miniatures.
    I also have a blog; Toys - A New Hope! (Toys - A New Hope!) http://toysettnytthopp.blogspot.se/
    It is written in Swedish (sorry for that).
    Under the tab marked "Spelfigurer" you will find some of my gaming miniatures.

    I have begun to follow Realm of chaos 80´s for a couple of months ago and think it is fantastic.
    Keep up the good work!

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    1. Great - another Swede who shares the passion for oldschool Citadel (I'm also Swedish). Liked your blog - tried to find a "Follow" / "Join this site" button but could find any. /Hans

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    2. Hi Hans!
      How nice to know that there are more friends of old Citadel miniatures in our country.
      Your blog was very nice and I will visit it often!
      I'm not very skilled at building websites / blogs and "Toys - A new hope" is my very first attempt to spread my interest in old toys.
      There is a "subscribe to" - feature on my blog (top right)and a "follow me" feature is coming soon :-)

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  9. @Ninjaforhire
    That's my story !!!
    I read the realm of chaos books at 11 and it never left me since then... never been able to do something not chaotic for more than a few units, the freedom they had in the design and the freedom for interpretation WE have is endless...

    I've been collecting like crazy when I was a kid and now I've grown up I got to realise the gold I had then qhich is what brought me to opening an acetone bottle and giving these minis a proper treatment..

    Thanks Orlygg for bringing this subject. I've been a lurker for many years and I believe the more the merrier. The more I see other people's minis, the more I want to paint mine and give myself some hard time to do it right.
    It's what gave me the will to do my own blog after all this time : http://leadplague.blogspot.fr/

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  10. Hiya!

    Another lurking Swede here. I'm pretty new to this Oldhammer stuff but I've been into the "Citadel-verse" since the mid/late-80s. Back then we mostly played Blood Bowl (2nd edition maybe? the one with the styrofoam board) and on occasion would gather all of our fantasy models, regardless of manufacturer, and play Warhammer (3ed) just for the fun of it: no themed armies or special scenarios, just straight up battles. Great times!

    My friend bought White Dwarf on a regular basis and I remember poring over the magazine, admiring all the cool models and games. Of course, being a kid I couldn't afford even buying a fraction of what I wanted.

    Since then, I've been dabbling in various periods and rules on and off, sometimes leaving the hobby for years. For the last couple of years I've mainly been into historical gaming with a focus on Dark Ages.

    Anyway, I found out about the Oldhammer movement (if you could call it that) by chance and began looking around on blogs and forums. I'm not normally one for nostalgia but this stuff is so great and brings back so many fond memories I couldn't help myself. I dug out my old models but sadly there aren't very many of them so I'm feverishly trawling eBay for whatever I can find that isn't outrageously expensive.

    I’m turning 40 in two years, and my ultimate plan is to play a ”mega battle” then. For this game I have just started collecting suitable miniatures.

    I just wanted say that this is a great blog and it’s nice to see so many other fans of these classic models from the Golden Era.

    (My own blog is focused on historical games at the moment, although there are some posts about eg steampunk and LotR, but eventually there will be something about my Oldhammer project.)

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