Introductory posts by other Sleeters have been the status quo, and as the sixth member it’s my time to scratch out my own. The purpose is to give some insight to my work in four examples and inspect my methods and have a little personal pinpointing exercise as well.

My journey in the hobby can be dissected in three, roughly 5-year long periods. The first part began when I was 10 years old and being born in the mid-90s meant that the very golden ages of Games Workshop were on. I was introduced by my friend who needed a buddy to start the hobby with. I remember going to the quite shady feeling local game store, where I purchased the 6th edition Empire army book and some knights (which is by the way a great kit, I just recently used some parts of it), the latter which I ruined with thick enamel paints. Next up was more knights, dwarfs and goblins and creating foam terrain. This was the era of fiddly attempts at army building and gaming and learning the very basics of painting and building models. But I was hooked: I wanted to learn, create on my own and try out new stuff, as I still do.

Then came the part of life where interests turn towards recreational activities practiced by young adults. It was also the period where I immersed myself in the Warhammer 40.000, though it was an unusual one in terms of how it happened compared to others I suppose. It happened not by doing, but by looking and watching other people’s work. For 5 years my hobby was browsing forums like DakkaDakka and Warseer, countless legendary blogs and internet caches of illustrations and art plus reading a massive number of books from Black Library. I was mature enough to understand the setting, and my interest towards it was fueled simultaneously by films ranging from dark sci-fi happening in deep void to biblical horror thrillers. This peculiar mix of dark and baroque is still what drives me today and remains in the core of my hobby.

Five years ago, I was feeling the time was ripe to restart the hobby. I got new paints, new models, established a blog and started delving deep into the literal core of Imperium. The collective push for Pilgrym, it’s terrain, miniatures and artwork simply blew my mind. My first proper Inq28 retinue were the Servants of The Throne, priests in charge of tending the bio-mechanical structures of Imperial Palace, directly derived from John Blanche’s art.

Later, my Imperial Fists, with their drab yellows and esoteric Phalanxian servitors made their appearance on the 28Mag. The Fists were a celebration for GW’s new Astartes line and my first 40k army.

This year marked also the 20^th birthday for Mordheim and an event organized by Echoes of Imperium, the Mordheim MMXIX. It was a mind-blowing happening and an example of quality event where I got to meet my favorite artists, talented people who are extremely welcoming and on same wavelength on different aspects of the hobby.

My hobby life so far has been a solitary one, consisting of late evenings and nights of dark ambient music fueled moments, jumping from different projects to another as I please. Now that the fourth part has started, it’s time to add up with collaborative pushes and endeavors. Ironsleet has always been the paragon of the hobby for me and housed artists who I greatly admire. A whole new creative ground. So again, thank you Migs, Kari, Mikko, Toni and FPOA for inviting me to join the gang. Let’s continue the march, gear up and have a blast!