Bloody Nora, where to start? Well the beginning is usually classed as the start so I'll try that. Winter 1980, North Yorkshire. Unbeknownst to parents, doctors or anyone else I was born with major heart defects & underwent a bypass operation at 14 days old, now, the relevance of this is that during the operation I had a stroke which has left me with cerebral palsy in my Left side. I haven't let this define me, but it *does* affect the way I have to do things every day, including painting. (The picture to my left is from my wedding & Im playing bass left handed, this means that my right hand is doing the fretwork & my left (affected) thumb has a pick gaffer taped to it.) In hobby terms this means I prefer to paint things like vehicles etc on turntables because it would not be the 100th time I've had something like an infantry model on a cork in my left hand which has then spasmed for no discernible reason & launched some poor unassuming miniature across the room.
Mr Paul Arnold, my Science teacher from the ages of 7 to 13. A truly inspirational man & a mighty fine scrum-half to boot. Looking back he was obviously well steeped in Fantasy & Sci fi before he joined the school in 1986, he had his copies of Rogue Trader, Realm of Chaos, Warhammer Fantasy role-play & the like on the Science lab shelves mingled in with the Attenboroughs and the Carl Sagans. But before I’d really paid much attention to this, I saw him painting a Marine, an original RTB01 Rogue trader plastic Mk6 Beakie. And he was painting it in the original Fire Hawk livery of Yellow with red flames….. It was a literal mind blowing moment….
I’d already been building airfix kits (badly) for a couple of years but the concept of a model of something that wasn’t historical… it had never occurred to me. I can’t remember why I was hanging around the lab that evening, everyone else had gone home, I think My folks must’ve been working late or something
& Mr Arnold was ‘on duty’ that night so he was there till 21:30 anyway.
I remember he immediately saw that my tiny brain had just expanded that little increment necessary to comprehend this new revelation & he casually reached over & threw me a copy of White Dwarf…
Well if my mind had blown before this atomised what little remained in the nuclear fire of John Blanche & Ian Miller Artwork, Early Dave Gallagher & Jes Goodwin too… and I read a conjunction of words (or Portmanteau if you’re a grammar boffin) that have stuck with me ever since…
WARHAMMER
Years later when I was working for GW he used to come into the store I “worked” in and I’d never let him pay full price, always gave him discount, even in front of senior management. He had a formative effect on me as a teacher. Great man.
I'm old, I don't want constant algorithmic interference. I want a space to post my hobby, not to be bombarded with adverts for crap I'll never need or to have to deal with the everyday populist politics of modern life. I'm anti racist, anti-fascist, anti-war, pro choice, pro-reparations, pro climate & a staunch socialist. If that doesn't sound like your preferred hot beverage, then feel free to mosey on past.
Copyright © 2024 Elplebian’s Aett - All Rights Reserved.
Powered by GoDaddy