Good shout @MichaelX - thanks. I’ve got a fifteen minute break at work. I’ll jump in too haha.
I’m Oxy, real name Jac, and I’m from 1990 I guess. (Birth year, no time travelling involved).
I’m a teacher with over ten years classroom experience, a husband to a patient wife and a father to an impatient daughter.
My background in miniatures started in 99 when, as a 9 year old, a kid brought some plastic lizardmen Saurus and skinks into school by smuggling them in his lunchbox. I was enamoured. Always loved dinosaurs and monsters and was hooked. The kids all started talking about getting into warhammer but 40k was proving more popular so, on my tenth birthday, I got a tyranid army for my birthday. Termies, hormagaunts, three warriors, genestealers, rippers and a biovore. Looking back I had no idea how generous this present from my mum and dad truly was. Legends.
And that was me hooked. By year 2000 I was 10 going on 11 and had a space ork army too. I never really stopped. Lots of people talk about the big break they had between 16 and 26 or whatever but that didn’t really happen to me. I had a short Hobby break from maybe 15-18 but that was it. I’ve been collecting, painting and gaming for about 20 years now.
Chaos dwarfs were a faction that were already gone when I was starting the hobby. I became aware of them over the years through old magazines and books I picked up at boot sales and Christmas bazaars.
I was struck originally by the big hat range and when AoS came out I wanted to make an army of them. Prohibitive prices stopped this initially. I made warriors of chaos and lizardmen instead.
However, I managed to win a few plastics on eBay and then the collection began to slowly and inexorably grow. I was lurking pretty hard on the old forum, stealing as many ideas as I could. I was well aware of @tjub ‘s work and had read much of @Xander ’s early tutorials and stuff too. Never had the courage to sign up though.
That all stopped when I bought some alternative hats for my plastic dwarfs from @Admiral ’s shop and he sent me a message telling me to get involved here. And the rest is history!
Flash forward a couple of years and I’ve joined the staff here and helped organise the zine and podcasts that we’ve now relaunched.
Massive love for this community and everything we do. Thank you then, and now, for always making me feel so welcome!