Please allow me to introduce myself,

Wyrmypops

New member
I'm a man of no wealth and dubious taste, woo, woo. :musical-note:

Just felt inclined to say hello in anticipation of getting stuck in to CMON. Lurked a while, and seems a quality place. Nice mix of helpful and silly.:silly!:

So, hello. :waving:

I'm Jo'. Don't be mislead by the spelling, I'm a bloke. Just that what it's short for ain't Joseph so I can't slap an "E" in there. Hippy parents leads to dodgy names.

In my late 30's now. At 30 I took to calling the age 29b out of denial. Got up to 29e before the occasional grey hair intruded into the mane and broke that game. Remaining wrinkle-free keeps me looking deceptively young though, so that's a bonus. I put that down to an absence of sun, and using cold water to wash with. Not a contrived regime, am just nocturnal and can't be bothered waiting for hot water.

Started painting back in the 80's. Knocking up figures ostensibly for roleplaying with, but never cared for using mini's in RPG's (regard them as limiting the imagination), but carried on painting them for the sheer pleasure of doing so.

I was crap for so many years. Really, really crap. The kind of crap parents could point at as a cautionary tale to youngsters. "See, that's what happens if you mix acrylics and enamels, and don't thin your paints."
Thankfully a bout of long term unemployment gave me time to practice.

Got into GW figs and games due to their accessibility. Never really drawn to WFB and 40K (cept for the figs), preferred the small scale games and (in a bout of typical contraryness) Space Marine. While painting the epic scale buggers was as much fun as diorrheoa, the game was a gem and offered a proper army to use rather than D6 squads, tank/monster and hero that WFB/40K considered armies.

All that led to a job with GW. Went for a shop job in London. Got it, but had to wriggle a bit to stay there as the bloke that interviewed me tried to get me to move to up north for Eavy Metal. I was too nervy to up sticks like that. Instead I spent the next glorious 5 years ensconced in various London stores rarely moving from the painting table.
Great times. Working with the peachiest of peachy people, much japery and banter, lying about ones birthday to get the kids to buy you doughnuts, and some cracking nights out with the lads.

Any regulars of a GW London store in the early to mid 90's might have seen a goateed ponytail type with a brush in hand, and of those that did it might have been me or one of the others with the same looks that seemed as much a uniform as a red shirt.

Course, that meant I hardly ever painted anything at home. Although a friend is keen to remind of the Dragon I did, as it amuses him to do so. The girlfriend at the time came in decked out in lingerie, mouthing all the sexy lingo. I pretty much ignored her with "sorry love, I gotta paint this dragon". Can't imagine why that relationship didn't last. :doh!:

Never entered the Golden Demon in those years. Wasn't many categories a staffer could enter, and those they could were dominated by the studio types so need not bother.
Won a couple of competitions for our store though. Our "bugger the old range" diorama was a corker. With our resident scenery bloke working up a great background, our best conversion junkie creating the models, and me painting them up. The premise of that entry was named to appeal to the worship that the bigwigs appreciate in underlings, and used the crusty old mini's head office supplied. Loads of ancient figs we posed to be abused by the newer ones. Circumcisor Yarrick, and Marneus Calgar with his power fists off revealing he merely had oversize hands for a "fisting for fun" sub-titled room. Iffy, but funny.

Since then painting has been sporadic. That's down to having a disorganised mess of a place, and contracting an anxiety disorder that makes doing anything an unhill stuggle in motivation. Ain't oppresive or anything too gribbly, just makes things simple things tricky. :nailbiting!:

Just about finished reorganising the place and making portable work stations. So I can crack on with stuff as the whim takes me. Planning on painting a helluva lot more this year. There's always that ego boost upon finishing a lush mini, and reckon CMON could provide a few more ego boosts from comments.

Being the best amongst my peers (not a grand statement really), I've grown what could be regarded as arrogant in my painting. The attitude could more generously be considered as self-assured and I do so like to be generous, especially to myself.
Looking about CMON for a while, I'm liking what I see and am appreciating the humility being amongst such superior examples of painters would bring, and instill a new drive to break the plateau and get back to advancing in skill.

Yeah, I know, I ramble on a lot. Reckon it's part of the anxiety hooha, feeling the need to cover all bases exhaustively. But job done I can crack on with getting stuck in to existing threads without you's thinking "eh, who's this mook? Let's flick dirty tissues at him and leave his hand draped in a glass of cold water while he sleeps". Or something.
 

Chrome

New member
Wonderful introduction! Welcome aboard! Oh, and no need to worry about getting your hand draped in cold water, everyone gets that from time to time here. :D
 

Rugne

New member
Welcome aboard, good to see another Londoner, you ever spend any time at the Brent Cross store and do you remember Sonic?

Marc
 

BPI

New member
Welcome Wyrmypops, quality intro :good: I don't think there's any risk this one could be spam folks :D Lookin' forward to seeing your work, cheers, B.
 

Wyrmypops

New member
Cheers for the welcome all.

@Rugne - yeah, I remember Sonic to say hello to, from the monthly drinky get-togethers at the then Holyrood pub. Never made it to that particular store though. Croydon, Beckenham, Plaza, Hammersmith, Richmond, Staines, Kingston and Plaza again were my haunts.

I'll have to get busy with the camera. Once I've finished all the re-organising and tidying I gotta finish before I can kick the painting and snapping into top gear. I got more boxes of minis, scenery and tools than I could shake a stick at, if I was inclined to shake sticks at boxes which sounds even less fun than tidying up.
 

mickc22

Granddad!
welcome Jo, our paths may have crossed at some point, I was working in Thurrock, Maidstone, and Canturbury from '95 onwards


Mick
 

Wyrmypops

New member
welcome Jo, our paths may have crossed at some point, I was working in Thurrock, Maidstone, and Canturbury from '95 onwards


Mick

Ooh, I visited Canturbury just the once. Visiting a mate I worked with in Plaza and Kingston. Don't s'pose you recall Russell? He took to key-timing in the Canturbury store after he moved there with the missus. One of the finest of a scenery gurus I've ever met. Short, built, goateed, cropped receding hair, slightly lopsided mush, and lots of fun to go to a RAWR nightclub with.
 

mickc22

Granddad!
Ooh, I visited Canturbury just the once. Visiting a mate I worked with in Plaza and Kingston. Don't s'pose you recall Russell? He took to key-timing in the Canturbury store after he moved there with the missus. One of the finest of a scenery gurus I've ever met. Short, built, goateed, cropped receding hair, slightly lopsided mush, and lots of fun to go to a RAWR nightclub with.

when I was at Canterbury my Key-timer was Sanjay, he was the energiser bunny! I may have met Russell after I moved to Maidstone, the name sounds familiar, but you just described about 1/4 of GW retail staff :rotfl::rotfl:
 

Wyrmypops

New member
I remember a Sanjay. Bound to be the same one. Thought he was from another London store when I met him on the nights out. So bouncy, seemingly loving everything with such an infectiously big smile. :smile-big:

Cheers again for the welcome all. Reckon the community should feel proud of itself for creating such a pleasant atmosphere while remaining useful.

Far as pics, found the old photobucket account. Poopy photos, and not all the minis were finished either for that matter. Were just slapped up to show to help explaining something I was gabbing on about at the time. Can't say as I've moved on technically, still tend to blend in thin layers

Old figures or what though eh. Been finding more antiques recently too. Gawd knows if I'll ever do owt with 'em. Imminent projects are mostly scenery, at which I'm less than gifted at, least it's for Necromunda so any lack of skill can be excused as down to the unskilled gangs they're for. that's my caveat and I'm sticking to it. :p
 
Back To Top
Top