I’ve been tinkering with miniatures for half my lifetime… I just love the miniatures.

I’m pretty bad on buying minis just because… I want excuses usually known as ‘games’, so when I find a nice mini I start building lists around it, trying new games and so on. Sometimes I use the new models as count-as in some other game, but usually if it’s part of another game I just collect an army around that model, as almost no one is a deranged fanat… er… dedicated hobbyist like me I will probably get a second army to use as antagonist for my primary army.

You see the problem? If I see a single miniature I really like I end up with two armies, warbands or whatever they call it.

Then I realize I can’t build an effective force of that random game only with the minis I like, there is always something I don’t like that performs superb in the game or is coherent with the fluff of the army. Yes I’m one of those… I prefer cool looking armies that have a possible story (at least in my head) other than random jigsaw pieces that do not fit but provide advantages in game. In fact I really like obstacles to overcome and probably will put some more with some fluff justification when the true reason is that I don’t like the model. My Space Marines do not use tanks or vehicles of any kind, ’cause their original chapter planet had this corrosive dust that ruined all big engines, so eventually they all broke… the truth is that I don’t like Rhinos even if in WH40K 5th edition they perform admirably and their current incarnation is much better than the one available when I started collecting Space Marines.

When I really feel the need to field something I don’t like the model of, I try to convert my own… eventually conversions were not enough and I started sculpting the whole thing and then I wanted a whole army sculpted by me.

Clearly it’s easier to go and buy the models for that army… now I have the opportunity to have the models I truly want, the way I want them and the possibility of sharing them with the world. All similarities with real and painted persons and events is purely coincidental.

Andres Villaseca.