Unveiling the Obelisk: A Journey into Blogging

Hobby Origin Story

TL;DR 12 year old finds hobby. Loves Orks. Grows Up. Hobby pause. ~12 years later hobby resumed. Mainstream Warhammer not fun. Discovers 28 community. Finds happy (grimdark) place.

Have you ever stumbled upon something that completely captivated you? For me, it was the hobby of miniature wargaming. My journey began at the age of 12 when a local game store called Scorpio Ink opened up in my suburb of New York City. Joe, the store's owner, was an Old Hammer veteran—a former punk rock musician who had toured around the UK in the 80s and 90s and amassed a sizable collection of Chaos Marines and Eldar. I remember riding my bike after school to the store on its opening day, seeing a board of GW ruins terrain in the front window. I thought, "Yeah, I'll never get into that. I'm good with MtG." A week later, my best friend and I were pooling our allowance money for the Battle for Macragge box set and picking out paint schemes. It wasn’t long before I left the Space Marines behind and bought into my "first love" army: Orks. Their brutality, bizarre weapons, randomness, and most of all, the kitbashing pulled me in. I was hooked.

I didn’t know the official rules that well. What I did learn was how Joe played. Games with multiple players, an arbitrator officiating a story, rolling dice to see if things succeeded or failed, random encounters and events that shifted the flow of gameplay—these might not have been "official," but they were a ton of fun and imprinted memories that I still cherish today.

Fast forward 12 years. High school, girls, parties, and then leaving for the military. All those years, my greenskins sat in a shoebox under my bed. Like many, it wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic that I pulled that shoebox out and began to paint miniatures again. Any friends that I had in the hobby had long since stopped playing. So there I was, seeking an escape from the monotony of being locked in an apartment, picking up a paintbrush, and applying two thin coats. It was cathartic, almost a form of meditation for me. Once restrictions were lifted, I began looking into playing with my newly painted army. The DC area has a lot of wargamers, many playing 40k and Sigmar. I started to attend meet-ups, tried to keep up with the new rules and the never-ending stream of FAQs. I built lists. I’d get tabled. Rinse and repeat. Truthfully, it sucked. I thought, "Well, this is Warhammer, I guess," and tried to convince myself that I needed more practice. But what I really longed for was the gaming experience I had as a kid.

In early 2022 I stumbled across 28 magazine. I was amazed by the narrative-centric articles, the emphasis on kitbashing and creativity, the grim and gritty aesthetic that was a callback to the art that captivated me when I entered the hobby in the early 2000s. Soon, I was watching videos on "dead games", listening to Dragged into Turbo Lasers, and my Instagram feed became a collection of posts affiliated with #GrimDark, and #Inquisimunda. Eventually I found my way into the In Rust We Trust discord server run by the Hive Scum crew. Finally, I found a community of like minded hobbyists and enthusiasts who were from around the globe. In a cliché way, I found my (hobby) home.

So, why this blog?

I have always enjoyed writing. Growing up, I read a lot of fantasy and science fiction, then attempted to craft my own stories with characters of my own imagination or those from the stories I read. The Hobbit, Inkheart, Harry Potter, Spiderwick, Warcraft novels, and Conan the Barbarian series are just a few that stick out. As I got older, I delved into the more "advanced" works of Tolkien (I really cut my teeth reading The Silmarillion), read my way through A Song of Ice and Fire, started exploring novels from GW's Black Library, started the Expanse series, and dabbled with nonfiction history and biographies to help fuel my imagination.

For better or for worse, I have used Instagram as a source of inspiration and motivation to paint and post my projects. Though Instagram is a great platform to showcase your projects, most things quickly get lost in the feed, never to be seen again. Double tap, scroll, double tap, scroll. Captions are kept brief and rarely read in full. Comment sections, in my opinion, are not a good place to hold discussions. Within the In Rust Discord, this topic has come up multiple times, and the idea of leveraging blogs once more has been raised as an alternative. The blogs of some of my hobby pals (Portcullis, Garderobe, Hobby Dungeon, Itswhatevan, Between the Bolter and Me, Under the Dice and The VVizard's Tower to name a few) have truly inspired me. Call me a bandwagoner, but I've decided to give blogging a shot as well. The chaotic flow of life has made it harder for me to make time to write (and read). I have told myself again and again that I want to write more, but never do. Well I am hoping to change that.

"In the Obelisk's Shadow" is where I yell  write into the void. I'll be providing updates on my projects (I have plenty), writing about events I attend, sharing my tabletop experiences, and more. 

If you made it this far in my diatribe, thank you! Hopefully it wasn't too painful. I look forward to updating you and reading any comments left behind.

Stay tuned for more!

What was your first experience with miniature wargaming or the hobby? How has your hobby journey evolved over the years?