Project XX

According to my calendar, today is the first day of autumn. The season of death and decay, when colour and vibrance seeps away all around us, first in golden and red hues, then pale and sickly yellows, finally leaving bare skeletons where once there was life.

For me, autumn is not the end of something, not the transition from summer warmth to winter cold. It's the start of a new year. The days get shorter and there's less incentive to be outside. It's an ideal time to start something new in the hobby, start a big project to tide you over the long, cold winter months.

This year (or rather next year)  is extra special for me. In autumn 2012 I will have been playing Warhammer Fantasy Battle for 20 years. I'm not sure of the exact date, but it was in September or October 1992 that I bought the fourth edition box set. To celebrate I intend to recreate my first fully painted army. Welcome to Project XX.

A lot has changed in the game over twenty years. Back then it was the introduction of the fourth edition that got me started. Single pose plastics (elves and goblins) and cardboard cutout characters, which we battled with over a bare dining table. Fast forward to eighth edition, the elves are back, but in some of the best plastics I have seen. Even the characters are present, for me the high elf lord on griffon is the best introductory (snap-together) model ever produced. High elves were probably my first army, if you count number of models as being the primary consideration in owning an army. But they were not my first painted army. They were far too difficult for a beginner to tackle, so I went for a much easier option. What could be easier than painting a skeleton in bleached bone, applying a chestnut wash and basing in green flock (the official 1992 recipe from White Dwarf)? That was my reasoning as I put together a 2000 point Undead army for a tournament back in the mid 1990's.

Today then, the first day of autumn, seems a fitting Day One. I have, of course, been cheating, in that I have been assembling plastics in spare moments over the summer. And I already have a few models from a previous project to get me started. But before I get to those, I will be taking a trip down memory lane.