Sometimes, it is a sobering thought to imagine how I might have turned out if I had access to the sum total of human knowledge - and garbage - in a device that fit in my pocket when I was a kid. The internet was a burgeoning promise of something positive rather than a juggernaut rampaging through our daily lives. But, in a way, I find that some of that promise has been fulfilled.
Most of my favourite stories begin with the phrase, “When I were a lad,” so… when I were a lad, growing up in New Zealand meant you were ordinarily a little strapped for choice when it came to wargaming outlets, clubs, or sources of information. Some boxes of miniatures would come with suggestions for which paints to use - Humbrol enamels, in my early experience - and a few books and magazines would include a picture or two to follow along for which colours belonged on which part of a miniature. For the most part, if you were not fortunate enough to have a local… and I know more than a handful of eager young hobbyists whose interest waned because they could not 'get it right.'
