Welcome to this community spotlight section once again, this month I have had the privilege to interview Alex Gray, who is the newest member of Wooden Spoon Wargaming
This is someone I have found through the wonders of social media on Instagram and here is a link @paintingwithwolves
I have asked them to be interviewed to find out their hobby styles and life, and see if others can gain from their experiences.
First off thank you Alex
Lets begin with some basic questions so people can get to know you,
Can you tell the folks a little about yourself?
How did you get into the hobby of tabletop wargaming?
I got into the Hobby when I was about 10 or 11, I walked into my local Warhammer shop in Doncaster and had a wonderful game with the Tristan who is one of the managers in Sheffield and his gratuitous descriptions of a bolt pistol exploding chaos marine brains just let my imagination start, I started collecting from there and its been great
What type of hobbyist are you? A painter/collector/gamer or a mix?
I collect, I paint, I play, my favourite thing about the Hobby is the narrative I absolutely love making a story and that’s where I get the most enjoyment from, so it’s me the best part of the Hobby is playing a narrative game with painted miniatures
What game systems do you play? Are you simply a one game person or do you play many different games?
My main game is Warhammer 40000 but I also have a small blades of khorne force for age of sigmar which I really want to expand on and I’ve recently picked up aeronautica imperialis which I’ve been playing a lot with Dave from Wooden Spoon Wargaming and it’s fantastic it’s quickly becoming my favourite game and it’s tiny planes mean what’s not to like
What was the thing that caught your eye the most them you were first starting out?
The thing that I loved about the game in the narrative, that these little plastic Miniatures are telling a story and you could see it, you not only can write your own story but you could see it you could roll dice to determine what happened when that space marine is genetic superhuman warrior of the emperor fired at the tyranid warrior before him when I picked up the battle for macragge so to start with and it just you able to weave such a great story and I just fell in love with the fact that you could try that out on a tabletop with dice
What advice would you give someone just getting into the hobby/or your younger self, now you have been involved in this for a while?
So I’ve had this question quite a lot I’m really really happy to support new players it’s one of the favorite my favorite parts of the hobby I love explaining Warhammer to someone and then taking them into the store I’m just saying like OK what do you like the look of what do you think looks awesome and you’re right whatever you pick and I will tell you why! You know like are space marines fantastic because of this and took some really cool because of this unlike these guys had like a awesome you know you can do whatever you like with any of it and I just love seeing what people do with that I had the pleasure that recently of helping a younger remember to paint and just something as simple as tell him to finish paints really really helps me and help him and talking about painting that’s the thing I think I would really Focus the advice on don’t look at the box are you know those people been painting professionally for years and it’s not realistic to expect yourself to be able to achieve that just compare yourself to your own models as long as you’re improving and more to the point you’re happy with what you’re doing what you look at your models and you think yeah that looks cool that’s wonderful and I’m really happy with the Battle Ready post that they’ve been doing because it’s really great to see a nice standard that’s been set by the community and especially by the Warhammer team themselves accessible for people of any skill level and it really helps I think get more painted on Amazon the table which is what we all want to see
Have you ever had an extended period out of the hobby?
I have had some time out of The Hobbit yes I was quite badly bullied for it in school and I had some other things going on and then I left it for about 6 years between the ages of 17 to about 23 I didn’t really get back into it and university but when I move to Huddersfield to to do my nursing training I had the pleasure of walking into the Huddersfield local store and I have met some of my best friends in the last few years in there and truly wonderful people Dave James the store manager Jim is fantastic and it just rekindle the love in me and thankfully I haven’t sold my model so I was able to pick them up again and start a pick up pick up where we left off
What’s the best part of the hobby for you?
My favourite part of the Hobby is playing a narrative game where you construct a story around the why you playing the game replaying the characters that Rise you know maybe out some special rules replay the fantastic three-way game at Warhammer World a few months ago with David and James which was an altercation between two arrival chapters my Genesis wolves and Dave’s avenging sons and James was literally chaos in the mix you see you he was bloodletters and skarbrand who materialised randomly around the battle as a force and roll dice to see where he would deploy and also he would attack and that was a fantastic going we’re playing cities of death we were playing conflagration so this city was on fire while we were fighting over it and there was a fantastic moment where my captain was fighting Herald of corn on top of this objective building that Mike balls were defending and the city was on fire and he smashed it with his chain first and then you was all the chapter to fight again and it was just fantastic
What is the worst part of the hobby for you?
I would say the worst part of the hobby for me is building I can enjoy it sometimes but out of it all that’s the one I enjoy least I often conduct clipping bits off on not supposed to or being overzealous with the mould line remover and taking way too much plastic off and some of the new kits I mean I’m working my way through the plastic it now and it’s a bit of a pain to put together also a stick in my fingers together quite a lot
What keeps you in the hobby?
I absolutely love this hobby I love how rich the law is I love this so much to explore but really what keeps me and is the fantastic people it really is the community is just so wonderful the Warhammer community as well
How do you deal with burn out/lack of hobby mojo?
First of all I would say that you don’t beat yourself up if this is the case you know I use hobby in a way of managing my own mental health which I’m very open about I struggle they opened with depression and sometimes it happens you know if you can paint everyday you know a little bit that’s fantastic really great book that helps me get into a hobby Rhythm Is armies and legions and hordes I can’t remember who it’s by but it’s by commission painting and it’s full of wonderful tips and his type of just painting half an hour a day even if it is just all the boots on the Regiment of God you know it’s it’s just something it’s still progress but also to give yourself a break if you don’t meet that if you don’t meet that goal that’s ok
Has anyone inspired your hobby style/life?
I really want to thank Tristan the Sheffield manager and all the stuff in the Doncaster shop from around that time because they really got me into it and there’s just as wonderful people gym Huddersfield store is an absolute inspiration he is just so full of hobby knowledge but so ready to help and share it and it’s just a pleasure to be around
What projects are you working on at the moment?
I am currently working on the ork forces from aeronautica imperialis which I’m loving I never played all before but I am loving this I am and also painting up my space marines I’m currently working on my first reporter which is nearly painted and has not been assembled very long given that I’ve had it for about 2 years so I’ve got that Goin On
Do you plan out projects/armies or just get sucked into the trap of collecting everything?
I know one thing I am very proud of his I am very disciplined with not just buying everything that comes out a plan I reward myself for completing like task so like an assignment at university I won’t buy things if I have not finished what I’ve got which has really helped me to keep on top of my pile shown it’s so it’s really not a pile of shame it’s more just a small Mound
If your budget was unlimited but you could only buy one army what would it be?
I don’t honestly know I don’t really want a huge amount of models because I find it very overfacing but used to be I’d like to collect my entire space marine chapter but collecting one company is proved to be enough I think I’m like a large old army which cause I have an old are false as well when I really like to revisit that because it was one of the first ones I did and I would love to explore all the aspects of the Warrior is everything in the characters and book out a bit more
What do you hope to improve with regard to your hobbying in the future?
So I have given myself the task of painting to Battle Road standard because I am more bothered about playing with fully painted models painted to a standard I’m happy with than worrying about Edge highlighting everything but if I was to push my painting I would like to drive brushless and start doing Edge highlighting more I am currently trying to do that on my repulsive because it’s black so I’m going to try and do an edge highlight on all the edges with dark reaper and I haven’t started yet because I’m a little bit intimidated
None standard questions
Thanks for taking part in the #freshforcechallenge, now its coming to a close, how do you think its affected your hobby?
Thank you for doing it I’ve absolutely love the fresh for challenge and now it’s really helped me to paint a lot because it’s going to be a goal it’s giving me motivation I’ve painted a lot of stuff I’ve painted all of dark imperium are painted characters I’m doing Nautica now also it’s just been great
Your Genesis wolves have a great colour scheme, was this one of many you had planned out and went with your favourite or just had one?
Thank you very much I’m really really proud of my Genesis wolves no I didn’t plan it at all actually what happened was when I was 14 and I got the bottle for black Groupset I thought well how can I make these more mine and what I come up with was I thought I’d just grab some pants and I really like the use of lower leg transition colour in the style of space marine chapters what would work with this and I really I put that together and I really liked it and in retrospect I’ll hear kind of wish I could pick some a bit different because it’s quite a tricky one to pay in the sense that there’s no real solid blocks of colour on the model the arm is not one colour and you have to kind of go do you go black with gold or do you go back but I love them
Are you planning on growing your marine chapter collecting the new range or do you have a points goal?
Am I am nearly finished with my marine chapter yes I have I’m collecting the entire third company but I have planned out the entire chapter I’m not adding anything else to them though because quite frankly I’m I’ve just had enough of them I love them but I really want to do something else with my hobby
How have you found using the contrast set of paints?
I really like them from what I’ve used of them I haven’t bought any yet because I’ve been on a limited budget but I really do like them think they’re good