Chaos Space Marine – “Hey Genestealer, pass me me the Dorito’s while we just chill on this space hulk together will you?”
Never happen.

You’re 11 years old, you’ve got just Space Crusade for Christmas, there’s templates, dice and cool as shit miniatures all over the place, and you have no fucking clue what to do with any of it. This should have been a life lesson for the entirety of Games Workshops products for me, I STILL don’t know how to properly play Space Crusade, 40k, Necromunda or any bastard game you care to mention. I did complete Space Marine on the PS3 though.

But rules aside, what really fired my imagination was the painted models on the side of the box .My tiny mind was blown from that point on. I never did actually play Space crusade properly, but that aspect of the hobby took a side line to painting, and fuck did I immerse myself in it.

Check out Golden Demon there, you don’t see his little face anymore do you eh?

The document that opened the doors shown to me on the side of the Crusades box was the Games Workshop How to Paint Citadel Miniatures manual. This was back in 1991 or so, and I totally flipped my lid over this short manuscript when my dad brought me a copy home one afternoon. Some of the models in there I’d never seen the like of before and I’d pore over John Blanche’s bridge diorama for hours on end (Something I finally saw in real life on a recent trip to Warhammer World), and with its introduction by the great man himself, it was more than likely the spring board into this shit for a generation of socially inept kids with too much imagination and no creative outlet, much like myself.

The detail in this is mind blowing, and he did it in about ’82!

The really stripped down step by step guides within the pages, covering shading, highlighting and base coats for a multitude of textures, really hit the mark. They’ve not done anything that good since then bar the Eavy Metal Masterclass book. Everything you need to start painting is contained within those hallowed pages, and apart from a few paint names, it still stands the test of time today. Ok there’s no weathering and the bases are goblin green but the guide is such a solid document that someone new to the scene could print that out at work, follow the steps properly and come out with some nicely painted models at the end. There’s that really awesome colour guide too, something they’ve actually kept with to the present day, there’s a similar colour chart in the How to Paint Tanks guide. I find charts like this hugely useful, detailing the base colour, a good shade to use and then a good highlight. Whether you’ve been painting a day or a decade, grass roots tools like that are always useful.

Some of the models in the guide are etched in to my mind too, that Terminator captain Mike McVey does as a Blood Angel, one of my all time favorite models to this day, and thanks to a good friend, I recently obtained one for my Emperors Children.

Such grass roots simple techniques can look absolutely amazing as this demonstrates.

The dwarf on ski’s, fuck knows when you’re gonna use a model like that but its so full of character, it really sticks with you. Why does he need ski’s? Where’s he going? Where’s he been? Whats he looking at there? GW don’t do models like that so much any more if at all, and that’s a shame.

There’s also the old style beetleback Warlord Class Titan and the Reaver on the front. The banners on chains attached to the weapons, the glorious colourful legion heraldry on the banners themselves, the emerald green view windows for eyes, the fact that it actually did look a hundred feet tall, and THAT paint job. To this day I still don’t know how they did it, that mottled faded effect in greys, try as I might, I still cant replicate it, if anyone knows how, please, let me know. Such awe inspiring models, with a paint job to match, although I’ll be honest, I do remember being a tiny bit gutted when I got hold of one and realised Epic Titans weren’t as big as I thought they should be. (Something Forgeworld have rectified)

Giant robots, whats not to like here?

And who can forget the Rogue Trader genestealer patriarch, on his throne with his 4^th/5^th generation advisor. I’m still floored to this day by that model, and that paint job. I don’t know how its done but looking at it with older eyes, its likely accomplished with glazes over a white drybrush over a black base, perhaps. Either way, its amazing, it was amazing back in 1988, its still amazing in 2013, and will continue to be so.

‘Ere boss, I’ve got some Jaffa Cakes in my pocket, you want one?

This booklet is so solid, it has something for everyone in there, whether it’s tips, tricks, guides or just plain old slice of nostalgia. As a new painter its got all you need in there, as a veteran there are stil paint jobs to blow your mind and inspire your own work, and all this from a document that was given away for FREE.

It’s not hard to locate online, and as a gamer or as a painter, you owe it to yourself to at least give this a flick over. I guarantee you’ll find something in there for you.