Comrade's Wargames

Pull up a chair, dear reader, for a personal story from our local game group.

You may have read about our friend Paul, one of the founding members of our local game club (The Majestic Gamers). I met Paul shortly after moving to town about 7 years ago.

At that time, he was just starting out in 40k, and we got together for some games. Paul shared that he experienced periodic tremors in his hands, ranging from barely noticeable to more debilitating. In spite of this, he persevered with his newfound hobby and painted up three gorgeous 40k armies that have made regular appearances on Comrade’s Wargames over the years, as well as countless skirmish warbands for Warcry, Shadespire, and other games. Truly, it was an inspiring example of someone overcoming a physical impairment to achieve spectacular skill in a creative hobby.

Paul’s magnum opus is probably his Tyranids army, which featured heavily into our 40k narrative campaigns. Here’s a couple photos from our gigantic Apocalypse game back in 2018.

Last year, Paul let us know that his tremors had become more pronounced, and the doctors had diagnosed a more advanced condition. He begrudgingly acknowledged that his painting days were likely over.

Around this time, the new Leviathan boxed set came out, and the rest of us in the Majestic Gamers had a brilliant idea – we would acquire the box set, divvy up the Tyranid models, and paint them up to fit in with Paul’s existing Tyranid army! His army would get a huge boost and we’d all get a chance to splash some paint on those cool new bugs. Daniel handled the purchase and distribution of the Leviathan box – thank you, Daniel!! Splitting up the painting amongst 5 people meant we all got a manageable numbers of models to paint up.

Here, then, are the fruits of our labors, which were delivered to Paul earlier this month. HUGE thanks to Rian, John, Parker, and Lawrence for lending their artistic skill and expertise to this project, and to Daniel for purchasing the box and handling logistics.

(Tip: If you click on the first photo, you’ll launch a fullscreen gallery where you can flip through each photo in sequence.)

Keep in mind, that’s five different people offering their own personal interpretation of Paul’s paint scheme. I think we did pretty good, all things considered! Shout-out to John for printing up those crystal pieces that we all used on the bases – that really pulled everything together in a cohesive manner.

But Wait, There’s More!

The story doesn’t end here! When we presented Paul with his newly painted Tyranid reinforcements in August, he shared with us some wonderful and heartening news: he is planning to have a procedure done that will help control his symptoms and hopefully get back some quality of life.

Yes, we immediately cracked jokes about Paul becoming a literal cyborg. Ah, the miracles of modern medicine. The procedure is planned for next month (September). So don’t throw away those paintbrushes, Paul – this hobby isn’t done with you yet!