Last weekend I had a lot of fun being on the Imperial Rebel Ork podcast. It was a lot of fun, and I really appreciated the opportunity. Though the Imperial Rebel Ork himself (aka IRO) apologized for the audio quality – I thought it was fine. Hell, we had to have our chat over quite a few miles:
All 10,463 of them.
The podcast is fun (and NOT just because I was lucky enough to be on it). Here is the link where you can access the podcast on Apple – though it’s on other platforms as well:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/imperial-rebel-ork/id1508066553
And of course IRO has an excellent blog that is well-worth following – he’s amazingly creative.
If you listen to the podcast (and YOU SHOULD 😁), it’s clear that there are some background details of our discussion that might be of some interest to you. Basically, it’s about how I got into the hobby back in 1982 or 1983, and how I got back into it in 2015, plus where I’m at now. So, I will share some anecdotes, pics, and links that many of you may not have seen before.
I described how I was a traditional board game wargamer – I really got my first wargame – Avalon Hill’s Afrika Korps – probably when I was 10 or 11. Others followed, like Waterloo, and War at Sea. Finding opponents was not easy – most of my friends and family thought these games to be uninteresting at best. Later, at West Point, fate got me as a roommate the irrepressible Dave Wood – who was a wargamer as well! We spent hundreds of hours playing the aforementioned games, but also especially Victory in the Pacific and Panzer Leader.
A major influence on my hobby was to come through Dave – and that was an introduction to Buck Surdu, who was at West Point in the class behind me and Dave. Buck had already written and had published his own sets (sets – not a set) of rules for different wargames. My first meeting with Buck was when Dave brought me up to a session that Buck had set up in the Department of Foreign Languages classroom – it was a giant fantasy miniature battlefield covered with old 25mm Ral Partha, Grenadier, Minifig, and other miniatures. This was set up on desks put together and covered with old US Army OD blankets as mats. I had never seen anything like this before – and I was stunned – and hooked. Buck had written the rules for the game as well. Before long, both Dave and Buck were lending me figures to paint for them as I wanted to try that too.
The first units I painted for them still exist! One was a group of Minifig halflings that Dave had that he let me paint for him. I did not really know anything about painting with highlights, washes, or dry brushing back then. Kindly, Dave gave them to me a few of years ago that I described here. I flocked their bases and varnished them, but left them unchanged otherwise.
A second unit was one I painted for Buck – a group of pig-faced Orcs that I think were from Minifig. I decided to give them a pretty gaudy paint job – with a Captain America theme. They were the “All-American Orcs”. Buck still has them and took a couple shots to show them to you in all their ancient “glory”:
Mind you, these were painted before my class graduation in May 1984, but I used no varnish back then so there are chips, and no flocking (washers were enough for me then) – but I’m happy to see them again, and humbled that Buck has kept them around.
Another unit (that I don’t have pictures of but Dave has somewhere) was a punk/new wave blue, red, and green mohawk-wearing group that I called “Paddy’s New Wave Bar and Grill Conscript Militia”. Yup, that was a thing back then.
Also, I, Buck, Dave, Doug Morris (’85), and another ’84 classmate Ken Thrasher also had Sunday night campaigns of Tunnels and Trolls (a role-playing game that competed with Dungeons & Dragons back in the day). The campaign I ran focused on a Balrog wizard who had dimensionally transported himself to the US in the 1960’s – and used LSD and other drugs – and then returned to rule a mountain lair replete with monsters, traps and puzzles with a 1960’s theme. The Balrog’s name? Why Purple Haze of course…
After graduation, I still puttered around with painting my own figures, as well as casting some in Prince August molds using – of all things – fishing lead weights. I was deployed to Germany, and got to host Buck and a friend of his in 1987 for a couple of gaming weekends and a side trips to Paris via Verdun. They were stationed in Italy. Buck recently shared this blast from the past with me – a big game using Buck’s Fantasy Miniature rules with some edits that I made. You cannot see a lot, but I made the game analogous to a Bastogne 1944 scenario – with sprites, dwarves, halflings, orcs and more. We used stuff like lichen and Styrofoam as terrain.
Then my hobby activities slowed to a crawl. I was a divorced single parent, then remarried, then divorced, then remarried…in the Army, then out…in many parts of the US, then more this and that…fast forward to 2015…
I had always saved all my miniatures and paints. I knew I would eventually get back to the hobby, but when? Well, a chimney fire required us to move a lot in the cellar during a rebuild, and my wife was moving my minis – and I said, “I’ll take care of them”. Next thing I know I’m painting again, gaming again, and blogging about it starting back in 2015. My first project was “The Nightmare Legion”, which only took more than three decades to complete – and was the subject of my first blog post in March of 2015,
On the podcast, IRO discussed a few aspects of my hobbying that you may not have seen before if you are a relative newcomer to the blog. So, here are a few links if you want to take a gander if you’d like some context:
Duck Wader and the Star Duck Platoon
I hope you enjoyed this romp down memory lane in conjunction with the podcast – if you have similar memories, or completely different ones – feel free to comment.
Oh yeah, if I follow or comment on your blogs, or you on mine, you all inspire me.
Thank you!
Mark A. Morin 
It is great getting to know fellow bloggers beyond their posts and it always intreagues me to learn about life journeys. Aiming to listen to the podcast later today. 🤗
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Thanks Dave, love to know your thoughts on it.
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Listened to it this afternoon Mark. Most enjoyable. Both you and IRO have a relaxed style which is easy on the ear. Will look forward to your next one as and when.
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Thanks and IRO was great, the biggest challenge was the delay you experienced between each of us speaking, but I think we did ok. Certainly a mix of accents for a Brit to hear, no?
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A great post, funnily enough I had all of those board games too. I just re bought Panzer Leader last year. As Dave said, it is interesting finding out about people’s back story to the hobby.
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Glad you liked it and hope you try the podcast
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I am trying to get caught up.
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Going straight to the podcast- I can pretend to be working if I use headphones!
Your blog has become a must read in the darkest depths of Wales!
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Well! So kind of you to say sir! Before my journey on earth is done, I must see Wales!
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Land of castles, curry and choirs! Think of it like Disneyland without the sun! You’d be more than welcome to drop in!
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Fun trip down memory lane. Thanks for sharing.
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Thanks for being a great friend and such an important part of my life Buck!
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A great read Mark, and thanks for sharing your evolution through wargaming
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Cheers Dave!
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Great post, Mark, really enjoyed reading it! 🙂 The biggest surprise for me was that there is a Wombat State Forest in Australia (shown on the map)!
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Thanks John, I definitely want to see Australia some day.
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Haha we also have a Koala State forest and a tabletop Wargamer state forest 😉
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Though i knew a little of your story, it’s great to fill in the gaps, I’ll be listening to the pod cast a bit later on, (while I’m painting!). Nice to see you dragging up the standard of broadcasting from Australia! 😉
Cheers Roger.
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Love to read your thoughts on the interview Roger. I could never drag IRO down, he’s soaring!
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Loved it Mark, have left a longer comment (not much longer), on IRO’s blog.
Cheers Roger.
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Cheers Roger!
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Awesome – I’ll have a listen next time I get the paints out!
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Cheers Alex!
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Great post mate big thumbs up to you and IRO. I love how enthusiatic the hobby cominity is with every one. I also love how they kept Afrika the way it is written in Afrikaans an not in English with a C…
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Thanks much, chatting with IRO was a great honor. I’m afraid the Afrika was German, and the South Africans of course were in the 8th Army! Glad you enjoyed the post and good to hear from ya!
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Great post. Will be sure to listen to the podcast when I am back from my travels. Always fascinated to hear how others got into the hobby.
Cheers,
Pete.
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Nice one Marky Mark. Good to see all the bits and bobs we discussed up in a blog post.
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Cheers and I raise a beer to ya
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Great post Mark ,always interesting to hear a bit about others travels through life. One thing though mate ,when I saw that photo of the Afrika corps and Waterloo it took me back to the late Seventies and had visited a mates place and played one of his dads games, that was Waterloo, I was The British and I won much to everyone amazement! I was that excited I set out to buy another as I was pretty chuffed ,unfortunately the only one available was Anzio !!! well I think you know whets coming, yep when I was next at my mates place I couldn’t wait to tell his dad what I had done, he happened to be on the phone to his mate (they played over the phone back then, Each having the game set up in their own homes ) My mate said ” sorry to interrupt but Pat has just bought Anzio, isn’t that great! I’ll never forget what happened ,Mr K…….. looked up at me , a smile crept across his face, then he said ,HEh Roy there is a Kid here who has just bought himself Anzio! then he just cracked up laughing ,I could still hear him as me and my mate drove of to the disco!
Well as you can imagine the game was never played as like Mr K…… said F…. when he had gained control of his laughter, that Bloody completion stuff you have there little man!!
Now I just stick to Risk!!
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That’s a great story Pat! I also have a few of the old games that never got played. So many games, so many hobby tasks, so little time!
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So true mate !
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I always enjoy these kinds of posts that give us insight to our fellow hobbyists past, present, and perhaps future!
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Glad you enjoyed it Peter!
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Great post and “origin story” here Mark! I remember T&T, and even have a whole lot of the books here somewhere – it was my introduction to fantasy and gaming when one of my older brothers started me off on a simplified version as a little kid. He’d transitioned from D&D to T&T because it had the solo adventures, as my other brother wasn’t really interested in the RPG thing.
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Thanks Az! Oh the solo books were cool. T&T was a lot of fun.
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