Then we opened the box

So we got the box home and it took about 5 seconds to get it open. Inside we saw two books, some green template looking things, a couple of red sticks, 7 dice and a whole bunch of plastic pieces on sprues.

Not from black reach, but an example of a sprue

So we pulled out the books and closed the rest up. I quickly read the quick start guide and realized I had bitten off a lot more work than I thought. While my son read the full rule book, I started to pull the pieces of their sprue and quickly realized that I needed my first piece of additional equipment-a good pair of plastic cutters. I looked through my woodshop and just couldn’t find anything that met the mark, so I stopped by the game store on my way out to eat that night with the family and picked up an overpriced pair and some superglue. At this point I realized that the financial investment was going to be well beyond the initial 79 dollars we spent. So my first piece of advice is that there if you get into this hobby, you need to consider it just that. A hobby. It is not a game like monopoly, but requires an investment of both time and money. This is not saying to stay away, but go in with your eyes open.

 Next, as my son continued to read the rules, I put together all the pieces of the two armies. On the Space Marine side: a captain, a dreadnaught, 10 tactical marines, and 5 terminators. On the Ork side: a warboss, 20 ork boyz, 5 ork nobz and 3 deffkoptas. Of course, I had no clue what any of these were, but I put them together and glued them to their bases.

The figures assembled and glued to the bases

Now, my son finished the rulebook and I got to reading. I also realized I needed to paint these figures and so I figured I would start priming them while I was reading the rule book. We agreed that we would play our first game the next weekend, which gave us a week to learn how to play while the pieces were being primed (and I had work and he school).

A pile of primed figures

To prime the figures, I took an old cardboard box and turned it on its side in the garage. I set the figures in the box and spray primed them black with the Army Painter black primer. It is more expensive, but for my first run I went with what the store owner recommended. I will try others in the future. I recommend highly against doing any spray painting in a closed garage, however at 30 below, I did not feel like opening the garage. Besides, I am not sure how the figures would react to the cold. I went in very short bursts, on side at a time, sitting the models on their bases, spraying one side and leaving them to dry and the room to air.

*Newbie mistake: When priming, make sure you look at the model from all directions. I found a lot of missed spots, particularly when looking up at the models from underneath.

*Newbie mistake #2: Really look at the model before assembly and priming and decide if an arm or weapon etc is going to get in the way of painting. If it is, consider painting them first and then putting it together.

Not the safest option, but fairly clean and I opened the garage to air it once done

The plan was to start the Christmas holidays with a bang-the orks vs. marines variety. My son picked the marines, leaving me the orks. I had a feeling that it wasn't going to be a merry ork Christmas.