Long post, but brevity isn't one of my strengths.

I always wanted to play 40k, as I spent most of my life with rpgs or tabletop gaming. Painting models was the barrier. Shortly before 8th edition, I decided a few of my tabletop games needed color on their gray minis. So I slapped some cheap acrylic paints on them, and quickly got addicted. When I ran out, I decided to take the 40k plunge.

I painted a lot for probably 2 years. My first army (which is among the easier to paint) were Space Wolves. I painted a bit of other factions, but my adhd kept me jumping around. I painted a bunch of AOS too. I really enjoyed feeling I could just get goofy with colors and have fun. I ended up most enjoying playing Stormcast, which was not what I expected. My days of playing undead in Mordheim in college, and general love for creepy, stromcast were the last I expected to like.

However, when Covid hit, I quit warhammer entirely. I needed a break and refresh anyway.

My therapist recently encouraged me to get back to painting. It's good for my anxiety. So, I did.

I always loved the look of thousand sons, and always wanted to paint them, but assumed they'd be so annoying to paint. After my enjoyment of Stormcast, I wanted to play some psyker heavy, more elite army, with cool colors. I wasn't doing custodes, since it's just painting more stormcast.

So, I decided it was time to finally play the faction I've had in mind since day 1. I think all of my previous game time has prepped me for it, and it's time I went with what I know is where I belong. I mean, I have a wizard and a d20 tattoed on my arms, clearly I like spellcasting, or in this case, the psyker phase.

I spent a long time on this first squad. Not in the actual painting, but in constant changes and experimenting with what I wanted to do. One of the models here I must have 50 layers of different color schemes on it. It also took some time to remember how to paint. I did these with a brush, minus airbrush priming. Now that I'm warmed up, I can't wait to paint Magnus and a thousand sons version of the new daemon prince model.

So, the next squad of 10 will look a lot better, but here's my return to 40k, finally with the right faction. I was too impatient to get better lighting, so on my dining room table with my flash on will have to work.

Oh, and it's nice having a bunch of space wolves bits laying around to add some fun to the army.