To Build or Blog?

Hi, and welcome to what is to be my very first post...
I originally conceived of this blog as a means of documenting the beginning steps of my journey into wargaming, and I have failed horribly! Work, marriage and being a father take first priority, while my hobbies have always taken a backseat. I had to make a decision to use what little free time I had, in actually putting myself closer to making this hobby a reality (i.e. building and painting).  On the bright-side, I now have months of time put into the project and and an endless stream of things to write about. With that little disclaimer aside, time to forge ahead and actually see this come to fruition!

To start from the beginning (Spring 2016): While waiting for my shift to begin, I restarted an audiobook that I've had on my iPod since 2006 (yes, I still have and use an iPod). Caesars Legion by Stephen Dando-Collins is something that I've listened to over and over again throughout the years, and to my American ears, its got a proper Hollywood Roman narrator (i.e. British).  It's been with me through deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, but listening to it this time was different. Something connected to a childhood dream of mine: building a model Roman Army.

Maybe it's because I was open to trying Warhammer Age of Sigmar that past Winter, but wargaming miniatures were definitely on my mind. I remembered seeing what would have been 1/72 scale Romans at my local hobby shop as a kid, and always wanted to put together a box of them; never knowing that wargaming was a thing; I figured that they were just used for school dioramas. I wasn't even opposed to creating such a scene now as an adult in putting together an entire (albeit scaled-back) legion. As an adult, I now had the money and didnt have to worry about being seen as a nerd, so I figured why not? The only problem was, that I had no direction in which to point my efforts! Throughout my research on different product lines, I kept seeing Hail Caesar pop up. I had no idea that I could also play with my little armies.  Goodbye Warhammer, Hello Historicals!

I had remembered seeing Hail Caesar miniatures a few years back when I was looking for a druid miniature for my Pathfinder campaign.  Knowing how much trouble I had in painting my one Warhammer figure

My first attempt at a Black Knight

I began to rethink size. 1/72 or smaller wasnt going to cut it due to shaky hands, it would have to be 28mm from here on out.

To be continued in Part II...