A Tiny Time Machine: Animating the First Warhammer Memories
What started as a joke turned into a genuinely brilliant idea
Every now and then, our hobby chat produces something so silly and so good at the same time that we immediately want to see more of it. This was one of those days.
Michał dropped a few animated images into the chat and the whole thing instantly went from “haha, what is this?” to “wait, this could actually be amazing”. There was some joking about “gpt cringe”, some disbelief that this was apparently a day of work, and then the idea landed properly: what if we told the story of getting into Warhammer from the very beginning?
And honestly? We’d read all of it too.
The fake diary entry that felt weirdly real
The highlight of the conversation was Michał’s mock throwback entry, dated 15.11.1998:
My first Warhammer miniatures – what even is this?
Today my friend brought me TWO warriors! He said it’s Warhammer and that you can use them to fight battles like in a real war, only on a table. They look awesome – one has a sword, the other is chunky and has a huge weapon. I’m a bit scared to paint them in case I ruin them, but my friend says it’s still better if they look like mine.
I don’t know all the rules yet, but apparently you can build huge armies and smash your opponent! I can already imagine a massive battlefield in my room. Mum says the carpet is not a battlefield… maybe not for her!
And that’s exactly why this idea works.
Because under the jokes, there’s something painfully familiar in it: the first contact with miniatures, the fear of painting them, the total lack of understanding of the rules, and the immediate certainty that this is going to become the coolest thing in the world.
That feeling is probably universal for a lot of Warhammer hobbyists, no matter whether they started in the 90s, ten years ago, or last month.
We would absolutely read this as a full series
At one point, End3r said he’d read everything from the very beginning, and honestly that sums it up perfectly.
There’s something very fun about the idea of a long-form, half-serious, half-comedic hobby memoir told through the eyes of a kid discovering Warhammer one tiny step at a time:
- first two miniatures,
- first terrible paintjob,
- first misunderstanding of the rules,
- first battle on inappropriate terrain,
- first obsession with collecting “just one more unit”.
And judging by the reactions in chat, we’re clearly not the only ones entertained by this direction. There was also immediate appreciation for Stasiek’s style, with high praise for his natural battle report narrator voice. Fair enough, because if this turns into a saga, it definitely needs proper storytelling energy.
The animation side of it
Another thing that grabbed attention was the animation itself. Wilini immediately asked what Michał was using to animate the miniatures, because, obviously, once you see hobby-adjacent nonsense come to life, you also want to try it yourself.
The answer was refreshingly simple: no secret premium wizardry, no mythical ultra subscription required. Michał said it can be done for free, with the catch that you may need to wait around two hours for one clip.
The tool mentioned in chat was:
So if you’ve been tempted to make your own tiny hobby fever dream, apparently that’s one place to start.
Why we liked this so much
We like plenty of polished hobby content, but there’s also something special about ideas that are a bit rough, a bit chaotic, and powered mostly by enthusiasm. This one has that energy.
It feels like the kind of project that starts as banter and then accidentally becomes a real thing. A fake childhood diary. Animated miniatures. Early hobby memories exaggerated just enough to be funny, but grounded enough to feel true.
Also, let’s be honest: “my mum says the carpet is not a battlefield” is an all-timer.
If this keeps going, we’re in. We want the next entry. And the one after that.
Because for all the jokes, there’s a very real charm in revisiting that first moment when Warhammer stopped being just a strange word and became our hobby.