How a 14-year-old P.E.I. boy makes his own army of rat creatures

Fourteen-year-old Henry Atkinson spends a lot of time these days playing fantasy games. But unlike most kids his age, he's seldom glued to a screen. 

Instead, Henry plays Warhammer, a 1970s tabletop game with miniature models simulating terrestrial battles between imaginary armies of aliens and supernatural creatures. 

But Henry's real passion is actually assembling and painting those plastic models. "The kit comes in pieces and you glue it together," Henry said.

"It will have different options for how they look. Often they'll have different heads or different arms or different body or legs," he said.

"Depending on how you build them, it will give them different advantages or disadvantages in the game."

Henry has put together between 250 and 300 rat soldiers. They're called Skaven. "They're sort of rat creatures that they live in an underground city and they've very sneaky, and very tricky," he said. 

"They're not very strong individually but when you have 150 of them on the table and your opponent only has 50, then you have the advantage."

Henry points to his pride and joy, the leader of his rat pack, the Vermin Lord. It cost more than $100. "This one came in about 30 pieces," Henry said.

"It had to be assembled. Everything from the head to the horns and even the arms and legs."  But assembly is only half the battle. Painting the intricate figurines is when the real work begins.

"Some of them are pretty quick and you can paint them in an hour or two. Some of them are very intricate and they can take hours or even days to complete." 

'Painting it and playing it ever since'

Henry's hobby began a year and a half ago on a visit to a second-hand store. "We found a book of Warhammer stuff from about 30 years ago, from when it just started," he said. "I picked it up and started reading it and I found that I really liked it and I've been painting it and playing it ever since."

Once a week, Henry sends his rat creatures into battle, in the basement of a comic book store. He plays against people twice his age. 

"I actually don't have many friends my age who play this game."

But Henry still puts up a good fight. "I'm not bad but I wouldn't say I'm the best of all the people I've played. I'd say I'm around the middle."

'A relaxing afternoon just sitting and painting'

For many people, the best part of this hobby is playing the game. That was the case with Henry when he first got into Warhammer, but now it's the painting that feeds his soul. "It's a very fun thing to do," he said. "You can spend a relaxing afternoon just sitting and painting."

Henry is home-schooled, making it easier for him to find time between studies to work on his rat creatures. "I find it's a good way to train some fine motor skills because you have to get really detailed with those brush strokes."   

And though some may think it's odd that a 14-year-old kid is spending his money playing with plastic people, Henry brushes it off. "It is just plastic, but hey. I enjoy painting it. I get a lot of enjoyment out of the time I spend painting it and working on it and playing games with it so I believe it's money well spent."

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