Peter Armstrong, AKA Greblord (A Belated Obituary)
Six years ago today, I lost a close friend, Peter Armstrong, also known as Greblord, or more formally 'The Mighty Greblord' by those who knew him well.
He was a stubborn bastard and not easy to get on with, but I loved him. We had, I think, conversations that he didn't have with anyone else (at least, I got that impression), mainly due to some of our shared interests. He had his faults, but then don't we all?
We both loved sci-fi and were fanatics about Blade Runner (I still am). He was really looking forward to Blade Runner 2049, but he never got to see it.
He built little model ships from scratch for his wargaming and painted little men to accompany them. He was very well known in wargaming circles and taught a lot of other people how to paint miniatures. He once told me that he wrote up his painting technique for a very early issue of the Games Workshop magazine (being that he was the Manager of one of the first GW stores), so who knows how many people still use his dry-brushing technique…?
He had a massive interest in a wide variety of music and introduced many of us to songs and artists we'd previously never heard of. He also had this great habit of making up words that were basically just noises/grunting and using them in conversation like they were normal parts of the English language.
Unfortunately, he got sick, and then he died. For reasons that are private, I'm still a little bit annoyed about it and how it could have been avoided. However, the world kept turning, and we carried on living without him. He is survived by his wife and three daughters.
I've had a few people I care about die on me over the years, but for some reason losing him left me with a hole in my life that persists.
It's been 6 years, and I still miss you, Greb.
Places he lived (online)
(some may no longer be accessible)