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Showing posts from May, 2015

Deciphering the miniature seller's secret terminology...

I thought that it may be useful to provide a glossary of gaming terms often encountered by Oldhammer enthusiasts seeking additions to their armies. And so, without further ado: Pro painted:  Daubed by someone with little talent, but their Mum said it looked nice, just get them out of her face. Collector's standard: See 'pro painted' but this model has been at the back of Grandma's china cabinet where visitors would not see the embarrassingly talentless work of her grandson. Museum grade: Painted in flat enamel colours, but at least the paint is within the lines. Rare: Less than 200,000 made Very rare: 'I have ten of these' OOP: 3 years old Long OOP: 5 years old Recast: 'I want to keep the figure and get a refund.' 2nd Edition: Genuine recast Sought after: 'I have ten of these and you are going to pay ten times the actual value.' Slotta: Anything that has a little black plastic base Pre-slotta: A

Train spotting...

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Well, I've been talking about getting a model railway, for about 5 years. And at last it's come to pass. Now the rub for me is that: 1. I spend every working day, painting and basing wargames figures,  at weekends, I want to do something else. 2. My skill with electrics is ZERO (or less). 3. I have never attempted a layout. Taking the above into account, it seemed to me to be a good idea to let a professional handle things, but at the same time I wanted to breathe some life into it to make it my own. And so I decided to find a company who could build the boards, lay the track and do all the landscaping up to grass level, including the scenic backdrop, and wire up all the electrics, including automated points. Enter 'The Fiddle Yard' and the capable and experienced hands of Ollie, the head honcho and former member of staff at 'Rails Of Sheffield'. A quick look at the company website will show you why I chose Ollie to build things for me... ht

'Gaming is my life!' - A tribute too late

I have just been somewhat deep in thought, as to just how deeply my hobby  has  intertwined with my life thus far. On the day of my marriage, I kept a promise, made some years before to go into Games Workshop on my wedding day, alas, by then it was not the wondrous store of my 80s youth, but still, it was personally symbolic. On that same day, I purchased my first 'Paper Tiger' art book, 'Lightship' by Jim Burns, which to this day is on my shelves. As my daughter spent the first few days of her life being poked, checked and generally approved by midwives, I played a blinder of a game (15th Century Japanese vs Knights Of St John - My K.O.St.J won, hands down) with Andy Mackay, a stalwart of the early days of Games Workshop. Last year, as my Grandson made his early appearance, I sat painting at my desk for 26 hours straight. The first gift I gave my wife, was a 28mm ghost model and our first outing together, was a trip to Liverpool, cud