This was a question which reached me, via official channels, and so, I guess that before this month is out, I should put fingers to keyboard, despite a promise not to go near my studio until mid-September an, by extension the blog. But, a month long holiday is a long time and so a week into it, as the memsahib rests after a culinary journey both physical and metaphorical, I thought I'd catch up a little with members of this parish. Last week, just in time for my holiday, the first tranche of my Celts turned up from my painter, just as I realised that I had no bases ordered in for them... So, I now have several hundred models on my desk awaiting MDF deliveries.   The first week of the holiday has been a pretty easy one, with a few outings and last night, we celebrated our 33rd wedding anniversary (which is actually today) at The Blacksmiths, Clayworth, a considerable drive for Kayte, but which was recommended to us by a friend and client who knows their way around things gastr...

 If anyone knows where this is, I'd like to buy it back.   It's called 'Girl On A Planet' and was one of three John Blanche paintings I had to sell for a song a few years ago when times were VERY hard 

  One thing which has started to become apparent from my reading is that whilst Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson get a lot of press for 'their' rules, much of the stuff they did was actually derivative of Tony Bath, and provably so.  Whilst it's a common thing for rules writers to borrow, I do think that Gygax 'borrowed' from Tony Bath, but when someone borrowed from him it was 'theft'.  Anyway, I enjoy the work of both, so I've not got a dog in the fight as it were, but it's a real pleasure to read gritty and detailed accounts of how the hobby evolved. What does get my goat up, is when someone, 50 years down that line decides that someone who wrote something great or designed a fantastic world was 'racist' or 'misogynistic' and therefore the sum of that work is zero - Really? Go screw yourselves with a rolled up copy of whatever manifesto you read that in. In fact do it twice, and reflect on your idiocy. I'm sure that M.A...

 I am very much interested in how we imbue or indeed draw upon energies. This goes for wargaming items too. Psychometry, is something I have had a passing interest in for decades, based on what I found to be some compelling instances down the years. How many people have 'lucky' or 'unlucky dice'? I know of one respected wargamer, who, in the 80s lost in a major competition and then affixed the general figure to the front of his Volvo as he drove home and then exiled him to the garden shed to reflect upon his failure. You will note it weas the fault of a supposedly inanimate lead figure and not the lack of prowess of the human manipulator. Could that first die roll we make for 'troop or leadership quality' imprint upon that tiny tin dictator or regiment an actual 'personality'. One of my personal beliefs is that a figure is not 'alive' until the face is done, in particular the eyes. They are after all the windows to the soul. Probably bunkum, alth...

 My home is currently covered with figures on every surface.  I spent the weekend packing and booking collection of, the latest Satanic Panic Miniatures Kickstarter, as well as a large quantity of painted 1/285 micro armour which is bound for the U.S and a debut on the show circuit. And then yesterday, 20 kilos of 28,mm plastic Ancients arrived and so, after work yesterday, I was wading through it all to get it arranged in a way the painter can make sense of, along with 1900 decals... That said, it means my Punic Wars era project is now well in hand and will comprise:  386 Carthaginians (no allies other than Numidians, as I have plenty I can choose from in the other armies) 750 Celts 504 Republican Romans 400 Spanish  500 Hellenistic Greeks I'm rather excited about this as it will make for some beautiful and varied games, with lots of  colourful and tactically different troops - and elephants, LOTS of elephants. My wife is, as always, being very understanding ab...

 So, here I am once more, as the large Scotsman in motley and a Sutton Hoo helmet once sang... We left this story on a cliffhanger ending last time, and I bet like me, you've been unable to sleep ever since with the anticipation of another tale of teenage hijinkes, japery and tomfoolery in the greatest era of gaming. So, we had found that the model kits we were going mad about, had stats and dimensions on the boxes, and this information was not wasted. We also had Pete (My friends don't call me Stretch) Armstrong, AKA 'Greblord' and his unquestionably unchallengable knowledge of these models. I can't remember who it was who had the idea, it was probably one of those organic, osmotic decisions, to try and write some rules for using these on the table.  Now, you need to remember before we start that these models were generally 1/100 or 1/72 and contained either a human in the head or a bloody enormous alien who wore it like armour, one being developed to counter the o...