In 1983, Sheffield discovered mecha combat... The late Pete Armstrong was a consumate figure painter and model maker, and he had found some new (to the UK) model kits by companies like Bandai and Nitto depicting giant robots piloted by humans - and aliens it would turn out - and, being Pete, had built and painted a few and stuck them in the Games Workshop cabinets and Window, because, like the best of us, he was a showman, who whilst modest, knew he was a fucking figure painting fighter ace. We worshipped him, and I am not in any way ashamed to admit it. So many of those who 'came up' in what was arguably one of the most active gaming communities in the UK, owe a lot to Pete, that cannot be over stated. You bought a figure in GW - you'd seen the model in the cabinet, painted by Pete, first. You painted your Orcs an ochre shade, it was down to Pete. You learned to get that green that was so bright it hurt the eyes - it wasn't available in a pot, you learned it from Pete,...

 OK, OK, so I posted pics of my newly minted Romans yyesterdy, but I got the urge to deploy the first of the legions plus the support on the 15 foot table this morning and I thought some of you may like to see some good old 'gaming porn'  So, without further ado, let's get straight to the money shots...    

 Well, the memsahib hs just today, finished basing the first of my two Roman Legions and all the auxilliary stuff. I'm just waituing on another legion and around 700 Celts and 27 chariots, then I can do some serious skirmishing!   TTFN!

 I have a reputation for being a heretical contrarian, something I can live with because, let's face it, three score years and ten of being predictable and catholic in ones tastes, actions and opinions is boring.  That said, I do have exactly the same breakfast every day that I partake of that meal, which I suppose could itself be seen as being contrarian, but I like it. I even eat it in the same order and, suffer  the same sense of shame which John Laycock experience when caught having a crafty wank upstairs in the stock room of his Saturday job, employers in about 1983, being fired and then being unable to cover it up so to speak, because half of our school seemed to work at the same shop on a Saturday. Of course, I didn't sully myself with going out to work at weekends, choosing rather to paint on a couple of evenings and earn more at the age of 14 than I did in my first couple of jobs, straight out of school. Wargamers are really funny about contrarian views or any pe...

 It's interesting I think, to see how the life that I and my peers lived as gamers, being commented on, by people who were not there, with a sense of authority which,, would suggest otherwise. I know that I and others who were there have had arguments both on line and in person, with those who weren't to the point that in the ednd we just said 'fuck it' and walked away. Remember that A.I and the internet knows more than the people who grew up and in the hobby (rolls eyes). Some of us were in the business as it were 'embedded' by the age of 14, which raises eyebrows, but the world was a different place. The current younger gamers (let's say under 40) sadly only know of a post Imperial Assault era Games Workshop, when the stormtroopers of the one true way, tried to take apart so many small companies, and of the padded, 300 page rulebooks, which drain the pocket and in my personal opinion (deal with it) something of the soul of the hobby.  Those who came up in ...

 Hi ho,  Well, you will recall that I recently cracked on and painted a load of 15mm sci-fi , for a planned spaceport battle, based on my memories of games 45 years ago, using the Laserburn rules? Well, nice though those GZG and Brigade models were, they were not quite hitting the spot. The 13 year-old me, was into a more Space Opera vibe back then, and Laserburn did hit the spot.  So, I decided to go back to the drawing board and use the original Laserburn models again, which are of course available in all their greatness, from Alternative Armies. I wanted spectacle at the man-to-man level, with less emphasis on AFVs. After all, Laserburn was the game which replaced the main battle tank with the fearsome Dreadnought armoured suit, well before that upstart 40K was a pound sign in Games Workshop's red and glowing eye.  I planned for a BIG game, wherein a spaceport on on Entebbe II, a planet at the fringes of human Imperial space, is overrun by those fanatical and vile...