I am fortunate, nay, blessed to have 'come up' at a time just before the Warhammer Fantasy Battles rules hit the shelves - and stayed there, being sold off for a  mere fraction of the RRP in literal stacks at the front of GW store. It's something that we who refuse to die and in not doing so, irritate others, comment on quite often at our coffee and bullshit 'salons' - no, really... And then we get teary eyed over whatever metal based figures one of us has brought to the table for discussion and pawing over, that day, before the conversation turns to the scourge that is 'Oldhammer'. Now, don't get me wrong, the idea of preserving what was arguably the high water mark of fantasy gaming, and introducing others to it, is a fine sentiment. But, re-writing history and claiming that paintwork and styles which were not contempraneous or even available  in the case of materials as 'authentic' is taking it a step too far. If you were not there, you canno...

 So, we've reached that point that saw me now a member of Sheffield Wargames Society and most recently the Sheffield Runelords, the rub being that I now had to choose between the Runleords and my Monday night 'closed sessions;' with my friends at the 'after school' club run by Steve Roberts. I'd played a lot of tabletop stuff and even more D&D on Monday nights, and I was getting pretty slick as a DM, but Runequest and the 'glittering prize' of finding that imagined 'inside track' to the secret worlds that I'm sure all early 80s kids believed existed,. That hidden gaming session with the staff of the local games store, whose sage-like words were sure to reveal arcane secrets and I would be able to learn them, to become an acolyte of thes fell lords of die rolling. What actually happened was that I did indeed get to meet these people and many, many more.  Back then, it seemed that every connection you made opened a new gaming related pathwa...

  Well, I thought I should wander out to the games bunker and do a visual recording of the progress of the preslotta fantasy armies, as my painter is down to the last 800 of his batch and I have about 500 to do myself. The unpainted stuff includes 350 Grenadier Barbarians including 3 war mammoths, 10 Ackland Orc Wyverns, 20 or so of the lovely little attacking golden eagle, 5 Ackland Elf War Eagles, 200 or so Chronicle Orcs, 500 FTS, FTZ and C Series Undead and a load of angels, demons and war machines... I really ought to try and get an accurate number of those. Oh, I forgot to photograph the pink T-Rex and the Dwarf on Triceratops. And then, a lifetime's collecting of fantasy armies is complete. I certainly don't need any more. My historical collecting is also pretty much over now, and I am working through the sci-fi so, that I will hopefully have it all done in 18 months ahead of hitting 60. I'm always available if an show organisers want a 15 x 5 Oldhammer game in atten...

 I'm powering through my sci-fi projects, and as I write this, I am just 12 figures away from completing the first of four different forces. It'll end up being many more than 4, but I want to get those done, along with the terrain and the starships to populate a starport and surrounding areas. Now, from the outset, I have wanted to get the 'feel' of the sci-fi stylings and colour schemes I loved back in 1982. Pete Armstrong used a stunning green on his Traveller Military and I was blown away by a fashion show which used sci-fi military stylings in similar colours and orange flack jackets thrown in for good measure. It had a very Jim Burns feel to it and of course the 80s catwalks were wild places. I have been weaned off bright orange flack jackets at last, but I do like a nice contrast on my sci-fi. I like my Marines to look hard-miltary and not like walking Gothic cathedrals, although I will admit that my 'Federal Marines' using the GZG UN hardsuites, with the ...