Well as I begin this latest instalment, I have 5 days left of my holiday and whilst I've been quite pleased that I've got 3 off my 4 sci-fi forces finished, I don't feel rested. Still, as this is really a 'catch-up' for holidays lost last year, I can do some proper resting when I take my Summer holiday. Such, as they say, is life :) 1986 keeps popping up in various ways, and it got me remembering that '86 was a time of big changes for me, ones which, would  lead to me meeting my wife eventually and stirring the next part of my gaming life into action. In late 1985, I'd moved with my parents to a semi-rural area, out of the industrial suburbs of Sheffield, and I'd not reacted well, to the notion of one bus every hour, and a 45 minute journey into the city centre. Don't get me wrong, I hiked and camped a lot, and since the age of 9 had been out and about with school and friends. But, the reality oif living so far from my beloved gaming haunts was an i...

 Well, the first 8 days of my 23 days of holiday has seen me complete two more sci-fi forces, and now I am painted out and need a rest. Still, I'm amazed at how much of the project is done. I have about another 80 infantry and 19 VTOLs to get done and then I begin on the terrain and starships to populate the table and create a starport in 15mm.    I've also been snowed under by the arrival of hundreds of 28mm Zulus as well as a second Roman legion and another Celtic army. I also need to sort through around 300 early slotta Chaos Dwarves which represent the last lot of fantasy to be sent to my painter.   I've been mulling several things of late including the stratification of the hobby from the days when I and my peers set forth, and the dogpiling when people fail to follow the nerd herd and dare to have a contrarian opinion, but they can wait for a bit longer as I am having me some fun in the sun for a couple more weeks.   TTFN 

 Well, I am on a 3 week break, and so I've thrown myself into getting another of my 15mm sci-fi forces completed. I completed the vehicles for the Unified Systems Military Command company a couple of weeks ago, so now I am working through the 78 infantry who will crew them. The figures are Ground Zero Games, Pan African Union models which I like as they have that 'Striker/Traveller' mid-tech infantry look, which is the aesthetic I feel most at home with, and always will. As you will recall, I am trying to recapture the look and feel f the stuff I had and wished I had in the early to mid-80s, as well as the paint work. These are not showcase armies, but reimaginings of childhood stylings and armies, and if you like them, great. If you don't - great, knock yourself out. Not literally of course becaus ethat upsets the darlings who see every comment as a cause, not remembering that they are in no way obliged to look in here at all. But I digress... I have put in around 11 h...

 1982 saw the release of Warhammer. It flopped... Really, it did. The roleplayers who, at the time were the dominant force bought it, read it and sold it. Or simply didn't bother. There were stacks of the stuff piled on pallets at the front of the 4 or 5 GW stores, for a fraction of the cover price. It would be a while before we actually got it going locally, because we'd been using a set of D&D mass combat rules from White Dwarf, and they worked rather well, being solidly based in the kind of old school (let's say traditional) mechanics that historical wargamers liked. Some of the lads played the Lidless Eye rules using the Jacobite Miniatures 15mm Middle Earth rangeds which were loively little models with a lot of character. They were 'of their time' - what isn't, but they were great. WRG had a fantasy modification for their Ancients rules and of course there was the excellent Royal Armies of the Hyborean Age by FGU which allowed battles in the age of Cona...

 I spent the weekend working, to allow me to take a 3 week Spring break later in the month, so whilst I was watching paint dry, I completed the vehicles for the second of my 15mm 'hard' sci-fi forces. This time it's the Unified Systems Military Command in their slate grey 'Adder' family of vehicles, supplied by Alternative Armies . All of the models are standard castings, with the Medevac 'can' having it's weapon removed and the CHQ vehicle having a different radar array and side-mounted ground surveillance radar added from GZG. The whip antennae are of course courtesy of a scrubbing brush. Decals are a mix of manufacturers including Fighting Piranha Graphics, Hobby Meio and Alpha Hobby . Again, this is a personal project, so lacks the due care and attention I'd use in my day job. This is all about me rediscovering the enjoyment I experienced in the early to mid 80s.  I am not a fan of the whole grim and dark or Elves in space thing. It's each to...