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...

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 ...