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Tales From The Underbelly Part 1: Where It All Began To Fall Apart

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 In 1985, my parents had moved to a semi rural area of Sheffield, and a large bungalow, taking with them an old neighbour and family friend who was widowed decades previously. It was a little odd, but look, I had a massive bedroom extension, newly built onto the new family manse, which I only had to share with my brother for a short while... It was massive to a 16 year old kid, measuring around 35x10 feet, meaning that I could do some serious wargaming. You can see it here, but back then it lacked the paved driveway:  5 Josselin Court Now, this meant that I was moving from the area I'd grown up in, to a wholly alien environment, where it transpired, there was one bus into town every hour, instead of every 5 minutes and the resulting journey was 45-60 minutes as opposed to 12 which, I thought was fucking barbaric on a Mad Max level - where I was living 8 feet from a Victorian cemetery.  Did I mention I have had a massive phobia around death and cemeteries since I was 4? Ad...
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Essex 'Boy Racers'... Or, The Simple Joys Of The Ancient British Panzer Division

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 My Painter contacted me last night to show me the completed 28mm Victrix Ancient British chariots he has just completed for me. I'm really excited about them. As wel las Queen Tracii of the Astespumantii tribe, (who were located it is said close to what is now Basildon and around Canvey Island) there are her tribal druids Vyxsiinex and Heddexx and 27 more local Boy Racers from the tribe. If you are offloading any nicely painted 28mm armoies at Partizan this weekend, please drop me a message as a comment with details. I have moderation turned on, so I can take your details down and delete the commant without anyone else seeing it. TTFN  
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Of Rats & Wasted Lives

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 Having finished work, I've just made my way down to the bottom of the two back gardens, to check the state of play with the rat traps I've been forced to use, since the allotments beyond the woods at the rear were closed, forcing the twitchy-nosed little bastards to sponge from gardens.  I have bought some rather effective and lethal to rat neck and human hand alike which  today have made the lower garden look like a genocide trial at the U.N. Three of the little buggers were martyred; two neatly disconnected from mortality with the traps, but the third, laid on it's side with no apparent injury. I presume that, having witnessed two of the family butchered, it staggered away, clutching it's little chest, expiring next to another trap. What a drama-rodent. I've been mulling on whether, given my time all over again, I'd bother with wargaming/roleplaying. And the answer is no, I'd probably not. Why? Well, frankly, since aged 12 when it got serious for me, I ha...
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Memory Lane Part 30.1: Let's Talk About Size Baby

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 OK, so in the main post we ascertained that as far as having any kind of genre affiliation, all bets were off when it came to your humble narrator. But how did I embrace the addiction, nay, lifestyle once I had my feet under the table and my fingers in mant - perhaps too many - metaphorical pies? Well, I was very lucky, indeed blessed to 'come up' with one of the greatest wargaming pirate crews the UK has ever and will ever see.  Sheffield Wargames Society, I found out were notorious for ther prowess with both the toy soldier and the pint glass, not to mention been pretty sharp with dealings with the fairer sex, whilst on nights out during weekend-long 'beanos'.  Let me be very clear, in the latter case, I can hand on heart say that this only applied to the single members as the wives of the marriwed members would simply have terminated their husband's collections, as did in fact happen at one Triples when an unnamed member of the club had an argument with his spou...
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Memory Lane Part 30: And They Call It Making History (Apologies To Adam & The Ants)

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 Although I'd got my first whiff of the hobby via the Heritage mini games based loosely on D&D and the D&D itself, it was literally a month or so before I was finding out about historical gaming, which, despite what my other posts may convey, is always going to be every bit as important to me. For me, the two, nay three, if we give sci-fi it's own niche in the evolutionary ladder go hand in tentacles. I sometimes get typecast by folks as being a fantasy gamer who dabbles in historical, or the reverse. But the the truth is that I am a trans-genre, an oddity of my time I suppose, when gamers were in individual camps, sometimes quite vehemently and venemously so. I remember the first time I took the late Tony 'Spike' Atkin to Sheffield Wargames Society and he obviously and visibly had a good time, so much so that he was heard to quip that 'Wargamers aren't the wankers I always thought they were - well not quite as big wankers'. He did have a point I sup...
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Warrior WETURNS!

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    I was, as is my wont, browsing the world wide web of wargames yesterday, and I was surprised and I cannot express how overjoyed, to find that Warrior Miniatures are once again available.  Many of my generation began with Warrior Miniatures, particularly their 25mm Landsknechts which, if painted with care, looke pretty awesome.  OK, they are small by today's gargantuan and I think, outrageous standards, but they are still 70p per infantry and a paltry £1.40 for cavalry. If you are on a budget or want to try a new period, why waste money on £2 per figure castings which will devalue, the moment you buy them, meaning that if you get fed up or decide this latest thing isn't for you, you are not going to be so out of pocket. Also, consider Warrior if you have kids or grandkids that you want to get started in the hobby.  For those of you who love an old school figure, then Warrior are the genuine article.  I love Warrior - did I mention that? - and what's...
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A Quick Catch Up...

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Over this year, I've been taking an interest in RPGs again, both the old classics and some newer stuff. As, in a former life, I was a civil servant, the concept behind 'The Laundry' tickles my fancy, being essentially the british government - from the women at the top, down to the men who fix the plumbing in the staff toilets. I've already covered this I know, but it does go to show that I don just look to the past, I do actually sometimes step tentatively into the present, with clenched fists, white knuckles and grinding teeth. Indeed, I have found that I like plastic models - as long as I don't have to build or paint them - because, six years of field tests have shown that my painter works much better on plastic than metal. He is not big on undercoating thoroughly and plain refuses to varnish. This means that shipments of metal miniatures can need a lot of remedial work. Thus, plastic is the medium on which I let him loose.  To be fair, he is not a professional pa...
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