I appear to have angered the gods. Gentlemen... Check your boxer shorts when they have been out on the line. I have just pulled on mine and been stung, squarely in the balls by a bee which must have got in there whilst they were on the line. It is NOT pleasant. Funny, yes... I admit I can see the funny side now that the tears have cleared. Pleasant, NO! The bee alas will not see the sun set upon this day, like me it failed it's saving throw

I've never really been that materialistic beyond my lust for books and all things a bit nerdy and figure related. But, of late that does seem to have changed. You remember I laid out my 'everything stops at 50' plan a few weeks ago? Well... The bathroom at the Dark Tower needed overhauling and so we put plans into place last year to get it done. Alas, the kitchen also needed some work, despite being 11 years old and bloody expensive. The kitchen staff and even an insolent scullery maid had been somewhat rowdy and outspoken to both myself and the lady of the house, despite being flogged with a handy shoehorn and the dogs set upon them (the scullery maid will be out of hospital next week). And so, we called in our faithful and favoured builders and in the end, it was decided that the Dark Tower would be brought into the Century Of The Fruitbat with the following work: Replacement of bathroom suite Full tiling of walls and floor of same New fittings and fixtures New...

Today's bargain... The seller was asking £1200 (not unreasonable really, given the quality), but I was being firm on my long term budget. Then yesterday, the deal on a rather nice Imperial Fists army fell through due to the seller dawdling, and, as I scanned the Imperial Psy-Net I saw this army had been slashed to £600... And you know how it goes from here... TTFN

This will be brief as I got to bed at 2:30 after finishing a monumental painting stint just before midnight, grabbed a glass of wine, hummus, pittas and olives along with some cheery charcuterie, and took in a couple of 1984 episodes of Top Of The Pops. I was up again at 6AM, to sort out some steel pins, destined to become pikes, and so I am actually a tad fatigued as type this blog update..  My 20mm Vietnam stuff arrived on Wednesday, and was sent back on Thursday as the seller had just dropped them in a box with a few bits of newspaper. You may imagine - or prefer not to - how they arrived. I was not happy at all. I am currently waiting for a 20mm Arab/Israeli collection to arrive from the Netherlands. It was quite a large collection and worked out at about 75p per model or vehicle. The seller I understand has taken great pains in the packing and so I am hoping that they will arrive in pretty good condition, some time next week. My lightsaber also arrived this week and Parcel ...

Friends, both old and new were somewhat sceptical when I announced a couple of months ago, that after my 50th birthday, I would be making no further large purchases of wargaming stuff and that I had a pretty finite list of wants - considered the least plausible of my proclamations. But with 14 months and 15 days until that historic day, I can say that at this time I am well ahead of schedule. As I type, I am only short of: 6mm sci-fi 28mm Cape Wars 6mm or 15mm Dark Ages I aim to have them all purchased by that date and indeed all painted and playable with the exception of the Cape Wars which, is to be my last grand gesture of artistic prowess and one which I hope will proved a suitably elegant swan song. Fingers crossed, I'll probably have all but the Cape Wars completed by the end of 2017. Now if you will excuse me, I have to go and dress myself as a Death Eater and get myself frisked by security, under the watchful (and very welcome eyes) of police firearms officers...

Today finally broke the camel's back. I have managed to hit my spending limit. As I had worked a double shift in the studio yesterday, my brother and I zipped down to Nottingham to Warhammer World for a spot of lunch and to grab some Adeptus Mechanicus decals. And a nice time was had, as always. Thence I returned with a bee in my bonnet about some 20mm Arab-Israeli War models I had seen a while back. It's a period I have wanted to have a crack at for years and so mustering the last of my depleted resources (until Joy Of Six, anyway) I purchased the collection. The following pics give you a taste but don't fully do them justice. They are very nice indeed... Of course, now I just need to find some reasonably brisk rules. Any suggestions? TTFN

Well, sometimes my purchases do not go as smoothly as I'd wish. You may recall I'd bought a nice little Sons Of Horus 30K force to be joined with another which I'd set out to buy from a German seller. The German seller got cold feet despite me meeting his asking price, so I was left with the S.O.H part-army. Ho hum... No problem - It took less than an hour to recoup what I'd paid, but I still wanted a 30 era army. Anyway, on Saturday I'd seen a rather nice 30K Adeptus Mechanicus force which was only around 1500pts. To be honest I was not too enthused by the pushiness of the seller, so although it was nice, I passed on it. This was what it looked like: Well, I was looking on eBay yesterday and came across a smaller force which was very similar in style and which would, if combined with the army above, make a really nice force as well as coming with the Forgeworld rule book: Some very swift Paypal action and both were secured - Result!...