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Showing posts from December, 2017

And Now, Some Serious Eye Candy For Christmas Day...

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And now, I can show you all what I was working on for the 60 hours prior to my Christmas close-down. These were commissioned by William, the son old friend, Andrew Needham, as a Christmas gift. For my part I was of course paid, but because Andy is a Grognard of many years standing in my own affections, I went a bit further to make them special and convey a son's love for his dad. I did show these to another gamer who immediately asked for the same and was refused. I will only ever paint these once in 15mm. They are dated and signed and Will is a lad to be treasured in my opinion. For my part, I'm proud of this unit and although it was a tight schedule, it has been a pleasure to see Andy's response today.

A Christmas Post...

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Well, I woke up this morning with that certain self-knowledge that I was on the brink of entering the arena of the unwell. Tight chest, cough, general feeling of unwellness. Sure enough, as I write, I have the sweats, a dry cough, sore throat, temperature and feel very rough. Just in time for the great day when I had planned to eat a lot of dead wildlife with numerous roasted tubers. BUGGER! So, I've double dosed on vitamins, C, D and zinc, sucked a Bronchostop pastille and partaken of the lemon flu powder, as the memsahib prepares tuna mayonnaise for a round or two of sandwiches. Anyway, it's been a fun day despite the caress of Death touching my brow, as we finished the last few  bits of shopping and I decided that I'd been a very good boy this year and deserving of  half a dozen formal shirts from T.M Lewin of Jermyn Street who make the very best 'off the peg' shirting you can buy. Like I said, I've been very good this year. The memsahib was preparing the...

On The Subject Of Materials

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I have had a couple of emails about the materials I use, so rather than keep replying to those, I'll write a little here. First of all, I paint in all scales from 1/6000 up to about 110mm so, I need versatile paints which are as consistent as possible and which are readily available, as well as which have excellent opacity. I am not and never will be a wash and dip type of painter, because it's pretty lazy and often ugly in my own personal opinion. I also paint 40-50 hours per week and I am on a tight schedule, so performance is very, very important to me. 90% of the paints I use are Vallejo Model Color which I have used since they were first released in the U.K when I was the owner of Dungeons & Starships. I always liked the fact that I could call Eugenie Safranek in person at Vallejo and give feedback and suggestions - and be taken seriously. I've painted for 38 years now, with almost 2 dozen placings at 1st an 2nd in competitions (there were lower placings, but they ...

Keeping The Hobby On The Q.T...

One of the quietest re-launches I've seen for some time, of classic and groundbreaking figures, has been that of the former Amazon Miniatures range, which included iconic ranges including Dixon and Q.T models. Amazon which operated out of a hardware and tools place somewhere over in Mordor (or as those who don't hail from Yorkshire call it, Lancashire) basically disappeared up it's own arse. I'd even dropped them a line about buying the Q.T ranges but they never responded (probably seeking euphoric solace  in a backstreet black pudding den in Burnley), so it looked as if the range was dead. Then, by chance, I came across an advert on Facebook for a company called Wargames Design Workshop (when will people stop trying to use 'games' and 'workshop' in business names)and checking the link out, it proved to be the new home of all the old Amazon Miniatures ranges, and thus a return of some of the iconic ranges of my youth. Now, I love the old 'ballo...

Ringworld & It's Place In My Life

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Back in 1984, I was sat in my Dad's car on a warm Friday evening, around 6PM, opening the latest White Dwarf  - which was still a great magazine then and not the nightmarish monstrosity it is today - when out fell issue 2 of The Black Sun fanzine - Why they named a fanzine after a Nazi order is beyond me. OK, I know it's a take on the White Dwarf bit, but... - which was the news organ of the GW mail order department and a splendid little read on par with Flying Buffalo News. It was this 'zine which brought you 'Battle Chairs' the rather tasteless - by today's weak chinned, liberal standards - expansion for the Battle Cars game which allowed injured drivers to get back on the highways in armed wheelchairs - don't knock 'em. As I write my copy of the 'zine is at the side of me, but here's an intergoogweb pic of the cover: There were some great articles in issue 2, but I was drawn to the centre spread which told of a forthcoming, nay, i...

WAAAARGH! For The Blood God...

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Recon at Pudsey last weekend was a pleasant little show as always. It's not about massive display games, it's more parochial with a H.O.T.T tournament. a selection of fun participation games and a nice little selection of traders which, would benefit perhaps from some more manufacturers rather than quite so many re-sellers, but how many shows do you know where you can get 3 tickets, 3 good bacon sandwiches and 3 hot drinks with change from £20? The bring and buy was doing brisk trade with usual slime ball dealers trying to snap up fast re-sale items. That aside, there were some nice bargains to be had but not many complete armies. I picked up a rather nice metal Treeman for the memsahib's Sylvaneth army and a couple of other little bits, so it was a fun day out.  As an aside we took the memsahib's mother with us as she has never really understood what it is I get up to, and she loved it and, was made welcome when she looked at displays and asked questions. ...

Ranthammer

The Fall Of The Oldhammer Empire? It seems to me, that the whole 'Oldhammer' craze or perhaps a better definition in the broader sense would be a 'movement' (I'll leave the interpretation of that term, to you, dear reader) is getting rather silly. Of course, to many the hole concept of grown men playing with lead dollies is silly, but I don't mean it in that way. Let me explain a few thoughts that I have been ruminating over... The prices of the models being offered on eBay are frankly 'a fucking rip off'. These are models which are 3 decades old, not antique, nor are they 'rare' as many claim. I would use that term with a great deal of caution little ones, because to the generation who are championing  the 'cause' anything older than their current girlfriend is seen as vintage. Nay, nay... These models were mass produced in the days before 'artisan' this and 'small batch' that and increasingly post 1982 or thereabo...