This weekend I was browsing social media when I saw a call for help from a gamer here in the UK who was trying to get in touch with Richard Williams of Manticore Painting. I knew of Mr Williams as he'd frequented a couple of groups I also lurk in and I'd heard rumours that he was upsetting a few people in deals. Now I could not confirm this, but it seemed plausible given that it transpired that the gentleman in question (whom I shall refer to as B.H henceforth) had sent Mr Williams figures and money over five months ago and had or heard nothing thereafter. Now, I'd helped out another fellow last year with a similar issue  and so, as I had nothing to do inbetween coats of varnish I managed to setup a 3-way conversation with myself as mediator. B.H was being very, very fair and asked that Mr W. supply photos of the ongoing work.  Mr W. was evasive and so a deadline was drawn for the matter to be taken further in the small claims courts. All Mr W. had to do was...

Well, it's ben a busy wk at work, so yesterday I decided to do something I rarely if ever do, and paint a few models for my own use. I ravaged three Warlord command blisters and came up with a nice HQ stand to represent 'me' in the guise of the His Militant Eminence, Cardinal Synne, along with his ADC and enforcer, Big Francois, who are listening to the grovelling snivelling of an ensign who has got his standard all ripped and dirty... For 7 hours from start to finish, I am very happy with the finished article and, it was nice to paint a personal project because normally I just can't be bothered. My wife also spent the afternoon finishing her own (and first ever) units of Reiter to begin her own later Henry VIII army, thereby heating up the 16h century arms race already underway between several of us including Roger (from whom the Reiter came a few weeks ago), my mate Dave and my younger brother, Andy... These have taken Kayte about two days in total fro...

As you will have seen, I sometimes pose ‘left field’ questions on here, so bear with me… My 2012 book contains the following paragraph: 'I’d originally, been drawn to the stunning Marillion cover artwork by Mark Wilkinson as I browsed the record department of Woolco, but when I heard those first few lines I was immediately captivated, it was heady stuff. The almost poetic lyrics of Script For A Jester’s Tear or the grim depiction of a young British soldier on the streets of Belfast in the haunting Forgotten Sons, spoke to me in a way that no music ever had. ' Now, in common with many of you, Marillion & Fish have played major parts in my life, but how many of you also found their music during the early 80s where Dungeons & Dragonsand similar role playing games were all the rage, with avant grade political art exhibitions, ten a penny? Moreover, how many of you were also drawn to those things? How many of you found several introductions to the cultural aspects o...

As I write, the end of our ten day break is around 11 hours and 24 minutes away - Not that I am counting, you understand? It's been a good break too. We began with Chillcon and then spent two days just hanging around the house, during which time I got two thirds of the flags on my 28m Renaissance collection, which was really boring but also oddly satisfying work. On Tuesday, we popped up to the Royal Armouries to take a refresher course in 16th century armour and arms, with the memsahib developing a rather unnatural taste for the armies of Henry VIII, buying some rather nice reading material, before we popped across the dock to Pizza Express for a cheeky bit of lunch and then a steady pootle back down the M1, my desire to buy a burgonet and bevor kept tightly in check - but it was a close run thing, I can tell you! Wednesday saw the delivery of the remainder of the flags I needed to complete my Landsknechts, but we were set on going to see an exhibition of political protest a...

We have snow today and so as I have made myself stay home for two days just 'being', and merely pottering about, it was sensible for me to start with my flag fitting. I'm almost there, apart from the few dozen Landsknecht banners which are still not here from Flags of War, after a week I have 4 boxes of the metal Wars Of Religion pike and shot from Warlord on the way as well as the 6 boxes of plastics I bought last week. I think I’ll add as many plastics again if they are still on a ‘special’ because as an old friend whose name rhymes with 'dodger' did quoth recently : ‘You can never have too many Landsknechts…’ Like a sucker I believed him... That's my story and I am sticking to it I went to Chillcon on Saturday and was underwhelmed with the traders who were there, but, as it was 9 minutes from where I sit, it filled two hours. I bought a copy of Devils Run: Route 666 which looks like a fun game and a magazine, whilst the memsahib bought herself a copy...

British Army to appeal to the disaffected Millennial generation In a move to encourage more of the Hipster Generation to sign up to serve Queen and Country the British army are to introduce the so-called 'Millennial Ration Pack' (or MRP as a leaked Whitehall paper has it). A sample 1 day ration will contain: Breakfast and Snacks: Rice crackers Marmite (or not) A vocado P uree (Ripened) I n L ight F resh O live O il L iquid (supplied under contract by Waitrose) Vegetarian sausages and beans with the beans removed Or Transformers shaped pasta Lunch: Vegetable pate using organic root vegetables (no green vegetables will be used) Organic artisan rye and spelt bread slices x 2 Low sodium, ethically made Minestrone soup (with the bits all the same size because , like, equality is implant , alright?) 20g bag Cheetos Dinner Free range Quorn cutlet Dehydrated French Fries (Maris Piper) Petit Pois - hand picked in Norfolk Organic artisan tomato ketchup Vegetarian Chilli ( Cadburys...