I've been busy as ever, this week, clocking up 50 hours actual painting time in the studio, with a painful sternum and intercostal muscles making it feel like double the time. I've made a few planned purchases in the shape of some 15mm Cold War Soviet vehicles - comprising one each, mechanised and armoured company, ready painted. My NATO forces suffered a setback when 70% of the vehicles I bought last weekend, arrived and were 20mm! I have returned them, but I'm still waiting for the refund despite the seller resisting them already... BAH! I also bought the excellent looking Core Space miniatures game and all the supplements. Production, content and presentation are all first class and it's a long time since a modern product got me a little moist in the boxer shorts. However, today I bagged a bargain. I'd been watching a large collection of 28mm painted sic-fi on Flea Bay and it was one of those times when you are not actually looking for the it...

The Great Gnolls are 80% funded and are at the half way point in the Kickstarter campaign. Fingers crossed we'll hit the goal, and if we do, the next range is an old school classic... The Hobgoblins are heading down from the Eastern Steppes across the borders of G'Normandy and thence into the realms of men. These are being sculpted as we speak, being the third range from Satanic Panic Miniatures, and 18 months in the execution. As with all of our ranges, they are multi-part models with thousands of variants possible.

I thought I'd quickly share a couple of pics of the 15mm Cold War stuff I acquired yesterday. 3 Scorpions 3 Scimitars 3 Saladins 3 Land Rover ambulances 6 FV432 3 Chieftans 3 T-72s I think you'll agree that at £4.16 each they were too good to miss. Late last night I also bagged the OOP Team Yankee Soviet starter set which contains 2 Mil-24 helicopters and 9 T-72s for £40.99 on eBay. I'll be throwing away all the Team Yankee cards and ephemera because as I said, I just don't like it. TTFN

As those of you who have already backed or indeed bought from the website will know, these seemingly innocent multi-part models are very flexible. I began gaming just before the first 'Fantasy Tribes' ranges were released by Citadel. They featured models which were featured 'cast-on' variants. Now, there were arguably a lot of variants and those model were classics which I own a lot of, including a couple of hundred which belonged to the late Joe Dever, creator of the Lone Wolf adventure game books; but there was still a finite amount of variety you could achieve. Being a historical gamer as well, I was also a big fan of the ranges by Q.T Models and Lamming Miniatures. These were true multi-pose figures with almost endless possible combinations of bodies, heads, weapons and equipment. And so, the logical position with Satanic Panic Miniatures was to capture the styling of the classic fantasy ranges and couple it with the sheer variety of the old school multi-part ...

When I was but a lad, I bought my first micro armour on the bring and buy at Triples, paying 7p each for them. I had no idea what they were other than they were Russian, but with a few layered hills and bit of green board along with some rather outrageous but fun rules, I and my gaming buddy at the time, had a few hours of good fun, with about 12 models. It got me interested somewhat in what was 'ultra moderns' at the time, but which is now Cold War gaming, but it was never a major period for me. A couple of years ago I saw the Team Yankee rules but blanched when I saw the horrid appearance of games as T7s charged in close order towards the enemy, going toe to toe with opposing armour. But, the 15mm scale models appealed to me. They looked better than 1/300 or 10mm models and had enough personality that they were better than 28mm for use on the average table top. Seeing the Plastic Soldier Company Russian infantry last weekend, and being unable to get hold of a set of Vie...

The next Satanic Panic Kickstarter has gone live: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/satanicpanic/satanic-panic-28mm-multi-part-great-gnoll-boar-riders?ref=user_menu

Well, I bit the bullet yesterday and decided on 20mm for my Vietnam project (as is traditional, right and proper) and to use the Buckle For Your Dust rules. Accordingly I purchased a nice force on eBay which will be the basis for an Aero Rifle Platoon or Riverine force (I can't decide which). All very pretty indeed... TTFN

It's been an eventful month and a half... Firstly, after a very relaxing three weeks holiday I returned to my studio and hit the ground running which is usually enough to make me put fun on hold, but we also had the builders in to add remove an old and small conservatory and replace it with a gaming room cum second dining room (note that it will only be used as a dining room for maybe 3 days per calendar year, but it was the only caveat that the memsahib placed on the whole 15K project. I countered with a demand for a full set of Denby 'Imperial Blue' dinnerware and an accord was reached. The table is 8 feet by 3 feet and so it's a matter of moments to drop some terrain boards across it and get on with some gaming. The best part is that because the room was built for that purpose, games can be left in situ for 362 days of the years. . I really did not want the traditional 'swords and heroic paintings' feel. My wife actuall s...