Hi folks. I've been as busy as ever, and believe me when I say that Wednesday was a day from Hell. True I was 'only painting figures' but when you do twelve hours under studio lighting, sitting in a bad position without noticing, you do find the tube of Voltarol is your friend. That said, I've been busy planning and actually initiating those plans. First up, I increased my pre-order for the Battlegroup: Northag stuff from Plastic Soldier Company, so that I can now muster a company of British and Soviet infantry with transports, the same of armour as well as recce and support elements. The models are 10mm scale which I think looks 'just right' aesthetically for these types of forces and allows you to use N scale buildings form continental model railway manufacturers. Since my old friend and adversary across the table, Roger is like me, a chap who will always tend towards buying two opposing forces, it was only natural that I do that here. We've al...

It's a busy time here in the Dark Tower above Fackham Hall, as I approach the end of another year of painting rather beautiful models for some of the most discerning customers you could wish for. I'm not letting my work rule my life quite as much and so I am making myself honour my own advertised working hours lest I wear myself down as I did at the end of 2017. I'm taking a few minutes to write this blog as I wait for the basing on 42 really nice Perry Miniatures Medieval civilians to dray and thereby allow me to finish off the drybrushing. Having been awake since 04:30, I'm relying on coffee and my breakfast of potatoes in cream, bacon, asparagus in truffle oil and poached egg to sustain me until I clock off in 5 and a half hours. I've been listening to 'Who Dares Wins' by Dominic Sandbrook, a blisteringly detailed social and political history of Britain between 1979 and 1982. It's 42 hours of detail and I was surprised that my own city of Sheffi...

In mid-1986, I broke up with a girl after a few months, who, then hooked up with my best friend. As he and I were both gamers, it did affect our relationship and thereby my gaming which was a 'bit pants'. I drifted away from Sheffield Wargames Society and sort of did my own thing whilst still trying to wargame and roleplay with the other 3 or 4 groups I was part of, but frankly I was cast adrift. My main peer group were going through a period where, being like me, pretty sensitive and historically bullied types, they quite often used to select one of the group and give them a passive-agressive hard time, and let me tell you a bullied geek makes a terribly effective bully in their own right (popping them on the nose, would seem the best option to prevent things spiralling, but this wisdom only seems to come with age) and so it went on with this cyclic circle of meanness and like a couple of guys I copped my fair share as I was from a different area of the city to the core of t...

 Mid week,I received a package containing the 28mm sci-fi figures I blogged about last week. They are frankly, rather lovely models and so, I've given them my usual gloss and mate varnishes and they are now awaiting use. And so, a background is need for me, because I am that kind of person. 'By the early 23rd century, mankind was stretching out into the stars, and had the technology to not only terraform and colonise suitable worlds, but also to genetically modify and vat grow, a strain of humanity which was better suited for the hostile environments. To mark them as genetically and tank grown, they were gene written to also have a blue skin and modified optical organs which had a white film over the eye,. They were in all other respects 'human' but as is the way of mankind, these people were seen as being inferior to pure strain humans, becoming known by the derogatory name 'Gennies' or 'Rogues', the latter a nod to a fictional character in a late 2...