Well, despite the new Covid scare, the RECON show hosted by Wakefield & District Wargamers will be taing place at Pudsey Civic Hall, in Leeds, this Saturday, December 4th.  There will be club games and a 'bring & buy', plus, of course, plenty of trade tables. I love this show.  It's small, welcoming and a great way to end the gaming year. The catering is well priced and the hot drinks, very hot indeed. This is a proper old school show with no pretentions of grandeur or Southern swagger

 Well, this is one of the oldest memories I have from my entry into gaming 4 decades ago. Games Workshop was a really interesting place back then, and I know that my dad must have made more photocopies from this bag, for me to use as colouring sheets, than I had hot dinners. Well, this fellah has been missing for at least a year, and I have been rather bereft. You may think this a trifle desperate, but I thrive on memory and the ability to connect physically to those memories. As I mentioned yesterday, the memsahib, found it tucked away safely and presented it to me as I lay dozing on the sofa. So, now it is mounted in a Habitat album frame, which I bought to pop my Marillion 'Assassing' picture disc in. However, as I have put said disc somewhere so safe, it is now similarly lost, my treasured carrier bag has a home. Over the Christmas break, I'll get it mounted, across the courtyard in the Rumpus Room. TTFN

 Hi All, Well, let me begin by saying that this week has been full, full, full, but very little gaming related stuff other than working in ther studio for an average of 55 hours. As you know, I went to see Ghostbusters: Afterlife last wekend and was suitably impressed, that we booked tickets for yesterday, only to be snowed in, as we are on one of the highest points in Sheffield and live on a cul de sac, which means we have longer winters. No problem there, as we could cancel, and rebooked for tonight.  This looked good until 30 minutes ago hen the snow began again and according to theweather reports, is gonna be another 4 hours of those large, pretty, weekend destroying goosedown flakes. So, I just cancelled the tickets again, as leaving 5 dofs at home, not knowing the potential weather conditions this evening, would not be clever.And so, tonight will be a big home made hotdog with all the trimmings, on a freshly baked roll, bottle of red wine and Ghostbusters 2 on DVD. Speak...

Hi all, I just thought I’d share a few thoughts with you. A few years ago, I first considered putting together a GB costume, but I was put off by the ‘Gatekeepers’, usually self appointed and indeed self important, who seemed to think that it was imperative to slavishly follow a set pattern of kit. Now, let me say that coming from 4 decades of historical reenactment, LARP and more recently this here cosplay thing, I do understand that accuracy is important. However even history shows that the ‘rules’ are not followed once out of the parade ground. Anyhow, I was turned off, despite being a fan of GB since Summer 84 (there’s an amusing story linked to it in my book, but that as they say…) because authenticity can be encouraged without having to be enforced, and even historical groups have to give newcomers time to adapt and actively help them, because, without new blood a hobby dies, as history has shown. Instead, I went with a Potterverse Death Eater, looking for descriptions, largely i...

    Now, I make no apologies for being a Ghostbusters fan, really I don't, so deal with it cupcakes! However, I do like to know what I am getting for my hard earned money, so I investigate, I observe and I make my choices, based on the best sources. You also may recall that I got in to cosplaying a Death Eater a few years back, and where that led, in terms of my rather anally retentive obsession with details such as footwear etc. Well, now I am applying myself in a similar way to a Ghostbusters impression. After all, there are few things a  middle aged, overweight guy can do cosplay-wise that are as appropriate as a Ghostbuster. Adam Savage of Mythbusters fame and prop builder par excellence has released a preview of the Hasbro Pulse prototype Spengler pack , and it's a seriously good looking piece with an amazing amount of detail which makes the idea of kit building a pack an expensive and harrowing option. Take a look here, if only to have a good old fashioned geek-out:...

  It was the height of Summer, my parents were a little less oppressive, it being the Summer holidays,  and I had been allowed to stay overnight at the homes of friends where we watched non-stop fantasy and horror videos from Saturday afternoon until late the following Sunday, stopping only to walk the few hundred yards to the local Chinese takeaway where it seemed we tested the entire menu in a single sitting. This was a grand life, and the company and atmosphere always cordial. Unfortunately, nobody – especially me – was safe from the odd jape, even here. One day the two Pauls (we shall call them Paul 'G' and Paul 'S' ) had told the story of how a previous owner of the house had been found hanging at the top of the stairs like a grizzly marionette. I was suitably ‘creeped out’ and a couple of hours later as I sat in terrified awe watching I think a film called ‘The Entity’, Paul ‘G’ threw a cushion across the room outside of my perip...

 So, the Salute show seems to be getting some mediore press as you scan the electronic aether, this year. Well, here’s my take… Salute was always Spring.  We always said at Triples that if Salute was before Triples, the bring and buy would do less trade, and vice versa and that held true. The rumours were that people would get all in a tizzy if anything encroached on ‘their date’.  I went to a lot of Salutes in the 90s, but once it moved from Kensington, and went stupidly large, I stopped, because that year it was impossible to see the show in a full day, so what in effect was the point?   We went home feeling cheated, and more than a little short-changed. It’s too large and too expensive, and generates an elitism which - and I may be tarring myself here - is not de rigueur anymore. Those who want good looking reasonable large games are treated as celebrities or dinosaurs, but it’s now become out of reach to most - (who have grown up thinking that £1.75 is the s...

 Well, it's been a very, very busy week here. I've had builders in, extending my patio by a third, and then raising the whole thing by 8 inches and incorporating it into my driveway, since I bought the land last year and did some fencing. It means that the trek from concervatory, 20 feet to the gaming room will be much nicer. So, the home improvements we wanted are all done within the year, but we've had to change our plans to go into the countryside and enjoy a nice autumnal lunch have been kaiboshed, as the builders elected to work all weekend to get it done, and what a job they have done. Today they finished the laying of the Indian stone slabs, and on Sunday they will be coming back to add the resin protective coating, which will also reveal the wonderful autumnal shades of the stone - so much nicer than a uniform hue, I think. So, I have 'cabin fever', which has me reaching for albums I've not listened to for ages. Having just popped on 'God's Own M...

 I think that my real interest in fantasy probably began when at age 8 in 1976 I read  The Giant Under The Snow by John Gordon. Set in the Fens at the end of the 1960s (although Mr Gordon skilfully writes in such a way that it's a timeless story) It tells the tale of three ordinary kids who come face to face with a an ancient evil, in the shape of a long dead warlord and his warriors, who now manifest as the 'Leathermen'. Think of those bodies found in peat bogs, but taller and animated and you'll get the idea. Now, imagine a a winter forest, where these fellahs are stalking amongst the bare trees, and if it doesn't make you shudder a bit, you need to get your vital signs checked. Over the years, I've read it again and again, and it always reads well. It's an easy read, but not childish, so you can really get into the story. I passed my copy to my wife yesterday, who'd never read it and she thought she'd read the first page before work. 46 pages late...

 Well, I just spent another couple of hours, pootling with my paints, for personal satisfaction rather than to my 'day job' standards. These are the two Carriers, the ISS Armstrong (left) and ISS Gilbride (right) forming the anchor point of the Terra Main Force. Their sister ships ISS Harrisson And ISS Steele are deployed with the Deep Penetration Squadron and Lunar Pursuit Squadron respectively.

Hi All, I have decided that from Summer 2022, I'll not be offering any of the Satanic Panic miniatures for sale or adding others, once the Giants have al been finished by Martin and sent to KS Backers. It's been a good ride, and a great time, working with Backers and fans of my ideas to recreate the models twhich so many of us cut our gaming teeth on. After posting the first of the completed Giant sets yesterday, amongst the 'likes' and positive comments, was one long exchange of PMs which left me thinking 'Why am I wasting my own hobby time and weekends?' It's not how I make my living, it's a bit of shared lunacy with others and so, when someone has come along who wants to just rant and dig up the metaphorical garden, the end result is that I have to weigh up whether spending my time and at least as much money to match that raised via you wonderful people is what I want to be doing at 53 years old. Anyway, here's the exchange which was actually poin...

Literally in the last few minutes, Martin has sent the first pics of enough completed pieces to show you what's going to be coming with the multi-part Giants range from Satabnic Panic Miniatures.   As always, Martin is faithfully reproducing his concepts: