Hi All, As you know, I'm very much about kaizen gaming, or if you prefer constantly improving the experience for myself and friends who are invited to Fackham Hall, to piss about with toy soldiers in the Rumpus Room. As well as clearing out my entire collection to replace it, I've rbeen refining the terrain at the same time. Thankfully it's all pretty much perfect already, but a few niggling bits needed my attention. Firstly, all of the buildings had to be Grand Manner, and I've just in the last week finished the outlay on that part of the operation with a final set of stables and a few more feet of dry stone walling.   The most glaring improvement was the gaming surface. I invested in the very nice and arguably durable, Last VAlley boards. But, they are heavy and I have pretty nasty arthritis, and a problem with my left arm which makes lifting 15 boards up onto the table, a hell of a job. So, having seen them advertised on Facebook, I took a shot with a 15x5 teddy bea...

 You may recall, that I mentioned a rumour of a return of Triples? Well, I was doing the rounds on the social media circuit and came across this post by Leon Pengilley of Pendraken Miniatures.   Now, despite being a Sheffield base business with a painting and miniatures arm, I've not been invited, so I can't comment on the numbers Leon gives, but it does seem like there's a bit of friction there, in the trade.  It's a shame, but it does have to be said that the Triple organisers did screw the pooch a few years ago, and perhaps connecting Triples to this new show, may have not been a good idea, particularly when the contacts listed on the site, are the same people who were scathing about the intelligence of traders who paid for stands, and who took 6 months and more to respond to legitimate trade enquiries. Allowing another show (and not a very good one) to get a foot in the door was the nail in the coffin for a major show in Sheffield, and I think perhaps there's a ...

 Another week passes, and I'm in a lot of pain from some issue with the outer coating on my foot bones dergrading which, I've exacerbated by standing a bit too long on a hard floor. 'Painkillers' you say - if only. Nothing is helping, and it's my own sorry-assed fault because I was too involved in unpacking 22KG of Elves from the estate of the late Joe Dever, creator of the Lone Wolf books. I am awaiting bone density scans, so hopefully that will confirm the suspicions of my consultant and some treatment will hopefully be forthcoming down the line. Anyway, I got the Elves all unpacked. The collection is esentially the Alternative Armies 'Crystal Elves' range, with 'upgrades' taken from the AA 'Flintloque' range. Whilst I wanted a 'High Fantasy' army, I didn't want gunpowder weapons, so I culled 8 artillery pieces, 3 cavalry units and an infantry regiment, alonf=g with some Generals. Here's what there is, if you want any of the...

 I just thought I'd share some pics of the progress being made by the memsahib on our pile of Grand Manner buildings. In addition to those shown, she also has 6 American buildings somewhere out in the games room's depths and then two sets of walls and a stable yard I bought last week...