Well, we are now safely into the period where it is reasonable to play the Jethro Tull Christmas Album and I have been reviewing the year's acquisitions. Despite deciding to start over with my collection, for which I am constantly mocked by my best friend (it's his right of course and I would expect nothing else) it's looking good.  I am hoping to have it all rounded out and painted in about 12 months, if I can sort of the pile of shiny new lead into units amd get the brifs written up. Of course, it's already been paid for in advance, as always (after all, that way it's all done and dusted). I've taken the tabletop to another level too, with the teddy bear fur mats making the rest of the terrain look even better. Yesterday, my sci-fi buildings from Scotia arrived and I got confirmation that two units of 1980s vintage 25mm troops for Battletech are now on their way to me from the U.S, wrapping up my sci-fi project. They will be re-based but not repainted as I wi...

I was sat, the other day, looking at old convention reports, programmes, and the like in one of my fits of nostalgia and it struck me just how poor modern shows are becoming. Yes, truly poor - SHAME ON US ALL. It's almost as if we have a developed collective apathy when it comes to promoting what we do, we are entertaining ourselves and not thinking about expanding in a fit of wargames navel gazing of sorts. I myself am guilty of this to a great degree, because there was a time when I would have knocked up a damn fine display game and done the rounds because I was full of vim and mustard and wanted to show the world what I could do, but alas these days I really can't be arsed. After all, why should I put time into entertaining a bunch of similarly lazy-arsed bastards? - You see? It's a vicious circle. Now, there are some mighty fine display, as my previous post made abundantly clear, but here we are in the cradle of wargaming, more woried about whether we have...

 I've really been reflecting on what I really need from my hobby of late,  caused mainly by going back in time and raiding the memory banks to try and reconnect with the younger me. Yes, I know I live in the past, but it's a really interesting way of evaluating your gaming. Now, in the last few years I have really taken the offensive and approached my gaming with a kaizen attitude. Basically, if I can improve my experience by re-doing a project, than it's on the cards. this was what motivated the great clearout eatrlier this year, the decision only to use Grand Manner terrain where possible, teddy fur mats and generally refining my armies to hit all of my aesthetic sweet spots. My favourite periods are all those which I first locked onto 40 years or more ago, and some were never realised on £3 per week pocket money, plus the money I could make painting after school (a not inconsiderable amount a lot of the time), but they were periods I aspired to. This last week has seen m...

 It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas... And by that, I mean that I am busy, busy, busy with getting the year's work squared away ahead of closing my studio at the start of December for my annual winter break. That's why my posts have been somewhat lacking of late, for which I apologise. As you will have seen, after almost 5 years of waiting, I took delivery of not one but two copies of Dice Men by Sir Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, a beautiful 'coffee table' book covering the first ten years of Games Workshop. Now, those who were 'not there' will start spouting on about te corporate monster we all know and loathe today, but this was a time when the gods walked amongst mortals in the first five or six stores on a regular basis, a time when some of the true innovators in the painting of miniatures were just blokes behind the 'figure bars' in their local GW branch. It's a really enjoyable and interesting read, supported by copious photog...

  The Dice Men is a stunning book. It took me back 40 years in 40 seconds. A plethora of visual goodness.   BUY A COPY NOW!    

It all began ( a bit like Ronnie Biggs with pencils in Woolworths) when a friend sent me a link to some nice Arthurians. I say friend, but he’s sort of like the bad brother you hear of in fairy tales involving Giants, Dwarves and Elves called 'Crow'. Anyhow, I saw at the bottom a link to some nice Vikings, thence I found a nice Dark Age Greek army (listed as Sea Peoples, but I am too canny not to know the difference) which you may recall is something I'd planned on having painted at the beginning of 2022, so it's a case of 'out via the in door'. So I made offers on them both at £200 less than asking price and well, I bagged them at a combined price of £1250. So you see, it wasn’t really my fault at all, but rather the fault of my friend (who shall of course remain cloaked in mystery). That said, he did me a favour when I look at the metal cost alone, and compare that to buying models from Foundry and Redoubt and sending them to a painter.     Of course the Viki...