A very good morning to you, dear reader. After a rather bad night's sleep I am throwing myself into another day of gaming related life. I am truly blessed to not actually give a crap about the world since 1989, seeking retreat into the world imaginary at all opportunities. On Saturday the Memsahib and I popped into Derbyshire to make the monthly farmer's market run for exotic mushrooms, porcini powder and a spot of lunch, taking with us Canine Unit 6, also known as Maggie 'Mo-Mo' McFuzzle who, 3 weeks after surgery was getting serious cabin fever. The Memsahib took it upon herself to buy a dedicated dog buggy, and as many of the eateries out there are dog friendly, she was able to sit to the table with us an snaffle the odd morsel: Once CU6 got the hang of what the buggy was for, and adjusted her somewhat substantial centre of gravity, I was transported back 34 years to struggling with 12 shopping bags and a child in a pram, with the same curses and oaths, despite the ...

    So, about these Steppe Orcs I've got a bee in my bonnet about. I have already said that I've commissioned and paid for a small range of Orcs designed to be compatible with the old Chronicle stuff. Well, I'd like to develop these further if people support the range, but what I don't want is the same feel as the Western Orcs but in a different style. I want them to have an identity of their own. So, they will largely be a mounted army with a few infantry armed with bows and spears. Artillery will be light in nature and will have wold drawn carts to pull them in a manner similar to 'galloper guns' of the 17th century (blame one Richard Smith for giving me that idea in a throw away FB comment the other day). The Steppe Orcs will be an ally and enemy of the Hobgoblins and a pain in the saddle for the Steppe Dwarves. The Satanic Panic 'world' exists solely in my addled and aged head, and of course I encourage you to tell your own stories. My ideas are sole...

 Well, I am 4 bases away from the weekend, and I'm sat watching paint (and glue) dry for the next hour.  I was listening to a podcast this morning and nearly spat out my coffee when I heard about a late 80s UFO report a few miles from where I was sitting. What was mre arresting was that it was literally over the other side of a hill where I and several others also witnessed strange lights at about the same time, and which to this day remains imprinted on my memory. I reached out to a friend I'd not seen in 35 years, who witnessed the same thing  but from his own vantage point initially, and his response was the same. I'd returned from the wargames club with the friend's brother on the last bus out into the sticks where my parents had dragged me for some obscure reason. One bus per hour into the city back then was barbarity of a level I'd never witnessed, let me tell you. Anyway, as we got off the bus, my friend was coming across a patch of grassland over the road, p...

 I was sitting today, literally watching paint dry and at the same time putting together an order for Orc Wolf Riders and siege machines. As one does... I looked at the total and it suddenly struck me that, given the number I want both immediately and at a later date, it would actually work out cheaper to simply commission 10 original sculpts in the style I prefer, and have them cast up.  Added to this, they could also be made available commercially if anyone was interested. I put out a few feelers and sure enough there's a LOT of interest. So as I cleaned up for the day, I paid for a range of wolf riders and a bolt thrower, styled as Steppe Nomads which will be compatible with several old school figure ranges. Work will begin on Monday and it's probable I'll have the ';greens' with me in a fortnight. And yes, of course I'll post pics. TTFN

  Well, the Kickstarter Trolls project is significantly above the tartget line. I'm packing the greens off to the mouldmaker (assuming we are successful in 5 days  and 5 hours) on Wednesday so the turnaround on pledges should be pretty swift indeed. I have two complete ranges on their way to me from the sculptor today. These are the Orcs and the Steppe Dwarf infantry. I've featured a few shots of these previously but late yesterday afternoon, I received pics of the war machine crew, so I thought it would be apt to post pics of the whole lot here:       As you will see, there are 8 Orc and 3 Dwarf shields, but of course there's also a large range of existing shields and of course weapons, so that you can customise your armies to a ridiculous degree. As normal, the archers and crossbowmen also have a bandolier with a pouch strategically placed so that you can depict them with slung shields to get that saving throw bonus. If possible, I'll also make the leering fac...

 You know, I can't resist a bargain. Yesterday, I was ble to purchase 100 sets of the pre-painted Nick Lund Orcs from EM4 at a very reasonable 80p per painted figure. These are metal of course which makes it a great purchase at £400 for 500 models.   The down side, is that they will be palletised for shipping and will have to be dropped on my driveway and physicaly humped into the house and thence to the games room for unpacking. Oh yes... The unpacking. These models are really well packed in boxes of five, so I have 100 boxes to open, remove the plastic insert, then the figures and the 5 x D20 that also come with each set. Experience tells me that the car will be absolutely chock full of cardboard and plastic, and what will I do with another 500 D20s? I then plan to grab 60 or so archers, 40 wolf riders a chariot and some characters from Mirliton and get them off to my painter. Oh and a few bolt throwers because what's not to like about bolt throwers? The memsahib is on high ...

  Gronit sat back, and burped loudly, an obnoxious scent of raw Dwarf flesh emanating in perfect time to the sound.   Across the clearing he watched with satisfaction as Ari and Burt, two of the younger members of the clan, playfully pulled the late meal's pony in two like one of those 'crackers' the humans used to celebrate the middle of the Cold Time.   In the same way, just a few moments later, there was a *SNAP* as the boys pulled the unfortunate beast clean in half, and then scrabbled to fight for the best of the 'wobbly bits' throwing aside the two ripped ends.   "GRONIT! GROOONIIIT!"   It was the clan's single She-Troll heading up the hill from the river (where she had been tickling pike), a large catfich in her hand, flopping, as she jesticulated wildly to the valley.   "Gronit, there's more of them Dwarf horsey-boys coming down the valley and they look pretty pissed about something."   Gronit rose to his feet (note easy with a b...

 After I posted the last article the other day, a friend of some 35 years commented that he used to wargame in the rooms above Gunson's Repair Services, as did I. Now, here's where it gets interesting, because I did not meet him there as our timelines didn't cross, but rather I met him when I was going through my Goth phase (yes, I was involved in sacking Rome, but only on club nights) and we had just hit it off due to our musical and sartorial tastes. I then visited his parent's home and it turned out that he was also a gamer (one of those wierd ones who have a thing about Napoleon - all very unhealthy). We have been friends ever since, but it wasn't gaming which introduced us and the fact that we passed so close to each other as gamers amazes me. The other day, I also came across a range of Dixon Miniatures 'Chaos Samurai' I'd not seen before. In total it was around 20 models and I found them on the Keep Wargaming website, tucked away in a dark corner....

 I guess I'd have been around 15 when I first truly discovered Dixon Miniatures. Back then, on Monday nights, Gunson's Lawnmower Repairs in Hillsborough, Sheffield, became the Dodo Shop, a pop-up wargames shop which opened for about 3 hours, curated by Roy Gunson (brother of the lawn mower repair, Gunson), John Armatys and Steve Royen who went on to found Hallmark Miniatures. The smell of grass seed and lawn food, still makes me think of those early days...   Steve, also stocked in his inventory the Dixon Miniatures range, which back then specialised for the most part in Japanese related figures. In fact, it was the Ii Naotaka figure I bought on one of my visits, which led to my first win in a painting competition, causing the late Ian Smith to ask "What's it like to be the North's best horse painter, then?' with his usual dry wit. It meant a lot then and still does, as Ian was a painter par excellence. Now, we were aneclectic bunch back in the day and most of ...