Happy Easter to you all, from the Dark Tower, where there are no chocolate bunnies, eggs orindeed,  fluffy chicks (the Orcs in the lower levels, choke on them). Earlier in the week, I reached out to my former friend Roger, but received a two line polite 'fuck off' reply. Such is life... And so off I jolly well fucked, and fucked off I shall now jolly well remain, because, you know... life is too short and I previously allowed my friendship and affection for Roger, to cut out several other older friends back in the Christmas of 2020. I have since apologised to all those individuals, and will never repeat that mistake, nor will I allow myself to be made to be feel somewhat inadequate in the estimations of others who should know better. Life is simply too short for teenage angst revisited. End of lesson... I'm enjoying day three of a 5 day extended Easter break, and we spent Friday in the Peak District, taking an excellent 5 course lunch, which was well worth the £124 includ

 Hi all, well, the plastering of the summoning chamber, here at the Dark Tower atop Fackham Hall. Now we prepare for the next stage of destroying the family manse... I was really pleased to hear from one of my painters yesterday, regarding my fantasy collection, and moreso because he reported that I am to expect a big box of painted stuff back this week. In fact, it's a lot more than I had expected so soon. It was all paid for in advance, so the news is all good and I am expecting the following: 102 Nick Lund Goblins 8 Essex Miniatures mounted Knights of Evil 24 Essex Miniatures dismounted Knights of Evil 20 Nick Lund Wolf Riders 64 Essex Miniatures Gnomes 124 Gripping Beast Dark Dwarves 90 Oathmark Orc Archers 1 Nick Lund Goblin Chariot 1 Nick Lund Orc Chariot 55 Oathmark Elf Cavalry  This means that my fantasy project is almost completed with just over 500 models left to be painted, comprising: 108 Satanic Panic Lesser Goblins 120 Gripping Beast Undead 80 Gripping Beast 'East

 The Stalingrad re-enactment continues here at Fackham Hall, in the shadow of the Dark Tower. Yesterday was particularly hellish with the first visitation of that agent of disorder and damnation, commonly known as The Plasterer. At 3PM, I found myself almost silent in my distress (a rare thing indeed, as many will atest) with what is left of the bedroom, coated with a layer of plaster because , you know, plasterers just can't work using dust sheets. Hopefully, if the gods deign to smile upon us, we will have this demon exorcised by close of play on Monday, whereby the other troublesome spirit, The Builder, will return to rip or hammer something else. If we are lucky we'll have everything sorted by the May Bank Holiday weekend. I confess that I've done little pertaining to gaming this week, as trying to work in this living hell is bad enough, but I have been thinking as I do, aboutthe hobby in general and reflecting on how far I've come in the hobby and indeed the busine

It's no secret that I am a bit unconventional in the way that I create my personal universe and how that in turn infiltrates and indeed infuses my gaming. I surround myself with a lot of 80s cultural stuff, such as an immense collection of 80s comedies and sci- fi movies, music, books, advertising and sometimes, as today, a bit of 80s technology. For the most part it never gets used, but lurks on a shelf in my studio and will be looked at and the spirit of  80s coaxed from it in an almost occult and ritualistic manner. Today I was browsing in a charity shop for the usual 'scoops' of games and books, when I walked past a stock room, the door of which was open. Well, what caught my eye was a genuine 1979 Sinclair Microvision 1 3/4 inch screen portable T.V. I asked if it was for sale and was told 'Yes, but it's not been tested.' to which I responded that it was fine, I'd take the risk. The lady then passed me another box containing the Sincla

Talk about a busy week...  All the windows and doors have been replaced, with the exception of the kitchen window which the company is going to replace free of charge, and will be about 4 weeks down the line. The current window is only 3 years old, so it's not as if it's urgent, unlike the rest. Work has been a bit heavy too, which was just what we needed before spending our weekend de-cluttering under the house and the bedroom, filling an 8 yard (standard builders size) skip with stuff we have never unpacked since we moved here from our previous larger house. When I say 'filled', I mean just that and it must weigh about 6 tons. We kept about 1 ton of stuff, which we'd simply forgotten we owned, such as my wife's photography stuff, several hundred CDs and the like. I threw out 9 bin bags of clothing which is now too large for me - well, it went to a charity shop as much of it was really good quality stuff such as merino wool jumpers (6 of those) shoes, two bespo

   It's been 'one of those weeks'... We were due to have all our double glazing and doors replaced on Monday with the exception of our kitchen window, which was replaced 2 years ago, but alas they called on Monday morning to cancel. Accordingly, I got on the old talking bone and set about them, pointing out that they were a 'big name' and I had, based on that, paid in full in advance. Furthermore I had three other contractors waiting in line to come in behind them. They apologised and rescheduled for the 24th...  I hit the roof. They rescheduled for the 20th... I descended back through the roof like 747 with terminal systems failure. They said, 'We'll see you Wednesday'. Well, the arrived yesterday and brought the correct anthracite door and bay windows for the front, and also the same colour for the sides - which should have been white.  AHA! So that was why they had rescheduled and not been honest about it. A second hole appeared in the roof.

Oh, but the Napoleonic virus is in my veins as I feared. And so I must stoically accept my fate like a doomed albino prince. Now, I am going to take a somewhat altered position on my previous statement about avoiding Waterloo like the plague, so sit back, grab the popcorn and watch me weasel my way out a sticky situation like a politician caught with their trousers down in a Soho basement.  I have been opposed to Waterloo per se, as it's been 'done to death' like a Bangkok lady of negotiable affection in the tourist season. But, I accept that it does have some interesting orders of battle to allow the use of armies other than  British, French or Prussian. I have developed an interest in the Allied contingents involved and to this end my new project will hopefully be to represent the 1st and 2nd Netherlands Divisions, the Brunswick Contingent and 3 Netherlands Cavalry Brigades present at Quatres Bras and/or Waterloo. I'm not scaling units to the OOBs, but th

 So, sang the coquettish Kayte Garner of 80s 'Urban Vagabond' group, Haysi Fantayzee - I am a lifelong fan. In a week that has seen the fan base of ex-Marillion frontman 'Fish' go at it with each other over his farewell, tour, and the mardy, Hibernian himself go on a rant through the press because some of his fans (your correspondent included) are not happy with how it's all gone down. Mullets are being pulled out by the roots, white Hi-Tec boots are being scuffed and frankly it's all very grubby. I have become so disgusted by it all that I have given away my collection of autographs and tour shirts, because as I said, it's all grubby and sordid and not at all what I expected from someone who had a great influence on my as a teenager and beyond. Well, I have been putting some time into my gaming projects rather than wading in the grubby streams of Progressive Rock. Yesterday, I grabbed a random unit from the massive hoard of vintage Minifigs and Hinchcliffe