It is with genuine sadness and heavy heart that I must record the passing of Sheffield Wargames Society founder member and long time Chairman, Steve Roberts.    I was 13 when I first met Steve (some 43 years ago, now). It was a chance meeting. I'd been playing Dungeons & Dragons for about a year and had taken some Citadel FTZ Zombies back to my Junior school to show my headteacher there, who'd always encouraged the creative arts in pupils.    He was impressed (as you'd expect) and told me that a wargames club met at the school now, on Monday nights run by a chap called Steve Roberts.    Well, of course I was interested, and together with my friend Alan Staniforth, I attended the club, to find there was no D&D...   What there was however were historical games, played by local kids with 'Big Steve' the only adult. But he ran that club like a champion, providing all the models and simple rules, which was just what you needed to hook kids in.   Steve allowed us

 We have all done stupid things in pursuit of our hobby. As I sit typing this next to a bookcase filled with around 150 cookery books on it, I am reflecting on another gastronomic act of stupidity related to my own hobby journey, which nearly finished me off... You see, I was looking for a book in my studio yesterday, apropo of planning some colour schemes for my fantasy collection, when from between two Paper Tiger titles, an innocent looking laminated sheet slipped out.  Thinking this to be one of those QRS's you seem to accumulate over a lifetime, I glanced at it and recoiled in horror, a horror which a writer like Lovecraft saved for the last few paragraphs... You see, a few years ago, a group of us grognards from the Steel City, decided that a Sunday trip to Warhammer World - a place I don't really like, but am drawn to, in the same way that you are drawn to the aftermath of a serious road accident - and a pub lunch in Bugman's Bar. I think that the reason we went down

 Well, this morning's mail has been brilliant for the gaming project with 7 boxes of Regiments of Renown, a TA4 Orc War Machine, a Chaos Harpy and a couple of other bits from the 83-84 period. I've found a bit of lead fatigue of the war machine, but that can be dealt with, so I'm not too bothered by it. The RoR sets are 4 x Harboth's Black Mountain Boys and 3 Mudat's Mercenary Half Orcs, providing two more 'celebrity' units for the fantasy project. My wife added another box and a half of based models to my stack yesterday, in the form of Chronicle Wolf Riders, Grenadier chariot, Satanic Panic Dwarf cavalry, Essex Miniatures Gnomes and Chronicle Kobolds - and a few character types:     All in all, it's moving forward very nicely indeed.   TTFN

 I've been wickedly busy over the weekend, as I waded through 500+ models, getting them cleaned up, sorted out and undercoated, ahead of sending them to my painter. I still have about 900+ to get sorted, but once that's done, I just have to worry about 250 more models next year (maybe earlier) and then it's done, the fantasy poroject is complete and I can return to a normal life :) By the end of July I hope to take delivery of another 300-400 models from the painter, and so my wife has been busily basing lots of stuff over the last week. She's completed all of my Elves, which are some of the few models which are not metal and old school, but I confess that I love the Oathmark and RGD stuff because it has a good O.G feel to it. To this end, I have 120 RDG Satyrs, and around 300 Oathmark Elves and Dwarves. I do aim to get as many old Citadel Broo and Beastmen on the table too, but the imposing size of the Satyrs makes them look brilliant in 20 figure units. I went out to