I sometimes wonder what went wrong with teenagers, as I have wondered this morning upon hearing on Radio 4 of the horrific knife attack on children in Southport. I'm glad that I grew up in the 70s and 80s, which, despite being dangerous, with punks and skinheads chasing long-haired types like your author around the streets and in one memorable instance, the Manchester Arndale centre - a great way to window shop at high speed, you rarely heard of such savage behaviour as unfolded yesterday in what is a quiet West coast town which I have fond memories of. The world is going rapidly insane... Anyway, let's head back to the 80s and the aethereal world my peers and I lived in... I spent my weekend cleaning and priming almost 500 old school minis, including 140 Chaos Warriors, 224 Night Goblins and 132 Lesser and Lesser Night Goblins, ahead of shipping around 30 kilos (gotta love the physical presence of old lead) off to my painter, signalling the end of Project Weird Shit.  True, ...

 Now I know I've been going on about fantasy for a while, but that's how I'm rolling at present. I don't tie myself to one mast, instead choosimg to sail in all directions as the winds of whim take me. I am arguably one of the fortunate generation who came up during the heyday of the hobby, when there was more enthusiasm than product lines, and we were obliged and indeed loved to create our own imaginary worlds.  I loved the fact that there was no real 'Warhammer world', it was pretty much a 'sandbox' onto which we projected our own ideas and aesthetics - and it was great. These days, it's all done and you hear terms like 'official' and 'canon' way to often in my opinion. Why on earth do people want to imit themselves in this way? Why play fantasy games if you are going to limit your imagination to 'official' worlds? Why not just play traditional fantasy games? After all, most fantasy armies have a tactical and organisational ...

 Crikey, but this gaming lark is one long adventure... No sooner had I confidently stated that that I'm at the end of the fantasy journey, but I then realised that I could really use two more armies, albeit small ones, in the shape of Amazons and Slann to 'finish off' the fantasy project. Now, the Amazons are relatively easy. I have a good number and need about 50 or so more, to make a decent army in Warhammer terms. I'm not going to even try and build massive forces of these, but if I can get to 120-160 models per side, they'll fit nicely into my larger plans as allied contingents of 'neutral' allegiance. Thankfully, I am still solvent enough in the annual gaming allowance, to make a spirited attempt at getting the stuff, and I have a few leads to little treasure mounds which will hopefully yield Slann, as they were quite popular in these parts, back in the day, and at least two people bought the army deals on offer at the time, so my hopes are high. As the...

 Well, I've been busy since 6AM this morning listing a massive slew of pre-slotta stuff on eBay having finally sorted out all my units for the Big Fantasy Project. Some 160 lots of photos and listing later and I am finally able to get to sit down. PHEW! Now the whole 'endgame' is starting to take shape. At 56 I'm looking down the barrel of eternal darkness, so I don't really want to be too long in getting my figures all painted and played with as much as possible. As I write I am back in 1981 with some Human League and I'm remembering all sorts of things, many of them game related, others not so. I've had a week of war with the neighbours as they object to now being unable to use my property as a parking lot, thanks to a fence to the side of my garden, which they have used as a turning circle since we moved in, in 2006, whilst simultaneously walling off their own property. Needless to say it's getting heated,  and as anyone who knows me will attest, I go...

 It's been an odd few days as I've had to take on board and process the passing of another gaming colleague, arguably one of the most influetial on me at a personal level, and someone whose shoes I could never step into, which given my natural arrogance, is quite an admission. Although I wrote an obituary of Steve as a gamer, I barely touched upon his legacy, and was really pleased to see comments from other gamers across the U.K who knew him, which was most satisfying.  I decided this weekend to spend a bit of time in my games room, to kick myself up the arse and at the same time lose myself in thoughts a little less maudlin than I had in the last few weeks. To this end, I ignored the window which is inflicting itself upon me, by blocking the right hand walkway, and set up the table, using some tiered boards I had been threatening to make for a while but not been industrious enough to complete. The idea worked and I can now raise the ground level with more than just the odd h...

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. ...

 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 ...