I've been planning the rest of 2024 and 2025, this week. Looking at the sheer amount of lead that's on my gaming table at present, for the Williamite Wars, I have reached the conclusion that I have enough to be playing with at present, but that does not mean that I am ending it there. As I think I recounted a few posts back, I have been pretty focussed on the idea of going back (as always) to the 1980s and to the time I first saw what was then, the new Front Rank, Jacobite range. I will always link the music of Big Country, in particular, their  'THE SEER' album, with its bagpipe-like guitar work and Celtic flavour.  Now, if I get a nasty attack of the 'North Of The Borders' it's that sound I look to for solace. Unfortunately, this leads to a vicious circle wherein I start looking at Scots armies and getting that aforementioned 'men in wigs, stocking and tricorns' fetish, juiced up by the 'men in checked skirts' syndrome Now, you'd have ...

 After a nightmare 7 days the previous week, last week was a little more normal, so in between various processes, and at 6AM with my first fruit tea of the day, I was able to take all the standard bearers from the newly acquired 28mm Glorious Revolution collection, and smarten them up, fixing them securely to the poles, trimming and lining the edges and making sure the poles were fixed soundly to the hands of the models bearing them. In the end I have to replace three banners. Two were not of the same standard (no pun intended) as the rest and one had actually been attached originally n an inverted position and, was so well fixed to the pole that major surgery is the only way. On Saturday morning, having completed the Jacobite cavalry whilst the memsahib partook of some horizontal canine assisted meditation - OK, she was having a lie-in with one of the dogs - I went out to the gaming room in my PJs - Hey, that's how I rock. Deal with it! - and thought I'd see just how lare the ...

 When I was younger, I used a shotgun approach to gaming, as many gamers do, I suppose. By that I mean that I threw a lot of money in a lot of directions, and amassed a LOT of lead which never got painted and was sold at a fraction of the cost. It was frankly sheer madness, but there's a train of thought which we all fall prone to, which is thinking that to be a 'proper' wargamer we need to play every period, even when sometimes we have very little real interest in it. Were I able to go back in time (I can, but that's classified information and if I told you how, I'd have to terminate you afterwards with extreme prejudice) and confront the younger me, I'd point and laugh. Hitting myself wouldn't work as I was a stubborn little fucker, and besides the thought of damaging those gorgeous features is too much to contemplate. Hopefully, the younger self would get all red-faced and riled up and demand to know what I was on about, and I'd point out that I was j...

I've been reviewing a life in gaming of late, in light of completing my Big Fantasy Project - IE: getting 6000 or so models fully painted or at least paid for and in the queue with my painter, and I can see two distinct purchasing patterns right from the outset. I was fortunate that in the mid 80s whilst at school, I was able to earn £50 per week painting whilst friends slaved for £7 - £10 a day in a weekend job. This gave me considerable freedom to travel the UK and buy what I wanted. Now this took two formats as already hinted at: 1. Walk into a GW branch be it my local Sheffield branch, Manchester or Leeds or go to Games of Liverpool and literally buy every model of a type at the counter, clear a shelf of multiple boxed sets or latterly just sweep a couple of freshly filled rails of blisters into my own shopping basket. 2. Place a mail order and buy 10-20 of each pose much as I would do for my historical armies, giving me at least a number of mono-pose units or a mi...

 It's been a hell of a week so far... On Monday, we were both geared up for a hectic return to work. I was getting ready for the pre-Christmas period where I try to get projects finished to the point that I can package stuff and get it out to clients for them to enjoy of the festive break, whilst the memsahib was faced with lots of meetings, following the return of Parliament after Summer recess. And then at 07:30, our world was turned upside down. Wehave a pack of assorted Scotties, who have been overseen for 14 and a half years by the smallest West Highland White Terrier you've ever seen, being a runt of a liter, not expected to survive and written off by a callous breeder. But we took her on and she had a good life despite her small stature and assorted digestive issues, and ruled the roost over considerable larger Scotties. But age is age, and she was looking frail for the last week, so we had decided to take the step which I hate more than any other, of deciding on euthana...