Well, I promised at the end of Part 12 that I'd tell you more about the 'Green Horizon' scenario for the Traveller RPG, which appeared in White Dwarf 35 and how it changed things up for me. Ass I've already related, the late Steve Roberts (blessed may his name be, and always remembered for the great man he was) was running a 'feeder' operation for SWS at Limpsfield School, which was a 'community school' modelled loosely on some of the Radical Left teaching methods which proliferated in the 70s. It's an interesting subject in it's own right and was the only school I know of in the area which turned out well-rounded kids from all backgrounds. Being 10 years old and let loose in a purpose built craft workshop with enamelling kilns, was amazing as was the sense of folk history and appreciation of the environment we were instilled with by passionate, committed, truly politically radical staff, hand picked for the job.  The school sat as a very sol...

 The 80s again you say? Well, yes, that's sort of a given, here. You can go elsewhere if you wish, but most of you are of that golden vintage, when Marillion had a Scots front man, Rush were singing about concentration camps and Tempole Tudor were coming over a nearby hill with the swords of a thousand men - but where were the men they belonged to? These were days when broadly speaking, people were too busy with real politics to be worrying about the which changing room they could use, or being offended because the tofu was on display next to a prime steak in Fine Fare. Wimpy was big, MacDonalds were unheard of and KFC was not yet ghetto-ised. In fact KFC was bloody expensive and a treat until the mid-80s, when the first mass influx of doner kebabs were heralded on kids TV on the BBC by none other than the late great David Bellamy of all people as 'healthy' fast food. Art was truly edgy and so radically Left that today's theatre scene eactually looks like a weak assed p...

 It amazes me, that in what is in effect an industrial scale 'Wanker Breeding Program', wargaming seems to attract a truly pure strain of wanker which stands out amongst even wankers like me... See? I include myself in the sweeping appraisal, because, you know... I get it. These are wankers of a purity which, were they cocaine, would turn the testing solution not just pink, but fluorescent. There's recently been a little rash of smart assed comments on the social media pages of small wargaming businesses, being scathingly critical of whatever they posted, seemingly without rhyme or reason. A few chats later and it seems that there's a little cadre, apparently from the WBP, who have got loose in the wargames eco-system... As someone quipped the other day, 'A smack on the nose with a set of hardback rules, would sort that out.' Whilst this is funny, it made me recall when this almost happened to a well known (now dead) trader at a small show in the 90s, because he...

 I had some more W.I.P shots from Martin Buck yesterday, as he ploughs through a massive list of Chaos themed sculpts for Satanic Panic Miniatures 2.0...    All in all, I am really excited about this rebirth, using solely my favourite old school sculptor...

 I decided on a whim - literally - that whilst I am heading towards 15mm in a big way (no ironic oxymoron intended) my ECW has to be done in 28mm. I know, I know, dog to vomit and all that jazz, but if I am going to indulge myself in this hobby, I'm going to do so in a way which brings back memories for me. Now, ECW is an odd one, because I owned 15mm and 28mm at the same time, in my youth, and both had their drw for me, but, I always loved the Once Upon A Time In The West Country skirmish rules by Pete Berry, which we played a lot , with the then newly-released Wargames Foundry ECW figures which could actually be ordered through local  Games Workshop stores for a while, and being blooming and vibrant young reenactors too, we paionted miniature versions of ourselves when we built up armies. So, 28mm has always had the edge in terms of specatacle, but trust me when I say that a good looking 15mm ECW army made up of Mike's Models, Gallia and Jacobite Miniatures, is a wonderful ...

  I am very pleased to announce that Satanic Panic Miniatures will be re-releasing the original Museum Miniatures 15mm ancient ranges, beginning with the Classical Indian range, which is well... A classic range. These will be available late Summer, possibly with a pre-order or crowd funding.  With new moulds mastered and cast by Chris at Macrocosm, this will ensure the continuation of a series of models which still cause gamers of a certain vintage to get all teary-eyed.

I was chatting with friends over the weekend, and it was quite clear that I am far from the only one with 'views' on how the hobby is becoming a playground for people with agendas other than just playing with little lead dollies on make believe battlefields. One of the things we discussed was 'gatekeeping' and how it is used as a derogatory pejorative, when in actual fact, it's really time that the so-called gatekeepers of the hobby were given some due. Look, like it or not, those people who care so much about the history and traditions of the hobby will be the ones who history will show, were the true heart of wargaming. You can experiment and innovate all you like, but never lose sight or memory of where it all began. Admittedly, I only started in 81'/82' but hell, I was taught by my older gaming peers to respect the roots and trail blazers in the hobby. They did not try to constntly fucking milk gamers. They came up with something, improved it and honed i...

 Ah Summer... That brief time when one's mind wanders back to simpler times of sea, sex and 3D6. When I say I live and breathe gaming, I genuinely mean it. I go to sleep thinking about figures and I wake up thinking about them, after often dreaming of games. It's an equitable life imdeed, and has always been thus, since those tentative toe-dips into the hobby, so very long ago. The Summer holidays were great. We didn't worry about 'extreme' heat, there was plenty of Kia-Ora on ice in the fridge and my parents had a long and well kept back garden, on which I and similarly mgalomaniacal friend would play vast games of 1st and 2nd ed WHFB from 10AM until 5PM, in an unending war. The size of the garden meant that we could use war machines to full effect, and I remember fondly how we wrote rules for the prolonged death spins of large flying creatures, most memorably resulting in a dying dragon spending 8 turns spiralling around the garden before fortuitously crashing to ...

 Despite having to struggle to keep paint fluid due to the heat, the weather yesterday, meant I was taking breaks, just to breathe and relax my muscles, taking a few moments to browse the various forae and sales sites. I've had a Cold War bee in my bonnet for a few years now, but I've never found two opposing forces which I thought aesthetically pleasing enough. Yesterday, I hit the jackpot with both Russian and British forces in 15mm coming along at a great price. Being a Yorkshireman, I still took a chance on someone else snapping them up (they were very favourably priced) and enquired as to a possible discount for taking both. It paid off, and I saved a three figure sum on a three figure purchase: In 1983, I , like so many was growing up at the apex of the Cold War, so these vehicles were cutting edge, and still hold a fascination for me. I was also reading Ringworld by Larry Niven after seeing the excitement in the gaming press about Chaosium securing the rights for a rolep...