Hi ho,  Well, you will recall that I recently cracked on and painted a load of 15mm sci-fi , for a planned spaceport battle, based on my memories of games 45 years ago, using the Laserburn rules? Well, nice though those GZG and Brigade models were, they were not quite hitting the spot. The 13 year-old me, was into a more Space Opera vibe back then, and Laserburn did hit the spot.  So, I decided to go back to the drawing board and use the original Laserburn models again, which are of course available in all their greatness, from Alternative Armies. I wanted spectacle at the man-to-man level, with less emphasis on AFVs. After all, Laserburn was the game which replaced the main battle tank with the fearsome Dreadnought armoured suit, well before that upstart 40K was a pound sign in Games Workshop's red and glowing eye.  I planned for a BIG game, wherein a spaceport on on Entebbe II, a planet at the fringes of human Imperial space, is overrun by those fanatical and vile...

 Well, the last few days have been an eye-opener... It's been a loooooong time since I undertook a large project for myself in any scale, and as you know, if you follow my gaming life, for the last 6 years I've sent everything to a painter, since Lockdown meant I amassed a stash of money through the lack of shows. 2026, has resulted in attending just one show, with absolutely zero desire to go to any others for the time being, the idea of those moon-faced, wholesome idealists we seem to be plagued with these days along with over priced tickets - no the organisers do NOT bring people in, it's the xhibitors who don't get any financial recompense, and the traderts who pay for the pleasure of having sometimes sweaty and unhygienic souls pawing their wares before reaching into the coin purse to nbuy one figure, expecting the trader to act as if they are being showered (see the irony?) with largesse comparable to a trip to Harrods by a Saudi prince. Yesterday, I received an u...

In 1984, I first really got an interest in wargaming the Renaissance. Some older friends in the 5 clubs I gamed with every week, were ECW re-enactors, By The Sword Divided had been on TV for a while, and I had fallen under the Mephistophelean, the Machiavellian, grasp of Lloyd Powell, whom I looked up to as one of several role models, who collectively shaped me into the misanthropic and opinionated ne'er-do-well I am today. But more importantly, Lloyd really got me interested in the Italian Wars and Wars Of Religion, and even today, over 4 decades later, when I need to check something about that wide period, I will still pick up the phone and call him at his repose in the Tower Of Doom overlooking the Rivelin Valley, from where he plans the reintroduction of the Feudal system and the arming of certain government agents with the longbow and shoot to kill instructions. But, I digress, as always... I love the colour and pageantry of the period and I have developed a acute aesthetic se...