https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/584137481/tag-dwarf-empire-knights-on-foot With just 12 hours remaining you only need to pledge £8 to get the Kickstarter Exclusive models. I have pledged for 500 of these little buggers and they are worth every penny! There's more than just knights... There's every type of troop you could ask for! Remember that the exclusive models will only go to KS backers and then the moulds will be destroyed, making them very rare indeed... TTFN

Yesterday, I finally got the main construction of the 'Big Shed' completed on my layout, and the lighting fitted. This means that I have been able to permanently fix and fettle the shed and fence. I am really happy with the grimy windows and the limestone hard standing. Next I'll add a portakabin and portaloo. Then I'll move on to the industrial unit and BR compound. Once they're done, I can start to add the fine detail and people to really bring it to life. Here are a few pics. Note please, that the 'night time' shot was taken before I dealt with light leakage. As before I have used the 'Just Plug' lighting system by Woodland Scenics which is simply the easiest way of lighting a layout. All in all, I'm really happy with this layout, given that it's new ground for me. What's more, I'm making serious progress, which I don't seem to do with wargames figures, given that I paint for a living and so rarely feel like paint

Well, I got up at 7AM this morning, after a well deserved lie in, and harnessed up the pack which roam the grounds of the manse to savage any intruders. I normally walk them a lot early on a local field and so at 7AM they were more than ready for some exercise - Which they never got, in the end! I was slowly ascending a steep path when two of the pack ran around my legs, acting like a bolas. I went down like a brick and I am not a small fellow. I stood up. took four steps and then realised that something was wroong in my chest. Anyway, I ended up in casualty with some of society's finest examples of hopeless causes and a number of police constables, who had obviously been busy. One member of the Watch spent a good five minutes giving me the eyeball, and as is the custom, I smiled and stared right back... And so, it looks like I have some broken ribs, high on the left of my chest. I'm dosed up to high heavens on every kind of pain killer short of morphine, and f

I have erected 200 feet of fencing and it's only 10AM on Boxing Day. Yes, it's OO scale, of course... Well, it's coming on in leaps and bounds. The warehouse needs painting and detailing as 'Miami Spice (UK) Ltd' and there's a red brick office for the central yard. At the far end, it's a case of completing the ground work and the scennic buffer around the big shed, before getting the details done such as portakabins, portaloos, junk, tools etc... Ditto for the office area.

Well, my mojo is back I fear. Introspective soul searching, and an analysis of what I really love, hobby-wise have made me realise that I really, REALLY want to get my head back into 'old school' fantasy gaming. I have always been a a fan of the Orc & Goblin armies and at the totally opposite pole, Dwarves. Orcs have got too silly even for fantasy, but Dwarves are still a pretty 'sensible' army. In 1989, when my daughter was born, in fact in the very week she popped out and said 'hi' to the world, I bought a Dwarven gun and crew from the Marauder Miniatures (Citadel offshoot) range, which re-imagined the short arsed little fellahs in renaissance attire. People took to them right away, but of course Q.T Miniatures had already produced Landsknecht Dwarves several years earlier with less of a trumpeting than the GW propaganda machine gave this range of latecomers. Still, I enjoyed painting them and then moved onto other things, such as being a full-time

Well, another year is almost at it's close, and I am indeed older and wiser... The one thing to come out of the last couple of years, is that  there are no more favours without the chink of coin. The Swiss had the right idea. On the flip side, I do still have a few friends after my castigation and scourging as well as the fall out from 21st December 2012 where I put the fact that my wife had pneumonia before dragging her to a get together of old gaming mates in a wet and windy backstreet pub, far from the beaten tracks. I ended up saying a few choice and offensive words (no surprise there) and that was the last I heard or saw of about a dozen people I'd known for over 30 years. But, at least I have been true to myself and have not bent to the wills of others. Not the nicest wisdom, but it was an experience. People may not like me, but I still hold them in my thoughts and heart for the most part. It's a funny old world... Moving on, I have been drawn in by the Ki

Now, that's more like a holiday... After tending to the needs of my menagerie at 5:30AM, I made a little toast,with strawberry jam along with a mug of Java, and crawled back into bed to watch Antiques Roadshow and sleep in until 10:45. What could be better? Well, I woke up with that general joie de vivre which comes after dreaming you are on a motorcycle with a large animated  marshmallow figure on the handlebars - You know the feeling... So, I should have stayed away from the Mac and my credit card because I decided that, given that I have been a good boy this year and have ended up 'in the black', despite some rather ambitious plans and projects  I could risk a look at the catalogue of original Rodney Matthews works. I am a big fan of RM's work, and have been for about 4 years, but I've never allowed myself to add one of his works to my gallery. OK, owning assorted pieces by John Blanche, Tony Ackland, Wayne England, Phillip Downes and Tony Hough (and a

Last Thursday, saw me finishing up for the year, about 10 days ahead of my standard schedule. This was due to the fact that I had worked like a demon for the last two months, completing two and sometimes three days of work in a single looooong day. And so, all that left was the stripping down of my studio to give it the end of year deep cleanse which marks the 'official' last day of work, and thence to enjoy an extended Christmas break until my return to  my desk for work purposes on January 4th. But, before I did that I had to go and pay homage to the former frontman of Marillion, the band which figured heavily in my youth as I struggled with all the crap that the 80s could throw at me. Fish has remained a force majeur of the heartfelt lyric down the years, and whilst I openly confess that it took me 20 years or so to really appreciate this, boy have I been making up for it. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the 'Misplaced Childhood' album and tour, and s

For me, music and gaming have always gone together in a BIG way... Asia, Human League, Duran Duran, Haysi Fantayzee, Adam & The Ants, Sisters Of Mercy, The Cult, New Model Army; they have all played a big part in my life and I can tell you exactly what I was gaming or painting to each of them. But, without a doubt the bands which fuelled my creativity and imagination the most were Rush, Marillion and Yes. To Yes, I painted ECW and scratch built mecha. whilst to Marillion, I painted some of the most intricate Samurai I ever turned out, and then along with Rush they got me through exams, arrest for assault on a kid who was kicking the shit out of me, and the angst filled later teen years during which  I painted hundreds of fantasy figures and actually completed armies. Of course Marillion split, but lead singer Fish continued to write and perform some wonderful stuff. This week I'll be watching him perform the entire Misplace Childhood album on it's 30th anniversary a

If you sit back and look around you for a short while - I mean at the cultural influences, not your living room - you'll quickly conclude that it is now 'hip to be square' or to put it another way, it's fashionable to be a 'Geek'. Let's take a look at what the term actually means in it's original form, and let's go to Wikipedia for the answer: 'The word geek is a  slang  term originally used to describe  eccentric   or non-mainstream people; in current use, the word typically connotes an expert or  enthusiast  or a person obsessed with a hobby or  intellectual  pursuit, with a general pejorative meaning of a "peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, esp[ecially] one who is perceived to be overly intellectual". OK, I'm good with that... Those of us with a 'certain vintage' may have been - and probably were - bullied harassed and generally given a hard time. It's a common thread, although many deny it

Despite feeling like shite, I have managed to get the security fence and propane storage cage fitted on my OO layout. (yes, the 'legit' business has it's stuff secure, unlike Simmonite's yard) and landscaped in next to Miami Spice (Imports) Limited, prepped a second set of fencing for the BR civil engineering depot, and got the groundwork laid for the motive power shed at the far end of the layout. Quite enough for today and I feel rather tired out now...

The first of my Amtrak consist arrived yesterday and I am very impressed indeed. Fully lit, including number boards and ditch lights, these are truly channeling the spirit of America and the heydays of Amtrak. TTFNMF

North Korean generals, apparently: It looks like they've been co-opted into a solar energy program as collectors.

I have found that toy trains are even more addictive than toy soldiers, and that just like the tiny tin troopers, if you spend money you can get some fine stuff... As I outlined the other day I am commissioning a third bespoke layout after the Christmas holidays - another N Scale layout which, will pretty much fill one wall of my studio on shelf brackets, above the two free-standing layouts already commissioned.  It's a mere 9 inches deep but 13.5 feet long . Still in N scale you can get a LOT into that space without even using scale compression. As with the other N scale layout, I've gone back to Ollie Reading at The Fiddle Yard  www.thefiddleyard.webs.com   Ollie is about half my age but has a pretty solid reputation on the model railroad circuit. What's more, he understands what matters: Communication Frankness Communication Quality Communication Reliability Communication Accountability Communication Competitiv

Straight off the bat I'll say that posts may be sporadic for a while as I focus on work ahead of Christmas (I want to be able to clear my workload for December by the 12th and then I have nearly a month of holiday at my fingertips - muwhahahahahahahahahaha) and to also try and get on top of health issues including this arm and shoulder thing, which it appears is caused by a prolapsed disc about 5 down from my cranium, giving the nerves a hard time. Consequently, going against medical advice I am working my usual 8 hour days and so the thought of typing afterwards is not pleasant. The Renaissance plan has been shelved for a while as I move on to plan and execute the commissioning of a third model railroad set in North America in the late 80s again. I am split between either a Florida themed layout or perhaps Canada. A long, mainly single tracked roadbed with spurs to assorted small industries and a staging yard, representing the 'rest of the world'. The brief to

Now, I am a big fan of the classic 80s film Ghostbusters , for which I make no apologies. I am also a lifelong fan of LEGO. Last year, I managed to get the limited edition 'ECTO-1' which was released for the 30th anniversary of the film and which, sits on the Shelf Of Treasured Things in my studio. Well, LEGO have taken things to the extreme now with the upcoming release on January 1st, 2016 of the Ghostbusters HQ, which is in scale with ECTO-1 model, and which has almost 4500 parts. The price is a pretty reasonable £274.99 and this will mean that I sacrifice about 7.5% of my allocated hobby budget for the year, leaving plenty for the few games related purchases I want and the two conventions (Vapnartak and Britcon) I'll be attending, the rest being set aside for model railway deviancy. More details can be found here:  http://shop.lego.com/en-GB/Firehouse-Headquarters-75827 TTFN

OK, so if you have been finding that all those big, shiny shows in recent years have looked a little like this: And you would rather go to a show which feels like this: Then I would direct you to  PAW 2016 hosted by the Plymouth Association of Wargamers... This is a great show, with a great atmosphere - and a BRING & BUY untainted by mercenary concerns. The show takes place at the start of the next 'campaign season' on  February 6th/7th 2016   At  The Kitto Centre Honicknowle Lane Plymouth  PL5 3NG You can find out more at http://www.paw2016.co.uk/ So, get your wargaming year off to start that will make you feel more like this: And less like this: And now with all that said: TTFN