Hallowe'en Scarecrows

Just back from a week's R&R in hot and sunny Tenerife (brain disengaged, no painting, one wargame - more on that tomorrow and several books read...)

As it's Hallowe'en I dug out these old RAFM Scarecrows I painted up a great many years ago (in enamels!!). Wonderfully sculpted miniatures, I'm note sure if they have any wargaming application but they sure were fun to paint...

The Best of Battle

As I have stated previously I was a big fan of Battle comic when I was a kid (and still am as a big kid!). Having been struggling with a stinking cold this week that has prevented any painting, my disposition was cheered immensely by the postman who delivered the long awaited The Best of Battle Vol 1 from Amazon.

This anthology from Titan Books is great and at £9.99 fantastic value (in fact my copy from Amazon was only £4.99 so even more fantastic). At 288 pages it contains selections from D-Day Dawson, Day Of The Eagle, The Bootneck Boy, Rat Pack, Major Eazy, Fighter From The Sky, Hold Hill 109, Darkie's Mob, Panzer G-Man, Joe Two Beans, Johnny Red, The Sarge, Hellman Of Hammer Force, Crazy Keller, The General Dies At Dawn, Charley's War, Fighting Mann and Death Squad! Roll on volume two...

The really great news is that in adddition to the continuing reprints of the classic Charley's War and forthcoming Johnny Red, Titan also plan to release Darkie's Mob, Rat Pack and Major Eazy - brill!

When Skeletons Attack!!

Came across this on a bit of You Tube browsing and couldn't resist putting it up for inspiration.

Reminds me I must finish that Tomb Kings army I've got made up, all I need to do is spray it and dip...

Fragment

Not a lot of painting is being done at Bleaseworld at the moment for one reason or another (though strangely the postman keeps delivering parcels of stuff needing painting!). However, I have managed to finish Warren Fahy's highly entertaining book Fragment.

Marketed as 'Jurassic Park for the Lost Generation' it must be said Fragment has no link with Lost other than it is set on a Pacific island (indeed one wonders why the 'Lost Generation' can't just watch/read Jurassic Park...). Anyhow, the newly (re)discovered island is a biosphere of fragment of a lost prehistoric continent that has evolved is a totally different way to the rest of the planet. This is explained in typical Michael Crichton pseudo-science babble by a group of scientists that tend to get eaten by various carnivores on the island (I would guess this book has already been optioned by Hollywood and it will make a great summer blockbuster).

Whilst Fragment isn't going to win the Booker Prize (even ignoring the fact it hasn't been nominated) this is a good little "airport novel" (indeed I read over half of it at Paris CDG and on the plane to Bristol), with lots of interesting monsters and some ideas for games. SF gamers looking for inhabitants of a death world (or just some new xenos) will get something out of this.

Richard III's Birthday (& Other Important Anniversaries)

Today is Richard III's 557th birthday (that's a lot of candles) but (to my mind) more importantly my 17th wedding anniversary, so I better stop playing on the computer listening to Radiohead and go pour SWMBO a drink now Eastenders has finished!

A Blast From The Past...

I have started work on my Brigade Models ONESS Germans for Iron Cow and two Bristol Fighters for AirWar: 1918, but they don't look very interesting at the moment, in the meantime here's more from IronCow TV!

I came across a selection of photos David Manley took at Games Day 2001 and 2002 and the opening of Warhammer World 2002 which I've allowed iMovie to play with and adding the obligatory prog soundtrack.

The photos are quite interesting in that not only do they show some fine examples of participation games, but also a wider spread of games including Warmaster and even Battlefleet Gothic.

Hope you enjoy this while I slap various shades of green paint on white metal (I'm so fed up with green I started dreaming of painting up some Swiss Guard with las rifles earlier for a change!)