400th post, and 2026 (hopeful) plans.

 

The year turns softly, like a page half-read,

Old doubts grow quiet, loosening their hold.

We carry echoes of the words we said,

But set our gaze on mornings edged in gold.

The clock breathes out, releases what has been,

Its chime a promise more than something old.

Ahead, unmarked, the days wait, clear and clean,

With room for courage, gentler, bright, and bold.

We step together where the future starts,

And find new light still warming patient hearts.

*****

It's 2026, a new year, and hopefully a better year all around for everyone.

Last year, 2025, started hopefully, then slowly dissolved into a long drawn out mess with work and family health issues* taking up time from May onwards.

With the start of a New Year, it's often the point where people say about "New Year, New Me/Army/Project" and then talk about their future plans for the year, etc etc.

I'm aiming for a few small "achievable " things for this year, keeping things simple:

I have Three personal goals for the year:

Goal 1:

To make time to visit Element Games Stockport more often and socialise with my friend group there, and by extension play more games of stuff. 

Just really play more games. 

To that end I am thinking of picking up Talisman next time I go over there, so I can throw that down without too much set up and we can rip through a game.

They are getting into Bloodbowl, which has never grabbed me, but I can get Lion/Dragon Rampant going easily enough, and we've all been bitten by The Old World bug recently...

Speaking of The Old World...

Goal 2:

So, mid December when I visited, we played The Old World, and I have a 1,500 point Warrior of Chaos army built for the same on square bases!

This is only a small section of it, but i have more Chaos Warriors in the wings.

The second goal for the year is to get this all painted up to my tabletop standard, and get it working well on the battlefield.

This is a top project because it's a game which I KNOW I will be able to get games of, whenever I go to Element.

Goal 3:

The third goal, is my Samurai project.

I've faced the fact that the way things are going time wise I won't be able to get the Hail Caesar project off the ground, so I've made the decision to downsize to my favourite rules, Lion Rampant, and drop into Dragon Rampant if I want to field the more mystical Japanese bits I can 3D Print.

Above in the picture is a full size force for Lion Rampant, I just need to print off a suitable Commander figure.

I already have enough troops to put together an opposing force, and all my Sohei can easily be dropped into the game as well.

I would like to get somewhere with this as its a project that's been on and off again for the better part of two years now, and I've an itch to get some gaming in with them.

Bonus Goals:

So the last few things are just projects which have been on the workbench for a while which I would like to see finished.

The first of which is another Platoon and autocannon squad for Frasers Death Korps of Krieg army:

The second is the bits I have collected for my Black Legion army for "Project Eye of Terror", these are an 'if i got the other stuff done' project:

Lastly, a bunch of various characters, Lord Marshal Drier is for Frasers army, the Custodian, Education, Tzeentchian Sorceror and Arbite are all part started which need to be finished, and the orange mini is an oriental type character who could be dropped into the Samurai Dragon Rampant fantasy stuff:

I think these goals are reasonable and more to the point practically achievable** given i don't know what is going to happen time wise this year.

Let's have a good 2026, and I'll post soon.

Until next time, have nice day....

*without too much detail, things aren't back where they were family wise. Personally I hopefully, seem to have fought off most of the Black Dog's influence which dragged me through November and December.

**I could have run through a list of stuff I want to start and would be new projects:

The Red Book of the Elf King and Troll Wars by Lucid Eye.

A 3D printed Leonin force for Dragon Rampant.

Horus Heresy forces.

Crusader and Muslim forces for Lion Rampant.

Warmachine Cygnar, Khador, Llael and Trollblood forces.

Most of this stuff I already have, but no point piling on projects, instead of finishing ones in motion.

Old Stuff Day 2025.

 

Old Stuff Day 2025 has rolled around, and it's that time of the year to take a look at some older blog posts, ones your proud of, but may have been relegated to the dusty archive feature on the blog page.

My own contribution is:

Chaos Warhound Titan

I am really really proud of the fluff which I wrote here, a real high peak of writing for myself and something I hope to recreate.

From Xarfai Engle:

High Elves

The colours on those High Elves and Juvenile Dragons are sublime. The colours chosen really complement each other on the models.

From Rob Hawkins:

Undead Old World Army

Rob Hawkins projects are always inspirational, his Bat/Vampire Lord conversions are fantastic.

This is a showcase of his undead army, laid out in regiment form for The Old World, a game I'm getting into recently.

From Marc:

Iron Snake Contemptor

Marc, at Old School Gaming has a lot of great projects over the many, many years of blogging. This Iron Snakes Dreadnaught jumped out at me for several reasons.

The paint job and iconography are on point, I do like some ancient greek flavour to different settings and Brothers of the Snake is one of my favourite Black Library books ever, Dan Abnett really hit the nail hard with that book.

I hope you've seen something inspiring and enjoyable to read, with another Old Stuff Day finished, I'm hitting the paint table.

Until next time, have nice day...

A Little Place at Home, Building a Gaming Table - Part 4.

 

"When last we left our heroes"...

See now you know you're playing D&D because...erm...wrong thread...

"When last we left the table build"

That's better...

Last post, we'd gotten to the exciting part of putting the entire table together and making sure it all fitted somewhat neatly and wasn't loose or wobbly and would survive the feline attentions it would gather.

The next step was to stain the entire thing with Walnut Wood Stain so it matches with the rest of my furniture in the living room.

This was something of a non-negotiable from myself as it had to match, end of...

Staining in progress, the masses of cardboard at the bottom are to protect to wooden floor at my friends house where we were building the table:

Once we'd finished and moved it in pieces to my house, I began we the work of cat proofing the legs.

Being soft planed lumber and just the right size for a scratching post, I was worried that they would "have a go", and ruin the lower woodwork. A browse of Amazon procured a roll of "Sisal Cat Scratching Material" for less then a tenner and would protect the legs and give the cats something to work on instead (this was combined with a new scratching tree which is now screwed to the wall in the room as well).

There is meant to be a joke about Women wearing long socks here...but I couldn't find a good one!

Once we'd gotten the frames together, as an extra strengthening measure, we added these steel L brackets to the table.

This will pull the corners together and hold them (hopefully) regardless of how much jostling the table takes over time.

And here she is, built up and installed in my house. Not quite as dark as the bookcase behind, but certainly matching somewhat:

The magnetic handle in place as I lift the topper:

(I've no idea where the playing card came from).

And finally with the topper removed to prove it works!!!!!

We'd fed the cats recently before this photo was taken, hence the bowl underneath.

So, this project has been enjoyable, the pure unadulterated joy of just making something and seeing it come together has been extremely rewarding.

The fact that it's turned out better then expected by everyone is an added bonus. When I told Fraser about the gaming area being 3'*4' his response was:

"What can you play in that area?"

Quite a bit, but more importantly, I will make the hobby work for me!

I have a gaming table at home and (unless meeting up with friends) I won't have to drive nearly an hour to get a game in of anything now. I've already had a quick game of 40k on the table last night to celebrate my birthday (more to come on that).

I started these posts by talking about the professionally made table Fraser had bought and it now costing over £750.

In the interest of fairness, this table has cost me roughly £240 in total, that's adding in the extras like the Sisal and extra planks we needed after B&Q not knowing what "straight cut" means!

Granted not everybody out there has a good set of woodworking skills and knows what to look for, so I definitely saved the most money on labour costs, as we could measure (twice), cut (once) and build it ourselves.

But that's still a massive saving in cost.

There are some things which I would have liked to add, but would have been major headaches to either install or get working properly.

Example: A phone charger, either wired or wireless. Would have been useful for when people put their phones on the table surround.

LEDs, we did talk about it, but hiding the power cables from the cats would have been a painful experience, same as with the charger idea above, as the Furry Bio-titans will always find what they're not supposed to!

That aside, I'm happy with the table. A personal 40th Birthday present to myself, one which I will use regularly now.

I'll leave you with this photo:

Until next time, have nice day...

A Little Place at Home, Building a Gaming Table - Part 3.

 

With shift work there are often times when you can't find a decent block of spare time to carry on with a project that you've started...this was one of those.

If you recall, I started the table build, and had to leave it for a few weeks because of conflicting work commitments, but with a slew of days off I managed to crack on with on the table some more.

First job was to get the tin of wood filler opened up and fill some of those unsightly gaps and along the backs of the shelf sections.

This stuff was nasty, definitely an outdoor job, especially as it set the smoke alarms off when the tim was initially cracked!!!!

After about an hour of work, I had all four sides to this stage:

That's the sides all filled, once cured about thirty minutes after application, I got the sander on them and got them nice and smooth, especially important as these are the visible sides once the board is in use.

The next big job to tackle was the felt covering for the game board itself. I had bought a big two meter by one and a half meter sheet of dark grey felt in readiness, and spent a good hour ironing it to get the creases out from how it was packaged.

Once done, I layed it flat on the big table at my friend house where we've been building this, and we used spray fabric glue in a generous fashion on the game board soft foam tiles, the pressed it down firmly, slipping over and smoothing out the main surface.

We flipped it again to use the weight of the board to press it down and left for a late breakfast.

Upon returning, the glue had done it's job and the felt was secure, so we moved onto the next stage which would be adding battening to the underside for strength, marking it out with the woodworking mantra "measure twice, cut once".

And underway with the outside frame in place, at this point I took the time to go round with the knife (not cutting my hand open this time) and removed the excess felt. As we screwed the battens over the folded excess and used them to help secure the material.

"Belt and Braces fashion" never use just one, when two or more is stronger! The central and cross battens were added for extra strength and rigidity.

Flipping it over again to check and it was looking good.

A little tidying at the corners...

And she was ready to be test fitted into the frame... SUCCESS.

At this point I remarked how nice it was being at the stage where you start to see real progress and the end in sight.

He was that confident in the woodwork strength, that we threw a couple of eye-wateringly expensive Forge World models and a piece of terrain down...

Removing the games surface, attention was turned to the topper, a battery was glued and nailed twelve millimetres below the surround surface. This was to act as the base for the topper when it was on the table.

And the topped itself got some strength battens added, these are only crossbeams because the main frame is the one attached to the table which it rests on. The battery's on this piece are placed against the frame and the weight is cantilevered out into the frame for strength!

And flipped out we get "dining table mode" as I'm calling it. This is what the table will love as most of the time when I'm not gaming on it, so we've got to be able to use it everyday.

And then work had to stop, but we're in the homestretch and she's nearly finished!

The next steps are to stain the entire piece to match the dark wood furniture at my house and to sort the magnetic lever which will lift the topper out of the table. 

It shouldn't be too long now until I have her at my house and I am throwing dice across the tabletop.

Soon soon...

Until next time, have nice day...

Paul Sawyer - Fat Bloke.

 

I'm sure most of you, in the wargaming circle at least, will have seen the announcement by Warlord Games about Paul Sawyer recently:

The esteemed "Fat Bloke" when he was the editor of White Dwarf (arguably the best period of White Dwarf) and went on to become a co-founder of Warlord Games:

It's odd to write a post about a person you've never met, but this felt familiar somehow.

Paul Sawyer had such a lasting impact on the hobby, especially over the turn of the millennium and throughout his time with Warlord Games that I don't think a lot of people realise how much influence he had during that time. His legacy is such that it can dredge up memories which are over twenty-five years old and have such impact that I go back to reread the articles I talk about...

I remember as a kid grabbing White Dwarf each month and reading through it in the back of my dad's car on the way home from town.

My first issue was WD214, the Gorkamorka issue, and the very next issue, WD215 was the first on edited by Pauk Sawyer and it's often held up as a lot of people's favourite:

I still have my old battered copy, which I kept for the Piscina campaign in it, but looking back you could see the start of the inimitable style which would be the feature of the magazine for the next several years.

His fondness for self deprecating humour, infectious enthusiasm for the games and worlds, and of course, bacon butties all round:

The key of this time was having fun, and making what you could, which is what I think Paul Sawyer brought forward into everyone at the time.

WD222 with the Praetorian Vs Orks, Glazer's Creek scenario (Rourke's Drift, a scenario he would historically recreate with a Warlord Games box years later) is a fan favourite:

The bunker assault scenario with his White Scars Vs Graham Davey's Black Legion is another game which is up there which I remember devouring the article and going back to reread it again and again:

For me personally, I think the crowning achievement of his run with White Dwarf was the two issue battle report during the Armageddon campaign, issues WD248 and WD249:

With all the interacting tables and armies on display something I have always intended to do, but can never organise as I don't have enough friends:

The photo of him rubbing his hands before the carnage starts is a lasting memory, just how enthused he is in the middle of it all:

There are a lot more articles I could mention, like his Beastmen army and his Chaos army building series. Sadly I don't know much of what he got up to at Warlord Games as I never really followed the company, and during my late twenties/early thirties I sort of drifted in hibernation in the hobby for a while before getting back into it when I started this blog proper.

His own post, not the company one at the start of this post makes for sobering reading, even if it is lit through with his sense of humour:

What I do know is that whilst he will be missed by the community, we as fans will not understand the same level of grief that his family and friends will have. My own grief at loosing my dad to cancer won't compare to his family's as everyone is different and deals with things in their own way.

I wish him well to his end and for his family afterwards.

Thank you for the memories Paul.

A Little Place at Home, Building a Gaming Table - Part 2.

 

So the next part of the table build has.now taken place, and some serious progress has been made.

I began with the 4' sides, these had been built the previous weekend, but I took the time to sand then down neatly:

I also tried to eliminate any sharp edges/corners in order to make this more livable with:

Next it was back inside and the top finishing layer of boards was started to be tackled.

The first 3' section, which has the legs attached to it was used as a test piece.

A piece of 144mm sanded and cut timber was used with an opposing 45 degree angle cut at each end, making a very long trapezoid shape.

And using the offcuts I checked how it would look on the corner eventually:

Evostik heavy duty wood glue and some dowels places into drilled holes was the next step before the top plank was added finishing off this section:

As well as the dowels, I wanted a bit extra support and pulling into shape, so decided to use screws at the corners into each leg, and place a screw through the top and down into each strengthening piece of the shelves.

This gave an opportunity to use the countersink drill bits and the screw covers I'd picked up:

Testing on a scrap piece of wood was definitely a good idea, as the first test just glided through the wood and definitely sunk the cover too far!

With a few practice runs on offcuts, I tackled the main board build and after a little trial and error managed to get a decently formed countersunk hole for the screw:

The chromed cover screws onto the top of the screw with it's own threads underneath the head. They're about 1-2mm proud of the surface as I can live with that, but also it allows access to unscrew them for disassembly for moving the table to my house (we're building it at a friend's):

After both 3' ends were complete, we moved into his living room and attached one of the 4' sides.

I also took the opportunity to check things were square and true by putting a set square into each corner and pulling the table in order to get the dill holes for the legs in the correct position.

Then I dropped in the main gameboard to check the fit:

Things were exciting at this point as the build was really coming together and all the measurements and cuts fitted up neatly with each other.

A common question about the size of the board led to the following photo, with an Imperial Knight, a mk.3 Space Marines and a GW building all being shown. This gives some indication of the gaming surface available, more then I actually thought at the start to be honest:

With the table lifted clear again, I got the other 4' side on the basic frame, everything was screwed and checked for levelness:

During this test rhe shelving units on the side had already proved themselves a brilliant feature, holding drinks and various tools around the table:

And the game board was dropped back on to check that it fit, and I discovered that it needs about 2mm trimming off one of the 3' edges to fit comfortably:

And to demonstrate the sound difference, I rolled some dice on the plain wooden sides and ontop of the foam covers board:

As time was marching on, and dinner was almost ready (proper Sunday roast chicken), I tried to tackle ONE of the 4' sides and discovered that the board had warped to buggery and back leaving me with this huge problem...:

Deciding that it could not be saved I ripped it up and make a little note about that piece of wood:

And then work had to stop, dinner was ready and it was getting a bit late for power tools.

There probably won't be an update on this for a few weeks now, as real life with the kid going back to school and work for me are going to make it hard to get back over to his to continue building.

The plan for the next stage is already in place though:

The felt needs glueing down first and will be wrapped around each edge nearly tucking away, meanwhile a supporting frame is being assembled to fit underneath it and hopefully I can also trap the very loose edge of the felt underneath it to prevent any tearing or fraying of the edge.

Onwards and Upwards, things have gotten exciting seeing the build start to come together and look like a table was really rewarding.

Until next time, have nice day...

(Edit: don't post whilst tired and with autocorrect turned on...so many edits this morning).