In 1982 until mid 1980s in the UK, there was range of toy action figures produced by Palitoy which were based loosely on the Action Man toy. At first the range was generic 20th Century historical based, but  little later they produced toys based on five different factions. These were produced until the later 1980s when Palitoy replaced the range with at first a more Americanised range, and then the American GI Joe range. The factions were 'Z Force', which were a green camo NATO army style, with a passing resemblance to the UK forces of the time which had been involved in the Falklands Wa ..read more

 Whilst sorting through boxes of old miniatures I rediscovered my old Screamer Killer/Carnifex miniatures. I did paint up a couple in a pale colour scheme a few years ago, but thought they needed a little more colour. Anyway, I opted for a bright, alien looking, red. After mounting them on 60mm bases, I undercoated them Mechanicus Standard Grey, base coated Mephiston Red, washed with Blood Angels Red contrast, highlighted with Evil Sunz Scarlet, lightly highlighted with Trollslayer Orange, and a final even lighter highlight with Yriel Yellow. Of course I left each stage to dry first befo ..read more

 This is the last of the batch of Praetorian photographs for a while. I have finished off painting three Las Cannon teams, and experimented with painting a tank. I am going to return to the Praetorian army a little later, but will be focusing on another project from October. I wanted to try out a paint scheme for the tanks which matched the colour and look of the heavy weapons. I wanted something which looked a little more realistic, without being too camouflaged. After all, it would seem strange to have a camouflaged tank next to red tunic infantry! Anyway, I painted the tank Vallejo Kh ..read more

 I have been painting more Praetorian Imperial Guard / Astra Militarum, and have been making some quite good progress. In the last few weeks I have now completed two full platoons consisting of one command squad, and two infantry squads in each. This has also included a Platoon Commander for each. Enjoy :) First Platoon. Firing line! Auto Cannon. Unlike the Heavy Bolters I decided to add the gun shield to give it that slightly heavier look of a small calibre field gun. The other side of the Auto Cannon. Platoon Commander. This miniature is the old metal Cadian officer miniatu ..read more

 I have recently been re-reading a few of my books on nineteenth century British colonial wars, and this, coupled with a conversation on the Steampunk genre with a friend of mine, had got me thinking on my old Warhammer 40k Praetorian Imperial Guard (now Astra Militarium) army. So I decided to revisit the army. This was an army which I always liked and wanted to collect at the time, and back in the 2000's I finally assembled and painted an army. However, I was never pleased with the result, and last year I paint stripped the whole lot!  When considering their re-painting I was alwa ..read more

One of my ongoing interests is collecting 1980's Slann, especially the unreleased ones. I already have some unreleased Slann, as well as a good number of the Slann from the general releases. A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to buy a batch of unreleased Slann from someone, some of which I have wanted for a long time. It has also enabled me to start, and nearly complete a slightly mad Oldhammer project. The crazy project is simple. On page 115 of the Warhammer Armies Book (1988) is a photograph of a Slann regiment, and I am going to collect my own version of it. I have done this before with a ..read more

 For now, at least, this is the last Tomb Kings update. I have finally finished the army, although I do still have one regiment converted from old Khemri Blood Bowl miniatures on hold, but the army is essentially finished. Also, given GW's impending released of new Tomb Kings miniatures (later this year?)  I am sure I will be painting a few more before the year is out. In truth, I had finished painting these miniatures in May, but the photographs have been in the 'reserve' awaiting a blog update. In the meantime I have been addressing other projects, which I am eager to make a start ..read more

The great ruler of Khemri himself, Settra the Imperishable. I had been putting off this miniature for a while as it was a complicated one to assemble, and also required me building a special base for him to sit on. This is the old pewter metal one which I have had sitting in a box for about 15 years! It is a lovely miniature, surprisingly fun to paint, and fun to do. First of all I had to build him a specific base, as he wasn't supplied with base big enough, and I didn't have a plastic base big enough. The base was simply a piece of plastic card cut to size, and then modelled with Milliput ..read more

A Rare choice option for the Tomb Kings armies, the Screaming Skull Catapults. With so many lovely and terrifying options for Rare choices in a Tomb Kings army, I sometimes felt that the Screaming Skull Catapult was overlooked. The models are great, but can be a problem to assemble, and being all pewter glued to pewter, they could be fragile. I always liked the idea of having some sort of war machine in the Tomb Kings army, and one which can shoot over the heads of regiments always meant they could be positioned behind the army, whilst the rest of the army didn't have to worry about getting i ..read more

 I finished another regiment of Tomb Guard. This is a regiment of the old metal Tomb Guard miniatures from 2002. I had been putting off repainting these as I didn't like painting them the first time around, and I was not impressed with assembling them nor how the shields kept falling off. So once I had paint stripped them, they were until late in the project. To overcome the shield problem I added a piece of green stuff to the connection of where the hand grasps the shield, somewhere which is conveniently hidden from view. I have always found assembling and keeping assembled the metal m ..read more