1 pack of Doctor Who micro-universe figures from Woolies, @ £9.99.

1 pack of Doctor Who micro-universe figures and 1 starship pack from the Doctor Who Exhibition, £18.98 total.

1 pack of Copplestone Castings Cavemen and 1 Walrus, @ £10.00

2 issues of Miniature Wargames, 1 @ £3.50 and 1 @ £3.70

Total: £46.17

Total for the quarter: £31.02 + £22.25 + £46.17 = £99.44 (Bang on budget - £100)

As a lad my, (um, and mustn’t forget that, okay) third favourite toys were Action Force. (What do you mean you’ve never heard of them?)

Imagine my nostalgic glee when I found that Soapy was doing a year long project to build Action Force and the Red Shadows in 28mm - Action Force Wargames Project 25th Anniversary.

Very True Mood:  excited

2 Star Wars collectible miniature from eBay, @ £9.35.

2 OOP Phoenix Command supplements from eBay, @ £8.90.

1 Copy of Wargames Illustrated, @ £4.00

Total: £22.25.

2 packs of Doctor Who micro-universe figures from Woolies, @ £4.99 each.

1 rare Star Wars collectible miniature from eBay, @ £4.51.

1 Dinosaur Planet RPG supplement from eBay, @ £6.24.

4 OOP Grenadier dinosaur miniatures from eBay, @ £10.29.

Total: £31.02. Just about on budget.

I’ve just updated the Dinosaurs in Miniature pages with the latest releases and re-releases.

Wargames Illustrated have finished re-releasing the DZ Miniatures prehistoric mammals. They’re also selling a set of rules called Tooth and Claw to tie in with this range. Written by Chris “every other set of rules out there” Peers who has pedigree on this area with Saurian Safari. My copy is in the post, so with luck I’ll be able to post a review soon.

There are also new rules out from Magister Militum called DinoMight and MM continue to expand their range of 10mm figures, now including some non-dinosaurs.

Finally on the pre-historic front Reaper have released a “Jungle Girl with Sabre Tooth Tiger” which is okay-ish except for the huge mold line in the photo and the fact that it’s an idea that’s been done several times before. Very nice cat though.

Meanwhile… It was only a matter of time… Pre-painted, collectible (i.e. random sealed boxes) miniatures for Doctor Who (via Forbidden Planet). They’re by Character Options which is a good sign (they make the very nice DW action figures) and the price is the same as for the Star Wars minis. On the downside (apart from the collectible nature) is the scale, 35mm, and the lack of anything from the classic series. Will I be buying them? They’re Doctor Who miniatures!

Very True Mood:  excited

So I’ve managed to have two weeks off work and not make a single blog post. Okay I was out of the country and off the www for three days but still, it’s shocking.

Have I turned into one of those bloggers who only posts to talk about how they’re not posting? Oh dear.

Things I’d like to write

• A collection of the things I discovered during the site redesign project - mostly new (to me) IE bugs and Ajax gotchas and XSLT moans. This is started and every so often I open up the draft and a stare at it a bit.
• The tutorial on HTML tables in the CSS age that I mentioned mumble months back.
• All about my holidays - Lettice and I have managed long weekends in Dublin, Dover (don’t mock, the castle is amazing) and Amsterdam (see below) this summer but I’ve hardly said a word about what we got up to.
• My continuing investigation of social networking sites. I’ve reviewed Bebo and Friendster and have Orkut, Yahoo 360 and probably a few others to come. (I’m not doing MySpace and FaceBook beacuse I was already members there and it wouldn’t be a like-for-like comparison). Also something about Rapleaf/Upscoop.
• Um ….
• … the rest of this list…

Some quickies

The world cup starts today. Wales don’t really stand a chance. Fingers crossed that they don’t fuck up the group matches and finish second behind Australia. Then it’s England or more likely South Africa and that’s probably that.

I’m not sure about the new White Stripes album.

I fixed the broken shower. This makes me feel all manly and capable and productive.

Amsterdam has a ridiculous number of shoe shops - be aware of this fact if you plan to take your wife or girlfriend there. Also, as everyone speaks English there are a number of English language bookshops and even the Dutch ones have English sections, and apart from Waterstones (which presumably is supplied and priced like a UK branch) the prices are good.

Speaking of books, I attended the launch for Stuffed and Starved by my old university mate Raj.

A war between an authoritarian government and a set of independent planets. The central government wins. Our heroes were amongst the fighters on the independent side. Meanwhile a remote planet is devastated by a chemical that causes the population to become wildly violent. Not actually a summary of the background to Serenity but actually the background to the old roleplaying game Living Steel that I picked up from eBay recently.

Oh, I’m flogging some stuff on eBay. Only Star Wars miniatures at the moment but I hope to list a few books and vids plus some other miniatures over the weekend.

Very True Mood:  pensive

I saw this Build Your Own Stonehenge kit in the shop yesterday. A miniature Stonehenge. How Spinal Tap is that?

And on Amazon: “20 used & new available” … does anyone want a second hand Stonehenge?

ObWargames: Not sure of the scale but I suppose it would work quite well with 6mm or smaller figures. Or with a 28mm rock band…

Very True Mood:  amused

Firefly

The miniature in some shots is Captain Nathan from Heresy Miniatures (adds to potential shopping list foir Salute tomorrow) and he’s “heroic 28mm” scale, so 30-35mm tall. That makes that paper model of the Serenity quite big.

Very True Mood:  impressed

Ragnarok is the journal of the Society of Fantasy and Science Fiction Wargamers. The latest issue, the first with John Wilson as editor, of Rag has been published and is in the post to members.

• Saint Snatch - Relic steaing in Dresda
• In the Dog House - Strontium Dog in Inquisitor
• Crimson Twenty One - Crimson Skies in Air War C:21
• Ottomania II - More Turks in Aeronef
• The Rules of War - Reviews of Space Vixens from Mars and Battlestations

Comments can be left on the SFSFW forum.

Well, a little bit moany, by comparison with some people[1] I’ve really got nothing to complain about, and what I have is largely self inflicted.

There ought to be a law against it.

I’m waiting for a furniture delivery. It’s coming sometime between 7 and 6 today. Getting dressed before 7 on a Saturday? When you have no plans to go further than the local shops[2] today? It’s just not right.

Seeing as I haven’t posted all week…

Happy New Year

I have foolishly gone and made a bunch of resolutions, and told people what they are (so I can’t conveniently forget all about them), so I might as well post them here:

1. Give up alcohol for seven weeks. An odd length of time, but it means I can start drinking again just in time for Lettice’s 30th.
2. Give up soft drinks, sweets and crisps. Yikes! All in one go.
3. If I buy breakfast on the way to work then I must buy a cheap lunch. Kind of vague this one, but I know what I mean.
4. Pay at least £100 into my savings account every month. Standing order now set up to transfer the money the day after I get paid, so I don’t need to do anything else for this one.
5. Limit my wargames/role playing games spending. I did a little experiment a while back and the results were a bit scary. I’m aiming for a lower figure this year - £500 total, so I have a limit of £100 per quarter and an extra floating £100 for magazine subscriptions and similar costs.
6. Get a hair cut at least every two months. Lettice may want me to go for “the full Tom Baker” but there were some very frightening photos of me taken at the Christmas party and I think short is better.

Five days into the year and I haven’t broken any of them. Though the fact that alcohol free lager tastes even more revolting than regular lager and that alcohol free bitter doesn’t seem to exist, may be my undoing.

[1] Lawrence Miles has dumped his diary/blog for November and December online in one big splurge. It’s not easy reading. This guy is one of the most talented writers to ever touch Doctor Who but he’s got some serious issues - I really don’t want to say anything trite like “tortured genius” because that turns a person into a cliché.

[2] More importantly to the Farmer’s Market - West Norwood is moving up in the world!