Lead Legionaries: Hold the Line 2025 Purchases & Pics of Games

One of the 7 buildings I bought from Jeff at the Hold the Line flea market after its spray primer coat

I didn't go to Hold the Line 2025 expecting to buy a lot of things. The only two vendors I knew that were going to be there ahead of time were Firelands Games themselves (who host the con) and RRB Minis & More. At the last minute, I discovered there would be additional tables for a flea market, too, and attendees were welcome to grab one and set up their items. I typically don't buy much from the flea markets myself, but I do enjoy selling things in them. So, I dragged along my four Snap-tite tubs that I took to World at War the previous weekend.

These buildings could work for Middle Eastern or desert Southwest, or even fantasy, I thought

In addition to bringing along the same stuff to sell, I lowered the prices on most things a bit. I sold ONE item at World at War, so it's not like I had big hopes of selling everything on my table. Much to my surprise, I did very well in the flea market. I had posted some photos of what I was bringing and even received an interested response from an attendee the day before leaving. Sure enough, once I got there, I started selling things right away. And thanks to my friend Tim P, I finally sold all of the packs of unpainted 15mm Fantasy minis that I'd been hauling around for awhile. Before long, I had a nice wad of cash in my wallet. Time to shop for myself!

If I can get them painted in time, these will see service at Mos Eisley on Tatooine next Sunday

The first thing I noticed was my friend Jeff G's table he was calling "Shieldwall's Last Gasp." Formerly running a business called Shieldwall Gaming Club, Jeff was trying to sell off the last of his stock. Included in there were seven large 3-D printed buildings. My eyes must have bugged out when I noticed a huge Mesoamerican looking temple priced at only $20. In fact, all of the buildings had the same price. It looked so cool. I can't imagine it going for less than $100 anywhere else. There was also another, slightly smaller temple. The seven other buildings would work for as Middle Eastern, desert Southwest, or even Tatooine. They had flat roofs, adobe type walls, and were all very nice looking. Jeff saw me looking and said, "I'll sell you all seven for $100." Once again, my eyes likely bugged out. Even Jenny seemed startled by how low of a price he was charging for so many buildings. She admonished me that I would regret not buying them and that I'd never find similar ones for the same price.

The Mesoamerican temple that first drew my eye to 'Shieldwall's last gasp flea market table

My friend Mike S stopped by and I pointed them out to him, too. His comment sealed my purchase: "Are they going home with you or me?" In other words, if I didn't buy them, he would! I counted out $100 of my flea market sale money and handed it over. Jeff reached under his table, pulled out a large plastic tub, and began packing them into there carefully. He said the tub was included in the price. When I asked him if he was sure, he reminded me he now has LOTS of plastic tubs he doesn't need, having shut down his retail business. I didn't argue. What's more, I didn't have any "buyer's guilt" after forking over the cash. The price was unbeatable, I can easily use the desert buildings for my Star Wars games (in addition to other historical scenarios), and it was "paid for" by the sale of things I wasn't using any more. This is exactly how I like to "roll" on buying new stuff, anymore!


*Slightly smaller Mesoamerican temple Jeff was selling -- could easily also be used for Fantasy*

Since I've begun painting up 28mm Fantasy, I imagine the temples will actually come in handy someday. To me, they look Mesoamerican -- either Mayan or Aztec. However, as Mike and I were discussing, they don't have the obvious ornamentation that mark them as definitively from this area. They did a good job of sculpting it so you could use it for a Mayan building or equally as a generic fantasy temple. In all honesty, it is much more likely I will use it that way before I eventually get around to that "one day" Mayan project I want to do! At worst, these two purchases are like the Acheson Creations Mesoamerican scatter terrain that I've been collecting for years (and haven't painted any of, yet). At best, I'll get a chance to use them for some games of Sellswords & Spellslingers.

Another of the 7 'other' buildings that will likely see use in a number of different historical periods

Jeff had printed them in a black filament material, which is honestly the way to go, I think. It means that when you are priming it, anything you miss is in a crevice or shadow, which is likely going to be black anyway. The various levels of the buildings fit together very well, with all the roofs and floors coming off. They are sculpted with prongs that fit nicely into the holes of the on the opposite level. I'm really looking forward to getting some of these on the tabletop quickly. In fact, as you can see from the photos, I've already primed three of them!

These larger two-story buildings I held off priming -- I will get to them eventually, I'm sure!

Apparently, my purchasing these buildings from Jeff reminded Mike that he had a couple similar desert style 3-D printed buildings that he had decided he wasn't going to paint up. He brought them over on our next Sunday evening gaming session and handed them to me. They were indeed very similar in style to the five desert style ones I had just bought. They were about the size of the three smaller ones, so I went ahead and spray primed them with khaki the next day. I would be really, really happy if I got the three smaller buildings from Jeff and two from Mike painted up and ready for the scenario I am running this coming Sunday. How's that for deadline pressure?

The dome helps this look more like a Tatooine building -- given to me by my generous friend Mike S

What else did I buy at Hold the Line? I had actually looked through Firelands Games website the night before the convention and typed in my iPhone notes some things to check out. I had about half a dozen items listed, but as it was, I bought only two of them. Since I will be doing Dragon Rampant fantasy battles soon, I picked up a sprue of the North Star Frostgrave Wizards, which has bodies for four spellcasters and tons of arms, heads, equipment, and ways to customize them. I haven't decided if I'm going to have an evil wizard as the general of my orc and goblin army, ala Saruman, or a big mean orc. Either way, having wizards figures will be useful for Dragon Rampant games.

I like that so many of these buildings I just obtained have upper stories & roofs figures can fire from

I also picked up two sprues of the Wargames Atlantic Giant Spiders and Victims. I really like how James and Rusty have decided to sell individual sprues to their customers. I may not want a whole box of wizards or spiders, for example, but can certainly use some. Speaking of which, these will more likely see use as monsters in games of Sellswords & Spellslingers than in Dragon Rampant. Although now that I think of it, they could be a unit of Lesser Warbeasts, according to the unit categories in the rules. I went back and forth about a couple other items on Firelands tables at the convention, but ended up buying just those three sprues.

One of the 2 sprues of Wargames Atlantic giant spiders that I bought from Firelands Games

I dug through the load of items my friend Rich Brown from RRB Minis & More had brought with him. I was tempted by some of the 25mm robots from his Sci-Fi lines, but I wanted to be careful about screwing up my Acquired vs. Painted totals for the year by buying too much! Right now, I am 21 miniatures in the hole, so to speak. With the four wizards, eight giant spiders, and four web-wrapped victims I purchased, that puts me up to 37 figures to paint up before the end of the year. I think I will get that amount done easily, but there is no reason to tempt fate. In fact, that was the reason I did not buy a big bag of Splintered Light Miniatures animals from my friend Dave E at World at War the previous weekend. Just to be sure, he brought them along to tempt me again this weekend...haha! Maybe I will tell him to bring them to Cincycon in 2026 and I'll buy them from him, then. There were a lot of miniatures in there that I could use to flesh out my anthropomorphic animals.

'A wizards should know better...!' Treebeard says, but who knows whether these will be good or evil?

In the end, I made only a very minor purchase from Rich. I found a bag of eight 28mm tombstones that I could use for Devilry Afoot or other games. I felt bad that I did not buy more from him, but I had already dropped $100 on buildings, so figured I had added my contribution to the convention economy, so to speak. When Rich gets his 3-D printer fixed, I have at least one building I want him to paint up. So, I'll see him again soon, I'm sure, and be buying more then.

Some very cool 28mm tombstones that I bought from Rich at RRB Minis & More

Since I am posting about my Hold the Line purchases, I also thought I'd toss in some pictures I took of the games that were being run there. The 28mm Western "Dead Man's Hand" game was one of the most amazing I have ever seen. The work done on the buildings and civilian characters was very atmospheric and worth sharing. So, what else is on my painting desk? I do have a unit of 8 armored orcs that are at least halfway done. And of course, I have a bunch of buildings that I want to get done by Sunday! In addition, I have started work on two 28mm Asian water buffalo from Miniature Building Authority, a 3-D printed hand cart from A Critical Hit, and one more batch of bamboo for my Vietnam games. I have a feeling I'll be saying that a lot for awhile in my posts. Most of the other stuff may be sidelined by those five buildings that I have spray primed, though. Will I finish them in time? Stay tuned to see...!