Historicon 2026 Purchases

    Painted version of the complimentary figure pack (& flag) for HMGS members attending Historicon

Well, my regular tallies of "Acquired vs. Painted" appears to be working! I just returned from Historicon, and I feel that being aware of my numbers made me more conservative on my purchases. This is particularly the case when it comes to miniatures. The only purchases I made were for active projects -- no "Oh, those look cool...!" purchases. Well, maybe one of those! Anyway, I'll do my usual and show some pics and provide some links of what I picked up last week while at Historicon. No picture of me currently suffering mildly from some "convention crud" (cough, sore throat, and overall tiredness and headache), though. Most of the pictures are from the websites of the companies I bought them from. All painted figures pictures are actually currently unpainted. Speaking of which, zero flea market purchases.

    My purchases from Brigade Games -- a modest 6 figs, including my one 'impulse' buy (Hillbillies)

My first stop was to visit my friend Lon at Brigade Games. He carries my First Command Wargames rules, and is interested in carrying Surviving 'Nam, as well (once I get printed copies in stock). I picked up only a handful of things from him, including my one impulse purchase. So, let's start with them! I saw this pack of four Sharpshootin Hillbillies from Copplestone and couldn't resist them. Ostensibly, they will be for a convention game I will run one of these days featuring a shootout at a trailer park. I guess they could be replacements, though, for my Critter Control crew in my Majestic 13 solo games! I also snagged a few monsters from the Dracula's America line for my Devilry Afoot games set in Franklinton. I will be restarting those games up by Fall, at least, only having run one for the Sunday Night Gaming crew, so far. The first was a Sasquatch miniature, and the second monster was a Manitou. Both will likely show up eventually as enemies for my players. The final purchase was my annual restock of their North Star wire spears.

 

    This slender, 3-D printed, octagonal tower at Diabolical Terrain's booth really caught my eye!

My next stop was at the booth of my friend Ron Weaver from Diabolical Terrain. Besides trading international travel stories with him, I also told him how happy I was with the Pacific Huts I bought from him at Advance the Colors. I've painted one of them up and the other three are in the queue for more Vietnam games. Although so much stuff looks good in his booth, I was trying to be conservative in my purchases. So, I picked up this Arab Mosque Minaret, which I intend to convert to a slim, medieval tower by lopping off the crescent. Shades of the First Crusade, eh? It is a very cool, 3-D printed piece that will look great painted up, I think. I also grabbed his 3-D printed Town Water Well. I am short on scatter for my medieval town, and it will be a perfect thing to add personality to the table. I was tempted by many other things at his booth, but know that I will see him this Oct. 9-10 in Springfield at ATC 2026. If you want to pick up some of his stuff, see him there!

    My purchases from Badger Games were also conservative -- coyotes & these Elven Guardians

A few steps away is a booth that I can get lost in for a long time -- Badger Games. Like Brigade Games, they have a HUGE catalog of figure lines they carry. They can't bring everything to conventions, but I always find something there I could use. The first and easy pick up was another pack of Elven Foot. This Elven Guardians pack was not available when I bought my army earlier. They echo the polearm wielding elves from the Lord or the Rings flashback scene, so I decided to have them. I will have to do something with their very weird face masks, which remind me of the Late Roman cavalry faceplates they sometimes wore. The only other purchase (See? I was restrained!) was a pack of coyotes for my Devilry Afoot horror games -- or whatever else could use some coyotes in!

    More cool LED scatter from Bad Goblin Games! I picked up a Bonfire, campfire & 4 lit mushrooms

Hidden in the back row of the Historicon's vendor area were my friends from Bad Goblin Games. Brian, Liz, and Michael were all there -- Michael Love's Fire & Bronze game was the first one I played in on Thursday. I love their inexpensive, easy-to-paint 3-D printed scatter. The fact that many of them light up with provided LED lights and batteries makes them all the better. There's something about a flickering fire, or pulsating glow on a miniatures tabletop that provides that extra touch to a game! Speaking of which, I picked up their large Bonfire, smaller campfire, and four different types of lighted mushrooms bases. Why? Well, eventually I want to get back to playing solo adventures with Sellswords & Spellslingers and continue the story of the Splintered Band. The mushrooms will make a perfect Enchanted Forest for my anthropomorphic adventurers to explore! Incidentally, Brian & Liz will be driving up from Florida to be a vendor at Advance the Colors 2026. So, plan on picking up some of their cool stuff there and playing in their awesome Trailer Park Apocalypse game!

    What is a convention without a stop at Miniature Building Authority & visiting my friend Kirk?

I stopped in and visited with my friend Kirk at Miniature Building Authority several times throughout the convention. Over the course of the days, I picked up a number of scatter items from him. This time, I did not buy any buildings -- chiefly because I haven't painted up any of the last three or four I bought at ATC! Once again, me trying to rein in my purchases and be relatively conservative with my money this time. One item that caught my eye was his Street Butcher Shop from his Shanty Town terrain line. This resin piece is relatively timeless and I will be able to use with anything from my medieval to modern games. I also picked up Celtic Cross A to toss in with an upcoming scatter batch that I will be painting. The rest of the items I grabbed were in his 3-D "Misprints" box he has started bringing to shows. Most of them, I had to ask him where the flaw was -- I couldn't see any mistakes. So, I picked up another of his Water Buffaloes, a fountain, a crossroads shrine, and several bundles of straw. The buffalo is for Vietnam, of course. The others will all be great for more needed scatter for my medieval town. Kirk is another of the vendors coming to Advance the Colors -- so make your plans to attend today by signing up on our ATC TabletopEvents page.

    I was hoping to find some Huey helicopter door gunners, and look what I found at Age of Glory!

Speaking of my Vietnam games, guess what I found at Historicon? I bought two packs of Empress Miniatures Door gunners for my 3-D printed Huey helicopters from Steve at Age of Glory Wargames. The pack includes four door gunners, so two packages will cover all four helicopters I bought from my friend Ted Bender (only one is painted, so far). I really like the variety of poses in the pack, so will likely begin working on them immediately after the Elven army is finished. Incidentally, Steve said he is interested in carrying my Surviving 'Nam rules, as well. I will be reaching out to him as soon as I have a stock of printed copies on hand. 

    This is a picture of only about half of the Cigar Box mat I purchased for games in a medieval town

My final purchase was a 6'x4' fleece mat that I can use for larger city games or even Dragon Rampant matches. Battlefield Terrain Concepts had a large selection of mats and I picked out one that could be used for either games amidst a ruined city, or an active city, or whatever. I was actually in need of one for the times I host multiple DR! matches side by side. Most likely, though, it will be used for larger games in a medieval town or city.   

All in all, I was happy with keeping my purchases down compared to previous years. I have altered the tallies for each category of Acquired vs. Painted below. I'm still in the green on two of the categories (Terrain and Scatter). I just set myself back further on miniatures, but drawing even is almost a surety assuming I don't make a huge purchased before the end of the year. So, I guess that means I need to get painting on that batch of Elven spear! 

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 210
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 146

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 14
• Terrain painted in 2026: 29

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 34
• Scatter painted in 2026: 62