Tofu Bar from Miniature Building Authority

    One of Miniature Building Authority's unique terrain pieces -- a 28mm tofu bar!

I admit that a 28mm Tofu Bar is probably one of my stranger purchases for my modern (or post-apocalyptic) games. I picked it up a year or two ago at Advance the Colors when Miniature Building Authority was there as a vendor. I always like to buy terrain off Kirk -- his products are superb and look great on the tabletop. But a Tofu Bar...?

    A look from behind the counter of the MBA tofu bar

Maybe it will seem less strange if you think of it as a street vendor or market stall. I already have a half dozen market stalls that I regularly put on my tabletops. This simply gives it more variety. I'm sure it will look good mixed in with the vendors selling fish, fruit, meat, and vegetables. Personally, I don't eat tofu...ha, ha! However, it is certainly a unique item. I bought it think it could be a little street bar, but the chopsticks and plates of tofu and rise are cast onto the counter, so tofu bar it is!

    My original thought was to make it a generic street side bar, but you can see chopsticks & rice bowls

If I were to go back and redo this piece, I would NOT black prime it. I would have primed it in white so that I wouldn't have to put in two or more layers to fully cover the counter tops, plates, etc. I decided to go with a pale blue and very light gray booth and countertop. Behind the counter, I made the preparation counter an yellowish ivory. The bowls, plates, condiments, and such I painted in brighter colors. Make no mistake about it -- even though this is a small piece of terrain, it took a LOT of time to complete. With the base that I cut and glued the bar and four stools onto it is about 3" square, to give you an idea of its size.

    View from above shows the scrap booking paper I put behind the counter and my paving stone base

There were some small amounts of flash to trim off with an X-acto knife here and there on the piece. The legs of the stools come solid, so I had to paint the "empty space" black and the legs themselves Pewter metallic. I don't think it is too distracting, so am okay with it. For the floor behind the counter, I added a piece of color printed scrap booking paper. I think it really adds a lot to the overall look. For the base itself, I decided to go with a stone or tile pattern. I painted the base light gray and then added a diamond and square paving stone pattern with a micron pen. I know it is kind of shaky in parts. Once again, if I had to redo it, I might put the paving stone pattern on BEFORE I glued down the bar, or at least the stools. Oh well -- live and learn!

    A good look from behind shows all the details this model includes -- even cabinets and cutlery!

I like how the tofu bar looks, but like I mentioned earlier, it took quite a few painting sessions to complete. Counting it all up, there are more than two dozen individual details, from plates to cups to cabinets behind the bar. For each of those, I did a base color and dry brush or highlight. I think all of the colors and highlighting makes the tofu bar look more realistic, though. In the end, it was certainly worth the effort. Look for it to appear in another one of my post-apocalyptic or modern games soon!

What's up next? I have begun working on a 28mm resin Viking longship that has sat in my closet for literally decades. I won it at a DBA Tournament years ago in Pittsburgh -- so that may give some of my friends an idea how long ago I acquired it. I will use it as eye candy on the tabletop for my Viking Raid game I am running at Cincycon, DayCon, Drums at the Rapids, and Origins 2025. Otherwise, I have six 28mm Dark Age warriors nearing completion on my painting desk, as well. So, stay tuned for more updates! Plus, this weekend I am heading south to visit my friend Jason in South Carolina and attend Siege of Augusta wargaming convention with him. I'm sure I will have updates from there, too...!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 0
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 4 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 0
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 4

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 0
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 1

Ah, the Good Old Days -- 3 Acheson Creations Medieval Buildings

    3 Acheson Creations Medieval/Dark Age huts picked up on sale at Drums at the Rapids 2024

When I first began to make the switch from 15mm to 28mm wargaming, Acheson Creations were the first buildings I bought. I picked up quite a few for both the Medieval and American Frontier periods. They were a great introduction to buying and painting 28mm terrain, mostly buildings. They were easy to prepare, paint, and flock. Their deep grooved detail made it easy to simply base coat, wet brush, then dry brush -- and voila! Your terrain piece was ready for the tabletop. I was very disappointed when they scaled back production as Craig Acheson went into semi-retirement.

    The two bigger huts -- SO easy to prepare and paint up-- and one of my 28mm Dark Ages villagers

At Drums at the Rapids 2024, a regional distributor of their products was also stepping back from attending gaming shows and selling his stock at 50% off. In addition to a number of other items, I picked up three of the thatch-roofed Medieval buildings produced by Acheson Creations. I had all but forgotten about them in the intervening months since last May. Luckily, last year I created a note on my iPhone that documents all terrain and scatter I have that is unpainted or unassembled. I saw these three buildings and immediately added them to my Short List which sits on my desktop to help me remember what I planned to do next.

    The smaller of the three medieval huts -- I like the stonework lining the bottom of the walls

One drawback to Acheson products if you are unaware, though, is that the mold release agent is very powerful and lingering. Long ago, my friend Jason -- He of the Great Suggestions -- told me about his trick of running them through the dishwasher machine. Next, I spray them with Krylon Fusion Acrylic Matte Black paint. This is followed up, as usual, by brushing on a 50/50 mix of black acrylic craft paint and water (which I keep remixed in a plastic bottle on my painting desk) to get into all the recesses. Once dry, the item is ready to be painted.

    Acheson buildings often don't have a way to keep roofs on - my solution is pieces of black foamboard

The buildings come in two pieces, roof and the main body. Another drawback to some Acheson products is there are no "tabs" or ways to keep the roof from sliding off. I have tried various things over the years, such as magnets. However, I find the best method is to take some stiff black foam board and glue to the underside of the roof with epoxy. This keeps the roof from sliding and is hidden from the eye when the roof is placed on top of the building proper. For one of these three, I tried a new experiment, gluing bamboo skewers into the inside corners of the bottom half of the building. I gouged out some material from the underside of the roof where the skewers would line up. In the end, I probably should have done the foam board on all three. Historically, I prefer this method and think it is the least fiddly -- no worries about lining up the skewers and holes.

    Although intended as Medieval/Dark Ages huts, they can be used for a variety of periods

All three buildings were painted identically, and are intended to add to my Anglo-Saxon village for my Viking Raid scenario I will be running this year at conventions. The bottom half received a base coat of "Maple Sugar" craft paint, a first dry brush of tan, and a second highlighting of white. The wooden corners, as well as the window and door wooden pieces were done in dark brown with a Howard Hues Camo Brown wet brush and finally a tan drybrush. I went back and read some early entries to my blog to remember how I did thatch for my Acheson buildings. After the black prime, I did a wet brush of Camo Brown, dry brush of Iron Wind Metals Dun, and very highlight of light gray. Both the bottom half and roof half each also received black vehicle wash.

   The two larger buildings without their roofs - I really like the muddy look my color combination gave

I really like how the walls look -- very muddy -- what you'd expect from a Dark Ages Anglo-Saxon village. Or, at least what I would expect...ha, ha! The thatch looks nice, too, I feel -- not too bright and not too gray. I realize my thatch is likely very new looking compared to what it looks like after its aged a few years. However, I feel it looks more like what we expect thatch to look like. Just like how we make wood more brown on the wargames table than the very grayish color old wood looks. It conforms to our expectations and having more color says, "wood" to us -- or in this case, "thatch."

    A look from above at the thatching -- Acheson buildings have great, deeply grooved detail

I flock the bases in my usual way, as well, and was done with these three pieces much more quickly than the one very small building that you will hopefully see in the next post. Then again, that has always been something I love about buildings from Acheson Creations. They are soooo darned easy to get ready for the tabletop! So, what's next? That mystery small building (or is more like a market stand?) that I alluded to is almost finished, as well. At the same time, I am working on a half dozen Dark Ages warriors to be available for players to choose for their characters in my upcoming semi-historical take on Sellswords & Spellslingers. More on those soon...!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 0
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 4 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 0
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 3

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 0
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 1

Zombie Mayhem as Convoy Passes through Mechanicsburg

    The center of the 5'x3' board, with creek, bridge, and cluster of buildings on the outskirts of town

After cooperating on a couple supply runs, several small groups of survivors met in a safe spot to make plans. They agreed that there is strength in numbers, and that they should all stick together for safety. Several argued that when it comes to the zombies, numbers is the problem. Specifically, Ohio and the Midwest's relatively dense population. They should get out of town and head West to "Big Sky" country...Wyoming, the Dakotas, Montana -- wherever. Anywhere that there was fewer people meant fewer to have turned into zombies. And so they packed up their supplies and belongings, and the convoy from Columbus set out.

    Small group of buildings standing in for Mechanicsburg - the first town the convoy passes through

Sticking to the side roads and avoiding the often blocked and zombie-infested highways, the convoy made their first stop just outside of Mechanicsburg, OH. Many of the survivors didn't even have firearms yet, and they were running low on food, again. An intersection near a small creek seemed a likely spot to circle the vehicles and take a handful of people in for a quick run. Hopefully, things would turn out better than at the creepy farmhouses near the cornfields, when they'd lost nearly a quarter of their group!

    Sunday evening gaming group did a much better job cooperating in this mission of Zombie RV

It was time to stage another game of Zombie RV for our Sunday evening gaming group. I urged all of the players to spend the Experience Points (XP) they'd accumulated from the last two missions. Most did so, hopefully beefing up their characters' effectiveness. The 5'x3' board would have two zombie spawning points -- a hotel amidst a small cluster of buildings in town and a graveyard (of course!) across the river in the outskirts near the trailer park. Since there would be 12 survivors, I would also need a third spawning point. I decided to repeat what I did last time and have the zombies from the third spawn point show up on random board edges. Interestingly, the random arrivals often showed up very near where survivors were, complicating their situations nicely.

    The trailer park end of the board, with the graveyard spawning point at the top of the picture

The players decided to drive on board in four vehicles to maximize the number of "safe spots" to return to and exit the tabletop. Keith and Tom's survivors arrived in the group's RV, pulling off the dirt road into the driveway leading to the trailer park. Allen and Joel's van showed on the opposite board edge, not far from the two-story apartment building. Jenny and Mike stopped each of their vehicles on the street running behind the hotel at two widely spaced places. All twelve survivors quietly exited their vehicles, gripped their weapons, and headed out into danger.

    As Fredrik gets ready to enter one of the trailers, the zombies spot him and begin to surge forward

Keith's survivors Junior and Roman darted out of the RV and into the trailer park's dilapidated, stone office building. Tom's duo ran past them, splitting up, with Fredrik headed towards one of the trailers and Mophius shouldering his shotgun and beginning to climb the water tower. The cluster of zombies outside the graveyard spotted Fredrik, and began shambling towards him. 

    It doesn't take long before zombies spot Earle and hungrily begin to chase him across the board

Joel and Allen's van pulled up alongside a wrecked SUV that looked promising, as its back seat appeared to be stuffed with boxes and sacks. Big Bass and Benny combined to pop open one of the doors and search through the stuff inside. They secured a well-stocked First Aid kit for their efforts. Earle ran past them while they were searching, towards the center of the board, pausing by a dented red sedan. Jimmy hung close to Big Bass and Benny, covering them with his pistol. The cluster of zombies milling outside the hotel spotted Earle as the darted past and began to stagger slowly towards him.

    Daisy, at right, finds a cache of supplies that someone had to abandon on the balcony of the hotel

Jenny's two survivors exited their silver sedan and investigated the shipping truck flipped over in the road. Jackie and Curly combined their efforts to wrench open the back doors, with Curly hopping inside to investigate. He tossed some useful supplies from the truck's load into his backpack. Meanwhile, Coop and Daisy pulled not far from the refugee car -- or at least that's what they called it, with all of the stuff piled onto its roof! Coop began rifling through the abandoned belongings, looking for useful items. Meanwhile, Daisy bravely tip-toed up the stairway to the hotel. She'd spotted a bundle of items at the top of the stairs. Someone had obviously collected things together to leave hurriedly, then had to leave them there for some reason. Considering the number of zombies pouring out of the hotel, Daisy could guess what had interrupted them!

    Coop & Daisy took advantage of their friends' distraction of the zombies to net 3 caches of supplies

The players alternated who would roll for the number (and type) of zombies appearing at the spawn points. In general, their rolls were excellent. Perhaps three quarters of the rolls were a 1, 2, or 3 on 1d6, spawning the minimum 3 ordinary zombies. In the entire game (8 turns, perhaps? I didn't keep track), only two "Fast" zombies were spawned, and a couple "Nasty" zombies. Joel played a clever game using Earle as a "rabbit," essentially, luring the zombies one way and then another. In Zombie RV rules, the zombies generally go after those in sight and making the most noise. Joel would run one direction in his first action, and then fire off a shot to draw the zombies towards him. The next turn, he would run for both his actions ending out of sight, and the zombies would meander off towards another survivor making noise. The following turn, Earle would lead them back another direction, running and firing. Although he never killed a zombie, his actions were very valuable to his teammates, as he kept the zombies busy and allowing them time to find the supplies.

    Junior (actually inside - not on the roof) blasts away at zombies coming from the graveyard

In the trailer park, Junior stuck his head out the window and blasted away twice at the zombies chasing Fredrik, killing quite a few. This allowed Fredrik to creep into the trailer and hide, out of sight, behind some furniture. When the zombies instead streamed towards the office, Roman braced himself against the door to prevent them from bursting through. Meanwhile, after climbing to the platform halfway up the water tower, Mophius discovered his shotgun didn't have enough range to really do a good job of picking off zombies. He sighed and began to descend. Once the zombies were fully focused on Junior firing out the window, Fredrik stood up and began searching the trailer. He found another survivor, Moe, terrified, and hiding in one of the closets. He motioned him to follow him. One of the things players can find in a cache is more survivors. For some reason with the Sunday evening group, it comes up regularly more regularly than it should! Fredrik and Moe snuck out of the one trailer and dashed across the yard to the second trailer.

    Big Bass and Benny face off against a group of zombies in the alley way near the apartments

Meanwhile, Big Bass and his crew hurried across the street to the apartment building. Benny was the first through the door and began a thorough search. Once again, they found a terrified survivor hiding in one of the rooms. He was named C.J., and confirmed there was nothing much of value left in the apartment building. C.J. was very eager to join Benny's group rather than hiding out alone. Outside, they could hear both Big Bass and Jimmy firing at the zombies who'd began shuffling towards the apartment building. C.J. motioned to the back door, and the duo ducked out, only to find themselves being converged upon by zombies coming up the alley and from the hotel.

    Coop & Daisy begin firing on zombies streaming towards Allen's characters to draw them away

This began probably the most dangerous fight for the survivors as Big Bass, Benny, and C.J. fought hand-to-hand against numerous zombies. Jimmy hung on the periphery, remaining out of the range of zombie charges and firing ineffectively at them. Both Benny and Big Bass were wounded. C.J. proved a tough new addition, though. Twice he was hit by zombie attacks and twice he passed his "Grit Check" to shrug off the damage (needing a "6" on 1d6!). As more zombies converged on Allen and Joel's crew, Mike S moved a bit closer to help out. His rifleman Coop began firing, picking off zombies, and making enough noise to draw the zombie reinforcements towards him instead of Allen's hard-pressed trio. This was key, and doubtless just as responsible for their survival as Allen's good dice rolling!

    Zombies spawning at the graveyard, left, pour after Earle, firing from the far end of the bridge

On a quieter section of the board, Jackie and Curly waded the creek and crept as silently as they could past the graveyard. They tried to stay crouched behind the walls and out of the zombie's sight. Back at the trailer park office, Junior had run out of ammo at the office. He was instead bashing zombies trying to crawl through the window one at a time. He was also shouting to keep their attention. Roman kept bracing against a Nasty Zombie that was trying to batter down the door, muttering to himself, "Hold the door! Hold the door!" Mophius was trying to remain inconspicuous, staying out of sight of the mob near the office door and blasting with his shotgun at the wandering zombies that showed up all too frequently (for him) in his sector of the board. Eventually, he joined up with Fredrik and Moe as they finished searching the second trailer.

    Jackie blasts away at zombies honing in on her from the porch of a trailer

By then, Jackie had scurried up onto the porch of the third trailer and fired at the recently-spawned zombies that were now filtering towards her and Curly. Earle helped her out, too, by dashing onto the bridge, and firing to draw the attention of more zombies -- especially the dangerous Fast Zombie that had appeared. Earle then scampered off as half the zombies streamed towards him. Jackie and Curly entered the trailer, with Curly bracing himself to keep out the half dozen zombies hot on their heels. After a quick search, Jackie was dismayed to see there was no back door. They were trapped! Curly pointed to a pull down ladder in the hallway, doubtless leading to the roof. Once Jackie found some supplies, they both agreed it was time to get out of the trailer park! They felt the safest way was climbing onto the roof.

    Benny & Big Bass are both still standing and battling zombies, but are going to need to run soon

Allen's trio of brawlers had also decided it was time to go. The supply of new zombies staggering out of the hotel and towards them seemed never to let up (it doesn't in Zombie RV!). The sight of a huge, red-coated Nasty Zombie closing in doubtless help convince them that the game was up. All three sprinted for the van. Jimmy was already in the driver's seat, gunning the engine to let them know he was ready, too. Through the alley way, Coop and Daisy had decided it was time to go, too. Daisy picked off the wandering zombies who showed up with her pistol and dashed for the driver's seat. She tapped the horn to let Coop know she was ready, and he sprinted towards the car, opening the door and diving into the back seat. Daisy punched it, knocking aside a zombie and accelerating down the street.

    Earle spent nearly the entire game playing 'rabbit' and luring the zombies one way and then another

Back at the trailer park office, both Junior and Roman agreed they needed to get back to the RV. They jumped up onto a desk and crawled out the back window. A wandering zombie showed up right at that moment, but Roman split its skull with his axe. As they ran towards the RV door, they noticed Mophius, Fredrik, and a new guy (Moe) doing the same thing. All five piled through the door at about the same time that Jackie, leaping off the trailer roof, sprinted across the dirt road and dove into the driver's seat of the RV. She rolled the window down and blasted away to cover Curley He did not land his leap to the ground as well as she had, twisting his ankle badly. Luckily, the zombies were drawn to Jackie's gunfire and ignored her hobbled friend. As more and more zombies clustered around the RV, Jackie saw Curley shake his head and point back the way they'd originally come. He'd try to quietly limp over there, and join up with them away from the zombies. There was no way he could get through the mob.

    Zombies swarm the RV, with Jackie in the driver's seat blasting away to lure them away from Curley

As the vehicles peeled out and exited the way they'd come, Earle trotted over to Jackie and Curley's vehicle. He grabbed the keys from the console, started it up, and roared out after his friends. As far as he could tell, everyone had made it out alive. This was so much better an outcome than at the creepy farms where they'd almost lost Big Bass, and had lost Wrich, Red, and more!

    Big Bass and C.J. run back towards their blue van with a Nasty Zombie hot on their heels!

The players were very fortunate this game in not losing any of their crew. Consistently low spawning rolls and excellent die rolling by Allen (again!) meant they survived the one big melee that could have gone bad for them. They also showed better teamwork in this game. Joel helped out both sides of the table with Earle's fleet feet and noisy rifle. Mike S's Coop and Daisy intervened and diverted overwhelming zombie reinforcements from Allen's three survivors that were trying to brawl their way out of trouble. Keith's Junior and Roman kept the attention of the zombies long enough to allow Tom to find the supplies in the trailers. The crew from Columbus was on their way west with lots of looted medicine, some supplies, and even a new weapon or two. It's a long way to Wyoming, though, and the convoy will doubtless face many more dangers on the road. Stay tuned for more adventures with Zombie RV!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 0
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 4 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 0
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 0

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 0
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 1

Refugee Car & 4 New Survivors

    Four more survivors protecting their belongings piled upon a MBA 'Refugee Car'

Happy New Year! I hope you had a good set of holidays. Mine were fairly relaxing, which is nice, and also helped with my productivity! I'd begun both of these projects well before the New Year, but they were slow going -- especially the refugee car. The resin car is from Miniature Building Authority and is an awesome piece of eye candy for the tabletop. I picked it up at Historicon 2024 this past July, among other things I purchased from Kirk. Three different manufacturers are responsible for these four survivors: Foundry's Street Violence range (Crisanto), Copplestone Castings' Future Wars (Martina & Reef), and  Battle Valor Games. Thanks to my friend Jason for correcting me on Martina and Reef's manufacturer!

    This resin car from Miniature Building Authority has a LOT of detail that took serious time to paint!

Starting with the refugee car, as you can tell by looking at it, there was a LOT of detail. Now, I could have taken a short cut and made all the bags tan, etc. However, I didn't think it would look as nice. So, I was determined to look at each item affixed to the car and decide what color to paint it. I was hoping the riot of different colors would really make the model stand out. I tried to go with a more dull slate of colors, except for maybe the bright blue couch! I figured the less bright colors, the dry brushing, and the overall black wash, would unify the look enough once I was done.

    You gotta love the couch heaped up on the car - I mean, wherever we're going, we need comfort!

It took more than a week, picking out maybe a half dozen items to paint each session, then dry brushing them the next day. I would then pick out a new group of things to paint, dry brushing them the next day. I actually started with the body of the car and tires first. After priming everything black, I painted the body a Pewter metallic color. Why that color? Mainly because there are a lot of silver sedans driving through our neighborhood with what appears to be a recent arrival to the U.S. being taught how to drive! So, the color choice was an inside joke for myself -- plus, when rusted and dirtied up, I thought silver would look good.

    I was pretty happy with the rust effects that I added -- it looks like a beat up car barely on the road

Speaking of the rust, I used Autumn Brown first for the areas of rust, then filled it in with fluorescent orange. Once the entire thing was done, I gave it a black vehicle wash. The windows, which had previously been painted solid flat black, were painted a bluish glaze at the top to give the effect of reflected sky. I have done this on other cars, and it tends to look good and work about half the time. You be the judge whether it worked this time...! All in all, I'm very happy with the car, and it will likely appear on the tabletop in my next post-apocalyptic or zombie game. Pick one up from Kirk next time you see Miniature Building Authority at a show!

    My favorite of this batch of survivors, a tough-looking ex-marine with braided hair - Martina

The four survivors are the heavier armed ones from the batch of eight I'd picked out from my unpainted lead a few weeks ago. Three are armed with assault rifles and one with a shotgun. I really like how all of them look except maybe the cop in riot gear. I think I simply made his color scheme too black and gray and he looks like a dark blob unless you pick up the miniature and examine it closely. My favorite of the four is Martina. She is from Copplestone Castings' Citizen Militia pack. I love the long, braided hair going down her back. I decided to give her woodland camouflage pants and a tan colored shirt. I gave her a darker skin tone, too, using a leather color with a lighter tan dry brush. I also gave her some tattoos because she looked like a tough lady. I'm not sure if you can read the "USMC" on her right forearm. I was tempted to call her Vasquez from Aliens ("Hey Vasquez! Have you ever been mistaken for a guy?" "No...have you?"). However, I figured that one day I make actually pick up the Vasquez figure from the Another Glorious Day in the Corps board game, and that would make things awkward between the two...ha, ha!

    Surfer dude Reef is an interesting figure with sweat pants and 'slides', or sandals in old people speak

My next favorite is Reef, who I thought looked like a surfer dude armed with an AK-47. He appeared to have sweat pants and "slides" (we call them sandals, but kids today call them slides). So, I gave him blond hair, purple sweat pants, and a bright green shirt. His slides are white with purple trim, and in true surfer fashion, his mirrored sunglasses having matching purple lenses. The green of his shirt was considerably darkened down by the black wash that I did, so it looks less like beach wear than I was hoping. I also gave him some tattoos. I was tempted to give the shirt a Ron Jon surf wear logo, but once I pulled up an image of the company's symbol, I didn't think I could execute it with my micron pens! He is also from the same pack as Martina.

    I like how Crisanto's urban-style camo pants turned out - he is a 28mm Foundry 'Street Violence' fig

Next in line of my favorites of this group is Crisanto. He is from the "SWAT team Alpha" pack in the Street Violence range. I used my Asian flesh that I'd mixed up to paint my Saga Mongol army. Once I painted his black hair and mustache, I thought he looked more Filipino than anything. He wears body armor and elbow and knee pads, which was going to be a challenge to make gray yet still give some color to the figure. So, I decided to give him urban camouflage patterned pants and a dark bluish-green shirt. That proved to be enough lighter colors to avoid the "dark blob" look that his buddy Hondo suffered! I lined the dark gray pads with a lighter gray rather than dry brushing them. I wanted to make sure they stood out more distinctly, so chose that method. The only part I don't like about the miniature is the assault rifle slung over his shoulder. The strap was messing with my mind, trying to figure out where it started, ended, and connected to the gun. Otherwise, I really like how he turned out.

    Did I do a good enough job making the detail visible? Or is Hondo a 'dark blob'?

The final figure, Hondo, is a Battle Valor Games policeman in riot gear. Like with Crisanto above, I tried to make color choices that would keep it from looking like a dark blob, but I honestly think I failed here. I should have rethought how I painted his riot gear rather than going with standard black or dark gray. I have more than one of these left from my pack of police in riot gear, so if I paint more, I will get more creative. Perhaps doing Google Image searches will reveal somewhere in the world that has more brightly colored riot police. Anyway, four more survivors are done, which is just in time. I will likely be running a game of Zombie RV for my Sunday night gaming group soon.

What's next? Terrain-wise, I will be painting up three Acheson Creations Dark Ages thatch roof huts. They are spray primed and have also had their 50/50 mix of black paint and water brushed on. As for miniatures, I debating between a couple choices. Stay tuned to see which ones I decide upon!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 0
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 4 

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 0
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 0

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 0
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 1

Year in Review: 2024

        2024 was definitely the "Year of Sci-Fi" for me and my painting and modeling projects!

Looking back over my most prolific year posting here on my Lead Legionaries blog, two main periods were dominant. Science-Fiction was by far the most dominant period I posted about, whether writing about new miniatures I'd painted or buildings or scatter. Second place was Post-Apocalyptic, as I began an entirely new type of game (Zombie Apocalypse), while continuing to run games, paint miniatures, and get buildings or scatter ready for the tabletop. Modern gaming was a distant third, though to be fair, much of what I created for post-apoc games could also be used for ones set in a modern (non-apoc) setting.

    Contingent of 3-D printed Stormtroopers from JS Wargamer Printing guarding an Acheson building

Science-Fiction

Part of the reason that I posted so much about Sci-Fi was because there were three separate sets of rules or types of games I was playing (or getting ready to play).  In the beginning of the year, I was heavy into getting things ready for a Xenos Rampant game. Although virtually every size game likes to call itself skirmish nowadays, no matter how many figures are on the tabletop, I would call this a "big battle" game. We typically have six players for our games on Sunday evening, so I had to build forces for six different factions. I went with what the rules recommend, 24 army points. That typically means 4-6 units of anywhere from 5-10 miniatures. In some cases it may be fewer, like a war machine or bot. For the rank and file, though, 5-10 figures is the most common.

    We found that my table was a little small for six full-size Xenos Rampant detachments

In the end, I used two factions belonging to my friend Keith to run our 6-player game. Still, fielding miniatures for four factions was a lot of work. That's around 20 units, so maybe between 100 and 200 miniatures? Some were painted last year, or taken from my post-apocalyptic factions. Still, it was a LOT of work. And the worst part about it is I haven't gotten around to running a second game. We agreed after playing that six 24-point factions on my 5'x12' table was just too crowded. After discussing it, we settled on 18 points per faction for future games. Hopefully, that future game will be soon, possibly in January. I will be hosting for much of January and February while our regular host, Mike W, is out of town "snow birding."

    The Inconceivable crew sneaks up on the objective in one of my Five Parsecs from Home solo games

In addition to Xenos Rampant, I began playing regular solo games of Five Parsecs from Home. Ostensibly, I was "testing" the system out to see if it would work as a game for our Sunday evening crew. As fun as Five Parsecs is, I didn't think it would be a good fit for six players. I was enjoying the way the rules create a story arc as you continue along on your campaign. In fact, Capt. Alistair Valentine and his merry crew will finish their quest with the next mission -- so I definitely want to play that one out in 2025. My trip to Morocco in November derailed the captain and crew of the Inconceivable temporarily, but hopefully readers of my blog will be enjoying more of their adventures soon.

Although I got in only one Xenos Rampant game in 2024, I hope to play more in 2025

The third Sci-Fi game or period that I was busy prepping figures for was going to be a true skirmish (players control 4-6 figures -- not units!) in the Star Wars universe. I was bouncing around trying to decide which rules to use. Of course, we could use Wiley Games' Galactic Heroes rules as we are familiar with them. We've played a couple games with them already, plus it is the same basic rules engine and system I use for the post-apocalyptic campaign. However, I wanted to try something to give a different flavor, and an old friend suggested I download Space Weirdos (thanks Steve P!) from Wargames Vault and look over it. I liked it enough to say that's what I will try first for my Star Wars skirmish, which hasn't had a game played, as yet. I have all the factions completed (a LOT easier when you're painting 4-6 figs instead of units...ha, ha!), though. Look for that in January or more likely February. I still need to create cards for each of the player's characters and the measuring sticks it uses.

    I took these fantasy Gatorfolk from Beldolor Studies and converted them into Sci-Fi figures

Just to give you an idea of how heavily focused I was this year on Sci-Fi, I made about 16 posts about painting miniatures for the period, along with about 10 blog entries about buildings or scatter. So, a big part of my output was geared towards Sci-Fi, it seems! And now that I have all these figures, look for a lot more game reports covering these rules!

    This downed chopper was the focal point of a scenario in my post-apocalyptic campaign

 

Post-Apocalyptic

Like my Sci-Fi projects, my production in the Post-Apoc period was a mix of old and new games. Our post-apocalyptic games using Wiley Games Core Rules is still continuing into its third year. That's great news. I think my players would like me to run it more often than I do, and hopefully I will be better at cranking out scenarios for them in 2025. For our most recent game, my friend Mike S provided the scenario so he could use the city block terrain he'd been busy building. I'm sure he wanted a chance to game with it on the tabletop, so he talked me into GM'ing the scenario he'd created. For the scenarios that I create, they tend to revolve around a particular piece of terrain or scatter I've created. One example was the "Chopper Down!" game I ran where the factions were converging on a helicopter that had auto-rated down into the middle of a ruined city. There had been no explosion, so hopefully that meant some great salvage! 

    Mike S brought his city ruins terrain he'd bought and had been working on for another scenario

By far the most posts I did on this period in 2024 was a new niche, or mini-period -- zombie apocalypse! I was inspired by purchasing the County Road Z rules and began accumulating the necessary zombie horde. As I was working on it, though, I read about another set of rules called Zombie RV. It was much shorter, way less expensive, and had a fun, quick, and bloody feel to it. I was so intrigued that Jenny and I pulled out some of my post-apocalyptic figures, I set up a tabletop, and we played a game of it. Although our mission to collect supplies failed miserably, we both agreed it was fun and we'd just had some awful luck leading to our deciding to flee the field prematurely. 

    Zombies swarm towards the survivors in one of our Zombie RV games over the course of the year

I reached out to the rules author David Bezio, and he sent me an unfinished "campaign" introduction in answer to my questions about running a continuing series of games. He encouraged me to expand on what he'd started and work up my own rules for experience and improving character skills and abilities. The next step was to inflict it on the Sunday evening group. I ran three side by side battle boards with two players sharing the four survivors like Jenny and I had done. It went over really well, except Keith had issues with zombie senses -- how do they see? Do they smell? Hear? Everyone else took the simple rules with a grain of salt, but Keith had questions. So, for the next game, I wrote out an even more detailed Zombie A.I. that the rules come with to hopefully answer his scientific inquiries...ha, ha!

    3-D printed fortified trailers from Bad Goblin are one of the highlights of my Zombie RV tabletops

Of course, more players meant more zombies would be needed! My zombie horde ended up totaling 74 figures, which included a handful of "Fast Zombies" and "Nasty Zombies," according to the Zombie RV rules. The first half of the zombie horde were 3-D printed ones from JS Wargamer Printing. After that, I was able to get ahold of some Wargames Factory male and female zombies to finish out the horde. A couple people suggested using Zombiecide figures, but my initial 3-D printed batches were way too small compared to the oversized ones from the board game. Luckily, the Wargames Factory zombies were close in size, so it all looks good together on the tabletop.

    Painting female zombies from Wargames Factory were a nice change of pace in the horde

I do have to admit that I got a little tired of painting zombies! Thank goodness for the female zombies my friend Keith gave me -- I know, that sounds weird! They spiced things up and I could have some fun with various outfits including party dresses, bikinis (hey, that's how they molded them!), evening gowns, and more. I was getting so tired of painting the walking dead that by the end I was painting them to resemble my gaming friends. Of course, no one thinks "their" zombie looks like them...!

    This 3-D printed bridge from Rusty's Jarls Workship was the centerpiece of my Mean Streets games

Mean Streets Gang Warfare

My "Convention Game" for 2024 was Mean Streets, my self-published rules covering rumbles between street gangs. I ran it at Cincycon, Drums at the Rapids, and Origins. It was a big success at all three conventions. I had lots of interested players and sold some copies of the rulebook (which is also available at many other places, including Ganesha Games, Shieldwall Gaming Club, On Military Matters, RRB Minis & More, Brigade Games and other places). It turned out to be the 25 anniversary of the movie that inspired the rules, Hollywood's 1979, The Warriors. So, it was appropriate I ran a Warriors-inspired scenario in 2024. 

    The Eastmoor Kings gather on the bridge after running the gauntlet of rival gangs in 'Mean Streets'

My big terrain piece for that scenario was probably one of the biggest ones I have ever assembled and painted. It is a modern, stone city bridge that I bought from Rusty at Jarl's Workshop. I went for a yellowed, golden stone work and really like how it came out. I added in graffiti as it will see use more often in my Mean Streets games, or maybe even post-apocalyptic ones. In the scenario I ran, it was the goal for the Eastmoor Kings, who were taking on the role of the Warriors and trying to move from one side edge of the board to the opposite one. I didn't paint up any new gang members in 2024, but I did paint up some civilians.

    More than 14" height, this is my tallest terrain piece, a 28mm water tower from Bad Goblin Games

Speaking of big terrain, I also painted up the tallest terrain piece I've done to date. Once again, 3-D printed, it is a water tower from Bad Goblin Games. It has yet to see action on the tabletop, but it went together very easily and painted up quickly, as well. At $20, it is a bargain and I highly recommend Bad Goblin's 3-D printed terrain. Their fortified trailers were featured in a couple of my Zombie RV games and are fantastic. 

    My gaming year included a trip up to Blisffield to visit my friend Jim and play in two of their games

What DIDN'T I Paint?

Compared to other recent years, there has been one (probably) noticeable period missing in my 2024 posts. I may as well talk about it, too, as it does influence my gaming. I have found myself taking a break from Saga over the course of the year. I began the year finishing my Thracians, and painting their severed head fatigue markers. However, the only other painting I did for Saga otherwise was Warlord stands to give away as prizes at the Advance the Colors and Origins tournaments. And speaking of tournaments, I have also taken a break from being the one running them, too. Thankfully, others in the Saga Ohio community, such as Lee, Joe, Dan, Rusty, and James stepped up and took over running the ones I did.

    I enjoy making specialized fatigue markers for each Saga army - severed heads for my Thracians!

I was still playing Saga through the first three quarters of the year, though. I simply was not writing up blog posts about our Saga Sundays or my tournament entries. I played in both the DayCon tournament (run by Adrian and Jim) and the Hold the Line Ancient tournament (run by Rusty and James). We were still getting together on Sundays at the Guardtower East, but our number of players was steadily shrinking. Sometimes, we had just four show up -- and that is counting Jenny and myself. We did some Facebook polling and text discussion, and eventually in the Fall decided to suspend our once-a-month, Sunday get-togethers. There was another group at the Guardtower West who were gaming weekly and were much more active. We thought, "Why split up the player base into two groups?"

    An Ancient Warlord stand that I painted up as a prize for the ATC 2024 Saga tournaments

Interestingly, in this time of my declining Saga interest I finally got around to trying my "Saga Lite" ideas. With Saga Lite, there are no Advanced Abilities. Players use only the Basic Activations, Combat Bonus, and Activation Pool on the top half of their battle board. I was happy with how it worked out, and may run that for friendly games on Sunday evenings when we have a hankering for Dark Age, Medieval, etc. battles.  

    We tried out 'Rebels and Patriots' rules for the Revolutionary War and liked them, playing 3 times

Odds and Ends

In the early part of the year, I didn't do too good of a job blogging about what our Sunday evening group did on our game nights. True, it was often board games, and sometimes the same ones over and over. Let me tell you, if I never play Seven Wonders: Architects again...ha, ha! However, looking at the rules sets I did blog about, there are nearly 20 different ones listed. Granted, many of them were "one-off" games, typically when Keith got an urge to play PT Boats or Age of Sail or something similar.

    My long-time gaming companions, Joel & Allen, enjoy an Age of Sail game put on by Keith

However, one that I think will stay is Rebels and Patriots, which are the American War of Independence version of the popular Lion Rampant series. It is what I would call a "big battle" game, and we played it three times (I believe) over the course of 2024. It uses the same engine as Xenos Rampant, which should be a positive, right? We will be more familiar with the mechanics when we play a game. The only thing that worries me about sets of rules that use the same mechanics in a wide variety of periods is will the games feel different? When I run another game of Xenos Rampant, I don't want everyone to say, "This feels like the American Revolution but just with space figures. Does this make sense? A game system's mechanics should give the feel of a period. I worry that systems like Rampant and Wiley Games may suffer from sameness. Honestly, that is why I chose to try something different than Galactic Heroes for my Star Wars skirmishes. I don't want it to feel like a Western gunfight or post-apocalyptic game simply set in space.

    After 3 games, our group has the basics of how 'Rebels and Patriots' works -- which is always good!

Still, Rebels and Patriots has gained traction in our group. I enjoy it, Keith likes running it, and the players are become more and more familiar with the rules. We will see when I run Xenos Rampant again if anyone remarks, "Hey, this feels like an AWI game..."! I'd be interested in hearing from readers if you have encountered this in your own game clubs or feel that way yourself. Perhaps I'm the only one who worries about this or feels this way? Feel free to comment below.

    Although not mentioned on the blog often, we are avid board gamers, too, on Sunday evenings

Speaking of comments, this has probably been the most prolific year by commenters on Lead Legionaries, too. I really enjoy reading your feedback and hearing your thoughts. So, thank you to Bill, Donnie, Jason, Neil, Ray, Tom, and the man who seems to be everywhere, Anonymous! Ha, ha! Seriously, I really enjoy your comments as it confirms for me people are actually out there reading my blog. I'm sure every blogger wonders about that. Lacking any passive feedback such as "Likes" that you see on Facebook or "Times viewed" on Lead Adventure Forum, your comments are what I have to go on. I have had friends or acquaintances tell me they read my blog regularly, so I appreciate that, as well. 

    Expect more Zombie RV AARs in 2025 - more close escapes and characters that don't make it!

A Look Ahead (and some stats)

I mentioned 2024 was my most prolific year. If I get this posted tonight (New Year's Eve), it will be my 86th post of the year. That beats by about 20 my previous high, which was 66 in 2014. December 2024 has been my busiest month ever, too. This will be post #15, eclipsing the previous high pf 13 in October 2013. I actually started Lead Legionaries in September of 2013, though you will see posts dated 2007 through 2009. Those were "re-posts" of After-Action Reports from games played in those years.

    Keith, at right, gets a hankering from time to time for random periods -- like Civil War ironclads!

Why all the productivity this year? Well, it should be obvious - RETIREMENT! When people ask me how retirement is going (I finished teaching in May), I answer, "Every day is a good day." Unless I am out of town, I begin every day by going downstairs into my hobby room and putting in about an hour on whatever I am painting or modeling at the moment. I do get an occasional chance to sneak back downstairs during the day, but this steady one hour a day had done wonders for my output. As you may have seen at the bottom of my posts throughout the year, I have been tracking my Acquired vs. Painted totals. I ended up this year painting 254 miniatures. I took in 227. I hope to make the gap even bigger in 2025 with a full year of being retired.

    My 'Five Parsecs' crew investigates some of the Sci-Fi scatter & buildings I painted up in 2024

What projects will you see posts on in 2025? A number will continue -- my post-apocalyptic campaign and Zombie RV games are both meant to be continuing series. So, my players' characters will improve (though some will likely die -- especially in Zombie RV!), which hopefully means they'll want to keep playing games. I like campaigns, though nowadays this means a continuing series of linked skirmishes rather than the old school Ancients ones where players controlled a kingdom. What else? I will likely finish the story arc of Five Parsecs from Home and then reevaluate whether I want to keep playing solo games. You will see the start of my Star Wars skirmishes, with players controlling factions ranging from the Empire to the Rebel Alliance and all shades of opinion in between. I hope to keep running one-off games of Xenos Rampant, too.

    'A new period...?' Admiral Akbar asks..."It's a trap!!" Mon Calamari 3D-printed figures

 What about new stuff, you ask? Wellll...I enjoyed how Sellswords & Spellslingers worked for my Viking Town Raid. I plan to use that system for a series of linked skirmishes set in Britain during the Viking raids. The players will control a couple characters, seeking to help the inhabitants of Britain survive the fury of the Norsemen. And I plan on tinkering with that system to adapt it to...Vietnam! I have long been tempted to run Vietnam games, but balked at starting a new period (and not having a set of rules I liked). I like the idea of running Vietnam cooperatively, with each player being a sergeant in control of a squad of grunts. Their goal will be get as many of their men to survive their 13 month tour of duty in Vietnam. I will likely test it out solo, first, using my 20mm modern Africa figures. If I like how it works, I will probably invest in a new period in 2025 -- 28mm Vietnam. We'll see, though -- no guarantees!

Thanks for reading my Year in Review! I know it was long, but your readership is appreciated...!

Miniature Painting & Purchasing Tally for 2024

• Miniatures acquired in 2024: 227
  
• Miniatures painted in 2024: 254