Historicon 2025 Purchases

Well, I didn't make it. Oh, I arrived at Historicon 2025 with no problem. I am referring to my goal of having my flea market sales cover my new purchases. My sales in the Friday flea market were more lackluster than I was hoping for. About half of the items I brought came home with me, unfortunately. I did make around $200, but some of my big ticket items, such as the MDF ruins from Four Ground and Father and Son Gaming, were not purchased by anyone. My advance purchases with Miniature Building Authority, Diabolical Terrain, and Michigan Toy Soldier & Figure Company set the bar too steep, though. Oh well...they did put a dent in my expenses, though. So, I guess I should be happy! 

    Resin bunkers and sniper positions that I picked up from Miniature Building Authority at Historicon

First, I stopped at the dealers where I had made arrangements ahead of time (or purchases on their website) to pick up at the convention. For Miniature Building Authority, this included more resin terrain for my 28mm Vietnam project. I picked up two Sniper Positions from their Pacific and Vietnam line. I also picked up one of the Coconut Log Bunkers. The final piece was the NVA Jungle Bunker. All four of these are items he has picked up from Acheson Creations and is selling in his catalog. That makes me very happy that at least some of the Acheson stuff I love so well will continue to be available to gamers. Kirk charged me $85, which was a nice (and very appreciated) discount. I do my best to promote his great products, showcasing them here on my blog when I get them painted up and ready for the tabletop. Thanks, Kirk! It was good to see and talk to you at Historicon. I look forward to seeing you at Advance the Colors, Oct. 10-11, in Springfield, OH!

    The remaining three buildings from Diabolical's "Tatooie" line of 3-D printed Sci-Fi buildings

Next up, was a stop with Ron Weaver from Diabolical Terrain. I think my largest advance purchase was through him, and he had my items all boxed up and ready to go. As I put the box under my arm, Ron asked, "What? You're not going to check them?" I told him no, I trusted him. He also realizes that I showcase his items on my blog regularly, too. Money-wise, my order was about the same size as at MBA, but included quite a few more items -- mostly for my Star Wars skirmish games. First up, I purchased the remaining three of the six "Tatooie" Desert Buildings. I had purchased the first three of these from him at Advance the Colors last year. They were so easy to paint up and I liked them so much that I wanted to get the remaining three models from that line. Also for these games, I picked up all nine pieces from the Canyon Rocks and Stacks line of 3-D printed terrain. I had picked up the Desert Rock Formations also at ATC, and I liked them so much that I wanted to complete my collection for Star Wars games out in the wilds of Tatooine. His 3-D printed products are always high quality, so I like to buy things from his booth every time I see Ron at a convention. 

    I liked the Desert Rocks I picked up last year so much, I bought the 'Canyon Rocks & Stacks'

My last advance purchase was with Michigan Toy Soldier & Figure Company. As it turns out, their website does not immediately deduct purchases from their inventory. So, my order of half a dozen items was missing three which were out of stock. They were very accommodating, though, and offered to do store credit for the missing items at the convention or ship them when they came in. I perused the booth, but decided to simply wait for them to come in stock. I did pick up the three things they had on hand, though. Two were figure packs from Crucible Crush. One was the Fearsome Flying Head from Native American mythology, while the other was a pack of 28mm English Puritans. The final item was the brown vehicle wash from Vallejo that I use for my miniatures -- especially on skin and colors in the white to tan range. I can almost hear the head or beard scratching from readers through my computer. Puritans? Native American mythological monsters?? Wait. All will be revealed shortly! Well, looking at the picture below, I think I kind of gave it away...ha, ha!

    The Fearsome Floating Head from Native American mythology & some English Puritans

I did not do an advance purchase for my next things I picked up, but it was actually my first stop in the vendor hall. I had contacted Steve from Age of Glory about their Empress 28mm Vietnam line to ensure they were bringing it to the show. He said he would be, and confirmed he had the items I wanted in stock. So, right after lunch on Thursday, I zipped inside the dealer hall and made a beeline for his booth. I had brought along one of my painted 28mm Viet Cong from the Black Sun line to compare sizes. It was as my friend Jim W had cautioned, though. The Empress line is MUCH smaller than the Black Sun figs. So, I cut back on what I was going to buy, and simply picked up the pack of four light machine gunners I needed from their NVA line. I am not planning on mixing the LMGs in with groups of small arms in the rules I am writing, so the size shouldn't be a problem. I also picked up three packs of civilians from their Viet Cong (Armed Civilians) line. I figured that the civilians could be shorter as they are significantly less well fed than the soldiers. I had read in one of the books that the villagers often marveled at how big the Kit Carson Scouts serving with the U.S. were, which they attributed to eating so much American food. I picked up civilian packs DS4, DS5, and DS6. The civilian poses are very nice and have a lot of character, as you can see from the pictures I've added to this post.

    The four packs of Empress 28mm Vietnam that I picked up -- LMGs and a dozen civilians

I drove to the Historicon contemplating more purchases than above. One in particular I really hadn't make up my mind on. I was thinking about starting a new period (gasp!) for next year. I had been reading battle reports on blogs or watching them on YouTube channels for 28mm Horror. I already owned Silver Bayonet, so that was one set of rules I was thinking of using for it. Recently, I downloaded from Wargame Vault the Devilry Afoot rules. Silver Bayonet is set during the Napoleonic Wars while Devilry Afoot is set during the 1600s or 1700s. If I pulled the trigger, I would base them in frontier America during the one of the series of wars fought in the New World. I already have a very large collection of 28mm native Americans and frontiersmen, as well as British and French. I have even purchased a number of Native American mythological creatures as I was contemplating doing a supplement for Song of Drums and Tomahawks were the boundary between our world and the spirit world was broken. However, my friend Mike Stelzer declared he was also considering doing that, so I backed off and let him run with it! Still, I had most of the figures I would need except for specialist characters and some more traditional monsters.

    Pictures from the Badger Games site of the packs that I bought at Historicon for 28mm Horror

I had taken hours going through the website of both Badger Games and Brigade Games. I jotted down (actually typed into my phone) likely packs of character or monster figures. Badger carries the Bad Squiddo Games which has an amazing array of characters from many periods, including the one I would be setting my games in. However, the prices tend to be on the higher end. Brigade Games carries the Silver Bayonet and Dracula's America lines, which tend to be more reasonable. Actually, Badger carries those lines, too, but confirmed by email they wouldn't be bringing them because other folks carry those lines at the show. I slowly went through the figure packs at both vendor booths, and finally decided I would pull the trigger on this new period. I told myself I wouldn't try to get it going until 2026, as I wanted to focus my Sunday Night Gaming efforts on the Star Wars skirmishes. However, I would use this opportunity to pick up the necessary miniatures. After all, I am only down on the Acquired vs Painted for Miniatures 237 to 144. That's less than 100...ha, ha!

    Some of the Silvery Bayonet & Dracula's America figures that I bought for my 2026 Horror project

It might have been helpful to have chosen which rules set I was going to use before buying, but honestly, I wanted to try them out myself first. So, I picked out the characters using types that both games had in common. The monsters are very similar, though I would introduce more mythological creatures from Native American stories than a standard campaign in either game might. Between the three lines (Bad Squiddo, Silvery Bayonet, and Dracula's America), there were often the same monster. For example, each of the three produces a "Wendigo" figure from Algonquian folklore. Sometimes I went by the figure I liked best. Other times, I went with the most reasonably priced -- for example, the werewolves from Dracula's America were the cheapest and looked great. For witches, I couldn't resist the Bad Squiddo figures. Yes, the "Angry Witches" pack looks a little whimsical and Wizard of Oz-ish, but I can mix up the colors a bit and don't have to paint them with green skin. It will be hard to resist cackling, "I'll get you my pretties...!" in the first game, though...ha, ha! 

    Some of the 17th-18th century personality figures I picked up from Brigade Games

I was still missing some key character types, so hit up Brigade Games, again. Both games can have lords, churchmen, and scholars as part of the player monster hunters. So, I went through Lon's collection and then asked his advice when I still couldn't find some things. In particular, I was having trouble with scholars or scientists until he pointed out a pack from the Napoleonic range. They're meant to represent the group of academics that Napoleon took along with him to Egypt. At the edge of my period, but nothing wrong with the odd top hat or two...! 

    Freebie pack of Charlton Heston from Planet of the Apes, a chimp astronaut, & other figure

Other than the odd bottle of paint, that was the extent of my purchases at Historicon. I've been keeping a running tab on my calculator, but it likely doesn't reflect any discounts vendors may have given. I was attempting to pay as much as possible with cash instead of credit card. Still, as mentioned, I fell short of having my flea market sales pay for the things I bought in the dealer room. I'm a little bummed about that, but I realize that I wasn't selling painted miniatures this time, for the most part. Those are what I've earned the most from at previous flea markets. Terrain and odds and ends can add up only so much. I'll have to remember that, and maybe next time begin to dig into my unpainted (and unplanned to paint anytime soon) pile of minis more rather than preparing terrain to sell.  Still, it was a fun time. Although I feel like I kept my purchases under control, my phone's calculator is telling me otherwise! I've adjusted the numbers below of Acquired vs. Painted, so you can see my task ahead to stay in the green!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 288
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 145

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 36
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 47

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 115
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 114