My purchases at Drums at the Rapids 2026

    Two of the five buildings that I received from RRB Minis -- one a very nice gift from him to me!

Prior to heading up to Drums at the Rapids this past weekend, I cleaned off several shelves of my closet where I stage my unpainted terrain and scatter. I knew that I'd be picking up some more medieval buildings from RRB Minis & More, and I needed the room! Plus, there is a free flea market at the show, and I usually take things and set them on the table next to my game that I'm running. I also unloaded a good sized plastic tub of all the rule sets that I had taken but never sold to previous shows. I marked everything down with a sticker, ranging from $1 to $5. This stuff had to go...this time!

    House on the left is from the Ferisia line, and the one on the right is the Stormhill City Farmhouse

Thankfully, nearly all of it did. So, I had room for the five, 3-D printed medieval buildings that I bought from Rich at RRB. Two of them are simple, one-story homes. I have so many large buildings that I've purchased recently, I needed to get some ordinary houses for the streets of my town. These are from a couple different lines that Rich produces. I like the way they look and I will probably do them next. It should be a contrast from the epics I've been painting, and I'll probably be shocked to see how quickly they go! One of them is from the Ferisia line -- "Small Farmhouse." The other was actually a gift from Rich to me for all the nice mentions he gets on Lead Legionaries. It is called Stormhill City Farmer House.

    The sprawling Dwarven Bath House, which I bought because it was such a cool looking builidng

 

    Interior of the Bath House -- which looks very much like a bathing spot or spa, unlike the outside

The largest of the ones I bought is from the Ferisia line, once again. It is called Dwarven Bath House. The pictures I'd seen were only of the exterior, and I liked its unusual look. The almost domed roof, octagonal shape and the two and one story sections looked appealing. I was quite surprised at how big it turned out to be (horizontal space for this one, not vertical). And the interior is definitely a bath complex. I may paint it up with the bathhouse style components not attached, so I can use it as an ordinary building in games, too.

    I like the little balconies in the Ferisia line -- like the one on the Brunbir Blazeforge House

Another from the Ferisia line that Rich printed at my request was Brunbir Blazeforge House. This building is much more compact than the Duncan or Catrine House, with the third story being entirely the rooftop. My favorite part is the little, angled stone balcony over the doorway. It is mostly stone, like many of the other Ferisia buildings I bought from Rich. I like how many of them have overhangs, this one included. This one is stone, though, and has a definite angled look that fits with many of the others in this line.  

    The Ferisia Bakery is a nice corner style building like you often see in Europe

The last of the five buildings is the Ferisia Bakery Store. It has the same look as many corner buildings that are part of row houses. This one is stand alone, but would be a nice one to put in a medieval intersection. It also came with a bunch of benches or tables and an outdoor oven. At two stories tall, it is nice in between sized building that will help with the look of my burgeoning medieval town.

    I need a 28mm Huey for one of my Surviving 'Nam scenarios, so my friend Ted printed 4 for me!

As I am finishing up my work on my upcoming rules publication, Surviving 'Nam: an Infantryman's Year In-Country, I wrote my final few scenarios. I plan on including a dozen with the rules (one for each month of a soldier's tour of Vietnam). One of the last ones I wrote is a helicopter deployment in a "hot LZ" -- and I wanted to be able to run it at conventions with actual model Huey helicopters. My friend Ted had a STL for one and kindly printed off four 28mm scale Hueys for me. Why four? Well, I typically have four players in my convention games and I wanted one for each player. Honestly, I could have used just one model as each fire team arrives on a different turn, but the spectacle of four 28mm Huey will likely be a draw in a convention hall. Eye candy is important in miniature games!

    Ted came through in providing me some pilots in need of rescuing for my 'Downed Airmen' scenario

Speaking of figures for my Vietnam games, Ted also printed up three American pilots for me. I had ordered two metal ones from Gringo 40s, but they sent me only one of them. My "Downed Aircrew" scenario requires two pilot figures. Once again, Ted stepped up and provided 3-D prints for me to use. They look like quality prints and I hope to get to them sometime soon. I still have nearly my entire Gringo 40s purchase order to paint up, yet. I'll start working on them after my 28mm Elves for Dragon Rampant are complete.  

    I picked these rules up from Firelands Games just in case they catch on locally

My final purchase was the Pillage: Ransack the Middle Ages skirmish rules set produced by Victrix. I had almost picked it up twice before from Firelands Games, but each time I went back to get it at a convention, they had just sold it. I snatched it up immediately when I saw it, so lightning wouldn't strike thrice. I don't know if I will actually play it anytime soon, but I always like to support the vendors. James and Rusty from Firelands Games are such nice guys, and support all of the local conventions loyally. Apparently, one of the local stores in Columbus carries the rules and has sold dozens of copies of it. Maybe, once I try it out, I can run it at the store and see if I can recruit some more local, historical gamers for our HMGS chapter. We'll see..!

    Forgot to mention more gifts from Rich: 28mm Outhouse and 4 stick-like 8" measuring sticks

Otherwise, what's on my tabletop? I have the six Elven spearmen at least halfway completed. There are five horror/monster figures for my Devilry Afoot games that I picked up last year. They are primed and have their first base coat done on them. Terrain-wise, I decided I wanted to finally paint up the two bags of Viking rune stones that I bought from Sword & Scabbard a couple years ago. They should go very quickly -- another reason I chose to start one them! 

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 179
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 99

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 12
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 26

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 21
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 59 

Little Wars 2016 & Purchases

    The 1st game I played in at Little Wars 2026 - Marty's 'Pulp Alley' Chaos in Cairo game was a blast!

Little Wars in Chicago, HMGS Midwest's flagship convention, is usually not on my itinerary. Spring is such a busy time for cons here in Ohio that most years I can't squeeze it in. However, I had been telling myself since I retired that I wanted to attend more shows, and Little Wars is not that far away -- just under six hours driving (depending on traffic). We had attended a couple times in the past and had a fun time. So, when I saw how reasonably priced the hotel rooms were, I decided to make 2026 the third time!

    My 'haul' from Little Wars -- I kept my spending under control, for the most part

The next decision was whether I would run games or simply just shop and play. I went back and forth for a couple weeks, and finally decided I would go just as an attendee. When the event list was published, I sat down and picked out five games that I wanted to play in. When registration opened, I was ready, waiting on Tabletop Events with five tabs open -- ready to pounce! I successfully registered for all five of the games I wanted, and Jenny was able to get in most of them, too. 

    My 2nd favorite game at Little Wars was the 1970s IRA raid on British operations on Saturday

The drive to Chicago went much smoother than I expected. We got there earlier on Thursday afternoon than we had planned -- even before registration opened up. After checking in, we went to a local brewpub for a beer and stayed for another (and to get something to eat). We were joined by our "Michiana" (Michigan & Indiana) friends -- Steve S, Greg, Steve B, Tim, and his son Pat. It was good to see them. Since they stopped coming to Advance the Colors, sadly, we are lucky to see them once a year. Despite all of the good games I played in, hanging out with good friends and sharing laughs was truly my personal highlight of Little Wars. We doubled down on that Saturday evening, going out to dinner with Rich and his wife Gwen from RRB Minis & More. Vendors are always so busy at conventions that it was nice to spend a couple hours with them, too!

    My Pulp Alley league surveys the street -- spotting the first plot point that we needed to investigate

My first game Thursday evening was Pulp Alley -- a very fun system that we played about 10 years ago but hadn't in awhile. In 2014, I ran an Indiana Jones-themed series of games for the Sunday Evening Gaming Group called, Dakota Smith's Oriental Adventures. Not wanting to be "that player" who doesn't know or understand the rules, I downloaded Pulp Alley's free Quick Start guide and read through it the night before. I was glad that I did, though GM Marty Devine did an excellent job going over the rules before the game. In fact, this would prove to be my favorite game of the entire convention. My "League" (as a player's group of figures is called) consisted of three miniatures trying to beat the other three factions to finding clues to the location of a secret map. We had a blast, attacking each other in this free-for-all, playing "Peril" cards on each other, and in general, trying to outfox the others.

    The center of the board with traffic, soldiers, and pedestrians making it a 'perilous place' to be

It was a thrilling finish to the game, too. On my last figure's activation, she charged into the player holding the major plot point and knocked them out, sending the prized possession flying. With no figure technically in possession of it at game end, the my league ended up in a three-way tie for first. The Little Wars staff give a medal to the GM of each game to hand out to the winner or player who performed best. I won my first of two for the weekend, but more importantly, had a great time. Marty ran Pulp Alley throughout the weekend, and Jenny went back for a second game of it, having an equally good time.

    I eyeballed this 3-D printed building RRB Minis had in their booth all weekend before buying it

Friday morning was a bit of a disappointment, as I screwed up the time my event started. I had utilized the "My Schedule" feature of Tabletop Events to pull up a spreadsheet of the games I had booked. What I didn't realize was that by saving the tab in my phone's browser, and not refreshing it when we arrived in town, my times were all off by one hour. For some reason, TTE has a "time zone" feature and adjusts your schedule to show your own local time when you pull it up -- not the scheduled actual start time for the game. So, if you were on the West Coast and pulled up your "My Schedule," game start times would be two hours off from Chicago's Central Time and three from my Eastern Time. Mine was one hour off, and Jenny and I showed up about 45 minutes after it had started. I felt awful for the GM in being a no-show, and bummed that I didn't get to play in his pirate game. 

    The Bad Squiddo figs that I picked up -- I kept in under control as their range tends to be very pricey

It did give me a LOT more time to shop, though! One of my favorite stops at Historicon was there, Badger Games, and I spent time looking through their extensive line of miniatures they brought to the show. They carry a HUGE number of figure lines, and curious, I asked the owner who'd attended about what percentage they were able to bring to the show. She estimated 10% -- the remaining 90% was sitting in their warehouse. I picked out five packs that I wanted from Bad Squiddo Games line, including a pack of "May Queens" that I think will make good female wizards for my Elven army for Dragon Rampant. That had been one of my shopping goals, as I hadn't bought any wizards with my Warhost army (which I got from Badger Games, by the way). 

    Phalanx Games was there with their MDF bases - $5 for as many as you can stuff & seal in a ziploc

Friday night's game (which I DID make it to on time!) was a hit and miss. It was using The Men Who Would be Kings from Daniel Mersey's "Rampant" stable. However, the GM wasn't very familiar with the rules, and I had to step in a number of times and help him figure out how the system worked. He was also a bit brain fried, he said, as this was his third game in a row. He also admitted he had yet to the play test the scenario, which quickly became evident when the Mahdists wiped our British and Egyptian forces off the table in half the time the game was scheduled for! Jenny was even less happy than I was, because the GM was clearly getting frustrated with players who weren't picking up the rules. The fact that it was his own two friends who were the most clueless of the bunch didn't make his badgering the players any better. Chalk that one up as a "miss," and hope the rest of the games are better. Unfortunately, bad games, bad scenarios, and bad GMs are all part of attending a convention. You have to accept your losses with your wins.

    Another of the lovely buildings that were part of the very fun IRA game I played in on Saturday

Saturday morning was much better. I played in a 1970s IRA vs. British scenario. The GM's board was beautiful! He had 3-D printed all of the buildings and it was definitely immersive. He explained we had two missions we needed to complete -- ambushing a Laundry Delivery Service van (a front for British counter-intelligence) and taking out a massage parlor, which was another intelligence effort trying to extract information from the "loose lips" of its customers. He let us plan every detail of our mission, whether to complete the missions simultaneously or consecutively, how many of our eight operatives to assign to each, and exactly how we would carry each out.

    Rich Brown of RRB gave me a good 'package deal' on these 2 smaller buildings & boulders

So, instead of 30 minutes explaining the rules to us, he kept that part of the game relatively secret. He wanted the preliminaries to be us hashing out our mission plan amongst ourselves. There was one of the five players who was a bit of a holdout, but we eventually brought him around to the group consensus. Once the missions themselves got under way, the system moved very quickly. In fact, the three of us players (and four operatives) ambushing the van completed it in record time, the GM said. We took no casualties and eliminated all four of the British agents quickly. He mentioned it was the best any group had done. The other team was having a bit rougher of a time, and ended up clearing only two of the three floors of the massage parlor. They lost one operative and had two others wounded, I believe. The other three IRA agents were able to exfiltrate, though, and soon joined us as we melted away into the pro-IRA neighborhood, with the sounds of British sirens drawing nearer.

    Lion Rampant, a very fun system, recreating the Battle of Enna in Sicily between Arabs & Normans

My final game Saturday afternoon was a Lion Rampant game between Arabs and Normans in Sicily. It was a four-player game with two commands on each side. Interestingly, the GM had us alternate activating one of our commands (one Arab, one Norman, etc.). We also re-rolled for Initiative each turn, so the possibility of a "double move" -- going last one turn and first the next -- existed, and actually happened. Personally, I think the game would have been better and faster moving if both commands on one side went and then the other side, and kept up that order throughout the game. Still, it was a fun game. My shooting and combat dice were pretty bad in the beginning, but eventually came around at the end. On one amazing charge, my "Bloodthirsty" general and his bodyguard cavalry rolled 13 hits on 12 dice against a Norman light cavalry unit. With his trait, each roll of a "6" caused two hits, and I rolled six of them on 12 dice!

    Last purchase of the con, an interesting looking 3-D printed medieval building from Phalanx Games

I wrapped up my shopping after that session of games, because Jenny and I would be leaving right away Sunday morning. In addition to the Bad Squiddo minis, I picked up two small medieval buildings and another larger one from RRB Minis & More. I also snagged a ziploc full of MDF bases of various sizes and another very cool looking 3-D printed medieval building from Phalanx Games & Sundry. My last purchase was a can of Howard Hues paint from Dayton Painting Consortium -- one of my favorite colors that I had run out of, recently. After dinner with Rich & Gwen, we closed out the evening like we had the other three -- sitting around swapping stories and laughing with our Michiana friends. It had definitely been a good weekend.

    My prizes (and the figs that won them for me) from two of the fun games at Little Wars 2026

Will I come back? Well...actually, I'm not 100% sure. The Little wars registration fee was a bit of sticker shock. Sixty dollars is a lot for a convention -- at least compared to the ones I attend. I know $60 is not Gencon pricing, but it is more than the much larger Historicon was in 2025 ($50), and four times what we charge for a weekend member badge at Advance the Colors. Also, I'm not exactly crazy about the way HMGS Midwest bundles a year's membership in their chapter into the convention price. Long ago, all HMGS chapters across the country agreed to give members of other chapters the discounted admission rate that their own members received. What's the point of that if members of other chapters HAVE to buy your membership? Yes, I understand Chicago may be an expensive city, so the venue could be pricey. Still, the Sheraton, where the convention was held, was a suburban hotel -- not downtown in the high rent zone. And honestly, it is getting a little worn on the edges and needing renovation. For example, when we arrived, only one of its three elevators was working. So, Little Wars' convention price could certainly factor into my future decisions on whether to attend or not. Seeing all of my buddies is priceless, of course, but these two things probably take it out of the "must go" for me.

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 176
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 91

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 7
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 23

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 17
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 56 

Cincycon 2016 Purchases

    One of my Cincycon purchases, the Catrine House, from RRB Minis & More

Cincycon is usually my first convention of the year. Fortunately for me, it falls near my birthday, so I can rationalize some "birthday presents" to myself when I visit the various vendors at the show. I showed up with a number of things on my shopping list, which I duly typed into the Notes section of my iPhone. And then promptly forgot to check it...!

    These excellent 3-D printed buildings from RRB Minis & More are STLs from Dadi Dungeon

The biggest purchases in both size and money spent were the 3-D printed buildings I was picking up from Rich of RRB Minis & More. I ended up coming home with three new medieval town buildings -- two roughly 3-4 story ones and another that was 1-story. Rich's prints are always nice and his prices simply can't be beat. The first building was the Catrine House, which is the sister of the Duncan House that I painted up earlier this year. If anything, it is even more cool and elaborately designed. I also picked up a building titled simply "Merchant's House" by Dadi Dungeon & Dintorni. Like the Duncan House, it is from the Ferisia City line. If you check out that line and see something that you like, Rich has the STLs and can sell you any of the buildings from the line. Merchant's House is also a 3-4-story one with window galleries and other cool features.

    Rich talked me into buying this 'Merchant House' from the Ferisia line - a gorgeous model!

The final building of the three was called Merchant Store B. It is a simpler, one-story building but with a unique feature. It has an attached outdoor, roofed section with long counters for the family to sell their wares from the exterior of the home. I don't want every building in my medieval town to be 4-story medieval skyscrapers. This one still fits in well with the others, but is simpler. I actually ordered two more buildings from him, but through no fault of his own, he did not receive the STLs from the Kickstarter until the day he was leaving for Cincycon. I'll likely pick them up in April from him at either DayCon or Little Wars. I look forward to painting up all three of these buildings.

    Winged Insectoid alien & heavy weapons pack I'll use for Sci-Fi terrain from JS Wargamer Printing

The next "big thing" I was looking to pick up at Cincycon were big alien monsters for use with the Majestic 13 solo/coop rules from Snarling Badger Studios. One of these I found at JS Wargamer Printing that was in his line of movie monsters. It is a very large, insectoid creature (Megagirus) that will fit perfectly as an opponent for my Critter Control team. I also picked up a pack of some miscellaneous Sci-Fi heavy weapons which I will make turrets or other scenery with for my Star Wars games. The pack is meant as an add-on pack for his 3-D printed mechs or futuristic tanks, but the guns and such will work perfectly as installation defenses in my skirmish games. 

    3-D printed Jawas from Big Mr Tong that John at JS Wargamer Printing had waiting for me...

I had also pre-ordered a pack of Star Wars Jawas from him. They are STLs from Big Mr Tong and will be fun to paint up. They will also likely find their way into a scenario for our skirmishes using Space Weirdos rules. Jawas are one of those iconic Star Wars races that are part comic, part atmospheric. Not as cartoonish as the Teddy Bear-like Ewoks, but still instantly recognizable with their hooded faces and somewhat sinister appearance. If there are any Big Mr Tong or other Star Wars figures you need, John at JS Wargamer Printing can print them off for you very affordably.

    From one of the Star Wars games, these pre-printed plastic figures will work fine as big, nasty aliens!

In my search for big alien monsters, I found about a half dozen more, some in flea markets, others in the bargain bins of vendors. Two that I picked up from the flea market are actually pre-painted plastic models from one of the various Star Wars lines issued through the years. One is called a "Reek" and the other an "Acklay" -- whatever those are. I am not as steeped in the "Lore" as the folks at Wookiepedia or anything! Bing already painted fairly well, all that I will have to do is perhaps a wash and then flock the base. They'll be ready to take on Boone MacDonald and his buddies defending Earth from alien invasion.

    3 aliens that I will have to paint up to be monsters for Critter Control to fight in 'Majestic 13' games

Some others I picked up will require painting and even conversion work, but I'm happy that I now have them. I think that counting the stuff I already have, I can more than cover any other missions I game out this year with Majestic 13. One of the vendors I picked them up from also carried Iron Wind Metals paints. I am almost completely out of their Steel color, and I was able to snag two bottles of it! That should cover me for at least the rest of the year, and hopefully more!

    I wanted more wagons as scatter for my medieval town from A Critical Hit & picked up these three

Inevitably, I made some purchases of 3-D printed scatter from A Critical Hit. Talking to the owner, I was happy to hear that the family's possible move to Seattle did not happen and they will stay in the Midwest area (they're from Indianapolis). So, I can look forward to seeing them at least a couple times a year at various conventions. On my list of purchases were more of the two wheeled carts that I painted awhile back. She had only two in stock, but I also picked up a four wheel wagon to go along with it. I was actually VERY restrained at her booth this time around. I think that the only other things I purchased were 8 tiny rats (real scale -- not giant ones), and a wheelbarrow to have laying around in my cityscape near a market, perhaps. Somehow, though, a tiny bin full of carpenter's tools also found its way into my purchases, though I have no memory of putting it in there!

    I was VERY restrained at A Critical Hit's booth and picked up a fraction of what I usually do!

In addition, I found a couple bigger pieces in A Critical Hit's bins that I felt could be used for aliens for Majestic 13. One is of a spider like creature with crystals growing from its abdomen. This was printed in colored material so won't need to be painted at all. Its legs are multiple pieces and are secured and strung by a string or something so are flexible. It has bright eyes and is meant to look "cute," I think. However, that is genetically impossible for any spider-like creature! Ha, ha!! The final piece is printed in a dark green material and is honestly hard to figure out. I probably will need to paint some of it black so that the green parts "pop" a bit more. Either way, two more aliens for Critter Control to hopefully defeat!

    More aliens for Majestic 13 -- the spider-thi8ng on the left is pretty much ready for the tabletop

The last thing I purchased at Cincycon was from my friend Dave E. He had a box that I eyeballed half a dozen times at World at War 2025, but decided not to pull the trigger, so to speak. It contained three packs of unpainted Splintered Light Miniatures anthropomorphic animals. They were three, bigger "hero" packs, I believe, and would fit in well with the Splintered Light figs that I already have painted up. Actually, some I actually likely already have! As part of the package deal, he threw in a 3-D printed 28mm orc village (I believe), consisting of one more elaborate chieftain's hut and four others. Finally, he included the Ganesha Games Song of the Splintered Land stand-alone supplement to Song of Blades and Heroes. I don't have that one in my collection, and since the package deal was a bargain even without the rules, decided to finally pick them all up from him this time...haha! The sheer number of essentially 15mm-sized figs skews my Acquired vs. Painted totals to Hell and back, but I really do enjoy their anthropomorphic animals.

    Pics from the Splintered Light website of some of the figs I bought from Dave -- unpainted, though!

I've updated my statistics below, with the unpainted miniatures taking the biggest hit, as I mentioned. I had begun to climb back closer to even after my Gringo 40s and Warhost Elves purchases, but that goal is receding even further from sight! I have no doubt that I will eventually draw even by the end of the year. However, convention season is always the worse time for my totals. I like to support the vendors who show up to support our hobby. I figure as long as my totals balance out by the end of the year, I can splurge a little once in awhile. Besides, in the famous words of Gollum, "It's my birthday present...!"

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 159
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 52

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 3
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 21

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 16
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 48

'Christmas Money' Purchases - What Have I Bought So Far in 2026?

    Spoiler Alert: A 2026 purchases from Hobday & Hicks and their Warhost line of 28mm Elves

To make things easier at Christmas for my elderly mother, we agreed awhile back that her gift to us would be money. That way, my brothers and I can buy whatever we want or need with it rather than asking her to run around time and find things for us. I found over the years, though, that I would deposit into my checking account and then kind of forget about it. So, sometimes her gift kind of just went into the general slush fund. To remedy that, I've begun making dedicated purchases (hobby or otherwise) and mentally ticking it off against the amount she gave me.

One of my first purchases of the year was a pair of 3'x3' cloth battle mats. I was looking for fleece ones made here in the U.S., and ended up going with Cigar Box Battle Mats. Since I seem to have settled on a 3'x3' playing area for my 28mm Vietnam games, I wanted one to use for that so that I don't have to keep using my 3'x4' neoprene one and blocking off the last foot. I decided to go with the one called The Shadow Deep -- obviously intended for the fantasy skirmish game of that name. I liked the dark green wilderness look of it, though, so figured it would be a good general purpose mat usable for a variety of periods. I'm not sure what material the cloth is, but it is not fleece. It has a bit more sheen and reflectivity than I'd wish, but it is still a good gaming surface.

About the time that I was shopping online for this mat, I had finished up the two medieval buildings -- the Duncan House and Watchtower. I loved how they turned out so much that I became interested in doing a medieval or fantasy town skirmish. Simultaneously, I began also  looking at mats that would be good for a nice city board. I ended up liking another "Shadow Deep" mat called Blood Moon best.  It has a good look of a crumbling stone surface to it -- not perfectly-maintained cobblestones. More of a decrepit town street, which I liked.

    Resin printed "Bullet Impact FX" from Green Stuff World for my Vietnam 'Pin Markers'

The next big purchases were part of a day trip up north to Michigan. My friend Mike S needed to pick up some painted miniatures from the amazing Ted Bender. The speed in which Ted gets entire armies done is mind boggling. When Mike told me he was planning on going north to pick up some figs, I pitched the idea of including a stop at the Michigan Toy Soldier Company. They have an amazing selection of modeling, painting, and basing needs, as well as carrying a number of figure lines and some rulebooks. My main purchase there that day was the Green Stuff World 22mm tufts that I used for my elephant grass for Vietnam. I also picked up a couple packets of leaf scatter for various bases to add to the ones I'd gotten for Christmas from Jenny. 

    'Plants & Vegetation: Xanadu' -- more resin pieces that I will try out on my next Vietnam figs

While shopping, my eye was caught by a couple other scenic items. Green Stuff World has started making what they call "Resin Bits" -- various scatter or basing items. Two in particiular caught my eye. The first was the pack called Bullet Impact FX. I felt these would make excellent Pin Markers for my Surviving 'Nam rules that I am writing. The next was a pack of tiny resin jungle plants called Xanadu. For my 28mm Vietnam figures, I would often glue on parts of plastic plants to the base. However, in gaming, many of these have popped off. Flexible plastic is notoriously resistant when it comes to being glued into place. I thought that maybe these resin ones would stay in place better for future miniatures for this project.

    U.S. Army Dog Handler from Gringo 40s -- I will be painting these up as gifts for veterans I know

And what was that about "future miniatures" for Vietnam? Well, I have a local friend who is a British citizen who goes back to the UK regularly for visits. I'd asked him to pick up some miniatures for me the next time he was overseas so that I could avoid the whole tariff and shipping expenses. My friend agreed, and I put in an order with Gringo 40s for some of their 28mm Vietnam figures. According to my friend Jim, they mix well with the larger Crucible Crush Black Sun range which make up the bulk of my miniatures for this project. So, I'll be getting some NVA miniatures to complement my Viet Cong, as well as some specialty ones that I needed like snipers and downed air crew. I'm also picking up two of their U.S. Army Dog Handlers with German Shepherd. I have two friends who were sentry or scout dog handlers in Vietnam. They came to my middle school's Veterans Day celebration for many years. I am going to paint one up for each of them, hopefully depicting them and their dog. I figured they'd appreciate the gift. To hear them tell their stories, check out my YouTube Veterans Recall interviews with Ed Reeves and Tom King.

    28mm Elves from Hobday & Hicks' 'Warhost' line -- I ordered an army of them from Badger Games

So, what else have I bought? Well, now that the Bonefish Band is all painted up for games of Dragon Rampant, I could buy another 28mm fantasy army, right? Our group is having a lot of fun with the rules. If I ever wanted to do demo games at a store or convention of DR!, it might be a good idea to have at least one other fantasy army painted up. Right?? Glad to see you agree! So, I went on a hunt for 28mm fantasy elves that evoke the Lord of the Rings/Tolkein mythos. No punk rocker elves for me! Someone on Lead Adventure Forum suggested the Warhost line from Hobday & Hicks. They are carried domestically by Badger Games, who I am a big fan of, too. Once I sat down and sketched out an army list for the rules, I couldn't resist going online and ordering them. They arrived yesterday as I am typing this. So, look forward to seeing some Tolkein-style elves on there, soon! 

So, there you go -- thank you, mom! Of course, these purchases mean that after a solid month of having a great Miniatures Painted vs. Acquired ratio, it was time to throw some challenge into 2026! Speaking of work to do, what else is on my painting desk? The six Battered markers (orc casualties) inch closer to completion. I have done the flesh base coat on the Crucible Crush figures for Majestic 13. And I plan on spray painting a couple more medieval buildings this afternoon, if the weather cooperates. These are ones I bought at Advance the Colors 2025 from Sword & Scabbard Games. Stay tuned -- lots more on the way!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 95
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 24

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 0
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 17

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 2
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 24 

 

2025: Year in Review

    One of my most noteworthy projects this year was my 28mm Vietnam one using the 'Black Sun' figs

I think a good term for this past year (2025) is "Changing of the Guard." Some projects or campaigns that had been going strong were wrapped up and new ones marched front and center. Regular readers of Lead Legionaries are probably well aware of the new ones, so let's talk first about which ones were relieved of their post -- at least for the time being!

    The 'End' has finally come for the Buck Nuts and other post-apocalyptic gangs in my campaign

 Changing of the Guard: Retiring from Duty (Zombie RV and Post-apocalyptic Campaign)

You could consider both of these series of games run for our Sunday Evening group post-apocalyptic, of course. They used two different rules sets and characters, though. Well, for the most part! Some of the figures (and even names) from our long-running post-apocalyptic campaign using Wiley Games rules showed up in our Zombie RV games. We ended up running the Wiley Games rules eight times, if I am counting the After-Action Reports correctly. The final game occurred in March with the Get Your Goat scenario I ran. I felt the action was kind of growing stagnant, with the same gangs of survivors facing off with each other and some growing significantly more powerful. It was a fun series of games, though. My favorite moment in there was when my Planet of the Apes figures made a cameo appearance for the campaign, and the way they caused some alarm in the first game they appeared. 

Will I run the Buck Nuts, Night Stalkers, F Troop and company out onto the tabletop again? Not very likely. One of the cool things about playing a campaign is watching your characters grow and progress. Unfortunately, one of the unbalancing things about campaigns is that, in most cases, different player groups grow at different rates. The longer the campaign, the more "the rich the will get richer," and the more weak the weaker will get. I had an idea how to fix that and am trying it in one of the new campaigns, below. 

    Junior's zombie hunting days are over as I wrapped up the Zombie RV campaign prematurely

The other campaign that took a bow and exited the stage in 2025 was Zombie RV. Sadly, this campaign lasted less time -- only about six games, if you count the two-player games Jenny and I tried to test out the rules set. It avoided the trap of the post-apocalytpic campaign in that it was cooperative. All players were on the same side trying to...well, survive the zombie apocalypse! I don't think it stopped because of player disinterest. One of our regulars asked in the Fall what happened to the game, and wasn't it about time for another Zombie RV game?

I hate to say it, but one of my players caused ME to lose interest in running. Not to point fingers, but he couldn't get out of the habit of questioning zombie physiology and arguing every time the zombies decided to move towards his figures instead of someone else's. Constant questions of how do zombies "see"? Arguing whether they could see his figures on the other side of a vehicle -- things like that. Eventually, I grew tired of it and decided to not run it anymore. Being a GM is stressful enough, at times, and having to constantly deal with arguments about interpreting a very clear set of priorities about where each zombie will go became too much for me. So, my response to the "Isn't it about time for another game of Zombie RV?" explained why I wasn't going to run it anymore. The player in question was surprised, but the others agreed with me that he did indeed to those things. Thankfully, this type of thing doesn't happen very often in our games, though.

    Setup for my 'Viking Town Raid' game with its hexagonal board and cooperative play

2025's Convention Game (Viking Town Raid)

My convention game this year, Viking Town Raid, also inspired one of my 2025 projects (see below). Each year, I typically pick a scenario that I will run at various local or regional conventions, such as Cincycon, DayCon, Drums at the Rapids, and Origins Game Fair. In this cooperative miniatures scenario, the players were all Viking raiders and the enemy were the townsfolk and defenders. The rules used were Ganesha Games Sellswords & Spellslingers (minus the fantasy aspects, of course). To make it more accessible to folks reading the event description in a convention program, I included the heroes from the History Channel's "Vikings" miniseries. I picked up Ragnar Lothbrok, his brother Rollo, wife Lagertha, and more from Brigade Games. The figs looked spot-on AND they were domestically stocked. This is the Year of the Tariff and its wrecking ball course through the gaming industry, after all!

    Ragnar Lothbrok (center) and his friends and family were the player's leaders in the Viking game

I like to make my games good for up to six players, which I was worried would be a bit of a challenge for the rules system. I pared down the number of characters each player controlled to three, and created a hexagon shaped game mat that was roughly 4 feet across in all directions. That gave everyone equal access to the Anglo-Saxon church in the center of the table where the highest value loot would be. Although the game was cooperative, players were competing to amass the most victory points from loot, captives, and livestock.

The game worked out great, and players loved it all 16 times (!) that I ran it over the course of 2025. I figured out a way to keep the game moving quickly so there wouldn't be long waits for players for their turn. Players had a blast, they said, and the scenario really played to the strengths of SS&SS's game mechanics. The dice rolls of the players, or more accurately their failures at dice rolling, activate the enemies. Since dice are random, that meant each game was a bit different. Outcomes ranged from many of the monks inside my scratch-built Anglo-Saxon church being taken captive to no raiders making it that far into the town. It was definitely a success, and actually led to next year's convention game!

    My Orc warlord and his bodyguard - part of my '2026' project of an orc & goblin army

 Changing of the Guard - New Projects (Vietnam War and Dragon Rampant Orc & Goblin army)

At some point while I was running my Viking Town Raid game, a thought entered my head that the mechanics would actually make a great system for gaming the Vietnam War. Not knowing where foes will pop up next in a game of SS&SS, the randomness of things going along fine and then suddenly going to Hell in a hand basket because of a streak of bad player rolls, all screamed Vietnam to me. I reached out to Andrea Sfiligoi of Ganesha Games and pitched my idea to him. He cautioned me that SS&SS is mostly a melee game while Vietnam is pretty much all shooting. He said if I could overcome that to my satisfaction that he would love to publish a Sellswords variant set in Vietnam. And so, 16 Viking Town Raids lead to writing the rules for Surviving 'Nam: An Infantryman's Year "In Country." 

I hit up my friend Jim W for miniature recommendations because he was currently running 28mm Vietnam skirmish for his gaming group in Michigan. I ended up deciding on Crucible Crush's Black Sun range (essentially, Pulp Figures). I ordered the figs which got to me from Canada before our nation's lovely, disruptive tariffs were in place. I began painting them up and fell in love with their personality, animation, and ease of painting. This last fact meant I finished with painting up the project much quicker than I had expected. This accelerated my play testing schedule, which began with solo games. Since it is cooperative, the players take on the role of U.S. or allied soldiers while their Viet Cong foes appear on the table and move and fire based on the event cards and failed dice rolls of the players.

    In my Surviving 'Nam rules, the Viet Cong (above) are controlled by the event cards & players' rolls

My posts about the play test games on here, the Lead Adventure Forum, and Facebook prompted a number of folks to reach out to me interested in helping with the play test. At this point, I have about 10 different groups in the U.S., U.K., and Italy running games of Surviving 'Nam and getting back to me with the results. The most enthusiastic group has been Bob F and Pete S from the U.K. (and Lead Adventure Forum). They have replied after every game and we have had an incredibly productive and helpful back and forth on their comments. I also ran four games of Surviving 'Nam at a couple regional conventions, World at War at Fort Meigs and Hold the Line in Port Clinton, OH. Following those November games, Bob, Pete, and I pronounced ourselves satisfied with the mechanics (there will be tweaks, of course, leading up to publication). Now, it is on to the writing the campaign and background portion of the rules, and playtesting the scenarios which will be included.

The other "New Guard" this year were orcs and goblins for Daniel Mersey's 2nd Edition of Dragon Rampant. These came out in the Fall and are part of a stable of games using the same basic mechanics. We have used them for a number of periods ourselves, including Ancients/Medieval (Lion Rampant), English Civil War (The Pikeman's Lament), American Revolution (Rebels and Patriots), Colonial (The Men Who Would be Kings) and Sci-Fi games (Xenos Rampant). If it is good for all these periods, why not another one (Fantasy)? Although this was intended to be a 2026 project, my friend Jeff G reached out to me earlier in the year with an offer I couldn't refuse. He wanted to sell of his collection of 28mm Gripping Beast orcs and goblins from the Ragnarok range. The price was unbeatable, but it was way more figures than I needed. I reached out to my friends and Rusty P said he'd be willing to go in on the collection with me. In fact, he bought Jeff's Dwaves, too.

    Some of the Gripping Beast orcs & goblins I painted up this year from the 'Ragnorak' line

When the horde of unpainted orcs and goblins arrived, and I divided them evenly between Rusty and myself, I honestly despaired of having my Miniatures Painted ever attain my Miniatures Acquired numbers. However, the speed with which I finished the Vietnam project allowed me to get a head start on them. As it stands, my "2026 Project" is pretty far along as 2025 draws to a close. My Sunday Evening group is pretty enthusiastic about playing some games of Dragon Rampant, with Mike S, Keith F, and Andy S all having armies lined up for it. I foresee us getting a game in no later than this January, I imagine. I made it a point to paint up my orcs and goblins as "Tolkien like" as possible. No Games Workshop greenies here...ha, ha! Response to how they're turning out on this blog and the Lead Adventure Forum has been very encouraging. I'm happy with them, too!

The final project -- ALSO more of a "2026" one -- was for a series of horror games set in frontier America. Specifically, I wanted to set them in Franklinton, OH, which is now pretty much part of Columbus, where I live. I went back and forth about whether to use Devilry Afoot (created by a Lead Adventure Forum member), Silver Bayonet, or Dracula's America. I envisioned the games to be cooperative, with each player controlling a couple of characters. They'd be battling monsters and enemies summoned by a native American tribal resistance to American settling of Ohio. I ended up selecting Devilry Afoot because it is the only one of the three that is truly cooperative. The other two are meant to be competitive (and one vs. one), with the monsters as non-player dangers in the scenarios. After the post-apocalyptic campaign experience with some player forces outstripping the others in effectiveness, I decided to go with Devilry Afoot. Plus, I am really excited and into cooperative games, nowadays.

    My first batch of 28mm figures for games of 'Devilry Afoot' set on the American frontier

I picked up a bunch of figures at Historicon 2025 (further torpedoing my chance of evening up Painted vs. Acquired, I thought). When the guys asked if I was going to run another Halloween themed game this October, I decided to kick things for Devilry Afoot into high gear so I could do so. This was only possible because, once again, I had finished the painting for the Vietnam project so quickly. I was successful in getting enough figures and monsters ready for the tabletop. So, in honor of Halloween, I ran The Coming Storm -- the debut for my series of games in this fully armed and operational 2026 project...ha, ha!

As two campaigns ended this year, another one took off fairly successfully. I began running a Star Wars skirmish campaign using Space Weirdos rules. Most of the figures were painted in 2024, and I had been planning to start up the campaign at the end of last year. I decided to have each player select a faction on a continuum from Empire to Rebel. Since we normally have six players show up, they included (Empire (Mike S) - Corporate Security (Joel S) - Mercenaries (Keith F) - Criminal Syndicate (Allen S) - Local Rebels (Tom G) - Rebel Alliance (Mike W). On the couple of times that Andy S could show up, I had him take on the role of the Tatooine locals in Mos Eisley. I would design the scenario and tailor each faction's Victory Points to their level of "All In" for their side of the continuum. Or I would give them side missions that intersected with the main opposed mission between the Empire and the Rebels. 

    One of my Star Wars skirmish games using Space Weirdos rules set in Mos Eisley on Tatooine 

Space Weirdos is a great set of rules, and everyone seems to be enjoying them. Each player controls a handful of characters who activate in a spiraling initiative system. When it is a player's turn, he chooses one of his unactivated figures and executes their three actions. Then it is on to the next player in Initiative Order, until everyone has activated all figures. This keeps folks involved, especially since Space Weirdos uses opposed die rolls to resolve shooting, melee, etc. I have another Star Wars game scheduled for January, and hope it continues to be enjoyable for my players throughout 2026. 

    Among the many games at Advance the Colors 2025 were Steve Verdoliva's Napoleonic ones

 

Conventions I attended in 2025

 So, I probably made it to more shows than I ever have before this year. Retirement will give you that opportunity, I guess! In January, I attended Siege of Augusta while visiting my friend Jason M in Columbia, SC. I think this was my third or fourth time at the convention, which Jason uses as a carrot to get me to visit him down south. Next up were three usual Spring-time ones: Cincycon (guess where?), DayCon (ditto), and Drums at the Rapids at Fort Meigs. I added in a new one when I helped organize a series of historical miniatures games at Buckeye Game Fest in late May. A friend had volunteered to do it, but had something else come up. So, I stepped in at the last minute and we did a decent job of collecting GMs to run miniatures games at this mostly board game convention.

Once again, I helped with the HMGS Great Lakes effort at Origins Game Fair in Columbus. This used to be a mainstay of our chapter, and a lucrative one for recruiting new members. However, Origins pivoted in directions it was going a decade or more ago, and we no longer felt welcome. That management has thankfully moved on and the all-genre convention actively sought us out to return and run games. Each year, we've gotten a little larger, I think -- especially in numbers of players signed up. My six runnings of Viking Town Raid were all full, if I remember correctly. If you want to get in on the fun, we need to have your event in PRONTO, ASAP, QUICKLY. Contact me in the comments or if you have my email, reach out, please. We'd love to have your game in our dedicated HMGS Great Lakes area inside the main miniatures hall! 

    A Bolt Action tournament was one of the many historical miniatures games at Origins Game Fair

After Origins, it was our historical miniatures hobby's biggest show in the U.S., Historicon 2025. We had a big group drive over from Columbus, where we met my friend Jason M and his son. I didn't run any games and instead declared it would be a weekend of playing miniatures games. Imagine that! There was a bit of a layoff until our Great Lakes chapter's flagship convention, Advance the Colors in Springfield, OH. We continue to grow every year and just missed my goal of attaining the 250 attendee mark, this year. Next year, for sure! I do administrative duties for this convention, so no running games or playing for me there. I wrapped up the year with the aforementioned November conventions, World at War and Hold the Line. My Surviving 'Nam was full all four times and I received great encouragement and some feedback in those games. I count that as 10 conventions (my friend Mike S would comment that is because that's how many fingers and thumbs I have!), which is almost one a month. Will I attend that many (or add more?) in 2026? We shall see!

    The finale of my 'Five Parsecs from Home' solo campaign features my crew completing their quest

Solo Games

 This was a completely new aspect of gaming for me in 2025. With the good fortune of having a regular weekly gaming group as well as an active local convention scene, I've never felt the need to do solo games. However, I began using solo games to test out a couple cooperative rules sets to see if I felt the mechanics would work with six players and a GM. The first one of these was Five Parsecs from Home. Prior to beginning the Space Weirdos campaign, I was still actively looking for a Sci-Fi rules set. I didn't want to use Wiley Games rules because of their strangely short weapon ranges and the fact it would seem like duplication of the post-apocalyptic campaign. I had read a lot of threads and game report on Lead Adventure Forum about Five Parsecs, so I decided to give it a try.

I created my own crew and began running a series of games using the rules. The campaign mechanics are simply top notch in Five Parsecs (and its fantasy precursor, Five Leagues from the Borderlands). The various charts and die rolls do honestly create a storyline and narrative for your characters. Of course, some of it the player creates in response to the roll, finding a way to rationalize that outcome. I had fun creating the background and story of the crew of the Inconceivable (of course, a nod to The Princess Bride). When my story arc ended, aka we completed our quest, I judged that the rules mechanics really weren't what I wanted for a six-player Sci-Fi game. Still, I had fun with it and encourage anyone interested in solo gaming or cooperative with a much smaller group to look into them.

    The Splintered Band escorts a wagon full of supplies in my first 'Sellswords' solo adventure

My other solo venture was using Sellswords & Spellslingers. I was thinking of running a semi-historical (or semi-fantasy?) campaign for the Sunday Evening gamers set in Dark Age Britain during the time of the Viking invasions. The players would be the heroes of Britain -- Saxons, Picts, Scots, Britons, etc. -- fighting off the Viking incursions. Think of it as a reverse of the Viking Town Raid game that I ran in 2025. Once again, I wasn't 100% sure of the mechanics fitting such a big group. So, I decided to run my own solo series of fantasy games using the rules to test them out.

I love my Splintered Light Miniatures anthropomorphic animals, so used that as an excuse to bring them onto the tabletop again. They had not seen light of day since our short delve into Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago seven (!) years ago. Thus began the Tales of the Splintered Band (see what I did there?).  I managed only two or three games, but I would like to go back this coming year and continue the adventures of Badger mage Jemmy Tar and his animal kingdom friends fighting against the incursion of the rat hordes. 

    Two Acheson Creations Vietnam buildings from Miniature Building Authority that I painted up

 My Painting Goals

In 2024, I tracked Painted "Stuff" vs. Acquired "Stuff", lumping in both terrain and scatter. That made for a weird mix, so I decided this year to split that into Miniatures, Terrain, and Scatter. I decided that the difference between "terrain" and "scatter" is mainly size and made an arbitrary call for each piece completed. A resin or 3-D printed building is definitely terrain. A 3-D printed basket of fish is scatter. Scratch building a rice paddy is terrain. Creating flocked markers to track which figures have moved in Space Weirdos is scatter. Yes, it is still a judgement call. However, I am very happy with how this division worked out in 2025. Here are my results, reproduced here:

• Miniatures: 306 Acquired, 307 Painted
• Terrain: 62 Acquired, 80 Painted
• Scatter: 144 Acquired, 213 Painted 

    Three new Mos Eisley buildings from Diabolical Terrain for my Star Wars skirmish games

I consider these numbers a whopping success! Remember my despair a couple times this year that I would ever get my Miniatures Painted above the lofty number my "Ooh, shiny!" tendency had set for me. So, what were some highlights of the terrain and scatter that I painted up this year? I would have to say finishing so much Vietnam terrain was very heartening. My favorites were the formerly Acheson Creations resin buildings that I picked up from Miniature Building Authority. What's more, I still have more to do in 2026. I have the Diabolical Terrain 3-D printed huts on stilts to do for buildings. I also want to do something for elephant grass, which I read about regularly in the historical accounts of the conflict that I've been devouring in 2025.

I also churned out more trailer park buildings and scatter for my post-apocalyptic and zombie games. Many of these were from one of my new favorites in 3-D printed terrain -- Bad Goblin Games. Sadly, with me pulling the plug on both post-apoc campaigns, all of that is sitting unused on the display shelves of my downstairs closet right now. However, I'm sure I'll find a use for them in 2026, as well. There's that idea I have for a modern-day trailer park battle sparked by a federal raid on an illegal moonshine still. There's simply too much good stuff from Bad Goblin and MBA completed and on the shelves to sit unused!

    I painted up 213 pieces of scatter terrain in 2025, including these clothes lines from MBA

There was also a nice output of buildings and things for my Star Wars campaigns in 2015. I painted up a number of 3-D printed "Tatooie" buildings from Diabolical Terrain for my take on Mos Eisley. I also scratch-built a squadron of TIE fighters that appeared in two scenarios. There was another influx of adobe buildings that I could use in my Star Wars games bought off my friend Jeff G at Hold the Line. So, I think I finally have enough buildings for my city games set on Tatooine in the Star Wars universe!

All in all, I would say that I had a VERY successful year of gaming in 2025. One indicator is this blog itself. This should be post #130. That is a more than 50% increase over last year's 86 -- previously the most ever in the 13 years I've been recording my gaming on Lead Legionaries. Doing the math, that means I am uploading a new post on an average of once every three days (actually more -- 2.8!). I thank all of my regular and occasional readers -- Bill, Donnie, Jason, Simon, Graham, Shaun, Neil, Ray, Richard, Johan, and anyone else I forgot to mention. And of course, Sunday Evening Gamer "Anonymous" (who will hopefully figure out how to create a Google ID in 2026...ha, ha!). Thank you all -- and see you in 2026!!