Grand Adventure Continued and year end wrap up

On the Friday of Fall-In I explored the venue and took lots of pictures. Here’s a small selection of several of the rooms.

I played a WWI Chain of Command variant where after each scenario the terrain was expanded on.

The GM Mitch Abrams, was very good and his terrain was modular and well designed. We played 3 rounds and I had great fun. 

Next I explored the vendors hall and got some stuff. TBH I don’t entirely remember what I bought on which day and from which vendor anymore.

Here are some photos of some of my haul.

Armoured cars from Brigade Games, an FT17 from Gaddis Games (in grey) and from Empress Miniatures (yellow).

Some WWI Austrians from Brigade Games and some hero types from Old Glory’s Chaos in Cairo range. I also picked up a resin boat from Old Glory as we had a membership.

Some resin Scenics from Ainsty, Miniature Building Authority and some Empress SCW Moroccans.

I also got some other stuff that didn’t make it to my camera roll. WWI Turks from Brigade Games, some WWI American trench fighters from Brigade Games and a Wargames Illustrated.

Then I played another WWI game based on the battle of Belleau Woods. The rules were Trench Wars and GM’d by the author Jon. Great far and nice terrain as well. Think most of the figures were Great War Miniatures, Brigade Games and some old Renegade Miniatures.

Saturday I wandered the venue again and took. Ore photos.

I met a few YouTube stars. Mark from Mark’s Game Room and Greg from Little Wars TV. I didn’t want to be super annoying so just thanked them for producing great content.

Next I played a Spanish Civil War game. The rules were based off Flames of War and by the end of the game, I still wasn’t sure what I needed to roll for hits. IMHO a good convention game is one where the players don’t need to go thru the GM for the basics after several turns. However, the figures and terrain was stunning and there were prizes after. Perhaps part of my issue were the players at the table.

The game was set up that the loose alliances ultimately would have to turn on each other to win the game. I wiped out one of my allies early in the game and that guy got so upset and quit. Another player thought things weren’t fair and threatened to quit and I had another ally who kept running away and then made a deal with the enemy. His victory condition was to eliminate that enemy. 

I’ve played in many convention games over the years and never left a game feeling WTF is wrong with people. Lol. My friend Dan was also at the game and he agreed that the players really detracted from that game. 

I decided I was done playing games that weekend and skipped my evening game altogether. I had dinner by myself at Longhorn. It really was THAT good.

I went to Wally’s bargain basement a couple times on Saturday and Sunday and the vendor hall as well.

I scored a deal on some terrain, about 50 painted WW2 German infantry ($100) and a 4ground building ( $5).

We left Sunday morning and went to Antietam for and ACW battlefield tour. It’s not my period, but I gained a real appreciation for it.

The tour guide was fantastic. We ate as a group of 9 at Denny’s for dinner and stayed overnight at a Super 8. We’ve decided that next year for an extra $10-15/person we will stay at the Hampton Inn.

Dan, Brett and I split from the main group and headed home. At the drop off, I stopped at Picard’s Peanuts for some snacks and made it home to get my kids from the school bus.

I’ve already booked my November vacation around Fall-In for 2024. I think next year I will maybe do less games and more hobby university stuff. All in all it was a great trip.

I finished the year putting together some of the figures and 4ground building I purchased. I also made a purchase from Badger Games for more 4ground buildings so I could have a set.

We’re headed to Bukhara

I’m just going to ignore the fact it’s been over 1 year since my last post. To be fair not a lot of miniature progress occurred in 2024. 

A bit of a set back was my commission painter retired and moved to Asia so the lead mountain has been creeping up. 

I did manage to slap some paint onto some WWI highlanders (from Great War Miniatures) that I was planning on using for VBCW and onto some WWI Americans (mostly Great War Miniatures and some Brigade Games).

I attended the 29th annual Hotlead in March of this year, which was followed by almost 3 weeks vacation so I really found my mojo invigorated.

I built a small Middle Eastern village following some plans/tips from Pulp Alley’s YouTube channel. I’ve started building the great walls of Bukhara.

I have a 24” section built and have another 4x 12” sections in various stages of assembly.

 I also worked on the RCW armoured train and the train tracks.

Here’s what I’m currently working on.

The black figures in the foreground are mostly Artizan Irregular Arabs from their First World War range. There are 5 Brigade Games Arabs scattered in. They have been painted for probably 3+ years but I haven’t done anything else with them. I put texture paint onto the base so they are almost done.

The silver figures are a mix of Copplestone Castings and Brigade Games WWI Turks to finish off that army.

My plan is for them to be a regular/well trained force when gaming Back of Beyond in any Middle Eastern theatre.

There are a bunch of primed horses and cavalry figures, again from Artizan Designs/Brigade Games.

It’s quite unfortunate in that I purchased many of these figures once online years ago that were lost in the mail. I never received compensation from the seller either, so I’ve had to buy them again. 

I also found some camels from Saga that were particularly discounted. 

The three figures in fezzes are Egyptian police from Artizan Designs. They will be guarding the jail house in Bukhara once build.

Lastly, here are the Artizan Designs Sharifan Infantry. 

These might be amongst my favourite figures. It’s disappointing that there are only 4 poses, and one of them is the figure carrying his rifle. I purchased 3 packs (one at Hotlead) and the other two online for 12 figures total.

I figured two HQ types and a 10 man squad would be sufficient. Cough unless Artizan decides to make more cough. 

The figure on the left is the stock figure.

The middle figure has his rifle cut away from his hand, his hand was opened up and a banner pole was glued in place. The rifle from the rightmost figure was glued on his back.

The figure on the right had his right hand cut away and the rifle was cleaned up and donated to the banner bearer. A new right hand with revolver was sourced from the Warlord Games British & Canadian Army infantry. At this scale, a revolver is a revolver. However, it’s likely a Webley which was in service in WWI so all good.

Lastly the left hand was removed and some of the body was shaved down. The binoculars and straps were sourced from the same Warlord kit. The straps were cut to look like they went behind the neck. I’m not 100% happy as the hands are slightly oversized but it’ll be fine. I just have to greenstuff a small gap at the wrist and he’s also done.