Hotlead 2023 is over

Hotlead 2023 has come and gone. I had a fantastic weekend catching up with old friends and rolling some dice.

I’ll probably divide this post into two parts.

One of the best parts of Hotlead is the “Bring and Buy”. Think of a giant miniatures garage sale.

I brought 29 items in 4 bankers boxes. It’s always a difficulty between I want to price the items so they sell but I also don’t want to give them away either.

I ended up selling 25 of the items for a profit of $340.00. I also pumped $82.00 into the Bring and Buy (47 Brigade Games 28mm WWI French, TTCombat cargo ship with extension, some 3D printed and painted obstacles and a Canada Post 1/43 scale truck). Furthermore I purchased three boxes of Battletech miniatures and a newer Osprey book.

My good friend Dave snagged a Salute Wargames LTD edition Russian standard bearer for me and I reciprocated the favour by giving him a Judge Dread decal sheet from a previous issue of Wargames Illustrated.

So budget wise, 314.04+202 is 516.04. However, I recouped 340.00 so I’ve spent $175.09.

Here’s the haul:

Salute figure, WWI French and Sci-Fi barricades 

The TTCombat ship. It was in mint condition until I asked my son for some help and he bashed the side into a door absentmindedly. I’ll have to glue and reinforce it. It was $8.00. I’m not too upset.



The Canada Post truck and Osprey book. I see more weird/colourful units in my future.

The BattleTech beginner box.



Two BattleTech expansion boxes. I wanted to take a picture of the front with the models but my kids ripped them open when I got home. 

I also received some painted figures from my commission painter. I have 31 RCW Ukrainians, 4 RCW whites, a red, one German Freikorps, an NPC and 4 horses.

2023 Lead Mountain (mountain of unpainted miniatures) is as follows

Acquired:

12 Cavalry

74 Infantry

1 weapons team

2 vehicles (both painted)

Sold:

89 Infantry (unpainted)

3 vehicles (unpainted)

Painted (commission, purchased painted, or done by myself)

41 Infantry

1 weapons team

How I calculate it is any unpainted miniatures/vehicles acquired adds to the Lead Mountain. Any painted miniatures/vehicles acquired does not add to the Lead Mountain. Anything painted (commissioned or by me) decreases the Lead Mountain

So adding everything together I have decreased the lead mountain considerably. I likely won’t be selling anything else for the rest of the year so just have to paint more then I buy.

+ 12 cavalry

- 56 infantry

0 weapons teams

-3 vehicles

I took a few pictures of the games I played so hopefully will post them soon.

Bases and buildings

My oldest has a 24 hr bug that caused him to miss a really important soccer game today so what better way to spend the day than to plug away at the piles of shame.

I also took the youngest to practice as there is a Home Hardware nearby. I needed some larger metal bases 1-1/2” and 2” widths so the casualties, snipers and heavy guns.

So I spent another $5.15 on metal bases. However I had a gift card so I’m debating whether that counts. I’ll count it bringing the 2023 Hobby expenses total to $67.48. 

Anyways I picked up 4x 2” washers and 4x 1-1/2” washers. I got home and quickly realized I probably need another 2-3 of the 1-1/2” size.

I based some of the figures.

I put a bit of plastic down first as there’s some type of chemical reaction that occurs between the glue and washer hole apparently that leaves marks on the table. That was a fun discovery last go around.

Pictured L to R top to bottom are the grenade launcher and 3.7mm TAK anti-tank gun, the casualties, a sniper and the machine gun. I left most of the crew off of the weapons teams for east of painting.

I have 1 sniper, another flamethrower team and an antitank rifle left to base.

I also put together four sprues of Warlord Games’ plastic ruined hamlet I got before Christmas. I had tested out one building so now have the set done.

Shown are two sprues worth. I opted for 6 pieces of ruins to allow for various configurations.

The weather was atrocious this week but it’s finally warming up. Hopefully I can prime these ruins quickly.

Baron’s War Outremer Kickstarter

Back in May 2022, I backed Footsore Miniatures Baron’s War 4 Kickstarter titled Outremer which takes the game to the Crusades setting.

To be honest, gaming the Crusades isn’t something I’m overly interested in. However, I was interested in getting more figures for my Baron’s War forces.

Growing up watching Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and more recently Robin Hood, I like the idea of English noblemen returning to England during/after the Crusades and finding King John mucking things up.

Today, my pledge arrived.

Now this was paid for in 2022 so it doesn’t affect my 2023 Hobby budget.

I received 12 Cavalry and 20 Infantry figures. I have between 30-40 other Baron’s War figures so this give me 2 larger forces. I think 2 freebie figures are missing so I will have to follow up.

I should also probably track all new figures received vs figures painted to see how the Lead Mountain changes in size.

New figures for 2023:

12 Cavalry

20 Infantry