Wargames Among the Warplanes Fall 2025 Show Next Weekend

This coming Saturday is the fall show for Wargames Among the Warplanes, my localish (about an hour and 20 minute drive each way) twice a year one day wargaming show. It kind of feels like this one snuck up on me; I feel like the spring show was just a couple weeks ago! While I'd initially planned to bring Devilry Afoot to run a demo table of at the fall show, I feel like I haven't practiced enough with the system to feel confident teaching it. So I've pivoted, and will have a demo table of Planetsmasher Games' Perilous Tales going. I figure I can get at least three games in during my time slot, so I'm bringing three different villains and an assortment of modern figures to respond heroically. I'll keep the terrain set up the same between games so that I only need to bring a couple of buildings and a 2x2 mat.

Mayan Warfare

 I'm committing myself - not to be confused with having myself committed - to put on a wargame featuring Mayans at a future gaming event. At this point, I'm looking at Wargames Among the Warplanes' Spring show in 2026 as being the most likely event. I blame my friend Chris for gifting me some Mayan figures and sending me down this rabbit hole. 

I'm looking at using Mana Press' "Tribal" for this game, which will involve warriors from one Mayan city-state raiding a rival polity for sacrifices and trophies. 

Tribal features units of five figures under the leadership of a warlord (accompanied by heroic single warriors), and is particularly interesting for not using dice or rulers - combat and movement are resolved using standard decks of playing cards. I haven't played yet, but the second edition rulebook is one of the most user-friendly rule books I've ever seen. I feel like once I get a few games under my belt, I'll be good to go for teaching it to others at an event. 

Figures and terrain have started to arrive, and working on getting all of this painted up will be a good way for me to spend the winter.

First up, I found that Acheson Creations is still vending at a reduced scale on Etsy, selling items whose molds hadn't been sold a few years back when the owners decided to close up shop. I bought a pair of Aztec stone houses (which, despite being from another culture a thousand years later, should be close enough for my purposes) and an Olmec Colossal Stone Head, which will be incorporated into a jungle terrain feature; while the Olmecs predate the Mayans, the ruins of their civilization still dotted the landscape centuries later. 

Craig at Acheson also let me know that he'll be re-releasing some of the other styles of Aztec house in the near future, so I'll be collecting a couple of those as well to put together a full village. He also included a complimentary pile of severed heads in my order that will make a very thematic objective marker. 

Next, at Chris' suggestion, I picked up a couple packs of "Maxzans" from Lucid Eye Publications; they're a little more fantastical than strictly historical, but they have a variety of poses armed with both spears and hand weapons, and are really nice clean casts with excellent sculpting. I ordered enough figures to assemble two units each with "long" and "short" weapons, as well as a missile unit armed with thrown wasp's nests (which is apparently not too fantastical - the Mayan text the Popul Vuh apparently attests to wasps being released in warfare!).

Given the current state of things with the United States, it was also much easier for me to order Lucid Eye figures from Badger Games, their US distributor, than to order strictly historical Mayans from Gringo40s in the UK and risk US customs simply throwing them in a dumpster if there were any errors with the tariff paperwork. 

The plan as it stands is for each warband to consist of three units of five, accompanying a warlord and a single additional hero, for a total of 17 figures. I think it's doable to paint a total of four warbands and do a 2 versus 2 fight on a 6x4 table with plenty of terrain.

So let's figure out what I need to get done before June 2026:

• Paint four warbands of 17 figures apiece (68 total figures) plus a couple of objective markers featuring lootable goods and trophies and civilians to be captured. 
• Manmade Terrain - 6-7 houses, a central temple complex, maybe some cornfields? Houses will be Acheson, temple will be MDF from Things From The Basement. I think I have enough neoprene cobblestone road pieces to cover my needs. 
• Natural Terrain - Jungle terrain bases in varying sizes, probably following Mike's lead from his Vietnam project. At least one of these will have an Olmec stone head or other ruins incorporated into it as well. 
• Playtest playtest playtest! If I'm going to be offering to teach Tribal at the table I need to have it down. 
• Sort out good storage and transport, especially for the jungle terrain which will be a bit more fragile by its nature than the solid resin houses. 

That feels really doable, I think. I have nine months to get through everything. 

Figures Acquired in 2025: 158

Figures Painted in 2025: 139

Cro-Magnon Boss finished

 I'm pleased to say my Cro-Magnon warlord, for use in paleolithic games of Mana Press' Tribal, has been completed as of tonight. This is "Sterm Stonelund, Cro-Magnon Boss," from Lucid Eye Publications, intended for their "Savage Core" skirmish game - which I still haven't tried out; I managed to buy the first edition of the rules a week before the second edition was announced -- and the announcement went out a week before the book released! This is one of three Cro-Magnon Bosses Lucid Eye makes, more than they offer for any other faction in the game, incidentally.

I'm really pleased with how the base turned out; some torn corkboard pieces built up to form the rock outcropping, some Woodland Scenics fine "earth" flock, a few different colors and lengths of Gamer's Grass brand tufts and then some Army Painter snow over the top after everything else had fully dried. 

Here's where the Wolf Clan, my Cro-Magnon warband, stands now:

A unit of Warriors, a unit of Marksmen, two Heroes and a Warlord. One unit of Warriors left to assemble, base and paint up, and I should do a couple objective markers for them as well. 

Figures Acquired in 2025: 158

Figures Painted in 2025: 139

Fighting for Focus

 As you might guess from my posts in the month of August, I've been kind of scattershot. I haven't really been focused on any projects lately, just painting a few odd figures here and there - painting for the sake of putting paint on figures, versus having any sort of goal in mind. And while painting for the sake of painting is laudable in its own way, I would like to feel like I'm finishing something and moving towards playing a game with something. So it's time to set some goals.

I've got figures on the way for Mayans, to go with the "Forest of Kings" figures Chris gave me last week (I also ordered a few officer figures from Paymaster Games here in the US to round out a pair of small armies). 

I think I want to commit to putting on a game with them (maybe requiring some allied forces) at next spring's Wargames Among the Warplanes show. That gives me about 9 months to paint...let's call it 70 figures overall to cover four players, plus terrain, and playtest and master a set of rules well enough to feel confident refereeing it for strangers. About five of those months are going to be too cold and wet to do any priming or varnishing outside. 

Once the figures arrive, I'll probably spend a week cleaning the first 40 of them, gluing them to bases and getting them primed. Anything I can have prepped before the weather turns in November, I intend to. 

In the meantime...

A couple months back I painted a dozen cavemen with the intent to use them in Mana Press' "Tribal." This is also the ruleset I intend to use my Mayans with, so I think it behooves me to get them finished and on the table so I can practice the ruleset! 

I think it's fair to require myself to finish these before I can work on the shiny new Mayans, right? 

This week I've circled around and started painting their opponents, a band of Neanderthals from Northstar. I took the opportunity to use a friend's collection of Army Painter speed paints this past Monday, and got 10 warriors almost fully painted in the span of two hours. 

Pretty much just fine details, especially in the faces, and touch ups left to go on these, and bases. And boy do they need some touch ups! Unfortunately I'm the new guy in the group I paint with on Monday nights, and my spot at the painting table has less-than-ideal lighting - not an intentional thing, it's just something they never noticed when it was just three people at the table. Under my workbench lamp at home, I'm finding tons of spots I missed! 

Fortunately I made a list of the speed paints I used, and I'll be picking some up this weekend to do the touch ups that need doing under good lighting. 

I've also been working away at a warlord figure for the Cro-Magnons; Tribal calls for leaders to be based on larger bases, and given the Frazetta-esque posture of this figure, I decided building things up with cork was called for.

The top of the rock shelves will be flocked, tufted and given some snow to match the rest of the Cro-Magnons; I still have some detailing and highlighting (and again, touch ups) to go on him before I start flocking though. 

So what's left to paint for the paleolithic warbands? 

• Five Cro-Magnon Warriors
• Five Neanderthal Marksmen
• Two Neanderthal Heroes
• Neanderthal Warlord
• Two Neanderthal Civilians (objective marker)

Fifteen figures isn't too bad. With the aid of speed paints, I'm confident I can knock those out within the month after finishing these. 

Finally, I'm finishing off the last two figures I need for the Fall 2025 Wargames Among the Warplanes show which is...in just over a week. I feel like it snuck up on me a bit. 

These adorable little moppets are from Midlam Miniatures, and will be Innocents in games of Devilry Afoot - especially a scenario involving rescuing a couple of kids from a pair of hungry Bogeymen. 

So that's where I'm at. Finish these two kids, finish two warbands of cavemen, and then I can start working on armies and terrain for next spring's wargaming event. 

Figures Acquired in 2025: 158

Figures Painted in 2025: 138

Lord Shield Jaguar and Lady Xoc in 28mm

 On Friday, I had the opportunity to meet up with Chris Regan, a local gamer who I'd interacted with on social media quite a bit over the past couple of years, but this was the first time we'd gotten the chance to meet up; we weren't able to get a game in, but he picked up a copy of one of my RPG scenarios and was generous enough to gift me copies of a pair of miniatures he'd commissioned. Chris runs a Facebook group called "A Forest of Kings - a Maya Wargaming Project", and he'd had these sculpted and cast up to commemorate the group reaching 500 members. 

These figures are based on Yaxchilan Lintel 24, currently in the British Museum. Lintel 24 depicts King Itzamnaaj Bahlam III, aka Lord Shield Jaguar, and his wife, Queen Consort K'abal Xoc; he is holding a torch aloft, illuminating her as she performs a bloodletting ritual. She's pulled a rope studded with obsidian shards through her tongue (AH!), allowing blood to spill on to a codex in front of her, which will be burned as part of the ritual. 

So, now I'm contemplating a Classical Maya project. And by "contemplating," I mean I just pulled the trigger on an order over at Badger Games. Since they carry Lucid Eye Publications' miniatures, I picked up nine packs of their "Maxzan" figures, slightly fantastical Mesoamerican-style figures that work well as Mayans. I bought enough to assemble 10 spearmen, 10 warriors with hand weapons, and six "Hornet Throwers," men armed with wasps' nests! I believe I've got another six that I'd bought a few years ago as well. Mana Press' Tribal would be a perfect ruleset for this, and 32 infantry gives me a total of six units (two armies of three!) with a couple figures leftover. 

So adding 28 (2 for the figures from Chris, 26 Lucid Eye figures) to the Acquired side of things.

Figures Acquired in 2025: 155

Figures Painted in 2025: 138

White Russians Back on the Table

 Being pretty much done with prep for the fall Wargames Among the Warplanes show, I'm finding it hard to focus on any one project for long, and I'm finding myself painting a few figures here and there without any rhyme or reason, just in order to be painting something. The mood took me to get some more historicals done, so I brought out my White Russians. The last time I worked on these was back in January, right around when Atticus passed away. I'm not sure if that played a role or not in me getting derailed away from the Back of Beyond, to be honest. But I'm glad to have them back on the table!

First things first, I added an officer to the Izhevsk Rifle Detachment:

I also got my Field Gun painted and assembled. As best I can tell, this is a 76mm divisional gun M1902, originally fielded during the Russo-Japanese War and continued to see use all the way up into WWII. 

Getting the wheels on straight was the most challenging part. I wasn't sure about the green of the gun at first but it's definitely grown on me. 

I've also started painted a half-dozen Cossacks to add some cavalry, and cleaned up, based and primed a second unit of White Russian infantry; if I get to them right away, that's great, if not, hey, it's about time I start priming towards the winter, right? 

We'll count the gun as an extra figure, so this adds six to the painted side of things:

Figures Acquired in 2025: 127

Figures Painted in 2025: 138

Yo Joe!

 Casting about my workbench for figures to work on after finishing the Off-Track Betting parlor, I pulled out a mix of converted metal and 3D printed figures for my ongoing GI Joe project which I'd primed some months back. In a Modern gaming state of mind, I was happy to get working on them. 

First up, a pair of named characters for the villainous Cobra forces: Croc-Master (in the crocodile-skin vest and boots and gimp mask) and the diabolical Dr. Mindbender (in the purple pants). These are definitely sillier characters that were introduced later in the series' run back in the 1980s; Dr. Mindbender was an orthodontist who accidentally turned himself evil and became a master of robotics and genetics (as one does) while eschewing shirts in the laboratory (but not elaborate metal codpieces held up by suspenders). Croc-Master trains reptiles for aggression on Cobra's behalf, and initially joined the terrorist organization after failing to sell "Trained Security Crocodiles" as an anti-burglary system to Cobra Commander. 

I'm making none of this up. And these aren't the silliest characters on Cobra's payroll. These are resin 3D prints of STLs designed by Random Miniatures on Patreon, which my buddy Dave printed out for me a while back. They're a little oversized, but it's less noticeable with these two. 

Next up, continuing with Cobra, we have a machine gun team that I converted from a Crooked Dice "Army Heavy Machine Gun" set, using a set of "ASP Trooper" heads also from Crooked Dice. 

No ineffectual, children's-television-approved, blue lasers here! Once we get a little sanity in this country and the de minimis exemption on tariffs gets restored, I'm hoping to order and convert a few more of these, because I think it worked out very well.

Finally, two additions to the heroic GI Joe team, though probably not characters whose action figures childen were clamoring for in the 1980s. In green, we have "Tripwire," the Joes' explosives disposal specialist, and next to him "Cutter," who was the Joes' token representative from the US Coast Guard. Tripwire is another Random Miniatures 3D print, while Cutter is again a Crooked Dice figure (one of their "X-Commandos") with a head swap to a mustached head wearing a ball cap. I suspect that the number one factor driving sales of Cutter's action figure in the 1980s was that he was packaged with the "WHALE" Hovercraft, which was one of the more impressive vehicles in the GI Joe motorpool. 

You can really see the size difference with the 3D prints here; I'm less worried about it since I don't anticipate Tripwire showing up in a lot of games, but with future prints I'll ask Dave to scale them down slightly. 

So what's next? I don't anticipate doing a lot of hobbying this weekend as Monday morning we're getting a new water meter installed as part of a city-wide initiative - and our water meter is right next to my workbench, which means cleaning up and clearing space to ensure the worker(s) from the city can access everything they need to as easily as possible. After that though, I've got eight Crooked Dice "ASP Troopers" to paint up for my GI Joe project; instead of the usual Cobra blues, they'll be wearing the green, gray and yellow of the "Python Patrol" sub-team, just to mix things up a bit and to justify them having a slightly different style of uniform from the rest of my Cobra troopers. I also want to get started on my next terrain build, an "Urgent Care" building my wife got me for my birthday. It has interior rooms, so it'll be a more complex project than some of my other buildings. 

Figures Acquired in 2025: 127

Figures Painted in 2025: 133