MORE Terrain!

 A buddy of mine who enjoys 3D printing offered to print off any buildings or other terrain I might need for my game at Wargames Among the Warplanes in June, and last night I received the fruits of his printer:

The wheels for all of these are in a baggie.

I'm about halfway done with the last ten figures I need to paint for the June game, so I'm anticipating spending a big chunk of May on these beauties. Hopefully this will give me a nice, full-looking urban table. 

I should probably lay out the neoprene mat, the road pieces and the buildings to double check that, to be honest. 

New Acquisitions

 A couple more odds and ends have arrived at Casa de Adcock over the past few days.

Miniature Building Authority had a spring sale going, so I ordered some more scatter bits, including a pair of end-pieces for oil-drum-and-tire barricade walls, of which I've got a few painted up already. I'm waiting for their wall pieces to come back in stock so I can buy more - I'd like to ultimately be able to enclose a building or two in barricade "fences" if I can.

I also placed an order with Things From The Basement - I needed a couple large, irregular terrain bases, as well as some large MDF rounds that will be turned into markers for smoke grenades. These A) aren't very exciting to look at, and B) aren't enough to justify the shipping costs, so a set of brick stacks and a shipping container-turned-office slipped into my cart. 

I think the shipping container office I want to eventually incorporate into a larger build - I'm envisioning a fenced-in junkyard or mechanic's yard, maybe with a garage, with the shipping container as the yard's "business office." Something a bit shady and sketchy, like they're dealing in stolen cars or something like that. I think that would be a fun project to add to my terrain collection. Things From The Basement has a garage kit in their "Industrial" line that might be perfect - something to think about for my next purchase. 

Figures Purchased in 2025: 58

Figures Painted in 2025: 75

Joey's Boys

 I've finished up the first of three gangs of Mafiosos for my Fistful of Lead game at Wargames Among the Warplanes in June. Meet Joey "The Viper" Marciano and some of his associates:

Joey is from Wargames Foundry's "The Mob" pack in their Street Violence line, while the rest of his gang are from Copplestone Castings; the skinny guy in a gray suit is from the "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" line of Cold War spies, and the rest are from the "Future Wars" line. 

Joey's a very fun sculpt, with thick jowls and a fat roll at the back of his neck, rings on a couple fingers and a fat cigar ready to be jabbed into someone's face. 

Also finished tonight, Miss Angela Dellamorte, the daughter of the head of the Dellamorte Crime Family. She's the mcguffin that the whole scenario hinges around - the game begins with her in the hideout of the Jamaican Kings, and three gangs of Dellamorte gunmen are crossing the table to try and retrieve her - and double-crossing each other along the way. 

Finally, I knocked out a couple pieces of junk pile scatter terrain from Miniature Building Authority:

So that leaves me with just 10 figures to finish before June 7th, and however many pieces of scenery I manage. My buddy Dave is 3D printing a few buildings for me, and also gifted me a couple he'd printed and painted years ago that he wasn't using:

I might do some touch up on these, but overall they're not in bad shape. Anything I do to repaint or improve them will be after Wargames Among The Warplanes, however. 

That's five new figures painted, so let's update the tracker:

Figures Purchased in 2025: 58

Figures Painted in 2025: 75

Fistful of Lead: "Death From Above!"

Tonight I went out to my local game store and met up with a guy for a game of Fistful of Lead, using the Galactic Heroes sci-fi variant. This was my first time playing a full-sized game against an opponent (not counting the demos I ran last month) since before the pandemic! I brought out my Space Orks, and he had what I think were classic 90s Necromunda gangers of some flavor.

We used a scenario I bought off the Wiley Games website, "Death From Above," for our game tonight; our crews were fighting over possession of the controls for an ancient orbital railgun, which happened to be in the heart of a monster's lair! The monster would appear when a Joker was played, and attack the closest figure (regardless of crew) until it was either slain or another Joker was played.

I brought the monster on the board fairly early, and it ravaged his side for a bit before being dispelled by another Joker, and then a fresh, uninjured one came back on the board later that same turn, at which point it killed my heavy weapons specialist. 

My Ork Warboss arrived at the controls for the orbital weapon fairly quickly, and spent three turns trying to figure out how to activate it. He spent the rest of the game hunched over the controls, firing over and over again and never hitting anything because the template representing the blast radius of each shot kept drifting. 

Honestly, I thought I had the game in the bag towards the end - I had three figures left on the table, he had one, and two of my guys were in close combat with him. Stunningly, he turned it around - he swiftly took care of the two guys on him, reloaded his man-portable heavy laser cannon, closed the distance and sniped my Ork Warboss through a gap in the ruins, killing him instantly with a headshot! 

That's one of the things I love best about Fistful of Lead - you never can tell quite how things are going to turn out, and I was just as happy to be surprised and lose like that as I would have been in victory. 

We'll be meeting up again soon for another game, and we had a few curious onlookers we spoke to who might be interested in joining in the future. Fingers crossed on that front, it would be great to get a few more people playing. 

Fat Dragon Self-Service Ramen

 Last night, after I finished posting about yesterday's game, I put the finishing touches on another building kit from Atomic Lasercut Designs. This was a blank storefront that I bought a month ago with an eye towards turning it into an automat-style self service restaurant. 

The sign out front (and interior art) is all just stuff I grabbed off Google Image Search and mocked up in MSPaint, printed out on the laser printer at my local copy shop. The graffiti decals are from an EBay seller, and the furnishings on the interior are mostly from Oshiro Models, with the booths and arcade cabinet from Miniature Building Authority. 

And here's a better look at the drinks cabinet - I used UV resin to give it a "glass" front.

What's next? Well, a buddy of mine is setting me up with some 3D printed modern buildings and street scatter, I have the three gangs of Mafiosos to paint up, and I picked up a set of Mantic street scatter at my local hobby shop yesterday:

I also found out that Harlequin is hosting their next Demo Day event on June 14th...one week after my game at Wargames Among the Warplanes! So it sounds like I should maybe not bother unpacking my car after I get back from WATW...

Figures Purchased in 2025: 58

Figures Painted in 2025: 70

First Game of Warhammer: The Old World

 I had a really nice afternoon at the game store today, got to chat with a couple of good guys, picked up a bit of scatter terrain for my big game at Wargames Among the Warplanes in June, and of course got my very first game of Warhammer: The Old World in!

I had the worst dice luck I can remember ever having in 20 years of gaming. I could not pass a Leadership test. My trolls, even with a babysitter, could not pass a Stupidity test, and remained irreversibly stupid. I could not successfully charge. 

But that's fine - I'm not playing orcs to *win*, I'm playing orcs to laugh when things go awry - for example, my trolls spending three turns staring in befuddlement at a giant eagle before getting obliterated by it. 

The High Elf General charges my orc spearmen.

My General charges the High Elf General and is promptly killed.

The last of my trolls falling to the Sky-Cutter. 

Even in losing, I enjoyed the experience, and my opponent was a gracious teacher (who, unfortunately, is moving out of the area next week). Another guy I talked to offered to meet me for games any time I'm available so this will not be my last game. 

Figures Purchased in 2025: 58

Figures Painted in 2025: 70

Happy Easter and Some Gaming

 Happy Easter to all my readers who celebrate. We're having a very low-key Sunday here, nothing too fancy on the menu or any visiting planned. Except...

On Friday, I found out that my local game store, Harlequin Hobby, is open for gaming today and there were people looking to play Warhammer: The Old World. I happen to have an army for Warhammer: The Old World. With no other plans, I cleared an afternoon spent at the game store with my wife, and asked if anybody would be open to a 500-point game to help me learn the ropes. Having confirmed that someone would be happy to do so, I drew up plans for a 500-point army that would be easy to transport.

I threw my back out earlier this week and am still on the mend, and it's situations like this that might maybe make me curse my deep love of metal miniatures. 

So here's what I'm taking to the store today:

Orc General on Boar. Figure by Knightmare.

Goblin Wolf Riders with Bows. Figures by Foundry/Warmonger

Orc Spearmen in looted Empire uniforms. Figures by Foundry/Warmonger

Trolls originally from Satyr Art Studios, currently OOP. Goblin handler by Knightmare.

I'll be back later with a play report or two!

Figures Purchased in 2025: 58

Figures Painted in 2025: 70

Street Violence

 I've been plugging away at a large batch of figures, and after tonight I finally have some finished figures to show! These are mostly from Wargames Foundry's Street Violence range, and most of them will be on the table for my game at Wargames Among the Warplanes. 

First up, a set of regular uniformed police:

These regular police won't be on the table in June, but they'll be useful in games before and after nonetheless. My favorite's the fat guy on the end with his coffee and bag of doughnuts.

Then, two teams of police in SWAT gear with more intense weaponry - SMGs, a sniper rifle, a grenade launcher, even an automatic rifle. These two groups will be included in the game in June; they'll be tasked with arresting the various gangsters running wild on the table. 

Also in the mix were three non-Foundry figures. A pair of bodyguards from Copplestone Castings' "Future Wars" line, and a SWAT bomb disposal specialist from The Assault Group. The bomb disposal guy was an impulse buy a few months back, and has a robot that I haven't painted yet; I figure he'll be a good scenario figure somewhere along the line. 

The two Copplestone figures will be incorporated into gangs for June's game - the fellow in the trenchcoat will be in one of the mafia gangs on the table, while the woman in the green dress joins the Jamaican Kings:

The other four figures here I painted late last year and are from Wargames Foundry; the fifth figure in the pack, a woman in sunglasses wearing a trench coat and carrying a katana, seemed out of place. This figure from the Copplestone bodyguards pack fits in nicely, I think. 

So what's next? Well, I got a package the other day containing a mix of Foundry and Copplestone figures that'll give me enough mafiosos and well-dressed gunmen to give me the three Mafia gangs I need for June. Plus, the Foundry "Mob" pack has a fashionable young woman in a short dress and tall boots, who will be a major scenario figure for the June game. 

So that's another 18 figures painted, and I've already factored in the 18 I've bought, so let's update the tracker:

Figures Purchased in 2025: 58

Figures Painted in 2025: 70

Committed: War Games Among the Warplanes, Spring 2025 Show

 There's a small, localish one-day wargaming event that takes place twice a year for the past few years; it was actually more local when I was living in Rochester, but between relearning how to socialize post-pandemic and just not realizing it was going on until day of, I haven't made it out there yet. 

War Games Among the Warplanes is held twice a year at the National Warplanes Museum in Geneseo, NY (the town where I went to college) with tables set up among the displays. Because my brain isn't wired to let me just go and play games other people are putting on and I have to feel like I'm contributing, I'm bringing Fistful of Lead and putting on a game.

Since I've got a good sized (and growing) collection of modern urban terrain, it was an easy decision to make that the setting of my scenario. Mike Demana over at Lead Legionaries has an urban game called Mean Streets, and his after-action reports from running the game at conventions are hugely inspiring for me. I knew I wanted a scenario with up to six players where alliances were possible but double-crossing each other was incentivized.

I decided I wanted something with rival gangs - organized crime as opposed to street punks. Sopranos-style Mafiosos, or drug cartels feuding over territory. Or both! Maybe a new drug cartel moving into traditionally Mafia territory? 

I did some brainstorming, and came up with a scenario in which the daughter of a mafia don was kidnapped by a rival gang, and the don's lieutenants were sent out to get her back. The lieutenants, however, have their own motives and rivalries, and this becomes an opportunity to get rid of their competitors. After all, once the bullets start flying, who's to say who shot who? 

So I have quite a bit of painting to do for this - a few gangs' worth of figures (which shouldn't be too bad since most of them are wearing suits, or turtlenecks with sports coats over them), and I'll have to do some more buildings and scatter to fill up a 4' by 4' table. 

I've got some building STLs that I'll be taking to a friend of mine to print out for me - a video store, pizzeria, shoe store and electronics store - which will likely be "quick and easy" paint jobs without detailed interiors. I might try to squeeze in a few more buildings from Atomic Lasercut Designs as well, but that might be iffy. 

I'll probably be playtesting this in bits and pieces as I get stuff painted up. One thing I do want to do is add secondary missions, possibly randomly assigned - which might be "collect the laundered money from the pawn shop and move it off your gang's starting table edge" or "pick up a pizza at the pizzeria and deliver it to Fat Paulie at the shoe store." This is intended to encourage more movement around the table and also to distract from the main mission - that way every gang isn't sending five guys directly towards the end goal and maybe we don't end up with every gang clustered at one point on the table shooting at each other. 

The figures I need are all purchased and on their way, so I'm updating my tracker now. 

We'll see how this goes! Stay tuned for updates.

Figures Purchased in 2025: 58

Figures Painted in 2025: 52

Welcome to EZ Pawn

 I took yesterday, March 31st, as a day off work, and used some of that free time to finish* off the EZ Pawn Shop I've been working on. I got the front doors and the surrounding frame glued on, the sign on the roof assembled and weathered, some signage in the windows, and a few pieces of art on the walls. 

So why the asterisk? 

Because there's still a few things I want to add. 

I've got an air conditioner from Oshiro Model Terrain that I'm getting into the priming box today so that I can paint it up and glue it in next to the back door. 

There's some furniture to paint up and add in - I've got a cashiers' counter and a couple shelving units to paint up, and there's a safe and a gun locker that's on its way from Miniature Building Authority. There will probably be various other odds and ends added going forward. 

But!

It's finished enough to where I'd be fine with having it on the table during a game and not feel like it's unfinished.