More Devils, Rats and Scatter

The plan is to begin my "When Nightmares Come" campaign on October 2nd (I've got the day off work), so I'm bustling to get as much painted as I can before I start, so that there's less pressure on me between games.

I do have all six games plotted out using the generator tables in the rulebook, so I know what games I need extra "Alpha" Dark Spawn models for and more or less what terrain is going to be on the table during each game, which helps quite a bit. I had a lot of things very close to done at the time of my last blog post, and now they're all finished and ready to be shown.

 First things first, I finished my final five succubi; these are a mix of Heresy and Reaper Miniatures, and will be "Terrors," the most dangerous of the three tiers of Dark Spawn minions. 

 These followed the same color scheme I used previously - base coat of VGC "Gory Red," washed with GW "Carroburg Crimson," highlighted with Reaper "Fire Red" and "Regulator's Scarlet". The membranes of the wings follow the first two steps, but are then only re-highlighted with the "Gory Red."

I'm a very big fan of the chubby succubus from Reaper, she was a delight to paint and I'm looking forward to putting her on the table.  

For those keeping track at home, here's all my devils together:

 Next up, I needed an "Alpha" Dark Spawn for game 3, which is the last game featuring the lowest level of Dark Spawn, which for this campaign are Rat Swarms. These "Alphas" appear as bonus threats with certain rolls on the tables for generating a case file, and are slightly tougher versions of their normal tier. In this case, I dug around in my backlog and found some Reaper Giant Rats I bought ages ago. I glued one to a base and gave it a pretty straightforward paint job. 

 

Base coat in black, drybrush with "Stormy Gray" and "Cloudy Gray," then glaze with GW "Bloodletter" over the areas where the sores are visible. These were then picked out with Reaper "Moldy Skin" to give them a properly pus-filled appearance. The tail is "Tanned Shadow" washed with GW "Reikland Fleshshade" and drybrushed with "Tanned Skin." 

The narrative I've built around game 3's dice rolls is that the Webster Street Irregulars will be investigating mysterious disappearances against the backdrop of a sanitation workers' strike, which means I needed some piles of garbage! These are 3D prints bought from a licensed seller on Etsy, with the STLs designed by "Tiny Furniture" on MyMiniFactory. 

 I kept them fairly simple, without worrying too much about excessive shading or highlighting. They went pretty quickly and were a lot of fun to paint. 

Looking slightly further ahead, I got a package in the mail today with my terrain for game 6.

 These are, as you can see, from Warbases, and are very nice looking little kits. They're going to be customized into summer camp cabins, and despite their small size will have detailed interiors if everything goes right over the next few weeks. I got a couple sheets of laser-cut roof shingles as well, so I will be gluing those over the plain MDF of the roofs. Because why make it easy on myself when I can make it look better instead? 

So let's update that tracker:

 

Miniatures Acquired: 214

Miniatures Painted: 231

Terrain Acquired: 7

Terrain Painted: 10

Scatter Acquired: 15

Scatter Painted: 24

 

Heresy Winged Fallen One 2026

 Last year I pre-ordered the 2026 Winged Fallen One from Andy at Heresy Miniatures. I've been a fan of his demon sculpts for a very long time - I can remember ogling the all-metal Netherlord close to 20 years ago, long before I had the skills to tackle such a beast - and when I saw this one come up I knew I wanted it, could afford it and had the skills (mostly; I'm still not super experienced with resin figures) to tackle it. 

As an aside, if you're thinking of getting one, order soon; Andy's been dealt a full hand of trouble over the past few years and Heresy may not be open much longer, which would be a profound loss to the hobby. 

 

I decided to paint this fiend up as the "Atrocity," the final boss of a "When Nightmares Come" casefile; as such, if all goes according to plan, he'll be appearing on my table fighting the Webster Street Irregulars on Halloween.  

 I bought a bundle version that came with 5 different sets of horns, two right arms, and three or four left arms; not all of these pieces are currently available; looks like the sword-holding right hand may not be available at present. After Tim Curry passed away, I had to assemble this massive fiend with the huge, sweeping horns reminiscent of Curry's appearance in the movie "Legend."

The fit is pretty spectacular; Andy got really ingenious with how the parts were separated for casting, ensuring most pieces fit together in ways that hide the join. 

 Color-wise, I did some thinking about his clothing, because I didn't want it to just be black cloth. With him being draped in a stole, I eventually decided on a color scheme that would give a sense of him dressing in mockery of traditional liturgical vestments. I think it works out pretty well. 

I'm not going to lie, I'm seriously thinking about picking up a copy of the wingless version to compliment this one. 

 He's on a 40mm round base, and I've got some resin flame bits on the way that I'm going to add to the base; while the lesser demons on based on my normal grassy bases, with the idea being that they've been summoned to Earth from Hell, I decided on ash and flames for their boss - he brings a little bit of Hell with him when he appears. 

I've finished a few more things as well for my When Nightmares Come game:

 I needed a few more rat swarms to serve as the lowest level of enemies, and cobbled these two out of some leftover rats from a set of 3D printed resin swarms from Green Stuff World; I've got a few singular rats left still but not enough to make another swarm base like these. Technically I should have two more swarms beyond these (these put me at 8, should technically have 10), but I think I can make this work. Worst case scenario, I ordered a set of rats along with the flame bits so I can make more if I want. 

And finally, a pair of 3D printed two door sedans from Miniature Tanks - though frustratingly, this model, the "Volkswagen Golf Mk 2" seems to have disappeared from their site in the three months since I ordered it! These will be set dressing for When Nightmares Come and other modern-set games. 

 Simple paintjobs befitting terrain.

 So let's update the tracker:

  

Miniatures Acquired: 214

Miniatures Painted: 225

Terrain Acquired: 5

Terrain Painted: 10

Scatter Acquired: 9

Scatter Painted: 18

 

More Seedy Terrain

 I've been very up front that my modern terrain collection is based very heavily on the Rust Belt surroundings I've spent my entire life in. Buildings are run-down, poorly maintained, businesses cater to rougher, less-affluent clientele. Nothing is classy or upscale. 

Which brings me to my latest completed building from Atomic Laser Cut Designs. This is "Retail Store RS1A," which I ended up with two of; Vince at ALCD sent me a complimentary one as a thank you for showing off photos of my finished Urgent Care, which arrived just hours after I ordered one for myself. The complimentary one became my Liquor Store, and now here's the one I bought. 

 

You remember the bit in the movie Beetlejuice, where Beetlejuice makes a strip club ("Dante's Inferno Room") manifest on Alec Baldwin's model train table, and Geena Davis gets mad at Alec Baldwin about it? That scene will forever play a part in my deciding what buildings to add to my terrain collection. 

 Signs are all printed paper as usual, and the graffiti on the exterior walls are all decals from Dave's Decals. Similarly, the curtain in the window is an image taken off an Amazon listing for curtains and printed at my local Office Max. The name and color scheme are a nod to the "Adult Galaxy" superstore on Niagara Falls Boulevard, just minutes from my house, which sits snugly between an Urgent Care and the "Weed King" cannabis dispensary. 

 The interior has some shelves and a check-out counter, also produced by Atomic Laser Cut Designs. I grabbed some posters for vintage adult films, rescaled them and printed them to decorate the walls, and I printed another poster advertising "Welfare Wednesdays" at a strip club and added it to the back room. 

 The floor is printed paper as usual, though a different wooden floor design than I've used in other buildings. There was a bit of a saga there - I'd initially cut the paper floor and pasted it to the wrong side of the base, necessitating cutting a second one to glue to the right side. The second one wasn't quite a perfect fit, so there's spots along the wall where you can see the underlying painted MDF. 

Somehow, I don't think I'll be bringing this one to public-facing events! 

 

Miniatures Acquired: 214

Miniatures Painted: 222

Terrain Acquired: 5

Terrain Painted: 10

Scatter Acquired: 9

Scatter Painted: 16

 

Cultists for When Nightmares Come

 In Osprey's "When Nightmares Come," enemies come in four tiers: Vermin, Hordes, Terrors, and Atrocity. The Atrocity is singular; that's the big bad vampire lord, the Cthulhu-thing, etc. that's the master villain of the campaign. The other three are recommended to have about 10 each of. My Vermin are going to be the rat swarms and zombies I already have painted. For my Hordes, I'm using Crooked Dice cultists, some of which I already had laying around awaiting my attention. Well, they've now received that attention:

 

 I kept things pretty simple; the robes are VGC "Scarlet Red" washed with GW "Carroburg Crimson," then highlighted with Reaper "Fresh Blood." These seven came, along with a gargoyle, in a "starter cast" pack I got a few years back. 

I also ordered a few more, which arrived yesterday and were immediately cleaned up and glued to bases:

 I've got a few days before the weather's amenable to priming, so I'll get the gaps in the slotta bases filled tonight. I also picked up a couple of Reaper Succubi - these will join the Hasslefree and Heresy demonesses I'd previously painted as "Terrors" in WNC.

 And finally, I completed an MDF bus stop from Atomic Laser Cut Designs:

Nothing fancy, but I'm pleased with myself for putting the acetate "glass" in and then varnishing so that it would look scratched up and dirty - because who's ever seen clean glass in a bus stop?  

I'd already factored the additional cultists into my tally, but I haven't yet added the succubi. Let's get that tracker updated:

 

Miniatures Acquired: 214

Miniatures Painted: 222

Terrain Acquired: 5

Terrain Painted: 9

Scatter Acquired: 9

Scatter Painted: 16

 

Zombie RV at Wargames Among the Warplanes

 Today is the Fall 2026 outing for Wargames Among the Warplanes, a twice-yearly day of wargaming held at the National Warplane Museum in beautiful Geneseo, New York, one of my favorite towns on the planet. I attended college in Geneseo and for 20 years now have dutifully attended the gaming convention the college gaming club puts on every year (and as a student, served as Minister of Wargames, Minister of Roleplaying Games, and treasurer of the club!). I had to miss the spring show this year, but wanted to make sure I made it to the fall show, not least because Mike Demana of Lead Legionaries and his girlfriend Jenny were making the trip out from Ohio to attend. Mike's terrain builds have been a big inspiration for me, and he's just been genuinely a nice guy and supportive reader. 

The show is actually still going on as I write this, however I've been on a new medication for the past couple weeks that wonks with my sleep, meaning I've been really struggling with daytime fatigue. With an hour and twenty minutes' commute each way to attend Wargames Among the Warplanes, I decided to err on the side of caution and skedaddle on home after the morning session.  

 I used the same table layout (for the most part; some of the scatter is arranged differently) as I used for my last solo game, and had enough time in the morning time slot to play twice; the first game had three players - Mike, Jenny, and John, a gent I used to run a lot of roleplaying games for when I was living in Rochester. After the first game, John stepped away to join a Battletech table, and Mike and Jenny played a second round, changing the deployment zones they started in.

 

The only major house rule I implemented was that zombies who were not in range of seeing/hearing/smelling survivors didn't automatically stand still. I rolled a scatter die for each of them, sending them wandering where the arrows pointed, and only keeping them stationary if the die came up with an "on target" result. This did result in zombies spawning on the edges of the board and immediately wandering off of it, as well as a stretch where five or six zombies were all lined up on one table edge, standing still because I just kept rolling "on target" results for them. 

 

I think the second game is where things really started to get interesting. There were six potential loot drops on the table each time - one in each building except for the tiny little pizza place, since that was the one building on the table without a detailed interior. Or, even, a floor. When the survivors investigated one, they rolled to see what they found; these could be supplies, medicine, weapons, etc. One result that didn't come up in the first game but did come up in the second was that these loot drops could yield a survivor. And in fact, that result came up three times in the second game. 

 So while Mike and Jenny each started with two survivors, by the end of the game Jenny had a crew of four* and Mike was commanding a team of three. The second game also had the largest number of zombies appearing and wandering off the board, or standing stock-still for 3+ turns. 

 You remember that asterisk on Jenny's crew of four last paragraph? Well, three members of her crew were clustered on the table edge, on their way towards the rendezvous point to get back in the VW Vanagon that was their home base, when four zombies spawned right on top of them. The survivor "Mark" put up a valiant effort with his wrench to try and keep everything at bay, but ultimately succumbed even as his compatriots escaped with their lives. 

 I also got to see Mike's infamously bad dice luck in action. With most rolls in Zombie RV requiring a 4+ on a six-sided dice, there was a stretch where - Poor Mike! - he couldn't roll above a 3. Even switching out dice after every roll didn't help him any. 

 It may have been my fault, though - as soon as I stepped away to use the men's room, Mike immediately rolled two 6s with "Hank" and his machete, felling two of the three zombies trying to gnaw on him!

 With the second game at an end, it was just about noon; the morning time slot technically ran from 9am to 1pm with an hour lunch break before the afternoon time slot began at 2. I thought trying to squeeze a third game in might be a bit much, and Mike and Jenny were ready for lunch, so I got packed up, said my goodbyes and texted Gina to let her know I was on my way home. 

All in all, a day (morning) well spent! I'm glad I got to finally meet Mike and Jenny in person, and it's the sort of event that's just really pleasant and affirming; I'm a bit of a shut-in given Gina's health issues, so going out and having people tell me how happy they are to see me, how glad they are I could make it, how much they love seeing my models and terrain on the table... it's a good feeling that I don't get as often as I'd like. I talked a little bit to a couple of people who were happy to just walk around and watch games, including a family with some young kids. At 39, I'm one of the young bucks at Wargames Among the Warplanes - lots of guys in their 60s and at least one in his 70s, so we're all pretty keen on trying to lure in the next generation of wargamers.  

From the Files of Police Squad!

 The two police cars are finished:

 I kept things pretty simple decal-wise; the word "Police" on both front doors, and "911" on the rear next to the gas cap. I had to buy two sets of decals to get enough black-letter "Police" for both cars; I may get some more Crown Vics at some point and paint some as Highway Patrol or County Sheriff vehicles. 

In other news, the MDF buildings I alluded to the other day arrived, along with a box of resin accessory bits - air conditioners, filing cabinets, vending machines, etc - from Oshiro Models. 

 I've never built a TTCombat kit before; I picked this one up because it's got a very different footprint from the other buildings I've got, plus I liked that it had a fire-escape. Should give me plenty of opportunity for customization as well.

On the right in the ziploc bags are two kits from Atomic Lasercut Designs; one is a two-story building from their "Mean Streets" line, with a commercial space at ground level and apartments above. The other is a rooftop access point, which I'm going to glue to the roof of the building to add more height and make it a little bit different from the similar two-story building I've already done. The rooftop access has a removable roof as well, and the interior could offer some fun customizing opportunities. 

I'm hopeful to get these both done before winter, along with the two Atomic Lasercut kits I've currently got on my workbench. I feel like my modern urban terrain collection (and figures!) are replacing the Oldhammer Orcs as my "Hobby Home" - the thing I can always take out and putter away at in between other projects or when I'm not feeling inspired for something. At this point I'm fairly certain I could cover my entire dining room table (which is 3' x 5'10", which let me tell you, is annoying for trying to get a mat to cover it!) with terrain and have some left over, but it's just so relaxing to paint and assemble. 

 The two buildings and the cars are already factored into my finished tally, but I think I should count the electrical transformer substation I got from Oshiro as scatter. Let's update the tracker:

 

Miniatures Acquired: 212

Miniatures Painted: 215

Terrain Acquired: 5

Terrain Painted: 9

Scatter Acquired: 9

Scatter Painted: 15

 

The Webster Street Irregulars

 

Back when Osprey's "When Nightmares Come" first released, I was definitely interested - modern setting, occult enemies, ordinary people pushing back against the things that go bump in the night? That's 100% my jam. North Star offered a bundle deal, if I'm remembering right, offering the rulebook and your choice of a pack of "Apex Investigators" made by Fenris Games, to use as your monster hunters. 

 While I was at it, I ordered myself some 3D printed bases with urban detailing from Etsy. Once the figures arrived, I cut the tabs off their feet and glued them to the urban bases, feeling pretty pleased with myself. 

And then, as so often happens, they sat, unattended to. "When Nightmares Come" didn't grab me by the ears and demand I play it when I first read through it, so I shrugged and put it on the shelf with the other Blue Books, figuring I could borrow elements from it to enrich other games later on.

Recently, I read some play-reports for When Nightmares Come over on the Lead Adventure Forum, and felt my interest rekindle. And reading other people's play-throughs helped me through some of the things I wasn't understanding (I feel like the 64-page Blue Book format might have hindered this one a little bit!). 

So I've decided I'm going to make playing a full six-game campaign of When Nightmares Come my goal for October - ideally, playing the final game on Halloween. This is going to entail some painting through the month of September to get myself ready; first up, the hunters themselves, finally primed and painted and ready for action.

 While I will be giving everyone individual names and backstories, for now they're presented largely without comment:

First up is my "Weaver," in the game's parlance, a minor spellcaster with the knowledge and training to push back against the supernatural. I went with gray hair, envisioning her as an aging witch who has pulled the team together. The eyepatch, combat boots and arm bands show she's no frail fortuneteller. This is a woman who has kicked a werewolf in the nards and lived to tell the tale. 

Next up are my two "Wardens." These are characters who know their way around weapons and violence; while anybody in the game can use a gun or a knife, these guys are the best at it. According to Ian over at Fenris, the one guy is sculpted to look like celebrity chef Guy Fieri, so my bleach-blonde paint job is accurate. I'm imagining the gray-haired guy with the flashlight is a retired cop who assumes he should be leading the team. 

 Finally, my "Wrights" - these are techies, tinkerers, and modern-day alchemists creating tools from scratch - monster repellents, lures, potions of speed and healing, etc. I really like the gal with the fluffy boots and the palm pilot and had to give her some raver colors.

 Together, I'm calling them the Webster Street Irregulars; Webster Street being one of the local streets I look to for inspiration with my terrain collection. It's a lot of small shops and restaurants with apartments above, and buildings like that are going to be my next priority in terrain-building so that I can add more height to my tables. I already have one, in the form of the Nickel City Smoke Shop, and a couple more are on the way. 

I've also gotten some work done today on a few more pieces of scatter terrain - a pair of Crown Victoria police interceptors from Miniature Tanks Co. These are mostly just done in cheap craft paint, other than the lights. All that's left to do is putting some decals on them. 

 I did have to order a few more figures for When Nightmares Come, but I'm really pleased at how much I was able to pull out of my leadpile and designate towards the game. 

 

Miniatures Acquired: 212

Miniatures Painted: 215

Terrain Acquired: 5

Terrain Painted: 9

Scatter Acquired: 8

Scatter Painted: 15