My 2026 Little Wars Convention Loot!

 During Little Wars, I was finally on Sunday able to get out to the vendors and do some "Here! Take my money!" deals with some of the vendors.

Unfortunately by the time I showed up, some were closed, some were packing up and a couple didn't even make it out there.

Darn.

But I did make some deals.

Oddly enough I didn't buy any real figures or such this time, but more scenic items and things.

LOOT:

The first part of my loot haul was my freebies/SWAG and gift stuff.

This included dice, a 3d printed duck, and some other things, including a t-shirt from HMGS-MW.

(Click on photos to get the larger version.)

Of special and particular interest was the gift of "Personalized dice". One of our "crew", had the photo of the three of us from our 2024 LW Sojourn in our Picklehaubs for the "natural 1".

Now whenever I roll the dice and fail with a 1, I get to see our "Pretty faces"....

Each year for Little Wars, I go forth and purchase a "thank you gift", for my "crew"; my friends who honor me by being friends with me. I have a brotherhood in gaming and the game hobby, so each year I honor that by ordering a special commemorative glass from Ben Shot. This company makes amazing products. 

In the past we've gotten glasses with .308/7.62 rounds, and .50 cal rounds in them.

This year because of America's 250th, I did the Betsy Ross flag, and personalized them, and had the musket ball embedded.

Each member got their names and the convention placed on them also; a reminder of a good time.

On Sunday as we were wrapping up, HMGS-MW gave me one of their extra Historicon 2026 t-shirts.

It's a nice "School bus yellow" color for high visibility with a cool logo on it.

Not that I was a member of the staff or anything but still, it's the thought that counts.

(A fashion maven I am not....Please ignore the skulls.)

During the convention, I was awarded a Valor Award Medal.  This is given to GM's who run continuous games over 12 hours in total time. 

Not only did I get stuff, but my wife also scored a gift in the form of Yak meat sausage.

This is from the Star Yak Ranch in Wyoming.

We were gifted this last year and my wife fell in love with the stuff.

So with the exception of the 3D printed duck I was given, that was the end of the "free stuff", and such.

This was my total purchase for Little Wars, and it was all on Sunday.

(Not quite as an extensive haul as previous years, but still a good haul...)

Oddly enough, figures were nowhere on my shopping list. 

I'll be honest, I'm chocked pretty full with Reaper fantasy stuff, and I have a lot of historical figs right now, but I am always looking for scenery and such.

I think I am finding myself enjoying painting those more than figures right now.

So I hit Badger games and picked up some packs of stuff from Bad Squiddo.

The first was the Food Market scenics.

(More market items for people to spend their hard earned, or ill gotten coins on....)

(And some table items...)

(Some garden equipment to make those fields more interesting...)

I also picked up a wide variety of 3D printed furniture items. One can never have enough chairs, tables, bookcases, etc. 

These are pretty well done and after a good cleaning to remove any oils, agents, etc; I think the wood will only need a brushing of Agrax to tone the plastic look down some.

I also picked up some more ladders too....

(One can never have enough ladders so it would seem...)

And while perusing the vendors, I happened to come upon a copy of this.

I had seen a copy of these for sale at HMGS-GL ATC and was intrigued. I'm curious to see how they are.

And then, (joy upon joy), HMGS-MW was offering up some of the Secret Weapon line of paints that had been produced.  IIRC, these are no longer being produced.

(I need another paint rack...)

For stuff from the vendors that was pretty much it.

At the flea market, for me at the time there wasn't that much to buy on Sunday, but I did pick up this book on Irish battles for $1.00.

It's a nice add on to my collection.

And that was it for my "Loot collection" this year....gaming wise that is.

I did get some more stuff at Cheese castle....

(Meat and cheeses...mmmm....)

And of course my two cases of Spotted Cow.

Upon which my cat Gemma decided that "She needed to guard Daddy's beer while he was unloading the vehicle."

She's good that way.

So with the ending of this blog, my foray into Little Wars 2026 is pretty much done for the most part.

End of May Update.

 So the month of May has quickly sped by, and now we are down to the Memorial Day weekend. 

I'm a bit surprised at how little I have done game wise, or gaming wise, or even in the hobby.

This is explained a bit below.

Those "Post Convention Blues"....

I'll admit it. I have it. 

I reveled in the joy and fun of Little Wars, and have the fuel for the fire for next year, and "The Crew" and I have already been planning. 

And as the month has passed, due to the myriad of things going on, that fire is settled down some.

First off is the major amount of housework going on.

For those thinking about it.

1: Old houses are amazing.

2: Old houses are problematic.

3: Old houses are often expensive as practically nothing is "repaired", or able to be repaired. Instead it has to be replaced.

For those of you that have been following on TMP, and here, I am having major plumbing and contracting work being done.

We now seem to be in the home stretch.

We are working on 3 of the four bathrooms here. 

This house was built before "code", and the previous owners did a lot of half ass cobbling things together to make things work. We are now working on making it work "like it should". 

The bathrooms are the main case, as is the drainage line.

I've included some pics to show "some" of the work that has been done.

(Click on pics for larger version)

(Removal of the old broken tub, old line, old drainage line, floor section, wall section, etc, to include toilet, sink, and vanity...)

With the new flooring and tile in, it looks a lot better....

 

 

While working in the bathroom, our wifi fears and suspicions were confirmed. 

The interior walls of our house are between 6-9" thick depending on which wall. With most of them also being lathe and plaster, with 3-4 inch support beams, and now it seems coated in support grid metal. 

This essentially makes each and every room in our house its own separate, individual, Faraday cage. 

And we had to get a new drain line for the kitchen and get it re-piped through the basement.

(This also includes working on the wall, which was damaged during pipe removal....)

(And the new pipe is in....)

With all the work being done, they were working on everything but the kitchen sink.

Oh wait....

(New sink to go with it...)

In order to get the new bathtub to work property we had to remove the 108 years old valve system, (Mostly copper, steel, and brass)....

Dang that thing was heavy.

Bathtub removal was courtesy of a sledge hammer.

It was the original cast iron bathtub, crafted in Sept. 1918.

As this has been going on for over a month, we are starting to see the end of the projects and going forth from there, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I'll keep you updated for when the work is all finally done.

But this brings us to our next dilemma, which is known as "The mess that is my game and painting room"...

Due to all the work (As well as the convention prep), both my painting room and game room were completely wrecked.

All of my Little Wars loot and swag that I got is still sitting up in a corner in the dining room because I simply have no place to put it downstairs due to the construction mess.

First up is the disaster known as "The Painting Room"...

(Yowza! What a mess!)

(The disaster known as "The Painting Table"...)

(The even bigger disaster known as "The side table"...)

I started working on it, by starting to clean, reorganize, and relabel Shelves #3 and #4.

So far so good.

(It looks a lot better than it was looking at the start....)

Then I decided to get an idea of the game room.

And wished I hadn't.

(An ominous warning I think...)

(EEEEEEEKKKK!!!!!)

(And double "EEEEEEKKK!!!")

So I went back and worked on the painting desk and side table, and got it more or less kind of straightened up.

(Not as bad as it was, but still could use some more work...)

(This is better also...the table that is, and not what is under it....)

I did take part of a day in Lafayette and stop by the LGS, (I won't call it a FLGS because while it was "Friendlier" than in the past, it still wasn't "Friendly".)

I picked up a couple of GW pots, (the brown flesh, and another pot of Agrax Earthshade) as well as some Vallejos and a new bottle of Zap A Gap. 

Meanwhile I stopped at the local Goodwill store and picked up a couple of plastic storage boxes for 1.99 each.

I can use these in some capacity so they will come in handy.

Figures:

My painting table still has two trays of almost completed figures on them. One tray holds a nice selection of British Marines and a civilian lady, while the other tray holds a group of scumbag pirates.

(Arrr...'Tis be a group of scumbag pirates!)

And I was able to finally get some of my figures back in the display case.

(Quite a collection of figures for the genre and age...)

And for terrain ground purposes, I was able to get a nice piece of felt for groundcloth.

Meanwhile my wonderful wife, (Gawd bless her!) was out at a friends farm, playing with mini cows and the rest of the barnyard animals.

I was also able to pick up some books while at Goodwill.

They all look interesting and "do-able"...

(Recipes so simple, even I can do them!)

(Martha Stewart would be proud....)

(And she'd even smile about this....)

And I tried out my Dracula "Robber Steak" recipe.

(From the oven to the plate...)

(Not bad, if I do say so myself....)

And I had to get to work on cleaning up the wood pile in the back yard.

(Starting to get this mess in order...)

(Finally done...and it's all gone...)

After getting the wood burned, I enjoyed the rest of the day with a nice, cold, Spotted Cow, and a Hoyo De Monterey "Excalibur" Cigar, while listening to Cleveland lose to the Cincy Reds, 3-1 on Sirius XM.

(A stick...)

(And a drink...)

I was also fortunate enough to be able to order some more Mezzo Mix. It's been out for a while, so I was overjoyed at it's availability.

And "someone" decided that I had "slept enough"....

And so the month of May is closing and I will close this out.

The next post for June will highlight my recent bookcase purchase, the clean basement gaming room, (hopefully), the rearrangement of the gaming room, and some of the things we have seen and done while on some road trips to some yard sales. 

Stayed tune for there is more to come!

Thanks for reading!