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.

August update....Gaming, Rules, Gardening, and Food!

 The days of July have rolled past us and we are now into August, and life here as Murph-haus, seems to have taken on it's own pace of things getting done, (or not done). Outside is too hot and humid right now and as a result yard work is terribly overdue. So kicking in right now is my August update.

RULES!

Starting off...

Somewhere around the year 2014-2015, Dashing Dice Games put out a rules book called "Witchfinder General". It had always been on the top of my list to get, but as usual, that list kept getting changed.

And slowly but surely my "want" fell off the page and production ceased.

Recently however I was able to procure a copy of it.

(Vincent Price would be so proud...)

The rules do look interesting but I have not yet had a chance to really get into them. Here's hoping I can find some time in the next couple of weeks.

GARDENING!!!

Those of you that actually read this silly blog of mine will remember that back in May I had decided to try my hand at gardening my planting some herbs in window boxes. Earlier this week, I decided that it was ready to cut my chives. So out in the cool of the evening I went, and brought back in two big bushels of chives.

After washing and separating them, we cut them and have used some for a lot of potato dishes. The spearmint and lemon balm sprigs and leaves I got also have been used for teas.

(Chives goodness. All of this from two small plants that I planted in May.)

And then such strangeness...we found CORN!

Yes...CORN!

Corn growing in our front yard.

Proof that we live in Indiana...

(Two small ears of corn on our solitary corn plant...right in our front yard...)

And our spearmint plant was blooming...

We also finally got scheduled to have our accursed ginkgo tree removed. That will be happening towards the end of October.

PROJECTS!

The gaming front has been active and very helter skelter for a bit. If you read last months entries you will remember me finally getting my Reaper Bones V KS, and then the mysterious package of figures I ordered from Miniatures Market showing up, (to my surprise).  So in addition to  separating and inventorying these, I got back to painting and working on building figures. But first, I had to get all the Reaper Box Stuff out of the way, so onto the shelves they went.

(The Bones IV and V KS boxes, minus the Baba Yaga Hut, The Large Cobra, and the Massive "Sophies Revenge" ship. The bags of figures will go into the drawers.

(And the bag of figures to be inventoried and stored...)

So the first thing I got to working on was a "Big Old Nasty Creature" from Reaper. This is the "Droopy Dragon", as he is nicknamed. 

He is actually known as "Gauth", and here is what he looks like assembled...

(Yeah...he's a big 'un...)

However at the current moment, here is how he is looking on my project table...

(He don't look so tough now does he?...)

I've read mixed reviews about this figure. The biggest issue is the weight displacement, tends to make the wings droop and the body droop forward until it's practically nose to the ground. There's a wide variety of fixes to this, (mostly including pinning the tail and connecting the wings with fishing line), and I think this is going to be a bit of a project.

I've also gotten back to painting up figures. In this case, I have finished up four Foundry Pirate Figures, from their "Treasure Island" range. 

(Four sea going adventurers, ready for....well...."adventure"...)

("Watch yerselves lads. There's trouble on these docks...")

And I started on some more pirates...

(Pirate and Bandit figures from Wizkids, while the one holding the chest is from Reaper. While they (the Wizkids figures) are nice, the softer plastic is more bendy, and despite the fact that they are "primed" and you can paint them out of the box, I found that you really, REALLY, need to wash them first.)

(And the beginning work on a Siamese cat...)

GAMING!

We got back into the swing of D&D and the party continued exploring the old haunted ruins of Saltmarsh. They cleared out the first floor and finished the second floor, meeting a poor old guy that got knocked out and tied up, and then fighting a nest of stirges in the attic above. Their next sessions sends them exploring "down below".

We had a grand time with snacks, drinks, gaming, and good friends. 

(The party reviews what they've done so far and coordinates their future moves, so that no one screams "Leeeeeeeeroy Jenkins!" and charges into a fray...)

( Notes and plan journals are updated...while people discuss their next course of action...)

(Adventure for the players, and a nice serving of ice cold watermelon for the DM...)

FOOD!

After the game ended, three of us wandered uptown for dinner. There at a locals place called Arni's I chowed down on a nice Texas Bacon BBQ Burger and fries.... mmmmm.....

(Tasty!)...

And then after dinner a nice few moments outside enjoying the courthouse, and the evening air...

Later on the following week, my wife and I tried out a Mexican place on the edge of town. It was "authentic Mexican" and not the standard "Tex Mex" stuff. 

That my friends was good eating!

And our town opened a new "Mexican style ice cream shop" and we checked it out!

(My wife got a double dip waffle cone of their mango...it's delicious...)

(While yours truly got a double dip of strawberry and Ferrarro Hazelnut Chocolate, (just like the little gold foiled candies), in a waffle cone bowl... Excellente!!!

So that is it for the month of August pretty much. Our Sept 11th game was cancelled at the last minute but the next one is for Sept. 25 and we are looking at doing a Lasagna and a Chicken Alfredo dinner.

More to come!

Thanks for reading!

A way overdue summer update.....

Well dear reader, it's been a bit of while for me to give you a good and proper update, and to be honest, I cannot believe that it's July already!

Work has kept me busy, but at the same time I have had a chance to do some exploring of some out of the way game stores, and I found one which is unreal, (more in detail about it on another post)....

However, this last recent two weeks found me back at Columbus and some money spent at "The Soldiery".

At first I was quite perplexed because as I walked into the store, three fanboys were walking out. There were five employees there, and the store was "CLEAN!!!". It didn't have that "trashed game store look" that so many of them seem to have. Indeed they were actually reorganizing. I wasn't sure if this was a game store or not, until I realized that there were five employees there, and one customer, (me), and none of them asked if they could help me...

Yeps...it's a game store alright.

But while there I did pick up some packs of Reapers "Bones"....

Hmmmm....can't have creepy places without creepy candelabras.....

And what's a creepy place without a creepy "Altar of Evil"....

And I can NEVER have enough nuns....

Decided to pick up on these while there also....

I had heard good things about the "Chaos in Cairo/Carpathia" rules. So when I saw them there, I decided to check them out. I will let you know what I think.

So I get back and lo and behold, a package is waiting for me!!!

It's a "deal" I got from TMP!

Opening it up and packs and packs of 19th Century Colonial Goodness!

And to top it off, my wonderful wife, (Gawd bless her!), kept me nice and fed during my painting sessions...

Speaking of painting...I finally got some WIP and (since I started this entry about two weeks ago or so), I have actually finished and sealed approx 50 more.....

Here's a few as a teaser....

"Cpl. Benny" of the Askaris, ready to take charge of yet another African "expedition"....

Ol' Jebediah Gitt wants you TO GET OFF HIS LAWN!!!

WIP: "Victor (Big Vic) Pannino says to you..."So's I got's two ticket's to da gun show dis Friday. I wuz t'inkin' maybe youz and me's could go out you knows like on a date or some'tin'.....We could get some linguine at Luigi's place on seventy 'toid street after hittin' da show. Whattaya say?".....I'd be by earlier but I gotta go and break some fingers on Lenny Mallensky's right hand for bein' behind in payments...you know how dese 'tings go...

WIP: "Tex McGraw will happily sing and yodel to you as he plugs you full of lead from his '73 Winchester, in case you are stupid enough to make fun of his 10 gallon hat....."

More to come and already an update!!!