This Old Bunker

I had built these bunkers about 15 years ago when I was tootling around with a Second Anglo-Boer War project. They were made from air drying clay over a card board shell.

The Canadian Mounted Rifles chasing Boer bitterenders across the veldt project faltered on not finding a decent proxy for the CMR. So the bunkers sat in their tan paint. And later research revealed to me that Boer War bunkers were different anyway. Oh well, never mind.

I used the big one as a Afghan National Army/Police sangar a few times in my 20mm Canadians in Afghanistan project. I had vague thoughts of turning them into components for a Patrol Base. It turns out bunkers in Afghanistan were very different as well. Oh well, never mind.  Making all those HESCO bastions was intimidating and I shelved the idea.

QRF rolls out past an ANA checkpoint to rescue a LAV patrol hit by an IED.

Then I thought they'd look really good if I gave them a bit of a reno and incorporated them into my Quar trenches.

The small bunker originally had a flat roof painted to look like rusting tin, but I added coffee stirrer planks as a floor and built a parapet out of some extra plastic and greenstuff sandbags I had accumulated. I always try to shape any leftover greenstuff into sandbags instead of throwing it out. I had to get out the Miliput and make more to finish it off but that's ok. Ladders were made from match sticks to allow access to the roofs.

Then it was just a matter of spending a Friday night on Zoom with some friends and painting them. I used Games Workshop Dark Angels Green Contrast paint to go over all the sandbags (which had already been painted burnt umber then drybrushed tan), and then dry brushing with craft paint Antique Green. Any wood was painted burnt umber brown, then dry brushed grey, then hit with a sepia ink wash. I used the ink on any tan crevices among the sand bags that the previous four coats of paint missed. The ground, originally sand, was painted and flocked.

Small bunker

Interior view showing cardboard shell with skin of air drying clay overtop. Rhyfler Puwl demonstrates proper use of a firing slit.

Side view

Rear view

Big bunker

Interior view. An M2b HMG just reaches the firing slit!

Side view

Rear view. Wall of sandbags to protect the entrance on this one.

Action shots! 31 Combat Engineer Regiment assaults a heavily fortified Royalist defensive line.

About to put a grenade through a firing slit

Have a satchel charge!

Through the wire!

Midgard in Mantovia

Played a 400+ point game of Midgard last night with Scott, Brett, Dan, and Pat.

I got out my 11th-12th century Medieval stuff and was able to build armies over 400 pts and still leave troops in the box! So I guess I don't need to buy any Victrix Norman cavalry or infantry. Which is good to know. I think as is, I can build armies up to 500 points easily.

Fulk the Bastard has once again raised the banner of rebellion to overthrow his father, Count Raymond the Good in my Medieval Imagine-Nation of Mantovia.

I was so absorbed with playing and guiding my friends through the rules that I didn't get many photos.

But here are some:

The centers clash. Cound Raymond's ward crashes into the Black Company

View from my ward. My crossbows are having trouble finding targets.

The Red knight smashes the Saracens mercenaries lead by Khalid al-Babar in his sedan chair.

End game. My ward has been bashed about. Losing it's commander in a duel with the perfidious Black Knight. Count Raymond having lost all of his troops is coming over to take command, but the enemy center is in not bad shape either.

The game ended with both sides into negative Reputation Points, but Count Raymond was at -2 whereas Fulk only had -1. Very bloody! Count Raymond is wounded and will have to retreat and regroup. Fulk will need to regroup as well before he can lay siege to any castles.

I like that with Midgard I can incorporate my head fluff for the different characters.

I need to buy a big bag of glass beads for Reputation Tokens. They're easier to pull from the Tea Mugs of Reputation than plastic bingo chips.

Hotlead 2025 AAR

Another Hotlead is in the books. 2025 was a fantastic year. Almost 400 people attended. Real life got in the way for some game masters and we had a flurry of 5 unfortunate game cancelations in the week leading up to the show (i.e. after the program was printed), but we still had a DBA and an ADLG tournament, 10 role-playing games, and 77 participation miniatures games ranging from cavemen to space marines, big battles to skirmishes, on air, land, and sea, and ranging from 2mm to 54mm in size. 

The Bring and Buy did over $22,000 in business, generating over $2,200 for charity, plus we also had a jar at the admission table that garnered another $400 for this year's charity, which is buying medical supplies for Ukraine in memory of Dan Cushenan, an old, dear friend of half the B&B Team.

Dan Cushenan in happier times, enjoying the heck out of Dan Hutter's annual Mongols With Mausers pulp action game.

The Bring & Buy Team

The last of our legacy vendors has gone, but that's left room for new businesses to fill the void, including these new faces:

Centuries Historical Miniatures 

Beaver and Broadsword 

We even had a craftsperson selling fiber art. Atticus and Clark Creations sold a lot of aime and fantastical crochet figures. My granddaughter liked her crochet corn dog.

Here's a random sampling of games. I've probably forgotten to include many. I wasn't as good about taking pictures myself this year, so I'm using ones posted on the Hotlead Facebook Group.

Friday night!

Gladiator Game

Ancient Gallies

War of 1812 using Black Sail rules.

WW1 Dreadnoughts

More ships! But this time as the setting for a game of Silver Bayonet set in the arctic, which was popular and ran three times. The ships were printed by Beaver and Broadsword. 

Some Epic ACW

Who you gonna call? The Ghostbusters resolve some Mayhem in Manhattan.

15mm Samurai

Frostgrave

Necromunda

Memoir '44 Battle of Stalingrad. GM ran a 3 game mini-campaign with each game's results affecting the one that came after.

Canvas Eagles. We had several air games this year. WW1, WW2, and a couple of jet age games too.

Battle of Britain

Harriers vs Mirages over the Falkland Islands

RCAF P40s vs Japanese seaplane fighters over the Aleutians

Brian gives a player briefing

I'm explaining something to do with Quar

WW1 with multiple trench lines

Dan runs a French Indochina game using Xenos Rampant.

Big Dave a Pete ran a Pulp Adventure game using When Nightmares Come. Players had to survive three encounters, find clues, solve puzzles and then stop the Big Bad in the final encounter

View form the other end. The three encounters were in Venice, the British Museum, and Peterborough Ontario (!)

The final showdown

British Museum

Venice

Dan's Congo Rebellion game

March or Die! Foreign Legion vs Berbers (or are they Tuaregs?)

15mm Italian Wars

The Death Ride of the 1st Hussars at Le Mesnil Patry, 11 June 1944

6mm figures. Rules used were O Group

Battle of Vittoria

The Seven Year's War in India

The sprawling, mad VSF Bring and Battle which is an incredibly popular Sunday morning tradition.

There were more families in evidence this year, which was very gratifying. A new born was wearing a "My First Hotlead 2025" shirt which tickled us all immensely. The new dad has been coming for 10 years, starting as a lad being brought by his uncle. 

My daughter helping mom on the Front Desk, like she did in High School. 

My daughter helping my grandson in his first convention. They're playing Combat Tails, involving anthropomorphic animals with guns.

Grandson's haul. Mom recognized the deal on the houses (all 3 for Cdn$15). He got some nice on sale Model  Builder Supply trees too.

Granddaughter flexing her cuteness to sell 3 cases of Girl Guide cookies on Saturday. She could've sold more. Her mom and auntie did the same thing 25 years ago. An attendee gifted us the donuts. Don is trying to keep out of them.

A friend gifted me a toy Tiger tank, thinking I could convert it into a Quar tractor. I said "hmmm... probably not... but I've got a grandson!" He also went home with some 1/72 WW2 plastic figures and a toy Sherman. His mom, having grown up with her dad's wargaming, has set him up with some basic paints etc. 

Now I've got more gift options beyond Lego at least. And perhaps my friends won't have the burden of trying to shift my gaming stuff when I die if the grandkids will be interested. 

Next year will be our 30th convention. 20 March to 22 March 2026.