“Warfare" Showcase 2025

"Warfare is one of the largest [annual wargames show] in the country."

Having regretfully missed "Colours" a couple of months ago due to an unforgivable double-booking in my social calendar, I was thoroughly looking forward to visiting this year's annual "Warfare" wargaming show at the Farnborough International Exhibition Centre, and - apart from my SatNav inexplicably deciding to divert me off of the motorway and through central Basingstoke only to put me straight back onto the motorway I had just left (!?!) - I got to the venue with plenty of time before the event actually opened.

Indeed, the directions supplied on the Wargames Association of Reading (WAR) website were absolutely spot on, and I was quickly able to park, purchase a coffee and sit down in the warm without any stress of queuing. One thing which did irk me though was the incredibly short wrist band I was told I had to wear at all times. The damn thing barely fitted, and I noticed a few more corpulent comrades-in-arms having to have it stuck to their coats like a lengthy medal ribbon. Perhaps unsurprisingly mine soon started falling off my hand too, so eventually I just plonked it in my jacket's top pocket for safekeeping.

Some of the tempting figures and vehicles on display by "Spectre Miniatures" 

This year my plan was to most definitely have a thorough walk around before making any impulse buys, so after exchanging some pleasantries with Karl ("Crooked Dice Game Design Studio") and Leon ("Pendraken Miniatures"), I began making my way along the Main Hall. These days I always try to ensure I visit everyone by double-checking with the floorplan that you get upon entry. However, for some reason WAR weren't handing out these terribly useful pamphlets this year, so I simply kept walking around and around until I was absolutely certain I had seen everything - as well as double-checking the extremely colourful layout on their website.

One of the first traders to really catch my attention was "Spectre Miniatures", who had a couple of marvellous displays at their booth. I had been hoping that they had brought some "Lunar" blisters by "Black Site Studios" with them, as they're the U.K. stockist for the American company. But sadly they hadn't, so instead I ended up chatting to them about how many of the metal figures from their first "Kickstarter" in May 2014 were now highly sought after as the moulds had long gone - time for me to dig out my untouched sets from somewhere in the loft methinks.!!

The fantastic looking Dungeon Builder by "Crooked Dice Game Design Studio"

I also spent some time contemplating the "Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" Dungeon Builder - which frankly looked absolutely superb on their display stand. The big conundrum for me was whether to pick up some of the actual physical sets, or buy the STL (Standard Triangle Language) files from "My Mini Factory" for my 3D printer. In the end I plumbed for the second option as the ever prodigious Mister Perrotton explained he'd used both resin and PLA (Polylactic Acid) to produce the well-painted pieces before me.

Having promised myself no sudden purchases, I did wilt when it came to "The Dice Miners" who were selling an incredibly useful set of dice for "Magic The Gathering". Now admittedly, these aren't really dice you roll during the game. However, they are designed to remind players as to status changes to their Creatures attack/defence statistics when affected by an Enchantment or Instant cards, and seemed a little more eye-catching than the tiny cardboard tokens I ordinarily use.

"Tribal Conquest" by "Nervosa Games", and some MTG dice by "The Dice Miners"

One of the trends which was definitely noticeable was the number of 3D printers selling their wares across the two vendor halls. Whether it be an absolute ton of different Daleks from "Doctor Who", a plethora of prehistoric monsters or numerous armoured vehicles at all different scales, this production method is clearly fast becoming the 'in-thing' for many a wargamer. In fact, one of the hottest products I saw others carrying around were various bits of post-apocalyptic terrain for "Trench Crusade".

The biggest highlight of the show though, for me at least, was getting a quick game in of "Tribal Conquest" by "Nervosa Games" just before I departed. Now I really don't need to start learning a new skirmish game, or begin painting an entire fresh range of miniatures, so I was sort of hoping I wouldn't get too sucked into the fight. Unfortunately, that simply was not the case, as I quickly fell for the quirky mechanics employed during my fast-paced clash of Stone Age tribes, and delighted in whittling down my opponents with a flaming coconut or lightning bolt...

"Escape Area 51!"

"The popularisation of... the Grey alien is commonly associated with the Barney and Betty Hill abduction claim."

This 28mm scale model of 'The Visitor' was produced by “Spectre Miniatures” and was only available as a strictly limited edition figure for a short time on the company’s website in September 2019. Strongly influenced by the "purported extraterrestrial beings" known as Grey Aliens or Roswell Grays, the "metal cast" sculpt was promoted by the Nottingham-based manufacturer as needing the wargamer's help to both "return home", and "maybe atomise some agency staff on the way."

Having been super-glued onto a 28mm circular lipped base, the Zeta Reticulan was primed using two layers of "Vallejo" Heavy Bluegrey and shaded in "Citadel" Nuln Oil. The miniature was then dry-brushed with some (more) "Vallejo" Heavy Bluegrey, before being washed with some additional, albeit heavily watered-down, "Citadel" Nuln Oil. Finally, the figure was given a second, incredibly light dusting of "Vallejo" Heavy Bluegrey and had its large, oval eyes 'picked out' with "Citadel" Abaddon Black.

"Wizkids" WIPs - The Lab Gorilla is slowly having all its gory detail picked out

With the bulk of the Gray completed, I turned my attention to the alien's deadly death-ray. The 'official' paint-job depicts the Flash Gordon-like weapon in a sort of mottled brass, but due to its shape resembling that of an old Buster Crabbe rocket I was sorely tempted to go with a bright red. In the end, however, having realised my own palette choice had made the Visitor much darker than that advertised by "Spectre Miniatures" I went with a simple combination of "Citadel" Ironbreaker and Nuln Oil...

Recently I've unearthed a reasonably sized pot of partially-painted and re-based "Wizkids" miniatures, which I have slowly started to 'chip away' at. One such figure, initially destined to join The Riddler's gang as a significant heavy during my early 2017 "Mutants & Death Ray Guns" Gotham City campaign, was an old "Horrorclix" model of a badly-mutilated Lab Gorilla; unsurprisingly sold as part of the range's The Lab Expansion.

"Warcry" WIPs - The Ogor Breacher just needs his armour to be painted metallic red to be finished

Despite needing to be attached to a larger base than the 28mm circular stand I had initially super-glued the ape too, the killer primate's vacant eyes, bleeding incisions and exposed brain immediately struck me as making him the superb subject of a "Zomtober" 2019 entry. So following an undercoat of "Vallejo" Dark Grey, a wash of "Citadel" Nuln Oil, and subsequent dry-brush of (more) "Vallejo" Dark Grey, I am hoping to get the hairy undead beast ready for a weekend varnish.

Lastly, I am definitely on the home run to complete my Iron Golems' Ogor Breacher for "Warcry". In many ways this incredibly detailed, and resultantly incredibly frustrating to paint, "Games Workshop" Chaos warrior has proved a real painting antagonist over the past few weeks. But now the end is in sight, and the first of my three Iron Legionaries is progressing nicely I'm hoping to put all the re-paints and touch-ups behind me and get the entire warband "hailing from the Ferrium Mountains in Chamon" ready for the tabletop...

“They Call Him Baba Yaga.”

"It's personal."

This 28mm scale resin model of Baba Yaga was produced by “Spectre Miniatures” and was only available as a special limited edition figure for a short time on the company’s website following “Salute” 2019. Obviously influenced by Chad Stahelski’s 2014 American neo-noir action thriller film “John Wick”, the sculpt bares an uncannily strong resemblance to leading actor Keane Reeves.

The “retired but deadly hitman seeking vengeance” was initially cleaned of all his disconcertingly visible mould lines and ‘flash’ prior to being undercoated using two layers of "Citadel" Abaddon Black. The paid killer was then roughly dry-brushed with "Vallejo" Heavy Charcoal before being almost drowned in "Citadel" Nuln Oil.

Slaughterpriest WIPs - The Khorne warrior is slowing having all of his detail 'picked out'

Hoping to provide at least a little contrast to the all-black attired anti-hero, I subsequently ‘picked out’ Yaga’s shoes, hair, firearms and shoulder-strap with pure “Citadel” Abaddon Black, and unsurprisingly applied a coat of “Vallejo” Heavy Skintone to his face and hands. These areas of flesh were later washed using a little “Citadel” Reikland Fleshshade, before being ‘lightened’ with a tad more “Vallejo” Heavy Skintone. Finally, some watered-down “Citadel” Abaddon Black was applied to Baba’s cheeks to (hopefully) provide the impression of his beard.

In addition to finishing my first ever figure from “Spectre Miniatures”, I have been slowly progressing the Slaughterpriest with Hackblade and Wrath-hammer I recently assembled in order to allow my “Age Of Sigmar” Chaos Army to utilise the Judgements of Khorne. This “Games Workshop” plastic model is absolutely packed full of detail, and resultantly has proved somewhat tough-going in comparison to my warhost’s more daemonic units.

Space Marine Statue WIPs - The Eighties plastic model has been re-based, primed and layered

In particular, the demagogue of Khorne’s wrathful will has a myriad of leg straps all hidden beneath his loincloth which have taken an age to carefully ‘pick-out’, shade and then paint around. To make matters worse though, I was rather keen on colouring the cloth protecting the dark prophet’s bare legs from their armour-plating in red rather than simple black, so have had to repeatedly return to these areas to ensure enough of the pigmentation is showing through to distinguish it from the hulking priest’s black boots and shorts.

Finally, I have ‘dug out’ one of the original plastic Adeptus Astartes I assembled from the Eighties Imperial Space Marine boxed set. Armed with a missile launcher, and unhappily thickly undercoated in black, I thought the model might enjoy a new lease of life on my tabletop as a bronze statue…

(Lead) Mountain Musings - "World Eaters" May 2019

World Eaters WIPs - The Chaos Space Marines have been assembled and primed

A sudden, all-consuming urge in recent weeks to play the latest edition of “Warhammer 40K” by “Games Workshop” has lead to this month’s themed attempt to chip away away at my ‘lead mountain’ firmly focusing upon several miniatures set in “the distant future, where a stagnant human civilization is beset by hostile aliens and malevolent supernatural creatures.” In fact, I rather fear my devotion to the Chaos Gods of the Forty-First Millennium has actually caused me to somewhat significantly add to the tower of hard-plastic moulded sprues safely stored away in a corner of my hobby room, rather than reduce its formidable height.

Of course, the beauty of building a daemonic fighting faction based upon the Blood God is that the vast majority of its figures will also be entirely eligible for my “Age Of Sigmar” Blades of Khorne warband, so I haven’t been shy in both buying and building another load of Bloodletters armed with Hellblades. In my experience, these Slaughter-kin are easily a match for even Primaris space marines when able to engage their enemy in close combat and utilise their hand-weapon’s -3 Armour Piercing. Whilst the Crimson Death's 5+ Invulnerability Save seemingly finds favour with the dice gods time and time again…

Bloodreaper WIPs - The daemon leader has been primed, washed and dry-brushed

However, my Chaos force currently badly struggles during the "Warhammer 40K" Shooting Phase, due to none of my current infantry units carrying any sort of firearm whatsoever. Resultantly, I have decided to field a small five-figure unit of Primarch Angron’s finest Heretic Astartes, all armed with either Boltguns or a Plasma Pistol, and assembled from an old, long out-of-production, Chaos Space Marine starter set which I recently uncovered during a big clear-out.

Quite delightfully, I have discovered that this box also contains a 'conversion' sprue with which to personalise my gun-totting World Eaters into a truly recognisable Khorne-devoted force, complete with Chaos standard and all manner of extra blood-drenched iconography. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I have subsequently found myself compelled to purchase a box of the Legion's famed Khorne Bezerkers as well, so plan on predominantly pigmenting my 'ordinary' Chaos Space Marines in black and gold, so as to allow the all-red chainsword-wielding maniacs to really stand out on my tabletop.

Baba Yaga WIP - The resin figure has been cleaned with a modelling knife, primed and dry-brushed

With at least one of my options to provide my 41st-Century warriors with some firepower sorted, another potentially being a plan to include an old Khorne-covered Rhino model which I found alongside my Heretic Astartes, I have also decided to split my current Bloodletter figures in half so my army's centre consists of two daemonic units. This means I need to have another Bloodreaper with which to lead my second warband, so I have been busy assembling and priming just such a mini from the "Start Collecting! Daemons of Khorne" set.

Momentarily stepping completely away from "Games Workshop" though, I also plan to paint one of several "Spectre Miniatures" I recently acquired in order to 'game' some "John Wick" influenced skirmishes. I actually missed the Nottingham-based company's special resin sculpt of Baba Yaga at "Salute" 2019, but was lucky enough to 'bag one' from their website before the figure went out of production...

"Bloodletters Brandish Their Brazen Hellblades..."

"...And howl maddened battle cries as they lope into battle."

This 28mm Bloodletter is one of the plastic multi-part models which can be assembled from the sprues found within the “Games Workshop” Bloodletters of Khorne boxed set. Part of my ever-increasing Befouling Host of Nurgle, Part of my ever-growing Host of Nurgle, this allied chaos unit champion is known as a Bloodhunter, and as a result “makes two attacks rather than one” with its Hellblade during a turn of “Age Of Sigmar”.

Having assembled the model as per the boxed kit’s instructions, the model was initially given an undercoat of “Vallejo” Heavy Red before being copiously washed with "The Army painter" Strong Tone Quickshade. The “Chosen of Khorne” was then dry-brushed with more “Vallejo” Heavy Red and had details such as its horn, hands, hooves, back spines and sword hilt base-coated with “Citadel” Abaddon Black. As the leader was ‘blessed’ by the Blood God, its enormous horns were painted with “Vallejo” Heavy Warmgrey and washed with “Citadel” Carroburg Crimson.

Temple Dog Statue WIPs - These resin models have been primed, layered, washed and dry-brushed

Once these curved formidable-looking outgrowths were finished, I used some more "Citadel" Abaddon Black to gently blend the daemon's dark hands and trotters in with the Slaughter-kin's red limbs. In addition the Bloodhunter's Hellblade was undercoated with "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna before being treated to at least two coats of Gold. The great two-handed weapon, which can "cut effortlessly though any armour crafted by mortals", was then washed with "The Army painter" Strong Tone Quickshade and subsequently dry-brushed with more "Vallejo" Gold.

Lastly I picked out the Warmonger of Khorne's "sharp, needle-like teeth" with White and its "serpentine tongue" with Heavy Ochre. The lesser daemon's "slavering jaws" were then washed with "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade and it's tongue with Reikland Fleshshade.

Criminal Element WIPs - These clown-masked goons have simply been based and undercoated

Having long been an admirer of "Bushido" by "GCT Studios", I have recently acquired a couple of impressively large Temple Dog Statues produced by "Wargames Terrain Workshop". I am not admittedly intending to actually play the "oriental fantasy tabletop miniature battle game". But have acquired enough models to want to 'deck out' a suitably atmospheric oriental themed board with which to play some games of "7TV" upon. These two resin statues will be the start of just such a mini-project...

I have also found the time to base and prime three more of  the new Criminal Element models recently released by "Spectre Miniatures". These novelty mask, boiler-suit wearing minions come armed with an assortment of automatic weapons, as well as a shotgun, and are potentially carrying "grenades, thermite, breaching tools, [or even] money" within their large holdall bags.

"In Some Mythologies, The Grim Reaper Causes The Victim's Death By Coming To Collect Him."

"People in some stories try to hold on to life by avoiding Death's visit."

This terrifyingly chilling 28mm scale resin statue of the Grim Reaper is made by "Wargames Terrain Workshop" and can be purchased from their Graveyard Scenery range. The model is an impressive 98mm tall and has been based on one of the thin-lipped 40mm circular bases I use as stands for my scenery/objective markers.

The figure was initially undercoated with an old pot of "Citadel" Adeptus Battlegrey and washed with Nuln Oil. It was then dry-brushed with more Adeptus Battlegrey and given a final highlight of "Vallejo" Heavy Bluegrey. With the actual stone statue finished I painted the Grim Reaper's famous great scythe with a combination of "Vallejo" Brass and "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade. The over-sized farming tool was then dry-brushed with "Vallejo" Brass before its blade was partially washed with "Citadel" Nihilakh Oxide. These areas were subsequently, once again, dry-brushed with "Vallejo" Brass.

Apprentice WIPs - The amateur Wizard is slowly being painted from his grey leggings upwards

Despite my Mo'Vember challenge only really having just started I am already making some good progress on the third of my four submissions; a “Frostgrave” Apprentice (Enchanter) by “North Star Military Figures”. Slightly less-detailed than his wizardly master, this understudy's sculpt still packs plenty of craftsman's tools around his waist with which to test the impatient painter.

Fortunately, as with the Transmuter's model, I have decided to simply ‘pick out’ each of the amateur Imbuer's items one at a time as I work my way up the miniature. In addition I have decided to veer somewhat away from the Apprentice's colour scheme as illustrated within the "Frostgrave" rule-book, and replace his light brown garb with light grey so as to better mimic the clothing of his mentor.

Criminal Element WIPs - These clown-masked goons have simply been based and primed

Finally I have given in to temptation and purchased a handful of the new Criminal Element models from "Spectre Miniatures" "comprehensive range of extremely accurate modern 28mm miniatures and vehicles." These clown-faced heavily-armed thugs immediately struck me as being highly reminiscent of the not so jolly bank robbers depicted at the start of the 2008 super-hero movie "The Dark Knight", with the sculpt for Criminal Element Commando - Bravo making a suitable proxy for a 'realistic' Clown Prince of Crime.

As a result I plan to paint up a few of the rubber-headed goons, along with some appropriate 'Gotham-like' law enforcement specialists, and start using my "Battle Systems" Urban Apocalypse Terrain for some shoot-out shenanigans; potentially using either the recently updated "Kill Team" rules by "Games Workshop" or "7TV"...