On Saturday, July 11th, 2026, the Tour of the Brookfields held the 308 Lakeside Open at Quail Hollow Golf & Country Club in Oakham, MA. We were blessed with perfect golf weather!
We had 84 players on 21 teams that were competing in our regular three divisions. Play was VERY competitive. While we had no playoffs, no division was won by more than one stroke!
Let’s get to the results!
2026 308 Lakeside Open Results
Nicklaus Division
In the Nicklaus Division, the team of Ken Jurczyk, Ken Burnham, Denis Miner, and Bob Weighill won with an outstanding score of 11-under par! This tied another team as the lowest score in the tournament across all three of the divisions. At just 1 stroke back, in second place at 10-under par was the team of Jack Dorman, Rich Johnson, Johnny Wheeler, and Barbara Orszulak.
Player Division
In the Player Division, the team of Todd Allen, Bill Babineau, Matt McLeod, and Tina Burke shot another great score of 11-under par to win. This also tied the best score of the tournament. Coming in second place, was the team of Tom Orszulak, Jon Foley, Jim McKeon, and Jay Gregory. They shot 10-under par, falling just one stroke back of Team Allen.
Palmer Division
In the Palmer Division, the team of Ken Dorman, Lisa Kularski, Jerry Parker, and Chris Waugh led with an excellent score of 8-under par. This was also a one-stroke victory, edging out the team of Donnie Casey, Rich Ferguson, David Burke, and Lisa Persson.
Skins and Closest to the Pin on the 17th Hole
There was the usual skins contest within each division. There were 10 total skins awarded: five in both the Player and Palmer Divisions. In the Nicklaus Division, no skins were awarded and by rule a single team was drawn at random to win the divisional pool. The winners are as shown on the consolidated list below.
Bonny McDonald was the winner of the closest to the pin contest at 12′ 7″.
Congratulations again to the winners and thanks to all the players!
The Next Tournament and Some Notes
Special thanks once again to 308 Lakeside Restaurant for their very appreciated sponsorship of this event.
Also, as always, a special thank you to Carl Fitz, Colleen Fitz, Matt Paakkonen, and all the staff at Quail Hollow who work so hard to make the Tour of the Brookfields possible.
THE NEXT EVENT IS AUGUST 1st. SIGN UP BY JULY 26TH!
The next tournament, our 5th regular tournament of 2026, is on Saturday, August 1st at Quail Hollow.
It will be the Hardwick Crossing Open – another very-highly attended event. The signups for this event will close on Sunday, July 26th.
Sign ups will be coming down on July 26th or when we are full, which ever comes FIRST!
That usually happens VERY QUICKLY and we expect the event to fill up!
First, thanks everyone for being timely in arriving. It helps us to get going much faster, please keep that going!
Second, if you want to sign up, PLEASE use one of the three sign up opportunities (Still Harts, at Quail Hollow, or on the event section of the Tour of the Brookfields Facebook page).
Lastly, please at the end of the tournament when scoring is being done and results tabulated – please give the committee some space at the scoring table and at the score sheets. It takes time and effort to get it right – scoring results, skins, etc. We are collecting cards, and trying to double-check everything from scores to skins to closest-to-the-pin results. We know you want to know the results too – just please give us some space. Thanks in advance for understanding. We want to get you the results correctly and as quick as we can.
Texts do sometimes get lost or buried…so please use the lists!
If you sign up and have to drop, please try to let us know by the Tuesday before the event. After we make teams when someone drops and that person could have let us know before we picked teams – well, that is a completely avoidable pain for the committee. I do try to post a list on Facebook of who has signed up right before we take the signups down. That way, folks can be reminded and helps to verify the list. PLEASE sign up early!
Remember, to qualify for the FINALS you need to play in at least three of the 6 regular season events. Just 2 events are left to play in before the FINALS – so plan accordingly!
Both of the two remaining events before the FINALS are in August, August 1st and August 29th.
Lastly, I managed to take a few photos:
A Few Photos:
Thanks again to all the players and we will see you soon.
REMEMBER – all updates on the results of our events can be found here on this blog throughout the year leading up to the FINALS!
Once again, thanks all and see you soon!
If you have a favorite memory of the tournament, feel free to share it in the comments section. Feedback is always welcome.
Greetings wargamers and hobbyists! Yes, I do actually have a post for you that is not golf-related! It’s been a while as my last hobby post was back in March, and now its mid-June. Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa…but I do love golf so…and its summer…
In any case, back in April, I did actually paint up several regiments of Professor Nitpik’s Tin Men. I made these to use at the MHWA HUZZAH! convention in May up in South Portland, Maine. My total production was 80 figures in 5 regiments. As you might expect, painting up that quantity in a month took a lot of time – and that left blogging in the lurch.
I’ll be sharing each regiment below in turn, plus some shots of the HUZZAH! games that I ran in May. Of course, I’ll also share details of the paints, flocking, etc. that I used on the figures.
All of the Tin Men figures come from the Wars of Ozz website. All are 28mm in scale, and metal. The bases that I used are 2″ square for size reference. Five bases make up a regiment. Most of the Nitpik regiments come in sets of 20 figures. However, I only base two figures per base – so one SKU is good for two regiments of either the ones armed with axes or the ones wielding plasma blasters.
The exception would be the mini-swarm, which has 40 tiny robot/tinmen figures. Those I based 8 figures to a base.
So on to the Tin Men! The first up I’ll share is a regiment type that I previously completed in a red/gold theme and posted here. I finished that one in April 2025, and did not assign it a name other than “001”. I had another one to paint up in a different color. It is the 40-figure “OZZ-542, Mechanical Mini Swarm with pulse blasters”. I went with a blue and chrome look to differentiate the regiment from 001. I also gave this one a name instead of a number as Buck Surdu had been kind enough to provide me with personalized regimental battle flags to match my names. I also made the flagstaff’s top with a screw instead of a nut. He did that for all of these. The name I chose was “The Indigo Ironmongers”.
The Indigo Ironmongers
First, some WIP photos:
My flagstaff I made/sculpted.An easy dark blue prime followed by pearlized blue paint.Adding the chrome and gunmetal paints to the limbs and “faces”.WIP close up. These are the larger robots.These are the smaller ones. Very tiny.Command stand WIP.Based!
Here are some eye candy shots of the Indigo Ironmongers from a few differnt angles:
Next up are the two regiments of mechanical axemen. These are OZZ-511, “Professor Nitpik’s Mechanical Axe Army with Command“. I already had three previously painted axemen regiments that you can see here and here. The first of these is:
The Canary Clockmen
I just have 1 WIP shot below. Again, I went with pearlized paints, with an oily wash (seals must be bad!).
WIP shot.
Now some Canary Clockmen poses:
The other regiment is an orange-themed melee unit, also armed with axes.
Task Force Orange
Also just one WIP shot for these guys.
WIP – still used a pearlized look with a sooty/oily sheen.
And some group shots:
The other two regiments are armed with “plasma blasters”. They are OZZ-539, “Mechanical Men with Napalm Blasters”. The first one is magenta-themed:
The Tinseltown Terrors
WIP Shot.
And some poses:
The last regiment I painted up was also a plasma blaster regiment. This time lime green-themed:
The Viridian Veterans
WIP shot.
And some poses:
These 5 regiments were used in two of my Wars of Ozz games at HUZZAH. I also ran a retro sci-fi game using Combat Patrol rules and a What a Tanker game. Here are some game shots:
My first Ozz game was another iteration of “The Great Munchkin Heist“.
For the first time, the Munchkin players had really bad luck while the Nitpik/Mechanical Men side was very lucky. The coup de grace was the arrival of the Nitpik cavalry in relief – which arrived at the worst place for the Munchkins – in their rear. The cavalry got the initiative and quickly routed two Munchkin regiments and then an artillery battery, ending any Munchkin hopes. It was a major victory for the defending Tin Men.
Here are some game shots:
Brad waiting to play!The finishing blow – Nitpik cavalry in your forces’ rears is never a good day.
Check out the links above if you missed these older posts!
The Warbots barely did enough damage to win the battle, though not without casualties. Here are some game shots:
Liam moves up his tank and Warbots.Bruce and Brad are happy gamers.
My second Ozz game simulated a revolt of the Harvest veggie folks against an intrusive walled Munchkin outpost. The theme of the 2026 HUZZAH! convention was “Revolution”. Harvest enlisted the help of Nitpik (apparently still aggrieved against the wee folk’s attempted robberies). The Nitpik and Harvest players successfully breached the Munchkin defenses and threw them out, though at a cost. Here are some game shots:
The players make their plans.Eric ponders his defenses.The Nitpik players prep for attack.Harvest players are ready too.The Savage Apple Tree regiment storms the walls while Munchkin Sharpshooters defend.Munchkin musketry trims the trees.Task Force Orange routs a defending Munchkin battery and breaches the walls as well.Carrot Creatures go face-to-face with another Munchkin battery.
After the Veggie revolt game, I also ran another edition of my What a Tanker scenario for Operation Torch. I did not get any pictures, but one of my players, Arofan, did, and wrote a nice AAR that you can see on the Monadnock Historical Wargaming page https://www.facebook.com/groups/405278298850709. Scroll down to May 17th, 2026.
Thanks again to all at MHWA for yet another great convention!!
That’s it for now – and lastly here are the paints listings and Ozz information.
Final Notes and Informational Links
Want to learn more about Ozz and its world? If you want to check out the excellent Wars of Ozz figures’ range, there are two places to get them. You can also get the rules there. (I make no money from this.) The game rules and the figures are available from the next two places:
On Saturday, June 13th, 2026, the 2026 Tour of the Brookfields held the Toomey-Lovett Classic at Quail Hollow Golf & Country Club in Oakham, MA. The weather was spectacular for golf and the course looked and played great.
Our longtime sponsor was Jim Lovett, who has supported the Tour of the Brookfields for many years – and we are very lucky to have had him suppporting us! This event was our biggest yet in 2026 – we had 95 players on 24 teams that were competing in three divisions. Unfortunately we did have one player no-show, but that team went on to compete well as a threesome. Kudos to their sportsmanship – John Markey, Brian Leveille, and Dennis Miner! As you’ll see, they came in a close third in their division.
So, let’s get to the results!
2026 Toomey-Lovett Classic Results
The three divisions were extremely competitive yet again. Two of the three divisions were decided by two strokes, and one by just one stroke. There were no playoffs.
Nicklaus Division
In the Nicklaus Division, the sponsor team of Ken Jurczyk, Gary Donlin, Jim Lovett, and Lynn Morin won with the best score of any team in the tournament. They shot an exceptional 12-under par! Two strokes back , in second place, were two teams at 10-under par:
Scott Fairbanks, Nelson Malin, Jay Gregory, and Chris Waugh
Matt Paakkonen, Bill Babineau, Ken Burnham, and Tina Burke
Player Division
In the Player Division, the team of Jim Kularski, Rich Johnson, Matt McLeod, and Patty Kularski delivered a great score of 9-under par to seize victory. In second place, the team of Mike Ellis, Bob DeMaio, David Burke, and Steve Saunders took second place with 7-under par.
Palmer Division
Finally, in the Palmer Division, the team of Amanda Pierce, Jake Malin, Johnny Wheeler, and Doug Brown came out on top with an excellent score of 10-under par. Close but just 1 stroke behind them was the team of Brian Lacroix, Beth McCann, Doug Judd, and Jim Parker.
Skins and Closest to the Pin on the 17th Hole
As usual, we also ran a skins contest within each division. There were 13 total skins awarded: four in the Nicklaus Division, five in the Player Division, and a four in the Palmer Division. The winners are as shown on the consolidated list below.
Jamie McShera was the winner of the closest to the pin contest at 9′ 6″.
Big Congrats again to the winners and thanks to all the players!
The Next Tournament and Some Notes
Special thanks once again to Jim Lovett for his longtime and dedicated sponsorship of this event.
Also, as always, a special thank you to Carl Fitz, Colleen Fitz, Matt Paakkonen, and all the staff at Quail Hollow who work so hard to make the Tour of the Brookfields possible.
THE NEXT EVENT IS JULY 11th. SIGN UP BY JULY 5TH!
The next tournament is on Saturday, July 11th at Quail Hollow. It will be the 308 Lakeside Open – another very-highly attended event at Quail Hollow. The signups for this event will close on Sunday, July 5th.
Sign ups will be coming down on July 5th or when we are full, which ever comes FIRST!
That usually happens VERY QUICKLY and we expect the event to fill up!
First, thanks everyone for being timely in arriving. It helps us to get going much faster, please keep that going!
Second, if you want to sign up, PLEASE use one of the three sign up opportunities (Still Harts, at Quail Hollow, or on the event section of the Tour of the Brookfields Facebook page).
Texts do sometimes get lost or buried…so please use the lists!
If you sign up and have to drop, please try to let us know by the Tuesday before the event. After we make teams when someone drops and that person could have let us know before we picked teams – well, that is a completely avoidable pain for the committee. I do try to post a list on Facebook of who has signed up right before we take the signups down. That way, folks can be reminded and helps to verify the list. PLEASE sign up early!
Remember, to qualify for the FINALS you need to play in at least three of the 6 regular season events. Just 3 events are left to play in before the FINALS – so plan accordingly!
Lastly, I managed to take a few photos:
A Few Photos:
Thanks again to all the players and we will see you soon.
REMEMBER – all updates on the results of our events can be found here on this blog throughout the year leading up to the FINALS!
The three divisions were extremely competitive, with no division being won by more than 3 strokes. In two of the three divisions, we had playoffs. In the Player Division, 4 teams vied in a playoff. Meanwhile, in the Palmer Division, 2 teams fought it out for the win.
Let’s get to the results.
Nicklaus Division
In the Nicklaus Division, the team of Scott Fairbanks, Bob DeMaio, Brian Chaffee, and Susan Benoit won with an astounding score of 13-under par! This was the best score for any team in the entire tournament. In second place in the Nicklaus Division at 10-under par was the team of Ryan Toomey, Dave Russell, Rob Peterson, and Sherri Peterson.
Player Division
In the Player Division, we had an unbelievably competitive race up and down the standings. Of the 7 teams, all were in three strokes of each other. To top THAT off, 4 of the 7 came in tied at 8-under par and had to playoff for the honor of being the top team in the Player Division. The team that finally rose to the top was the team of Brandon McEvoy, Lisa Kularski, Tom Korzec, and Barbara Orszulak. In second place, the other three teams in the playoff were:
Fran Lamothe, Kevin Kokansky, Jeff McLeod, and Mike McCarthy
Tom Savage, Dave Fiske, Nancy Shores, and Greg Wypych
Matt Desimone, Kristen Depasse, Denis Miner, and Joseph Pinto
Palmer Division
Here again, we had tight match leading to a playoff. Two teams finished their 18-holes at 6-under par. Both had to battle it out in a playoff for the bragging rights of top team in the Palmer Division. Rising to victory was the team of Brian Lacroix, Bill Gaudette, Johnny Wheeler, and Paul Wyman. They edged out a close two-hole playoff victory over the Still Harts sponsor team of Steve Doros, Ed McLeod, Paul Sanborn, and George Fiske.
Skins and Closest to the Pin on the 17th Hole
As usual, we also ran a skins contest within each division. There were 14 total skins awarded: four in the Nicklaus Division, three in the Player Division, and a whooping seven in the Palmer Division. The winners are as shown on the consolidated list below.
Ryan Toomey was the winner of the closest to the pin contest at 2′ 3″.
Big Congrats again to the winners and thanks to all the players!
The Next Tournament and Some Notes
Special thanks again to Still Harts for their longtime and dedicated sponsorship of this event.
Also, as always, a special thank you to Carl Fitz, Matt Paakkonen, and all the staff at Quail Hollow who work so hard to make the Tour of the Brookfields possible.
VERY IMPORTANT!!! THE NEXT EVENT IS COMING UP QUICKLY!
The next tournament is on Saturday, June 13th at Quail Hollow. It will be the Toomey-Lovett Classic Open – another very-highly attended event. It will be held at Quail Hollow. The signups for this event will close on Sunday, June 7th – so we only have a VERY SHORT window for signups.
Sign ups will be coming down on JUNE 7th or when we are full, which ever comes FIRST!
That usually happens VERY QUICKLY and we expect the event to fill up!
First, thanks everyone for being timely in arriving. It helps us to get going much faster, please keep that going!
Second, if you want to sign up, PLEASE use one of the three sign up opportunities (Still Harts, at Quail Hollow, or on the event section of the Tour of the Brookfields Facebook page). Texts do sometimes get lost or buried…so please use the lists.
Also, I do try to post on Facebook who has signed up right before we take the signups down. That way, folks can be reminded and helps to verify the list. Despite my doing that we still had a couple of players miss the deadline – so sign up early!
Remember, to qualify for the FINALS you need to play in at least three of the 6 regular season events. Just 4 events are left to play in before the FINALS – so plan accordingly!
PLEASE – if you sign up and subsequently need to drop, make sure you do so before the sign up cutoff. After we make teams when someone drops and that person could have let us know before we picked teams – well, that is a completely avoidable pain in the…you know what…
I managed a few photos and a video this time. No award will be given for my narration! The video can be seen here on Instagram:
Welcome to the 2026 season of the Tour of the Brookfields! Updates on the results of our events can be found here on this blog throughout the year leading up to the FINALS!
The results from the first regular season TOB event at Quail Hollow Golf & Country Club in Oakham, MA are in. It was held on the brisk morning of Saturday, April 25th, 2026. No rain impeded our play. Our sponsor was Techo Bloc, hence the Techo Bloc Open. We had 88 players on 22 teams in three divisions.
We had several new players – and some returning veterans of years past – and welcome to all of you! There are five more regular season TOB’s before the FINALS. All are at Quail Hollow Golf & Country Club. Here is the schedule for 2026:
Now, let’s get to the results from Saturday.
2026 Techo Bloc Open Results
The three divisions/flights were extremely competitive. No flight was won by more than 2 strokes. There were some excellent scores this time – and several teams in each division had a shot at winning. There were no playoffs.
Nicklaus Division
In the Nicklaus Division, the team of Jacob McDonald, Paul Boulette, Jay Gregory, and Nancy Shores won with a great score of 9-under par! Every shot was needed because hot on their heels were three teams at -8. Those teams in second place in the Nicklaus Division were:
Scott Fairbanks, Mike Kularski, Russ Emerson, and Dick Whippee
Gary Soltys, Rich Ford, Sr., Brian Leveille, and Diane Kenyon
Rick Lindsten, Jake Malin, Hoss Ford, and Jim Parker
Player Division
In the Player Division, the team of Mike Ellis, Ron McCann, Clayton Rice, and Greg Wypych garnered top honors at 7-under par. In second place, two strokes back, were two teams at -5:
Sean Carter, Dave Fiske, Doug Judd, and Sam Patchen
Jim Wilson, Ed Erickson, Tony Woodman, and Chris Waugh
Palmer Division
In the Palmer Division, the team of Mark Shores, Will Foley, Jared Danitis, and Mark Bruso team also won by a narrow 1-stroke victory. Their -9 gained the victory over the TechoBloc sponsor team of Brian Egan, Connor Hibbard, Keith Drolet, and Leo Egan, who shot -8.
Skins and Closest to the Pin on the 17th Hole
We also ran a skins contest within each division. There were 13 total skins awarded – 4 each in the Nicklaus and Player Divisions, and 5 in the Palmer Division. The winners are as shown on the consolidated list below.
Dave Fiske was the winner of the closest to the pin contest at 4′ 7″.
Below are the consolidated results from the event
Big Congrats again to the winners and thanks to all the players!
The Next Tournament and Some Notes
Special thanks again to Techo Bloc or their sponsorship of this event.
Also, as always, a special thank you to Carl Fitz, Matt Pakonen, and all the staff at Quail Hollow who work so hard to make the Tour of the Brookfields possible.
IMPORTANT!!!
The next tournament is on Saturday, May 23rd at Quail Hollow. It will be the Still Harts Open – a very-highly attended event. The sponsor is of course Still Harts Cafe in North Brookfield, MA. It will be held at Quail Hollow.
Sign ups will be coming down on May 17th or when we are full, which ever comes FIRST!
That usually happens VERY QUICKLY and we expect the event to fill up!
Registration and time to show up the Still Harts event and all future ones (except the FINALS) will be earlier as we do not expect any more potential frost delays. REGISTRATION OPENS AT 7:00 AM! PLEASE ARRIVE AND REGISTER BY 7:30 AM at the latest.
A FEW REQUESTS:
First, thanks everyone for being timely in arriving. It helps us to get going much faster, please keep that up – especially for the Still Harts Open!
Second, if you want to sign up, PLEASE use one of the three sign up opportunities (Still Harts, at Quail Hollow, or on the event section of the Tour of the Brookfields Facebook page). Texts do sometimes get lost or buried…so please use the lists.
If you sign up and need to drop, make sure you do so before the sign up cutoff.
Lastly, if you write your name down on the closest to the pin list, MAKE SURE WE CAN READ IT AND THE DISTANCE! If we cannot read it, well…you might lose out…
Thanks again to all the players and we will see you soon.
A Few Photos:
Matt chats with Hoss at the bar.Lynn and Bill hone their putting game on the practice green.Jim McKeon, Leo Egan, Rich Ford, and Paul Boulette catch up after a long off-season.Paul Boulette and Jeff McLeod.Norm Laliberte and Beth McCann.Rich Casault, Sam Patchen, and Jason McCarthy.Dave Russell, Tom Orszulak, and Rich Johnson.A happy trio – Tony Woodman, Clayton Rice, and Ron McCann.Lots of action on the practice green.Nicklaus Division scoring. Skins are circled and highlighted.Player Division scoring. Skins are circled and highlighted. Palmer Division scoring. Skins are circled and highlighted.
This blog is your source for all of the TOB results and information.
You can get these updates automatically by becoming an email subscriber to this blog (you can do down at the end of this blog post). You can also comment on my posts if you like.
The cost – nothing! It’s free!
Lastly, this blog also covers my “other” hobbies, so you might see other” stuff from time to time…
A Special note to my Wargame/Miniature blog followers…
Wargame and hobby “Stuff” is coming to this blog soon – interspersed with golf stuff – Mechanical Men are soon to arrive here – stay tuned and enjoy!
As I mentioned on our Facebook page, we have a few changes that we hope will make people excited to play in more of the TOB events.
While the minimum number of events to qualify to play in the finals is still three out of the six, by playing in more you will have a chance at winning a big prize!
We will have a drawing for two winners at the draft night for the FINALS in September. What will be the prizes?
One player will be drawn and win $100 out of tickets for those who played in four events.
Another player will be drawn from those who played in 5 or 6 events and get a FREE ENTRY INTO THE FINALS!
So how do you qualify?
If you play in four events you will qualify for the $100 drawing with one entry!
If you play in five events, you will have two entries into the raffle for both of the prizes. If you play in all six events, you’ll get three tickets into the raffle for both of the prizes.
So there’s no reason to stop at three events!
If for some reason, we have to cancel an event and we end up with fewer than six events we will adjust those numbers accordingly.
The sign-up sheets for the next event which is Saturday April 25 are up at Still Harts in North Brookfield and on the Facebook page for The Tour of the Brookfields. A sign-up sheet will be at Quail Hollow when they open.
Sign up for the first event by April 19! See you all soon!
TotalCon 40 is an annual gaming convention that is held in Marlborough, MA at the Best Western Conference Center. There are events for miniature games, board games, RPG’s, and much more. Attendance is well over 1,000.
This year it was held between February 19th and 22nd of 2026. I usually run several tabletop miniatures games there. This year was no exception. I ran eight 4-hour games across the 4 days.
Several players who participated in my games are eager to see some game shots. Not to disappoint, his post will be picture heavy and text light!
On Thursday of every TotalCon, there is a large flea market in an adjoining room to the main hall. From Friday to Sunday, I get a very big table in that room. Because of the flea market’s need for space, I settle for a smaller footprint on Thursday. That smaller table was fine for two games (afternoon and evening).
Battle for the Pond
This was a Combat Patrol:WWII retro sci-fi game using the pond that I described in my last post.
My game flyer.The tabletop set up for action. The F.R.O.G. Commandos are on the near side, with the Star Ducks on the far end. The Star Ducks are Archive Miniatures Star Rovers figures from the late ’70’s/early 80’s. The Frogs are Critter Commandos figures from the early 1990’s.The Star Duck players move up.The Star Ducks use one of their two jet pack moves to occupy islands. In the game, control of the smaller islands was worth 5 points. Controlling the largest island earned players 10 points.The Frogs were also jet packing. The Star Ducks used mortars to lay down a protective smoke screen against their automatic weapons fire.In the end, the luck of the cards deserted the Frogs, with almost every island in Star Duck control.
High Noon at the Cyber Ruins
I ran this Combat Patrol retro sci-fi game at Cold Wars, but on a bigger table. I used a different mat and adapted the game to a smaller footprint.
Game flyer.
To win the game, both sides get credit (victory points) for inflicting enemy casualties and finding hidden ancient robots.
The game was definitely full!Retrovians and Space Cowboys move into the ruined city.The Space Cowboys find a robot (an Archive Robot Cook) and get it to join their side.Reinforcements arrive! Here come the Space Roos.Retrovians take cover under fire while trying to clear the walls.Retrovian infantry move into the city.
In the end, the casualties on both sides were high. But, the Space Cowboys possession of robots allowed them a narrow 15-10 victory. That wrapped up Thursday’s games.
I decided not to run a Friday morning game this year. Last year, resetting the flea market room took too much time. It interfered with my morning game setup. Instead, I had plenty of time to move everything into the “big room” and set up on the “big table”. My first game was a Wars of Ozz game. It was titled “The Great Munchkin Heist”. I had also run it at Cold Wars. This time I had an even bigger table than I had there!
The Great Munchkin Heist
The game set up – I loved creating this panoramic expanse!Players arrive – once again demand to play was high!1st Munchkin Brigade set upThat’s a full game!Nitpik’s “Morin’s Monsters” armed with napalm blasters hope to cook up some Great Pumpkinheads.A regiment of Great Owls (Munchkin allies) overflies the Lemon Drop Legionnaires and hits them in the rear!Jinjur regiments (female pirates and Munchkin allies) breach the wall.The Munchkins breach the western gate and their light cavalry pours through to look for technological treasures.In the center, two axe-wielding Nitpik regiments have had enough of the Munchkins. The Jade Automata and the Pink Nightmare regiments charge over their defensive wall. Their counterattack wipes out the Munchkin artillery and drives two Munchkin infantry regiments from the game.Another view of that mechanical counterattack.Meanwhile, the cleaver Jinjur pirates locate some of Nitpik’s technological wonders in a wrecked building.
The game ended – in a dead tie 23-23! A real nail-biter to be sure!
The next game builds on this one. The Munchkins have found technology, but welshed on their agreement to share! Thus, they betrayed their allies. As a result, their former allies have jumped over to the Nitpik side. The Munchkins are fleeing to safety, with Nitpik in hot pursuit.
Revenge of the Tin Men
Another big game! The players plan.The Munchkins have 4 heavy crates of technology carried by 4 regiments. The crates slow down the Munchkins. The little folk need to cross a line with the crates safely to gain victory points. Additionally, each Munchkin base that escapes the Nitpik pursuers gets a point. Nitpik gets points for recovering crates and for eliminating Munchkin bases. The Munchkins have set up a delaying picket line of light cavalry and sharpshooters between the two balloons. This is to give those fleeing a chance to escape the Nitpik and allied horde.On the right, the Munchkin picket line. On the left, the pursuers!There were many Nitpik pursuers. This included those who switched alliances, like Frost Ogres, Great Pumpkinheads, and Jinjur pirates. Traffic control became a challenge as they tried to catch the Munchkins.The pursuers coordinate their movements.The Munchkin Aerostat frustrated several Nitpik regiments. As they tried to advance, the Aerostat laid down effective disruptive musketry on the mechanical men. Nitpik cavalry broke through and tried to run the Munchkins down. Several crates were lost as the Munchkins routed in disarray.The game ended with this scene showing Sam disappointed. The Munchkins nearly won the game. Her unit only needed 1 more inch to cross the line of the crater with the crate. So close! (well played though Sam!!) In the end, Nitpik won a VERY narrow 12-10 victory.
That wrapped up Friday night. The next game would happen Saturday morning set in North Africa.
Il Duce’s Desert Gamble
This what-if modified What a Tanker scenario also filled up quickly as well.
Vichy French armor facing the Italians.Royal Italian Army armor facing the French.The players plot their moves.An Italian Macchi C.202 Folgore (Italian “thunderbolt”) dogfights a Vichy Dewoitine D.520.Leif smiles as he records temporary damage on his tank. The damage was caused by Leif’s very bad dice rolling for a very old and worn out French FT-17!A Vichy SOMUA S35 knocks out an Italian Semovente 90/53.French forces advance.
The game ended with Vichy winning 540-440.
For Saturday afternoon, I ran Operation Torch: Vichy Mounts an Armored Counterattack. This was also a modified What a Tanker game.
Operation Torch: Vichy Mounts an Armored Counterattack
The Vichy players plan their assault.The American players are ready!The Americans watch as the Vichy French get closer. They have plans of getting air cover and naval gunfire on the French!Knowing this, the French spread out to avoid massing a big target.Mal considers his next move.Aircraft are deployed, but the US Navy rules the skies. This allows for the Avenger to call in naval gunfire from the USS Savannah. This destroys multiple Vichy vehicles.
The US air superiority and naval gunfire carried the day – with the US winning a significant victory.
RETROVIANS MUST BE CLEANSED
Saturday night’s game was upon me, and I had decided to run another Combat Patrol retro sci-fi game. This time, the Retrovians would face the Archive Star Rovers Warbots. They would also confront my own creation – the Mark 1 Sphere tank.
Happy Gamers at the start! Retrovians are on the left, Warbots on the right.A Retrovian Bra’sheer tripod moves out front of its infantry. The Mark 1 takes up a supporting position as the Warbots march forward to glory.The Mark 1 safely delivers machine gun fire from its sponsons. Meanwhile, the Warbots also take fire and are stunned.
I did not take many pictures of this game. I do believe that the Warbots wore down the Retrovians. Yes, they were “cleansed”. It was nice to see these figures back on the tabletop.
This was the penultimate game for me of TotalCon 2026. I headed off to my room. I was ready for the 2026 TotalCon “Tournament of Ozz” on Sunday morning.
I had 7 out of a possible 8 players. At random, one player got a “bye” in round one. The match-ups were done at random and 7 different 21-point brigades were assigned at random. Inflicting the most damage on the enemy was the victory condition to move forward in the tournament. Tie breakers were also in play if that was needed.
Glory on the Line!
In Round 1 – the match ups were:
Impkins (Ken) versus Munchkins (Eric)
Munchkins (Bob) versus Gillikins (Dave)
Winkies (Brad) versus Gillikins (Jacob)
Winkies (Leif) got the round 1 bye
Round 1 begins!Brad’s Winkies devastate Jacob’s GillikinsBob’s Munchkins get into a shooting match with Dave’s Gillikins.Round 1 winds down.
The Round 1 results were:
Impkins (Ken) defeated Munchkins (Eric)
Munchkins (Bob) defeated Gillikins (Dave)
Winkies (Brad) defeated Gillikins (Jacob)
Winkies (Leif) got the round 1 bye
Yielding the semifinals as:
Impkins (Ken) versus Winkies (Brad)
Munchkins (Bob) versus Winkies (Leif)
The semi-finalists!Leif casts a poppies spell to thwart Bob’s cavalry,Bob’s Munchkins prepare to unleash musketry on Leif’s Winkie Guard. They would rout!Meanwhile, Ken’s Impkins got hit hard by Brad’s Winkies.
The Round 2 (semifinals) results were:
Winkies (Brad) defeats Impkins (Ken)
Munchkins (Bob) defeats Winkies (Leif)
Yielding the FINALS as:
Munchkins (Bob) versus Winkies (Brad)
Brad and Bob get ready to rumble!
In the end, Brad outlasted Bob – though it was close! Congratulations to Brad as the 2026 TotalCon Wars of Ozz Champion! Congrats to Brad!
The 2026 runner up Bob, the 2026 champion Brad, and your happy GM.
Thank you to all who helped me at the convention. Special thanks to Leif and Brad.
I also want to extend a very special thanks to Bryan Clauss, Steve Parenteau, Kevin Baumann, and the entire TotalCon staff. They do a magnificent job running a great convention! BIG THANKS!!
Lastly, a few areas that you can check out if you dare:
Not just any pond, but one they both claimed as part of their cultural and historical heritage. I would run the game with Buck Surdu’s Combat Patrol: WWII rules modified for retro sci-fi skirmish.
With that said, I needed a suitable pond for the tabletop. I did not have a lot of time to build it. The period from the end of Cold Wars on February 8th to the start of TotalCon on February 19th was short. It did not allow for much preparation.
This is the story of that pond build! There are a lot of WIP shots. Additionally, you will find a few videos. They will give you a better flavor of the project.
My flyer for the game – now I needed a pond!
Like most of my projects, I think a good deal about it, design it and plan it, then get it done. I wanted the pond to be big enough to really be a spectacle on the tabletop – and to be very functional for a game.
I sketched out a concept on February 9th – the pond would have several islands for the players to fight to control. Additionally, I needed to have a plan to use Vallejo “Still Water” on the pond. Those initial design concerns that I had were:
Dealing with the effective application depth of “Still Water”. The depth is supposed to be less than 3mm per application. How would I make that work?
What type of pond “structure” would hold the “Still Water”?
I read online that “Still Water” could be acidic and/or destructive to acrylic paint, even a primer. I did not want to get to a stage in the project where I needed to restart or acquire more supplies. How could I deal with this issue?
How could I build island structures onto the pond and how could I integrate them into it?
As is my habit, I got out the graph paper and drew an initial concept with 6 islands. I did end up building 8 islands in the end. The size I wanted was approximately 36″ x 24″.
Initial design drawing of the pond as it would sit on a 6′ x 10′ tabletop on February 9th.
I chose to use foam board as the base. However, the foam board from Michael’s is 30″ x 20″. I added extra pieces of foam board to augment the base. I hot-glued them to the main board as you see below.
The foam board with the extra pieces before gluing.
Once the glue had cooled, I shaped the base irregularly with an Exacto knife.
At this point, the base would not have a lot of strength in resisting any shearing forces. To solve that, I hot-glued thin polystyrene sheets to the base to conform to its shape. These sheets would be on the bottom of the terrain piece.
The base showing the polystyrene sheets hot-glued to the bottom.
Once that cooled, I flipped it over. I cut out pieces of foam board and made 8 islands of different sizes. As the foam board thickness is .47 cm, I believed that they would not get inundated by any of the “Still Water” later on. They did act usefully as guides to depth application, helping to deal with concern #1. These were hot glued to the base.
Islands affixed to the base.
Regarding concern #2, I decided to go with Apoxie Sculpt to build around the islands and to make the pond’s edge. Once cured, I had my basic structure to hold the pond.
Early edging around the pond.After all the Apoxie Sculpt was applied by February 10th. Note the entire base is covered except for the islands.
I did not want any white edges to show underneath the terrain piece. So, I flipped it over and primed the bottom edges brown.
Priming the bottom.
I flipped it over again so that it rested normally on its bottom. Concern #3 still loomed. My solution was to mix equal parts of wood glue and primer and paint the piece with that slurry. I used four different primers and the glue to paint the pond bottom and island edges. This helped to create a shoreline to depth look. Then I flocked the pond’s edge with Woodland Scenics blended turf and the wood glue.
My mixing supplies to seal the pond base.
The primed structure is shown below. I hoped that this would work and protect against the “Still Water”.
Apoxie sculpt painted with the primers and wood glue mix – on February 11th.
Once it all dried, I reapplied a coating of wood glue over the pond’s edge flocking. This helped to harden it up. It also kept loose flocking from contaminating the future water surface. I then added all-purpose sand to the islands with the wood glue. I let that dry before I extensively vacuumed the surface and edges of the pond. This was to remove all loose materials, again to protect the water.
Applying the sand and extra wood glue.And more drying time!The islands sand is dry here on February 14th – and the edges would continue to darken (thankfully).
It was time to apply the cattails into the base. Luckily, it was easy to use an awl to punch holes through the Apoxie Sculpt and into the foam core board underneath. I did that, and used more wood glue to secure the cattails. Then I had more drying time to wait out…
Cattails inserted.Close up of the cattails in the base.
The sand on the islands dried and was ready for adding pigments, so I did that. Meanwhile, I washed my plastic foliage for the islands. This removes any residual oils. This step allows me to throw some brown ink on them as a wash to add realism and some depth.
Washing plastic foliageDrying plastic foliage before adding inkPigments added and drying on February 14th..
Here is a short video showing my progress at this stage on Valentine’s Day:
It was time to add the foliage to the pond – as I wanted the water to be added close to the end. The process of adding the foliage was the same as adding the cattails, except that I needed to also go through the sand.
February 15th – foliage added, short view angle……and long angle.
Finally, it was time for the “Still Water”! I mixed it with two different inks. I continued mixing until I got the color that I wanted for a somewhat swampy pond (shown on list at the end of the post). The pond took two full 200 ml bottles of “Still Water” (not including ink). To maneuver it evenly around the pond without swamping the islands was like the ball maze game where you try to get a ball to fall in a hole on a table. Until it dried I was a bit anxious.
Color mix achieved!I used two of these!
Setting up on February 15th!
Concerns #3 and #4 dealt with!
The slow set up of the “Still Water”.
You can see in the next video from February 16th that I needed to ball-maze-move the “Still Water” around. I did this for a while before it finally set. I did look out for bubbles as well and popped the ones I saw.
I did not use the lily pads that you saw in the video. When I tried to drill out to place them, the water surface gripped the bit. It started to torque a bit, so that was a no-go. Besides, these lily pads are basically wound wire and come apart when you try to clip them shorter. Instead, I went with adding some other swampy tufts from Green Stuff World.
Once this set up on February 17th, I was very happy with the result.
I now needed a box to transport this big piece! Luckily, I had earlier ordered a large rotating cutting mat from Amazon and saved the box that it came in. I used some foam board and hot glue to make a decent travel box that would protect the pond on the way to conventions.
February 17th – got a box!And it fits!
I will be posting about TotalCon soon. Before doing that, I wanted to write this WIP post about the pond. From concept to travel box it took 8 days!
Hopefully, the lessons I shared here will help you if you are considering a similar project. My main takeaways are clear (I hope!).
Below I will list the materials I used in the project as well as some links that you might want to explore, but first a sneak preview of what the pond looked like on the tabletop on a 6′ x 4′ mat:
Next up, hopefully, will be a TotalCon 2026 recap.
Back in early February, I attended the 2026 HMGS Cold Wars convention in Lancaster, PA. The theme was “Wild, Wild, West”. this is not one of my usual game themes, but as you’ll see shortly I adapted for one game anyways. As I write this now it is already mid-March, so I thought it was about time to finally got around to sharing some of the games I played in and ran in the H.A.W.K.’s room.
The H.A.W.K.’s are a great club from Harford County, Maryland. Two of my good West Point buddies (Buck Surdu USMA ’85 and Dave Wood fellow USMA ’84) have been members for years, and I have been fortunate enough to be their New England carpetbagging GM for a few years now.
Buck, yours truly, and Dave
Prelude to Austerlitz (Wars of Eagles and Empires)
Thursday night I jumped into a Napoleonic 28mm game run by Buck, “Prelude to Austerlitz”. It used his Wars of Eagles and Empires rules.
It was a fun game and I was on the Austrian side with two other young players (they were young anyways). The French players were not as aggressive as they probably had wanted to be, which allowed us to successfully defend the town.
The Wicked Witch is Still Trying to Get Dorothy’s Slippers (Feudal Patrol using Wars of Ozz figures)
This was a fun opportunity to jump in a Feudal Patrol game with my old USMA roommate Dave. Dave does a great job as a GM and even won a PELA award at Cold Wars for his Zulu game. Dave uses 28mm Wars of Ozzfigures in a skirmish game using Feudal Patrol rules. I played on the Winkie side and we were able to take Dorothy down and get those valuable slippers!
Dave as GMMy Winkies advance
After this game, I hit the vendors hall and got some lunch. Then I took the rest of the afternoon time to set up my Friday evening Wars of Ozz game. – “The Great Munchkin Heist“.
The Great Munchkin Heist (Wars of Ozz)
This was an epic back and forth Wars of Ozz battle, which really was great to see! Three brigades were on the attack (two Munchkin, one allied brigade, and an army reserve). The allied brigade was composed of two regiments of Jinjur female pirates, an Impkin slingshot battery, and a regiment of Frost Ogres (that Dave Stone will recognize!). The reserve came from the Land of Harvest – Great Pumpkinheads and regiments of eagles and owls. these allies hoped to share the loot with the Munchkins. Technological “secrets” were hidden in buildings throughout.
Three small but potent Nitpik mechanical men brigades and a small reserve force defended the formidable rusty steel walls of the Robotic Sanctum – a.k.a. the Industrial City. A small infantry reserve remained in the city, and there were rumors of a Nitpik relief force coming…
The Munchkin 1st Brigade advances on the left.The Munchkin 2nd Brigade advances in the center.The Allied Brigade ready for battle.In the center was the Munchkin Army Reserve of Harvest troops under the command of Zoraster the Wizard.The Nitpik Medium Artillery defends the left flank, with Elite Axemen behind ready to deal with any penetrations of the walls by the allied brigade.Defending the Nitpik center against the Munchkin 2nd Brigade was the Lemon Drop Legionnaires at the wall (also with napalm blasters) and the axe-wielding Jade Automata.Defending the Nitpik right was the 3rd Nitpik Brigade. They had Morin’s Monsters with napalm blasters and a mechanical mini-swarm.A side view of the start of the battle behind the Nitpik lines. The Mechanical mini-swarm is in the foreground, while the sole regiment in the Nitpik reserve – the Pink Nightmares – is in the back left.The battle begins. The Allied Brigade moves up on the right.The Nitpik Artillery prepares to fire at the Frost Ogres…….who take casualties and rout in the face of withering fire.Overzealous Lemon Drop Legionnaires take fire from the balloon and an unlucky reaction test causes them to jump over their protective walls towards the enemy!This unlucky reaction subjected the Lemon Drop Legionnaires to Munchkin musketry at short range.Morin’s Monsters hold the line.Munchkin Light Cavalry and Landwehr move up on the left flank..The Munchkin 1st Brigade moves towards the gate – somewhat stymied by the ominous rusty steel walls – their solution……climb the wall !! Assault Munchkins! (or Ranger Munchkins?)…they were soon in the town searching for technological secrets.The Munchkins commit the Great Pumpkinheads and Great Owls and bypass Morin’s Monsters.A female pirate regiment breaches the right wall and faces the Elite Axemen. The Munchkin Center is breached as well.
The Munchkins searched in vain for any technological secrets. They did manage to inflict slightly more casualties on Professor Nitpik’s forces, resulting in a narrow 18-15 point victory.
Little Wars TV actually showed a snippet this game on their Cold Wars video – you can see it at minute mark 12:31. My players look happy!
That wrapped up Friday – and Saturday I had two games scheduled. The first was a What a Tanker “what if” scenario between Vichy French and Italian armor. I had to cancel it due to lack of players. That allowed me more time to set up my evening game and to play in another Feudal Patrol game run by Buck. It was a scenario based on a William Tell TV show from the ’60’s that I have no memory of! It was fun, we freed the good guys from the Austrians, and had a good time.
Tell Me the Truth! (Feudal Patrol/William Tell)
Buck prepping at the game start. I spent a lot of time in the game moving that bee hive on the hill!
At last it was time for Saturday night’s game.
High Noon at the Cyber Ruins (Combat Patrol:WWII – modified for retro Sci-fi)
This was my “western-themed” game.
I was really looking forward to this one as I got to use all of my rusty wreckage and ruined buildings that I have posted about here in this blog. It did not disappoint. The battle was full of action, with jet-packing cowboys (Texican Space Rangers) and Space ‘Roos engaging the Retrovians (Roger’s own). (More about Roger here.) Ancient robots were found and lost, some even getting violent when found. Buck got to play and channeled his inner paratrooper in the attack.
The game set up for action. Retrovians are moving into the ruined city from the left, and Space Cowboys from the opposite side. Space ‘Roos come in as reinforcements.Players ready for action.Skip maneuvers his troops in the background while Bruce deftly had his sniper climb the transmission tower. Obviously the figure would not stay, so we used a rubber band.Retrovian Heavy Weapons Squad.Movement into the city.My friend Ken Howe snapped this shot!Retrovian “Garkon” section.Moving into the city – what to do?Space Cowboys and Retrovians search for ancient robots.Retrovian fire team mounts the wall.Space Cowboys huddle in the wreckage from Retrovian fire.The tripod “Bra’sheers” had a difficult tome getting over the walls. They did at points and instantly decapitated a few Space Cowboys with their claws.A “Bender” robot was found – but was hostile and killed a cowboy and needed to be subdued. Some of Leif’s Space Cowboys got on the wall in a conga line only to take Bra’sheer machine gun fire.The conga line of death before machine gun fire…Retrovians getting into the city in any way they could.The battle rages.Urban fighting!Lots of combat in the city.Buck jet-packs his Space ‘Roos and ambushes Bruce’s Retrovians, wiping them out. He was practically giddy in this game with how successful his tactics were.Retrovians seek revenge with sonic cannon and sniper fire.Space Cowboys and Space ‘Roos continue the search.
In the end, the Space Cowboys and Space ‘Roos alliance found 3/4 robots and successfully held on to them. All casualties mounted. But the victory was clearly in the hands of the Space Cowboys and Space ‘Roos!
After the game, with help, I was able to pack the car for a Sunday morning drive home. The temperature was well below zero Fahrenheit! With the wind chill it was -13 degrees Fahrenheit (or -25 Celsius for you metric types!).
Thank you to all at HMGS who made Cold Wars possible!
That wraps up this post – I still have a few that are in the queue , and I hope they are of interest.
I will be running these games again so see you at the next convention!
Followers of this blog have seen several posts showing my “rusty” preparations. I have been getting ready for my numerous games at 2026 tabletop wargaming conventions. That preparation involves painting up figures and terrain for scenarios that involve a good amount of ruins and wreckage.
In a previous post, I shared how I built transmission towers and rusty walls for a Wars of OzzTM game involving Professor Nitpik’s Industrial City (the Robotic Sanctum). I ran that game at Cold Wars and will share more about that convention shortly. The theme for Cold Wars this year was “The Wild West”, so I also had planned to run a game involving Space Cowboys (technically Archive Texican Space Rangers” from Star Rovers).
I don’t run western games, but I could cobble together a retro sci-fi game using Buck Surdu’s Combat Patrol:WWIITM gaming system (with my modifications). In my game Archive “Space Cowboys”, and uplifted kangaroos (“Space ‘Roos” ) combat blue-skinned “Retrovians” (from War Games Supply Dump). Both armies are searching for hidden ancient robots in the apocalyptic ruins of a long-dead civilization on a newly-colonized world called Dust.
To really make the ancient ruined industrial panorama that I wanted, I needed more buildings and structures than just my transmission towers, rusty walls, rusty generators and ruined chemical plant. I also wanted a lot of wreckage strewn about as terrain.
To those ends, I ended up making two ruined factory buildings, two industrial structures, and 61 scatter bases of industrial wreckage. These were all built at the same time. This enabled me to work around issues like drying and curing times as time was short. Oh yeah, and we had a few snow storms here in Massachusetts along the way that ate up some hobby time (not helpful at all).
I wanted to share my project and all its components here with you. As these were simultaneous efforts, you will see multiple project stages here. You may notice that I used a lot of repurposed bits of metal and plastic and Juweela products. The lists will be at the end of this post as is my habit. My concept was to achieve a Stalingrad-like look.
For the two buildings, I converted an iPad 16 box top and bottom. I used Apoxie Sculpt, steel washers, sand, multiple pieces of plastic, desiccant cylinders, and a lot of Juweela items to make the 61 scatter bases. And for two flat industrial structures, I reused two pieces of packing materials to repurpose them as flat rusted structures.
I started out with this iPad 16 box. I would use the top and bottom of this. It is plastic and cardboard.
I sawed out windows and doors on both box pieces and made each a bit differently in terms of architectural arrangement. I then hot-glued foam board to make rooms. For flooring, I broke up old popsicle sticks. These I had used previously to mount figures for painting on other projects. Lastly, I drilled out holes in the walls to simulate old bullet holes.
Cutting out the windows and doors on the first building.Adding the walls, bullet holes, and flooring.
Then it was on to sculpting the outside walls. I did each building separately from here on so as to handle both curing times and to learn as I went as to best practices. Apoxie Sculpt and a Green Stuff World brick roller worked well.
Sculpting the walls. I used an awl to create and shape shell and bullet impacts on the outside.Using the windows as gripping spots made the sculpting easier. I did need to then wait for curing.
While the walls cured, I worked on the wreckage bases – also using Apoxie Sculpt. I made the bases differently in terms of both size and shape. It helped to use one or more steel washers underneath the base sculpts. Using different sizes helped to make the shapes varied.
The biggest washer that I used and a base covered with Apoxie Sculpt.Examples of the other sizes and shapes – all with steel washers underneath.
As the corrosion texture paint takes time to dry as well, I started adding that to various pieces of debris that I had saved up. I like to use a cheap old brush that could serve no other purpose – especially as it usually destroys it. The corrosion paint needed to dry and then got a second application.
Using the AK Corrosion Texture paint. Here I am using it on desiccant cylinders (from pill bottles), crushed plastic straw sections, and rubber inserts from a drain plug replacement.
After a day, the Apoxie Sculpt on the first building had cured. But I wanted there to be a small outside rim to it that could hold wreckage and brick debris. While a sheet of polystyrene was gluing to its bottom, I worked on the second building.
First building cured.Bottom view – I needed more here underneath…but before that I finished the second building’s outside.Second building outside sculpting…….and second building flooring installation.
As the first building had cured, I started to paint it. Then I was able to glue a polystyrene base to building number 2.
Building number one with early paint work, and building number two being glued to the PS sheet under a heavy textbook.
As I was again dealing with drying and curing times, I went back to work on the wreckage bases. I used up some white sand on the Apoxie Sculpt bases and applied with PVA. Once that had dried, I added as much wreckage as I could to each.
Wreckage bases – I started with the largest. The two buildings are shown in progress as are the next batch of sculpted bases curing.Close up shot of the larger wreckage bases in progress. Glue must dry…Close up of building one with insides primed.
At this point, I added the flat clear plastic packing material to two square pieces of polystyrene by clamping and gluing them in preparation for corrosion texture. Then it was back to the wreckage bases. I had run out of white sand, so the next batch of wreckage bases got a PVA/grey sand application. As I used a lot pigments later, this made zero difference. At the same time, I also dirtied up the interior building walls and flooring using a sponge and various dark washes. The rim outside the buildings got a sandy texture paint covering.
The dark sand drying on the next wreckage bases, the flat structures with first application of corrosion texture, other bases in progress, and the buildings in the back.A second coat of corrosion paint has been applied to the flat structures here. I also sorted the wreckage bases by size before adding pigments.The flat structures and some other rusty paints I would add before augmenting with pigments.
Below you can see the wreckage bases after I added pigments to them. I fixed the pigments with Vallejo Thinner applied with a spray from a lens cleaning bottle.
Next, I added rusty industrial wreckage and scattered bricks to the buildings’ interiors.
After adding industrial wreckage and bricks to building 1……and building 2.
Clearly, pigments were needed at this point to make the bricks and wreckage look older and dirtier. More pigments and dark washes to the rescue!
The buildings after adding the pigments and washes to dirty and rust up everything.Top view of both buildings as completed.
I was now ready to mock up the tabletop with everything! But first, the flyer for the game – which I finished before this project:
Game flyer.
The wreckage (all 61 pieces and the buildings really helped complete my vision. There are 24 possible search locations for the 4 ancient robots, known only to the GM. The four ancient robots I used were: “Folder Bot 3000” (aka Bender) from Armorcast Terraform Terrain Ltd.’s “Robot Townies” collection; and “RT22” from old Archive miniatures Star Rovers line circa 1977; and two Archive Miniatures Robot Cooks also circa 1977 (also Star Rovers).
The four ancient robots! Folder Bot 3000, RT22, and the two Robot Cooks.
I randomly select the locations for the four robots (see numbers on the map below). My playtest worked well, and here are some shots of the mock-up tabletop.
The mock up of the tabletop for the game. The Retrovians three squads and command group are in the forefront. The Space Cowboys are at the opposite side.A side view.View from the Space Cowboy’s side.Generator side view.
I did not use all of the wreckage in the mock-up. I will share a Cold Wars post soon. However, as a preview here are a couple of shots of the game set up at Cold Wars in all its glory:
Photo of the game in progress at Cold Wars with me as the GM. (photo courtesy of Ken Howe).Space Cowboys and Retrovians start searching for the robots.The shoot out starts – while one robot has been found in the upper right. This was Bender, and he was not happy to be found and attacked and killed a Space Cowboy.
More about Cold Wars soon in a future post.
I hope you enjoyed reading this and seeing my rusty panorama come to life – on the tabletop anyways. If this WIP post helps you in any way, that is great! I am including these terrain pieces in Dave Stone’s PAINT WHAT YOU GOT 2025/2026 Challenge as these were completed in early February. For now, that’s it, until next time!
329 miles to Lancaster, PA and Cold Wars!
The materials are listed below as a reference for me (and you maybe).
For all of my previous posts on terrain projects, please see this page. For all of my previous posts on sci-fi projects, please see this page…for any of my previous posts on scratch-building, see this page.
PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE THAT I USED ON THE TWO RUINED BUILDINGS:
iPad 16 Box (top and bottom)
Hot glue
Foam Board
Toothpicks
Popsicle sticks
Apoxie sculpt
Vallejo Surface Primer “Grey”
SIBE AUTOMATION “White Polystyrene 8″ X 12″ X 1/8″ Plastic Sheet”
PVA
Huge Miniatures “Brick Red”
MSP “Brown Liner”
Vallejo Game Color “Sepia” (wash/shade)
Vallejo Wash FX “Dark Grey” (wash/shade)
Liquitex “Burnt Umber” (ink)
Secret Weapon Washes “Sewer Water”
Vallejo Thinner
Vallejo Surface Primer “German Green Brown”
Vallejo “Light Slate Grey” (pigment)
AK “Dry Ground” (texture)
Vallejo “Carbon Black” (pigment)
Juweela Metal Scrap Rusty Industry (23336)
Juweela Debris Assortment (23316)
Juweela Debris Brick Red (23315)
Juweela Debris Assortment (23315)
Juweela Bricks (23034)
Juweela Metal Scrap Rusty Gear Wheels (23317)
Army Painter “Red Tone” (wash)
Secret Weapon Washes “Red Black” (wash)
Secret Weapon Washes “Ruby” (wash)
P3 “Red Ink” (ink)
Vallejo Game Air “Red Terracotta”
PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE THAT I USED ON THE 61 WRECKAGE BASES/PILES:
Play sand
Apoxie sculpt
PVA
Various scrap plastic pieces
Cylindrical desiccant holders
Rubber sink stopper rim
Juweela Metal Scrap Rusty Industry (23336)
Juweela Debris Assortment (23316)
Juweela Debris Brick Red (23315)
Juweela Debris Assortment (23315)
Juweela Bricks (23034)
Juweela Metal Scrap Rusty Gear Wheels (23317)
AK “Corrosion Texture” (texture)
Vallejo Model Air “Rust” (71.080)
Vallejo Model Air “Rust” (71.080)
Vallejo Model Air “Rust” (71.069)
Vallejo Model Air “Orange Rust”
Citadel “Ryza Rust” (dry)
Vallejo “Old Rust” (pigment)
Vallejo “Pigment Binder”
Vallejo Thinner
Vallejo “Dark Slate Grey” (pigment)
Vallejo “Dark Yellow Ochre” (pigment)
Vallejo Game Color “Sepia” (wash/shade)
Secret Weapon Washes “Sewer Water”
Army Painter “Red Tone” (wash)
Secret Weapon Washes “Red Black” (wash)
Secret Weapon Washes “Ruby” (wash)
P3 “Red Ink” (ink)
Vallejo Game Air “Red Terracotta”
PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE THAT I USED ON THE 2 FLAT INDUSTRIAL STRUCTURES:
SIBE AUTOMATION “White Polystyrene 8″ X 12″ X 1/8″ Plastic Sheet”