Bootleg Bring Out Your Lead

 

Last Saturday was Bootleg BOYL - an event put on by War Dollies Collective and Lead and Steel after Bring Out Your Lead at Foundry was unfortunately cancelled. Due to the unusual circumstances, they were able to arrange a few vendors in addition to the usual games.

I rocked up early to help with set up. The tables at the venue need a little work to assemble each time, and it's a much quicker and easier job to achieve with more pairs of hands. The venue was split over two floors, with vendors and the café on the ground floor, and the games on the first floor.

There were plenty of different games going on. There was a game of 3rd edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles with two huge armies of period figures with lovely paint jobs. I sadly didn't manage to watch any of the actual play of this.

Someone had brought the old "Battle for Armageddon" board game and played a game of it. I have memories of reading about this in White Dwarf, but never actually managed to play it.

Someone had set up a participation game of Rogue Trader, replaying an old White Dwarf scenario. I played in this game, and may write more on it later.

On the next table over from the Rogue Trader game, Bobbi from Arbitor Ian's "Tale of Four Gamers" and a friend played a game of 2nd edition Warhammer 40,000. It was an Imperial Guard vs Imperial Guard game which definitely hit me right in the nostalgia as this was the edition of Warhammer 40,000 I started with.

Curtis from Ramshackle Games was running his Helsreach game, which is a homebrew conversion of earlier editions of Necromunda. I definitely want to play in this game in the future, but need to come up with some miniatures for it.

One of the most modern games being played was a game of Pulp Alley. I didn't see much of what was going on with it, but folks seemed to be having fun.

And finally, there was a four player game of Blood Bowl going on.

I picked up the Bootleg Boyle, the show miniature as I turned up early enough. He's a Ramshackle Games casting, with the sculpt supplied by Jon Boyce. MEP Miniatures were also giving away some free heads, and I do like free things.

Also trading at Bootleg BOYL was Satyr Art Studio. I've sometimes picked up their limited run sculpts, but have held off on ordering their "day to day" range because of the challenges of shipping from the US. But with Drew present, I grabbed a blister of assorted heroic types for running RPGs with.

Slightly different from the usual miniature traders, Side Quest Comics were trading at the event as well. I picked up all three comics available. As well as being comics, you can use the little card pieces that come with them to play a sort of mini RPG dice game to see if you survive the fights portrayed in the game. The comics themselves are mostly wordless pen ink comics showing events in the world of Def, with a short text epilogue that puts them into context.

It was a big day out, and I was due to be up early the following day to go to PeachCon. I ended up having a very early night, which meant I was merely tired at PeachCon the following day. It was a great day out, but I do need to remember how tiring these sort of events can be and pace myself accordingly.

Two Weeks of Hobby: Infinity game, Bootleg BOYL and PeachCon

After a bit of a hiatus, I had a busy couple of hobby weeks so I'm summing up the previous two weeks, rather than one. There will be longer posts about all these things, but for now here's a few short summaries to let folk know what I've been up to.

The weekend before last, some folks decided to arrange an day of Infinity games at Dice Cup. I got a game in, but in future it should be possible to get a couple of games in. I'm moving onto running vanilla Combined Army for a while, so ran a first pass at a list to start shaking out what I agree with and what I don't.

 

Bring Out Your Lead has been a bit of a UK institution for Oldhammer, but it was sadly cancelled this year. War Dollies Collective and Lead and Steel combined forces to host "Bootleg BOYL" in Nottingham. It was a fun day out with an assortment of vendors, folk playing old games and participation games in which I partook.

Sunday was PeachCon 2026. This is a small convention organised by Chris Peach of Peachy Tips. It's a mix of vendors and demo games. I'd planned to do a bunch of demos but got to chatting with folks and before I knew it the show was over. I am sometimes not a smart man.

I now have nothing much planned for the next few weeks. Obviously, I'll write up all these things for the blog. I'm hoping to get the hobby room sorted out sooner rather than later, and get back to clearing things out on eBay. I'll report back next week on how that's going...

A quick July summary

My real life recently got a teensy bit busy, so I've been away from the blog, but I have still been up to a few hobby things. 

 

First up, with Bad Squiddo Games setting up a new shipping and fulfilment solution, Annie has been having a bit of a clear out of bits and pieces before the move. I picked up a whole bunch of Renedra scenery pieces to use in photo backdrops and as RPG scenery.

On the Infinity side of things "Operation Mazebreaker" came out. This new starter set has a bunch of new miniatures for Corregidor, one of my earliest factions.

I'm very keen to get back to the Nomads, but there's a lot of hobby work to be done to get there - so currently the plan is to get my vanilla Combined Army playing a bit more, and once the core of that is painted, I'll move onto my Nomad paint schemes.

I also ordered the Ciaphas Cain miniature for my Imperial Guard. I have enjoyed the books I've read and I wanted to grab him before he went out of stock and became hard to find.

I went on a little adventure to Warp Miniatures shop in Nottingham on a free weekend. I have a little more to say on that, but it deserves its own post.

And finally, I did assemble this Minotaur by Archon Studios. There is a small mistake I made with the assembly - on the very final instruction, I didn't line the parts up correctly, and there's a small gap. I'll need to fill this in with Green Stuff, but it's really annoyed me as it's such a small thing that's really standing out to me.

The kit itself is great - it's single pose but very cleverly put together to hide an awful lot of the joins under other parts, making it really easy to assemble.

A few delightful packages

 

While I couldn't get to UK Games Expo, a friend was going, and they kindly picked up a couple of bits and pieces for me. The main one is the event exclusive Miranda Ashcroft for Infinity, who I have been dying to get since we saw the preview of her.

Also picked up are a couple of preview miniatures from Duncan's new wargame venture, and the Games Workshop AoS event miniature - sadly the 40K ones had gone a little too fast once I heard they were there and contacted my friend.

But a huge thanks to my secret shopper, and I look forward to getting these sorted.

Fenris Games runs a small Ko-Fi project each year with varying levels, and this year the reward were some slightly fishy villagers. These should be a fun little project.

Ian was also kind enough to include these duck people stickers because he knows I'm a huge sucker for ducks. You may have guessed from this that he's a big Runequest fan...

Finally, I noticed that I had forgotten to pay postage on a Kickstarter from last year, and sure enough, once I paid up, this delightful book showed up a few days later. Beyond the Pale is an RPG inspired by Jewish history and folk lore. I've had a flick through and it looks great. I'm looking forward to settling down and having a deep read soon.

Some more models prepped for paint

 

I spent a weekend doing a batch of metal miniature assembly and undercoating, and it went pretty well. With one exception, these were some of the miniatures I picked up from Lead and Steel.

First up was part of the event goodie bag - a sample pack from Big Mr Tong. I suspect these assorted sci fi figures are going to end up being volunteers for test schemes for my Infinity Nomads.

Next up are some adventurers from 4A Miniatures. I understand that this was their first event back after a bit of time away. They've got a huge range and only some of it is my vibe, but there was plenty that is for me to pick from.

Another 4A Miniature ready for paint. This "spirit host" is a cloud of spooky faces. Excellent. Plenty of uses this can be put to in D&D or other RPGs. Should be a nice easy paint job with some contrasts and washes, too.

These weird lil things are apparently called "Pumilis Lumax" and I loved the lion headed snake and they came as a set of three. They were a bit hard to photograph in the light I had, and I'm hoping that once painted you'll be able to make a bit better sense of what they are.

And finally, from an old Nottingham Gamers Fayre, a gnome from Krakon Games. This lil guy was a in a freebie bag, and should be a nice quick paint job. With this assembly batch I've now got quite a few minis out and ready to paint, so I'm looking to settle down and remind myself how a paint brush works sooner rather than later.

Bits and pieces from Salute

 

I was relatively restrained at Salute this year, but that doesn't mean I got nothing. There were bits and pieces in the goodie bag, as usual, and I bought a couple of choice pieces.

The goodie bag had the show miniature and a set of Mantic Abyssal Dwarfs. I didn't have any particular plans for these, so they've both been eBayed.

There were also some magnetic things from Warmag, which I am tempted to try out the next time I do a big Games Workshop project, as their plastics better suit magnetising than KR Multicase foam.

And finally, amid the various advertising leaflets, the goodie bag also included quick start rules for Space Gits.

Actual purchases! I grabbed two Beastmen from Red Dragon Miniatures. I mostly grabbed this for the goat beastman who'll make a great Breggle bandit for Dolmenwood. But I also love the boar headed chap, even if I'm not quite sure what I'll use him for yet.

I got this "Bound Soul" from Four Score Gaming. I'd seen it at Chillcon and had been tempted, but decided to go for it this time. I believe the sculpt is produced by "Illusionary Constructs". It'll get added to my assorted "awful fantasy RPG encounter" pile once painted.

Anvil Industry had this cool 3D printed vampire like creature that I loved and was able to pick up. It was a bit of an impulse buy, but should be a fun paint.

Finally, I picked up this art print from Greyhawk Miniatures. I just loved the cosy vibe of this mouse wizard, so picked it up to add some art to my room.

One quick purchase of a picture frame online, and he now graces the top of my shelves, making them look five hundred percent more delightful.

A bit of a late Salute post

 

Oh. It's, um, June now, and I still haven't written about Salute in April. In my defence, I got distracted LARPing. It was a bit of an odd one - with money being a bit tight and a huge pile of miniatures I'm working through eBaying, it was never going to be a huge shopping trip. I also ended up being an extra pair of hands on the Friday helping Bad Squiddo set up as I'd taken the day off. Seeing the hall empty was very weird. But I wasn't working the stall Saturday - I was a punter with a ticket and everything! 

My old club, HATE (now Hobby and Tabletop Enthusiasts after it was accepted we haven't been in Hackney for years) was running a participation game "Mayhem at the Castle of Choas". The idea was that you made a character out of our club bits box, then joined in the assault on the deadly and chaotic Castle of Choas. As I'm not in London any more I hadn't committed to doing anything to help with this, but I did at one point buy a few sprues to add some extra bits to the rapidly diminishing pile.

It seemed to be popular all day, and I think it helped get the word out a bit that we do have regular club nights, and that we are looking for new members. If you can get to North London easily on week nights, please do check us out.

I stopped by Edinburgh University History and Games Lab, to see my friend Dr James Holloway, who has co-authored a Lion Rampant expansion called "Viking Blood Feud".  They were demoing the game on a part finished table that is eventually going to be displayed in a museum in Iceland. I didn't stay around for the game itself, but helped by rolling up some names and personality traits for the characters in the warbands.

The personalities and names really matter when you're playing a campaign around Viking blood feuds, because it really matters if that unit leader you cut down while he fled is actually the second cousin of the force leader and now he feels honour bound to seek revenge. Historicals are not usually my thing, but I loved the idea of such a narrative campaign.

I also spotted a table who was running a Discworld inspired broomstick racing game. I think this was a promotion for Rapier Miniatures, who have a range of witches on broomsticks. It looked like absolute chaos in the best sense as I was wandering past.

Opposite the Bad Squiddo stand, which was never quiet enough for me to get a photo of, was a table advertising SPRU Convention. This is a new convention starting up in Nottingham, in September 2026. I'm unsure if I can make it yet - it's the week of my dearly beloved's birthday and we have to make those plans before fitting wargaming conventions around them. SPRU is intended to be very indie focused, with the idea being that the small businesses won't pay for tables there - everything is covered in the cost of the tickets - so I really hope it takes off.

This gaming table really caught my eye. It's a demo table for Fractured Sphere by Ludus Vulpes. It's still in development at the moment but they're going to crowdfunding soon. The concept is a set of skirmish rules that can be used for any kind of setting. They had a very normal sci fi skirmish board, and this to prove the flexibility. It's a wild look for a table, and I love the weirdness.

 

I got very excited by these very bougie, very clever modular lights that you can use for painting and crafting. I nearly slipped and bought some but was gently brought down to earth by my dearly beloved. They're produced by GloForce and maybe once the hobby area is fully set up, I may upgrade my lighting set up.

I'm not really a bust kind of person, but Carlo's Miniatures stuff jumped out at me. Didn't get one in the end, but loved some of these.

I also dropped by Fenris Games. These Bronze Age "Great Orcs" have since had a successful Kickstarter campaign. They're not up on the Fenris Games shop just yet, so you may have to display some patience if they're your sort of thing.

Fenris has also picked up a bunch of the old Fogou Models range - particularly the stone huts and this amazing ring fort. (If you liked the corrugated iron shacks Fogou did, I think you'll need to go to Crooked Dice.) The ex-Fogou stuff is up on the Fenris site now, should that be your thing.

All in all, Salute turned out mostly to be a day of catching up with people, seeing what was going on in my hobby and a lot of walking. I keep thinking at these shows I'll take some time to play a demo game or something, and I always seem to run out of time.