2024… for some reason always seemed like a number from the distant future, but here we are! Time to set some hobby goals. 

I have a ton of gaming interests and unfortunately, like the majority of you, limited time. Especially working full time, having a toddler and multiple gaming interests along with all the other family and friend commitments. Enough of my excuses… damnit! Did Alexander the Great make excuses, Michelangelo, or Lincoln? Actually probably as it’s human nature, but probably a ton less of them.  They all accomplished a lot more than I ever will do and I’m just over here talking about building plastic toys which I can barely accomplish!

So without furher adieu my list…until I get distracted and have to add more things to my list.

ADEPTICON 2024

The big show is coming up in the middle of March and Ben and I have either bravely, or foolishly decided to run a couple of events. Due to Ben’s heavy influence we decided to do a Stalingrad- Concrete Monolith scenario featuring the infamous Grain Elevator. This would allow me to use the beast of a model again for the elevator in not one, but two scenarios. For not one, but two gaming systems. Bolt Action and Chain of Command. Due to the scope of this narrative game project, Ben and I would divide some of the responsibilities for table creation. In addtion we would have to playtest scenarios multiple times for both systems with the help of members of the Wisconsin Wargaming Brigade. In future articles I will document terrain progress here on Iron Dice and Misfit Machinations. 

The plan is to construct a 5×8 table specifically for the Concrete Monolith. It will contain trenches, craters, rubble, ruins and intact buildings. In addtion roads and train tracks. Fourteen feet of track to be precise. More on this in the future!

BRITISH COMMANDOS

A while back I purchased the allied commandos infantry and support packs from Warlord Games on a really good deal from Miniature Market. I had intended to give them to my son as a gift, but seeing as he has hardly touched the late war German Army I bought him in several years I decided to keep them all for myself! Great models and they are nearing completion. I have also been tempted by 0200 Hours by Grey For Now Games and might also use them for that. I will feature them on here when complete.

BURMA 14th ARMY BRITS

Once again Ben is a bad influence and we started talking about the pacific Theatre… which I had absolutely no intention on getting into once I started my WW2 gaming journey, but here I am. I’m not super interested in the Marine island hopping campaign, though I’m a little more interested in the US Army’s exploits as they are largely overshadowed by the Marines. The regualr Brits in Burma have always interested me in their role in the war, but I needed to do a bunch of conversions to make that happen. I started collecting the neccessary kits, assembling and base painiting last year. This year after Adepticon I will start work on them again. In addtion, I was able to piece together a small force of Indian Punjab infantry. Looking forward to getting these on the table as well.

IMPERIAL JAPANESE ARMY

Well what would the 14th Army be without an opponent? I haven’t touched these yet, but look forward to putting them together and painting them as well. 

SOVIET MISCELANEOUS UNITS AND CLEAN UP

I have a ton of Soviets table ready for the most part, but they aren’t up to where I’d like them so I will put some work into imporving them when time allows. In addtion, I have some new units I’d like to complete like a really cool NKVD squad and an Assault Engineer squad. 

EARLY WAR GERMANS MISCELLANEOUS UNITS

I’m very happy with my Early War force, except I have some extra units to paint up yet to complete them. I just got sick of working on them in prep for Adepticon last year as they weren’t ones I brought to the tournament. 

WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE

Of course I’ll need some jungle terrain. Slowly, but surely, I’ve been accumulating jungle trees and terrain. Really looking forward to the possibilities.

RIVER ASSAULT

I have a bunch of plastic rafts, roughly inscale, that I accumulated years ago. Looking forward to doing a river crossing board for the Eastern Front or Commandos in Western Europe.

ITALY BOARD

I may try to tackle a small Italy board for an annual event I host for a group of friends that typically don’t play Bolt Action. Its called Big Ass Bolt Action Battle or BABAB for short. We’ll see what the flavor will be.

BATTLEFRONT- 15mm

Once again Ben is a bad influence, but his tenacity has lead me to Battlefront using 15mm of which I already had some (mostly Brits and some German Armor). My Brits are almost done already from when I thought years ago I’d play Flames of War and it never took off for me. I just have to fix up some of the vehicles. The Germans I had, but sold all the infantry so repurchased new ones and was in the process of building and painting them before the holidays. Looking forward to doing some company sized battles on 15mm terrain. Then of course there will be more terrain construction….. sigh.

FORBIDDEN PSALM – LAST WAR

I have a couple boxes of WW1 troops I intend to buld and convert for grimdark LAST WAR fun. Looking froward to this side project. In addition, I’ll be looking at doing some dark and gritty terrain.

GASLANDS

Having a blast with this game. Converting Hot Wheels cars into post apocolyptic killing machines….c’mon! I will be creating more boards and cars for this for sure. 

BATTLETECH

Alpha Strike has been fun and I have some fun terrain ideas for this one. Stay tuned.  

WESTERN

What system? What minis? I don’t know the answer to any of these questions yet, but I plan to play a demo game or two at Adepticon to get a feel for what I might like.

D&D CAMPAIGNS

As if all this wasn’t enough I run a couple D&D campaigns as well as some “one shot” Call of Cthulhu games. Those take a lot of time to prep typically and I make terrain for some of those. I have some big set pieces I’ll be working on later this year.

3D PRINTER

I bought a Elegoo Saturn 3d printer on a 60% off sale last year. Haven’t touched it yet, but I’m excited and nervous to see what what wonders it can produce. Especially in the area of terrain. 

MISFIT MACHINATIONS

A while ago, thanks to Ben’s encouragement, I created “Misfit Machinations”. What is Misfit Machinations you ask? Well its kind of my hobby alter ego I guess. It comes from a bastardization of my rpg gaming group who call themselves “Drew’s Misfits”. So I stole it to make my own hobby page on Facebook. Recently I added an Instagram account called misfitmachinations and a YouTube channel, which I have yet to post anything. Too scared yet and really want to be able to dedicate the time to it. 

My goal with this is to post more on both FB and Instagram and start filming terrain creation and battle reports for YouTube by years end. (Like a thousand other people on YouTube!)  I’ve been monkeying around with editing software, bought a camera during Black Friday and have consumed a lot of tutorials. Once I get a dozen or more episodes in the can I will offically launch the channel and see where it goes. Of course the nice thing is it will all be done in conjunction with our sweet Iron Dice Gaming blog and upcoming podcasts which will hopefully create some good exposure for everyone involved. 

Other Things

I’m sure there will be other ventures that catch my eye throughout the year…. Stargrave, Saga, and getting some more Chain of Command in…… I need another lifetime just ot play games!

Whew! I think thats enough for now. I’m exhausted just typing all this. Wish me luck!