Now that 2026 is here, I thought I’d recap the fun projects I did in 2025 and took out to show people. Not all of these started life as ‘display’ pieces, but I have a pretty loose definition here, which is anything you show people so they ooo and ahhh over it.
This year I aimed to enter more art shows/competitions and complete a range of pieces focused in a few different areas. I need to finalize these themes a little bit moving forward, but a lot of my work has been focusing on ‘dark fantasy’ pieces (a very common theme in minis, which I extend to include certain historical pieces) and ‘propaganda’ pieces (focusing on recent history and future visions of an often broken but occasionally idealistic world). These haven’t fully formed yet, and a goal for 2026 is to help crystalize some of these themes in my work. Alright, that’s enough random ranting.
I went to a few cons, but I haven’t traveled a lot exclusively to show things off. I tend to focus on things in driving distance, where transport is easier. I’m balancing this with hosting narrative games as well, so I only have so much time. And on top of that I’m still very much learning, its loads of fun but sometimes a slog. But I had a blast and made some cool things this year for sure.
By and large, given where I am at, I’m trying to get pieces ‘done enough’ then move on. So generally, right now, I only try to take something to a show twice, and if it gets some recognition I move on with my life. The goal is to keep things fresh, exciting and keep growing! I’d rather do something cool and new rather than rehash the same old thing over and over again searching for awards.
So the start of the year was a little slow, but things picked up in May…
Under the Dice Fest 2025
For UTDF, I was pushing on a number of projects, including my NEMO warband and warmaster boards. But I put together two main ‘display’ projects.
Cult of the Mushroom God
My night goblin warband consisted of a bunch of heretical goblins who hold the view that Gork and Mork are reflections of a single, mushroomy god. The bulk of the warband are these cool old metal goblins I traded for at an Oldhammer meetup in 2024 in NJ, supplemented by some custom sculpted models for the Squigs and some oldhammer fanatics and a shaman.
No Mercy
I wanted to do a 28mm mech combat diorama, which I bought to Rusted Demon. This was inspired by Flames of Orion, the skirmish mech game, and the goal of building something heavily kitbashed. This was a lot of fun, and I revisited for historicon. This is built out of bits, but also plasticard, spackle, rocks from the ground, drywall anchors, and usb cables. This was painted quickly via oils.
MFCA
The MFCA show was great, but I hadn’t planned to bring a ton there as it wasn’t on my radar. So I grabbed what I had to enter the fantasy category. One of these I had done for an online Infinity painting competition, and three of the others had been to Nova before. But I did some glowups and repairs and dragged them along.
Historicon
Next, I brought some new pieces to Historicon 2025 and the painting competition there run by Dave Taylor (always awesome to meet a legend). This included some new pieces, with a historical bent, and somethings I was working on for a while. I revisited the No Mercy diorama and gave it a bit of a glowup too!
Nova 2025 Capital Palette
After this was Nova 2025 and the Capital Palette. I’ve loved the open format of this, so I had been planning for this one for a while. This included some glowups and some new pieces I had put together!
Into the Unknown
Ambush at Caenarfon
Happy Dragon
Crisis Troop Scorch: For Your Force Projection Needs!
The Justicar
PAX Arcadian Brush 2025
This was another new one for me- had never been before, but brought some new things and some remixes! I brought the Happy Dragon and Ambush at Caenarfon out for a second outing.
Oil Experiment Number 1
Yue Mineral Heavy Mining Conglomerate- Find your prosperity in the Human Sphere!
So it was a fun year of projects- already working away on next year’s and have a big backlog of ideas! Always easier to come up with ideas than execution.
-BS