We’ll I’m back. Another Adepticon on the books! I’ve only been going for three years now, so I’m hardly a veteran, but Adepticon has been really resonating with me and I continue to dig the new downtown location in Milwaukee. And the biggest thing for me is it’s such a draw around the country and the world for hobbyists, so it’s a fantastic meetup location for folks that I frankly don’t get to see as much as I’d like. My old high school gaming friends, our club friends who have moved out to the west coast, the Hive Scum crew, and a bunch of folks I’ve met mostly through events like Adepticon! And it’s a great chance to continue to meet new folks and grow our little corner of the gaming community.
The downside is, of course, that it’s the 800lb gorilla of the US wargaming conventions- it’s huge, far away (for me anywho), and expensive. It’s hard to see everyone, hard to find things, and impossible to do everything. And all the big companies (but also cool little ones) are there trying to get you to spend money. So I get if some people are just turned off by that. But even if you’re coming at it from a more indie/weirdo side of things they’ve really expanded the spaces available to little groups of hard working people, and you don’t even need to buy a badge to get in the door and play in unofficial events.
So overall, I think it’s worth it: you’ve got the world-class tournaments (not that I care), amazing painting (I very much care) and solid and growing weirdo/historical wargaming (also very much care)!
The Painting
So this year I was lucky enough to snag spots in two great classes.
First up was Matt DePietro’s (http://www.contrastminiatures.com/ ) blending boot camp- I’ve worked with him before on these topics but it was fantastic to get a deep dive and really see and feel the techniques in person, as blending techniques are real muscle memory skills that need physical training and translate less well to virtual events. We dove into glaze blending, two-brush blending, and wet blending. Coming out of the workshop, I really want to buckle down and focus until I get these three seamlessly ingrained in my process.
Second was my first workshop with Katarzyna Gorska (KAHA)- I’ve read her book and was excited to take her in person class. This one was sketching a bust, with a real focus on how she approaches color and composition in sketching. Of particular interest was how we laid out colors, and I tried a new technique (for me) of working half of the color wheel at a time, and running from one end to the other to create wild color transitions that still hang together harmoniously.
Excited to finish this one up!
Overall, it’s amazing to see so many famous (and infamous, and unfamous) painters hanging out. I chatted with folks doing purely painting cons- entering shows, taking classes, and painting to the wee hours of the night (therefore regretting their decisions in the next morning’s class).
The competitions are really cool to- Golden Demon is of course back and very well known. As I’ve documented, I pushed ahead and actually entered my oldhammer pieces this year, one in Old World and one in Diorama! I was also encouraged to see a wider range of painting styles (if not miniatures and themes) do well, which encouraged me to engage again. Next year Golden Demon and Rogue Trader are both 40 years old, so I’m already scheming up some zany ideas…
BUT what I’m very jazzed about are the other competitions that get less coverage- Resin Beast, Marvel Crisis Protocol, and especially the new Monument Hobbies MinisAsArt open show. I’m really excited about this one, as it could make Adepticon a top-tier painting art show. I hope to be there in 2027!
The Gaming
And of course there was loads of gaming. I avoided all your tournaments and such (the T-word scares me, for reasons I should probably talk to a professional about), but they’re of course numerous and, I’m told, world-class.
I dug all the little events- I played demo games of The Napoleonic Ruleset ESR (I expect to be playing more), joined the Lead Pursuit Podcast for some Mig combat (https://www.leadpursuit.net/), and saw a ton of cool Mordheim, Warmaster, Necromunda, etc etc. A couple highlights was the Warmaster event (probably the largest in the US for 20 years or so, just shy of 30 people) and trying out Oasis, which is a super cool new indie 6mm SciFi wargame which punches way above it’s weight with production levels.
In a corner of the con like the Grimdark Alley (organized off the Hive Scum and In Rust we Trust crew), there were so many odd little games happening along with bits swaps and impromptu events. If you can get to Milwaukee, you can have an amazing con without a badge, avoiding all the big tournaments, and just hanging out with the gang.
And the Hive Scum and Smash/Bash folks had their sick booth. I did not get TylerIsAlrightAtPainting’s new shirt (BOO) because he sold out (YAY for him I guess), but I did get to pull some Teeth out of a box with a new friend, while shouting ‘Teeth’ as loudly as we all could.
So another Adepticon on the books. I’m excited for next year! I’ll have to figure out how to better fly some of my minis cross-country…
-BS