Under the Dice Fest 2025: Day 1

While darkness and ill-tidings are certainly the theme of many of the games played at Under the Dice Fest 2025, the camaraderie and friendship on display at the event was just the opposite.

In the past few years, the three of us at Between the Bolter and Me have made an effort to attend more gaming events and conventions, though if we are being honest, it has largely just been attending events hosted by the Under the Dice/Hive Scum crew. May 16, 17, and 18 of this year was the 2nd Under the Dice Fest, and Adam and Greg made the trip to Connecticut to attend! The Under the Dice/Hive Scum crew have been tirelessly promoting the weirder and independent side of the miniature-based tabletop wargaming hobby. They have been shining a bright light on those hobbyists that are interested in telling their own stories through miniature gaming, and those who are willing to step outside of the scope of the game rules as written, or even create their own games and miniatures, to do it. Every event that they host is a gathering of amazing, like-minded people passionate about their interpretation of the miniature wargaming hobby, and something we do not want to miss.

Dragged into Turbolasers 118 - Part 1: Under the Dice Fest 2025.

Under the Dice Fest 2025.

In part one of a special two-part episode, we interview people who attended Under the Dice Fest 2025, a small festival in Massachusetts celebrating miniature-based tabletop wargaming. The festival was designed to appeal to those who shy away from the mainstream iterations of the miniature wargaming hobby, focusing on those who want to play the games on their terms, sometimes outside of the scope of the game rules as written, or those who want to play old games which their publishers no longer support. It highlights those who are more concerned with telling a story with the miniatures they build than with creating something optimal in terms of a game’s rule system. A punk rock approach to the miniature wargaming hobby, if you will.

Flames of Orion: Dark Spirit painted

Echoes Through the Empty Chambers of Heaven.

Earlier this month, we converted a model for Flames of Orion, a mech combat game that Steve (sovthofheaven) designed. It was an ideal time, as a Kickstarter is currently running to create a physical print of the book (which is available to download for free). It was also just in time for Under the Dice Fest, where we used the model in the Flames of Orion event, Beneath a Dying Sun!

Photography: Developing Black and White Film

A History of Bad Men (Tmax 100; developed in Ilfosol 3 [1:9]).

For the past year, I have been fascinated by film photography, having been introduced to it from my late grandfather. Shortly after starting to shoot 35mm film, I began to scan my negatives using my Nikon Zf with a 105mm f2.8 MC lens and a Valoi Easy35. This allowed me to pay a lab to develop the film for me, but digitize and edit the negatives myself, rather than paying for the lab to scan them (and often give low quality jpegs unless you pay over $20 per roll). This reduced cost while also affording me more control over the process. Despite this, I could not escape the feeling that I should also be doing the development myself too. My grandfather would often talk about how he used to develop his own black and white film and even had a darkroom for a short while. After doing some research, I discovered that the process is relatively straightforward, only requiring a single developer that can be used at room temperature (20oC/68oF) and a fixer. To my delight, I was given a Paterson Film Processing Starter Kit as an early birthday gift, and wanted to share some of my initial results!

Flames of Orion: Dark Spirit

Violence Dimension.

Over the last few years, we had the opportunity to playtest Flames of Orion, Steve’s (sovthofheaven) mech combat game. The game’s rules were recently finalized, with copies getting sold at Adepticon this year, but also available to download for free! The game is soon going to be launched on Kickstarter too! Each time we played the game, we used one of Steve’s mechs (sculpted by Ana Polanšćak of Gardens of Hecate), Dark Spirit. Over time, they developed quite a legacy and are even featured in a narrative piece in the rulebook. With Under the Dice Fest rapidly approaching this year, we thought it would be fun to create our own version of Dark Spirit so we can use them during the event!

Captured in film: In memory of Donald Wier

In loving memory of Donald Wier (Beep): February 21, 1930- April 28, 2025.

Yesterday, our beloved grandfather Donald Wier, affectionately known as “Beep,” passed away in his bed surrounded by family. Beep often encouraged us to keep up with our art, and was always eager to see our latest creations and offer his unwavering support. While we will miss him greatly, he will live on with us in spirit as we continue to follow our passions. We are so grateful for the gift of last year to connect with him over film photography, as we learned how to shoot 35mm film on his beloved cameras, an Exakta VX and a Minolta SR-T 201. During his 95th birthday, I had the privilege to shoot a roll of Kodak Porta 800 and Tri-X 400 through his Exakta, capturing not only his portrait, but also some photos of miniatures. I wanted to share some of these photos here in memory and celebration of the wonderful person he was and the creativity he will continue to inspire us with.

Mordheim: Chaos Dwarf reinforcements

Desolation Hexx.

I recently started to create a Chaos Dwarf warband for Mordheim. Rather than extensively convert the warband, like I did with my Sister's of Sigmar warband, I wanted to create this one using old miniatures from the 80s, leaning into the Oldhammer theme. Last month I trimmed and assembled the first three models for the warband. This month I continued the process and added three more dwarves to the warband!

Dragged into Turbolasers 117: Reflecting on Adepticon 2025 with Redwetskeleton.

Frustration.

We chat with Eli (Redwetskeleton) about his new hobby YouTube channel and his time at Adepticon 2025!

Vastarian: Church Raid

The Cult of the Lantern (created by rojasnoirlac) has made its way to Ravachol, Vastarian.

Recently, when Bill Ford was in Maryland for a work trip, we had the good fortune of meeting up with him and Dave Taylor! Not wanting to miss the opportunity to roll some dice, we were able to set up Bill’s Chapel board and play a game within our Vastarian setting! Below are some photos from the game with a loose narrative conveyed in the captions.

Mordheim: Chaos Dwarves

Cartography of Suffering.

Mordheim has always been a game that is easy to come back to. For some time now, I have been interested in trying my hand at building a new warband with a slightly different focus from my normal realistic approach. Instead of heavily converting models I want to focus on using Oldhammer models. The warband I am interested in is the Chaos Dwarves, though not necessarily the big hatted ones. I set my sights on the old Marauder Chaos Dwarf line sculpted by Aly Morrison. Through some eBay searching I was able to acquire three. Each one wears armor with a more sinister and brutalist look than the big hats popularized by the Games Workshop Chaos dwarves.

Dragged into Turbolasers 116: Reflecting on the new Eldar Aspect Warrior models.

We chat with our friend Chad about Games Workshop’s newest Eldar releases, including the new Phoenix Lords and Aspect Warriors!

Using old DSLR's for Miniature Photography: Nikon D7000

Hess Poison Breath.

In this hobby, we tend to focus on building and painting models and spend considerably less time photographing our creations, aside from taking some quick photos with our cell phones. Over the last few years I have been trying to change this and have been making a concerted effort to improve as a photographer. I started this journey with a mirrorless camera (Fujifilm XT4), but last year, after being gifted some single-lens reflex (SLR) film cameras from my grandfather, I was inspired to learn more about the process and leverage it to better document my hobby journey. This pushed me to explore the analog world of film photography and recently to print some of my photography. 

Dragged into Turbolasers 115: Talking to Redwetskeleton about daemons and the Vastarian Inq28 event.

Herald of the Child Inverted: The Paramour

We chat with Eli about our Vastarian Inq28 and the incredible daemons he created for the climax of the event. All hail the Child Inverted.

Vastarian: A suffocating darkness

Eli standing next to his horrifying creation, the Child Inverted.

Last November we held an Inq28 event with Bill Ford: Vastarian - Dreams of the Pious. The setting revolves around the cathedral world of Vastarian, which is home to hundreds of disparate Imperial religious sects, each venerating the God-Emperor of Mankind in their own unique way. The opening of the Cicatrix Maledictum, a great tear in the fabric of the Milky Way Galaxy, has resulted in a psychic awakening across the populace of Vastarian. Each religious sect on the planet now believes that they alone were blessed with a psychic emissary touched by the Emperor himself. The tenuous peace on Vastarian has now devolved to bloodshed and persecution. During this psychic turmoil, the Astronomican, the purifying radiance of the Emperor, plummeted as if it were a tallow candle guttering in a tumultuous wind. It was in dreams that panic spread, a euphoric terror spawned from an encroaching darkness–a presence that seeping in from the margins, dripping from the stars as if they were untethering from reality. This darkness was later attributed to the manifestation of a daemonic presence on Vastarian, the Child Inverted. These daemons were made in secret by Eli (redwetskeleton) and only revealed on the final day of the event, when the lighthouse was activated!

Printing my miniature photography

A print of one of my Vastarian photos on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Matt Baryta paper.

Over the last few years, I have become increasingly more interested in photography. Last year, after being gifted some film cameras from my grandfather, I was really energized to try to push myself to become better at the craft. Learning to work with the limitations of film excited and encouraged me to focus more closely on my photography, which I tried to put to good use for the Vastarian Inq28 event last November. Working with an analog medium like film got me thinking more about how photography is so often viewed digitally, on phone screens and monitors, rather than in prints like I remember from my youth. This led me to consider getting a photo printer, to take some of the digital and film images I have taken and translate them into physical media, something larger than the tiny phone screen that I use to mindlessly scroll through Instagram. After doing some research, I quickly realized, like so many things, photo/art printing is a complex affair, one that could be a hobby in of itself. Despite this, after watching some videos by Keith Cooper, I decided on starting my printing journey with an Epson EcoTank ET-8550 printer. 

28 Collected Kickstarter: Trench Crusade Combat Biologist

Variants Of Concern.

28, in conjunction with Dave Taylor Miniatures, is running a Kickstater campaign to publish a physical version of 28 magazine, collecting many excellent articles from the past 6 issues of the digital magazine! The Kickstarter is only running for a few more days, but has exceeded its funding goal and unlocked a host of fun stretch goals. One of the unlocked stretch goals is providing every backer with an STL file to 3D print a miniature for Trench Crusade! The miniature, a Combat Biologist, was sculpted by 28’s very own James Sherriff! We were fortunate to get a copy of the model and did some minor conversion work on it. We hope to paint it soon. We encourage everyone to look at the Kickstarter and consider getting a copy before the campaign ends next week!

28 Collected Kickstarter!

We are excited to say that 28, in conjunction with Dave Taylor Miniatures, just started a Kickstater campaign to publish a physical version of 28 magazine, collecting many excellent articles from the past 6 issues of the digital magazine! Since the first issue was released in 2018, people have been asking for a printed version of the magazine, so we are happy that this is finally becoming a reality. The three of us have been involved with 28 since its inception, where we have been editors and writers. The printed volume will be a 320-page, hardback book, with almost 50 different articles. One of these articles was written by the three of us, talking about our Vastarian: Dreams of the Pious open invitational! We encourage everyone to look at the Kickstarter and consider getting a copy!

2024, a year in review!

With 2025 upon us, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on 2024 and what we accomplished on the blog, before moving ahead with new projects. The blog has now completed twelve full years! Throughout 2024, we were able to maintain regular blog posts while also continuing our podcast, and weekly Twitch streaming. With this post we wanted to look at our most popular posts of the year, while also highlighting our favorite episodes of the podcast.

Dragged into Turbolasers 114: Chatting with Dave Taylor about the hobby and the Vastarian Inq28 event.

The Cult of the Lightbringer arrive in Ravachol.

We chat with Dave Taylor, of Dave Taylor Miniatures, about his time with Games Workshop and how that led him starting his production studio. We also talk with him about his experience at the Vastarian Inq28 event in Houston Texas.

32 - Episode 23: 28 Collected

28 is finally going to have a physical form!

The team discusses 28, how the magazine was started, the ups and downs it has experienced and its future. We also talk about the upcoming book, 28 Collected, and why we are finally making a physical product.