First Squads of Gloam-Hyyn

 

Yawdryl Laf'ynt puffed on his pipe. "Jayzus t'underin' Ancestors bucko. Get to where ya be and sit der until I come to where yez at."

The young rhyfler trotted away, back up the jungle track, sandals softly slapping.

"Pashang Bossquar!" Lukey, one of the older rhyflers, a rugged backwoods quar and snail trapper, swore and spat a stream of tobacco juice at a beetle crawling up a stem. "Buckos na ken gloamy sassa-kay?"

Laf'ynt checked the magazine on his Doru. "Well, no time like the present for 'em t' learn, eh? An' they jus' needs to stan' where dey be an' all."

"You and Doh'n go right. Me, Syr'tte, an' Tafytte wit' da Cryfen will go left. We'll catch da Greenies in a crossfire."

Doh'n, another rhyfler from deep in the swamps,  laughed. "Ah, den we havin' fay dou dou!" 

Lukey nodded to Doh'n who checked the action on his jungle carbine patterned Harlech. "Soft, soft-sa baratna. Creepin' us like beetles, 'kay?"

Doh'n nodded. "Si si. Soft soft, mi pensa. No kitty mi."

The two veterans faded into the thick bush on the right of the track.

There are 7 unique poses.

Laf'ynt looked at his two remaining squad members. "Single file. Leadin' me. Tafytte you tail. Watch me signs. Maybe just a squad we facin', maybe no. Too many Greenies we allons couree. Sa sa?"

Look at their toes!

The other two Quar nodded silently. "Allez!" Laf'ynt said and plunged through the undergrowth.

4 different separate packs

With the thick canopy, and no sunlight to orient yourself with, navigation in the jungle was a challenge. Laf'ynt tried to keep in the right direction, but every time you stepped around a tree or over a log it was easy to drift off your bearing. He knew the track snaked and twisted off to his right and kept them moving that way as he pushed through the leafy undergrowth. 

Somewhere up there, his two youngest rhyflers should be dug in behind a thick log that crossed the track.

He stopped, holding a fist up. He listened carefully. Just off to the right he heard somequar softly humming the old sea shanty "Wellerquar."

Good. They weren't lost.

They soon came upon the enormous rotting tree trunk. It's ancient bulk was covered in fungus and vines and swarmed with insects.

Tafytte pulled off some rotten wood and grabbed a fat beetle, crunching it noisily.

Laf'ynt just looked at him and shook his head. "Zwah" he whispered. They scrambled under the trunk where a thick branch still held it up. He moved them up to be just ahead of the roadblock, where they could shoot down the track.

They settled down in the undergrowth and waited.

******************

The Gloam-Hyyn are a fan made faction, created by YouTube painter Mish Mash! who has added a lot of enthusiastic Quar content to his popular 40k channel, helping to boost Quar among mainstream 40k players. The Gloam-Hyyn have a decided Cajun flavor, living in a swampy bayou. But there are also notes of Viet Cong and to me, at least, since they're coastal dwelling fisher folk, Newfoundlanders. So in my head, poorer quar, from deep in the swamp or working the shrimp boats, talk with a thick patois that I've liberally coloured with Cajun and Belter slang. Better educated "townies" talk like Newfoundlanders.

The camouflage helmets and functional sandals definitely give them a jungle warfare vibe, so I took inspiration from WW2 Japanese for their uniforms, using Vallejo "Japanese Uniform" for tunics and trousers, and Tamiya "IJA Green" for the helmets. Then a lot of ink washes of varying intensity on their belts and packs. The big plants and tufts are from Gamer Grass. 

Like all Quar factions, there is no direct analogy with a human historical army. There are similarities, but a lot of mixing too, to keep things interesting. 

But these and my Toulmorese will take Quar and my wargaming from the Western Front of WW1 to Burma and the Pacific Islands of WW2. Because variety and all that.

Squirrel!

Of all the whimsical, goofy things that I love about Quar, Messenger Squirrels and their Handlers are probably my favorite. 

Phone lines get cut by shelling. Radios are too heavy to be carried by Company HQ and are unreliable. But the clever, agile pykpyks get through. 

So I'm quite pleased that my Coftyran Company HQ Squad now has their own Messenger Squirrel Handler and is complete as far as I'm concerned. 

Officially, the Company HQ Squad, or Caerten's Retinue, consists of himself, the Master-Yawdryl, Cook, Squirrel Handler, Musician, and Standard Bearer, and up to four Rhyflers to use for HQ Defense or Runners.

A Musician or Standard don't totally fit the WW1 vibe I'm looking for. Medics will fill in for one of those to remove shock etc.

If there were some Musicians with more whimsical instruments, like something Dr. Seuss would give a Who, I would probably change my mind however, but the plastic set appears to have a drum. Boring! Perhaps alternate musicians will be available through the MyMiniFactory Tribe?

I can only hope.

This fellow was made entirely from 3d printed components, except the left arm, which I made from a left over plastic arm and a clenched fist cut from a bent arm.

This Old Bunker

I had built these bunkers about 15 years ago when I was tootling around with a Second Anglo-Boer War project. They were made from air drying clay over a card board shell.

The Canadian Mounted Rifles chasing Boer bitterenders across the veldt project faltered on not finding a decent proxy for the CMR. So the bunkers sat in their tan paint. And later research revealed to me that Boer War bunkers were different anyway. Oh well, never mind.

I used the big one as a Afghan National Army/Police sangar a few times in my 20mm Canadians in Afghanistan project. I had vague thoughts of turning them into components for a Patrol Base. It turns out bunkers in Afghanistan were very different as well. Oh well, never mind.  Making all those HESCO bastions was intimidating and I shelved the idea.

QRF rolls out past an ANA checkpoint to rescue a LAV patrol hit by an IED.

Then I thought they'd look really good if I gave them a bit of a reno and incorporated them into my Quar trenches.

The small bunker originally had a flat roof painted to look like rusting tin, but I added coffee stirrer planks as a floor and built a parapet out of some extra plastic and greenstuff sandbags I had accumulated. I always try to shape any leftover greenstuff into sandbags instead of throwing it out. I had to get out the Miliput and make more to finish it off but that's ok. Ladders were made from match sticks to allow access to the roofs.

Then it was just a matter of spending a Friday night on Zoom with some friends and painting them. I used Games Workshop Dark Angels Green Contrast paint to go over all the sandbags (which had already been painted burnt umber then drybrushed tan), and then dry brushing with craft paint Antique Green. Any wood was painted burnt umber brown, then dry brushed grey, then hit with a sepia ink wash. I used the ink on any tan crevices among the sand bags that the previous four coats of paint missed. The ground, originally sand, was painted and flocked.

Small bunker

Interior view showing cardboard shell with skin of air drying clay overtop. Rhyfler Puwl demonstrates proper use of a firing slit.

Side view

Rear view

Big bunker

Interior view. An M2b HMG just reaches the firing slit!

Side view

Rear view. Wall of sandbags to protect the entrance on this one.

Action shots! 31 Combat Engineer Regiment assaults a heavily fortified Royalist defensive line.

About to put a grenade through a firing slit

Have a satchel charge!

Through the wire!

Midgard in Mantovia

Played a 400+ point game of Midgard last night with Scott, Brett, Dan, and Pat.

I got out my 11th-12th century Medieval stuff and was able to build armies over 400 pts and still leave troops in the box! So I guess I don't need to buy any Victrix Norman cavalry or infantry. Which is good to know. I think as is, I can build armies up to 500 points easily.

Fulk the Bastard has once again raised the banner of rebellion to overthrow his father, Count Raymond the Good in my Medieval Imagine-Nation of Mantovia.

I was so absorbed with playing and guiding my friends through the rules that I didn't get many photos.

But here are some:

The centers clash. Cound Raymond's ward crashes into the Black Company

View from my ward. My crossbows are having trouble finding targets.

The Red knight smashes the Saracens mercenaries lead by Khalid al-Babar in his sedan chair.

End game. My ward has been bashed about. Losing it's commander in a duel with the perfidious Black Knight. Count Raymond having lost all of his troops is coming over to take command, but the enemy center is in not bad shape either.

The game ended with both sides into negative Reputation Points, but Count Raymond was at -2 whereas Fulk only had -1. Very bloody! Count Raymond is wounded and will have to retreat and regroup. Fulk will need to regroup as well before he can lay siege to any castles.

I like that with Midgard I can incorporate my head fluff for the different characters.

I need to buy a big bag of glass beads for Reputation Tokens. They're easier to pull from the Tea Mugs of Reputation than plastic bingo chips.

Hotlead 2025 AAR

Another Hotlead is in the books. 2025 was a fantastic year. Almost 400 people attended. Real life got in the way for some game masters and we had a flurry of 5 unfortunate game cancelations in the week leading up to the show (i.e. after the program was printed), but we still had a DBA and an ADLG tournament, 10 role-playing games, and 77 participation miniatures games ranging from cavemen to space marines, big battles to skirmishes, on air, land, and sea, and ranging from 2mm to 54mm in size. 

The Bring and Buy did over $22,000 in business, generating over $2,200 for charity, plus we also had a jar at the admission table that garnered another $400 for this year's charity, which is buying medical supplies for Ukraine in memory of Dan Cushenan, an old, dear friend of half the B&B Team.

Dan Cushenan in happier times, enjoying the heck out of Dan Hutter's annual Mongols With Mausers pulp action game.

The Bring & Buy Team

The last of our legacy vendors has gone, but that's left room for new businesses to fill the void, including these new faces:

Centuries Historical Miniatures 

Beaver and Broadsword 

We even had a craftsperson selling fiber art. Atticus and Clark Creations sold a lot of aime and fantastical crochet figures. My granddaughter liked her crochet corn dog.

Here's a random sampling of games. I've probably forgotten to include many. I wasn't as good about taking pictures myself this year, so I'm using ones posted on the Hotlead Facebook Group.

Friday night!

Gladiator Game

Ancient Gallies

War of 1812 using Black Sail rules.

WW1 Dreadnoughts

More ships! But this time as the setting for a game of Silver Bayonet set in the arctic, which was popular and ran three times. The ships were printed by Beaver and Broadsword. 

Some Epic ACW

Who you gonna call? The Ghostbusters resolve some Mayhem in Manhattan.

15mm Samurai

Frostgrave

Necromunda

Memoir '44 Battle of Stalingrad. GM ran a 3 game mini-campaign with each game's results affecting the one that came after.

Canvas Eagles. We had several air games this year. WW1, WW2, and a couple of jet age games too.

Battle of Britain

Harriers vs Mirages over the Falkland Islands

RCAF P40s vs Japanese seaplane fighters over the Aleutians

Brian gives a player briefing

I'm explaining something to do with Quar

WW1 with multiple trench lines

Dan runs a French Indochina game using Xenos Rampant.

Big Dave a Pete ran a Pulp Adventure game using When Nightmares Come. Players had to survive three encounters, find clues, solve puzzles and then stop the Big Bad in the final encounter

View form the other end. The three encounters were in Venice, the British Museum, and Peterborough Ontario (!)

The final showdown

British Museum

Venice

Dan's Congo Rebellion game

March or Die! Foreign Legion vs Berbers (or are they Tuaregs?)

15mm Italian Wars

The Death Ride of the 1st Hussars at Le Mesnil Patry, 11 June 1944

6mm figures. Rules used were O Group

Battle of Vittoria

The Seven Year's War in India

The sprawling, mad VSF Bring and Battle which is an incredibly popular Sunday morning tradition.

There were more families in evidence this year, which was very gratifying. A new born was wearing a "My First Hotlead 2025" shirt which tickled us all immensely. The new dad has been coming for 10 years, starting as a lad being brought by his uncle. 

My daughter helping mom on the Front Desk, like she did in High School. 

My daughter helping my grandson in his first convention. They're playing Combat Tails, involving anthropomorphic animals with guns.

Grandson's haul. Mom recognized the deal on the houses (all 3 for Cdn$15). He got some nice on sale Model  Builder Supply trees too.

Granddaughter flexing her cuteness to sell 3 cases of Girl Guide cookies on Saturday. She could've sold more. Her mom and auntie did the same thing 25 years ago. An attendee gifted us the donuts. Don is trying to keep out of them.

A friend gifted me a toy Tiger tank, thinking I could convert it into a Quar tractor. I said "hmmm... probably not... but I've got a grandson!" He also went home with some 1/72 WW2 plastic figures and a toy Sherman. His mom, having grown up with her dad's wargaming, has set him up with some basic paints etc. 

Now I've got more gift options beyond Lego at least. And perhaps my friends won't have the burden of trying to shift my gaming stuff when I die if the grandkids will be interested. 

Next year will be our 30th convention. 20 March to 22 March 2026.