Oldhammer Weekend 2026 summary

Just like 4 lears ago I 've just came back from Oldhammer Weelend Poland. This time I was double motivated to move mu ass to the capital city by the fact, I didn't manage to go last year, and I had the Slaanesh Chaos Army painted especially for that event. Oldhammer Weekend Poland is always special thing. This time it was even more special for me, 'cause in the middle of Saturday Warhammer Fantasy campaign I got sick, puked twice (luckly for everyone around there was toilet nearby) and had to drop the last Saturday game and big battle on Sunday. Apparently Papa Nurgle didn't like me painting Slaanesh stuff... 🙄

But despite that, the even was pretty cool thing - for everyone who likes middlehammer era games that is. Just like every year there was painting contest - I brought 3 entries and the Bloodthirster / Daemon Prince brought me bronze statue in large model category. In 2022 Carnifex brought me the same prize, so I guess painting large models is my "thing". Not sure I was hoping for anything more, but other entries were just supercool, so the judges had tough job to pick only 3 in each category.

The think I was waiting for the most was the Warhammer Fantasy Battle campaign. Thie time teams were made of 2 armies of 1500 points (good vs evil) and my Warriors of Slaanesh were matched with Lizardmen force. It was pretty cool experience to stand at the same side with Lustria's reptiles. We got our arses kicked by Chaos Dwarves + Empire team, won (by total accident methinks) Dark Elves + High Elves and that was it for my Warhammer gaming.

During the games I had some thoughts about Warhammer: no matted how much I like the fluff, artworks, models, painting models etc, gaming itseld is just fucking stupid. I mean 5th edition. I know it's the matter of convention, but that "herohammer" attitude makes painting most of army just necessary evil - if a single model mounted on large creature is able to wipe out almost every unit single-handedly. The army I fielded was painted for the display case and that's it, so I didn't expect much of them on "real" 5th edition field of battle, but still - 6 edition ot The Old World are much more player and fun-friendly. 

Anyway - here's what I brought. Army list is based or earlier Armies of Chaos box (the red period era):

Friday evening I've manage to see some Gorkamorka gaming. I was pretty cool thing to see orky-junk staggeing on the battlefield. Must say I really regret I never managed to give it a try - all those vehicles bring so much converting opportunities! The battles were raging till the late night, but I've managed to see just part of that mayhem. Some pics below:

What else? Ah yeah!

Friday night there was also Necromunda RPG which I definitely didn't want to miss! It was really cool experience to finally play some RPG as player - not as keeper of secrets. For the first time I saw "dungeon crawler" in action which was much better fun then I expected - ace work Rob! Some pics from the Vault:

And last but not least - some random photos of armies I've managed to take while I was there. Sadly I didn't see all armies - all participants put tons of work in preparing the forces and below you can see some examples: 

Big thanks to organizers for keeping the event alive! 

Hope to take a part in another edition of Oldhammer Weekend Poland in the future - with better heatlh condition 😷
Nurgle be praised!

Display case upgrade

Last week I've finally managed to drag new vault for the miniatures collection 🤗

In fact I bought it last year but wasn't sure where would I live in 2026 so it had to wait. It's not hobby dedicated display case, but spare piece from local computer shop. As you can see it's over twice size of classic Ikea's Detlof so finally I can put whole Undead, Chaos and Bolt Action armies on single shelves!

It didn't have working lighting so last weekend I got some parts and temporarly placed LED tapes in front corners. I still have to prepare some rails for it (light should spread more evenly) but it's cool already. Check it out: lights on (night):

And here the vault during day (lights off). Massive beast, ain't it? 😎

Sherman M4A2(76)W

This one is kinda re-post of model painted recently.

As you remember (or not) it was painted for local paining contest. After all entres were done one of organisers asked me to prepare another set of pictures, because the ones I sent were too messy. Those pics were taken on painting desk (which I actually cleaned a bit before taking shots...) bur there were some painting stuff, mug, plinths or crap like that.

Back days I tried to use different backdrops: white sheets, printed backgrounds etc. All in all conslusion is I cannot take  decent photos using any background except "natural ones" you can see on my pics. But contest has it's rules so if you don't like them - don't participate. For the second set of photos I took the only bright t-shirt I found in the closet. It's linda beige but colors on the model turned out pretty fine. I now can see I could use one more lamp straight from above to get rid the shadows. But apart from that - ain't that bad.

Here's the gallery of all entries - take a look, some really cool miniatures were painted for the contest!
And the final results are here - check the small scale infantry!

Sherman M4A2(76)W

Having some more foot soliders prepared for winter, the time has come to provide some heavy support for the boys. I always wanted my GIs to have heavy tank support and recently I've found mint condition model on second hand market. Plus I needed the second entry for the painting contest so apparently once again Allmighty Cosmos has been guiding me 😵‍💫

Although it's another tank from Sherman family in the display case, painting this one was kinda challenging, because as it turned out - I run out of all olive paints and the only one I could use was grassy light green tone. It's been mixed with some browns and violet and all in all it turned out fine. It's clearly brighter then it's older brothers: M4A3 Sherman 105 mm howitzer or M4 Sherman T34 Calliope but I think I like such "pale" tone even better: makes bigger contrast on the battlefield and exposes mud, dirt or oil streaks.

Last weekend the model was brought to gaming-bunker for some field tests. It survived (yaaay... 🙄) but didn't perform anyhow spectacular. I know, it's Bolt Action so some bad luck with dice rolling can obliterate the best battle plan, yet I was hoping for little more. On the other hand I was facing Soviet army swarm without armored platoon, so it's cannon didn't get proper target: the meat chopper was much more effective. Oh well, it's nothing new 250 points vehicle for 1000 points game is just too expensive so I think it might re-appear in larger battle.

 

So here're the pictures and hope you like it:

And below Mr and Mrs Flatnoses taking Sunday ride:

US infantry (winter war) #5

The entry for 25 mm - 28 mm infantry unit category for ongoing painting contest just left hobby station. As menioned before - I am more then satisfied with new US winter infantry box, even despite the fact painting the same coats was simply boring. 

What you see below is the basic United States infantry unit I field in Bolt Action v3: no assault weapon, no Browning - just 12 rifles to maximize army's special rule. In fact I am trying no to leave deployment zone without 3 solid units of grunts, so sooner or later you might expect to see more of greatcoats and repainted metal models painted earier. After all not all soliders got proper winter clothing on time for Battle of the Bulge...

The next piece which just arrived on painting station is M4A2(76)W tank. I know most tanks in US disposal ale quite similar, but for this one I chose early hull to make it stand out and of course - this one is equipped heavy anti tank gun, which should make enemy think twice before entering into my fire zone...

The unit was painted for winter campaign, so I tried to take some shots using proper backdrop. Must admit I've found taking photos with such a bright background quite pain in the ass: the camera couldn't catch proper white balance which was kinda weird since most of enviroment is white 🙄

To show the difference I took photos of the same unit also in standard grassy land and straight on the painting desk - as you can see models' colors are different despite it's the same camera, settings and lighting. Taking pics it probably most frustrating element of this silly hobby...

Anyway here they are and I am off to assemble and undercoat zze tank!

See? Same settings, different background and models instantly look better... 🙄

And here're the boys led to battle by the command squad painted recently:

US infantry (winter war) #4

It's winter here (or rather: supposed to be) so it seems to be good idea to paint some more infantrymen for my Bolt Action winter themed force. Especially there's XXIX edition of painting contest on strategie.net forum running, which always works motivating. After dealing with Slaanesh force for Warhammer Fantasy painting some olive green was just breath of fresh air. Plus it's good warm up before painting ordinary G.I.s.

The proper entry for the contest is plastic infantry I got at the beginning of the year. For a long time I prefered metal models over plastics, but Warlord did really great job on this set. I especially like faces which are way better sculpted then faces of most Bolt Action models I have. But last year I also got US headquarters set on Road to Berlin 2025 which is supposed to command winter Bastogne offensive and which you can see below.

Painting scheme is well tested color combo backed with Citadel artifical snow. That white goo makes great contrast to olive and green and therefore infantry looks just more interesting on battlefield. I added magnets to all freshly painted models from Bolt Action range to makes transporting models easier and safer - it's the tip I spotted on Road to Berlin events - definitely recommended!

The HQ set contains officer, medic and forward observer. There's always something to do for additional NCO so there's never enough of them. Medic on the other hand has never paid off during the game but since I painted one quite a long time ago - now I can field a team. Not mentioning the fact model with stretches looks just so cool! Dude with radio is the observer - not sure I am brave enough to call an airstrike on the battlefield, but it can surely work also as an artillery spotter - indirect weapons are always good choice.  The one with white helmet is old spotter from Black Tree Designs range but with head swapped for plastic. It's the third time I am painting this specific model and help me Satan - the last one.

Right - time to start painting some cannon fodder for Battle of the Bulge campaign... 🫡  

As you can see spotter brought dark grimoire instead of military maps:

...which allowed the team to beat gravity!

Spoils of war

Last evening there was a lecture about conquering Elbląg 80 years ago, which was mentioned earlier. It was also part of hobby event from last weekend, so results of painting competition were also announced yesterday. 

Just like in case of soviet OT 34/85 painted for the contest, also IS-2 brought me some more hobby stuff: German paint set + some US winter infantry, which is great, because:

1. I am now working on some Foliescu's brilliant German infantry;

2. I was planning to expand my winter G.I. force by another squad so it fits Bolt Action v3 requirements.

So here's the loot - too bad they didn't give some free time so I could deal with it shortly 🙄

And here you can read about last evening event (Polish only). There was also photo report attached (here). As you can imagine on each end every public event there's a chance for a local goof to show up. Here's ours - never miss opportunity to mess somebody's day 🤪

Till the next time.

Captured IS-2 (painting contest)

I was actually going to paint some zee Germanz winter infantry from Foliescu's line (which is brilliant) but last week I was asked to paint something for local painting contest. The overall theme was 80th anniversary of liberating Elblag from under German occupation (just to make it clear: Poland was "liberated" by soviets, so you can imaging the rest). 

Because of this event there's been organised 2-weeks painting / wargaming course in local library, with friendly tournament and painting contest to crown it all. 

Anyway the challenge has been accepted but since I don't play Germans nor Soviets my options were rather limited. While digging through my resources I've found IS-2 heavy tank which was part of prize-loot for other painting contest 🤪

As mentioned earlier I don't play Soviet army but from what I was told in battle of Elblag Germans also used some captured vehicles, so I imagine it surely is one of them. Wasn't sure about the markings but I was pretty sure the crew would't like to be taken as Soviet unis from afar so markings were applied on each side of vehicle plus it got a flag on the hull just in case some lost Stuka decided to pay a visit...

I do not like to work fast with painting (and this was surely hasty paintjob for my standard) but I like the final result. Italeri's stuff is always tops. The commander is metal piece from Warlord's set, but I think as professional he doesn't mind driving Soviet wheeler. To glory!

Yup - from above it surely ain't soviet tank ^^

And some enthusiastic US tank hunters for the scale: