I’ve been playing wargames for close to twenty years, sticking mostly to fantasy and sci-fi. I’ve gone from ‘someone who likes the occasional game’ to ‘active champion of independent games’ over that time period. Part of that journey has involved learning how to sculpt miniatures traditionally, out of greenstuff and wire, because I like the feeling of physically making something. While I do some digital work, my passion is for traditional sculpting.

These seemingly-unrelated aspects of wargaming lead me to one of my favorite games: Freebooter’s Fate, a game conceived by Werner Klocke. He’s a sculptor I look up to very much, who has sculpted a truly astonishing number of miniatures that I could consider as ‘classics’. I’ve tried to do studies of his sculpts, and I own an unreasonably large collection of miniatures by him. Unfortunately, because it’s a small press game mostly available in Germany, I rarely get the chance to play it. As far as I’m aware, they may not even have a US distributor – Noble Knight Games gets stock in occasionally, but there are items I’ve been watching out for over the years that have never come back.

This blog is intended to be a record of my attempt to build a local scene, including painting my demonstration crews, constructing terrain, trying to teach others, and all of the weird items that come with enjoying a wargame that most people have never heard of.