Cold Wars 2014 - Dave Waxtel Wargame Building Class

This past weekend I attended my first HMGS Cold Wars convention. Normally I go to HMGS Historicon in the summer, but since they moved it too far south I've decided to start attending Cold Wars instead as Cold Wars remains located in Lancaster, PA. The past three years I had conflicting commitments so this year was my first successful run down to the convention. In short, Cold Wars is for all intents and purposes the same as Historicon only held in March and with possibly a few less attendees.

I've been to so many HMGS conventions I didn't bother photographing anything except the excellent class I attended hosted by Dave Waxtel (photo left). Dave showed a bunch of his scratch built 28mm buildings, and then gave all of the attendees materials and instructions to build one! After 2 hours we all brought away a building ready to paint. Mine is below and will be the subject of a future blog post once painted.

I have to say Dave was enthusiastic, encouraging and above all, patient with all of us students, even when we messed up! I'm excited to use the new knowledge I gained in the session and look forward to attending more in the future. If you read this, thanks Dave!

If you're wondering about my roof, it's supposed to look caved in with some planks and rugs thrown over the hole as a temporary repair. Once painted it should look more obvious. The 'carpets' are mad by soaking paper towel with thinned wood glue. Believe it or not they're quite hard and durable once dry.