Dragged into Turbolasers 125: Miniature Photography in 2025

We used speedlights more this year for our photography.

In this final episode of 2025, we reflect on our collective experience with miniature photography and discuss what we would like to do in the future!

Film Review: The Grim & The Dark

The Grim & The Dark

Building and painting miniatures for wargames like Warhammer 40,000 or Mordheim is a relatively niche hobby. All of us involved have likely been asked about our hobbies, and when explaining how we “assemble and paint miniatures for wargames,” are accustomed to responses like “oh, like Risk” or, more apt but still a little off the mark, “oh, like Dungeons & Dragons.” Depending on how much effort we want to put into it, we can say “yeah, similar to that,” or delve into what the hobby actually entails. When my friend Cody (@magos_buer, now of Buer Games) announced that he was producing a documentary about miniature wargaming, specifically the grimdark/Inq28 scene, I was excited. Perhaps this would be the ideal film to show some of my family to demonstrate the allure of this hobby? Furthermore, a film delving into the “grimdark” aesthetic was even more appealing, as that is one of the specific aspects that drew my brothers and me to Warhammer 40,000 in the first place. While the term “grimdark” is inextricably tied to Warhammer 40,000, with its tag line of “In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war,” the term has expanded into other media outside of the miniature gaming world, including music, literature, and art. From the moment I first heard about Cody’s intent to make a film to its official release, the film evolved considerably, becoming what is officially titled The Grim & The Dark: The Search for John Blanche. Somewhat surprisingly, Jon Heder, of the Napoleon Dynamite fame, was pulled in to be the main face of the documentary. Cody had expressed his desire to interview many people involved in the Inq28 scene and asked whether we would be willing to be interviewed. Things came together rather quickly, and Cody, Jon, and the rest of the crew joined us on the first day of our Vastarian narrative gaming event in November 2024, where Heder interviewed the three of us and some others at the event. The interviews were not planned and were very much off the cuff. Afterwards, we didn't hear much about the documentary or how the footage from the Vastarian event would be used until it was released in late September 2025. My brothers and I were kindly given the opportunity to watch The Grim & The Dark shortly before its release. After having some time to reflect, I wanted to share some of the thoughts the three of us had about it.

Flames of Orion: Field Manual

The Flames of Orion Field Manual alongside Dark Spirit.

For the last few months, we have been posting about Flames of Orion, a mech combat game designed by Steve (sovthofheaven) of Under the Dice/Hive Scum. These posts have pertained to a particular mech that I developed over the years, named Dark Spirit. While the finalized version of the rules has been available digitally for a little while (you can buy a digital version of the book here, as well as download a streamlined version of the book with the complete rules for free), the physical copies of the book should be shipping out later in December. Excitingly, I just received my copy of the special Kickstarter-exclusive Field Manual version of the rulebook!

Vastarian: Using the Trench Crusade ruleset

Inheritance.

It is hard to fathom, but it has been almost a year since we hosted, with the help of Bill Ford, our first Inq28 narrative event: Vastarian - Dreams of the Pious! We have written about the first two days of the event so far (one, two), sharing the participants and the rules we used. While we used a modified version of Necromuda for the event, we have encouraged people to use any ruleset they enjoy to play games in the setting. Ultimately, it is more important to use a ruleset you are familiar with, as the games will flow more smoothly and allow you to focus on narrative elements. It is our hope that people will not be chained to rules-as-written and will be willing to modify things to better suit the narrative as cool moments unfold. With this in mind, I had been meaning to use the Trench Crusade rules for some Vastarian games, primarily because they streamline many mechanics and because the religious setting of the game parallels Vastarian's. To my good fortune, work brought Bill to Baltimore recently, and when he suggested we play a game with some of our Vastarian warbands, I suggested we give the Trench Crusade rules a try.