Under the Dice Fest 2025: Rusted Demon

The inaugural Rusted Demon competition was held at Under the Dice Fest 2025. Unlike other competitions like Games Workshop’s Golden Demon (of which Rusted Demon cheekily derives its name), Rusted Demon is primarily a converting and modelling competition, emphasizing creativity and kitbashing more than exquisite painting. The competition is very reminiscent of the annual SmashBash competition held by Matt (totally_not_panicking). We wanted to document the winning entries so that people not fortunate enough to attend Under the Dice Fest 2025 could see the exciting miniatures present.

Under the Dice Fest 2025: Day 2

"No one should ever be caged."

In the past few years, the three of us at Between the Bolter and Me have made an effort to attend more gaming events and conventions, although, to be honest, we have primarily been attending events hosted by the Under the Dice/Hive Scum crew. May 16, 17, and 18 of this year was the 2nd Under the Dice Fest, and Adam and Greg made the trip to Connecticut to attend! The Under the Dice/Hive Scum crew have been tirelessly promoting the weirder and independent side of the miniature-based tabletop wargaming hobby. They have been shining a bright light on hobbyists who are interested in telling their own stories through miniature gaming, as well as those who are willing to step outside the scope of the game rules as written, or even create their games and miniatures, to do so. Every event they host is a gathering of amazing, like-minded people who are passionate about their interpretation of the miniature wargaming hobby, and something we do not want to miss.

The 2nd day of Under the Dice Fest 2025 featured this year’s New England Mordheim Open event, a competitive event for Games Workshop’s classic fantasy skirmish game, Mordheim. The event had an impressive 109 players battling over 54 lovingly crafted tables. Participants played three games throughout the event.

Gundam Artifact: Zaku III

Uncertain, Unwilling, And Empty.

Over the last year or two, we have been experimenting with Flames of Orion, a mech combat game designed by Steve (sovthofheaven). Last month, we finally converted and painted a model for the game, Dark Spirit, a mech that Greg has used in various forms for most of his time playing the game. The game recently completed a successful Kickstarter, prompting me to consider creating a small group of mechs to play in future games. Years back, I assembled a Gundam Artifact Rick Dias model, which is at a scale suitable for Flames of Orion, and I decided I could assemble a few more to make a Combat Unit for the game. This led me to assemble a Zaku III from their Phase 2 line of models!

Dragged into Turbolasers 119 - Part 2: Under the Dice Fest 2025.

Under the Dice Fest 2025.

In part two of a special two-part episode, we interview people who attended Under the Dice Fest 2025, a small festival in Massachusetts celebrating miniature-based tabletop wargaming. The festival was designed to appeal to those who shy away from the mainstream iterations of the miniature wargaming hobby, focusing on those who want to play the games on their terms, sometimes outside of the scope of the game rules as written, or those who want to play old games which their publishers no longer support. It is highlighting those who are more concerned with telling a story with the miniatures they build than with creating something that would be optimal in terms of a game’s rule system. A punk rock approach to the miniature wargaming hobby, if you will.