Cold Wars 2020 – After Action Report
by Dennis Jensen
On March 12th-15th I attended Cold Wars 2020 at the Lancaster Wyndham (formerly the Lancaster Host.) As always, I had plans to teach at Hobby University. At this show I was scheduled to teach one beginner’s painting class using Games Workshop Squigs, host four-speed paint competitions and take part in an interview panel about entering painting competitions. My wife was scheduled to help with Paint and Take and my boys were going to play games, and paint figures.
There was some concern that the show would be canceled due to the threat of COVID-19 as other, larger events, were being canceled, however, the show went on. As the weekend progressed more and more events around the country were canceled leading a few of us to refer to Cold Wars as “The Last Convention in America.”
Over the weekend various states suggested limiting public gatherings to less than 1,000 people, then less than 500 people all the way down to where we are now at limiting gatherings, restaurants and so on to only 10 people. As of this writing, some states have ordered all residents to shelter in place, so things have escalated quickly. With the looming threat and the warnings for people with health-related issues and older people to avoid large gatherings, volunteers and even a few vendors decided to skip the show. Ultimately, we had less than 1,000 attendees so things were eerily quiet.
My family and I arrived Thursday night, having driven up from Northern Virginia. We unpacked and I put the boys to bed before going out for a beverage or two and catching up with friends.
Friday morning the boys played in Jim Reynolds Gnome Pirates game before they went to visit their grandparents for the day (and night!)
While they were playing, I was able to take Rhonda Benders Object Source Lighting (OSL) class with a fellow Hobby University instructor. Rhonda was one of Hobby University’s special guests at Cold Wars 2019 and she decided to hang out with us again this year. She gave an excellent class, made even better by the small class size (just two of us). Rhonda provided an excellent hand out for her classes with great reference material for the future. I look forward to giving OSL a shot.
After that, I gave my Squig painting class which had four students. Next up I was the MC for a Speed Painting contest which had six contestants in a wide range of ages. They all said they had fun and I’d love to bring it back in the future!
Our guest instructors were roped into judging this very prestigious competition. (left to right: Aaron Lovejoy, Liz Hunt, Rhonda Bender.)
I then went out to dinner with my wife and came back and took a Non-Metallic Metal (NMM) class given by one of our special guests, Elizabeth Beckley, of Miniature Monthly. I’ve never really given NMM a try, after this class I’m willing and ready to give it a shot!
Saturday morning, I was supposed to run two Speed Paint sessions, but no one showed up. I wasn’t too disappointed as I got to take Weathering 101 with our other special guest instructors, Aaron Lovejoy and Liz Hunt also of Miniature Monthly. I’ve really been trying to up my weathering game so I’m very I got to take this class.
I’d like to give a special thanks to Liz for making sure this total babe joined the class!
Our completed dumpsters.
During the day the boys got to play in multiple games run by Jim and his sons Will and Sean. Will (13) and Sean (11) also did an excellent job running games. It’s awesome to see the hobby continue to grow.
Congratulations Jimmy on winning Best Kids Game of the con! Jimmy was the iron man of kids games at this convention, running six kids games.
The vendors hosted a free happy hour on Saturday which was awesome. I missed the cheese platter and cookies but I got in for the free beer which my wife and I took advantage of. I picked up a few sets of roads for 15mm gaming from Battlefield Terrain Concepts that I’ve been eying for a while. They did point me to the free beer so maybe that helped. . . . I also picked up some Crooked Dice post-apocalypse terrain from The Phalanx Consortium and a bunch of hobby supplies from Michigan Toy Soldier Company. In the flea market, I managed to pick up with Flames of War 101st Airborne Division dice tin which I’ve been looking for a while now.
It wouldn’t be an HMGS convention without a review of the facility. The Wyndham is far and away better than the Host was, but it is still far from complete. In a number of places the carpet was held down by duct tape, the paving stones going down to the vendor halls were coming loose and other minor issues with the finishes.
I appreciate the dramatic improvement in the facilities, but it’s not quite done. I’m looking forward to Cold Wars’ new location in Ocean City, Maryland. It may be a bit further away for me, but it sounds like it has more room for growth. I look forward to hearing more about the facility as we get closer to the event. Now the Wyndham did have an excellent ice cream sundae bar Saturday night, I’m really hoping we can get something similar in Ocean City!
I’d like to offer a special thanks to the vendors, GM’s and volunteers who showed up despite the uncertainty. Numbers were short but this ended up being one of the best conventions I’ve attended in a while. I was very happy for the opportunity to take so many painting classes and get to spend time with so many friends. I look forward to seeing everyone at Historicon in July!
John Emmett ran an amazing 28mm Two Fat Lardies Chain of Command game. Long live the Lard!
Shawn Reis ran a huge 28mm Hammers Slammers game.
Shawn also ran this insane 15mm zombie game with modified Flames of War rules!
Rhonda Bender’s Blog:
Miniature Monthly Facebook:
Miniature Monthly Patreon:
Battlefield Terrain Concepts: https://battlefieldterrain.com/
Phalanx Consortium: http://thephalanxconsortium.com/
Michigan Toy Soldier: https://www.michtoy.com/
-Wachtmeister