April 2026 review
Chaosbunker Classics!
The premiere of our inhouse retro series was a full on success! You can read a recap on the weekend on here - Chaosbunker Classics 2026. We played Warhammer 40k 2nd edition for two days, had some amazing armies and terrain to play with.
The feedback on that weekend was overwhelmingly positive and in such volume that I'm still trying to process it all. Thanks everybody for joining in and especially to Tobias and Evi for the great pictures and coverage afterwards. We got invitations to podcast, we were asked when the next event will be, offered sponsorship and but most of all, the people shared their fascination and enthusiasm for what we did.
The coverage on the Classics is not done either, all the armies will get their presentation posts, like I did with my Imperial Fists and the Sisters of Battle so far, it just takes some time to prepare the small icons. And of course I want to provide the narrative that we played on the weekend in a proper way, editing the campaign maps, capturing the scenarios and such takes a bit of time, but will be posted on here as well.
So be sure, this won't be the last endeavour into the old times of Warhammer. We'll keep you posted.
In April I moved these from being mostly yellow to still being mostly yellow, but looking much better in their armour. And I'll keep you posted on the journey how I got there with the Call to Arms article series on the Imperial Fists. And of course, I'm not done, there are still more units to come for the Sons of Dorn.
I started that project mostly around the Supremacy Force, but after painting and fielding them, I feel the need to add a few characters to the selection, who have more dynamic poses and give me more room to express my idea of the theme of the army. The latest addition is the 1999 Games Day Space Marine Captain (yes - not in the 2nd edition time frame anymore), but he's based on the very last release for the 2nd edition, the Space Marine Command Group's Captain and I think that gives him a bit of a hall pass. Besides that, he has a magnificent power fists and what more could a possible Chapter Master of the Imperial Fists ask for? And of course, I'll go into detail on this one.
So what's next for the Chaosbunker Classics? Well, to give you this little teaser, it's going to be ... Epic! Wait? No, not Epic, but Fantastic!
Bremen and Maastricht
And I travelled quite a bit in April. For example we were in Bremen, and as I try to do when I'm on the road, I stopped at a few fantasy stores. As Highlander Games was days before moving, there was little point to show the old store, but I went to the new site of Kutami and covered their new walkable warehouse.
As a full weekend of 40k 2nd wasn't enough, just a week later I went to Warhammer Open in Maastricht. This was set as soon as they announced it. We had a blast at Warhammer Fest back in 2018 and it has been too long for another official Warhammer event on the European mainland.
I got the Premium Swag kit and some of the items, that I really liked are on this picture. That is a massive ruler cast in metal and styled like an Inquisitorial Key. A metal die and some 30k memorabilia - a Coin of the 13th legion and a patch of the fourth. Maybe I can find someone to trade some Imperial Fists or Sons of Horus/Black Legion items for the last two?
Imperial Assault and Rocks
It is still impressive that on top of all that, we managed to get in two board game nights this month. For several reasons, first of all, all of the players are parents and working, so free time is kind of a rare commodity and we are still playing the campaign! The mission Imperial Hospitality took us a bit longer than expected, so we had to split it into two nights. We had to rescue a Rebel from captivity and that took some planing.
Proper game, very interesting progression and as not just the players but the game master levels up as well, the difficulty grows with the players.
With the painting mood still rolling, I picked up the remaining Stone Trove rock prints and took some pictures to provide a brief tutorial on what I did there. Once again, amazing 3d printed terrain, and with a bit of effort such an impressive upgrade. People actually were surprised that is was printed and not cast.
Listening to the Horus Heresy
Due to sitting down painting and not wanting to be distracted by moving images, I stuck to the audiobooks this month. Well and I had some hours in the car to cover. Therefore I managed to actually finish three books in a single month (almost, I'm in the last hour of The Crimson King as I write this article).
Garro was the collection of his saga combined into a single book. The Shattered Legions was an anthology covering 10 short stories and The Crimson King is a whole book, jumping between multiple storylines. Garro was an interesting insight into Malcador and the events beside the larger battles. Shattered Legions provided context especially on the Iron Hands, and for The Crimson King, an interesting story, but sometimes a bit hard to keep track between the jumps and follow with which shard of Magnus we are currently interacting.
The next one will be Tallarn, the biggest tank battle of the Horus Heresy. I'm excited.
What's coming in May?
Well, I hope that I can take some rest without losing the momentum. But with the CONflict happening next, where we will bring our retro armies and have some rematches as well as try-outs of rule agnostic use of our classic miniatures, I'm looking forward to the hosted tables of the others.
Furucius – Stone Trove terrain
Last year I had a bunch of rock formations printed, using the Stone Trove files by Dana McDonald.
The project originally came from Kickstarter, and you can now buy the sets on MyMiniFactory in different bundles. There are also a few shops running a merchant license if you don’t have access to your own printer.
All parts were printed on a Bambu Lab A1 Standard, using the High Quality PLA profile with a 0.08 mm layer height. That already gives a very clean result, but on the top surfaces where layer lines were still visible, I went in with a 1:1 mix of filler and white acrylic paint. I just brushed a fairly thick coat onto those areas and let it cure fully before touching anything else.
Warhammer 40,000 – Imperial Fists Call to Arms Pt 6
As the remaining time got less and less, I even brought the miniatures with me on my family trip and finished up the primer and added first colours. I was painting at the kitchen table after the kids went to bed.
As mentioned before, I primed the miniatures white and gave them a coat of Titan Hobby Imperial Yellow. Those areas that I didn't fully cover, were touched up with Citadel Yriel Yellow. Weapons and the soft spots between the armour panels were painted in Army Painter Matt Black. Everything that would be red, received a AP Pure Red first coat, and everything that would be green a first coat of Citadel Deathworld Forest.
The bases were painted with IONIC Goblin Green.
Warhammer Open Maastricht 2026 – Part 1
It's been a while since the last event that was hosted in Europe by Games Workshop, if you exclude the Golden Demon at the SPIEL. And it is the first ever Warhammer Open in Europe, hosted at the MECC in Maastricht!
And since we really liked Warhammer Fest Europe 2018 in Düsseldorf, we were excited for the announcement of Warhammer Open in Maastricht, since it is just two hours away from us.
From April 24th to 26th, 2026 at Maastricht Exhibition & Conference Centre in The Netherlands, there was a whole weekend filled with gaming events for Warhammer 40,000, Warhammer Age of Sigmar, Kill Team, Underworlds and even an narrative format.
Warhammer Open Maastricht 2026 – Part 2
In the second part of our coverage on Warhammer Open Maastricht 2026 we continue with more tables and impressions from the event.
In a corner of their own was the Narrative Event, and they really caught my eye as they went above and beyond to really bring the narrative across, most of them wearing costumes fitting to their army.
Warhammer 40,000 – Imperial Fists Call to Arms Pt 5
Chapter Iconography
While I reached a certain degree of battle ready-ness for the event, as you can see from the coverage, I still want to show you how I got there.
I stood before the decision of going for decals or moulded shoulder pads, and went for the latter. I really liked the idea and while it is something that came around rather later to 2nd edition and was more prominent in 3rd edition onwards, I still think it looks quite fitting. For the Imperial Fists there were several designs of pre-sculped shoulder pads available (including terminators and some characters), and I managed to acquire quite a bunch and at least one for each character I had planned.
But the challenge would be, what to do about those, who already had a left shoulder (or right one in case of the Terminators). I could have cut down the entire pad and replaced it with a sculpted one, but went down a different route. Going with Oyumaru, also known as Instant mould, a reusable thermoplastic from Japan, that can be used to mould pieces from various materials and is easier to use than silicone moulding.
A visit to … Kutami
During my trip to Bremen, I took the opportunity to visit Kutami at their new location in Lloydstraße, at the corner of Lloyd-Straße and Hans-Böckler-Straße. There is a tram stop nearby and a parking lot behind the building, which makes it easy enough to reach.
Before you get there, though, it is worth knowing that this is not a regular store with a broad shop front. Instead, Kutami's new location is rather a walkable warehouse for wargaming and tabletop hobbyists.
As they recently moved, not everything was in its final place yet, but I was allowed to take a few pictures and give you an impression of what is going on there. The space includes a checkout area, several cabinets, and plenty of tables. Especially on the weekends, there is a lot happening, and with boxes full of terrain they are easily able to host mid-sized to larger events.
Warhammer 40,000 – Chaosbunker Classics
If you have followed my Imperial Fists project log over the last few weeks, you will probably have read about the CHAOSBUNKER CLASSICS. But let me give you a brief introduction.
In autumn of last year, I moved forward with my idea of hosting a small get-together to play some Warhammer 40,000 2nd Edition, mainly to provide a proper deadline for an army project - because you have a motivational problem until you have a time problem. What initially started as a simple “let’s see if we can get 4 to 6 people committed” quickly gained momentum. More people joined (and some unfortunately had to cancel due to time constraints), but we still ended up with ten people fully committed to painting a 1,500-point army for a weekend of retro gaming.
The idea behind the Chaosbunker Classics is to bring back the aesthetics of the old games and recapture some of the magic of Bring Out Your Lead here in Germany. The events won’t be limited to 40k 2nd Edition - this one was, but future events will explore the look and feel of classic games and miniatures, possibly using different rulesets to recreate certain settings. Since 1,500 points of 40k was already a challenge, I don’t see 2,000-point Warhammer Fantasy Battles armies as a viable scope for upcoming events.
These are narrative events, not focused on meta-gaming or a tournament mindset. The first Chaosbunker Classics featured a narrative story arc, which I’ll cover in a separate article.
Over the past year, the idea became more and more tangible. With people like Zigor already hosting 40k 2nd Edition demos at Rhein-Main-Multiversum, and support from Tobias and Evi of Team Würfelkrieg (who also support Torsten with CONflict Rhineland), things really got rolling. More people joined: Holger / Indigo, Florian / Celebration Parallax, Christian / Fritz, Tom / Rekrom, Flip, and another Christian - each with a fully painted army.
I looked for a suitable location, and the local parish centre turned out to be perfect. It offered proper infrastructure: parking, a small kitchen with a fridge, plenty of tables, and a central location between Cologne and Frankfurt, just minutes from the Autobahn - which was especially convenient for players coming from Franconia and even Berlin (!).
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