Uncle Les scores gongs at Model Expo

Sir Coates Masters winners named, VictoriARTS announced, Warhammer 40K poll and more

Jun 10, 2025

That new gold to rock the house

My father, who was nowhere near Melancholy Hill, had a great time at the Australian Model Expo 2025 which was held at Sandown Racecourse over the long weekend.

“I entered some models in comp, had a look around, caught up with some familiar faces and made friends with those I hadn't formally met before. I did some judging in the evening, ate some pizza, drank some Sprite and got home well after midnight.

“Here's just some of the models that are currently on display there …”

~Uncle Les AKA Daddio AKA White Light

Uncle Les (pictured left) rocking a Gorillaz hoodie living his best life. Image: Neil Fitzclarence.

Thanks for sharing your photo collection for us to enjoy, Uncle ‘Stylo’ Les.

Well done Dad!

Meanwhile, in the UK

Here are the winners of the UK Games Expo and Duncan Rhodes Painting Academy Sir Coates Masters at UKGE 2025.

Note: Images of the ceremony will be posted soon on the Sir Coates Masters page, on the UK Games Expo website.

Emergency temporal shift!

Over the long weekend there was a Dalek civil war on Earth. Four factions fought for supremacy but ultimately there could only be one victor. And it all came down to one territory!

This streamlined version of the tabletop classic is so much fun. Instead of deploying one at a time to secure your territories, all players are dealt cards to randomise where you start. So much for trying to take a continent early for those sweet, sweet reinforcements (unless luck favours you).

Each player also receives several ‘power’ cards which often do more harm than good.

The blue police box – the TARDIS – randomly materialises on a territory at the start of each player’s turn which means no fighting on that space. Rather on-brand – wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey – isn’t it?

To ramp up the pace there is a 'regeneration track’ that runs from Hartnell (1) through to Smith (11). Once you reach the end of the track everyone can play one more turn and then it’s game over.

While this incarnation of the game is great, I do yearn for the original.

A question for the Warhammer 40K fans

Now that I have my Death Guard codex and my wife has her Aledari one, should we start a new narrative campaign at home? Maybe even expand the Kalador Burning lore?

We could even open it up to other players to contribute battle reports etc. to make the world that we wage war on feel more ‘lived in’.

What say you?

Bring Mental Omega to the tabletop already

These Konflikt ‘47 reveals are cool but what I really want is to run a Yuri so I can mind-control your units. Anyone still playing Red Alert 2 on PC?

The new weird war ruleset from Warlord Games is expected to drop this September.

Images of Warlord Games minis via On TableTop.

VictoriARTS to debut at Victorius

This is cool. The Melbourne Figure Painters Collective is hosting a painting competition at the next Victorius event.

VictoriARTS' focus is on celebrating the modelling and painting aspect of our hobby. The event is open for everyone (regardless of experience) and genre (from historicals to sci-fi and swords to tanks).

The three categories include the ‘Victorius Show Figure’, single figure less than 54mm scale and an open category covering everything else.
Find out more here.