BOLTERCON Countdown – 53 Days

Plan for what is difficult while it is easy, do what is great while it is small.

Reflecting on the rapid approach of BOLTERCON, it’s easy to see what my dude Sun Tzu was talking about. Some participants have been whittling away at their hobby goals and making great progress, but making it seem small and easy. But true to form, BOLTERCON season has nothing to do with smart planning and careful execution! Our friends over at Games Workshop have recently dropped a Warhammer 40k dataslate that throws many of our careful planners plans up in the air and renders them dust in the wind. Such is life and there is only hobby panic this time of year.

So I’ll lean on another of the great philosophers to make that point:

Everyone has a plan ‘till they get punched in the mouth.

The bright side is at least this dataslate mouth punch came in September and not October. Right, that makes it all good? Yes I’m fine, you’re fine, everything is fine.

Speaking of fine, how about upgrading that wardrobe?

BOLTERCON 2023 Shirts PREORDER

Our very esteemed Propaganda Enforcement and Needful Information Secretary has been slaving away for BOLTERCON. Once we got the retro gaming theme settled, he’s been in the lab jamming on the swag ideas. We’re very excited to offer not one but three (3!) different shirt designs this year!

Hype Dog

It’s not entirely clear why, but the Hype Dog wants you! It looks friendly enough and for sure brings the hype straight to your dome. Check out this beauty of a shirt:

Head on over to the store and preorder that bad boy for pickup at BOLTERCON! Our traditional (and very comfortable) triblend shirt material is only offered up to XXL, so sizes larger than that will be in a cotton blend instead. We want to be able to get everyone a shirt this year regardless of the size restrictions on the triblend!

Hypedration Marine

You know it’s important to stay hydrated out there on these marathon gaming days of BOLTERCON. We’ve got just the armored support to help you remember – the Hypedration Marine!

This important reminder in shirt form is also available in the store for immediate preorder! Like the Hype Dog shirt, we have the triblend material for sizes up to XXL and then a cotton blend for larger sizes.

Metal Marine

If you’re old enough to have memories of what metal music was like in the 80s and 90s (or you pretend to online), then you’ll appreciate the retro aesthetics of the Metal Marine shirt! Rock out with your well painted miniatures on the tabletop and this rockin shirt on your body for one (or more) days of BOLTERCON like the cool kids:

Honestly, you should just get the whole set of shirts to complement your existing (and very dope) collection of Bolters at Dawn swag. Head over to the store and grab your preorder!

Doomrider Painting Competition

One of our remote members, Dave from Maryland, had a fever dream about a daemon on a bike. In his memory, this model was named Exhaust Wolf. In reality, we ended up all learning about the Doomrider. Not just any daemon, this was the Daemon Primarch of Slaanesh ! Of course this discussion was during an extended group hobby session on a Ptuesday night, so the hype levels were out of control and a BOLTERCON event was born. I could keep typing stuff, or I could just let Dave speak for it himself:

Start your engines for the First Ever DOOMRIDER Paint Off!

Buckle up for a competition sure to unleash high-octane creativity. Our brave contestants will be revving their engines to create the most killer renditions of everyone’s favorite motorcycling maniac DOOMRIDER.

This ain’t no paint-by-numbers pretty boy primarch – DOOMRIDER is a gnarly Chaos champion who likes his hogs loud and his wargear extra spiky. We wanna see models worthy of Slaanesh’s approval that capture his machine-fused madness and hair-whipping highway havoc. Lean into the chrome, give us the gore, and crack that throttle wide open!

Creations will be judged on pure sensory appeal to the crowd. Here are our three award categories: 

“Speed Demon on the Highway to Hell” awarded completely subjectively to the fastest-looking DOOMRIDER

“Old Tyme Evil” Crowd favorite vintage model showcasing an old-fashioned approach to DOOMRIDER’s wickedness

“Midnight Marauder” awarded to the overall crowd favorite capturing the absolute essence of the Exhaust Wolf 

We have just two criteria for the competition:

Your model can be vintage, new or converted but it must depict the DOOMRIDER

Needs to exude maximum awesomeness worthy of Slaanesh 

Start your engines and get ready to ride! DOOMRIDER is coming for YOU!

The way this works is that starting TODAY you should sign up in our hobby-lobby Discord channel . Dave has graciously supplied five (5!) Doomrider models made by Artel for free to the first five people to DM him about it. Contractually you agree (upon punishment of permanent loss of reputation) to paint the Doomrider mini to the best of your ability before BOLTERCON. Optionally you can participate in the Doomrider joust at BOLTERCON, but regardless we will be voting on and awarding the Doomrider participants for their hobby achievements.

Keep an eye on the player packet for more details as they come together. Get started painting those Doomriders and post your progress along the way to BOLTERCON!

More…?

BOLTERCON’s schedule is filling out as we speak. The Warhammer 40k GT is over 2/3rds full, the Horus Heresy event is rapidly filling up, and our schedule is getting crunched from all directions. Recently, we’ve had hype growing with the cute little robots in Battletech amongst the Bolters at Dawn community. So why not set aside some tables for that?

Who knows where the hype will take us, so please let our Deacon of Official Rules and Knowledge know what kinds of things you’d like to see in the Open Play area (and maybe beyond…). Star Wars games? Whatever the AoS Kill Team game is called? I don’t even know, so get to it and let us know!

PS: Don’t forget to buy those tix before your favorite events are sold out!

PPS: GO BENGALS!