Adepticon 2025
/As mentioned in the last post, I decided to go to Adepticon this year with a friend.
We had our flights sorted and planned to fly over on the monday and were meant to be in Milwaukee midnight on the monday (US time), with a brief layover in Houston.
that would give us the full Tuesday to get acclimatised, sort out the time zones and look around the area. And then fly back on the Monday following, with another brief layout in Houston, getting back home Wednesday NZ time.
As it turned out Air New Zealand and/or United bumped both internal flights. So we ended up overnight in Houston on the way over, and decided to stay on another day in Milwaukee on the monday rather than spend more time in airports.
Packing:
Packing was a bit of a mission as i was taking a bunch of gaming stuff, and painting stuff and of course clothes. I took a risk and did not take my models in my carry on as they would take up most of it. I got my stuff into one suitcase and a duffle bag, with the plan to buy a new suitcase (our 2nd one had died last year) to come back with my Loot.
One thing I was glad of, i took models for a few games (which ended up being pointless) but put all the rule books on my tablet, so if i did need them i had them. saved me many kgs.
Flight over:
Overall the flights were fine, we were on Premium economy as John is tall and needed leg room.
food was great and I had worked out with the Grok AI when i was meant to sleep to align as best as possible with the states. Unfortunately, while some people can sleep anywhere at ease, my superpower is I learned to just power through and do all nighters on no sleep. this is not as useful in my late 40s.
But we got there.
The legroom i really did not need, but John did.
Texas:
One of the smaller Ubers we took
We got to Texas around 3pm, got to our hotel (after going to the wrong la quinta first), and it was pretty basic.
Went to Salt grass steakhouse on Groks recommendations and had a majorly awesome meal, to the point where i did not eat again until the next afternoon.
When the smallest steak is bigger than a big steak in NZ its a good sign.
17 ounce steak and one of the sides - i ate the baked potatoe soup before remember to take a photo
the Smallest uber we took in the US was a rav 4, and we were just amazed by the size of the cars in Texas - slightly smaller in Milwaukee but not by much.
Milwaukee - Tuesday and Wednesday:
got there fine tuesday afternoon, United domestic is pretty basic, but its a short flight. Hotel was a Hilton and just what we needed.
view from the hotel, inspiring :/
Thankfully had warm clothes as we went from -1 to 7 degrees most of the time. Great food at a local foodcourt that was near the Baird centre and had clearly expected a lot of gamers.
Foodcourt food, this was the small. coke zero also hard to get here, but in the states diet coke tastes the same to me.
On the Wednesday, we met some Americans at breakfast at the hotel. every one is very nice.
We met up with Pete and Lynn, also from NZ and did a walk around downtown Milwaukee, which is not that exciting. But we did see the bronze fonz.
Annoyingly i got a chest cold of somesort on the Wednesday and this did not go away until a week after i got home.
Did a class on the first night on airbrushing and it was great. Had a look at the Bits guy stand and the various hall layouts.
Bought some drugs from a vending machine and this kept my cough away.
The Bronze fonz on the river - blood cold as its coming down from hell, sorry Canada
i grew up watching happy days, this was fun. and the most layers i have worn in years,
some architecture.
not a sign you would ever see in nz.
Thursday:
A gallery above of what i saw, when i remembered to take photos.
I had no classes till midday but John had 3 days of gaming so we got there early. I potted around and chatted to people and then looked to get as much of my shopping list as i could. I got the Pro Acryl paints i needed, artis opus brushes, dirty downs new stuff, Spectre mythos and the Cybertruck, a couple of battle mats and honestly i lost track of it all.
I got the swag bag as part of my ticket and getting Skaven tide was crazy. i ended up throwing the books away to make space in my bag and just bringing the sprues back. I traded for more of the terrain sets which did not help my luggage.
Swag bag - sold or traded a bunch of it, but still gad to get it all home.
Did a good class with Vince Venturella on painting reds, an extended version of his youtube video and then at night did a class on painting armies faster. thats more of a slowburn one as it was nothing immediately lightbulb, but the more i think of what he said, the more it makes sense and I can see how to get things done faster for bulk armies, eg dont start darker and work up, start with the colour you want and then highlight that and do a light ink wash - this way the mid colour is the one you see most of and you have not done 7 layers on 100 models that no one will notice.
the selfie i put on social media for a free bottle of “wizards butt” from Monument hobbies - i got both versions.
Got some pizza for lunch at the foodcourt, I still had an appetite at this point. Met Dave Taylor, The Glacial Geek, Peachy, and others.
Back to the hotel proper tired but enjoying it.
By this point i had forgotten to get photos of almost everything.
Friday:
Apparently the day it gets busy as all the people who have American annual leave allotments show up.
I was feeling a bit off still and had no classes till 1pm. I picked up some of the airbrushing accessories i was advised to get in my class and when the shops opened i helped out Monster fight club for a few hours.
I grabbed the few things i needed from them for me and Richard and then went to a sculpting class. it was OK, i learned a few things, but the GS was ancient and sucked and it just felt rushed.
By the end of it i was feeling awful, had no appetite and eventually just went back to the hotel and crashed out, bailing on my 2nd sculpting class.
Saturday:
The main day i was meant to be there for. I had a little breakfast and got to the event to do a class on gore and blood effects. it was great.
After that i had 4 hours till the tournament. I went to the AK stand to get some of the recommended paints by the previous class but most were gone. I will need to order them.
I was feeling rough. I decided to get some food about 11am and if i felt better i would continue, otherwise i would bail.
I had 2 slices of overpriced pizza and the American grease invigorated me (and the drugs as well). I then worked out my army list for the event. Post the event I saw the combos i could have taken, oh well.
Wandered around a bit more and bumped into Vic Lamb, who my exwife and I had spent some time with at Golden Demon 2002 (or 3), and had a chat to her.
Tournament:
I will do another post on this, but I played 3 good games and was just on fire. I had struggled to click with the game playing at home but it all came together at the event, i won my 3 games easily but a little too fast as it turned out as I did not have enough secondaries to win, so got 2nd on countback. I thought i had a chance at the painting award and I think i was second but there was a phenomenal painter there (Dr D), who won it. When i had seen his stuff on the discord i knew he would beat me on painting if he showed up and he did.
my trophy.
Was supposed to go play cowboys that night (moved from Sunday), and when i got there it had been cancelled, which i did not mind.
back to the hotel and crash.
At this point i had had max one meal per day.
Sunday:
Nothing planned, John had something on but mixed up 10am start with 10am finish and so missed his class.
we decided to go for a final wander around. I left my phone in the Uber (still sick and not noticing). freaked out but used Johns phone to call her (as it would not be an international call), and after 22 or so calls, she answered and i got my phone back an hour later.
Did a wander around, swapped some items from the swag bag, i got rid of some more expensive starwars stuff for heavier things that would suck for postage.
Talked to a few people, picked up my painting comp entries (got nowhere on both), and then we had had enough and left.
Had bumped into Ash from Guerilla Miniature games at the infinity event and he was keen to catchup that night but nothing came of it. all good in the end.
Started breaking down boxed models and getting rid of packaging to make packing easier.
Monday:
Slept in and missed breakfast.
went to the mall to find toys for the kids and a suitcase. got the suitcase from Maceys but the toy sections everywhere we went sucked. the lady at Maceys said everyone buys on line.
went back and packed. it was a mission but i got it all worked, but had some clothes in a duffle that John used as his 2nd bag.
Tuesday:
Flew home, John had to put some stuff in one of my bags as his rule books were too heavy.
uneventful but nearly missed the Auckland to Wellington flight as customs was slower than planned, dropped bags off after bagdrop and was going through security at final call. but it was fine and we got home.
exhausted, on the flight from auckland to wellington i only just made it to.
Had a shower and divested myself of clothes i had been in for 30 hours, slept all afternoon and gave my kids a big hug when they got home from school.
Had a great time.
Lessons:
I want to go back next year and i will look to be more purposeful, eg book pickup games, look into more events, and plan out more workshops.
try to be more social on purpose, by reaching out early.