Avien’s 2019 Hobby Log

I love the hell out of my nearly 12 week old son but damn does he take up all of my hobby time! Well not really, but by the time he’s down for bed in the evening, I don’t have the energy to do anything else!

So with that in mind, you would think that my go to hobby would be whatever is the quickest route to the end line… sadly I’ve never been that bright, and witgthat said, I took a crack at some wire armature trees this weekend. They easily take 30 minutes a tree but the final look is cool,  and should look great once properly ‘dressed’

I’ve been horribly lax in updating this hobby log! My first child was born 10 weeks ago today so I’ve honestly just had about zero energy and time to actually spend on serious amounts of hobby.

I’ve done a bit of work on my Dropzone Terrain project (which I need to update!) but haven’t done much of anything else.

For my January Goals that I set myself, I did manage to finish the build on one of the 4Ground Bank buildings, but got no painting done (not even priming)

I’ve got plans for March now that things are settling down a bit and I’m getting used to this whole sleep deprivation thing. My Shaltari arrived a while ago, so I need to get building them. I also bought a considerable Shaltari army from a friend who had build and primed everything, so I think they are going to be my mission for March and April.

I have an exam in 5 days, so naturally I have nothing better to do than get stuck into some hobby… the damn procrastination monkey never fails to show up around exam season!

I’ve gotten a good bit of work done on one of the district bank buildings from 4Ground that my wife got me for Christmas.

started working on it Friday, so reasonably happy with the progress to date!

my main advice on these kits is to make sure to wear disposable gloves, otherwise your hands get caked in residue caused by the laser cutting process. Also be careful when gluing the mirrored segments into place- easy to smudge a bit of glue and ruin one of the panes

I have some broad aims for the year, but mostly I’m going to be setting my goals month by month to allow me to take account of how much life gets in the way.

My favourite systems are Dropzone Commander, Dropfleet Commander and Warhammer Underworlds at the moment so the bulk of my goals are for these wargames

• New Year, New Army – With the Battle for Earth on the horizon and DZC v2, I’ve ordered a Shaltari Starter Set for my second dropzone force.
•  I have an ongoing project for Dropzone terrain here https://www.beastsofwar.com/project/1180417/ which I plan to continue for the year
• I want to expand my UCM Dropfleet with a Dreadnought and some additional cruisers.
• I want to start a second Dropfleet force (probably Shaltari to complement the DZC force)
• I want to finish the few bits hanging around for my UCM Dropzone
• I need to get Nightvault going
• Overall I want to play more miniature games than I did last year which was mostly dominated by boardgaming.

Beyond those high points, I have ordered an H&S Infinity airbrush and want to put it to good use to tackle some projects that have been hanging around for many years

• Thunderhawk Gunship (unpainted after 7 years!!)
• Eldar Titan (not sure which one, but unpainted after 5 years)
• Tau Orca Dropship (unpainted after 6 years!!)

So those are the broad strokes and high points I’m aiming at for the year.

I have a newborn son of just 3 weeks at the time of writing this and I am doing a part time degree at night, so my hobby time is more limited than in the past so this thread is very much to help me keep myself focussed.

January

Very tame goals for January as I have exams in two weeks and my new son is rightly taking up a lot of my time, so I want to:

1. Build at least 1 of the 4 ground buildings received at Christmas, but more if possible.
2. Start painting the UCM Dropzone Katana’s, Ravens, Condors to finish the UCM force before the end of February

Hopefully this will let me kick February off with a bit more activity.

In 2018 I started a monthly hobby challenge for myself as a way to keep myself motivated. I only tracked it through a Facebook group page for my local gaming club but for 2019 I want to keep it all in one place and this seems like a much better way of doing it.

Nothing to show yet, but I wanted to get the first post in before the end of the 1st!

Next post I’ll set out my goals for the next couple of months, but these came from my wife for Christmas so they will be one of the first on the list