2023 Hobby Log

On the 3rd of November I was coming to OTT for my usual early morning browse. I hadn’t signed in yet so got extra banner adverts including this one:

It’s not often I click on a banner ad but this one was too much not to. Within five minutes I had signed up to the Warp Miniatures Patreon, waiting patiently (mostly) for the email link to the models, and promptly throwing out all my hobby plans for the weekend. By the time the files arrived on Saturday morning, I had already cracked open a new bottle of resin and run a calibration test.

Now the sensible thing to do would have been to load up a print bed with one of every model, print it at my best setting and just pain those. Rarely when it comes to hobby do I take the sensible road though so instead I made a bed full of each troop type (spear, bow, club and frogs) plus an extra bed of heroes and some extra infantry to mount on the frogs.

Being impatient and still slightly trying to fool myself that this was a minor distraction and definitely not a new project, I set each to print with a bigger layer height than I have for other minis I’ve printed (0.05mm instead of 0.02 or 0.03). In some places this is really obvious, in others less so but overall I’m happy enough with them.

As this is definitely not a new project, I just grabbed some 2mm thick 20x20mm mdf bases from my stash and some of the plastic Kings of War regiment/horde trays to put them of for easier handling. A quick prime with the end of a can of black from Colour Forge and I got started on base colours for my unit of archers.

• Robes – Vallejo Prussian blue
• Hat – Citadel Mephiston Red
• Skin – Citadel Kislev flesh
• Beards and arrow flights – Citadel White Scar

Because I was working up from a black prime, a couple of coats were needed but the minis are pretty small so no one colour took too long to apply. Tomorrow morning I’ll try and get the last colour and a wash down before I head out to work.

Even with a couple of late shifts at work this week, I managed to chip away at these wee lads.

Which is just as well because they’ve multiplied…

After all that big talk about finishing off the Nightstalkers and the Skelliebobs, November ended up being another shitter of a month with another bereavement. Finding the energy to do anything other than the basics to make it to work was largely impossible. I took it easy as I could but mostly I just played video games and watched cartoons. Like the adult I am.

At the start of the year I laid out three goals for myself:

1. After last year’s pathetic two games played, play more games is the first goal. I have two local clubs (each of which has one to two sessions a week) and a small group of gaming friends, there’s really no excuse to not get something to the table.
2. Paint complete armies/forces to get them on the table, not just for the fun of painting them. I realised last year that only one project was a complete force for a game. I have several half armies, lettuce try and finish some. I also have a few smaller warbands for games that could fairly easily get painted up and played with.
3. Finish painting the terrain that is hiding in the cupboard. I get bored really easily when it comes to painting terrain but it really does make a difference when it comes to Goal #1

Goal 1

I managed to get in a lot more games this year, well into double digits. I played with new people and picked up new games. Some got left along the way, others have taken hold.

Goal 2

This is a mixed bag. I did paint complete forces for the games that I got into but also was very scattered with what I painted. That’s just something I need to accept about myself I think; when my brain is all over the place, my painting will be too.

Models painted as of 25/12/23:

28mm – 248

15mm and below – 355

Terrain – 30 pieces

Total – 633

That’s a really good number for me.

Goal 3

I’m pretty happy with how this one went. I got some of the stuff in the stash painted up and some scratch built islands for Kings of War Armada. Still have other table projects in the stash to paint up.

Rather than focus on the remains of the projects here, I’m going to try over the Christmas week to get a wee head start on a 2024 project. I’ll come back to these ones but there are two big projects on the horizon that need work right now.

• First up will be a new army for Kings of War as part of a slow grow with Woodstock and some people who play at a different club to us.
• Second is Sons of Horus for Legions Imperialis. There are a good number of people in the area picking the game up (though it looks like half of us still haven’t had our pre-orders through this time).
• The third slot was going to be a Dungeonalia project but I don’t think I’ll be bothering with it. Instead I think I’ll be dusting off something else instead.