Happy New Year!

Once again I haven't posted up here for a while. One of my New Year's Resolutions is to get back into the habit of blogging again on a regular basis, so hopefully that'll improve.

My second resolution is to try and clear my hobby backlog and bring my painting points back into positive figures, as it's getting to quite silly levels again. Easier said than done, but there's not much coming out soon that I'm aware of which could derail me too much. It's also mostly giving myself a little push on projects to finish them off, so shouldn't be too hard.

So to kick things off, here's my first completed models of the year:

I'm off to a roaring start, I'd say!

I've been working on my first Maniple for Legio Mortis on and off ever since Titanicus relaunched back in the summer, but my tendency to be a hobby butterfly meant that I kept getting distracted. The Warhounds alone have been staring at me on my hobby desk for the past two months!

In the week or so from since the new year, I've been putting in a little work on them every day and I'm really quite pleased with the results. They're fully done now, save for applying decals, which will be ordered when I get paid.

I'm particularly happy because my third resolution for this year is to only play with fully painted models wherever possible. Not only will that help me clear my backlog like I want to, it should also hopefully help me stay focused.

Next up will be my Necromunda Eschers, ready for a campaign which is starting up at my local gaming shop in the next couple of weeks.

I'm back - with Titans!

My levels of hobby productivity has been a bit erratic recently. As a result, I haven't had a chance to post anything up here for ages. It's hardly surprising, considering how manic this summer has been at work. Now the worst of that is over though, I want to try to get back into my 'one hour a night' routine.

It would be quite helpful to get some regular hobby sessions rolling again, as my pile of plastic needing attention is reaching quite massive levels. On top of the two Grand Master Editions of Titanicus which I've been plugging away at, I also bought a pair of Reaver Titans when they launched last month. I also showed my lack of willpower once again by buying into the hype around the Conquest partwork magazine which just launched:

In my defence, you can't really say no when you can get Primaris Marines for that price! I've never really gotten that excited for Primaris before, but I figure having some for my Deathwatch would be quite useful at some point.

Me and a friend are going to be going halves on a subscription, so expect us to be getting into some Kill Team action at some point soon. As if I don't have enough to be getting on with.

Speaking of which, I've made some pretty decent progress on my first Grand Master box. I've managed to pretty much complete the two Warlord Titans from the box, Metatron Omnissiah of the Legio Xestobiax and Umbra Mortis of the Legio Mortis:

Both are complete barring some decal work, finishing the bases and gluing on some leg panels, but the decals can wait until Forge World get around to releasing transfer sheets or I order some custom ones. I'm really happy with how they've turned out, but I shudder to think how much work went into these. Easily 15-20 hours of hobby time for each one. I certainly think it's worth it though. I'm really thrilled to see how well they've turned out.

You can also see my first batch of House Devine Knights in that shot. I'm planning to do a proper photo shoot of all my Titanicus stuff when I've got the first GM box done, so you can get a closer look at them then.

That's all for now. This was really just a post to get the ball rolling on blogging again. I'll fill you in with more detail on what I've been up to with Titanicus over the next couple of weeks.

Mortis walks!

I think I've managed to blow up both my painting points and hobby budget in the most spectacular way possible!

Adeptus Titanicus launched last weekend and I bought into it hard. As a result, two Grand Master Editions are currently sitting on my hobby desk, ready to be painted.

I've been waiting and watching the development of this for years, so it really was a moment of nerdy bliss being able to finally being able to have the game in my hands, crack it and start working on it. It kind of goes without saying that most of my posts for a while are going to be based around Titanicus

Having booked the weekend off work, I was able to crack on straight away, spending Saturday building my first Warlord, then Sunday painting it.

After nearly 14 hours of hobby time, I had Umbra Mortis of the Legio Mortis almost ready to walk:

This was surprisingly easy to build and paint considering the size and complexity of the model. They really are a joy to work with.

Most of the remaining work to be done is just finishing up the leg armour, applying decals and magnetising the weapons, which I should hopefully get done this week.

Of course the elephant in the room (at least to regular readers of this blog) is how this is going to affect my painting points. Long story short, they've been crushed! Despite not being full-sized models, I'm counting each Titan as a full Lord of War. That's 20 points each. I'm just counting Knights as infantry models, due to their size. Across the two boxes, thats's 92 points in the wrong direction. Needless to say I won't be buying much in the near future (until the Reavers and Warhounds release, that is!).

I've been deliberately quite harsh on myself with this in order to make sure each Warlord gets the care and attention they deserve. My excitement for this game should mean that I quickly win back ground though.

Wish me luck. Hopefully I'll actually remember to post stuff up as I go along, so watch this space!