Going Purple

It would seem that I can either be really good at getting stuff done or getting posts up in a timely manner, but never both.

As I mentioned a little while back, I recently had a week and half of work and not much to fill it with, so I cracked on with some hobby. I managed to get quite a bit done actually, to the point where I'm finally starting to feel really good about the way my backlog is shrinking. I'm also still managing to keep to my pledge not to buy any new models in for as long as possible in 2023, so there's huge chunks being carved into my 'To Do' pile. There's still a long way to go, but it's definitely heading in the right direction.

Anyway, rather than doing a lengthy catch up post with everything I've been doing, I figured I'd share with you what I'm working on right now, then try to actually keep up with blogging.

So I finally managed go get these guys done:

I started my 30k Emperor's Children back when the Age of Darkness box first launched, then got distracted after moved flat in the summer. Its good to finally go back and get these dudes done. This is one of those projects that I've always wanted to do, but never had the time or drive until now, so it feels excellent to be making a proper start on them.

I've got some Cataphractii Terminators on my desk atm to go with them:

These are starting to take shape nicely, although I'll admit they're taking far longer than I expected. That trim is a killer!

Although I'm looking forward to seeing the end result, its turning into one hell of a slog. I'm thinking of taking a bit of a break once the first five are done before doing the rest of the squad, but I'll have to see. I'm a little concerned though that if I leave it, they'll never get done. 

That's a problem for the future though. For now, I'm just happy I finally got a blog post out!

Until next time happy Hobbying! 

Quick but Satisfying

After sprucing up my Grey Company the other day, it seemed like the natural next step to do the same to the rest of the Fellowship models I owned, so I spent a relaxing afternoon going over them with a few extra highlights and washes. 

Not too bad at all I reckon. It was pretty simple to do and the Fellowship as a whole looks coherent again, so that pleases my autistic sense of order and neatness. 

I had to improvise a bit on the bases though, as the superglue I used for the flock frosted a bit as I applied it, but I reckon I made it work ok. I'll have to try and find a weaker glue to do basing with I think, as that's happened to me a few times recently. 

I'm particularly happy with how Boromir turned out, as he was the most basic of the original paint jobs. I managed to get some really nice shadows and highlights into his tunic, as well as a tiny bit of freehand on the sleeves to really bring the model to life

It really does show how far I've come in terms of painting quality if you compare it to the original paint job I did back in 2019.

It's always nice to revamp old projects like this, but I think next I'm going going to move on to something new. Not sure what yet, but I'll see what catches my attention. 

That's it for today. Just a quick one for now. Until next time though, happy hobbying! 

Mordor Glow-up!

It really says a lot about my mindset when I take an army which already won a best painted award, and feel the need to spruce it up!

I have a problem. 

To be fair it was just a couple of hours of work, but I think my point still stands. 

It came about as I was looking at the spears I painted the other day alongside the existing models I had for my Mordor army and the difference in quality stood out in my mind. Not massively, but enough to bug me. 

So onto the painting table they went:

It was only a couple extra highlights on each model, but the difference is pretty drastic. The army should at least look a bit more united now.

That's the problem with going back and adding to an old army project though. Your level of painting will inevitably improve and there's the danger of being locked into an eternal cycling of touching up and improving what you've already done. I just have resist the temptation to to go back again if/when I add more to the army later!

On a similar note, I finished my Grey Company too:

This was just taking the Fellowship models I painted about four years ago and bringing them in line with the Legolas model I did for my Mirkwood Rangers last year, plus a few touch ups on Elladan and Elrohir.

I absolutely love how they look as a group and I'm quite proud of how they turned out. I feel they're some of the best figures I've painted for a while. It was really satisfying to be able to go to town on some individual characters as a break from the massed army painting I've been doing for the last few months.

So yeah, that's both my armies ready for the event next weekend. I don't think I've ever been this prepared so far in advance! I've got a week off work next week so I'll have to see where my painting inspiration takes me. I'll definitely be doing something. My hobby mojo is in overdrive at the moment!

Until next time, happy hobbying! 

Orcs and Banner

Having been slowed down by a nasty bout of Covid, I'm back with a bit of progress. Once I was actually able to sit down at my hobby desk, I actually managed to crank out what I needed for my next Middle Earth event pretty quickly.

The Orcs are nothing special tbh, but I like how they turned out. They also give me a solid chunk of spears to back up my Black Numenoreans. I've played the game for years now, but had shockingly few spear Orcs painted up. This should unlock a huge amount of varients of armies for me to try out, so are a good investment to make. Most of them came from the models a mate handed me just before Christmas which I complained about, so it's good to get them done for that reason too. 

The other thing I finished up was Halbarad with his banner:

One of the main reasons I'm going to be running Grey Company as my Good list at the event was so I had an excuse to get him done! I've had him laying around for about four years now, so it's nice to finish him up. I converted a mounted version of him too, but that can't be used in the Legendary Legion, so that can wait for now. 

Looking at the picture, I don't think the banner photographed too well. I think it looks a lot better in person. I might have a play around with my light box and phone camera to resolve that issue for the future.

Getting these done far quicker than I expected has now left me with a few weeks of not really knowing what to work on. I'll have to have a think about what I'm going to do next. I'm thinking about sticking with the Middle Earth stuff and clearing some more of my backlog, or else sprucing up some more things for the event, but I'll see how I get on.

Until next time, happy hobbying! 

Year of the Backlog (So far at least!)

I'm quite proud of myself right now. So far I haven't bought a single model in 2023. It may not sound like much of an achievement, but I'm normally terrible for picking up random things on a whim. That might go some way to explaining why I've struggled so much with my backlog until recently! 

Honestly though, I feel I've reached a point where I don't need to be actively buying models. I've got pretty much everything I want for my current armies and projects. Sure there's stuff I'd like to get at some point (especially that Vashtorr, it's very nice!), but I've got plenty to be getting on with for now.

Talking of which, this is what I managed to get painted in January:

Not the most productive January I've ever had, but not bad going considering I've had Pokemon Regionals followed by a bout of illness. Every little counts when it comes to model painting anyway!

Apologies that I haven't shown them off on here as I've finished them. I've just been ridiculously busy. I'll try and be a bit more diligent with that kind of thing in future though. For now, here's the Nobz I finished tonight:

I'm almost achingly close to having a fully painted Ork army. There's only got 5 more Nobz and 10 Beast Snaggas to go and I'll have my 1500 point League list fully painted! I'm hoping to get them done before that kicks off in a month or so.

Before that though, I need to spend some time with Middle Earth, getting some Orc spears done before an event at the end of the month. That's the other thing I've been working on this evening:

They shouldn't take me too long tbh, but I've got to get them done by the 25th, along with Halbarad for my Grey Company. Luckily event deadlines tend to do wonders for my productivity. I might even get time to do some Rangers I've been meaning to get done for ages too!

That's all for today though, so I'll leave it at that and hopefully post some more soon. 

 How's your 2023 hobbying going so far? 

Starting 2023 right.

I've had a pretty solid start to 2023. Carrying on the momentum from the end of last year, my motivation for painting has been sky high. Its not been the most focused, with me doing a little bit on a lot of different stuff, but enthusiasm counts for a lot!

I did manage to get my first models of the year finished though, Its not much, just five Kommandos, but I'm pretty happy with them.

They look pretty decent I reckon. Obviously they're converted rather than using the actual kit, but they do the job nicely. I've been trying to focus on just getting models ready for the table with my Orks, rather than fussing too much over the details. I did toy with doing some freehand camo patterns on some of them, but tbh they look decent enough as is.

Beyond that, I've also been prepping a bunch of stuff for painting using the 'Slapchop' method - aka drybrushing some zenithal preshading onto a load more Orks! 

Slapchop certainly makes army painting a lot easier. I tend to go over the contrast afterwards with a few highlights and extra layers, but it makes my life so much easier by cutting out several stages of initial work, which has a tendency to sap my enthusiasm for a project. I far prefer doing the finishing stages and details! 

Tbh I may not get all those finished at once, but at least I'm going to be able to dip in and out whenever I feel like getting something ready for a game, which should lend itself to getting more finished overall. 

This flurry of hobby activity just goes to show how much of a motivator it can be to simply get some games in. As I mentioned in my last post, the local gaming club has moved their meeting nights from Thursdays to Mondays, which has meant that I've gotten more 40k games in the first two weeks of this year than in the entirety of 2022! A pretty good achievement I reckon. I'm also looking at taking part in the league that's starting soon, so there'll be plenty more to come!

So yeah I've started the year with a pretty good hobby mojo. Hopefully I can keep it up as the year goes on. Only time will tell though. Until next time, happy hobbying! 

2022 in review.

I hope you all had an excellent Christmas. As 2022 moves inexorably towards 2023, I figured that it's time for my traditional end of year review post.

It's certainly been an interesting year for me hobby wise. in terms of painting, a picture says a thousand words:

That's everything I've done this year. A pretty good chunk of stuff! Granted, it's less than last year, but last year was a little bit ridiculous in terms of what I got done. I'm very pleased to say I'm going into the new year firmly into positive figures on my painting points though, something which has been eluding me since I started tracking it all back in 2017.

I certainly feel I've been painting to a higher standard than last year too. I'm super proud of everything I've produced. Not that what I did last year was bad by any means, but I can definitely see how much I'm improving over time, which is super satisfying to see. With the pressure to clear my backlog no longer being a thing either, I can only see myself improving more and more over time, as I can take my time more on individual projects, rather than feeling the need to keep plunging forward to move things off my painting desk. 

As I gathered the models for the photo, I also noticed that I've been more focused than usual. My painting has definitely been more centred around 'chunks' of projects rather than the more scattershot approach I normally take. In hindsight, I think its because I've more playing more in events than individual games throughout the year, so I've been concentrating on getting armies ready rather than zigzagging between whatever catches my eye. That's definitely a good thing, as also means I'm able to play games with a lot more fully painted models than usual, which feels pretty nice. Hopefully I can keep that focus going into 2023. 

Talking of gaming, as I mentioned I've not been able to get out and play as much as I'd like to. I've gotten a lot of games in and they've been a lot of fun, but it's mostly been centred on various events I've attended. That's no bad thing, but it does means there's been huge chunks of time between being able to get out and play, which is something I'm going to work to even out going into 2023. I definitely feel a lot saner when I can get out an game regularly. The local club is changing the day they meet, which will mean it'll be far easier for me to attend, so that should help on that front. Their main focus is on 40k too, so that might help me actually get 2000 points of Orks done. 

On a slightly more sombre note, my biggest disappointment this year has been that the heresy campaign which I organised to try and get the locals excited for the new edition just fizzled out. It's kind of understandable. People have busy lives, now more than ever, but it's still a little disheartening to see happen. I'm hoping to organise some kind of big finale day some time in January to wrap the whole thing up in a meaningful way, so that should be good.

So moving forward into the new year, what are my hobby goals? Well I've learned better than to set myself specific goals, as my inner hobby butterfly would destroy any plan I make by about February! I am however, just going to focus on painting models already have for a while. I seem to be on a bit of an Ork kick atm, so I'm going to get on with that as we go into January. As I mentioned, I'll be able to attend my local club a bit more regularly, so I want enough painted to do their next 40k league. There's also a Middle Earth event in February that I need to get a little more Mordor done for, so I guess they're going into my painting queue too.

Beyond that I'm just going to continue with my annual 365 challenge and see where the winds of inspiration take me. I actually failed the challenge this year, thanks to having to move flat over the summer, but I won't beat myself up too much about it. It's more a way to try and prompt me to be working on stuff rather than it being a hard rule.

So that's a quick summary of my hobby in 2022. A bit more concise than usual, but at least it spares you from one of my rambling posts.

Happy New year to you all. What are your plans for 2023p

Mad, Bad and Chompy

I wasn't expecting to have any more to show you guys so soon! 

I honestly don't think I've ever painted a character model so quickly. I thought it would take a few more days at least, but I just sort of fell into a groove after I wrote my blog post yesterday and somehow he just got finished. 

So may I present 'Mad' Gulg, da Gitkrumpa, finished and ready to slug it out on the 29th:

I had a lot of fun painting him. The sculpt is so nice, it just seemed to paint itself.

It helped that I wanted to keep things relatively simple in terms of the scheme and had a clear idea of where I wanted to go with it, so it was just a matter of following the steps. 

The warpaint was a last minute flourish which came about as a bit of a happy accident. After messing around with highlighting, I just couldn't get the face to look how I wanted. Eventually I just went 'fuck it' and covered it over with the white. The arm tattoos came as an extension of that, but between them it just brought the model to life and gave it so much character, I couldn't have asked for better. 

Anyway, he should be the very last model I paint in 2022. I honestly can't see myself getting anything more done between now and the end of the year. On a serendipitous note though, this takes me to precisely zero on my painting points, so not only have I clawed back the progress I lost last month, but I also get to start 2023 on a completely fresh hobby sheet!

I can't see it staying that way for long, but I can hope at least.

I'm hoping to be back shortly before New Year with my usual yearly wrap up post, but in the meantime I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas and I'll see you all again soon. 

Season's Hobbying!

I thought I was done with getting some hobby in for 2022. Working in retail, December is normally ridiculously busy for me, but I've actually managed to crank out a little bit more before the end of the year. 

My local club is holding a festive arena-style game on the 28th, so I saw it as the perfect opportunity and deadline to try and get and my Squigboss done by:

There's still a lot of work needing to be done on him, but I'm really liking how he's shaping up so far. 

I'm really loving the yellow. I was tempted to do the Squig in Deathskulls Blue, but I already had that for my Squighog Nob so went with something a bit different. I'm glad I did, as even with it still needing a second drybrush, I think it really pops! 

I'm still debating whether he needs a Bosspole or not. Of course, any proper Ork Boss needs one, but I'm wondering whether it'd muddy the silhouette of the model too much. I'll probably judge it when the rest of him is done.

He also needs a good name, but I'll decide that later too. For now though, I hope you all have a good Christmas and I'll post more soon! 

So it happened again...

Remember yesterday when I posted about me being excited to be back into positive painting figures? Well I should have learned my lesson by now.

It started simply enough. I was up Athena Games in Norwich yesterday for a day of gaming, so I bought myself an Ork character as a reward for breaking even:

I've loved this model since it was revealed last year, figured I deserved a treat and had the painting points spare that I was still in the positive. So far so good.

Then a mate of mine turned up with a box of Mordor Orcs for me. I'd mentioned to him I needed some more spear dudes for one of my armies and was expecting him to turn up a few spares.

I was not expecting a full 24!

So yeah I'm in negative figures again, after less than 24 hours!

Luckily I've hit the week off work and in a bit of a painting groove, so I had a pretty productive day today finishing off some of the Ork repaints I've been cracking on with recently. I reckon I've done pretty well:

I'm still in negative figures, but I'm not too far off breaking even again for the second time in a week.

It's all good. I might even get some more done over the weekend. Depends how distracted I get with new Pokemon stuff. 

Happy Hobbying!