2021 Review

As 2021 draws to a close and we go hurtling into 2022 with frightening speed, its time for my usual look back at my hobby year and forward at the year ahead. It's always nice to do these kinds of posts as it gives me a chance to see how far I've come in the last 12 months, as well as giving me the opportunity to gather my thoughts on where I'm going 

2021 has been an odd, but overall pretty good year hobby wise. Despite starting the year in lockdown, I managed to fit in a ton of games as things opened again, across a decent range of systems. 40k and Titanicus seem to have become my main focus, as well as a good amount of Middle Earth of course. It's been really excellent reconnecting with gaming friends who I've been separated from by the pandemic. My main source of socialisation has always been through gaming, so it's really made quite a difference to my mental health to have that back. Last year was really quite rough on me, even if I didn't realise it at the time. I'm certainly feeling a lot more grounded now I have that social outlet back in my life. 

That reconnection and the fact that games are actually being played has meant that I actually painted far more this year than I did even last year where we spent most of it in lockdown. Gaming and events has always been an excellent motivator for getting stuff done!

I can't help but be pretty impressed with that level of output tbh. I've been ridiculously productive and I feel my quality is going up all the time as well. My two best painted awards felt pretty good too! I'm actually shocked that I got best painted twice in rapid succession. I really don't think the armies which won were that impressive tbh, but I guess I've mastered the knack of making armies look good from about two feet away! 

I've got another Middle Earth event next week (assuming we don't get whacked by restrictions), so I'll have to see if I can get a hat trick!

Unfortunately for my backlog, a lot of the painting I've gotten done hasn't actually been from my existing projects, which means that shockingly I'm still in negative figures for my painting points! The big one was when I started Orks in the summer, which ballooned my total to ridiculous levels quite quickly, as well as the various other bits and pieces I picked up across the year. Anyone keeping an eye on my painting points would have seen them zigzig across the negative numbers quite drastically as I desperately tried to wrestle it under control! 

That's why I want to spent at least the early part of 2022 focusing on working on my existing projects. I'm sick of the endless fight against my backlog, so I'm going to be trying not to buy anything new for a few months. My big goal of the year is to get to the point where I have a fully painted force for every system I play, so I can only game with painted models. In turn, that should allow me to be strict with getting stuff painted before I play them. We'll see how that goes, but I think it's a pretty good goal to have. 

With that in mind, I've actually started 2022 o a really positive note. I've been sprucing up and adding to my Mirkwood Elves which I took to Shaun's event at the start of 2020.

That seems so long ago now. Covid really has warped my sense of time. Anyway, I decided to add a few highlights to my existing models and make them pop a bit more, ready for the event I'm attending next weekend. 

It certainly worked! I've absolutely fallen in love how they look now and it's making me want to go back and revisit the non Ranger elements of my Mirkwood army and bring them up to this level, plus actually finish the bits I lost interest in before. I have a bunch of armoured Elves I need to do, plus five different versions of Thrandui which have sat on my desk for longer than I even want to think about. 

I guess that's going to be my next project after turning my attention to sprucing up my Corsairs for this weekend as well, but tbh I'm not as fussed about those. It's nice to get my new year hobby off to a roaring start though.

Anyway, I've rambled enough for now. Happy New Year to you all and I hope your year is full of happy hobbying. I'll catch you all soon! 

Solutions and Dabblings

After several months of my Hobby Pledges sidebar being frozen uselessly in place due to Google screwing up the edit function, I've finally found a workaround for it. The sidebar is pretty much useless to me without learning html, so the entire section has been moved to a page of its own. 

It's not ideal, as i liked having it on the main page, but at least it's live on the blog again rather than just on the notepad app of my phone!

It also makes the front page of the blog look at little neater, so i suppose thats a silver lining.

Other than that, I've been taking things quite easy hobby wise. I got somewhat distracted by the release of the new Pokemon game! I did keep my eye in though by completing a couple of Nurgle bits for a mate:

We realised that after a few years of working on bits and pieces for him on and off that he nearly had a full 1500 points fully painted, so I'm going to make a concerted effort to try and get those done for him, if not before the New Year, then at least in early January.

It's not much, but at least I'm still moving forward. I've got a few projects bubbling away which I'll probably go into more detail about in the next post. Of course, I've got my traditional end of year post to pull together as well. Plenty to keep me busy as we roll inexorably towards Christmas. Wish me luck! 

More Pootling

As I predicted, I decided to take things pretty easy over the last week or so. All I did hobby-wise last week was finally spray up my Titanicus accessories:

Only took me three years! Seems a little thing, but it feels so good to have finally gotten it done. I was getting sick of not being able to see my pips properly whilst I was playing, so I chose the bright, most lurid colour I could to spray them with!

Then this week I've been back on holiday, but I've just been pootling along with hobby stuff. After one of my Xestobiax Titans took a cat-related tumble from a shelf, it got moved up the queue for sprucing up, so I spent Monday working on that with some YouTube videos on in the background.

It was surprisingly relaxing. There was something quite zen about sitting there and just neatening up a three year-old paint job. There's still a lot to do with it, but I think it's going to become my go to thing to return to when I want to chill between bigger projects. Talking of which... 

I finally returned to the backlog train hard today and got these guys finished up. They were really loose ends from the Mordor stuff I finished a few weeks ago, but pretty important for the Minas Morgul force I'm looking at doing.

I'm really happy with how they look, although to be fair I think the lightbox does them a lot of favours. Every time I've pointed this out to people though, I've been told to shut up and look at my two recent best painted awards! *grumbles*

At least they're done though and finally off my painting desk, leaving me free to work on some 40k and Titanicus stuff. Expect to see an update on that very soon!

Until then, stay safe and happy hobbying! 

Big Squig Energy

I really need to stop doubting my painting abilities so much. I only went and nabbed another Best Painted! 

I was pretty shocked tbh. I really didn't think my Cirith Ungol were anywhere near as good as my Hobbits, but clearly they impressed people, so I can't argue with that! 

It was a really fun event too. Was great to see a lot of people I haven't seen for ages and play some excellent games. It really brought home to me how much I love gaming in Middle Earth and I left with a lot of ideas for future projects. 

 

As for results, me and my mate didn't do overly well, but it was still a great day and it was a good laugh. Really looking forward to the next one! 

Not one to rest on my laurels, I went right back to my hobby desk! I finished up some Orks on Sunday night.

It's nice to actually finish up some models from the Beast Snaggas box. Apart from the Squighog Nob,  the box has  e, been laying forgotten in a dark corner of my hobby pile for the past few months while I've been distracted with other stuff. Of course it would have been better I'd finished something which was actually in my crusade roster, but oh well. With our Requisition Points expanding as we move into phase 2, they might end up in there anyway!

As for the models themselves, I'm far happier with how the riders turned out than the Bomb Squigs did. On the other hand, they're essentially glorified tokens so it makes sense that I focused more on the riders themselves. They're all good though and it's another thing off my slowly shrinking backlog!

I'm probably going to take things easy hobby-wise for the rest of this week. I'm back at work for a few days before going back on another week's holiday, so I don't expect to really do much at least until I'm off again. Rest assured though that I've got plenty of hobby ideas bubbling away, so I'll be back soon to share them with you.

 Until then, happy hobbying! 

A week of actual gaming!

I've had a pretty good week in the hobby. After being ridiculously busy for the last few months, I've finally gotten a week's holiday so I've actually had a chance to grab some long-overdue games. 

On Monday I managed to fit in the latest episode in our local Crusade campaign:

I faced some Daemons using Bel'akor's Legion and got a drubbing! I suppose I was overdue one, having easily won my previous two games. It was a good laugh though and tbh it was great just to get out and be sociable. 

Whilst I was there and under some decent natural lighting, I managed to nab a group pic of a bunch of my fully painted Orks. It's not quite everything I've gotten painted, just what was in my Crusade roster. Looking pretty good though, even if I do say so myself! 

My original plan was to use this campaign to get everything in my list painted before the Power Level goes up. We've reached the end of Phase 1 though and it turns out that my progress has been pretty lacking. I guess I'm going to have to try and catch up as we go forward. Fun fun!

Anyway, I also managed to get a game of Titanicus in with another friend today. When we arranged things the other day, it was just going to be a standard game. Then the rules for Corrupted Titans leaked last night, so we decided to have some fun to test them out.

In a running theme for this week, my Mortis lost horribly, but it was immense fun. Talking with Chris, I've come away with load of fun ideas on how to combine and use the new rules and my enthusiasm for the game is really bubbling away, so expect more gribbly Titans from me in the next few weeks!

As much fun as gaming has been, I've also managed to get my Mordor Orcs finished for Saturday's event:

They're not going to winning any awards, but they turned out decently enough and it's nice to finally get these done and put the way - they've been sitting half finished on my painting desk for nearly two years now! 

I managed to get a few extras done on top of those too:

The Captains are needed, but the Shaman and Kardush are going to part of my wider Mordor army. I managed to pick up the new plastic Witch King to go with them over the weekend, so that will probably be one of my next projects. I'm really starting to amass a good amount of stuff for my Mordor now, despite not actually meaning to collect too much of it. Bits and pieces just seem to have kept accumulating! 

Moving forward, I'm not actually sure what I want to work on next, beyond a few bits and pieces (*cough*Titans*cough*). I'll just have to see where my whim takes me. 

 Until next time folks, happy hobbying! 

A splurge of progress

It's that time again where I make excuses for why I haven't posted for a while. I'll be honest, I've just been incredibly lazy when it comes to keeping the blog updated. I've been pretty busy hobby-wise though.

For a start, I finally finished Bozrog!

I actually got him painted up pretty quickly once I turned my attention to it. It was mostly just building up layers of drybrushing, then picking out some details.

I might go back later and add a few transfers and a bit more weather, but I reckon he's pretty decent as he is.

Beyond that I've mostly been working on some Mordor Uruks for a doubles tournament I'm doing with a mate in a few weeks time:

They're not going to be be winning any best painted awards any time soon, but I'm happy with them. We're taking the Cirith Ungol legendary legion, so I've got to sit down this week and paint the command models, plus the Orc half, but that won't take too long.

The event should be great fun. Me and my mate aren't taking it seriously at all. We're just using it as an excuse to hang out for the first time in ages and have a laugh.

As if those weren't enough, I've also been sprucing up my Reaver Titans for Adeptus Titanicus:

With news of the Traitor Legios book on its way, I'm a lot more excited for the game than I've been for a while. The arrival of Corrupted Titans also gives me the perfect excuse to add some Nurgle-y details to them, so I've been having a lot of fun with technical paints! 

I've tried to keep things subtle, so a casual observer is likely to miss the chaotic influence at first, but the closer you look, the more you see. Finding the right balance has been an interesting exercise in self restraint. 

I am pretty happy with them though and I can't wait to carry on with the rest of the Maniple, as well as adding to it with a few more obviously corrupt Engines. That's in a few weeks time though, once this latest Middle Earth event is done with. 

So yeah, that's what's been keeping me busy. Shame I'm so terrible at blogging about it in a timely manner! I'd promise that's going to change, but we both know that's unlikely. You'll have to endure my occasional splurge catchup instead! Hopefully you've enjoyed it though. I'll post more again soon.

Until next time, happy hobbying! 

Pootling along

I've been taking things pretty easy this week. I didn't get a chance to paint up Bozrog like I wanted to, but still got something done:

Da Blue Baron! The first what's likely to be be fair number of Buggies going into my Ork list and a real pleasure to paint.

 The Speed Freaks models have so much character to them that I didn't even feel the need to do my usual conversions to it. That's right, I'm actually using something straight from the box. It feels so unnatural!

It's nice to be making progress on painting up my Crusade army, even if it's not the unit I intended to do. I'll have to weave Bozrog and the other bits I'm plinking away at around my next army though, as I've got another Middle Earth event coming up soon.

More on that next time though. Stay safe and happy gaming! 

What I've been up to

I've been taking a bit more of a relaxed approach to my hobby since the event the other week. After the intensity to mass painting Hobbits to a deadline, it's nice to just pootle along and flit between whatever takes my fancy.

As a result, I've gone back to my pile of unpainted Harry Potter stuff and plucked out a pair of House Elves to work on:

One day I'll actually get a game with all this Potter stuff, but for now it's fun to paint and a great little pallet cleanser.

I'm pretty happy with them, but they are looking a little blank-eyed atm, so I'll have to go in with a tiny brush and a very steady hand before I can call them done. I was hoping to avoid that, but it can't be helped.

Moving on from that, I also built something which I find pretty damn cool:

He started out as a conversion turning a Necromunda Ambot into a Big Mek in Mega Armour and he kind of grew out of all control until he became the mechanised monstrosity you see above! 

Thus Bozrog da Skraplord was born. A deranged Big Mek with Tellyporta Blasta and Ded Shiny Shoota who leads my Ork Crusade army. He's already laid low two opposing Warlords with a frankly ridiculous amount of Dakka and he doesn't show much sign of slowing down. 

I do still need to do some clean up work before I paint him, but that should come about reasonably quickly. I'm pretty excited to get him finished, so he might be all I work on for the next week or so. We'll see though. I am somewhat infamous for getting distracted! 

I'll leave it there for now though. Stay safe and happy wargaming! 

Hobbits done!

It's been a crazy few weeks. August Bank Holiday followed by a rather nasty bout of illness completely derailed my hobby plans, but I'm back now and I've even got a completed army to show for it!

It's a very strange feeling, having a fully painted army. I dont actually finish army projects very often, despite painting a hell of a lot. I have a tendency to ping pong between armies and game systems, so my progress tends to be very scattershot. 

The fact that this needed to be ready for the 11th September definitely helped me stay focused though. It's not a rush job either. I'm really quite happy with the quality of painting I've achieved, despite the tight deadline and the time out from hobby i had whilst I was ill.

 My hard work was rewarded richly too, with me netting best painted at the event!

That'll do quite nicely, I'd say. It feels pretty good. I've put a lot of effort into improving my painting over the past few years, so it's great to see some kind of tangible proof of that growth.

I can't rest on my laurels though, my backlog is still looming, so I've spent Sunday finishing up these:

 

That's a Hasharin for my Corsairs and the first model I've gotten done from the Beast Snaggas box I bought nearly two months ago! It might seem a bit of a random pairing, but they share a recipe on the blue and they were laying in front of me on my desk, so it went from there!

That'll do for today though. I need to sit down and have a think about what I want to do next, but I'm sure I'll be back soon. Until then, happy hobbying! 

Rambling and finding my mojo

It's funny the things which can throw you off of your hobby mojo. This time it was Blogger and their ongoing quest to make the user experience as difficult and frustrating as possible. You see that sidebar to the left hand side of this blog? The one I've been meticulously updating for the past three years with my back and forth progress on my hobby challenges and my backlog? Well thanks to Google's removal of the quick edit button, I now can't edit that without navigating half a dozen menus and grappling with HTML!

It's really frustrating, especially as I've been both really productive and overly keen with my purchases over the last month or so. Being able to visibly track my hobby progress like that was a massive motivator for me. All I can do for now is hope it returns and track my progress offline. 

Nonetheless I have been trying to crack on with some hobby stuff. I kind of had, considering how much I've been buying recently. I splurged on the Beast Snaggas box a few weeks back, bought the Hobbits I need for the upcoming Middle Earth event, then splurged even more by buying some cheap Savage Orcs from a mate, ready for Old World shenanigans. Needless to say, my painting points aren't exactly looking healthy right now!

I did manage to get in some games though. One of Middle Earth with a close friend who I hadn't seen since last year, then another one of Titanicus. It's been great catching up with people now that things are opening up again, as well as acting as a great motivator to get the ball rolling again with my painting. 

It's definitely helped me decide what I need to focus on and get done. It's just a matter of finding the energy to sit down and get it done. Work's so ridiculously busy this summer that it's hard to muster the energy to do anything when  at home. Hopefully that'll start to ease up a little once Bank Holiday's out the way, especially as I've got a crap ton of Hobbits to get finished by September 11th!

Anyway, I'll leave this here for now. Its good to just have a ramble rather than just spamming painting posts at you guys. Hopefully I'll be back to my usual productive self soon. 

Happy hobbying!