Tuesday 31 March 2020

Month in Review - March 2020

Well, it's been a month alright.  Not entirely sure if it has gone insanely fast or insanely slow though.  I am officially off work until further notice, so, currently on 16 days worked and 6 off...
So, what's been happening?

Well, since starting the new job I found myself with a lot more energy, despite working more days than I did before, and was managing to get a couple of hours of hobbying done each afternoon.
It's getting full in here...

I managed to get the Stonecast I posted about on Sunday based up for my #talesofinstahammer2020 army done, so that was 5 Sequitors, and a Knight-Venator, along with 3 Prosecutors and the Farstriders to tie in with the fast moving theme.


Sequitors (Stormcast Eternals, Age of Sigmar, Games Workshop)

Knight-Venator (Stormcast Eternals, Age of Sigmar, Games Workshop)

Prosecutors (Stormcast Eternals, Age of Sigmar, Games Workshop)
The Farstriders (Stormcast Eternals, Warhammer Underworlds, Games Workshop)

Not content with just knocking out the Farstriders, double dipping with one of my #hobbyresolutions I turned my attention to more Warhammer Underworlds warbands and ended up painting not one, not two, but six more in a flurry of brushes.  Hey, I needed something to occupy me from basing Stonecast and I'm at 98% total completion on Red Dead 2...



It is also getting limited on space in here...

The first couple of additional warbands I tackled were the Chosen Axes (Dwarf Fyreslayers) and Zarbag's Gitz (Night Goblins).  The main reason for choosing them were I was going to use the Gitz as a test scheme for the Night Goblin army I am planning to paint up for SAGA/Dragon Rampant, and the Chosen Axes were one of the smaller warbands to offset the 9 assorted Goblins and Squigs.  Painting was mostly Contrast paint, with Army Painter metals, and in the case of the Chosen Axes, an all over wash of Strong Tone.  Between skin and beard/hair, most of the work on the Axes was done with 2 colours.  I really like how the Chosen Axes turned out, and, being quick and relatively painless to do, I think I might use the same technique for painting up board game pieces.



The Chosen Axes (Warhammer Underworlds, Games Workshop)


Zarbag's Gitz (Warhammer Underworlds, Games Workshop)

I finished both of these up last Monday, and, whilst finding out what was happening with work, figured I'd start another couple of warbands.  I settled on Grashrak's Ravagers (Beastmen) and Skaeth's Wild Hunt (Wood Elves) as they were both primed bone and were the two from the latest box.  I managed to get the flesh and hair on them before sleeping, and with no work on Tuesday, finished them off over the day (less than 24hrs after starting them).



Grashrak's Ravagers (Warhammer Underworlds, Games Workshop)


Skaeth's Wild Hunt (Warhammer Underworlds, Games Workshop)




Not one to rest on my laurels (or...  not having the motivation to start basing my Stonecast) I moved on to Ylthari's Guardians (Tree Spirits) because, again, small warband, and knocked them out pretty quickly too.  I went with a different style and colour on each of them, as, I didn't like the green I used on the first one and didn't want to repeat it.



Finally, I grabbed the Thorns of the Briar Queen (Ghosts) as I'd made a start on them before trying out some transparent paints, and it would get them off the sidelines and into the cabinet.  Again, pretty quick job, couple of coats of blue, did the metal, hit it with Typhus Corrossion and Rhyza Rust Technical paints, quick highlight, job done.

Ylthari's Guardians (Warhammer Underworlds, Games Workshop)



Thorns of the Briar Queen (Warhammer Underworlds, Games Workshop)




Rather than starting a new project today, I contented myself with getting a Strong Tone wash on the remaining Stonecast that I'll be working on over the next 3 months, then giving my workstation a good clean and changing my paint water and cleaning my tile off.




Now, onto the non-painting side of things.  Hmmmmm, bit of a scunner there.  All games and shows cancelled or postponed until further notice...  Had planned on going down to Chillcon in Sheffield but it was called off at the last minute, and all the games I had arranged are going to have to be rescheduled for when we are allowed out to play again.  At least I've kept up to date on the blog posts.  If this continues I might have to consider transferring more paint over when I run out of minis to paint...

 
Task Completed
Fully Paint Grymkin (HORDES)
0%
Tales of Instahammer (Stonecast Eternals) 8 67%
Paint 6pts Saga Age of Vikings army
0%
Paint 6pts Saga Age of Crusades army
0%
Paint 8pts Saga Age of Magic army – Vikings
0%
Paint 8pts Saga Age of Magic army – Goblins
0%
Paint Shadespire Warbands 9 45%
Paint 2000pt Warmaster army
0%
Paint Osprey Wargames forces
0%



Play 52 Games 7 13%
Play 10 new opponents 4 40%
Play 10 Boardgames
0%
Run a gaming event/session.
0%



Maintain blog with monthly posts 3 25%
Write 1 extra blog post per month (BatRep, tutorial, review etc) 3 25%
Transfer flip top paints to dropper bottles
0%
Go to 4 shows or conventions 1 25%

4.90%

Next up, I'm planning on tackling another big unit of Sequitors and Castigators for the Hold the Line task for Tales of Instahammer, and a couple more Underworlds warbands.  I was going to do the Cursebreakers, but I'll leave them until May for the Magic challenge.  I might have also ordered a few things online just incase...  so they might make an appearance.


Stay safe people, keep your hands clean and your brushes dirty.

Cheers,

John















Sunday 29 March 2020

Tales of InstaHammer - the halfway point.

So, 3 months into the year pretty much (who knows how long the year will actually last however) and I've reached the halfway point of the #talesofinstahammer challenge.

January and February
Extras


For those that don't know, the challenge is to basically follow a (very loosely enforced) army building challenge over the course of six months.  It is open to both fantasy and sci-fi forces (AoS/Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000) but I'm sure you could paint stuff up for another game and nobody would really complain.  It isn't limited to official figures either and contains a mix of people who are painting to game with their army and those who don't play at all.

The Guidelines
I'd figured to do the Stonecast Eternals for this, and had picked up most of a 2000 point Age of Sigmar force cheaply on ebay focussed on the units from the Soul Wars box.

The army I planned out was -

Allegiance: Stormcast Eternals
Mortal Realm: Ghyran
Astreia Solbright (220)
- General
Lord-Ordinator (140)
Knight-Venator (120)
10 x Sequitors (260)
- Stormsmite Mauls and Soulshields
- 5x Stormsmite Greatmaces
10 x Sequitors (260)
- Stormsmite Mauls and Soulshields
- 4x Stormsmite Greatmaces
5 x Sequitors (130)
- Stormsmite Mauls and Soulshields
- 1x Stormsmite Greatmaces
6 x Castigators (160)
6 x Castigators (160)
5 x Evocators (220)
Celestar Ballista (110)
Celestar Ballista (110)
Celestar Ballista (110)

Total: 2000 / 2000
Wounds: 127


I knew that the list didn't exactly cover all the planned months work, so I also had some spares from the original Age of Sigmar box to hand, along with a couple of extra heroes, so I made a few notes on my list for when I planned to tackle things.  January was supposed to be all 25 Sequitors, along with a hero, February was the Lord-Ordinator and Ballistae, March the Knight-Venator, April the Castigators, May the Evocators and finally Astreia in June to lead the army.  Plans change however, and I haven't followed that exactly, but I've still made pretty good progress, I've also sneaked in a few Warhammer Underworlds warbands as part of the secret challenges.


#tohi2020 Stonecast Eternals

At time of writing (with a couple of days of March left) I have completed 26/54 models (890/2000pts) for the list, I have also finished another 12 not on the list for another 800 points, and have 12 (split between what is on the list and what isn't) currently sat on my workstation waiting to have all the tufts glued on, which should take me over 1000pts painted for both.

March - Hurry Up!

March Extras - also fast stuff.


I'm hoping to get this month's stuff based up tomorrow, seeing as I'm off work right now (changed jobs at the right time it seems) and I'm working on some other stuff that I'll show off in my Month in Review post.

3 months to go.


As far as the Stonecast are concerned, the plan now is to finish off the remaining Sequitor and Castigator units in April, and carry on as intended for May and June.  I'll see what extra stuff I can add in from the extras too.

I need a Hero.


The Mortal Realms stuff hasn't shown up yet, but along with the figures in the picture above, I still have another 5 Liberators, Vandus and a not even minimum sized unit of Retributers to do.


So, yeah, halfway done, definitely on track to finish it this year, and then I can focus a lot more on the other #hobbyresolutions for the remaining 6 months.

See you all in a couple of days,

Cheers,

J