Month in Review - May 2021

Well, been a while since I updated this, but I have been busy with real life stuff, yet, thankfully, I've put some time in over May to bust out a lot of minis. Not fully caught up yet, but made good headway into outstanding challenges. First up, #talesofinstahammer, managed 6 units of Ethereal Hosts, 2 Vampires, 2 Necromancers, a Vampire on Zombie Dragon and a Vampire in Black Coach. Still have 4 units of Black Knights part done, and 4 units of Zombies, 2 units of Ghouls and the Von Carstein nobility to be my General (the Vlad and Isabella figures I did this month, but on the same base).

Next up, #heerschau2021, managed to get my Levy unit done for May, and done a bit of catch up, getting 12 warriors with crossbows blocked in and washed, and getting some hearthguard and my warlord assembled and primed. Hopefully can get this caught up in June.

I did knock out my Blood Bowl team, just another exercise in contrast paints really, and it went in a totally different direction than I had envisioned. I had originally planned Black and Orange for the team colours, but ended up going with Red and Black. For the Ogres anyway, I figure nobody expects the Gnoblars to last very long, so they just get sent out onto the field wearing whatever rags they turned up with on.

Also caught up with my monthly fun minis, a bit of a mixed bag, a prototype Norse Dwarf from Foundry from years ago, the Road Warrior from Copplestone/North Star, another Frostgrave character and a Lucid Eye Cro Magnon.

Also knocked out a couple more Warhammer Underworlds warbands, keeping me on track for the year to this point. Morgwaeth's Blade Coven and the Dread Pageant, I have the Purifier's part done, and the Karahadrin Overlords assembled. Still haven't picked up any of the season 4 warbands yet though.

So, yeah, that's it for May, not a bad output to get back into it I guess. Nearly at the halfway point of the year, so I'm going to have to get my finger out to get to where I want to be overall.

Stay safe people, and hopefully I'll be back soon with an update for the middle of the year. Cheers, John

Month in Review - February 2021

 Back again with another monthly update.  So, what have I been up to then?

February 2021

Jut that little lot, another 47 minis added to the painted tally.  I managed to get a full brigade of Grave Guard done for Tales of Instahammer, because that is a monstrous unit on the table, probably second only to Black Knights in the army, as well as two units of Fell Bats, because they are monstrous bats, and just to make sure I stuck to brief, the General riding a Zombie Dragon (I'll do a foot general for June, but this was one of the few "monstrous" entries in the list.

Black Guard (Forest Dragon)

Fell Bats (Forest Dragon)

Vampire General on Zombie Dragon (Forest Dragon)

As well as the Instahammer stuff, I knocked out 1.5pts of Warriors for the Heerschau challenge (because it gives me a full unit for Lion Rampant).  I still have to do a banner, but am undecided if I'll get a printed one, or go for hand painted to match the shields.

Teutonic Warriors (Crusader Miniatures)

I did get 2 more units of Viking Hearthguard basecoated and washed, but my favourite brushes were on their way out, so I didn't get them layered up and highlighted, but, I was well ahead on Project: Shieldwall anyway.

Viking Hearthguard (Wargames Foundry)

Fat dead brushes only means one thing, battering out some Warhammer Underworlds warbands with judicious amounts of contrast paints.  In short, I finished off three warbands, making up for not doing one last month, and putting me ahead for next month.

The Eyes of the Nine were the first warband I did, and you may be surprised to see black base rims, but brown just wasn't going to work with the tiles...  Then I worked on Mollog's Mob and Hrothgorn's Mantrappers (alongside the Dread Pageant, but they aren't finished yet)

Eyes of the Nine (Warhammer Underworlds - Games Workshop)

With the Eyes, I went with a lot of blues and yellows, because Tzeentch, and had a lot of fun painting the Brimstone Horrors.  The bigger Horror was initially Pink, then Sarah pointed out it's a Blue one, so, I just slapped more paint on it...

Mollog's Mob (Warhammer Underworlds - Games Workshop)

With Mollog's Mob, I wanted him to have a kind of albino-ey look, like something that lives deep underground and has a pallid, clammy look.  Didn't spend too long on the little critters, but I did paint the Bat-Squig to match my other "normal" ones.

 

 

Hrothgorn's Mantrappers was next, basically using them to experiment with colours before I 'tackle' the Blood Bowl team.  I think I prefer the lighter green skin on the Gnoblars, and I'll probably use that for the Blood Bowl ones.

Speaking of Blood Bowl...

Primed and ready to go.

I didn't get a "fun" mini painted this month, I had started the Mom Miniatures Barbarian Giant, but didn't even get all the basecoats on, still, that's a good start for another month, and it had sat most if not all of last year on the shelf primed.

 

 I have also been back out in the workshop pottering away, so that has divided my hobby time (we won't mention the 155+ hours of Assassin's Creed Valhalla...) and knocked up two sample planters over the weekend.

I mentioned last time I had a surprise package in from Cromarty's Forge, it contained a number of 15mm scale Lizardmen prints, which are very nice.  I want to do a separate post about them, but the Kickstarter for the files and printed models is currently running, and well funded, so gratz John.

 

So yeah, 47 added to the tally (broke 100 already) and I'll leave you with a quick shot of the bench earlier before I moved the new recruits up into the cabinets.

New brushes arrived!

See you next month,

John

	Amount	Task	Completed
	28	Fully Paint Grymkin (HORDES)		0%
46	83	Tales of Instahammer (Vampire Counts)	46	55%
12	49	Paint 6pts Saga Age of Crusades army	12	24%
3	22	Paint Shadespire Warbands	3	14%
25	50	Project Shieldwall	25	50%
1	12	Random Fun Minis	1	8%
	17	Blood Bowl Team		0%
	4	Terrain		0%
		Paint Osprey Wargames forces		#DIV/0!
3	26	Play 26 Games	3	12%
	4	Blood Eagle Campaign		0%
	3	Play 3 new games		0%
	6	Play 6 Boardgames		0%
2	12	Maintain blog with monthly posts	2	17%
8	52	Social Media post every week	8	15%
	2	New Games Room Furniture		0%
	4	Go to 4 shows or conventions		0%
100	374		26.74%

Friends with Benefits Update!

Just a quick post today to say that I've updated the Friends with Benefits tab today to include links to both Element Games and Mighty Lancer Games to help promote their online stores, and generate a little kickback if you fine folks want to use them to make orders.

Element has a huge variety of stuff, and a good gaming venue, that I hope to get back to if this Lockdown ever lifts (memories of Mango cider intensify) and Mighty Lancer is a great place to pick up Reaper Miniatures, and I often drop by their stand at Vapnartak.

 

 

As far as hobbying goes, I've finished off another 6 units and a General for my Instahammer Vampire Counts, made headway on a couple more Hearthguard units for Project: Shieldwall, put together and based my Heerschau Teutonics entry for the month, rattled out a Warhammer Underworlds warband, made a start on a big fun mini, and most surprisingly, actually played a couple of games.  More on that later.

 

Oh, and I got a nice surprise package in from Cromarty Forge.

Stay safe,

John

Month in Review - January 2021

 OK, first new post of the year and I think it's a bit of a belter.  I've started off  pretty strong (as usual), New Year Motivation and all that, and made pretty good progress with a few painting projects.  I'll run through them in #hobbyresolution2021 order, then skim over the gaming and hobby ones because Lockdown, what else?

 

January 2012 - 69 minis/elements painted.   Nice!

 

1. Grymkin - not made a start on these, but that might change with some of the things I've been working on in the background.  0/28

2. Tales of Instahammer 2012 - Great progress made here, I knocked out 6 units each of Skeletons and Dire Wolves, 2 Vampire Heroes and a Necromancer.  I only had 4 of each unit in my planned list, but extras is always good, and it saves me going back and painting another 2 units at a later date and spare Skeletons won't go amiss will they.  I'm only counting the 4 units towards my Instahammer progress, so that makes 27/83 elements complete.

 

God, I wish I could count these individually...

Skeleton Warriors  (Forest Dragon)

Heroes (Forest Dragon)

Deid Dugs (Forest Dragon).  Vikings not for scale.

 

3. Heerschau 2012 - Completed the monthly quota for this challenge by painting up a unit of Heavy Weapon toting Teutonic Foot Knights from Crusader Miniatures.  Progress halted as I wait for the announcement of February's point of minis.  Fingers crossed it isn't Levy as I'd have to order in some suitable Slavic Serfs to errr.... motivate the Brotherhood.

 

Hearthguard with Heavy Weapons  (Crusader Miniatures)

 

4.  Warhammer Underworlds - Didn't get anything done for this in January, but it was the only thing I'd planned out that I didn't get around too.  Not overly fussed as I reckon this is more a late game challenge after June once Instahamer and Heerschau wrap up and give me a bit more leeway with stuff.  0/22 warbands.

5.  Project: Shieldwall - Well...  I hit this one running (but I reckon productivity was guilted into it, seeing as I took advantage of the Northstar Newsletter discount code and ordered the entire range of Crusader Vikings, yes, that includes the Norse Adventurers and Varangians...)  This was probably helped by the fact I had a backlog of Vikings built, primed, inked, and bases sorted.  Finally tally is 16 Viking Warriors (2pts for SAGA), 4 Hearthguard with Dane Axe (1pt for SAGA) and 4 Hearthguard with Bows (0 for SAGA, unless I play Lords of the Wild in AoM I think).  Still, 24 hairy heathens added to the total, making me think I missed the punctuation in my planned 2-4 models...  Seeing as I was so close to hitting the halfway point, I also painted up an old Grenadier Miniatures Barbarian Shaman with Skull from Forlorn Hope Games.  25/50 booyah!

 

Viking Warriors (Wargames Foundry)

More Viking Warriors (Wargames Foundry)

Starting to look like a real Shieldwall now.

Hearthguard with Dane Axes (Wargames Foundry)

Gangs all together now

Hearthguard with Bows (Wargames Foundry)

25 Scary Hairy Barbari... Vikings (Wargames Foundry/Forlorn Hope Games)

Barbarian Shaman with Skull (Forlorn Hope Games/ ex Grenadier)

 

6. Monthly Fun Mini - Another successful challenge.  Painted up the alternate sculpt Ranger figure that came with the Rangers of Shadowdeep collectors edition rulebook.  Had a lot of fun with him, kept a very PJ Strider look to the mini, as I intend to use him as Aragorn in some LotR skirmish games at some point.  Now I want to pick up the standard version (found here) andd seeing as he is carrying a severed head, paint him up more like Geralt from the Witcher series. 1/12 done.

Alt Ranger (Northstar Miniatures)

7.  Blood Bowl - Made a start on this, entire team box (and the Ogre big guy) assembled and based.  Hoping to get them done February or March just to knock a full project off the list.  No picture for these guys as it's literally assembled model on basing needing primed, I'm sure you can find hundreds of examples of that on the internet.   0/17

8.  Terrain - Not started, but not worried, looking to do 1 piece/set every 3 months so plenty of time.

Right, that wraps up the painting progress, which is invariably the easiest part during the continued lockdown, but how about the rest of the challenges?

Not looked at any of the Gaming resolutions, but I have just cleared the games table to take pictures, so... it's now free.  Might make a start later today, benefits of living with a gamer I guess.

As far as Hobbying challenges go, kept up to date with weekly #workbenchWednesday posts on Instagram, and I'm (obviously) doing my monthly review, so progress made there.  Haven't been out to the shed for woodworking and there haven't been any shows, so... no progress there.  Ah, balance.

 

 

That's it for now then, stay safe folks, and I'll be back in a month with more painted minis.

 

Cheers,

 

John

2021 Hobby Resolutions

OK, let's kick off the year with a whole bunch of new (well...) challenges for the forthcoming 12 months.  I'm keeping the 16 project format (8 painting, 4 each of gaming and hobby) and I'll set them out and discus what I'm planning to do for each one.  Leaning more towards the pessimist/realist end of the scale rather than delusional/optimist, I doubt the arrival of a new year will magically lift all the restrictions we are living with, so, it makes sense to keep the majority of the challenges painting and solo oriented.  If the restrictions are lifted early enough in the year, I'll revisit this around June and maybe bump some of the numbers up for the Gaming resolutions.

Painting Resolutions

 

So, as far as painting goes, the last 6 months of 2020 were a challenge as Sarah was working from home and took up residence in the games room.  Couple that with the fact she was generally starting every day after I had got in, and I really didn't have much access to my desk.  I took the executive decision to strip down my paint station (the horror) and set up a desk downstairs to use as my new painting area meaning I don't really have an excuse for not cracking on with things after work if she is working.  Well, that's the theory at least...

1.  Continue to work towards Grymkin being fully painted (HORDES)

Let's start the ball rolling with a returning challenge.  I've worked away at these over the last 3 years, and have definitely broken the back of this one.

 
I currently have 28 models to do for this to fully paint my backlog, I already have all the Warlocks painted, along with 2+ of every Warbeast, all of the solos and units and a Battle Engine.  The 28 remaining models will fill out all the Units to maximum Field Allowance.  From there the only things I am missing will be a 2nd Deathknell (questionable) and the Oblivion and Riot Quest releases, although they aren't strictly speaking Grymkin models for the most part.  At a very minimum, I'd like to finish at least...  all of them?  It might tempt me in to picking up some of the newer releases, just for Faction completeness you understand.

2.  Complete the Tales of Instahammer challenge (Warmaster)

So I managed to finish this last year, probably made up the points I didn't do 2 years ago in extra models, so I'll give it another bash.  I'm not sure I can squeeze much more Stormcast into the cabinet, so, I'm taking a slightly different approach this year and going for a Warmaster force instead.  Tiny Tales of Instahammer it is then.  Planning to do a full 2000pts over the 6 months and trying to match up to the various challenges.  The astute amongst you may have realised that I still don't have all the Black Gate Ogres for my planned list, but, I do have a resin 3d printer (early Xmas present to myself last year) and have printed out a ridiculous amount of 10mm Vampire Counts miniatures.  Obviously each base counts as 1 mini, even if it has 12 or so figures, so a unit nets 3 minis painted generally.  At least the characters are quick, right?  

Vampire Counts, 2000 points
Warmaster Revolution
--------------------------------
 120 - 4 Skeletons
 140 - 4 Zombies
 110 - 2 Ghouls
 240 - 4 Grave Guard
 180 - 2 Ethereal Host
 440 - 4 Black Knights
 160 - 4 Dire Wolves
 130 - 2 Fell Bats
 230 - 1 Vampire Lord
     - 1 Winged Nightmare (80)
 160 - 2 Vampire
  90 - 2 Necromancer
--------------------------------
2000 - 26/13

 

 

3.  Paint 6+ points for Age of Crusades (SAGA)

Jumping on the Heerschau 2021 challenge from Stronghold Terrain, it's basically Tales of Instahammer but for SAGA.  Not sure exactly how it pans out, the full schedule hasn't been revealed, but I'm going to try and get some of those Teutonic's from Crusader Miniatures done.  Even if I don't have a dedicated Warlord model yet.  No idea what the final list will look like (fingers crossed for lots of Hearthguard) so I'll assume an even split of 2pts each of Hearthguard, Warriors and Levy and add a tentative 49 (including Warlord remember) minis to the list.  Currently sat with 12 mounted Hearthguard, 8 foot Hearthguard and the same again with Great Weapons, and 24 Warriors and the same again with Crossbows, so I just need to source some suitable Levy figures if the need arises.

4.  Paint a lot of Warbands (Warhammer Underworlds )

So it seems to be tradition now that I get the latest Underworlds box set from Sarah each Christmas, and last year was no exception.  I have 3 Warbands to do for Season 1, 4 for Season 2, and currently own 2 of the 5 I still need to do for Season 3, plus the 2 from the Champions of Dreadfane set.  There has been a teaser image for Season 4 (Direchasm) so that adds another 8 Warbands (including those in the box).  Don't know the exact numbers, but it is 70 minis up to and including the Direchasm starter.  That leaves 6 warbands so, guessing at least 3 minis per set is another 18, so, again, a tentative 100 to finish them all?  Looking at the teaser image, we have Undivided Chaos Warriors, Lizardmen, Vampirates? Savage Orcs, Ossiarch Bonereapers and Idoneth Deepkin.  I think.

 

 

 

 5. Project: Shieldwall

 

The plan for this is to just keep chipping away at more Viking models whenever I get the chance.  I have a load of Foundry Vikings based and primed to get started, as well as the remaining Footsore ones to fill out the range, a huge pile of Foundry still to be prepped, the Artizan ones, some Bad Squiddo ones, you get the drift.  I'd be happy with doing a few each month, so anywhere from 24-48 over the year?  Let's just round it up to 50.

6. Monthly Fun Mini 

 

This kid knows more about blending than me...

 

Bit of a change of pace this one, just knock out an average of 1 random fun mini every month.  Having access to the 3d printer now, I can quite easily get random stuff that takes my fancy and doesn't necessarily have a place in the other challenges.  I might use it as an excuse to do one off minis and try out new techniques, or stuff in bigger scales or a bust or something.

 

 

7. Blood Bowl Team

 

 

 A nice simple one for this, paint up a Blood Bowl team.  I have played numerous games over the last couple of years on Xbox, but none on the tabletop, so let's see about fixing that.  Sarah's Admin team is doing an online BB league with the view to meeting up at some point in the year once things are back to 'normal' and playing games with their levelled teams outside of cyberspace.  Guess I better have a team done too then, so I'm not left sitting thumbing my hole while they all play games.  Current thinking is the Ogre team, because it is the only new plastic one I have, although the Necromantic and Nurgle teams are very tempting.

8. Terrain

With a view to playing more narrative style games, I really want to update my terrain collection from flat MDF.  I reckon a good mix of MDF or plastic terrain will be a start to a more immersive tabletop, so, 4 terrain pieces over the year.  I'm leaning towards some Dark Age styled housing, maybe a forest or marsh, some scatter terrain and walls or somesuch.  It's a very repeatable challenge, so, if successful, might make a return next year.  Yeah, who am I kidding?  Even if I don't do it I might just leave it on the list out of laziness...

 

Gaming Resolutions

 

So, Gaming Resolutions are a bit up in the air right now, all things Lockdown considered, so I'll start with smaller numbers than normal, and look into things later on in the year and maybe bump them up later depending on how things pan out.

 

9.  Play 26 (or 52) Games

Pretty simple, averages out to 1 game every couple of weeks to begin with, or 1 a week if I can get out to play.  Hopefully, the restrictions get lifted early enough and I can get out to the club again.  Worst case scenario, redlining a full weekend of Shadespire to rack up a load.

 

 

 

10. Start a Blood Eagle Campaign.

Hopefully I can make good on this one this year.  Planning for 4 session and I guess if the lockdown restrictions stay in effect, I can use that time to build up the warbands and scenarios plan, then try and get the games done at the end of the year.  Again, inspired by John E's excellent umpiring at the club, I'd like to make this a long running thing if it takes off.

11. Play 3 New Games.

 Pretty simple, play 3 new games this year.  Getting back to the club is good for this, so, again, fingers crossed.

 

 

12.  Play 6 Boardgames.

I want to get some board gaming done this year to make use of the various ones I have picked up over the years.  Shadespire is an easy point here, and I want to play Blood Rage again.  Beyond that, no solid plans, although Hate might factor in, but it is a big box to deal with.

Hobby Resolutions.

13. Weekly Social Media Post

In the age of technology, this should be an easy one providing I can be bothered.  I'm aiming for a #workbenchWednesday post on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter or whatever, should probably do a bit more YouTube stuff too, seeing as that fell by the wayside once I was back at work.

14.  Do a Month in Review post every month.

Simple really.  Just to keep everyone (all 20 of you) up to date with what I'm up to.

15. Changing (Games) Rooms

What with relocating my painting area, the plan is to build a new games table and unit for boardgame and figure case storage.  it's a bit of a combination of my hobbies and I want to open up the games room a bit more and deal with the clutter a bit better as it always seems to pile up.  The plan is to build an extending tabletop that starts at 4'x4' and opens up to a 6'x4'.  There isn't really a need for a permanent 7'x4' board when most of the games we play use a 4ft table.   It should sit on 4 small bookcases and slid out when required, but slide away when not in use to avoid it becoming a dumping ground.  The second thing is a unit that will hold a number of figure cases and most of the board games that I have, just to clear up more space.  I have the shed mostly done, and should be able to get something functional sorted out.

16.  Go to 4 Shows or Conventions.

Same as this year.  Get out the house.  Spend some money.  See some people/cool things.  I'd be happy to get at least 1, but aiming for 4.  Fingers crossed.




 As far as the blog/my hobby is concerned, along with the above #hobbyresolutions, I am going to be giving some thought to the following.

1.  Cut back on buying loads of new miniatures.

I mean, 3d printing minis doesn't count as buying, right?  But still, I don't want to just be adding to piles, I want to make a inroads into the leadpile and keep at it.

2.  Continue with Project: Shieldwall

Paint Vikings.  Easy enough right, especially as I have some planned.

3.  Catalogue the Lead Pile.

Yeah, still crazy business I know.  But I did start it last year.  Actually, it occurred to me that it is now easier to get rid of stuff because if the notion ever takes me to do something that I'd already cleared out, I can print a new or similar thing in a lot of cases.

 

 

4.  Start working on Osprey blue book forces.

So I've kept on top of buying these up as they are released and I want to try and paint up at least one force for every title.  Using a combination of models already painted and stuff I have planned for this year, I'm going to start tracking my progress.


 

So, that is, going by the spreadsheet, a grand total of 451 various miniatures/tasks to be completed, so, to add to that, I'd like to have painted forces for at least 3 different Osprey blue books just in case I run out of things to do...

After that big wall of text, all that remains to be said is I wish you all a better, a happier and healthier 2021 and may you end the year with at least as much hobby enthusiasm as you started it.

All the best,

John