Month in Review - July 2021

 Hey guys, short update to cover a lot of stuff this month.

Go like, share, subscribe and all that jazz.

Stay safe.

Cheers,

John

Month in Review - June 2021

OK, halfway point of the year, so, can't really skip this update right?  So, what have I managed to get done so far then, considering 6 months in I had about 2 months of not hobbying...

June Progress

 

Painting Resolutions 

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

Not touched them, as predicted, because I've been focussed on the big army projects, but, with them wrapping up this month, I should get to these soon.

2. Complete the Tales of Instahammer challenge (Warmaster) 

Got it done in the end.  Smashed the 2000pt list I had planned out with a load of extras, so I'm sitting on over 2900 at the moment, and can field a 3k list once I paint up a couple more units of Zombies to meet the minimum requirements.

Vampire Counts, 2985 points
Warmaster Revolution
--------------------------------
 180 - 6 Skeletons
 140 - 4 Zombies
 110 - 2 Ghouls
 240 - 4 Grave Guard
 540 - 6 Ethereal Host
 440 - 4 Black Knights
 240 - 6 Dire Wolves
 130 - 2 Fell Bats
 150 - 1 Vampire Lord
 680 - 6 Vampire
     - 2 Winged Nightmare (160)
     - 1 Black Coach (40)
 135 - 3 Necromancer
--------------------------------
2985 - 34/17

 

10mm scale 3d prints from Forest Dragon

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

Managed to get caught up with this one too, ended up with 2 points of Hearthguard, one standard and one with Heavy Weapons, 3 points of Warriors, 12 standard and 12 with Crossbows, and a point of Levy with Bows.  I also painted up a couple of Lifeguard so that I can play Hermann Von Salza, and use the models I don't field as the "free" unit he summons.

 

#heerschau2021 SAGA Age of Crusades Ordensstaat (Crusader Miniatures)

Warlord/Hermann Von Salza with Lifeguard

Ordensstaat Hearthguard (Crusader Miniatures)

4. Paint a lot of Warbands (Warhammer Underworlds ) 

Doing pretty well here, I had planned to try and get one warband done a month for the first half of the year, then do two or three a month for the rest once my online challenges had finished.  Kinda smashed it this month by adding a further 5 to the ones I had already done.

 

Godsworn Hunt - Nightvault (Games Workshop)

The Wurmspat - Beastgrave (Games Workshop)

Garrek's Reavers - Shadespire (Games Workshop)

Spiteclaw's Swarm - Shadespire (Games Workshop)

Hedkrakka's Madmob - Direchasm (Games Workshop)

I currently have Myari's Purifiers and Rippa's Snarlfangs part done on the workbench, and Magore's Fiends and Thundrik's Profiteers primed, then it's just a case of picking up the ones I don't have yet.

5. Project: Shieldwall 

Haven't added anything since January, but I did paint January to June's quota back then...  Got 8 more heavily armoured types basecoated and washed ready for layering though.

Vikings (Wargames Foundry)

 

6. Monthly Fun Mini 

 Knocked out a 3d print for this one this month.  I actually organised a small group to do a randomly allocated colour and theme on a single mini each month to give me some direction for doing these.  The theme was stripes and the colour choice was orange, so, here she is.

Vae Victus Miniatures

7. Blood Bowl Team 

 Well, I can't undo it, so they are still done.

Plastic Ogre team - Blood Bowl (Games Workshop)

8. Terrain

 I have clipped out some of the terrain pieces from the Mortal Realms magazine, and the 3d printed statue is still sitting untouched.  I reckon I can get this stuff done now that things are opening up again, and I can hopefully nip over to Warbases to get some custom bases made to do a full set of SAGA suitable terrain.

 

 Gaming Resolutions

9. Play 26 (or 52) Games 

Played 3 or 4 games so far... hoping to get more in with my upcoming holday, and with things opening up a bit.

 

10. Start a Blood Eagle Campaign.

Errr... nope.  But not had a chance to get out gaming so...

 

11. Play 3 New Games.

I'd need to play games for this to happen, right?  I did pick up a Freefolk starter for A Song of Ice & Fire though.

 

12. Play 6 Boardgames. 

 Nope.

 

Hobby Resolutions. 

 

13. Weekly Social Media Post 

Managed 19/26 or so, so far.

14. Do a Month in Review post every month. 

4/6 so far.

15. Games Room furniture.

Nope.

16. Go to 4 Shows or Conventions.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...  Even the ones that have been announced are now getting cancelled.  Maybe I can just buy a load of stuff online while not playing games to do a lockdown version?

 

 

So yeah, that's the 6 month wrap up, getting there with a lot of stuff, a few resolutions ticked off already, some I can't complete but can still have a good go at, and a few that wel, I won't know until another 6 months have passed.

 

 

Amount	Task	Completed
28	Fully Paint Grymkin (HORDES)		0%
83	Tales of Instahammer (Vampire Counts)	83	100%
47	Paint 6pts Saga Age of Crusades army	47	100%
22	Paint Shadespire Warbands	10	45%
50	Project Shieldwall	25	50%
12	Random Fun Minis	6	50%
17	Blood Bowl Team	17	100%
4	Terrain		0%
	Paint Osprey Wargames forces		#DIV/0!
26	Play 26 Games	4	15%
4	Blood Eagle Campaign		0%
3	Play 3 new games		0%
6	Play 6 Boardgames		0%
12	Maintain blog with monthly posts	4	33%
52	Social Media post every week	19	37%
2	New Games Room Furniture		0%
4	Go to 4 shows or conventions		0%
372		57.80%

 

Stay safe folks, and I'll be back soon with another update.

 

Cheers,

 

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

Month in Review - May 2020

Well, another month been and gone, and I definitely took it easy in May.  A grand total of 8 minis painted this month, a drop in the ocean compared to previous efforts, but, I'm still on track to beat last years output.

There are a number of reasons I slowed down this month, feeling a bit burnt out from nearly 2 months of constant painting, being back at work, the heat, working in the garden, and Sarah taking up residence in the games room while working from home.  I've also been doing some assembly, so was working downstairs for that anyway.

I painted up a unit of Invokers for the #talesofinstahammer challenge seeing as the theme was magic, and supplemented them with Stormsire's Cursebreakers which also knocked off another Warhammer Underworlds warband.

Stormcast Eternal Invokers (Age of Sigmar, Games Workshop)

Stormsire's Cursebreakers (Warhammer Underworlds, Games Workshop)

I also made a start on more reinforcements for SAGA/Lion Rampant, but going back to work scunnered that...

Dark Age Infantry/Medieval Archers (Conquest Games)

In terms of non-painting hobby, I've assembled 2 sprues worth of Wargames Atlantic Dark Age Irish to do a review, along with more Foundry Vikings (2pts of Warriors with various hand weapons, and a point of Levy with Javelins) although I decided to give most of the Levy spears as they had helmets and I'll fill out the unit with more bareheaded ones and possibly some Crusader Miniatures sculpts.  I also based and primed the 3 Oathmark Dwarf Champions, the limited edition alt Ranger from the Rangers of Shadowdeep book and an old Grenadier Barbarian shaman from ebay (another Copplestone sculpt I think) along with 8 Footsore Norman Crossbowmen (the unarmoured ones) to give me 1pt for SAGA and 2/3rds of the unit I need for the club Lion Rampant campaign.

These new Dwarfs are almost as tall as the old Vikings...

Picked up/made a few random orders for stuff too, some boring necessities like lipped bases, and, thanks to a Northstar flash sale, all the remaining sets of SAGA dice.

Should probably add some standard d6, right?

Pretty much the last of the Stonecast backlog.

Final numbers then?  Gaming and events has obviously taken a big hit for the year, hopefully I can get those numbers up when things go back to normal (and I can bust out all my new painted armies)

	Amount		Amount	Task	Completed
13	41	13	41	Fully Paint Grymkin (HORDES)	13	32%
53	54	11	12	Tales of Instahammer (Stonecast Eternals)	11	92%
50	50	7	7	Paint 6pts Saga Age of Vikings army	7	100%
	33		7	Paint 6pts Saga Age of Crusades army		0%
	46		9	Paint 8pts Saga Age of Magic army – Vikings		0%
62	62	9	9	Paint 8pts Saga Age of Magic army – Goblins	9	100%
51	96	10	20	Paint Shadespire Warbands	10	50%
	40		16	Paint 2000pt Warmaster army		0%
			24	Paint Osprey Wargames forces		0%
8	52	8	52	Play 52 Games	8	15%
4	10	4	10	Play 10 new opponents	4	40%
	8		8	Play 10 Boardgames		0%
	4		4	Run a gaming event/session.		0%
5	12	5	12	Maintain blog with monthly posts	5	42%
5	12	5	12	Write 1 extra blog post per month (BatRep, tutorial, review etc)	5	42%
	467		467	Transfer flip top paints to dropper bottles		0%
1	4	1	4	Go to 4 shows or conventions	1	25%
252	991	73	714		10.22%

That's it for now, stay safe people.

Cheers,

John

Month in Review - April 2020

Well, another month been and gone, my first full calendar month in lockdown, and it's been a productive one.  Over the course of the last 30 days I have managed to knock 2 entire projects off of my #hobbyresolution2020 list, and paint 169 miniatures in total.

Feel free to count them.

Age of Magic and Age of Sigmar

Age of Vikings and Grymkin

First up was my #talesofinstahammer Stonecast Eternals.  The brief was "Reinforcement" so I started with bulking out my lines with another 10 man Sequitor unit and 6 more Castigators, both of which were on my planned 2k list.  For extras, I added in the Lord-Relictor, Knight-Heraldor and the Warhammer World Exclusive Errant-Questor.  I managed to get the full lot painted by about the 2nd, but then left them unbased until yesterday...

Sequitors

Castigators

Sword, Flag, Trumpet.  One of these things is not like the others...

After the Stormcast were done, I painted up the full Saga Age of Vikings army I had planned using my Footsore Vikings.  It is actually 7pts as I added an extra unit of Hearthguard to give me 4 units for the Rampant games.  These guys were done over the course of about 10 days, and I also have a video of them up on YouTube.

Vikings! - Footsore Miniatures

Shieldwall!

Portrait of the artist battling against the lead mountain.

After the Vikings, I tackled the 15mm Dark Age Arthurian Spearmen from Sam over at 15mm Skirmish Supplies, but, I can't show them off right now, as they were samples to be shown at shows, and Westwind has shut down for the moment and can't respond to any enquiries.  Some of the kickstarter ones may have made it out into the wild, so a bit of googling might turn up some unpainted images.

Following on from them, I grabbed a few Grymkin models that I already had primed and blasted them out over a day.  Exact composition was 2 Grave Ghouls, 2 Piggyback Officers, a Glimmer Imp and Trapperkin, and finally, a unit of Murder Crows.  The best part of this batch is it means I now have at least 1 of every single Grymkin option fully painted.

Grymkin - Hordes - Privateer Press

Finally, I tackled the Night Goblin army I had planned as a Horde force for SAGA Age of Magic.  This was my testing out Contrast paints on a full army project, after I had settled on the colour scheme after doing the Underworlds warband last month.  It is mostly infantry from the old Battle for Skull Pass box, along with some of the new plastic Squig models.  Love them, but they are a far cry from the one piece models I originally had in the early 90s.

I do plan to add more to these guys at some point, another unit of Bowmen at least to allow me to run 2 units in Dragon Rampant, plus I still have some Hoppers to do.  I'd also like to add a big centrepiece model like Mangler Squigs or a giant Troll.

Squigs!

Lowly Goblin rabble.

More lowly Goblin rabble.

Warlord and Shaman.

So yeah, 169 miniatures painted.  I should be happy with it, but it has hardly dented the backlog, like, I'd probably have to be doubling those numbers to make a serious dent in it...


That's all for now I guess, stay safe people, see you in the next one.

Cheers,

John