December Motivational.

 

I leave 2023 with this message, see you in 2024 for more hobby goodness.

Until next time, have nice day...

Hobby Spending - December 2023.

 

The final spending update for the year of 2023 is upon us, and it's been a hobby supply kind of month.

With the recent purchases of Warmahordes miniatures, most of which have been painted before I got ahold of them, and after talking to Cardboard Fortress about it, I decided to purchase a tub of Biostrip to striontheboaint off some of them:

With Amazon offering free shipping for purchases over a certain value, I added some grass tuft selections to my cart to take advantage.

These will come in very handy soon:

For the Feudal Japanese project, I decided to go for large oval multibases for the miniatures, so invested in 20 of these MDF 150mm x 95mm bases:

And finally for the month, having received some Artillery cannons 3D printed from a friend (the same one printing the Japanese minis for me), I picked up a grab bag of 100mm round bases for them:

And onto the numbers:

Biostrip - £16.

Grass Tufts - £8.

MDF oval bases - £7.

100mm round bases - £9.

Total for December: £40.

Budget for December: £50.

Over/Under Yearly Budget: under budget by £122.19.

Yearly available budget: £600.

Total spent during 2023: £477.81.

Amazingly I've come in well under budget for the end of the year, nearly three months under budget!

Until next year, have nice day...

2023 End of Year Review.

 

Like last year, as it's the final day of 2023, i thought I'd do some number crunching from Google Analytics, and see how the blog is doing.

So I have added a grand total of 66 new posts to the blog this year, including this one. Which makes 2023 my most prolific posting year in the course of this blog.

There have been a total of 28,200* views on the blog, which again makes this a very successful year.

Of which, however 14,700 were from Singapore (hopefully for a benevolent reason and they like my hobby work, but more likely, I am forced to think it may have been part of a bot search, kind of like the one from Sweden a few years ago).

Genuine views however, the United States are still the leaders with 7950 views, followed by the United Kingdom with 2670 views.

By viewership, the most popular post this year was Monster March 7, part 2, which had 961 views, something which baffles me, as I would have thought that Part 5 would have been more popular, being the finished reveal.

Painting wise I have logged 158 miniatures as finished, compared with the 199 in 2022.

This is a definite drop in productivity, but having to learn two new yards, a new loading location, and take my rules exam (we have to every three years to keep ontop of the safety rules) kind of ate into my hobby time.

Hopefully 2024 can see me break the 200 figures finished mark again!

As said, this year has been a bit all over with work, but i am most proud of the projects i got finished, namely the Leviathan Tyranid army:

And the start of the World Eaters Legion:

Another high moment of the year was finishing off this unit of Shrine Maiden's:

Looking forward to 2024, and I've got a few things on the boil, so to speak.

Some reinforcements for the Tyranids, which I will be trying to get ready for February, as we've arranged another get together.

I bought a box of Hunters of Huanchi:

As one of my friends bought the main Warcry box last time we visited Element Games, I picked these guys up, so they'll be in the queue soon.

And even though I got a lot of Warmachine Khador gear for Christmas from the Mrs:

The Thornwood project will take a back burner as the BIG Feudal Japanese project is gathering pace, I was positioning miniatures on the bases I'm going to be using earlier today:

And working out the starting formations, as I am going to build two armies to face each other:

As you can see, there are a lot to come, I've already placed my order with a 3D Printing friend for the near 130 Ashigaru that I am going to need, just for this starter section...the project is going to look fucking awesome when it gets going!

So have a good new year and I'll see you in 2024.

Until next time, have nice day...

*These numbers are approximate as the Google analytics tools included with Blogger round the numbers to the nearest ten.

** I only compared posts from this past year, not posts from previous years which people may have been searching for or clicked on when they visited the blog 

The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

 

So the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge (AHPC) is something which I have seen mentioned in various places on the internet by way of blogs, the lead adventure forum and Facebook posts, but never looked into.

When I finally did investigate I was too late to sign up as all the places had gone for participants.

Le sigh...

Basically it's a 'set your own challenge' painting system to reduce the lead mountain and post about it at the same time.

People set their own score they want to work towards, the organisers say 300 points is a good target for a new participant for example, and then you paint from December 21st until March the following year.

Sounds easy enough, but easy enough to give yourself a massive target and fail spectacularly on the internet!

As I have a few projects I want to get kicked off, I've decided to take part from outside the challenge, and just aim to reach my target score within the three months.

The scoring from the challenge is as follows:

10mm foot figure = 1 point.

10mm mounted figure, artillery piece or crew. served weapon = 3 points.

10mm vehicle = 6 points.

28mm foot figure = 5 points.

28mm mounted figure, artillery piece or crew. served weapon = 10 points.

28mm vehicle = 20 points

I have only copied the 10mm and 28mm sections as that's what I will be working on in the near future (a lot of God's own Scale, and some 10mm for a friend).

I'm also going to set my target goal as 300 points the first time participant score* 

One of the things I want to get started is a long held ambition to have a Feudal Japanese army, I know I've dabbled with Test of Honour, and I like the game, but I want to do BIG BATTLES!

With the advent of 3D printing, and the glorious work of Kyoushuneko , I'm finally taking the plunge on this project and have printed off a bucket load of Sohei Warrior Monks**

The battle line testing for fit:

Each one of those Ovals are 150mm by 195mm, so plenty of room to create the sort of ragged formations for which were common during the period.

A close up of the Spear wielding Sohei:

And the command base with the Banner Bearer, Leader and Flute in the center:

I am debating adding a label to the rear of each base describing what it is, or squeezing on a few more miniatures.

I'm trying to keep them from being too close to the edge as resin can become notoriously brittle and break at the Sneeze of a Gnat!

With 28 miniatures pictured, if I don't add anymore to the unit then that should start me off with 160 points towards the total.

This is along with anything else I paint alongside over the next three months.

Here goes...

Until next time, have nice day...

*I'm not masochistic enough to set a total like 2000 points as some of the people taking part have done!

**Maybe I shouldn't have started with my favourites, time will tell.

The Second 3D Print Paint Challenge.

 

At the beginning of the year I ran a painting challenge for myself, Cardboard Fortress and Chris, where we all had a box of three mini's, each of which was guaranteed to have the same mini inside it.

The aim of this was for us all to paint the same model and then we could look at the different painting styles we all chose to use, and complete a group project together.

This is the second running of this type of challenge and I've managed to get a couple more participants this time.

The mini in question this time was the Pin-Up Sergeant by Across the Realms and we took advantage of Duncan's 3D printer to get a bunch printed, then I just had to mail them out to folks who said they were interested in taking part.

My own undercoated version is rather fuzzily pictured here:

I chose to add a couple of sandbags to the base to add interest, added some sand for ground cover and then primed the lot with white.

I started to think about possible themes to paint her and was eyeing my Catachan shelf in my display cabinet with a thought to have her match them.

Inspiration hit thought when a trailer for Street Fighter 6 popped up on the switch as I was waiting for Legend of Zelda to finish updating.

Cammy was a particular favourite character and the mini does look a bit like her:

No, not from the damned awful movie...the game version you dolt, although i can look at Kylie Minogue in that outfit all day.

Now as time went on, she had several different costumes, but the two which most stand out are NATO Cammy with the classic Green and Red:

And Brainwashed Shadaloo Criminal Syndicate Cammy, where she changed to blue, gained a watch cap instead of the beret, and wore a yellow neck tie...

Seeing as I was aiming for her to match somewhat with the Catachan's, I went with the classic NATO Cammy scheme with the green and red combo.

Now the miniature has a lot more armour plates on her then the Street Fighter character, so I chose to paint all of those red, her "fatigues" are painting in the greens unused for the Catachan's, then just picked out weapons with black and silver.

She gained one spot of gold for her cap badge, and her blonde hair and pale skin tone finished her off:

Grass tufts around the sandbags and painting the base rim black were all that was left to finish the model entirely.

I think she's come out rather well personally, and she definitely matches the character art I was working with as a reference, perhaps a little too much red in hindsight, but it works.

Onto other people's efforts now, and first up we have Cardboard Fortress:

The red fatigues contrasted with the blue weapons makes her certainly stand out.

I like how we had the same idea to paint the armour plates in a different colour entirely, dark grey in this case.

(I must ask him for his recipe of blonde hair, as this one looks good).

Next up is Duncan:

With a dark subdued colour scheme, the bright spot being her pink hair.

I know Duncan is a big fan of 2000AD, so could she be Tank Girl inspired?

The banner is taken from some other 3D prints he did for me and this was a misprint, where the tear is. It certainly adds a different take on the miniature which neither myself nor Cardboard Fortress used which makes this mini unique and one of the reasons why I organise this paint challenge.

We have DaemonForge next:

He's gone for a darker skin tone which is a nice change and the dark fatigues and armour contrast well with the desert base.

I do like the classic GW throwback with the hazard stripes on the chainsword, love the effort there.

And finally we have Chris's effort:

Chris's miniature is quite close to my own however he's used a Magenta paint for the armour (which he was mentioning he recently bought and wanted to use). 

Like DaemonForge he's also used a darker skin tone and gone for full pant fatigues.

So there is everyone's efforts with this free STL, again it's been nice to compare and contrast everyone's different painting style, for example compare the two skin schemes between mine and Cardboard Fortress.

I stippled lighter skin colours over a base of Guilliman Flesh contrast, whereas his looks like a classic lining technique over a shadowed base colour (I may be wrong on this, he'll correct me in the comments I'm sure).

I also find it interesting the different scales of colour shades we used, mine and Fortress are quite bright, Duncan and Forge are very dark and moody when compared against ours, and Chris' mini uses his usual desatured palette.

No doubt we'll do this again, maybe next summer or maybe a bit later in the year.

Until next time, have nice day...

Hobby Spending - November 2023.

 

Well, it's the final day of November, and with one more month to go 2023 will draw to a close.

This month has been a bit of a less mixed bag and definitely less spent then I thought on the hobby, maybe with the looking threat of Christmas I figured I'd better spend my money elsewhere...

I did pick up a few bargains, mainly in the Warmachine theme as these were as usual "too good to pass up"!

First up is this five model unit of Cryxian Bane Knights.

I'd seen the various 'Bane' miniatures before, but never the knights offered up for sale, maybe being a powerful (and eye watering £85+ unit) made people want to hold onto them.

But for the princely sum of just £9 I grabbed these when I saw them.

A dip in some stripper soon and I'll be ready to repaint:

From the same seller came the Epic Warcaster, Asphixious the Hellbringer and his upgraded Skarlock Thrall, Voiciferon.

This is the third incarnation of 'Gaspy' and I've never seen this pair of models up for grabs,.for.£5 I added them to the above order:

One of the biggest bargains of the month is this unit of the Mercenaries of Croe's Cutthroat's.

This is a unit which has been available since the rulebook Escalation, which was the first expansion book after Warmachine Prime (the first edition).

They've been a mainstay of the setting since, murdering their way from one end of the Iron Kingdoms to the other all for the promise of coin.

With no-one else showing any interest I low-balled the bid, and won them for £1:

With the above Croe's Cutthroat's, I also received this metal Cygnar Ironclad in the box which I later found out that the seller had thrown in the box because no-one was interested.

I plan of converting the hammer to one of the big swords which the Mercenary Warjacks wield and attaching it to their company as an older model which they've kept going:

A newer model Warjack is definitely this 'Character Warjack' model of Ol' Rowdy.

This is a newer model Ironclad which has developed something of a slight personality and is very aggressive for a Cygnaran Warjack.

Again this model will be stripped and repainted:

The last purchase this month was this rulebook which I punted on for £1.

I've always loved Greek Mythology so this was of interest straight away.

Added to the fact that it includes a full skirmish system and campaign system from the get go, I figured I'd take a look.

I am considering finding some STLs to 3D print some suitable models for this in the new year:

So the totals are as follows:

Cryx Bane Riders - £9.

Cryx Asphixious - £5.

Croe's Cutthroat's - £1.

Cygnar Ironclad - £0.

Cygnar Ol' Rowdy - £4.

Typhon Rulebook - £1.

Total for November: £.20

Budget for November: £50.

Over/Under Yearly Budget: under budget by £110.19

Well under budget for the year, I am thinking of investing in some MDF terrain, just a pain figuring out which ones I want to purchase as there is so much good stuff out there.

I am planning on looking at the Warmachine project next year, getting things paint stripped and starting to think about colour schemes which aren't the usual primary colours which Privateer Press started with.

Until next time, have nice day...

November Motivational.

 

Until next time, have nice day...

Infestation - part 5.

 

Hello, bit of a slim month but I pulled a small selection of Tyranids from the box and got them painted up, just to keep some momentum really*.

Another reason is that I want to try to clear some of the bigger 40k projects off of my desk as I would like to return to Test of Honour and try some new games next year I think.

These five Termagants are eBay rescues, and all armed with Devourer's, rather then the more usual Fleshborer, some of the eBay rescues are even modelled with Spinefists! 

I have enough (just) to make a ten Termagant squad, and then maybe thirty more Termagants to get painted yet.

These were done up in the same scheme as the previous force which I was painting furiously to face Cardboard Fortress's Guard army, I'm really happy that I managed to get them to match so closely together, in spite of not having done any Tyranids for nearly two months now.

This photo shows the difference between the older previous edition Termagant models and the newer ones released with the big Leviathan box.

As far as I can tell, the newer ones are a little sleeker, have mini spore chimneys and more angular, ridged head chitin.

I've made sure to mount the older models on 28.5mm bases like the Leviathan models so they all match, and I'm happy with how they fit together really well, no noticeable size changes or asthetic changes like other ranges have suffered.

It's only five models for the month, but a small win is still a win**.

Until next time, have nice day...

*With the Mrs being ill recently and having to switch focus between her, work and my son, I've been a bit strapped for hobby time and in a bit of a low mood this month if I'm being honest. Not being able to relax and get stuff painted, or suffering from "project paralysis" for quite a bit of the month hasn't helped anything.

**And this is why the blog is important, keeping track of my "wins", it keeps me in a positive mood, and allows me to look back and say "I actually did something", a useful tool when I look at the pile of shame/potential.

Black Legion Commanders.

 

Lightning flashed in the dark clouds high above the embattled ruins of Kasr Krast. Static electric arced between anything metallic and the air was heavy with the threat of rain, a by product of an orbital assault due to dumping so many thousands of tonnes of equipment into a planet's atmosphere.

The flashes lit up a nightmare scene on the ground as they fully illuminated the chaos forces advanced, rather then just the flashes from muzzles of weapons.

Streaks of bright white lasfire flashed across the ruins as the dug in Cadians defended their homeworld desperately. Reinforcement tank squadron's were apparently on their way, but no sign of their arrival had been spotted yet.

The chaos Astartes stalked through the ruins and over the plaza towards the imperial line. Flashes from Boltgun muzzles strobing across their twisted armour.

Sergeant Sern barked out orders to his squad, "The Emperor is watching you, do your duty and hold the line!".

He was anxiously turning to reload when he heard an ominous hissing noise gradually rising in pitch, and the air became heated as the noise transformed into an angry roar.

Before he could shout a warning, trooper Kratz, head and shoulders above the parapet to fire his rifle, became a dried husk of a person as a blast from a melta-weapon evaporated all the moisture from his body, before disintegrating it into a cloud of ash flakes on the wind.

Sern angrily snatched at his bolt pistol where he had dropped it on the edge of the firing parapet.

A huge riveted boot crunched down on both weapon and wrist, shattering all the bones at once.

A black armoured figure leered down at the Cadian sergeant, fear suppressing the pain his body was feeling as the giant warrior growled a laugh through the vox emitters in its bionic face.

A slimy, horrid looking creature skipped and slithered its way around the warriors feet and with a start he realised that a cloak of sewn Hunan skin flowed in the air around the warrior.

At this point he finally cried out and lost control of his bowels looking up at a nightmare made manifest.

Having savoured the moment, the Chaos marine raised his bolter and fired on the stricken Sergeant, before turning the rest of the magazine on the other Cadians in the trench...

*****

After finishing off Dreadtober I decided to pick up a couple of models which I had nearly finished painting, just before I had to take some forced time off work due to being ill.

During that time I decided to paint up the Tyranid army, because they were new and shiny, but also I wanted to do something completely new and different to take my mind off of everything happening.

Cleaning my hobby desk about a week ago after Dreadtober, I came across two character models for the Black Legion I had been working on, and decided to get them finished off as they were about three-quarters done.

The first is Luthran, Aspiring Champion, Executioner and second in command of the warband:

The second is the Chaos lord himself, Gan Ashahl, The Eternal Claw:

I'm particularly happy with how Gan Ashahl turned out, being based off of a Huron Blackheart conversion I picked up second hand in March or April. I gave him a headswap for one from a Kataphron Destroyer, as well as a Chainsword from the Raptors kit. 

My favourite part of the kitbash though are the cloaks, which were made from chopped up Nighthaunt spares, to get the torn, flowing material look, which I then painted as flayed skin for a true early 2000s vibe to the models.

Both the leader models follow the same Black Legion scheme i was painting nearly a year ago now, with Corvus Black and Retributor Armour as the main colours and washed over entirely with Earthshade. I decided to mix things up a little and include a bit more red in areas on these models to vary up the colours. Something I may go back to do to the already painted members of the warband (maybe?).

The entire Warband as they stand at the moment. I am working on a few Marines to fill out the two units I started and have a couple of Terminators waiting to be built to fill out that unit, there are also a couple of Defiler's, hidden away in the cupboard of opportunity, but I have a slightly different plan for them...something involving Iron within and without...

This is just a quick victory getting the two characters finished off and cleared off the painting desk.

Until next time, have nice day...