Plotting out 2017

I start a lot of projects.

A LOT.

Perhaps more than I ever should have.  Perhaps even enough projects that I could hope to finish.  As as you can imagine, those projects have also led to a significant backlog of unpainted, unused miniatures.  And what a terrible fate for a miniature... to sit, unused, and in some cases even unassembled in bitz boxes.

In 2016, I started a campaign to tackle that backlog.  Made good progress, too.  In 2016, I successfully painted 277 miniatures, acquired 22 miniatures, and started a 40k league out of my house to help direct myself (and others) toward a fully painted army.  The 40k league worked out so well for me, that I realized I had enough Chaos Space Marine miniatures to actually start 2 armies (more on this below).

In 2017, I'm going to try for an even stronger focus - hopefully getting to a full 365 painted miniatures, and ideally "completing" 3 to 5 forces for various games.

With that in mind, I've decided to list out some of my thoughts on how to maintain progress and how to decide when a project is completed.

1 Army Book is not the same as 1 Army

As I alluded to, I play Chaos Space Marines in 40k.  Generally, this leads me down the path of Nurgle.  As I pulled out my 40k miniatures, I came to the realization that I simply had too many miniatures to be a single army.  Sure, I could paint up 5000+ points of Nurgle Marines to be ready for that mythical "full collection, all weekend Apocalypse game."  But why would I do that?  How many of those games am I ever going to play out?  So why should I limit myself to one army here?

Instead, I took stock of my models and separated them into 4 distinct army ideas: the deceptively fast force, the plodding sturdy force, the organized force, and the unwashed masses.  All in all, it added up to somewhere in the ballpark of 8000-10000 points.  And even though Nurgle is my favorite Chaos god to follow, it just felt tedious to paint that much green/brown/yellow.  But if I broke those 4 ideas down into 4 different 2000 point armies, I would be able to complete the CSM project in 4 different phases, because...

Variety is the Spice of Life

I can't paint the same thing over and over.  I just can't.  And there are a lot of people with me on that.  Fortunately, there are a tremendous number of variations that can be done at any given time.  In 40k, I can paint Nurgle until I'm bored, then switch to Tzeentch and still play them in the same army together.  Or separately.  Whatever.

Same with AoS.  Maybe I do want to paint Aelves, but one color scheme over all my models does not motivate me.  So I can paint a unit of Swordmasters and a Loremaster with one colour scheme, then do up some Reavers from the Swifthawk Agents Faction in another color scheme because - hey - different factions.

Playing armies with this diversity is key to continuing hobby progress, because...

Models That Pull Double Duty Do the Work For You

A lot of models for a lot of games can cross into other factions.  GCPD officers from the Batman Miniatures Game can work for Batman, Green Arrow, or the Police.  Blackgate Inmates can work for damned near any crew in the same game.  In AoS, any Order model can play with any Order model.  In 40k, Daemons can ally in pretty freely with CSM.  This list could go on for a while.  Collecting these types of models can be key to ongoing army progress, as each model you paint is effectively two (or more) models on an army list when you start to cross them over.

Using the same 40k example, I recently painted up 3 Plague Drones, 1 Herald of Nurgle, 10 Plaguebearers, and 3 Nurgling bases to ally into my Nurgle Marines.  I have sitting on my paint table 10 Bloodletters, a Skull Cannon, and a Herald of Khorne.  I can paint those up, plug them in with my Nurgle Daemons and shift from playing CSM to playing a small force of pure Daemons.  Then I can take those same Khorne Daemons and paint up some Khorne Bloodbound to make a Khorne force for Age of Sigmar...and I wouldn't be starting from zero.  So a lowly little Plague Marine ultimately leads me to paint a unit of Blood Warriors for a completely different game.

But even double duty models can't help you without the discipline to...

Only Play Painted Miniatures

This is a hard one.  But it definitely keeps you painting.  But don't try it alone.  Tell your friends and your gaming group that you're trying to only play painted models.  Use them as your support system.  Ask them to help you.

If you absolutely must play with unpainted minis, penalize yourself.  Put restrictions in place.  In my 40k League, anyone who brings unpainted miniatures after a painting deadline suffers the consequences.  Painted models hate unpainted models.  Unpainted models suffer penalties to Cover Saves (it's easier to see an unpainted mini!).  Unpainted models have Leadership penalties (the painted minis make fun of them!).

I hope some of those thoughts help your hobby progress.  I know they help me.

So What's the Plan for 2017?

As I stated at the beginning, I am targeting 365 miniatures this year.  I'm slightly behind pace at the moment - having only completed 22 miniatures to date.  But I'll pick it back up.

But just painting 365 minis won't put a notable dent in my army collection.  So here is my list of goals for 2017:

1) Complete a 350 point Batman crew.

2) Stay on pace with my 40k league and finalize my Nurgle and Iron Warrior armies by the end of the year.

3) Paint a 2000 point pure Nighthaunt army for Age of Sigmar

4) Create enough custom bases to allow my Stormcast to play in Kings of War.

5) Really man up my painting efforts and complete items 1-4 by July 1st.  Then make a new list.

Good luck in 2017 everyone.

 - Chris

We're Back, Baby!

So it has been an absurdly long time since I touched this blog.

Truth be told, it's been an absurdly long time since I've been involved with the miniatures gaming community.

Sure, I dabbled and painted and played... but only played around 5 or 6 games a year, and all out of my home game room.

You see - my local hobby store closed down some time ago and was replaced by an utter joke of a shop.  Without bad mouthing anyone, let's just say my hobby became a private affair.

Flash forward several years and now I'm married.  I have a kid.  I have a good job.  It's time to go live with my hobby again and not just let it linger in the confines of my home.  I almost don't know where to begin, so rather than dredge through years of backlog, I'll just jump into what I'm working on now.

With that in mind, I'll be attending my first Age of Sigmar tournament this weekend, and I simply don't believe in attending an event with unpainted miniatures.  Over the last week, I've set off in a whirlwind of hobby progress and slammed out most of what I need to finalize this army for the event.

Not the best work I've ever done, especially since the photo of the foot Celestant (converted from a Lord Relictor and toting a Ghal Maraz all his own) was taken before I even washed his armour - but I won't be fielding unpainted models.

I still have to apply static grass and paint the edges of the bases, but I would prefer to just knock all of them out at once on that.  Otherwise, all I have left are 5 Liberators, who are about a third done.  At this pace, I'll even have time to rig up a display board for the tournament.

It's good to be back in the saddle again.  And with years of missed content, I'm sure I have plenty to update on.

Only the Faithful.

Hobby Progress - 2013 Day 4

I sat down tonight and went through my bin of unpainted Lord of the Rings miniatures.

This is always a hard thing to do.  I barely ever play the game, and although I do enjoy it when I play, I'll be the first to admit that it is a tactically limited system that I don't find particularly challenging.

Still, I find the game entertaining, I like the miniatures, and I believe in a world where all miniatures have the right to be painted (okay - not so strongly on that last one).

At any rate, having tallied up my Rohan models, I see that I have somewhere in the ballpark of 600 or so points (almost exclusively Riders and Warriors of Rohan).  As such, I figure there's no harm in committing to painting all my Rohan models by the end of March.

Today, after getting some work related writing knocked out, I dedicated my evening to hobby progress.  And I got quite a bit done.

Tonight, I did the following:
 - put the first armor wash on 1 Swamp Troll, 10 Fennblades, and 1 Chronicler
 - did the final skin highlight, the carapace basecoat, and stretched skin wash on a Stinger
 - cleaned and primed 11 Warriors of Rohan with hand weapons and shields
 - painted the base and put down the first base of color on the plants of a terrain piece I've been working on

More to come.

2013 Hobby Commitments

I've been dreadfully remiss in updating this blog in, well, ever... but that doesn't mean I've given up on hobby progress!

However, over the last several months, all my progress has been unfocused.  I got into a unit of 40 Black Orcs pretty hardcore... then dropped off after 18 of them to switch to Savage Orcs.  I fell off the Savage Orcs to work on some Heroes.  I left the Heroes behind to work on the 40k Dark Vengeance box.  I jumped from them to Legion of Everblight when I started to get more HordesMachine games in.

It's not as bad as it sounds, really.  I was making progress on everything... but nothing really felt "complete."

This year, I want to try something new.  I still want to work on several projects, but I don't want to commit to a single one.  I don't want 2013 to be the "Year of X Army." I want it to be the year of progress.

So I've decided to create a 2013 Hobby Resolution.  Over the next 12 months, I plan to paint up 2000 points - but not of the same thing.  Here's my plan:

January 1st - March 31st: 500 points of Lord of the Rings Rohan

April 1st - June 30th: 500 points of Orcs and Goblins

July 1st - September 30th: 500 points of Chaos Space Marines

October 1st - December 31st: 500 points of High Elves

Additionally, I have 10 Trollblood Fennblades, 1 Chronicler, 1 Swamp Troll, 1 Legion Scythean, 2 Stingers, and 1 Naga Nightlurker.  I have a further commitment to paint those up by May 16th.  Why the 16th?  It's my birthday and my wife tends to expand my Hordes forces for my birthday and Christmas.  So I'd like ot get these done before then.

Finally, I have a box of unpainted terrain.  Some of it is complex.  Some is as simple as a 6" section of stone wall.  So I plan to paint a single piece of terrain each month, meaning I'll have 12 more painted chunks of terrain by the year's end.

Pictures as progress is made.  Still working on the exact 500 point lists, so updates when I decide what I'm painting, as well.

To hobby!

A Day 17 EPIC FAIL

DAYS 14 - 17: GAME ROOM

I decided, for some reason only Satan probably knows, to redo my game room.  This was a bad idea.  All my models are presently packed up, leaving nothing new to share model-wise.

Hopefully, my game room will be up and running in a few days (complete with pictures of the re-model).  Bare with me until then.

Day 12: Keeping with the Dragon Theme

DAY 12: DRAGON PRINCES

I converted these guys after the 7th edition High Elf book came out.  The addition of Always Strikes First and Star Dragons to the entire army really spoiled a lot of my enjoyment with the High Elves, which was a shame, given that they are the army I first collected when I started playing the game.

I tried a few different things to bring myself back around to the High Elves... a new paint scheme... some new models... new conversions.  Nothing brought my attention back to them.  But now...

Now we're in 8th edition.  The handful of games I've played as High Elves has shown me that now, with bigger units and the "Step Up" rule, ASF is a leveling force.  With all the re-rolls and the first strike, HE get to take a good chunk of models off the opponent's side.  After that, the opponent gets to do exactly the same thing... unlike in 7th, where the opponent would charge in, lose all the models that would otherwise be attacking, and bounce off.

No fun at all there.

Hoping that changes when I start picking them up more.

Some close ups...

The Champion

The Standard Bearer

Day 11: Dragons with Beefy Arms

DAY 11: CARNIVEAN

As I've mentioned before, there's a lot about Legion that I like.

But there's very little I like more than Carniveans.  A pair of P+S 16 attacks... a P+S 18 attack... high Armour... tons of blips on the Life Spiral... a spray attack that can be fired on the way into combat... yeah... these guys are pretty good.

Grr...Arg...

And, as a bonus, they come standard in the Legion WarPack.  This is huge.  Hordes can be a complex and involved game of combos and synergies and perfect timing... but the Carnivean something else of note to the table.

He's simple.

That is to say... he can be as simple or as complicated as you want him to be.  I've found him a great leg up in attempting to learn the game.  I can mess around with all sorts of fun combos in my list (Absylonia + Raek... Nyss Sorceress + a flying flanking win... etc...) and still have a fall back that can carry the game for me if things go badly.

In fact, one of my finer moments was a game against my buddy's Circle list (actually my fiance's toys... but he was using them).  I had a single Carnivean stand up to a Gorax, a Warpwolf, a unit of Trackers, and a handful of Bloodweavers.  All on a single turn.  I had thrown the Carnivean out there to absorb the first wave of Circle assault.  At the time, I figured he'd be killed and my counterattack would have to win the day for me.  Instead, when all the smoke cleared, the Carnivean was still standing with a single blip of life remaining.  Cue up my turn... pop Absylonia's Feat and BOOM!  Full strength again.  A fully jacked up Carnivean AND my counterattack put an effective end to the game on that turn.

Good times...

Really, is there anything better than a Carnivean in a Legion force?

This is better.  For me.  Not the other guy.