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.