2024 Hobby Log

Each year I try to rein in my hobby butterfly with some goals. 2023’s were largely successful so this year’s build on those.

1. Play more games. Last year I got to meet Woodstock and had some great game days with them. I played with a few other people and, even when I didn’t enjoy the rule sets, the games were fun. This year I’d like to play more games with more new people. If I could get to the table with something twice a month, that would be fantastic. Solo games would also count for this.
2. Paint for more charity events. I used to do a 24 hour charity stream every year but my health doesn’t really mean that is possible these days so focusing in on other ways I can contribute to charity work would be nice. After the success of The Ginger Dwarf raffle and the Space Ducks projects over the last two years, giving my hobby time feels like a logical way to do that.
3. Finish up the year with more models painted than unpainted in my collection. I have fallen back into bad habits over the last couple of years, especially when my mental health is bad, buying models I don’t need and can’t really afford and then doing nothing with them. Being honest with myself, there needs to be a big cull but also just working on painting existing projects will help.
4. A big group game for a big celebration in the summer.
5. Try going to tournaments – likely Kings of War. I’ve never been to any kind of tournament and it is a side of the hobby I’d like to try. I’m a scrub player but I want to see what another way of playing looks and feels like.

These Hobby Logs tend to be where I post about all the minis that don’t fit into other projects but that are still part of my hobby.It could also be called the Odds and Sods Logs.

I think this year I’ll also do a monthly round up including everything across all the projects – mainly so it is easier for me to keep track of what I’m doing.

My main focus this year is big armies so January was a good month on that front. I’m in a slow grow for Kings of War and we’re meant to have 750 points ready for February. I’m two models short for my list but I managed to get the three regiments done.

Gaslands was going to be my second project for the month but my epic pre-order finally came in and so excitement overtook me and the production line ramped up. I still have a fair bit to paint to get an army to the table however I’m very happy with what I have so far.

Talking about Gaslands, it takes about as long to get a box of epic infantry ready to prime as it does to kitbash a gaslands car ready to prime. Both take an hour but are very different experiences; some days the mindless prep is what you need, other days it is the creative digging around in the bits box and making broom broom noises as you go. I have a second vehicle kitbashed and primed but mentally I’ve been in batch painting mode and I’m finding switching a little tricky right now.

All in all, the first month of the year is done and I’m happy with what I got painted up. February should be a bit easier on the batch painting and will have some experiments with a new painting style… I have a plan but I’m currently watching A Fistful of Dollars right now so who knows how long I’ll manage to stay on track.

Counts for the month:

• Riftforged orcs – 50
• Sons of Horus – 203 (44 bases and 15 vehicles)
• Gaslands – 1

I’ve been very unwell this week so haven’t managed much in terms of hobby this week. I also had to make a flamingo. Being the only person in a friendship group with a jigsaw leads to some strange requests.

The hobby I did manage to do is still not ready to see the internet but I can show the finished bit so far.

What could these be for???

Most things I’ve been working on this year are for other projects but I did dabble into some lizardmen models for a charity army project. I was sent the models to paint; I’ve never painted lizardmen before but these were fun to work on.

I’ll update this post when the auction goes live.

In a stunning turn in events, I played games two weeks in a row! Last week’s slightly traumatising Legions Imperialis game was swept away by a fantastic game of Kings of War Armada.

Woodstock and I haven’t had this game on the table since the global campaign last year but my fish were giving me the evil eye every time I walked past the cabinet and with this renewed effort to play more games it was an obvious choice. Woodstock brought her lovely painted Basileans. We rolled up a scenario and then decided we didn’t like it and went with Flotsam and Jetsam.

A Basilean merchant ship got into trouble in the shallow seas and disappeared without a trace… well, not without a trace. It left behind 10 tokens or varying unknown points values from 0 to 2. Did it run into a underwater reef? Fall foul of a wicked storm? Attacked and sunk by a giant squid captained by a man called Papacito? Who can tell?

Papacito, his squid and it’s friends happened upon the scene completely innocently at around the same time as the human rescue fleet arrived. Being creatures of the sea, they are fiercely against human detritus polluting their waters and began to clear it up.

After a turn of both fleets mostly swiping up junk from the sea, the poor aquatic creatures got a little disorientated and accidentally let off their weapons in the general direction of the Basileans. They tried to apologise but stupid humans don’t speak fish. Instead they viciously attacked.

Unlike this stinky orcs that the Trident Realms went up against last year, the giant (for a crab and yet Tiny in game) crab put in a valiant effort to its grapple and boarding actions. The true star of the grapple, unsurprisingly, was Squiddy. Those magnificent tentacles can strike at 4 inches instead of the usual 3 and managed to take out a ship in one turn. Sadly the tidal wave remained largely ineffective.

A couple more turns and things were fairly evenly matched but in turn four Squiddy took several broadsides and ended up being pushed over its nerve value. The next activation came around and Papacito surrendered despite being at the outer edge of the 10 inch enemy range. They dropped the three loot tokens they were holding and by the end of the following turn it became apparent that the creatures couldn’t recover enough tokens to outscore the Basileans.

It was another great game which reminded us both how much we want to play it more. I definitely need to paint up a fleet that gets broadsides as raking fire is a big thing to not have access to. I love the look of the Trident Realms on the table but I could see me dipping into the Basileans that I have to hand to get them painted up.

In the name of playing more games, I’ve been looking round our local community. Easily the most active is, as I’m sure it is in many places, the Blood Bowl players. Constantly have leagues running and they seem to pop up everywhere. One of the local clubs are about to start a new season and so the time has come to paint up one of the several teams I own and learn the rules. They’ve been forewarned that I know almost nothing!

I’ve got two goals I’m setting myself for this league – have a fully painted team and play all my games. That’s it. So let’s start on goal number one.

The league starts *checks calendar* tomorrow. Thankfully my first game isn’t going to be until next Monday though because of work so I actually have a week to get my starting 11 ready for the table.

I’ve gone with the Norse team that I’ve had for at least a year at this point. Mostly because they look like they will be fun to paint but also they are tier one which, according to the book, makes them more forgiving to play.

The starting roster is:

• 1 x yhetee
• 2 x Valkyries
• 2 x Ulfwerener
• 5 x Linemen
• 1 x beer boar

I have the official GW team box which makes most of the team but I’ll be damned if I’m paying them £26 for a Yhetee model so a quick trip to Myminifactory, £3.50 spent and 7 or so hours later, I have my yeti. With everyone built and primed with a black then white zenithal, this week’s break from Feegles begins.

“Aaaargh, why do I leave things to last minute” game ready. That’s what I call this painting level. Not finished, just got enough paint for their first game! There’s not one highlight on them. I’m fine with this. Definitely fine.

Though the team is called the Fjordadelphia Blood Eagles, I leaned into the colour palette of Washington rather Philly. We’re about the blood part of the Blood Eagles.

Colours used:

• Khorne red and Yriel Yellow are the two team colours
• P3 Coal Black for fabric
• Kislev Flesh and Pallid Wych Flesh for, well, the flesh
• Rhinos Hide for dark leather
• Skavenblight Dinge for fur
• All over wash with Agrax thinned 50/50 with medium

Now, any sharp eyed CoGs will notice looking at the photos that there are only four linemen and one berserker. I’m glad you noticed. I didn’t, until I was adding their numbers. Oh well, I don’t have time to paint up my fifth lineman so we’ll just going to have to proxy for game one.

They’ll be back later, once I have the rest of the box painted, this lot actually finished and more done to the bases. They’ll do for the first game or two though.

I’ve spent so much time over the last few months batch painting or working on big armies that I felt the need this weekend to change it up. Just paint a single miniature, start to finish – not rushing to get onto the next one, not painting twenty belts in a row.

It was really nice, I had fun and added another goblin to my little band of random goblins.