So I guess it’s that time again, the year is done, the party is over – Time to reflect on the year that was and blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda.
Pictured: Leonard doing what I *still* feel like doing.
I had a kind-of painting goal for 2013. Even when I set it, I knew it was unrealistic. It was to finish 365 “things“. So that included finishing half-painted figures, individual pieces of terrain, rebasing, renovating and touching up old models, and, oh yeah! – and painting stuff from start to finish. A modest goal, compared to the many people out there who seem to manage to paint entire armies in a couple of months, but a laudable one, nonetheless.
Pictured: Some stuff that got painted or renovated in 2013. Except for 2 of the dwarves.
Unfortunately, I came up with it in March, after more than three solid months of partying playing World of Warcraft – so I was 3 months down to begin with. By day 226 I had 124 completed, and by the end of the year I had 142 models painted. Not too bad, and my best year in many, if not ever – though it does include a lot of “updated’ models and doesn’t even touch the amount I bought this year…
Pictured: Some of the backlog. A lot of this stuff arrived this year.
I’ve had my 2014 goal planned since I came up with the 2013 one, though – Finish painting more figures than I did in the preceding year. Which I’ll continue on with, probably till I drop dead. The “stretch goal” will once again be to try and finish 365 figures.
More specifically this coming year, I want to get a few projects done, across a few genres:
Fantasy:
Finish the 2k pts Ogre Army for KoW
Paint a 2k pts Dark Elf/Twilight Kin Army for KoW
Paint a 300?600? pt Allied Detatchment for KoW to ally with others (Giant, Trebuchet, Wolves)
Paint an Undead Army for KoW using GW, Mantic and LotR Undead (also doubles as an Army of the Dead for LotR SBG and WotR!)
Finish a ton of Men of Gondor for SBG/WotR and KoW armies of Man
Pictured: Not yet 2k points of KoW Ogres, with some older stuff and a Contemptor from Damo.
40k:
Resurrect/update my previously-finished old Dark Angels Combat Patrol into a 6th Edition 600-pt Combat Patrol
Paint 600-odd points of Deathwing as a CP
Paint 600-odd points of Ravenwing as a CP
Add some extra DA stuff back in – like the almost-finished Dreadnought, Asmodai, etc and Bingo! 2k+ point DA army!
Pictured: Finished 2E and 3E-style Dark Angels models with some WIP Ogres. Proper gallery to come later when the updated force starts getting put together…
Resurrect/finish/update my old 3.5-edition Iron Warriors CP force into a 2013-edition 600-pt Combat Patrol, then expand into 2k points or so.
Resurrect/update my 3rd-edition Mentor Legion Marine army into a 2013-edition army (including a Combat Patrol force)
When the IG codex comes out, resurrect/update my 2nd/3rd-edition IG army into a 2014-edition army (including several Combat Patrol forces)
When the IG codex comes out, resurrect/finish/update my 3rd-edition Deathworld/Jungle Fighters/Ogryn/Sentinel Maori-themed IG CP into a 2014-edition Combat Patrol force.
When the Tyranid codex comes out, resurrect/update my old Tyranid CP force into a 2014-edition 600-pt Combat Patrol.
Pictured: Formerly-complete Tyranid Combat Patrol (with Aliens as CC-warriors) now needing to be updated to 6E. Also some unfinished large models.
Resurrect/finish/update my old 2005-edition Ork CP force into a 2014-edition 600-pt Combat Patrol. Despite previously being close to finished, this is one of the harder ones, since in the interim they’ve changed the way Ork units buy and allocate special/heavy weapons pretty substantially, and also halved their point values – so it will need a lot of shuffling and a busload of additional Orks to bring back up to 600pts…
So as you can see, there are a couple of themes running through there… hopefully I can make some or most of it a reality, since much of it shouldn’t involve painting too many additional models… for all but the Orks, anyway.
“Stretch Goals” for the 40k-2k/600pt-Combat Patrol project are Grey Knights and Blood Angels.
Pictured: A huge pile of junk/future wargaming room.
Also – Convert the shed into a games room, and actually play a bunch of games! The major part of the clean-up and carpeting is planned hoped to happen over the next few weeks since I have annual leave. This will allow a lot of the mess being stored in the “painting studio” to be moved out.
Pictured: A bloody mess.
This will allow me to move my “long-term” painting projects onto the actual, proper painting desk that I have, while I’ll still be able to move individual models into the living room to work on when I want to paint while being less isolated. It’ll also allow indoor/late night gaming & boardgaming to take place on the table in the living room, rather than being covered by my crap.
Pictured: Where I *should* be painting. Note how covered in crap it all is.
Pictured: Folding table in the Living Room. AKA Where I *actually* paint.
A lot of this is due to finally purchasing our own place, after renting for years and having things in storage and then living in a short-term rental for 18 months with most of our stuff in boxes. In the last year, there’s been much unpacking and lots of culling, but that stuff happens sporadically since work seems to become more demanding each year. Every so often buying some more Bookshelves or Detolf cabinets (AU$150 for a Detolf compared to US$60? Talk about regional price fixing that would make GW blush!) As well as that, I appreciate a good videogame, so I like to chill out with some Battlefield4 or GTA5 or what have you as well as working on hobby and home.
One thing it was really nice to finally get finished only a week and a half ago was turning the small “second lounge” room or whatever the hell real estate agents call them into a display space for cool crap. This room had been half-filled with boxes (literally, not figuatively) for pretty much a full year, so it really brings a smile to my face whenever I walk through it now. I’m even able to stop and look at these things now! I’ll do a proper update on the stuff in here a bit later, but here’s the room, about 90% done as it is today (move the miniature cases out, put some more stuff in the cabinets, sort out under the desk a little). Here are a couple of pics.
Pictured: Display Room, Left Side.
Pictured: Display Room, Right Side.
And yes, I’m clearly a very lucky man in that Marouda shares my enjoyment of this sort of stuff on display, and is even willing to play games and do a tiny bit of painting with me. I should point out that the consoles are all her fault, since it was at her urging that we bought our first SNES and Mega Drive, all those years ago. That’s about it for this post. I haven’t done any painting since just before Christmas, but I hope to start again in the next couple of days. So last of all, I’ll just wish…
~ A Happy 2014 to you all! ~
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
I’ll have to forward this to the old lady, maybe it’ll get her off my back about my hobby! 🙂
Just kidding, awesome stuff on display (and she’s very supportive of my painting).
Must be tough to be a wargamer and have to pump out so many units. I feel a bit of that when considering stuff like Zombicide, but for the most part it’s not a numbers game for me. I painted 29 (I think) in 2013, my first full calendar year of painting!
LikeLike
Yeah, wanting to get properly back into wargaming, there’s definitely a numbers-game aspect to it all – compare it to you wanting to get all those freaking zombies painted for zombicide so you can enjoy the game, and then do it again, and again, and.. so it’s always a matter of deciding when a figure that’s not anything special to me is “good enough” to go – as well as needing to paint figures I don’t enjoy the work on at times – like those bloody ogres I keep bitching about. Though if they looked shitty when completed I wouldn’t paint them.
LikeLike
That’s a good big man cave but an even bigger pile of lead. 😉
Happy New Year Azazel!
LikeLike
Thanks mate – once I get the shed finished – or even to a usable state it’ll be like all my Christmases have come at once!
LikeLike
You sure have a lot of space down under, I am jealous! Amazing backlog and great set up, you must be looking forward to getting it all organised. Have fun with your projects in 2014!
LikeLike
It’s not a bad size, but not an especially large house either. I’m just lucky that Marouda is happy to have the house this way. 😀 I’m always jealous when I see what the cost of this place would have bought us in the US, though. We’ve got one of the most insane housing markets in the world here in Melbourne.
Still, getting the place sorted out will be great, though we’re not starting in on the shed until we finish cleaning out and sorting the master bedroom and walk-in. Sounds a bit twee, but moving in in a rush over last December, pulling stuff out of storage, and stuffing everything into every available nook and then back to work has meant a ton of stuff never got sorted in the last year. I found a pile of old wrestling t-shirts from 1005-ish last night! nWo 4 Life! …apparently.
Tonight I’ve been getting the urge to finally start painting that Rogue Trader-era-themed Crimson Fists force. nnnnggggh…. so many projects!
LikeLike
I’m in London, so when it comes to overpriced and undersized houses, I win hands down.
I’ve got a couple of RT Marines as well that I was contemplating painting as Crimson Fists at some point this year. However, first up will be some Advanced Space Crusade plastics that I’m going to paint as Scythes of the Emperor.
LikeLike
Actually, you’d be surprised… Melbourne and Sydney are terrible on a worldwide scale these days – both in terms of housing prices and cost of living. At worst, we’re right there with you in London (and really, I’d rather we weren’t..) The GFC didn’t hit here, and so out housing bubble never burst, particularly since the Government changed the law to allow foreign investors (ie, the Chinese) to purchase as much property as they like, which happens unfortunately (much of it land banked).
http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2013/04/sydney-melbourne-property-in-global-top-10-most-expensive/
http://www.economist.com/node/15911113
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2011/s3155728.htm
Click to access cities_cost_living_eiu.pdf
Back to the hobby – I’ve got quite a few RT-era metals, including several painted with some very nice RT-style freehand from my youth that I stripped like a damned fool in 2011. Probably only works out to 3 or 4 squads really, but back in the day that was enough. I’ll pair them with the metal CF backpacks and shoulders I have, Cantor, Lysander, old Rhinos (no Predators, sadly – maybe one?) and so forth. Sadly, someone has to build them an army list, which is one of my least favourite tasks these days.
LikeLike
Lots of very nice man-cave potential there, although I feel your pain regarding the packed up stuff. The couple of years with everything in storage while our house was being built was a huge pain in the ass. Finally having a proper room to work on larger projects and game in working in tandem with the painting table in the living room has allowed me to break personal toy soldier output records in the last few years. Hopefully you will manage the same in 2014.
~150 is an achievable out put goal for me, but 365 would put too much strain on the delicate quality/output/rest-of-my-life stuff balance I think. I do know this much though: video games generate all sorts of cool ideas for future miniature projects while simultaneously being the sworn enemy of toy soldier output Real life butts in on everything, but video games take that final portion of time available for miniatures and devours it. For a number of reasons I played fewer video games than I have for a few years in 2013 and guess what? My miniature output rocketed.
Good luck in 2014. I hope to see some enviable man-cave photos here in the not too distant future 🙂
LikeLike
Thanks for the well wishes. After the last few days spent hard at work in there we now have shelves up on the wall, some more shelving units, more of the crap cleared out, some rugs on the floor and a temporary games table able to be set up (a 7×4 sheet of melamine on a folding table). With luck a couple of metal bookcases this weekend (if we can get the big bastards into a borrowed ute) – then carpet tiles and done (unless we want to get crazy with wall-mounted tv’s and such…) Photos in an update soon – it’s just too hot this week – a week worth of 41C+ (105-106F) degree days – an “official” heatwave.
The 365 “stretch goal” has plenty of “outs” inbuilt to make it achievable. It’s simply getting things finished/tableworthy to my current standard. That can range from a complete start-to-finish display model at my highest standard, to rebasing older models with a bit of touch-up (like the ogres) to finishing stuff that’s almost done (like those last two units of Ogre shooters) to each individual piece of scenery. Today I picked up the brush for the first time since before Christmas and started on 3 Jersey Barriers and 6 Hesco Barriers from Secret Weapon Miniatures, and with luck all 9 of them will be finished later today – that’ll be 9 done!
I know what you mean about video games, and that’s why EQ/WoW were large-scale productivity-killers, but some days you just have to sit back and steal some cars or shoot some faces. Especially useful after a stressful day at work!
LikeLike
Pingback: The Games Room – An Unexpected (that it’s finally happening) Journey | Azazel's Bitz Box.
What alien figures are those?
LikeLike
They are from the Konami Aliens series:
http://www.avpgalaxy.net/forum/index.php?topic=17128.0
LikeLike