July-August 2018 YDT Painting Goal Reflections.

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Only a month and a half late! I’d planned to write up this more than a month ago, but life kept conspiring to prevent me from laying all of the 382 models I’ve finished this year out for a photo. This is everything I’ve gotten painted this year up until the beginning of August. Except for those two little wall segments. I’ll illustrate the entire reflective post with more shots of the year-to-date painting, because I didn’t get all of those bloody models out just to take a single photograph! Clicky for big ones, but the focus on individual models isn’t great…

Now more than halfway through the year’s Monthly round-ups, once again it’s a good time to look again at my year’s painting goals as listed during January and reflect on how I’ve been going with them:

1. Paint and finish some 2+1 marine forces/bump up existing small groups to this as a minimum.
Black Templars, Celestial Lions, Fallen Angels and Deathwatch, though I have another one on the go right now, and plans (oh dear, the plans) for several more. I’d also count finishing my 2006 Ork force in there.

I… haven’t done a damn thing on any of the Marine forces since March, when I had managed to get some stuff done. I did at least get my 2006 Ork force completed. Which reminds me, I wanted to take an army showcase shot of them but the light and/or focus has been crap every time I’ve tried…

2. Reinforce the existing 40k armies. Specifically, both Minotaurs and Iron Warriors need some proper reinforcements.

Well, I’ve painted some Cybertronic models that kinda-sorta fit in as Iron Warriors Auxillaries, but I need to get onto these as well. Hopefully the coming month (September) can see something for each?

3. Sort out the stuff that’s painted but needs reorganisation to be playable in 8th edition. I’m very much thinking of my Imperial Guard here.

No movement here. Yet. I’ve been spending much of my recent time working on making some space, but there’s still too much crap here that hasn’t been helped by clearing out my mum’s stuff to help my dad out. At this point I’m kinda thinking that this won’t happen at all this year as my time is being used to try and get models finished.

4. Finish more of the stuff I started but never finished. There’s a unit of Elves just waiting on three models to be done to be completed. There’s a unit of DUST Gorillas, a unit of Undead, some Mordor Uruks, Arbites, Savage Orcs… It’s bloody exhausting to think about how many started-but-abandoned units I still have.

Well, here is probably the biggest thing that I’ve managed to do, as I’ve made pretty good progress on a lot of the old outstanding half-painted models and units I’ve accumulated. Out of the named models there, I’ve gotten the Gorillas done, the Undead, the Mordor Uruks. Nothing on the Arbites or Savage Orcs yet – Just a shame there are so, SO many more of them to go.

5. Complete all of my metal Dwarf Slayer models.

Nope, nope, nope. I guess it’s possible, but I’d have to have a dedicated “Slayer Month”. I should be able to get some more done, at least…

6. Complete all of my metal Viking models.

I’ve done a few of them and have a few more on the desk that I dip in and out of, but haven’t actually managed to finish any more units of them since the three I completed back in April, though I’ve in the process of trying to complete another small group of them literally this past few days. (Varnish accident set me right back!) I can’t see them all getting done without “Viking Month”, and I can’t see them keeping my interest as the only thing to work on for an entire month.

7. Get a Nurgle Daemon army up and running.

This one still counts as a success for the year, though I haven’t added to them as much as I wanted to since March. Still need to get the last of the metals assembled, let alone painted. I did clean the flash off them last week, finally, though I’m yet to glue them together…

8. Get a Grey Knights army up and running.

Ain’t nothing happening here yet. I’d still like to, but perhaps getting a Kill-Team painted is a more realistic goal for 2018 at this stage.

9. Get a second Chaos Legion force up and running.

Ain’t nothing happening here, either! Once again, a Kill-Team is the more achievable outcome.

10. Skirmish forces & small miniature boardgame models updated/ready to play. Necromunda, Shadespire, Blood Bowl, Gorechosen, SAGA (aside from Vikings)

Sweet fuck-all done here since March as well for the named game skirmish forces. I’ve churned out a decent number of models for Shadows of Brimstone, and an increasing few for Imperial Assault. I’d like to update my old-school Cawdor, so maybe that can be a target for next month’s Neglected Models? I’d really like to get onto the Shadespire Warbands, though, as they’re quite small and the models are lovely and it’ll give me an excuse to actually paint some newer models instead of simply buying them and hoarding them.

11. Two small opposed forces for Bolt Action.

Still ain’t nothing happening here yet. I don’t think the 15mm Flames of War tanks count, but they’ll work for FoW, Tanks! and Tank War (BA)… As Imperial Assault is showing me so well, if I had an actual opponent for BA, I’m sure I’d automagically gravitate to getting shit done in a reasonably efficient manner.

12. Then there are unfinished terrain pieces, projects like the Graveyard and the Mighty Fortress, and scatter scenery, and…

This has been a successful category when it comes to scatter terrain, with a ton of hedges and other small bits of scatter and dressing scenery items done – mostly from boardgame sets, but they’ll work okay across many genres. Still working on some other stuff, but as with so much else, it’s often slow going. I’ve got several larger projects that just keep stalling out. I need some time off work to knuckle down and get them finished! Maybe in September…?

If I can keep up the 30-31-models per month minimum, that should be another 150 models for this year, so with that being around the 530 mark, I should really be aiming for 600+. I’m sure that with my Terrain Crates from Mantic’s Kickstarter having arrived recently, filled with little bits of scatter terrain, I should be able to make up the numbers. It’ll be a hard year to top at this rate, though!

25 thoughts on “July-August 2018 YDT Painting Goal Reflections.”

  4. So, officially speaking, based on your lists, you’ve painted next to nothing! Unofficially, you’ve painted a boatload of absolutely excellent minis and scenery bits! Great stuff! I do need to remind you that it’s only 381 items, since the nasty carnivorous plant is real and not a model!

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    • Funny how at the start of the year wanting to paint a few units of this and that and a small Army of this or that and a few figures for this and that all seem so achievable in that abstract form. Right up until you actually need to paint them and figure out how many figures that works out to be each week!

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  6. For a real big laugh, we could contrast with what I have painted since January…here they are, oh shoot! Dropped one, make that 4 now…

    That’s some seriously massive amount of painting. Looks like their own motley army. I can’t remember if you shared that list before (pretty sure you did), but it is interesting to see your goals and how you chip away. I would say you got a lot done regardless of the list and most people would probably squeal with glee at getting half that amount done in 2 years, at half the quality!

    All I can say is “Congrats on kicking serious mini-painting butt!”.

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    • Well, I lack a cobra and I’m able to leave my stuff out, as we’ve discussed. (Though Leonard likes to try to steal things!) but something that really helps me is working on a lot of projects at once, so I can take a short break from vikings while washes are drying and then do the bases on something else, and then a layer of fur on the Wookiees, so while I’m properly working on one thing, several other things are also inching their way to completion.
      Keeping focus to get things over that finish line is the hard part. I get enthusiastic about new things all the time, but then in the middle/75% done mark, I often find that my enthusiasm wanes and I have to force myself to get to that 90% mark where it’s detail time and fun again…

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      • Cobra kids and sneaky cats. Haha, the other day I’m looking for the keys I keep on the desk (that locks a rolling drawer full of minis), nope not where I put them. We finally track them down, in another room, where they had been stuffed into another lock. “It fits!”

        Yea, I’m not sure where my waning and highlights are. I think it’s different for each model. I generally don’t like the trimming, scraping, and washing phase. Priming is ok, but ya know…no one ever ooohs and ahhhhhs over a primed mini! Base coats are alright, but often long and tedious. If everything is going right, and I like how a certain color is going down, that can be fun. Washes are fun for me, because you don’t have to be super careful and have an amazing effect on the minis. And then it’s back to highlights for me, which is okay, sometimes tedious. Around that time I also get to the eyes, which is definitely tedious. Hair can be fun, when it turns out right.

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      • Yeah, model cleaning is incredibly tedious. I started bringing a few bits and pieces to work to do during my breaks, though as this part of the year has progressed, I find myself just working more and more during those times as well.
        Priming is just hitting stuff with a spray can for me. It’s not good, bad or ugly. It’s just needing the weather to cooperate. I often enjoy the base coating and washing. Highlighting can be a chore, though. Depends a lot on the model and colours. The most fun is almost always the fine detailing. Well, eyes are a pain in the arse, but other stuff that I can freehand is the most fun. Need to be in the right frame of mind for it, though…

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      • Priming with the airbrush was kind of fun, but lately seems like I’m spending more time fixing the damned thing then priming. Which reminds me, that I need to order another part…

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      • It’s my first one ever, with no formal instruction, so you can guess just where the problem might lie. It sounds like Mark has had pretty good experience with them. If I had a “do-over”, I’d probably have started with a knockoff brush. I’m pretty careful with my stuff, but these are tricky tools. Like most tools, when they work great, everything is awesome. Just like the LEGO Movie song.

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    • Yeah, this is getting there. 2017 was 429/437 depending on what I counted, so being at 382 (plus 49 so far for this month, taking it to 431) so we’re pretty safely on track for the biggest year of output ever. Of course, there’s lots of scatter and a bunch of models that were so close to finished and a few rebasings/touch-ups in there that get the numbers right up, but it is what it is.

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  8. Wow, that is a really amazing output. It is even more impressive considering the high quality of each miniature. Do ever have time to game with them? There are so many systems represented here I don’t think I’d even know where to start playing.

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    • I haven’t done much miniature gaming in the last year or two to be honest, and so given that particular “gaming” time on weekends isn’t being used for gaming, I’m getting more painting done instead. If I got to do more gaming, there’d no doubt be less painting happening…

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