Dauntless/Diabolical December 2018: Personal Round-Up

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So here we are. The night of January 9th, 2019 and I’ve finally taken the photos of my December stuff.

Not quite what I’d hoped to get done, but not too bad, considering how December turned out. In the middle of my final week of work, the week before Christmas, just when the torrent of craziness of work had finally subsided (like, literally, the day before), I was at the front door in the morning, literally leaving to go to my Physio appointment, and then to work when I got the call that my father has suffered a stroke and the ambos were on their way there. I literally wrote literally too many times there, but fuck it.

Long story short, the stroke(s) weren’t huge, he spent a couple of weeks in hospital, including Christmas. We brought him BBQ and had Christmas Lunch in a Hospital courtyard. Not the best Christmas, but also not the worst I’ve had, either. He showed a good attitude, did the exercises they gave him like a madman, recovered the use of his arm very well, and we were able to take him home just before New Year’s. He’s still not 100%, and Marouda and I are around there constantly bringing him food and doing all the little things, but after how last year turned out, this isn’t nearly as bad as it could have been.

Still, that took a lot of time, and even once things had settled with the Nurses looking after him as he started to recover giving me a chance to stress a bit less, there was still a lot less hobby time, as you’d appreciate. Daily visits across town are real timesinks in travel time alone. So my blogging and catching up on people’s blogs has obviously suffered, but I’ll catch up as best I can, when I can. I didn’t write about it at the time and just carried on as best I could here because the last thing I’m interested in is a pity party – especially after talking about how shitty the last few months have been a few times. So now that things are mostly okay and we’re past that stage, I’m not fussed. I’ve also been really busy in these opening weeks of the new year besides all of that which has delayed this post (and the Community Round-Up for December), but I’ll talk about that in a future post.

So under the circumstances, I think this has been an okay number of models overall. It works out to 12 or 13 figures including the APC depending whether I count the removable crewman as an extra, as well as 29 pieces of scatter. So that’s 41 or 42 for the month. The 3 Uruks are included in the photos, because they missed their Orctober pic.

I was up to 536 at the end of November, so adding these 41/42 to the total, plus the 3 Uruks, I’m brought to 580 completed models for 2018. Or 581.

Here’s what I managed to complete for the actual December challenge in the end. Not nearly as many Dauntless and Diabolical heroes as I’d hoped and planned, but not too bad, either. Some of the ones who didn’t make December  will be turning up in the next few days and weeks. I’ve already got a backlog of new shit to post up, because even though I haven’t been posting and my commenting and replies have been limited, I’ve still been painting.

I’ll try to get the December Round-up done by this coming weekend. That’s only halfway through January, so it’s still okay, right? I’ll also have a 2018 reflection-roundup once I find all 580/1 models, set them up together on a table, take the photos, and write the actual post. So basically, after I’ve had time to do the whole bloody lot.

40 thoughts on “Dauntless/Diabolical December 2018: Personal Round-Up”

  1. Glad to hear your Dad is doing better and sounds like he is on the mend. I have been in the pharmaceutical industry for most of my civilian career, and stroke has been probably the most common disease my products have treated in some way or another, so I’m somewhat knowledgeable about it. Good news is that his outlook is good if he’s doing ok now. Brain plasticity (the way brains retire themselves after a neurological insult) is amazing, but it can take time, and certainly patience, as old tasks get relearned in new ways. Other issues, like development of spasticity in the limbs, do not immediately show up. Not sure if in AUS you get physician follow up on a schedule, but that shows up on average 14-16 weeks post-stroke, and is greatly variable. 50% of the time it never does show up, but it is made manageable with therapies.

    No pity for ya here, just empathy! And I’m impressed with your carry on attitudes. Sounds like your family rallied and that in and of itself is a blessing of course.

    As for the much less important stuff, your nice collection of work that was enjoyable to paint for you and to see for me. Hobbies are an escape, a way to leave troubles behind, if just for a short time, and yours also exports so much positivity to others, so nicely done my friend. Looking forward to more stuff from you, and you inspire me.

    Best wishes, to you, Marouda, and your family and if ever there is anything I can do to help you information-wise, feel free to drop me a line.

    Best, Mark

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    • Thanks Mark. We thankfully have an overall pretty good healthcare system here in Australia, so he will have a series of followup outpatient appointments with various specialists over the next few months. If any questions come up, I’ll definitely query you about them.

      As for hobby inspiration, I’ll know I’ve finally completely succeeded when I see you posting up a Kill Team of Space Marines or Dark Eldar or something like that! 😉

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  2. With all that went on December, you still had a very productive month, real life always comes first, and I’m sure all would agree that although your comments and showings are missed, no one would blame you.
    You do a great thing for the community organising and posting these monthly challenges plus the round ups, so if you need time because life happens, then that’s what you need to do !
    Good to hear your Dad is doing better, and hope he has a full and speedy recovery

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    • Cheers Dave and thanks for the well wishes. The comments will sort themselves out (eventually!) – It’s just going to take awhile for me to catch up and properly read and properly comment in everyone’s blogs. I’ve caught up on a few, via spending an hour or so just going through all their posts and hitting the back button, but there’s still a lot of very deserving people and posts I haven’t gotten to yet. I’ve just started assembling the December round-up in my “spare time” in the background, so hopefully it’ll be ready in a few days. 🙂

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  3. That is quite the pile there! Especially since so much of it is literal piles of treasure 😉 Honestly, looks like a pretty good lot for the Challenge to me as well, especially since they’re mostly larger Models.

    I have trouble taking strokes as seriously as they should be, because my grandmother used get these mini-strokes all the time, so often that they just became routine, and too often I forget how nasty they usually are. Glad to hear your dad is recovering well!

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    • Yeah, it’s not bad. Ever the optimist, I had 2 more vehicles queued up though, as well as some more monster-types and some more 40k hero-types. Strokes are one of those things that can be very variable in their effects. Long-term, even though he’s got full use again, he’s unlikely to be as strong as he was in his arm again. Which is pretty shitty.

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  4. Aw, man, I am sorry to hear about your Christmas — although it’s good to know your Dad seems to be on the mend. I’ve had more experiences with strokes in my own family than I would have liked, so I can definitely understand what a taxing, draining experience it can be for the family. Wishing you and your family all the best, of course! Still, that little bit about having Christmas dinner in a hospital courtyard was also ever so slightly heartwarming to read 🙂

    Moving on to your models, though, it’s almost insulting how, in spite of everything, you have still managed to paint just about as many models in December as I have painted for the entire year of 2018 — and to such a high quality, no less. Another wonderful little collection.

    Please keep up the fantastic work for 2019! Your work is always inspiring, and your hobby challenges have made this blog into a pillar of the blogging community for me, and in times that can occasionally feel like the end times of böogging.

    Also, your blog got featured here, which I hope you’ll appreciate:

    The 2018 Eternal Hunt Awards, pt. 1: The Hobbyists

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    • Thank you, KS. Christmas could have very easily have been much worse, so I’m trying to look at it in that context. He really enjoyed the BBQ as well, which was good to see. 🙂 (as did I!)

      I did read your awards post, though I was on my phone in transit at the time so I didn’t want to leave a like without a comment until I got back to it again on my PC, for fear of being scolded! 😉 I do really appreciate the mentions in both of those posts, though. Certainly day-brighteners to be mentioned alongside some of the others in there!

      Those Marines were close to being done for months. It just took that last hard run at them to get all those fiddly details (and final assembly of the dry-fitted bits) sorted out and completed. I’ve got more Minotaurs that have been sitting for equally long (or longer?) on the table, but I think the’ll continue to be neglected through January as I’ve got some much bigger fish to attempt to fry this month.

      Also, the numbers are easy to massage with scatter terrain – I’m hoping to get more models completed in the next few months, though again it’s nice to knock some easy wins out, and with terrain being a feature of this month, expect to see some more scattery-bits. 🙂

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  5. That is quite a blow dealt in December! Glad to hear that your Dad is as tough as you though. Is BBQ his fave meal? I don’t think I’ve ever had anyone bring me BBQ to the hospital. Sounds pretty awesome!

    Minis-wise, well you always floor me with how much you can get done. Even with setbacks and busy times at work. Amazing, man! I know there are lots of cool minis in that lot, but my eyes keep checking out the treasure piles. The chests, the barrels, all those coins. It really just looks amazing. Like something I always wish I had back when we were playing D&D. I can only imagine the look on the players faces as they enter a room with a treasure hoard like that! Great work, and looking forward to seeing your other stuff once you get time.

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    • Pasta, beef schnitzel, BBQ – and also a lot of simpler and traditional italian foods. He’s got a broad bean & veggie soup with pasta noodles that he makes and is very proud of. We (and his sister) tend to bring him the meatier stuff and the stuff that takes more prep, though.

      The treasure piles were pretty straightforward – which is why and how they got painted.

      When I got my Terrain crate pledge, I went through all the themed boxes and re-sorted them into stuff that would paint up easily, stuff that would take a lot of work, stuff that was garbage, and stuff that would be reasonably easy if only it wasn’t so badly warped. So far, I’ve only been dipping into that first category…

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  7. Glad to hear things are improved with your old man mate – sounds like he’s doing all the right stuff with all the right support. Unbelievable haul of minis – even in the midst of all that!

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  8. I know I’m just echoing everyone else’s thoughts but it seems seems s little heartless not to mention it even if you have already read it 5 times. Sorry to hear it’s been a bit rough but I’m glad you were all there to support each other, sounds like things have panned out ok.

    I feel for your life eating into your hobby time… But something reeling in my sympathy is the absurd rate you have painted models in spite of all of this. i painted 12 models in the 3 months up to Christmas. I’m going to try and up the production this year but I don’t even dream of touching your numbers. I’m going to aim for 52 this year. Nice job on your December lot, looking forward to the verity of posts you have yet to come and I hope when you read this everything is back to “Normal” (whatever that means)

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    • Thanks mate – I think it’s all been about as good as it can be so far. I’d have preferred that they got him a bed in the rehab unit to show him some new options, but aside from that the hospital staff were very good.
      With my painting numbers, the key is that it’s all finished stuff. A lot of it this year has also been scatter terrain – basically stuff that paints up real quick that you can do while you’re waiting for the wash to dry or the greenstuff to cure, or the basecoats to dry, and so on. Units are just something that slowly move up in the background, then get to a point where a couple of hours will (should!) complete them.
      At the same time, I haven’t built let alone completed anything on the scale of an Imperial Knight!

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    • Thank you mate. Here’s to hoping that he continues to do well – and that I get a couple of those painfully-delayed projects done this January as well – I can think of four that really need to be bloody finished. One of them still needs to be started…

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  11. Everyone else has said what I’ve thought way more eloquently than I could put it! But on the mini front, I maybe should point out, once again, that you’re not allowed to count that carnivorous plant in the total ’cause we all know it’s real!

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    • Ah shit. You’ve just reminded me that I still need to complete the bigger brother version of those bloody plants! It’s kinda-sorta scenery as well, so I might bump it near the top of this month’s queue to get it done…

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  13. That’s a cracking haul of models you managed there. Looking at them I’m realising there were quite a few that I meant to comment on but didn’t get around to so if I don’t manage it consider them praised in no uncertain terms.

    I absolutely understand and sympathise about your dad, my old man has just spent his second Christmas in a row in hospital and even though I wasn’t able to be with him this year I totally understand how worrying and taxing it is. Take care of yourself, commenting on blogs and putting up community round-ups doesn’t matter, looking after yourself so you can be there for your family is what’s important.

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    • Cheers, Wudugast! No hassle – I know all about being behind. You’re a bloke who just keeps bloody posting new stuff faster than I can re-catch-up.
      Hope your dad does well and improves from his ailments. I do feel a bit of responsibility-pressure to get the community round-ups done, as I know a lot of people are motivated by the challenges these days and look forward to them as a showcase where they can see their and others’ stuff. Not that people aren’t cool about it when things come up (and people can hardly bitch about my dad having a stroke, after all), but I do like to get them done before the middle of the month when possible! 😡

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