Another somewhat late Monthly Round-Up again – It would have been on time if I hadn’t gotten sick in June, and so I’ve been doing the daily posts rather than every two days in order to catch back up. I’ll be going back to the usual update schedule of (ideally) every two days from here on – but it’ll depend on how often I can get new models completed.

The month’s models were pretty obviously dominated by models from the Zombicide series of games, with a mix of models from the Core/Expansion boxes and a lot of their promo models, “inspired” by pop culture characters and personalities.

No Flames of War stuff finished either in June, unfortunately, though I hope to rectify that somewhat in July. Even Citadel only poked in a tiny five models, with the Squad AdMech, a trio of Last Chancers and the classic Minotaur.

The upside of all of the models I got painted in June was the fact that they were all individuals (or, well, duos of individuals, given the Zombie doppelgangers) – This did mean I got to paint a nice variety of outfits and use a wider than usual variety of colours and overall palettes across all these models.

When it comes to the final numbers, I didn’t manage to get the target of 30 models for the month completed, though that’s pretty clearly due to illness, and I think the 27 I did complete were all pretty solid with no super simple scatter terrain-type filler – so certainly close enough to the target number and most importantly, an enjoyable month of painting. Adding this 27 to the previous 179 models for 2022, I’ve got 206 completed in total against July 30 being the 181th day of the year. So all good so far, though naturally I’d like to get more painted – as I’m sure we all would love to!

So along with my June Round-up, I’m also going to take the time to use the halfway point of the year to look at how I’ve done on my painting goals for the year. When I set these up it is of coursse rather ..optimistic. The way I see it is that each of these goals are quite achievable, though I’m under no delusion that getting them all done is actually going to be achievable. Still, keeping an eye on when I’d planned to do is a good way to refocus if I need to, so it’s not just a matter of set (in January) and forget (almost immediately), only to find that I achieved almost none of them…

So here we go…

• Finish painting all the previously-opened Survivors from Zombicide. (I know which ones I mean!)
  Started, and good progress made at this point. The last month’s push has really helped out a lot, and I have about a dozen or fewer left (and that’s having added a couple to this pot). If I’m still feeling it once they’re done, I’ll push on and keep opening more boxes of survivors (which is nice, since they’re player characters)…

• Paint all of the Fatties from Zombicide. The sheer number of regular walkers might make them a bit too much of a tall order. We’ll see….
  DONE! Well, not counting the spin-off games and 2nd edition, but I wasn’t counting those to be fair. I’ve got a dozen Runners primed and close to starting, so I’m in Stretch Goal Territory for this particular painting goal.. I did just purchase a box of Berserkers that has a couple of extra Fatties (having one of them go missing always bothered me a bit), so I’ll have to go back and mop those up so I can still claim this one.

• Finish painting all of my Last Night On Earth Models. At this point, it’s just a bunch of hero models. If I want to “stretch goal” this, I can move onto the stuff from LNoE’s sister game – Invasion from Outer Space. I’ll keep this one wholesale from 2021.
  Nope. Still haven’t touched these. I should make them a weekened project or something. They’re very similar to the Zombicide models but I don’t have to paint Zombvivors as well. I’ll probably mix at least some of them in with the Zombicide models if I can keep this survivor train going. I did open an expansion box that has another bunch of them though…

• Try and finish the last models from that Drizzt D&D boardgame. Anything past that, I’ll call gravy. Also – heroes are non-mandatory since their quality varies widly and I can often sub in better models from GW or Reaper.
  Nope. Still got the uninspiring Drow models to go. I did finish some more of the D&D heroes in the first quarter, but haven’t done more than think about this one.

• Similarly, it was pretty satisfying to finish all of the models from the core LNoE box, so I may try to do another boardgame or two completely. Less likely to be one of those huge CMoN monstrosities, but I have some more, sanely-scaled board games like Doom and Gears that could be contenders. I’ll keep this one wholesale from 2021. Any boardgame will work, though.
  Started. I’ve painted a few Journeys in Middle-Earth models, but haven’t done much on these in the last couple of months. I also started on a few models from World of Warcraft Wrath of the Lich King Pandemic, though only focusing on a few of those to start with – it’s a fun board game with a nice, small model count. (and they really don’t need to be painted, but… you know.

• Keep plugging away at my Marine and Chaos Marine “Combat Patrols” of 2 squads + hero, vehicle and Dreadnought – as well as adding to the forces that are past that point. I’d make a list of factions for this, as I have in the past, but there’s really no point. I’ll keep this one wholesale from 2021.
  Nope. Nada done here yet. I had gotten some models out and ready to work on, but getting sick in June derailed my speed and ability to paint properly, so they got put back away. Hopefully I can get them back out again soon.

• Finish my Orc and Chaos Dwarf Blood Bowl Teams that have been WIP/Semi-complete since the 1990’s. Then I can either move onto more of the classic models, or delve into some of the “new” teams. (from 2016+) Actually, I also have that custom Tomb Kings team I started that needs to be completed…. I’ve been thinking very specifically about these models lately, so I’ll keep this one wholesale from 2021.
  Started. Chaos Dwarfs done and complete since I just found and updated that old-school Minotaur. Once I finish some other stuff and clear some space, I’ll start working on completion of either the Orcs or Khemri. Orcs were my first “proper” team, but Marouda likes Undead and Egyptians, so….

• Sort out a couple of cars finally for Gaslands. As I mentioned, having lots of spare 15mm weapons should make this doable now, so I’ll keep this one wholesale from 2021.
  Nope. Nothing done here yet.

• if the world still exists at the end of next year, I’d like to get started on at least one of my much larger terrain projects done (tile sets, castles, etc) by year’s end, even if it crosses over the summer break into 2023.
  Started. I’ve started building a large terrain kit, thogh it’s required a fair bit of sprue goo to fill in gaps, and don’t even get me started on the Prodos kits….  I can’t see myself working on Castles in mid-winter, but we’ll see how I go at the end of the year.

• Paint 2-4 Warhammer Underworlds warbands, so I can finally start playing the game. I’ll keep this one wholesale from 2021.
  Started, kinda. I’ve got two of these warbands on my desk. I’ve even thought about painting them more than once.

• Get as many of my part-painted models completed. Which really ties in strongly with so much of what’s already written above. I’ll keep this one wholesale from 2021 since it’s about reducing a very specific set of models that are sitting around.
  I’ve been chipping away at these, as always….

• Do something with/for War Cry. I’ll keep this one wholesale from 2021.
  Started. My beastmen (and Minotaur!) do seem to have morphed into a simple warband at this stage so far. I’ve also gotten some good ideas from others beyond the basic, as well.

• Actually PLAY some Blood Bowl and/or Blitz Bowl. May as well throw small-scale 40k and getting some Kings of War, War Cry, Combat Patrol, Middle-Earth SBG, Kill-Team, Gaslands, etc going here as well. I have lots of small-scale and skirmish games. It’d be nice to play some of them. Yep, Play More Games. I’ll keep this one wholesale from 2021, but we’ll obviously add Flames of War in here as well!
  Started. We’ve played a few boardgames. I opened up Blitz Bowl and was confronted by sprues that made me just put everything back in the box. We still need to continue clearing the rest of the table in the War Room of junk, and I’m still very keen to (somehow) clear the other half so we can play wargames as well as board games. Probably would have happened somewhat in the last week or three since we started cleaning up again before I got sick, but I got sick instead…

• Finish my 15mm DAK force for Flames of War
  Started. Slow progress, but I’ve got most (all?) of the vehicles done (except for a few that I don’t yet own). I’ve been assembling the last infantry specialists recently and still need to do the field guns.

• Finish my 15mm British 8th Army force for Flames of War.
  Started. Very little done. Have plans to complete a trio of reinforcement tanks for one of the existing units in the next week or two, then it’s onto painting My Bloody Valentines, but the Germans have the 15mm priority for the time being.

• Start (hopefully finish) the four other Mid-War forces for Flames of War that I’m wanting to get done.
  Started. Well, I have some armour spray base coated, anyway…

• Review all of the 15mm scenery I’ve picked up.
  Weather/repaint all of the 15mm scenery I’ve picked up.
  Started. I’ve done a fair few reviews and caught up on some more recently, but there’s a lot more I haven’t even looked at. I haven’t weathered anything in awhile now, but maybe as part of the Season of Scenery I might get around to doing a few more pieces.

• Try to review some more of the other hobby-adjacent stuff I have – Art books, Helmets, Video Games.
  Nope. Haven’t even thought about this one.

• Complete those winged models (I know which ones I mean!)
  Nope. Hoped to have done these by now, but it didn’t happen yet. I did locate the missing ones, though!

• Start and finish those Dwarves with the chains and the hammerheads (I know which ones I mean)
  Nope. I looked for those but couldn’t find them. One day I’ll find them..?

• Finish those three bits of scenery still sitting in The Tray – and the two WHU sets.
  Nope. Still have these to do. Hopefuly I can use Season of Scenery as motivation. Already referenced the WHU models above.

• Paint some more Beastmen…
  …and some Chaos Dwarves…
  …and a few more regular Dwarves, including Slayers.
  Started. Well, I did some beastmen and a Minotaur, and then I got some more beastmen ready to work on…. nothing yet on either type of Dwarf, though.

• Get enough Marvel Crisis Protocol models done to actually have a game.
  …and actually have a game.
  Started. I wanted to modify this one to be “complete at least one MCP model per month but haven’t done anything on the three that are on the desk in quite some time now…

• In non-gaming goals, I’ve been off crutches for four days now so I’m keen to get back to the Gym and Pool again, and I’ll also be trying not to die.
  Started. But then stopped. Being exhausted from a brutal couple of months at work, adult babysitting and the weather turning foul and subsequently getting sick haven’t helped at all…

• Something I forgot to add to my initial goal-writing was to post some more painting turorials. I’ve actually gotten one done this year, though there are also a few more I’d like to do at some stage.
  DONE! I’m calling that DAK armour tutorial a win right there, even if I don’t get a second one done in 2022…

So there’s only a couple of these goals fully completed, but I’ve gotten something done on quite a lot of them. There are of course WAY too many goals for me to realistically complete in any given year – though that’s kind of the point in having so many – to give me plenty of options I can work toward with almost everything I work on.