September! A pretty productive month for getting models completed. As always, a lot of the work was started in previous months (or years) and in this particular September I did spend a lot of time polishing and completing models started for Dave Stone’s Season of Scenery Challenge, as well as just getting stuff done that I’d hoped to get done for that challenge, so a pretty strong tail while I was still heavily in terrain mode. I did at least make sure to not double-count any of them in both months for my own totals!

While putting this post together, I’ve realised that I didn’t photograph or post the Zombicide Berserker Runners that I got done. So.. look forward to that, I guess!

Looking at the images here as I type, there’s reallly relatively few models here that aren’t terrain or almost-terrain (I’m looking at you, moose family!), and in fact the only models here that aren’t are effectively boardgame NPCs/mobs – Spiders from Journeys in Middle-Earth, and Berserker Runner Zombies from Zombicide: Prison Outbreak. I guess it really points out to me that I need to focus a bit more on “player-driven” models, though I’m in so way unhappy with the stuff I completed in September, and still have a LOT of Zombies of many flavours to paint my way through.

And naturally, after taking the photos, “bumping out” the setup and putting the models away into their new homes I looked over at the WarCry gates and that barricade – and realised that they were also September graduates of the School of Paint, and so just took an addendum picture for them.

Time for numbers! Now, there’s a bunch of terrain in here that I finished for Dave’s aforementioned Challenge, but held off on conting for my own August as I continued weathering them afterwards, once my Dirty Down Moss Effect paint arrived – but it’s just a matter of cross-over models that’s a fairly common thing. Let’s see what I managed to complete in September:

12 Spiky WarCry Bridges plus 2 shorter “plank” WarCry bridges.

16 Archon Bridges and Bridge Sections – Wood, Stone, Sci-Fi.

2 Warhammer Underworlds Beastgrave Primal Lair terrain pieces.

4 Control Panels from the 40k/Necromunda sets.

2 Barricades from Zombicide (need to check which set still!)

2 Endless Spells – the Spiders and the Gears.

6 Journeys in Middle-Earth Spiders

12 Archon Kickstarter Stretch Goal Extra bits of Terrain

10 Berserker Zombie Runners from Zombicide

3 Moose from Bad Squiddo Games

6 Skull-tastic Gates from WarCry Catacombs

1 resin barricade from HQ Resin

That’s… 76 models. Not too bad! Shows what can be done when a bunch of stuff is almost-done the month before, a week off work and most of the work is actually pretty simple to paint or execute! I’m still pretty happy with that haul, though – and no mistake! I had an even 300 complete at the end of August, so this brings me to 376 – surpassing my “soft target” of 365 models for the year. Now if I can get those 15mm DAK infantry done, I’ll certainly crack the 500 mark!

Time now for the reflective bit and see how I’m going with my Hobby Goals as decided on back in January…

So here we go…

• Finish painting all the previously-opened Survivors from Zombicide. (I know which ones I mean!)
  Started, and while good progress was made earlier, I really haven’t worked on them at all over the last few months. I also ended up adding a few extras to that pile, so it’s in that nebulous space of probably being possible, but less likely.

• 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! Aside from the two spin-off games that I still haven’t opened, and 2nd edition – but those were never intended here. I’ve painted all of the regular runners (until M found 10 more unpainted ones in a box!), and am now well on the way to potentially getting all of the Berserkers done, including extras ones from various sources.

• 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 could make them a weekened project or something as they’re very similar to the Zombicide models but I don’t have to paint Zombvivors as well. I’ll either mix at some of them in with the Zombicide survivors or perhaps I’ll just hold off on them until I complete all fo the Zombicide survivors that I have out and primed? Dunno. They’re still in the queue, but when you’re painting and/or using the Zombicide survivors in games and not these ones, it’s a harder internal sell…

• 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. Uninspiring models that aren’t rerally being used anyway aren’t the easiest ones to get to the front of the queue.

• 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 fair few Journeys in Middle-Earth models as well as a few models from World of Warcraft Wrath of the Lich King Pandemic, but realy my boardgame focus is on Zombicide now, and if I’m being strict about the precise makeup of each box, it’s not going to happen in 2022, though 2023 coul dbe a very diffeent story for those 1st Edition Zombicide sets…

• 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. A Dreadnought for Dreadtober perhaps?

• 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. I still need to get onto either the Orcs or Khemri. I’d say there’s a passable chance of this happening this year.

• 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. Being honest, it’s not gonna happen in 2022.

• 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 built two large kits, and it’s entirely possible that I will finish at least one of them this year, weather permitting. The other is a possibility for the Christmas holiday break from work, as are some of the tiles that have been sitting here forever…

• Paint 2-4 Warhammer Underworlds warbands, so I can finally start playing the game. I’ll keep this one wholesale from 2021.
  Started. I’ve got two of these warbands on my desk. I’ve worked on them and may even get them done before the year’s end.

• 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, so no change to this one….

• 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 been working on some of the terrain, but learning the rules and actually playing it seem like a bridge too far since October-December are usually an insane sprint to the finish at work.

• 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. So.. yeah.. No real change here since the last update.

• Finish my 15mm DAK force for Flames of War
  Started. Slow progress, but I’ve got most (all?) of the vehicles done (and have picked some of the few that I was msising). The last infantry specialists are ready to paint, which still leaves the field guns.

• Finish my 15mm British 8th Army force for Flames of War.
  Started. This has really stalled out. I still need to paint the Valentines and a few other things, but the Germans still 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. I’ve started working on Grey-armoured, Eastern Front Germans.

• 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 we’ll see what happens later. There’s too much to think it’ll ALL be done in 2022, though.

• 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. 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 – this is still pretty accurate. If the endless winter ever ends, I might get motivated enough to properly start exercising again but we can still only have like a day and a half without rain in any given week…

• 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 still only a couple of these goals fully completed, but I’ve gotten something done on quite a lot of them. I really haven’t changed any of them to green from amber in this past quarter, but there is still some hope for a few of them. There are of course WAY too many goals for me to realistically complete in any given year which is a given, and of course goals change over the 12 months of a year. This is the time when I really look more closely and can start to basically cross a bunch of them off as simply not gonna happen this year.