Yep yep, nice and late as usual. Held up this time by my wanting to get the other Marvel United chibi figures finished so I could showcase Groot with Rocket and have all Four of the Fantastics together, but regardless of being a couple of weeks late, it’s still going up!

Not a bad month, all things considered. Not exactly super-focused on any single project, but I got a few niggling sub-projects completed – the last of The Winter Guard for Marvel Crisis Protocol, a set of five Ork Nobz that have been outstanding for several years, (all but one of) the last of the Drizzt Boxed Game models, and then I finally got to paint some more Beastmen while continuing to chip away at the Cthulhu: Death May Die Investigators at a reasonable rate.

Then beyond that, there’s the first of the Marvel United Chibi-style figures. As I’ve mentioned, they’re not typically something I like or my style of things I enjoy painting, but given the fact that the game is really quite enjoyable and themeatic for a light game, I’m happy with trying to get a couple of these done each month. I can’t see them becoming a huge focus for my painting time, though!

By my count, that’s 31 models completed in April. I’m pretty satisfied with that given that there’s no real filler in there. I was up to 87 at the end of March, so that gives me 118 as of the end of April. As far as May goes.. well, I’m typing this on the night of the 17th, and I don’t have 17 models completed this month…

And now the Check-In on how I’m going on the many goals I set for myself at the start of the year as we’re now more than 1/3 of the way through 2023…

• Paint all of the remaining Models from Zombicide 1st Edition – all expansions, all add-ons. This one is a big call, so I’m going to break it up into smaller sub-goals that are more achievable.
• Finish painting all of the alreadly-opened Survivors from Zombicide. (I know which ones I mean!) – I’ll reset this one to the primed ones in the tub right now.
• Nope. Not a single one done so far. Haven’t been playing Zombicide really this year, so that certainly hurts the motivation.

• Finish painting all the Zombie Dogz from Zombicide. Setting this for January and (spoiler alert) I got it done.
• COMPLETED.

• Paint all of the Toxic Zombies from Zombicide Toxic City Mall. 
• Started. I have been slowly preparing the fatties and runners by cleaning up the mould lines and I just finished that a few days ago, so they now need to be primed and then can be painted.

• Paint all of the Skinner Zombies from Zombicide Rue Morgue. 
• Nope. They come after the Toxics.

• Paint all of the Seeker Zombies from Zombicide Angry Neighbours. 
• Nope. They also come after the Toxics.

• Paint all of the remaining Guest Artist Boxes from Zombicide Seasons 1-3
• Nope. Gotta finish the opened, primed ones first.

• 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. Carried over from 2022.
• Nope. Haven’t played this game in a long time, and likely to be behind Zombicide unless I manage to get motivated to smash them out one weekend…

• Try and paint all of the remaining monster models from the Dungeons & Dragons Legend of Drizzt boardgame. (Adventurers or Proxy Adventurers optional) Carried over from 2021-22.
• COMPLETED – Now working on “Stretch Goals” for this in the form of improved models for some of the heroes.

• Paint an entire boardgame that’s not specifically mentioned here.
• Started. I’ve been working on Cthulhu: Death May Die investigators as well as the odd extra D&D Boardgame minis.

• Paint some boardgame expansions that are not specifcically mentioned here – big ones, small ones, doesn’t matter – and the more the merrier!
• Nope. Uh… we’ll see about this one.

• 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’m going to specificlaly name and sub-goal some. Maybe the specific accountability will remind/prompt/motivate me for that sweet dopamine rush of completion a few times?
• Finish the Squad of Primaris Minotaurs
• Paint the Minotaurs Shield-Captain
• Finish the Squad of 2nd-3rd Edition Iron Warrior Berserkers
• Finish the Squad of RT-Era Ultramarines
• Finish the Mob of RT-Era Orks – Started. I haven’t finished any of them yet, but I’ve done some chipping away at these.
• Finish the Mob of Plastic Boyz – Started. I haven’t finished any of them yet, but I’ve done some chipping away at these.
• Finish the Mob of AoBR Nobz – COMPLETED
• Finish the Mob of Killa Kanz
• Finish the Minotaurs Redemptor Dreanought
• Finish my Orc and Khemri Blood Bowl Teams that have been WIP/Semi-complete since the 1990’s/2000’s. Then I can either move onto more of the classic models, or delve into some of the “new” teams. (from 2016+)

• Sort out a couple of cars finally for Gaslands. Recycled again from 2021.
• Nope.

• I’d like to get at least one of my much larger terrain pieces or projects done (tile sets, castles, etc) by year’s end, even if it crosses over the next summer break into 2024.
• Started. I’ve got a bunch of tiles complete, but still have a bunch more to finish.

• Paint 2-4 Warhammer Underworlds warbands, so I can finally start playing the game. I’ll keep this one wholesale from 2021-2.
• Started. I haven’t finished any of them yet, but I’ve done some chipping away at these.

• Do something with/for War Cry. I’ll keep this one wholesale from 2021-22.
• Nope.

• Actually PLAY some Blood Bowl and/or Blitz Bowl, small-scale 40k, Kings of War, War Cry, Combat Patrol, Middle-Earth SBG, Kill-Team, Gaslands, Tanks!, Flames of War, Team Yankee. I have lots of small-scale and skirmish games. It’d be nice to play some of them. Yep, Play More Miniatures Games and Board Games. I’ll keep this one again from 2021-22
• Nope.

• Finish my 15mm DAK force for Flames of War. Sadly, I didn’t quite get this one one, but it’s something achievable for 2023.
• Nope. The infantry should only take a weekend or so, but like so many things on this list, I need to choose these on a weekend instead of one of the many other things on this same list…

• Finish my 15mm British 8th Army force for Flames of War. There’s a lot more work in this one than finishing the DAK. Also a big difference betwene properly playable and finished.
• Nope. Want to finish the Germans first.

• Start (or hopefully finish) one of the four other Mid-War forces for Flames of War that I’m wanting to get done. This will be tricky, I already have a lot on this list, but it would be nice to finish an additional force.
• Nope. After the 8th Aremy.

• Review all of the 15mm scenery I’ve picked up. This is good “filler” content for when I’m keen to get blog posts up but not in a painting mood. Obviously it’s going to play second fiddle to painting as much as possible, so we’ll see how this one goes.
• Nope. It requires more mental energy than I seem to have available.

• Weather/repaint all of the 15mm scenery I’ve picked up. Again, it makes great content for when I’m not getting all that much painted, but it still requires time to concentrate on typing blog posts.
• Nope. These can be chipped away at with the above goal.

• Try to review some more of the other hobby-adjacent stuff I have – Art books, Helmets, Video Games. I’ll keep this one. It’s enjoyable to do something different, but time is as always the issue.
• Nope. Low priority for my available time.

• Complete those winged models (I know which ones I mean!) I may even be able to get this one done in 2023…
• Nope. Low priority, really.

• Start and finish those Dwarves with the chains and the hammerheads (I know which ones I mean) I still can’t find them, which really sucks.
• Nope. Still can’t find them.

• Finish those three bits of scenery still sitting in The Tray. They’re for two different games, but they need to be focused on and finished.
• Nope. Need to just force myself to finish these.

• Paint some more Beastmen…
• DONE. I’m not writing “Complete” here because I want to do more of them…
  …and some Chaos Dwarves…
  …and a few more regular Dwarves, including Slayers.

• Get enough Marvel Crisis Protocol models done to actually have a game.
• COMPLETE. Technically I have completed enough models, but I want to
  …and actually have a game.

• Finish painting the entirety of the Marvel Crisis Protocol Starter Box.
• TWO. MODELS. LEFT. TO. GO…

• Get as many of my part-painted models completed as I can. This really ties in strongly with so much of what’s already written above. I’ll keep this one from previous years since it’s really about contnuing to reduce a very specific set of models that are sitting around without adding too many more to their number.
• Somewhat. Always slowly chipping away at this via the above goals.
• In non-gaming goals, Relearn my exercise and Gym habits.
• Somewhat, but not very well. I’ve picked up a couple of extra nggling injuries this year that have prevented me from diving into this the way I want to…