Quick update: I picked up my copy of Skaventide, which I am splitting with a friend (he's taking the Skaven and the Spearhead stuff, I'm keeping the Stormcast and the rulebook and GHB cards). Over the course of the last couple of days, I did get the whole Stormcast half assembled:

These models will be fun to paint, if I ever get around to them! I'm planning to do the Ruination Chamber guys' gold armor to look a little colder, which I might be able to achieve by shading them with Nuln Oil rather than the Reikland Fleshshade I usually use for a warm gold.

For those who are curious, I have gotten a couple of colors on my Tomb King on foot. No pics yet though, and I have yet to start on Ionus Cryptborn. I primed him by hand, after having a mishap trying to spray prime in this hot weather (a bunch of models I tried to prime, including the Tomb King that I'm painting, ended up a bit chalky ).

Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend, and I'll hopefully have more to share soon.

Oof. I live in dread of bad primes. I’ve only had a couple of them over the years, but one of them stalled out my eldar for years.

Egads, that's a bit of building, there. For getting a colder gold, you can also try shading with Drakenhof Nightshade. As far as the bad prime goes, first, condolences, second, I have heard that a coat of varnish can help. I haven't tried it, myself, but it could be worth looking into. On one mini, of course.

@Nev: In the words of Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation: that's rough, buddy. I'll try not to let it kill my motivation too hard.

@YWS: Yeah, my fingers were sore from pushing stuff together, just like they were when I put Leviathan together. I might try the Drakenhof Nightshade, that sounds like a good idea for cold gold. As for the varnish on the chalky models, I might give it a try. I don't own any spray gloss varnish (never bothered with it despite many saying they use it on finished models to protect the paint), but maybe brush on matt varnish might work?

Time for a quick update on my Tomb King. I've gotten most of the base colors down on him, but I'm not sure how I should approach his skin (unlike the rank and file, the leadership of the Tomb Kings still have some flesh on their bones). I'll need to figure out something that'll look okay. Here's a WIP shot of where I've gotten to with him:

Sorry for the blurry photo, but as you can see he's starting to take shape. Mostly all contrast paint too, and the chalky prime isn't totally ruining things (but it's not helping matters any either). Naturally I'm figuring on a desert base scheme for my Tomb Kings, which shouldn't be too difficult.

Last night I fired up the 3D printer and managed to successfully print myself some Tomb Guard proxies from Highlands Miniatures:

These guys will do the job nicely. I subscribed to Highlands' patreon (might cancel soon as I only wanted this month since it was Tomb Kings stuff), and so for this month I got not only Tomb Guard with Halberds, but also full command (as seen here), Tomb Guard with hand weapons, 3 different Ushabti sculpts each with bows and hand weapons, 2 Tomb Swarms, a Screaming Skull Catapult, a Necrolith Colossus, and a couple of characters, plus some Tomb Guard chariot crew (to run the special Tomb Guard Chariots unit for the special Royal Guard army). The sculpts are all really cool and the models shown here printed nice and easily with no fails (one of them broke when I was removing the supports but that's probably my fault and I got it glued back together).

I really need to get started on Ionus Cryptborn soon. Got a basecoat done on the stonework on his base, but that's it so far. I should easily finish the Tomb King this month, and maybe, just maybe, the weather will be nice to me and I can get stuff primed. Until next time, stay classy everyone!

I've often wondered about their not-Empire range myself. Will be interested to see your TG painted up.

@Cap'n Facebeard: Welcome to the blog, friend! Highlands does a lot of good proxies for various Old World stuff, you should definitely consider them if you wanted to start an Old World army.

I finally finished the Tomb King (took me long enough to do one infantry figure, huh?). Nothing super exciting but here are the photos:



Army Painter Speedpaints were used for the majority of the model, although I did use some GW washes and metallics as well. Not sure how I feel about the Speedpaints metallics; they don't really get the "contrast" effect quite right IMO. Further testing on a model I didn't botch the primer on may be required. Overall I think I did okay, especially given the aforementioned bad primer job. Nothing super fancy and I definitely should have given some of the blues a second pass or something, but...eh. The model looks good from typical tabletop distance, so I'm happy to call it done. One new product (new to me, that is) I tried was the basing material, that being Monument Hobbies' Pro Acryl Golden Earth, which is basically like GW's Texture paints, but in a great color for desert sand. I'm definitely sold on it for use on all of my Tomb Kings bases, but I might grab some of their other texture colors as well considering they only cost about 15 bucks for a 120ml tub of the stuff (compare that to GW/Citadel's texture paints, which cost like 7-8 dollars for only 24ml, so 2.5x the unit price).

And now for something completely different. With the new edition for AoS now upon us, I decided to start putting paint on my Kruleboyz in earnest, starting with the contents of their Spearhead (I didn't buy the Spearhead box, but I have everything in it already). I've mainly been working on the Gutrippaz and they are nearly done, as can be seen in this pic:

Just a few details left to do plus some nice swampy bases. The only thing I'm just not sure about is the bright green skin, but honestly it contrasts okay with the drab colors of their clothing. I would add some brown shade to it to make them look dirty, but I wouldn't be able to readily fix it if I mess that up so I think I'll leave it be. These guys are perfect for painting with Speedpaints/Contrast. You may notice that I painted some of the base rims already; this is because I got way too much black paint out when I was doing the Tomb King's base rim and didn't want to waste the paint.

I started working on all the other models from the spearhead too, but didn't get nearly as far on those (I was bored one evening and decided to do as much as I could on all of them). Here's where they are at:

These models were also victims of the same bad primer job that messed up the Tomb King. Thankfully the Gutrippaz had been primed previously and so weren't affected. Lots more to do on these guys, as the focus recently has mainly been the Gutrippaz.

Next month's challenge theme is Beep Boop, and I think I'm going to keep it real simple and do the Iron Hands guy from Deathwatch Kill Team Cassius. I painted the jump pack guys from the squad back in like 2016 and haven't touched the rest of them since, so it'll be nice to get another one of them out of the pile of shame. At this point the models are for display only, as Deathwatch aren't an army anymore once Codex: Imperial Agents comes out. I'm sticking to one relatively easy model because I need to get Ionus Cryptborn done for the Centerpiece challenge. Only one month left to do him up, and I really haven't started yet. Maybe I better get on that, huh?

That TK model (is he a Tomb King or a Priest? I don't have that one in my little collection...). I like your take on the mummified skin.

TK came out looking quite cool. I like the swarm he's throwing out. New orcs seem to have come together quick. That's always nice

@Josh: The model is the Tomb King on foot that you get in the Necrosphinx kit if you build it as a Necrosphinx; the kit can also be built as a Tomb King on Khemrian Warsphinx. For the mummified skin, I just used Army Painter Speedpaints Brownish Decay, and it worked really well if I do say so myself. I'll probably use it on other mummified models for my Tomb Kings.

@YWS: Thank you! I'm a fan of the scarab swarm as well. As for the Kruleboyz, I'll just say that I love Contrast/Speedpaints for models like that. If I really could concentrate for long enough, I could probably knock out a unit like that in an afternoon, from bare primer to finished models except for the bases (which take time to dry).

Well, unfortunately I've let almost another whole month go by without updating my blog . I've really got to stop doing that, as it helps my motivation to stay posting regularly. I haven't done enough painting though, and so haven't had a whole lot of hobby progress to show, but then maybe what I've got is a vicious cycle where the less I paint, the less I blog, and the less I blog, the less I paint, and so on. I have, however, gotten some stuff done. Mainly, I've finished the Gutrippaz that I was working on. Here are the final pics of those:



I'm actually pretty proud of these guys, considering how much of a quick and dirty paintjob I gave them. My only real regret is not doing more water on their bases, as that's what really sells the whole swamp theme. The skin is almost a radioactive green, but honestly I like it; I'm not as big a fan of the more pale skin GW has been putting on the studio Orks and Orruks lately. Greenskinz iz suppozed ta be GREEN, ya zoggerz! I do also wonder if I should have put more blood on the weapons, but I didn't want to overdo it. I do enjoy any opportunity to use my Blood for the Blood God technical paint though; it's somehow satisfying to make models look like they've been doing some wet work recently.

As far as other painting goes, I managed to misplace my entry for the Beep Boop challenge. I have since found the model again, but at this point I'm not sure there's time to paint it, so I may just skip it and do something else in the meantime. As for my entry for the Centerpiece challenge, I have been doing some work on Ionus Cryptborn, but I seriously doubt he'll be ready in time as I've just kind of hit a wall with him. Here's where I've gotten to so far on him:

The red on his skin and scales is done, and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I've also blocked in most of the colors on the base and even added some texture paint. There'll be plenty of water on it as well once I get to it. I haven't even touched the rider yet, and I'm stuck on doing the underside of the wings, as I want them to look good but I'm not sure how much shading to apply. I'm overthinking it of course, I should just add a liberal wash and then brighten it back up with some of the original color and then add some highlights with something brighter, but...eh. Even if I miss the challenge deadline, I do want to finish the model as it's really cool and I might actually display it with some of my other favorite models on the shelf in my living room.

I managed to find myself a set of the Kruleboyz Monsta Killaz Warcry warband and got them put together. I don't intend to ever play Warcry, but these guys have good rules for AoS and the models are amazing. Here they are in their gray plastic glory:

I really like all the dynamic poses on these models, and they'll be a joy to paint.

I also picked up some reinforcements for Hive Fleet Kukulkan, namely a Lictor and a couple of boxes of Tyranid Warriors that I built with the melee weapons:

I'm leaning more toward the Vanguard Onslaught detachment for my Tyranids collection currently, and these guys will help. Putting 6 melee Warriors with a Winged Prime makes a nasty little advance and charge threat, especially alongside the two bricks of 10 Genestealers with a Broodlord in each that I'm also rocking.

Sadly, those models might be the last new ones I pick up for a while unless I sell the rest of my MtG cards for store credit or something, because I recently had to get my car fixed (bad ignition coil, the engine was misfiring badly). Car repairs are expensive, kids, make sure you budget accordingly and don't be like me and grab all the new shinies. Thanks to a fair number of foolish purchases, I very nearly didn't have enough room on my credit card to cover the bill. Now I've got to dig myself out of debt, which means most likely no plastic crack for a while unless, as I said, I sell something to pay for it. I can still 3d print some stuff as needed, as I do have basically a full bottle of resin left. That'll most likely be used for more Tomb Kings stuff.

With those Gutrippaz done, that brings me to 25 miniatures painted for the year. Very disappointing, but still any progress is better than none. I've got some Termagants that are partly finished that I need to polish off that will also help pad out my numbers, so maybe I should just knuckle down and get those painted. Not sure what my block is with those either, it's not like they're hard to paint. I'll figure something out. In the meantime, thanks for reading, and I hope to have more progress to show soon.

Keep on cracking on Cryptborn. You could be struck with inspiration and get him done in time. The red is pretty rad already, I look forward to the finish.

Condolences for your financial woes. I, too, am grateful for access to a 3D printer for new toys at a mere fraction of the cost.

Lastly, you're right to be proud of the greenskins. They have turned out quite well. I hope the new recruits come together as quickly. You'll have a horde before you know it.

@YWS: Still haven't done much with Cryptborn; he's glaring at me from my desk. Not gonna rush him either; he deserves a good thoughtful paint job. I'm glad you like the Gutrippaz though. Thanks as always for the feedback!

Well, it's been a minute since I last posted, but in that time I have gotten some stuff done. Got a big photo dump incoming, and it's all finished stuff. I have other stuff that's WIP, but that's going to have to wait for another post.

First off, I finished the front half of a block of Skeleton Warriors for my Tomb Kings army. Now before you all start wondering why I didn't enter them into last month's painting comp, I had started them before October began, and they were already too far along by time October rolled around. I finished them only a couple of days ago, because hobby ADHD is a thing. Anyways, here's the photo evidence you're all waiting for by now:



Contrast paint/AP Speedpaint for the win, here. I didn't actually spend that much time on these guys; I just got distracted by other stuff. That said, I'm very happy with the results, and I'm glad I went with the deeper blue compared to the more teal color on the box art for these models. There's something very satisfying about seeing them fully painted and ranked up for battle; it'll be fun whenever I get around to actually playing some Old World. I still need to finish assembling the rest of my army for that.

I had a big Warhammer 40k tournament this past weekend, and for that I had to get a bunch of stuff painted (hence why I didn't finish those bone bois earlier). I mostly got everything to a minimum standard (played Dark Angels), and now this week I've been getting some of it more properly finished. I managed to get a whopping two models completely finished this week so far (on my Dark Angels list, that is). One of those is this Deathwing Champion, who has found a new lease on life as a Deathwing Knight Master:


He may not be a character anymore, and even the Command Squad has been removed from the game (unless you play Legends), but it's nice to actually get some use out of this model in some capacity. At least he's not stuck on shelf duty, he's too awesome for that.

The other Dark Angel I managed to finish is a character, and he's a key component of my current tournament list. The model in question is my Apothecary Biologis from the Leviathan box set, and here are his final photos:


While there are plenty of imperfections that I noticed while taking these pics, I'm really proud of this guy. It didn't take long to paint either, once again thanks to the magic of Contrast paint. I've said it before and I'll say it again, that stuff really is liquid talent, especially for lighter colored models like this. Painting this model also helps me on my "paint Leviathan" goal, which is also very nice. I love this sculpt, so I'm very glad it's useful in games.

Other than this I've got some Eradicators, some 3d printed Jump Intercessors, and some Deathwing Knights that are all WIP even if they are technically finished enough for tournaments. I've got an RTT this coming Sunday, so hopefully I can get a little more paint down before then. And hopefully I won't wait over 2 months to update this blog next time, eh?

Good to see you back!

Deathwing boys look very cool. Awesome work on the Undead, too. The shields and banner make for a striking appearance.

Love it all.

Having an easy scheme is needed for rank and file hordes like skeletons. Yours is looking good, I also like the blue.

Nice work on the marines. Both are looking sharp. How much Leviathan do you have left? I personally still got a chunk, but blame it on working both sides. Of course, I also have bits from the previous 2 starters in the to-do pile, but those are at least down to the dregs.

This month the comp topic is “Ancient” I know you have things you could enter. Pretty much any dusty old Tomb King mini would work. Even if it’s a stick of 5 skeletons to add a rank to that unit.

Good to see you still painting.

@YWS: Good to be back. I'm pretty happy with how my skelly bois turned out myself, particularly the blue details.

@Nev: Yeah thankfully my Tomb Kings scheme is pretty simple overall, at least for the rank and file guys. There's going to be a LOT of those to paint, so a quick and easy scheme is essential. As for Leviathan, I've got most of that box left to do. I haven't actually finished any of the Nids yet, and I'm less than half done with the Marines. Maybe over the winter I can knock out a good chunk of the Nids, as I was originally hoping to have my Nids army ready to go by next spring, but I'm not sure that's going to happen. So many projects, so little time as well as energy.

Proof of life update time. I haven't done a whole lot of painting, but also not zero. I've mainly been doing some assembly. I put together a brick of Skeleton Archers for my Tomb Kings project, so here those are (8x2, so 16 dudes total):

It's somehow satisfying to rank them all up in a unit, more so than in other games. These guys, if I can somehow get them primed (tricky to do in the winter), will be very quick to paint.

And now, as if I need YET ANOTHER PROJECT, I've gone and dove into a third AoS army, thanks to selling the last of my MtG cards. The army in question is Lumineth Realm-Lords, and my reason was that I got a fun idea in my head for how they'll ultimately be painted. I'm planning to theme the army's paint scheme(s) on the nations of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Vanari units will be Fire Nation, Alarith units will be Earth Kingdom, Hurakan units will be Air Nomads, and Ydrilan Riverblades will be Water Tribe. Characters will be done appropriate to whichever one they match the closest (pretty sure with a head swap I could make a Hurakan Windmage into a passable Airbender, as an example). So far all I've picked up are the Spearhead and a box of Riverblades, as that's all the money I got from selling my cards. Anyways, I got the Spearhead all assembled, so here they are:

Once I actually started building these guys, I really knew I'd be able to make them look like Fire Nation, as their armor does look somewhat Asian-inspired as do the uniforms seen in the Avatar shows. The Scinari Cathallar is going to be tricky, as I'm not sure how well she fits into any of the four nations. I'll figure it out. The army will at least be different, as most Lumineth armies I've seen are all in bright colors (whites, light pinks, blues) and mine will be mostly dark reds and orange and black. If I grab any Alarith units, they'll get the various green colors of the Earth Kingdom. Hurakan Windchargers (and their associated characters) will wear the red and yellow robes of the Air Nomads, although sadly their armor will prevent me from giving them the arrow tattoos of Airbenders. And once I get my Riverblades put together and painted, they'll be in blues, whites, and grays like the Water Tribe. The army will be a slow-grow project, as I've got other things with much higher priority.

I did get a tiny bit of paint done over the last three weeks or so, mainly in one or two short sessions. I worked on my Beast-skewer Killbow for my Kruleboyz, so here's the WIP shot of it:

Still lots of work to be done, but it's getting there. I had originally hoped to have the whole Kruleboyz spearhead force done by the end of the year, but I don't know if that's going to happen at this point. What's more, all of it is already started, so I can't use it for the December painting challenge either.

Speaking of the December challenge, it's the traditional open round, so I can pick anything in my collection to work on. I'm actually not sure what I want to do. I'm leaning towards either something Stormcast, or perhaps something from the world of Middle-Earth. We'll have to see what I'm in the mood for. Thanks as always for looking!

I like your Tomb Kings so far. TK were my favorite undead faction after the army was split into Vampires and Mummies.

Keep plugging away!

The Avatar themed army sounds fun. I vaguely know that the AoS elf range has elemental themes, but not enough to know who’s in what camp. Be sure that you keep enough elements consistent so the army as a whole looks cohesive. That should be doable, and the results should be fun!

Everything was going great until the Fire Nation attacked...

Awesome idea! Can't wait to see it take shape.

@Josh: Thanks! I was always interested in Tomb Kings back in the old WHFB days, but I never took the plunge and then they switched to AoS. Now I have a chance to actually make myself an army of them, and it's been fun so far.

@Nev: The elemental themes are stronger for certain units and more vague for others, but honestly I still think it'll be fun to interpret them in the colors of the four nations. Keeping elements consistent will be the hard part; I'm planning to do similar basing for all of them, but maybe that's not enough. Will need to have a long hard think.

@YWS: Yeah, ol' Firelord Sozin sure made a mess, didn't he? I'm looking forward to this project more eagerly than a lot of others, but it'll honestly probably be a slow-grow deal, as other things will have higher priority for my time and budget.

Mostly a quick proof of life post this time around. I chose to paint my Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows for the monthly challenge, and I'm actually mostly done with them. Here's where they are at currently:

Still some small details to pick out, and the bird on the leader's arm will be an interesting challenge, but we're definitely almost there. The really sad part is, if I get these done, I still only tie last year's tally of finished models. I wonder if I could squeeze out a few more of my currently WIP models just for the little win of painting more than I did last year. Not sure I'm gonna have time or energy for that though; working retail during the holidays has really been taking it out of me.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate, and have a good day to those who don't. Thanks as always for stopping by and looking!

Good stuff, ZergSmasher. Don't worry too much about numbers. Bare minimum, you didn't paint LESS than last year. And every finished model is a win in itself. Looking forward to seeing the Stormcast in the challenge.

Merry Xmas!

Some years have higher numbers then others, but progress is progress. And each year has it’s own challenges for getting through. Not all are created equal, so you can only compare them so much.

Good progress, keep at it.

I like those crossbow dudes so far. How are you shading the gold? I have never had a lot of success with TMM, which is part of why I'm doing NMM pretty much exclusively these days.

I wouldn't worry too much about yearly numbers. A few years back, I challenged myself to complete one model a day (365 for the year). I pulled it off, but a) I used up almost all of my storage space and b) I can't really say that was my best work. By all means, keep production up, but I think focusing on quality over quantity is the way to go.

@YWS: Yeah, that's a good way to look at it. Every model painted is a small victory.

@Nev: True story. I tend to look at raw stats without thinking about how each year went outside of my hobby. Thanks for the encouragement as always.

@Josh: The gold is shaded with Reikland Fleshshade, which helps to give a warm hue to the gold. For me, TMM is the way to go; NMM would drive me crazy trying to get the blending right to make it look good. As for my numbers, the reason I worry a bit about them is that my pile of shame is growing, not shrinking. While one seemingly logical solution is to just not buy anything, anyone who's been in this hobby more than five minutes knows that isn't going to happen. So the only way I'm going to make a dent in it is to just get stuff done, even if it isn't all totally amazing. Hence my 100 minis per year goal that I haven't come close to since 2021...

Sneaking across the finish line in the early hours of the last day of the year, here are my final minis for 2024, Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows for my AoS Stormcast Eternals:



These guys were fun to paint, no two ways about it. Not the most amazing models GW has ever made by a long shot, but I think they're cool, and I'm happy with how I was able to make them look. A decent way for me to close out the year.

In other news, I had already built all of this stuff before my last post, but now I'll show pictures. I had a little bit of Christmas money and snagged some Stormcast stuff. Here are some Reclusians that I can combine with the ones from the Skaventide box to make a full reinforced unit:

These ones came from the actual kit; possibly more expensive than sourcing the starter set ones on eBay or something but this way I get more variety of poses, plus the Memorians look different.

I also grabbed a box of Stormstrike Paladors and put them together:

I need to get a second box of these to build as regular dudes so I can run a reinforced squad; I'm not in a huge hurry on that front as they cost too many points for what they do in-game. The models are awesome though.

I also bought a second unit of Prosecutors from a friend who was selling some of his Stormcast stuff, but those look just like the starter set ones and so don't really need a picture. My Ruination Chamber is starting to come together. I might eventually want to add a Morrgryph (either the generic or the named character), as it's a cool model, but again it's kind of a low priority.

Finally, for Christmas I was given the Kickstarter edition of the Dune: War for Arrakis game by my father. He had backed the kickstarter for the game himself, but later realized he wasn't ever going to do anything with it so he gave it to me since he knows I like games with miniatures (and Dune!). Talk about a great Christmas haul! I even got the Smugglers and Spacing Guild expansions for a total of 150+ minis. Now I have three big box games like that: Dune, Ankh: Gods of Egypt, and Primal. I suspect my 2025 is going to be cut out for me, as I want to get busy on those games, and I might be taking a break from 40k for a bit.

My next post in this blog will be my customary year end review, so look forward to that in the next day or two. In any case, have a happy New Year if I don't see you all before then!

Sweet finish on the Stormcast. The bird makes for a nice splash of another color. If I ever got back into GW fantasy...I would probably play Undead or Witch Elves, honestly, but the Stormcast have always been tempting. Cool models. I look forward to seeing the Dune minis start rolling out. Spice must flow and all that. Happy New Year!

Is that a Norwegian Blue? Beautiful plumage…

Nice work on the stormcast, both painted and built. Sounds like you’ve got a lot of minis to look forward to in the new year!

@YWS: Thanks buddy! I wanted the bird to stand out, hence why I went with a different color from anything else on the model. Stormcast have the advantage of a wide range of models, so there's kind of something for everyone in the faction. Hopefully I can get working on Dune sooner rather than later, but we'll see.

@Nev: Not sure what a Norwegian Blue is, but thanks for the compliment. Yeah, I've got my work cut out for me in 2025...

And now for what we've all been waiting for, my annual year end review. It was another mediocre year in terms of raw numbers, but I'm pretty happy with the quality of what I'm pumping out. My numbers would have been higher if I had actually FINISHED stuff instead of stopping halfway on so many things; more on that later. Anyway, as with previous years, let's have a picture of all of this year's finished models:

Unlike the previous year, where I pretty much painted all one thing, this time I did a wide variety of things. Here's the breakdown:
WARHAMMER 40,000:
3 Tyranid Warriors with Ranged Bio-weapons
5 Dark Angels Infernus Marines
Dark Angels Apothecary Biologis
Dark Angels Deathwing Champion
Dark Angels Redemptor Dreadnought
Dark Angels Stormraven Gunship
WARHAMMER AGE OF SIGMAR:
3 Stormcast Eternals Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows
10 Kruleboyz Gutrippaz
WARHAMMER THE OLD WORLD:
Tomb King on Foot
10 Tomb Kings Skeleton Warriors
ALIENS: ANOTHER GLORIOUS DAY IN THE CORPS:
4 Xenomorphs
Models for 4 different game systems and multiple factions within two of them, so like I said the variety was there. So, how did I do on my goals? Here is what they are, or were:

1: As is tradition for me, my first goal is to paint 100 models, of any game system or combination thereof. 40 models in a year just isn't going to cut it. I really do need to keep knocking stuff out if I want to complete projects.
2: Get another army tournament-ready. This would mean having 2k points of either a 40k, AoS, or Kings of War army, or 500+ points of Middle-Earth, or a 300-point force of Infinity, etc. Ones I've already got to that level obviously don't count.
3: Gonna go ahead and repeat my goal of painting at least something that is not GW. I've got plenty of candidates these days. That kickstarter that has now been delayed for like 2 years past its original planned release is finally going to be delivered this year, unless something very odd happens, so maybe I'll get started on that.
4: Play a decent variety of games. Obviously I'll play more 40k as it's my main game, but I'm hoping to restart Middle-Earth locally as well (had a little bit of interest), and I hope to finally actually play some Age of Sigmar. Might even squeeze in some Kill Team as well.
5: Knock out more big models. Last year I only did one vehicle, and maybe you'd count a Primarch as a big model, but otherwise it was all infantry. I've got a decent motor pool for several of my 40k armies, as well as some decently big AoS things (like Stormdrakes), and even a few monsters for Middle-Earth (Mordor Trolls, Spider Queen).
6: Knock out a few things that are currently (as of this post) partially painted. Models shouldn't have to sit in painting purgatory forever, and I need to actually finish stuff.
7: Get back to working on clipping all my leftover bits and putting them into the bits boxes. This will help with my apartment clutter situation, as I've got boxes sitting around all over the place with mostly-empty sprues. One issue with this is that newer 40k kits have bits that are much more specific and can't just go with any old models, so it's harder to actually use leftover bits. We'll have to see.
8: As is tradition, I'll go with my old standby "paint more than I buy" goal. We all know this probably won't happen, as I tend to get new shiny syndrome pretty badly, but the attempt should be made.
Bonus: Paint a bunch of stuff for a boxed game. I've got several canditates, including Ankh, Aliens: AGDITC, and the upcoming Primal: The Awakening, and I might also count Guildball or Godtear for this. Might not get a whole game done, but as long as I get a good amount I'll be happy.

And the results on those goals:
1: Another massive failure; to quote King Theoden of Rohan: "Less than half of what I'd hoped for." I gotta quit letting real life get in the way. It's just an excuse at this point, my life isn't that complicated. I don't have kids or even a committed relationship currently, and my job, while stressful at times (I work retail), shouldn't be taking so much out of me that I can't hobby. I get not wanting to rush stuff and making nice models look like crap, but I do want to finish models and I'm not doing nearly enough of that.
2: This was also a failure, as I didn't paint enough of any one thing to accomplish this. This may not have been a good goal, as it pigeonholed me into needing to focus on one thing more than I wanted to.
3: I did paint some models from the Aliens game, so I guess that counts? I'll take it, a small win for the year.
4: I mainly played 40k, but I did also get my first small games of Age of Sigmar in (Spearhead is great for learning the game). I might count playing some Axis & Allies with friends too, so I'll go ahead and claim the win here.
5: I painted both a Redemptor and a mighty Stormraven, so this one did get done. I also partially painted a few more dreads, but sadly didn't finish them this year.
6: I'll take partial credit only here, as the only partially painted thing I finished was the Redemptor.
7: I didn't touch the bits, so this one's a fail.
8: Hahaha no. I let new shiny syndrome get the better of me. I don't think it was as bad as last year, as car trouble kept my spending in check mostly.
Bonus: I did four xenomorphs, and I don't consider that enough for this goal. Gonna have to call this one a fail.

So, 3.5/8 for the goals, not including the bonus. Better than last year, but still not great. But, if I made my goals too easy, I wouldn't have anything to strive for, would I? Anyways, time for some new goals for 2025:
1: As ever, my goal for the year is to finish 100 models, in any combination of games/systems/armies. Rules are the same, massive models still only count as one. Gotta pump my numbers up, we've been having rookie numbers for too long.
2: Paint some non-GW models. This year, this might actually be kind of a free space, so I'll set a specific goal of 30+ non-GW models done. This might seem kind of high, but to reach it I'll have to actually put some effort in towards my box games probably.
3: Continue to play some non-40k games. This could end up being another free space, as right now I'm planning to take at least a few months off of playing 40k. We'll see if I can stay away for that long. I'll make a specific goal of playing at least 6 games of stuff that isn't 40k.
4: Paint a variety of both leaders, mooks, and monsters/vehicles. I feel like I did okay with this last year, but I want to continue the trend. Not sure what specific numbers I'll aim for, so this one's perhaps a bit nebulous, but...eh.
5: Finish painting some stuff that is currently WIP. Minimum of 10 models that were partially painted at the end of 2024. I'm tired of leaving dregs behind; my numbers for 2024 would have been somewhat better if I had just made myself actually finish things instead of losing interest halfway through.
6: For a more specific and focused goal: Finish, or at least make good progress on, either the Leviathan starter set (40k 10th), Skaventide Stormcast half (AoS 4th), or the Dominion set (AoS 3rd). Maybe I should add the Pelennor Fields set as part of this (Middle-Earth), or the Tomb Kings of Khemri starter box (Old World). Starter boxes make nice easy project goals.
7: I'll repeat last year's goal of dealing with my bits box situation. Some stuff is going to go to the FLGS to donate to their own bits collection, but other stuff needs to be sorted by me into the appropriate boxes. It would really help with the clutter in my apartment.
8: Another repeat goal, and one I think most hobbyists should share: Paint more stuff than I buy. This is going to be a tall order this year, as I'm already planning on picking up both the Battle for Edoras box (the new Middle-Earth starter) and the Death Korps of Krieg army set whenever it drops, as well as a few other things. It's a tough goal, but the attempt must be made.
Bonus: Keep up with this blog better. Nevelon does a great job keeping up with his, and there's no reason I can't do the same. Hell, it might help me with motivation, as I'd hate to be due to make another blog post and have nothing to show for it, after all.

I'm trying to have more specific goals than I did last year, hence why I put actual numbers in some of them. Others are deliberately left a bit nebulous, because I don't know what a good number would be for them. Hopefully I can make some of them happen.

Finally, in keeping with years of tradition at this point, here are my top 5 favorite models I painted in 2024:

5: Stormraven Gunship

This thing was pretty beat up when I got it, so I was happy to not only fix it up but finally give it a decent paint job. I also love the model despite how silly it is.

4: Vanguard-Raptors with Longstrike Crossbows

I really had fun painting these guys, and I'm pretty happy with how they turned out overall.

3: Gutrippaz

In spite of the fact that I think their armor ended up way too shiny, I really am happy with how they turned out. Lessons learned for the next batch of Kruleboyz.

2: Redemptor Dreadnought

I love these chonky bois, and I had a lot of fun painting this one. I still need to finish painting all his bros though.

1: Apothecary Biologis

This is probably the coolest of the Space Marines from the Leviathan set (although the Combi-weapon Lieutenant gives him a run for his money). I had a ton of fun painting this guy, and I couldn't be happier with how he turned out.

So there you have it. I have some new goals, and I've set a decently high bar for myself in terms of quality too. Happy New Year, DakkaDakka!

Do we live in a world where people don’t know the Monty Python dead parrot sketch? Sad times.

You did paint a good variety of things, and at a quality level. Sure, the volume might not have been where you wanted, but was still not too shabby. I did a poll a bit ago, and about half the respondents paint less then 50 models a year. Sure, there are people who bang out 300+ models a year, but your volume is actually pretty typical. Not that stretching is a bad thing. One perk about having a lot of half-finished projects is they should help boost your numbers! So get them off the back bench and to the finished shelf.

If you want to put some numbers on 4, I might go with “Two of each” for hero/mook/monster(tank). It’s a good idea, and one I also needed to set for 2025. I’m OK with mooks and HQs, but hate tanks. And they are piling up.

Your top 5 all look great! And a reminder that I forgot to pick my own...

@Nev: I know, I know, I'm my own worst critic. I am happy in general with the quality of my work. And thanks for the suggestion for doing two of each for the categories; I think I can do more than that, but that'll make a good benchmark. I can see why you'd hate tanks, given your usual method of painting models. They don't take contrast paint well at all (too many flat surfaces). Personally I find them a refreshing change from painting all the infantry. Bikes are what I don't enjoy painting, even though they're really cool when they're done.

Well, new year is upon us truly, so it's back to the painting bench. I've already gotten some progress done on my entry for the January painting challenge:

Having to work around the bad prime from last year is really becoming a nuisance, as I had to put down two coats of Speedpaints Tidal Wave on the blue shields to get them to look okay (considering adding a third to be honest). If you look close you can really see the graininess too. Oh well, at least these are basic troops and they will look okay from tabletop viewing distance. Next steps will be to drybrush the bone with Ushabti Bone and/or Screaming Skull, and then basecoat the metallics.

In other news, I picked up the new Middle-Earth starter set, Battle of Edoras. Seeing new plastic troop models for Middle-Earth is great; the old Warriors of Rohan kit came out in 2002 and has been showing its age for many years now. The new ones are going to be a bit fiddly to put together due to them being a smaller scale compared to Warhammer stuff, but I think I can handle it. I did get the two Rohan hero models put together though:

I went with the helmet option for Hama, but left Haleth's head bare. No real reason, I just wanted to do it that way. These models are really nice, and went together fairly easily although I will say that there are some pretty small parts so I was afraid of losing any on the carpet (didn't happen though). I'll probably work my way through assembling the rest of the box set over the next couple of weeks (or longer, depending on how fast I work).

I'm probably going to pick up the new Kruleboyz stuff when it drops, but I may in fact skip the Death Korps box. I'm just not sure I need what's in it, and despite some recent windfall around the holidays money is still a little bit tight. I have no nostalgia for Death Korps of Krieg or anything, and the more I look at the Death Rider models the less I like them (like wtf is up with those horses' feet?!). As much as I'm interested in getting my Astra Militarum army up to tournament standards, I'm not sure it's going to happen this edition. Of course, my whims are mercurial and later on I may change my mind of course. In the meantime, I'll just keep on painting, as always.

That's a fine spread of models for the year. Painting for numbers isn't all it's cracked up to be-- you run out of storage space fast that way.

You're making some fine progress on the skellies, as well.

@Josh: Thanks for the encouragement! I'm not worried about numbers just for my ego or anything-I just want to get stuff done! My pile of potential will never get smaller if I don't actually finish models. As for storage space, most of the unpainted models are already taking up space, in some cases more than they will take once painted as they are in subassemblies.

Quick proof-of-life post, progress has been made on the skelly bois:

Next steps will be to shade and highlight the metallics, then a quick cleanup pass if necessary, then do the bases. I might need to do another bone drybrush pass too, as the one I did isn't showing up very much.

In other news, work proceeds slowly on assembling the Middle-Earth dudes, and I did get some brush on primer on a handful of the Dune minis (just a few of the vehicles). Brush priming is kind of a pain in the butt on anything bigger than an infantry figure, or something with as many surfaces as an ornithopter! I may just have to wait for a window in the weather to prime the rest.

Tomorrow marks the end of yet another orbit around the day-star for me, my 38th, to be exact. I rarely celebrate; I didn't even take off of work or anything. I'll probably try to get some hobby done after work, as usual, and hang out with my brother on Saturday as my only real acknowledgment of the occasion (tomorrow is his birthday too, and we aren't twins-I'm exactly 3 years older than him). Until next time, stay classy!

Happy Birthday! Hope you have a great one.

Happy birthday, ZergSmasher! Nice wrap-up. Totally agree with the top 5. Good luck on your goals in the new year!

@Nev: Thank you so much!

@YWS: Thanks, I'm glad you liked them. Thanks as always for the encouragement.

I finished my entry in the January painting challenge, painting 10 Skeleton Warriors and picking the best 5 for the challenge. Here are the challenge photos:



As you can see, nothing fancy, but I got the models done. Contrast paint is perfect for these guys. I may, however, not continue to use it on the shields, as I'm not entirely happy with how it came out on a flat surface (ironically the bad prime probably helped me there, as despite being grainy it broke up the surface enough to prevent blotching of the paint). If future models don't look exactly like these, I'll just have to live with it.

Here are pics of the full 10 that I painted:

These models definitely show their age, especially if you look at the recently previewed Soulblight Gravelords skeletons. But at least they are quick and easy to paint; if I'd just stuck with it, I might have been able to bang these out in an afternoon, minus the bases (texture paint needs time to dry). Good thing too, as I've got a lot more of them to do (most of which are not even assembled yet...). Still, these 10 being finished puts me officially on the board for 2025. If I can knock out 10 or so models every month, I'll blow my goals out of the water. Not sure I'll be able to keep it up, as the more detailed stuff will take longer, but we'll see.

And since I'm sure someone will want to see it, here's a shot of all 20 skelly bois together:

Ranking them up for this photo was incredibly satisfying. Something about how square bases form up so nice, I guess. I'd love to actually PLAY some Old World at some point...

In other news, I put together one sprue of the Rohan Warriors from the Battle of Edoras box set. Here's how they look with no paint on them:

These guys are a massive improvement over the old ones (which were released way back in 2002!). They are very fiddly to assemble due to the smaller parts, and I nearly lost a couple of small bits when I dropped them on the floor, but they have some very nice poses and great detail, and the sprues are laid out pretty conveniently with parts for each model grouped together.

As for the recently announced new releases from Games Workshop, most of it is just irrelevant to me. I'm not going to start an Emperor's Children army (several of my friends probably will though, based on what they're saying in our discord chat), the Necromunda stuff is cool but I'm not starting a second force unless the game massively takes off locally, and I'm also not planning on starting Soulblight Gravelords for AoS (if I had to start a Death army it would be them, though). I'm having to restrain myself from starting a High Elf army for Old World, though. I love their models despite their age, particularly the Lion Chariots of Chrace. I'm literally out of shelf space for more armies, though, so I think I can resist for now (until I figure out a solution to the space problem at least!).

Hopefully I have more to show here soon. I need to figure out an entry for next month's painting challenge, so something surprising will need to be found in my vast hoard of plastic.

Skeletons look great. Sure, they are old and chunky, but they still have it! You are right about seeing them ranked up. Nothing like that. Even when you finish a squad on round bases and get them all together for a group shot, it’s still not as good as serried ranks, ready for battle with their colors flying.

Well done!

@Nev: Thanks!

Well, nearly a month has gone by without me posting anything. And here I was going to keep up with this thing better. We saw how long that lasted, didn't we? Anyhoo, I have made significant progress on my monthly challenge entry:

The Genestealers are nearly there; just some small details to pick out, and touch ups in some spots. And of course the bases.

Otherwise, I've continued assembling stuff. I got some money for my birthday, and used it to buy myself a couple of boxes of Dracothian Guard for my Stormcast Eternals army. Since there are four variants of Dracothian Guard, I decided to magnetize them and get 3 of the 4 covered. Here's a pic of the models and their options:

The riders are not glued on to the mounts, so they'll be easier to paint whenever I get around to it. The hammers they are holding in the picture make them Concussors, and they have the option of being Fulminators or Tempestors. So let's hope Desolators don't become the new meta, as there was no way to get those too (they share the Concussors' weapon hafts, and the attachment point of the weapon heads is too small for a magnet IMO). I still need to build the other two, and I've also got a couple more Stormdrakes and another box of Stormstrike Palladors that need put together. Once I have all that assembled, my Stormcast will pretty much be ready other than paint. There aren't a lot of kits I still need for the army, although I wouldn't mind having either Krondys or Karazai, if funds ever allow (I consider them to be "nice to haves" rather than needs at this point).

The other night, I fired up the 3D printer for the first time in months, and printed off the back half of my Tomb Guard unit:

I love these Highlands Miniatures sculpts, and they'll probably look pretty good painted (certainly better than the radioactive green resin color they currently are!).

I haven't got a lot done otherwise unfortunately. Burnout keeps striking, and the other day when I had a day off work I took a long nap in the afternoon instead of hobbying, or at least taking advantage of the nice weather to prime stuff. I gotta quit missing opportunities like that! I can sleep when I'm dead after all! Gaming wise, I have gotten a couple of games of Middle-Earth in the last three weeks, so that's nice. I really do enjoy that game, it's GW's best rule set. I need to get more of my Middle-Earth stuff painted though; I have a good size collection of several armies, but very little of it is painted.

I feel you on the lagging hobby feels. Hard to get to work, lately. It happens.

Genestealers looking good. Stormcast cavalry look cool, too. Hope they inspire you to jump back into painting.

The ghostly green resin is pretty neat. I bet it would work great for ethereals, especially if you sunk an LED into the model.

Are you going to do anything with the grey on the Genestealers? In these photos, at least, it looks a lot like unpainted grey plastic.

Keep plugging away. Just keep moving forward and putting those layers down.

@YWS: Thanks for the encouragement!

@Josh: I've thought of the LED thing with that resin, but you'd have to print the part hollow to make space for the LED; drilling into that brittle resin would seriously risk just shattering it. As for the Stealers, the gray is not bare plastic, but the color is a little bit similar (less so in person though). I'm not sure why it ended up so dark; I used Grey Seer as the basecoat, and went over it with Holy White speedpaint. Maybe I used too much? It does look gray in the recesses after applying it normally, so maybe I got too much of it on the non-recessed parts.

@Nev: I'm trying, I'm trying. Thanks for stopping in to look as always!

Well, I got the stealers done, and barely in time thanks to our benevolent overlord Nevelon's time extension. Here are the pics:


Only 4 pics, but honestly these models don't need or deserve more. I'm just glad they are done, as I did not particularly enjoy working on them. Part of it is the old-ass sculpts, with their soft details and stuff. Maybe the newer Genestealer models would be more fun to work on. Either way, I'm gonna have to do 15 more of these guys at some point, as I do want to run them in my Tyranid lists.

The only other thing I really have to show this time around is something I forgot to show in my last post. I assembled the two Evil heroes from the Battle of Edoras box. Here's a pic of them in bare plastic:

I actually really like these models, and they weren't too hard to put together, although like all the other new Middle-Earth models they do have some very small parts, so care when assembling is required. I've also started putting the Hill Tribesmen together, but I'll assemble a whole sprue of them before I take a pic or give my thoughts on them.

Next month's painting challenge is the traditional Space Marine round, so it's probably time to knock out some Dark Angels. Maybe this is a good time to do some more Leviathan stuff. I've got lots of choices when it comes to Marines.

It must have been the lighting in the earlier photo, because your final photos look great. I really like the cool grey and turquoise combo on the Genestealers.

@Josh: Yeah sometimes the photos can be a little deceptive. I've found that my lightbox pictures give a much truer color than the ones I take on my desk.

A new year of painting challenges means we're back around to Space Marines, and this month I'm doing the Terminators from the Leviathan box. I've gotten a few colors blocked in with Speedpaints, but there's still a lot to do. WIP shot:

The bone color will look better once I go over it with Ushabti Bone, leaving the darker color in the recesses of course. Using Speedpaint for it basically lets me basecoat and wash in one step, which is nice. I really do like these new Termies over the old ones; their proportions are so much better.

In other news, I finished putting together one sprue of the Hill Tribesmen from the Battle of Edoras box:

I have to say, these models are pretty annoying to assemble, much more than the Rohan guys were. They do have more options total as far as wargear goes, but they are very specific to each body. On each sprue, you get 4 with bows (and you can't build them with anything else, not that you'd want to), 4 with a choice of spear or two-handed weapon, and 4 with any combination of hand weapon, flaming brand, and light shield. I'm assembling mine according to the box set recommendations as I do want to use these guys to potentially teach others to play this game, so when all is said and done I'll have 8 with bows, 4 with two-handed weapons, 4 with spears, 2 with hand weapons, 2 with hand weapons and shields, 2 with flaming brands, and 2 with flaming brands and shields. Once assembled, these models do have some nice dynamic poses, and they'll probably take Contrast/Speedpaints very well, so that's how I'll likely paint them. As far as expanding this army beyond the box set, I'll probably grab Freca and Lord Thorne (the two Forge World characters) and at least one more box of Tribesmen, possibly two. The guys are cheap in points so in bigger games you'll need an absolute carpet of them.

With another year of the painting challenge done, I considered doing a retrospective as I've done in previous years. But then I looked and realized that I only got an entry done in 7 out of 12 months, and the ones that I did enter weren't really very good (and the voting reflected that). So I said to myself, "How about we don't and say we did." I'm hoping to step up my game for this year and not phone it in like I did so often last year. And I'd like to get something done for each month. That would help me get more stuff knocked out overall and make a dent in my pile of opportunity. Then next year, I'll have a retrospective I can be proud of!

This post might be a bit different as I’m posting from my iPad. The reason is because my computer is temporarily disabled by a dead hard drive. A new drive is on its way but for now I’m having to make do with the iPad. Thankfully I didn’t lose any data I can’t replace or that I care about but it’s still irritating.

Sadly I haven’t made much progress on the Terminators since my last post. My Ushabti Bone paint is mostly dried out so I need to replace it before I can finish. I might get the equivalent Army Painter Fanatic paint instead and thus begin phasing those paints in to replace most of my Citadel ones. I’m just kind of fed up with the Citadel pots and how they are prone to drying up.

I have recently picked up a few Middle-Earth reinforcements courtesy of getting a bonus at work. I’ve spent the last couple of days assembling them so here they are:
Freca, Lord of the West-March and Lord Thorne of the Wold:

These two are pretty nice sculpts; they oughta be, considering the Forge World tax!
Aragorn, King Elessar:

This guy is one of the better Finecast models I’ve ever put together, with straight sword blades and no visible bubbles.
Riders of the Dead and Warrior of the Dead with banner:

The riders were kind of annoying to assemble and like most metal models there was definitely some trimming to do. It’s also unfortunate that there’s only one sculpt, so I’ve got four identical riders (other than slight differences in the position of their swords).

In related news, I started painting a few test models for Rohan. I’ve only blocked in a few colors so far on three of the old Warrior models, but I’m liking where it’s going so far. Here’s a quick pic:

I’m taking inspiration from a guide I found on YouTube. It’ll be a simple but effective scheme.

Hopefully I can rally and get the Deathwing done by the end of the month.

Hopefully the computer is easy to get back up and running. I recently had a memory stick go bad in my gaming PC. Took a while to figure out that was the problem, did a clean wipe as part of that. Frustrating. I generally only do short updates on my iPad, as I find text entry/editing is just not as easy as with a keyboard/mouse. Fine for quick replies, but not posts with any meat to them.

There are pros and cons to metal minis. Dragging one out to work on does tend to highlight the advantages of plastic though.

Good luck getting the termies done! Always succks when paint dries mid-project.

I’m kinda surprised that I never got hooked by the LotR game. Minis look cool, I love the setting, people speak highly of the rules. Might have been I had too many other projects going on when it came out. Always fun to watch others paint though.

@Nev: It wasn't too bad. Most computer components these days are pretty plug n' play. I am basically starting from scratch with the new hard drive, but like I said most of what was on the other one was stuff that could be replaced (like my STL files, which I just need to go download again) or stuff I no longer care about. As for the metal minis, I personally kind of like them. They have a nice heft to them that is pleasing to my hands somehow. And you should totally play Middle-Earth! It's GW's best game, it really is, plus it's Lord of the Rings! I understand about not wanting too many projects. I'm already in too deep to worry about stuff like that...

So, my computer lives. The hard drive was indeed the problem, and the old one was well and truly borked. Single tear. But, now I have a 2 TB hard drive, so even more space for games, pictures, and STL files! Starting over is kind of a pain in the ass, but at least I have the use of my computer again. Making that last post in my blog with the iPad was kind of painful!

Anyways, I have made progress on my Deathwing for the monthly comp:

Still some work to be done, but they are mostly there. And good thing too, as I've only got a few days left! I'm planning to put some kind of symbols on their fists via the transfers from my DA upgrade kits, but I'm trying to figure out what would look good. All that blank space demands being filled with something though.

Now, as those of you who don't live under rocks currently no doubt are aware, there was a big preview show recently. I'll offer my thoughts on it:
40k:
Chaos codexes and new minis: Nothing I'm particularly interested in here, as I no longer play Chaos. World Eaters needed more than just another character, especially one as bland as this new one. Death Guard really didn't need yet another flavor of Lord (how many is that for them now?!), although I do like the model they got. And those robots for Tsons were certainly...a choice. And with the limited edition books having parts of a full medallion, I can't help but wonder how many people will actually buy all of them to get the full thing? Those special books are pricy!
Space Wolves: As those who've read this blog will know, I used to have a Space Wolves army, and if I still had it I'd be pretty excited right now. The new models are very nice, and less over the top on all the wolfy stuff than previous models. I do hope SW get to keep Thunderwolf Cavalry though, as I've always had a soft spot for the big power-armored space Vikings riding giant wolves.
Grey Knights: All they get is an upgrade sprue for the Nemesis Dreadknight? Seriously? Glad I'm not a GK player. I do like the upgrades, and I've always liked the Dreadknight despite how silly it is, but GK have a pretty dated range of models that desperately need an update. Oh well, maybe next edition...
New Mission Cards: I'm intrigued by what little they showed, but I'm concerned that like the last set I won't be able to get them in any kind of reasonable time to use them at events.
Roadmap: So it looks like the Wolves will drop in the middle of all the Chaos stuff. And we'll be getting both flavors of Knights after all that. And I'm very intrigued to see what the Salamanders thing is (are they getting split off? Is Vulkan coming back? So many questions!). One of the pictures looked like Votann armor, so maybe their book will be towards the end of this year (hopefully with a second wave of new models for them).
Overall, some interesting things on the way for 40k, but nothing I'm interested in getting really other than the mission cards (good luck to me getting them...).
Kill Team:
The Admech Servitors are decent models, but I'm not particularly interested in them. The Tyranid Raveners, on the other hand, look amazing! I don't think I'll bother with the box set, but maybe later on I'll grab the Raveners separately for my Hive Fleet.
AoS: Four spearheads for armies I don't play. The new Spearhead pack looks decent, but not something I desperately need. The new GHB looks good, but I just hope it isn't like the 40k cards and hard to get a hold of.
The Old World:
Wood Elf Realms: Wood Elves are just not an army I'm interested in. The models are okay, but just not really my thing.
Beastmen: Just like the Wood Elves above; I'm just not interested. If other people are, then more power to them. It's nice to see all of the originally promised armies now becoming available for purchase; the game feels a bit more fleshed out than it did when you could only get Tomb Kings and Brettonians.
So, not much in the preview that I need then. Good, my wallet can rest easy. Wait, why do I feel like I'm forgetting something important...?
GRAND CATHAY: No joke, the models for Grand Cathay that they showed might be some of the best GW has made, like, ever! Let's just say I'm glad I didn't pull the trigger on High Elves, as it looks like I've now found my second Old World army. Hopefully Cathay isn't arriving until fall, as that'll allow me to save up some cash and figure out a space solution. I might have to sell one or more of my other armies, both for money and to make room. I haven't been this excited for a release since they announced The Lion 2 years ago (and that was also at the Adepticon preview).

Anyways, hopefully I'll have finished pics of the Terminators by the end of the month. I need to get them done. I also need to figure out something for next month (Scrapheap is the theme). I might literally do the scrapheap itself, as I've got the Orky terrain from the Kill Team Octarius box set and it needs paint eventually. We'll have to see.

You have made a great start on the Termies. You're right that all those smooth, open surfaces need something. What are you using for your off-white? It's really smooth.

What’s your current storage solution? Can it be expanded, can it be fixed?

Lack of shelf space is an issue. Room for more shelves?

While it’s nice to have things displayed, you can put minis in cold storage. A low bin that can slide under the bed and a couple towels can hold a lot of minis.

While more expensive, getting more cases is an option. You can pack them a lot denser, and as a plus they are ready to go to the FLGS.

@Josh: Thanks! My off-white is Citadel Ushabti Bone (on two of them before my paint dried out) and Army Painter Fanatic Skeleton Bone, painted over Speedpaints Pallid Bone which is too dark on its own. Makes a good way to shade and highlight. I ended up using AP Fanatic Pale Sand for the edge highlights, which as you'll see might be a little too stark.

@Nev: I am planning to get a couple more small bookshelves, but those will be partially filled with stuff that isn't minis (I'm trying to reduce the clutter situation in my apartment in general). I've considered putting some of my stuff in boxes, particularly my Votann and Astra Militarum armies, as I'm not working on those currently. I've also considered more cases, but they are kind of expensive for storage, even if they would be pretty convenient.

So, after having issues with DakkaDakka going down last night, I did finally get some finished pics of my Deathwing done. Here they are:



I'm pretty happy with these models overall, although I think the edge highlights are a little bit too bright. Something to think about for the future. I'm very happy with my decal selection and placement, particularly on the fists. I put the Tyranid Hunter icons on the left shins of the models, as those are what will unify my Leviathan stuff. It's kind of a fun way to keep them together.

April's challenge is From the Scrapheap, and while I think it would be fun to paint the Kill Team Octarius terrain (literally the scrapheap itself) it is just not a priority for paint right now. So I'll probably stick to my original plan and paint my rescued Tyranid Broodlord. When I got that model, it was coated in thick paints of various strange colors (including gold and silver). Shamefully I didn't think to take a picture before I stripped it, but it was bad. It'll be satisfying to give it the love it deserves and make it look like it belongs in Hive Fleet Kukulkan.

Looking sharp! Well done.

Very cool looking squad. Nice work on that DW paint scheme.

In case you were not following the competition vote thread closely at the end I wanted to point out that your terminators were tied for 3rd for a chunk of time in the final stretch. The last few hours of votes knocked you down a bit, but a very strong finish! Keep up the good work.

Looking great!!

@Nev: Thanks buddy!

@YWS: Thank you, I really enjoyed working on it!

@Nev (again): I was following it, and I was absolutely heartbroken that I once again came up short in the end. Sure I was close to the podium, but close only matters in horseshoes and hand grenades, as they say. I'm trying not to be salty about it, but I felt a little bit robbed. I guess it speaks to the quality of the entries in our little challenge that even one of my best paintjobs ever was still not even in the top 3.

@muette: Thanks, and welcome to my blog!

Well, I already finished this month's painting challenge entry, and what's more I actually finished a week ago, but couldn't be bothered to drag out my lightbox until now. But anyways, here are the final photos of my rescued Broodlord:



Considering the rough shape this model was in when I got it, I think I did alright. It looks properly ready to lead the Genestealers of Hive Fleet Kukulkan into combat. Contrast paint is almost a cheat code for painting Tyranids; their texture on their bodies is just absolutely made for it! I'm sure it works great for Chaos Daemons too, with all their organic shapes. This Broodlord might not be as good as my entry from last month, but it was fun to work on nonetheless and I'm happy with how it turned out.

In addition to the Broodlord, I also put some paint down on the Neurotyrant from the Leviathan set as sort of a palette cleanser. I had accidentally put too much of the purple Speedpaint I used for the inside of the Broodlord's mouth on my palette, so rather than let it dry up and go to waste I decided to see how the color looked on the brains of this bug, and I liked it! Here's a WIP shot:

I did also give the brains a quick drybrush of Warpfiend Gray, but it didn't make a huge difference in the color. Once I had done that, I just had to add the carapace color (Kroxigor Scales) just to see what it would look like, and I really liked it! I did the same steps on the two Neuroloid tokens as well. Still plenty to do on this bug, but he's off to a good start. At some point I need to finish up those Termagants that have been sitting on my desk for far too long as well...

The other model I've been working on lately has been the Lord-Vigilant on Gryph-Stalker from the Skaventide box set. Here's a WIP of him:

The reason I've started on this guy is that I've entered an AoS escalation league with my local gaming group (we're starting to have quite a few AoS players and they're all wanting to learn the game, myself included), and I'll need this model for my 500 point list. All I've done so far is the colors on the mount itself, which I've deliberately kept muted and dark like the colors of a raven. I want all of the Ruination Chamber stuff to have a dark, brooding look, and yet be obviously related to my other Stormcast stuff. I'll have to look back a page or two in this blog, as someone gave me a good suggestion for how to make the gold armor look colder instead of using a warm shade.

Hopefully I have more painting progress to show soon!

Nids are looking good!

Some of the new stormcast remind me of chaplains. In a good way. Good luck getting him painted.

@Nev: Thanks! I can see how you would think of chaplains with the newer Stormcast heroes, as they do have a lot of little tchotchkes (spelling?) and bling on them.

No new picture of the Stormcast hero (forgot to take one and I'm too tired as I write this), but I have basecoated his armor and cloak. What I do have a picture of is the progress I've made on my entry for the May painting challenge. As those who follow the challenge thread are aware, I decided to enter a couple of Star Fleet Battles miniatures, as the theme is May Day and Starfleet answers its share of mayday calls, and I'm sure the planet killer from the classic series episode "The Doomsday Machine" would generate its share of those, assuming a ship survived to get out of its comms interference to send such a call! Anyway, here's where I'm at so far:

The Planet Killer is coming along nicely; it's going to get some gray stippling on its outer shell, as well as some drybrushing. The Starfleet cruiser (which will be USS Kongo NCC-1710) has so far only had its hull basecoated, but I'm hoping to get stuck in and start detailing it soon. It will be a severe test of my freehand skills for sure!

In other news, for shiggles I decided to assemble my Ydrilan Riverblades for my AoS Lumineth Realm-lords army:

I gotta say, these models are super dynamic and look great even unpainted. They will, of course, be painted in the colors of the Water Tribe to fit in with my Avatar: The Last Airbender theming. So lots of blues, grays, and whites.

More to come soon, I hope! The project overload is real...

Nice work on the planet killer. Like the interior glow!

Nice work on the minis!

That's a great inner glow effect on the planet killer.

Nice job on the bugs! Quite interested in the Lumineth. I don't follow AoS anywhere near as much as 40K, so there's a lot I am unfamiliar with. The Harlequin-ish look for these guys is intriguing.

@Nev: Thanks! I'm pretty happy with how that looks, although it's the bright light shining directly on it doing it a lot of favors too.

@ghostmaker: Welcome to the blog, and thank you very much!

@Waaazag: A hearty welcome to the blog to you too! I'm glad you like that inner glow, it's probably my favorite part of the whole piece.

@YWS: Thanks! Yeah, the Riverblades do have the dynamism of Harlequins in how they are posed. I thought of them too (fun fact, I nearly started a Harlequin army back in late 7th edition, even bought GW's book on how to paint them).

Well, it's happened again, nearly a month without updating my blog. I really need to stop doing that. Anyways, I did end up finishing my entry for May's painting challenge, so here's how that turned out:



While I'm pretty happy with the Planet Killer, I'm definitely not happy at all with the USS Kongo. My freehand is still extremely sloppy overall. I probably should invest in micron pens, and stop eating so much stuff with sugar in it as it makes my hands shake sometimes. The lettering just doesn't look very clean at all, and the pinstriping on the hull isn't the greatest either. A big step back in quality from me. And a big part of the reason I didn't even bother with the lightbox for these models.

In other news, I have been doing some painting on my Old World stuff, namely on the extra chariots that were in that lot I bought to start my Tomb Kings army. They were already primed in white (could be actual Wraithbone, wasn't sure), and one of them already had some paint on it, which was easy to paint over in some places (my models will be blue, not purple). I started working on them with some Speedpaints and some traditional paints, and here's where they are at currently:

The horses are done, and the chariots are coming along, although they need a couple more colors basecoated, and then there'll be some shades and highlights to do. I also had to reassemble the crew for these chariots, as they were in pieces. I have gotten a few colors down on them, but like the chariots they need more work:

With these I actually have a full command group, so whenever I get around to assembling the three from the box set I might assemble them as regular guys to form a 6-model unit (or I might build them with full command and have 2 3-mans, I haven't decided yet).

I've also been doing some assembly on my Tomb Kings. I finally built the saddle and rider for the Necrolith Bone Dragon, so here are its subassemblies:

Fully assembling this thing and then trying to paint it would make it somewhat difficult to reach everything, so subassemblies it is. I really do love this model and look forward to painting it (eventually...).

Since I assembled the Bone Dragon with a High Priest riding it, I built a Tomb King on foot (the kit provides for this). Here's how he looks unpainted:

Pardon the slightly blurry photo. This is a really neat model of a Tomb King, and he'll be fun to paint up and play with.

The last thing I got assembled was a small unit of Skeleton Horsemen:

This is a minimum-sized squad; they'll get 3 more buddies and then I can run them in a 2x4 block. The other cavalry from the starter set will be horse archers. I expedited building these particular guys because I actually needed them for a game.

Yep, that's right, I finally popped my Old World cherry and got a chance to play the game. It's a ton of fun! My opponent was running Dwarves, and he did beat me but I learned a lot from the game. And it is so satisfying seeing two armies of these square bases facing off. I look forward to more chances to play Old World, hopefully sooner rather than later. As for other gaming, my group's AoS escalation league has been in full swing, and I've actually won all of my games so far (the last was a very close run thing vs. Ogor Mawtribes). It'd be nice to get some stuff painted for that, but life has just not been letting me get to the painting bench as much as I'd like (and some of that is just lack of energy rather than being too busy).

Hopefully I'll have more to share in less than a month this time. My entry for June's challenge is a Tomb Scorpion from my Tomb Kings army, so look forward to some pics of that. And I did get a test model primed for my Lumineth Spearhead, which is my entry in the summer side quest. So I'd better look at reference pics of Fire Nation soldiers...

Hey, not quite a month has gone by since my last post. Sadly, that is, in fact, an improvement. But, I have at least been getting some painting and other hobbying done. Let's see what I've been up to, shall we?

First off, I finished my entry for the June painting challenge, so I have a perfect record for the "season" so far (even if last month's entry was less than stellar). Here are my final pics of the Tomb Scorpion:



I personally think this guy turned out pretty good. And he was a lot of fun to work on. I had to add rocks to the 3d printed base because otherwise due to the position of the claws the legs would be dangling in the air. I didn't assemble the model though; it was part of that lot I bought to start my Tomb Kings army. The model is by OnePageRules and can be found on MyMiniFactory.

I've also been getting some paint down on other things, but nothing else is finished. I made some progress on those chariots, so here they are now:

Haven't made any real progress on the crew since the last post, but the chariots themselves are nearly done. Just some shades and highlights on the metallics left, and a couple of other details. And, of course, I do need to finish the crews.

I also finally got back to working on Ionus Cryptborn, as I'm gonna need him soonish for a game. His base is nearly done, as can be seen in this pic:

I just need to add a few tufts and maybe touch up a couple of things, and it'll be ready. I enjoyed putting some verdigris on the metallics in the ruins; it really helps sell that this has been abandoned for some time in a somewhat nasty environment. The dragon and rider are still somewhat in the ugly stage and not ready for picture day as of yet, but I have gotten some work done on them since the last time I posted them.

Finally in terms of painting for the month, I got some basecoats down on a test model for my Lumineth force that is the subject of my entry in the Summer Side Quest challenge. After doing some research in the form of starting another watch of the Avatar: The Last Airbender series, I was able to come up with this so far:

The blurry photo isn't doing the model any favors, but you can see the basics of what I'm going for. It'll never be a 1:1 copy of a Fire Nation uniform, as they are somewhat different in style, but I'm trying to at least make it close. I'm happy with it so far, but I need to finish it. And I'd also like to start working on the rest of the spearhead, but the weather locally just refuses to cooperate. Basically it's been very humid for the last couple of weeks, and now we've finally got a break in the humidity but it's windy, so spraying outside is still a no go. What am I to do? Brush priming all these guys will be absolute hell.

And finally in the new hobby department, I bought and assembled the newly released Hera, Daughter of Helm miniature(s) for my Middle-Earth collection:

I finally have the main character from The War of the Rohirrim, and the miniatures of her are pretty nice. She comes with the option to be wearing her cloak or not on both the foot and mounted version, and since I couldn't decide I ended up going with the cloak on the mounted model, and without it on the foot one. I figured she might take it off if she dismounts. In addition to her, I also picked up the Armies of Middle-Earth book, which contains a lot of the MESBG content that comes from the books rather than the movies, as well as some of GW's own stuff (like the Easterling characters).

And now, I'm going to take a page from Nevelon's playbook and do a short half year progress report on my goals:
Here are the goals I set out for myself at the beginning of the year:

1: As ever, my goal for the year is to finish 100 models, in any combination of games/systems/armies. Rules are the same, massive models still only count as one. Gotta pump my numbers up, we've been having rookie numbers for too long.
2: Paint some non-GW models. This year, this might actually be kind of a free space, so I'll set a specific goal of 30+ non-GW models done. This might seem kind of high, but to reach it I'll have to actually put some effort in towards my box games probably.
3: Continue to play some non-40k games. This could end up being another free space, as right now I'm planning to take at least a few months off of playing 40k. We'll see if I can stay away for that long. I'll make a specific goal of playing at least 6 games of stuff that isn't 40k.
4: Paint a variety of both leaders, mooks, and monsters/vehicles. I feel like I did okay with this last year, but I want to continue the trend. Not sure what specific numbers I'll aim for, so this one's perhaps a bit nebulous, but...eh.
5: Finish painting some stuff that is currently WIP. Minimum of 10 models that were partially painted at the end of 2024. I'm tired of leaving dregs behind; my numbers for 2024 would have been somewhat better if I had just made myself actually finish things instead of losing interest halfway through.
6: For a more specific and focused goal: Finish, or at least make good progress on, either the Leviathan starter set (40k 10th), Skaventide Stormcast half (AoS 4th), or the Dominion set (AoS 3rd). Maybe I should add the Pelennor Fields set as part of this (Middle-Earth), or the Tomb Kings of Khemri starter box (Old World). Starter boxes make nice easy project goals.
7: I'll repeat last year's goal of dealing with my bits box situation. Some stuff is going to go to the FLGS to donate to their own bits collection, but other stuff needs to be sorted by me into the appropriate boxes. It would really help with the clutter in my apartment.
8: Another repeat goal, and one I think most hobbyists should share: Paint more stuff than I buy. This is going to be a tall order this year, as I'm already planning on picking up both the Battle for Edoras box (the new Middle-Earth starter) and the Death Korps of Krieg army set whenever it drops, as well as a few other things. It's a tough goal, but the attempt must be made.
Bonus: Keep up with this blog better. Nevelon does a great job keeping up with his, and there's no reason I can't do the same. Hell, it might help me with motivation, as I'd hate to be due to make another blog post and have nothing to show for it, after all.

So, how am I doing on these?
1. Not great, although I'm on course to beat last year's meager total. Maybe if I knock out a bunch of easy Tomb Kings skeletons I can get back on course for 100. Currently sitting at 24.
2. I was feeling pretty confident on this one. Now, I'm really not so sure, as I have yet to even touch a non-GW model with a brush this year (and I'm not counting 3d printed stuff that's meant for GW games).
3. I've played 2 games of Middle-Earth and 5 games of Age of Sigmar for that escalation league, as well as one game of The Old World, so this one's done and dusted. In fact, I have yet to play a game of 40k at all this year!
4. Most of what I've painted so far has been mooks (Genestealers, Terminators, and Skeletons), I've done one leader (Broodlord), and I've done a monster (Scorpion). So I'm on track for this one, but I do want to knock out a few more of each category.
5. I don't think anything I've painted so far was WIP last year, but I'm working on Ionus now, and those chariots were WIP when I got them and therefore count.
6. Not sure I'm gonna finish any of the ones I listed, but the Skeletons and the Terminators are from starter boxes, so that's at least a little bit of progress.
7. Haven't done anything with bits boxes yet.
8. I'm not even close to painting more than I buy, as I did indeed pick up the Battle of Edoras box (but not the Krieg one). I've also decided not to pick up Grand Cathay for Old World after all; despite how awesome the models are, they look like a real pain to actually paint, and I don't want to try to store or transport the big sky lantern thingy.
Bonus: Yeah, haven't done a great job keeping up with the blog. Once a month is just not good enough.

I'm not going to do a YTD picture or anything, but as is tradition there will be a picture of all my painted stuff for the year at the end of the year. Here's hoping I'll have a lot more stuff to add to it in the bottom half of 2025.

Good stuff, ZergSmasher. The scorpion turned out well, and the chariots will be quite an eye-catcher when they're done. Hera does look like a nice model. Looking forward to seeing her painted.

Keep plugging away. You are doing good work, just keep at it.

Great to catch up through here, loving the Tomb Kings. The scorpion looks very cool, nice work on the bronze.

@YWS: Thanks! Not sure how soon I'll get to Hera, but I really do want to paint her.

@Nev: Thanks as always for the encouragement!

@Olthannon: Thank you! My original intent for the Scorpion was for the metallics to be gold, but it ended up looking more like bronze. I'm calling it a happy accident.

So I haven't done anything for this month's painting challenge yet, but I did manage to finish Ionus Cryptborn. Here are the final pics of him:




I am super proud of how this model turned out! I won't say it's my best work ever, but it's up there, I think. Even the base turned out exactly how I wanted it, and it was fun to apply verdigris all over the metal parts of the ruined structure. I look forward to using this guy in games of AoS; he's already getting some compliments in my local gaming group's Discord chat. And even when he's not taking to the gaming table, he'll look good on display! For my yearly goals, this'll count towards Monsters and towards finishing WIP stuff, so it's nice to get some progress towards those. He only counts as 1 model for numbers though, so I've still got a ways to go for that.

In other news, I got some more basecoats down on my Lumineth test model:

Most of the colors have been blocked in at this point, so it'll be on to shades and highlights next. I'm definitely happy with the color scheme; he looks like he should fit right in with the Fire Nation. And in related bigger news, I finally got that window in the weather I needed and got all his buddies primed. So my Summer Side Quest project can proceed. I'll need to make up for lost time!

Otherwise it's been a little bit of this and that. I put a few more Old World skeletons together, but we all know what those look like so no need for another pic of gray plastic bony bois. I also played another game of Old World, this time facing the Wood Elves. That is a tricksy army, and I did get soundly whooped. I played way too aggressively with my Priest on Bone Dragon, and when he died, my army started to crumble as he was my Heirophant. The joys of playing an undead army, I guess.

That's all for now; my entry for the July challenge is going to be the Reclusians from the Skaventide set, if I can find time for them. They're putting in solid work on the tabletop, so they deserve some paint! See you all next time.

That guy's rad. Who doesn't love a Chaplain on a dragon? Excellent work!

Nice work on the dragon, and the fire nation is coming along well.

@YWS: Yeah, dragon riders in any universe are badass! But why would you call him a chaplain? I mean, he is a priest and he has a skull helmet, otherwise he's nothing like a chaplain at all!

@Nev: Thanks!

So it's probably too little too late but I've finally started working on my entry for July's painting challenge:

I've blocked in most of the colors, but not all, and I need to make a touchup pass before I start the shading and highlights. I might be able to get them done other than the bases, as my Stormcast basing theme is more complicated than that of my other wargaming armies and will require more time. We'll have to see.

In other hobby news, I've made the unfortunate but necessary decision to sell my Tyranids. I'm just not feeling inspired to paint them at all, or play with them, and they're taking up valuable shelf space. I'm hoping to put the money towards my car, as it does need some work done on it (the power steering pump makes a horrible sound and it likely will need replaced, and there are other things too). Problem is, I'm not sure anyone local is interested, at least not at the price I'm asking. We'll see if that changes.

And now, although it's been a minute since the GW preview show, here are my thoughts on what was revealed:
New Leagues of Votann models: DIGGY DIGGY HOLE INTENSIFIES! I'm not sure where I'll get the money (the car has priority right now over any major hobby spending) but I want at least one of everything they previewed, and I'll likely want more than one of some of the kits (like the transport). I can make that transport work very well with the theming of my Votann (Grineer from Warframe, and they have a flying transport that isn't entirely dissimilar in appearance).
New Tomb Kings models: I'll probably need both of these eventually as well, and the War of Settra's Fury book. Here's hoping the prices are reasonable, for GW anyways. The models are awesome and a great glow up for the range in general, although they are fancy enough that they really show how dated the rest of the range is!
New Nighthaunt and Flesh-Eater Courts models: Both of these models are awesome! Neither is from an army I'm interested in so I won't be picking them up myself, but it's nice to see those armies getting some cool new toys.
Helsmiths of Hashut: The long-awaited Chaos Dwarves are here, and they look pretty badass! However, even if I was wanting to invest in yet another AoS army, I don't think it would be these. I do look forward to seeing them across the table from me at some point.
New Horus Heresy and Legiones Imperialis models: The Mk. II Assault Marines are pretty cool, but I'm not about to start playing 30k. I couldn't care less about LI. I don't want to rain on people's parade who do like it though, so it's good to see it get some new stuff.
New Underworlds set: I do like the new warbands, but I'm not about to start playing Underworlds, especially since the local scene for it is nonexistent AFAIK.
New Space Marine characters: All of the new characters are amazing, no notes. I particularly like the White Scars guy on the jetbike (like, why did Kor'sarro Khan not get one of those?), and the update to Vulkan He'stan is well done also.
New Marine Combat Patrols: I already have basically everything in these, so I can safely skip them. In fact, most of these are kind of bleh (particularly the Iron Hands one, like wtf GW?). The White Scars one is the only one I would even slightly consider as I don't own an Impulsor currently, my Ravenwing wouldn't mind a few more Outriders, and I could probably kitbash a neat Primaris Sammael out of the bike character.

So in summary, I want the new Votann stuff, and I want the new Tomb Kings heroes, but the rest is just not really for me. I'm not in a major hurry for either of those things I do want, so I can relax for now. Meanwhile I need to keep on painting.

Your work on that dragon is fantastic. Well done!

If you can’t get them all across the line, try to finish at least one. And a blacked and tidy base is fine for entry.

Oof. Sorry to hear about the car troubles. The sad fact is we need them to live in this country, and they are not cheep to have and maintain. Hope it’s nothing too major. GL finding your nids a good home. The mechanics of selling has kept me from thinning my collections.

I knew there was going to be a number of things that would catch your eye in that last reveal show. Grab them when you can. One perk of having everything in the CPs already is that you should be able to put it down on the table when the rules drop and play a game with them.

@Josh: Thanks very much, I had a lot of fun working on him!

@Nev: Yeah, while I'm grateful to have gotten a car (but sad that it took the death of my grandfather for it to happen), I do hate the necessity of it. They are a necessary evil, especially where I live (we have city buses, but they run so infrequently that they might as well not bother really). As far as the Tyranids, so far there hasn't been any interest from anyone to buy the whole collection at once, but I've already had one or two people express interest in some items from it. So I'll probably have to piece it out, which will be a headache but at least it'll sell (hopefully).

I'm still here, and I'm still painting. This time around it's back to the Nehekharan Desert and my Tomb Kings, where my entry in the monthly painting challenge is the High Priest on Necrolith Bone Dragon. I'm going from painting a living dragon to a dead one, but trust me I wouldn't want to meet this one any more than the other one! Here's where it's at currently:

Lots of work left to do, but mostly it'll be detail work from here on out. GW really knocked it out of the park with this model, the first new addition to the Tomb Kings range since well before Fantasy ended. I've been having a blast with it so far. For those curious, the rocks on the base have a lot of white spots because those are little skulls and scarabs that I'll go back and pick out with other colors (using Contrast/Speedpaints).

In gaming news, my local gaming group recently finished our Age of Sigmar escalation league, and I finished 3rd (out of 9 who started, and two of those ended up dropping due to life stuff). I won all but two of my games, and those were against relatively experienced AoS players (playing Flesh-Eater Courts and Ironjawz). Most of the rest (including myself) were new to the game. I had a blast and learned a lot, but now I've got to learn some of it all over again, as the new GHB has changed some things, most notably Battle Tactics. Meanwhile I'll just keep on painting, these Stormcast aren't going to paint themselves, and I wouldn't mind giving the Kruleboyz a try soon (I'll have to find the cash for their Faction Terrain and Endless Spells first).

As for The Old World, I actually will be entering a tournament in a couple of weeks (actually less than 2 whole weeks). Thankfully painting is not required, as there's no way I'll have my whole army painted by then. I fully expect to get my ass handed to me, but that's okay, that's how it went when I was trying to learn 40k too. I'm treating it as a chance to road trip with some buddies and get 3 games of Old World in. I just hope I can find some time before then to get some practice games, just to make sure I have the mechanics of the game down so I don't completely embarrass myself. I also want to finish the Bone Dragon before then so at least my centerpiece will be painted.

So yeah, lots to do. I 3D printed some additional models but forgot to take a picture of them (it's some Ushabti with bows for the Tomb Kings), and sadly I haven't had time to work on my Summer Side Quest entry. I'm gonna have to crunch if I want to get my Fire Nation elves ready. Whatever happens, you'll see it all right here.

Well done with the dragons! The bone dragon is particularly cool. Good luck with the Old World tourney, sounds like it'll be a blast.

Looks good. Keep at it!

One of these days I should seriously look at The Old World, but too many game systems, so little time. And I’ve been having a lot of fun with AoS.

@Olthannon: Thanks, I do love me some dragons. And the Old World tournament was a lot of fun, I'll have more to say about it below.

@Nev: Thanks as always! I think Old World would be right up your alley, especially considering you used to play WHFB. But I understand completely about not having time; it's the main reason I don't play Horus Heresy, and haven't been playing 40k for the better part of a year now, just not enough time to do everything, especially on top of a full-time job. I have been enjoying AoS and Old World a lot, and I've even found time for a couple of games of Middle-Earth.

I managed to finish my entry for the August painting challenge, Weathered. So without further ado, here are the pics of the High Priest on Necrolith Bone Dragon:



While definitely not my best work, I'm happy with how it turned out. It's a fantastic sculpt by GW. It's also pretty awkward to transport to games, meaning I might need to bite the bullet and get a bespoke foam tray for it. Either way, it's out of the pile of opportunity and across into the finished group as #26 for the year.

And here are #27-29, a group of three Skeleton Chariots:



I'm pretty happy with these models as well. The reason for the somewhat awkward positions of the riders is because I didn't assemble them, I only had to figure out how to get them to fit into the chariots. If I had been the one to put them together, I'd have planned better. Still, I think they look alright. This unit helps me with my goal for finishing partially completed things, because they were already partially done when I started (I didn't start them, but they still count as partially painted). Now I need to assemble my other chariots (the ones that came in the starter, and a set of three that were new on sprues in my FLGS's used model bins). I do love me some chariot action!

Now, as for that Old World tournament, I had a really good time. I got to play three games against three awesome opponents (the last of whom was the guy I rode to St. Louis with to play in the event). I went 1-2, which is honestly better than I expected (I defeated the Warriors of Chaos, but lost to Vampire Counts and my friend's Wood Elves). What models I had painted got some nice compliments, and some of the armies I saw at the event were VERY well painted, and that's one of the best things about wargaming tournaments in general. One of the players even had a Grand Cathay army (unpainted unfortunately), so it was nice to actually see the models in person for the first time (they are pretty neat). This was my first tournament for a game other than 40k, and I'm sure it won't be the last, at least not if I have anything to say about it!

While I was at the store for the tournament, I picked up a neat little Reaper Bones dude to use as a Tomb King:

I got the idea to browse the Bones section because I saw a fair number of third-party models being used, both 3D printed and others. I might browse the same sections of my local shops to look for any nice models that would work for my armies, as Reaper Bones are a lot less expensive than GW models! One thing about the guy I picked up is that he has paired blades, which just happens to be perfect for one of the Tomb Kings magic items (a set of paired blades that give more attacks depending on how many ranks are in the enemy unit the model is fighting). So now I have a sculpt for a Tomb King/Tomb Prince with that item.

That's it for now. I'm very doubtful I'll be able to make a lot of progress on my Fire Nation elves before the deadline on the Summer Side Quest, but maybe I can make something happen. We'll see.

Bravo! That bone dragon is excellent. Really nice work on the bones, really nice work!

Lovely painting on the Bone Dragon. That's a nice Reaper piece for Undead indeed! Good idea to look at 3rd parties, I think Northstar does Undead Revenants and Skeletons that could be good for Tomb Kings for example.

Great work on the big guy. And the chariots. What do you use for the bones?
TK are probably the best army for 3rd party stuff. Undead Egyptians is pretty common.

Need to do a face-off picture with the two latest dragons. Nice stuff, ZergSmasher!

@Olthannon: Thank you very much!

@Ragsta: Thanks! I did look into Northstar's models, and while their skellies are decent they don't really look like Tomb Kings at all. I appreciate the suggestion nonetheless.

@Nev: Thank you! For the bones, all I did was spray the model in Wraithbone, then did an all-over coat of Army Painter Speedpaints Pallid Bone, followed by a drybrush of Army Painter Bony Spikes and a very selective edge highlight of Army Painter Pale Sand (which was probably too light but...eh).

@YWS: Dragon face-off, eh? I'll think about it. The bone dragon is bigger than Ionus' dragon, Cthorak, but I suspect Cthorak would be faster since he's, well, not dead.

Just a quick proof of life. I haven't really painted anything else since the bone dragon and chariots, but I have assembled some stuff. I kitbashed myself a Mortuary Priest with a banner since in the Mortuary Cult Army of Infamy (from the Tomb Kings Arcane Journal) you can make a Mortuary Priest into your Battle Standard Bearer. I used spare parts from the Necrosphinx kit (which is a treasure trove of Tomb Kings bits) and this is what I came up with:

I was glad to find a use for the banner from the Khemrian Warsphinx, as it's a really neat looking thing. I kind of wish I had cut the staff in his right hand down a bit further (I used a spear from the kit, and those are pretty long so I did cut it shorter), but it looks okay. I'll need to glue something into the base as the model is very top heavy, but that'll be easy.

I also picked up and assembled one of the new Kapricus vehicles for my Votann army:

I built it as the Defender since I don't have any Hernkyn Yaegirs to transport with the Carrier yet. I'll get another Kapricus if and when I get some Yaegirs. I did make the main gun swappable; the barrels don't even need magnets as friction holds them just fine, but the clip for the Magna-Rail cannon and the charge pack for the Rotary Cannon did need magnets to be swappable (it was not hard to do). I didn't glue the model to the base as I want to be able to reach the underside easier for painting, but otherwise the model is fully assembled. Yes, I probably should have left the driver out to paint her easier, but you won't be able to see the parts I can't get a brush on so I figured what the hell. It's fine. I do love the look of the thing, and I'm sure I'll enjoy painting it.

The challenge theme for this month is Chaff, so I plan to paint up some Hobgrot Slittaz for my AoS Kruleboyz. I'll need to get them primed, so here's hoping we get a nice calm and non-humid day for it here soon.

Ooh exciting. I want to get my grubby mitts on the new Votann at some point soon. I'm hoping there might be a little Christmas box with them in I can snap up. I'm keen to get that Kapricus and give it wheels.

@Olthannon: You should, but right now good luck on getting the Ironkin Steeljacks (nobody's got any for sale, not even the eBay scalpers!). Hopefully GW cranks out a bunch more of those. The Kapricus is my favorite of the new models, and honestly it might look good with wheels (maybe the ones from a Sagitaur?).

Another proof of life. I have been getting some paint down. Here's a WIP shot of my entry in the September painting challenge, some Hobgrot Slittaz for my AoS Kruleboyz army:

Army Painter Speedpaints for the win, once again. I do need to shade the metallics, and maybe add a thinned down wash to the Hobgrots' skin to make them look a little dirtier (but I do want the light green to show, so I'll need to take it easy). There's only so much I want to do on these guys though, they are just expendable chaff, not heroes or anything, and honestly they probably won't get much table time without a major rules change. I will probably add some blood effects to the weapons and stuff, make them look like they've done a bit of backstabbing. I always love an excuse to add blood to weapons! No I'm not a psychopath, don't go calling the law on me...

I've also been painting up one of my 3D printed Tomb Kings priests as kind of a palette cleanser. Here's where I've gotten to on him:

I gotta say I've been thrilled with the Brownish Decay Speedpaint for all the mummified models in my Tomb Kings, it just seems to suit mummies pretty well. The model itself is, like the rest of the 3D printed stuff I got in my initial lot of Tomb Kings, from OnePageRules. I'll need to shade and highlight the gold, as well as the blue cloth, then there are a few small details to pick out on the front of the model (some kind of bone tchotchkes or something).

If I finish out the Hobgrots and that Priest, that'll put me even with my total from the last couple of years (40), then I can finally beat that number and be officially out of the funk I've been in. I've got plenty of Tomb Kings stuff on deck to help pad out my numbers further too.

Hobgrots and preist are coming along well. Keep up the good work!

@Nev: Thanks as always!

Work continues on the Hobgrots, they are nearly done other than the bases. Here's how they are looking currently:

One of the main things I'm trying to figure out how to make look good is going to be the claws and teeth. I'll probably do them a darker color to contrast with the bright skin, which thankfully got toned down by the brown wash I applied to basically the whole mini.

I've also basically finished that Tomb Kings Priest, just needs some minor details like maybe some highlights on all the gold, plus the base of course:

Sorry for the blurry pic, but he's definitely getting there.

On the assembly front, I've been getting some stuff done. I went ahead and assembled my Forge World Screaming Skull Catapult that I got in the initial lot of Tomb Kings stuff, mostly for shiggles. Here's what it looks like:

This thing was annoying to assemble and get everything lined up right, but I think it ended up basically correct. It should be easy enough to paint. Between this one and the two 3D printed ones, I've got a decent amount of artillery for the bone bois.

One thing I really needed for my Leagues of Votann army was a unit of Hernkyn Yaegirs, possibly more than one. Thankfully I was able to find some stl files on Myminifactory and I made the 3D printer go BRRR! once again:

I'm a fan of these sculpts, although they are a bit bigger than the official models I suspect. The files were from Adeptus Miniatures on Myminifactory, they are affiliated with Red Makers and both groups make some very nice alternative sculpt models for 40k and Kill Team. I have printed some of Red Makers' Tempestus Scions and they are legit, and I've been debating picking up their files for a Taurox, with options for treads or wheels.

I did manage to sell most of my Tyranids to other local players, but some of them I ended up turning in to my FLGS for some store credit (they will put the models in their used model bins for others to buy). I was able to get some nice stuff, including a Memnyr Strategist for my Votann:

Again, sorry for the blurry photo. I love this sculpt, and it was an investment for the future, as I do plan on grabbing some Ironkin Steeljacks for him to go with once those come back in stock (you literally can't find them online anywhere, I didn't even find them on eBay at scalper prices, which surprised me, not that I would ever pay scalpers).

The other thing I was able to get was the original launch box for the Lumineth Realm-Lords. Somehow my FLGS still had one in stock despite the fact that it came out like five years ago and the book in it is two editions out of date. The manager of said FLGS let me have a good deal on it so I pounced. So far all I've assembled from it is the Light of Eltharion model, but there is also a set of 10 of the Vanari Auralan Wardens (the spear guys) and 5 Vanari Dawnriders (cavalry) included as well. All of that was stuff I wanted and I was able to get it for a good price, so I call that a win. Anyways, here's the Light of Eltharion:

This model is really neat, being basically an empty animated suit of armor. I'm not sure how I'll eventually work it into my Avatar: The Last Airbender theme for the army, but I'm sure I'll think of something (there was a lot of spirit stuff in that series after all).

I've got basically a week left to finish the Hobgrots, so very doable. Next month will be the annual spoopy month, so I'll probably enter something Tomb Kings related, or maybe I'll find something out of left field to enter...

You could go with off-white teeth and black claws for the hobgrots? They don’t need to be the same.

Screaming skull catapults have come a long way. I used to love mine, was sad when I lost them with the VC/TK split, but my army fit better with the vamps.

Empty armor could be part of the airbenders? Or metalbending (a subset of earth, IIRC)

@Nev: As you'll see, I ended up going with a light brown for both teeth and claws, and I like how it turned out. As far as the Light of Eltharion, I'm not sure bending would work as I might need to model a person on the base who is doing the actual bending. I'm leaning towards maybe a spirit, as we saw in the first season of the show when Avatar Roku's spirit showed up and knocked some Fire Nation soldiers around so Team Avatar could escape. Maybe I'll base the color scheme on Avatar Roku himself to lean into that. We'll have to see. That model may not get paint anytime soon so I've got time to plan. Thanks for the advice and suggestions!

I managed to finish my entry in the September painting challenge, and only thanks to a double extension (praise to our benevolent overlord Nevelon!). Here are the final pics of my Hobgrot Slittaz:



While these aren't going to win a Golden Demon anytime soon, I'm very proud of how they turned out. Pity they won't see much table time as right now Kruleboyz have much better options for units that just want to hold space (like Monsta-Killaz). I'm still glad to have gotten them done, as that's 10 more models for the year, and another unit of mooks for my goal. I'm now one model away from tying my total from last year, and we've still got three more months for me to get stuff done. I'm definitely happy about that!

Next time, I should have final pics of that Tomb Kings priest; he just needs his base done and he'll be complete. For the painting challenge, it's the annual spoopy month so I think I might actually enter something from Godtear, as there's a character in there who is a lich lord and has skeletal minions. That'll give me a break from endless GW models at least!

Good work! They turned out well.