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Thanks, Meer_Cat About the 500 glue sticks... It is a lot, but I'm about halfway through my second box of them since 2022. The box I was given as a gift is my third box of 500 glue sticks .
I hope you have success trying out what I use for molds. I'm looking forward to what you make.

The first of the five minis that I'm trying to finish before the end of the year is complete: My scratch-built, Iron Hands Dreadnought "Emendatio". I realized that I forgot to make my Iron Hands captain a backpack. Once that's done and attached, my Iron Hands Assault on Black Reach Task Force will be complete.

My Raven Guard box dreadnought is now done. Here is brother Subdolus.


I also finished the Iron Hands Captain's backpack that I forgot to do earlier this year. With that, and the dreadnought from earlier this week, my Iron Hands version of the Assault on Black Reach space marine force is done. That also gives me the last square I need for hobby bingo. I'm not sure how I managed this year. Maybe the card I picked was easier than usual, this year.

The dread is a wee cutie!

Thanks Graven

Happy "Haul-idays", everyone. I will do doing my year end retrospective in this post, along with showing my hobby related gifts, and one thing that I didn't get around to sharing yet.

I sculpted 54 things this year, but gave away 25 of them. I had trouble getting to some of them, but these are what I gathered for the group shot:


I painted 97 miniatures this year: 46 for D&D, 42 for 40k, and the rest was for other things.
D&D: (22 were given away, and I couldn't find 3 for the picture)

40k:


I also painted 7 buildings, 25 craters, and 10 pieces of scatter terrain for 40k:


I also painted all of the tiles for a D&D adventure:


For the holidays, my birthday is close to Christmas, and I'm a teacher, so I get a lot of gifts and gift cards all around the same time.
I received only one mini, which is good, because my pile a shame is worrying me and I haven't had time to open any of the 40k minis that I got last year for Christmas/birthday.


I received the compete campaign book sets for "Shield of Baal", "Sanctus Reach", and "Crusade of Fire". I hope I can play these some day.


Four 40k novels to add to my outrageous library:


One of my Kickstarters arrived right before Christmas, and I bought three more D&D books with gift cards (one still hasn't arrived).


On the art side, I have 8 new bottles of acrylic ink, so for total of 19 bottles. (Many duplicates)

And a lot of new paint brushes. I decided to take the plunge, and got myself my first kolinsky sable brushes, as well as huge amount of disposable synthetic brushes.


Thank you for stopping by. In January, I plan to review my piles of shame, and compare them to my painted minis. My plan for 2026 is to focus on cranking out all the stuff that still isn't finished from the first year of my blog (if I still have it)


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I forgot to share this a few weeks ago, but I cranked out all of these oozes for D&D to be part of a permanent miniature collection in my class for anyone in m class to use when playing D&D.

Those are some good loot drops!
Love the sculpts and creativity.

Those inks will be put to good use next year. And I am exited for you getting the kolinsky sable brushes. All of those should last you for at least 5 years.

It is always hard to choose to work on a pile of shame, OR kitbash a new creation

Thanks Mothsniper ,yeah it can be really hard to stick to an original hobby plan when enthusiasm and inspiration strike, but here's hoping. And thanks, some of my brushes have been put to work for around 10 years and they're getting pretty worn.

As promised, I have done thorough look through of my hobby pile of shame. It's both exciting and intimidating, but mostly just makes me wish I had more people to consistently play with.

I have 204 Warhammer 40k minis in my pile of shame: 118 still in boxes, 10 on sprues, and 75 build but not painted (mostly termagants). Because of the crazy prices of Warhammer minis, I don't count my 3D prints, sculpted, and cast minis as part of the pile of shame, but for other game systems I do. It would be about 400 in the pile of shmae if I counted such things. (I have roughly 524 fully painted Warhammer 40k models)


Regular visitors to my blog, know D&D will be a big one. I have 557 unpainted Dungeons & Dragons miniatures, including 3D prints, sculpts, and cast copies. As I have mentioned before, I get excited by good deals and getting D&D minis in bulk, and I often give many away helping others start in the hobby. After buying D&D minis, I then make the ones I need for the adventures I'm running, usually not needing the ones I bought. (I have roughly 603 painted D&D minis).


The ratio of unpainted to painted wasn't too bad, but it's downhill from here
I love the discontinued game Wrath of Kings and snapped up a lot of deals to make sure I had everything I would need to make every army, plus extras to gave to people willing to play the game. I actually got a good number of games of Wrath of Kings the past few years before 2025, though mostly playing with unpainted armies.
I have 295 unpainted, mostly new in box Wrath of Kings minis. (I have 11 painted models).


The rest of these games, I haven't even gotten to play yet, although I have come close.
I have 295 RuneWars minis all new in box as a future game to play. (0 painted)


I asked for the Flames of War starter set "Hit the beach" last Christmas. I haven't had the opportunity to open or play it. It has 109 minis in the box.


I was excited to try BloodBowl and bought it back in 2020. I also bought the Snotling team and backed a cool female dwarf team on Kickstarter. I almost got to play this Christmas, but we ran out of time while building the models. I have 67 BloodBowl minis, half are built, half are on sprue.

Last, I have the BattleTech essentials starter set. I bought it the very first day it was available at Target, excited to play with my brother, like when we were young. Life is so busy for both of us, that it sat unopened for over a year. I opened it up and my brother was going to play it a few days ago on my birthday, but once again we ran out of time. Getting that close to playing was exciting enough that I 3D printed the two mechs that have stat cards but not minis in the essentials kit, bringing my unpainted total to 4. My brother was interested enough that he ordered BattleTech: game of armored combat box, so now we will both have BattleTech games that we don't get to play

In total my pile of shame is 1327. Intimidating, but also full of dreams. The last time I calculated my pile of shame with this thoroughness was 2022, where my pile of shame was 1316. So, it hasn't really changed too much. Thank you for stopping by, especially if you read through all of this.

I will sacrifice my happiness and take all your shame Syro!
Let me set you free Brother!

Your pile of Shame puts my pile of shame to shame!

I need to put some points into shame stat and lvl up my pile.
Will be going to local hobby shop next week.

@Tommygun1918: Thanks for the offer, Tommygun. But man shipping between the US and Canada is weirdly high.
@Mothsniper: Thanks Mothsniper, that would actually help me feel better. Good luck at the hobby store

Your kids must love you if you're getting that haul from them, Syro_. Well done. No wonder though if you're running gaming clubs for them!

Love the chonky dreads at the top of the page. Neat scratchbuilding.

Cheers to a great year and here's to another one in 2026.

Thank you, Tzurk The families of my students are incredibly generous, but only two of the Warhammer novels and one D&D book are from them. The rest of the gifts are from my family. I spent the huge number of gift cards from school, mostly on my family, so I guess it works out

I've mostly been doing a lot of brush priming because of the cold, but I have gotten a little painton one of my scratch-built heldrakes, and the very beginning of some more termagants.

Happy New Year, Syro. So long as you are enjoying yourself and your family can still physically move around it the pile of shame is acceptable

Thanks, Ragsta. Happy New Year. My family isn't bothered by it, but I don't think they know how large it is, either But, I do like your rule for a pile of shame. Like all of us, I really wish I had more hobby time. I'm going to try to burn through some of this pile, this year.

Remember, it's a pile of POTENTIAL! No shame here. Loving the Helldrake, btw.

Thank you Graven I realize I should have gotten a really solid opaque white (or smooth white to black gradient underneath) before trying to wet blend for the first time. But I'm planning to just press forward to get it done.

7 Termagants are done and out of the pile of shame/potential

Man that's quite a pile of potential. My SO once called my closet of shame my closet of potential and I was like 'reframing indeed'. I find focusing on a project with an end goal helps. Not sure if that helps you though! But any painting is good painting at reducing the pile!

Thanks for the advice, Blockade. Nothing motivates me more than having a game coming up that the need the miniatures painted for, but those are few and far between
The projects definitely help with direction and completion, but the focus is hard to keep on track with my limited hobby time, with too many exciting ideas. 40k I think it's pretty good about chugging along on. D&D on the other hand, I get excited about buying the minis for future games... but unless I'm an working on completely prepping an adventure or have a game coming up where I need them,I have trouble getting myself painting them. Also, I mentioned some time in the past that I will buy D&D minis then make more own for a game, and then paint the ones I made without painting the ones I bought.

I've realized that I didn't quite finish painting the majority of my Chaos Space Marines, even though they one one of my first armies that I've had for around 10 years. I've going to try to put the finishing touches on all these littel bits of unpainted trim, added weapons, missing backpacks, etc (along with the heldrakes)

At least I don’t feel too bad about my pile of potential (thanks for that graven & blockade23) now compared with you syro! That heldrake is looking good and so are the termagants - always feels good finishing a squad off! More so with old projects that are almost done and just need a few finishing bits!
Great start to the year!

Hi JordySteve, thanks for stopping by. I'm glad the three of us could help you feel better about your pile of potential even if I accomplished it differently than Graven & Blockade did I agree about getting back to and finishing old squads that are nearly done. It gives you that nice feeling of accomplishment without having to do all the work from scratch in (even though you do, but don't remember it) And thanks, I hope to keep going strong while I can.

I forgot to mention last time, but I actually got to play BattleTech for the first time in probably close to 25-30 years, on Saturday.


I'm focusing on finishing my 5 kit-bashed Chaos Space Marines, first. They have less detail, so will hopefully go fast. There's a bit more paint on them than last time.

The 5 Chaos Space Marines are done. I'm class to finishing 13 glue cast gene stealers, that's likely next.

My 13 hot glue cast gene stealers are done. I'll try to keep this momentum up.

Impressive stuff, sticky and victorious!

It’s all a matter of perspective Syro - and all that matters for now is that my delusions about not having too much continue!

The chaos marine squad looks nice - red corsairs?

You’ll have to explain for me (hot) glue cast genestealers - eh?

@inmygravenimage: Thanks Graven
@JordySteve: heh heh, I'm glad I can support you in not worrying about your pile of shame. Thanks about the chaos marines. They are supposed to be Crimson Slaughter, but when I was painting them, I was thinking they looked a lot like Red Corsairs. That would save me from having to paint all the trim from black to brass.
As for the hot glue cast genestealers, my ambition far out paces my finances and willingness to pay GW prices. Since I never play in GW stores anyway (or much of anywhere to be honest), I use silicone molds to make copies of bits to mass produce or kitbash models for 40k. In the case of my Tyranids except for my termagants, much of the army comes from molds. I bought a single model of each small Tyranid model from a bits seller years ago, and as I want to add them to my army, I make molds and then make as many as I want.

A little more paint on my one scratch-built heldrake. I really like how the new parts in the center look. Much nicer than the first try on the wings.

I'm in the mood for a change of pace, and have gotten started on my Ork Mek Gun kit. It took a little over an hour to build these 5 little gretchen crew. I never realized how time consuming some of these little tasks were before I became a parent, when hobby time suddenly became a rare premium.