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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.