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I was looking at the libby wondering why it didn't look quite right. Took me a while to realise it was missing the backpack

I know its a little blurry, but I really like the gold tone on the honor guard's chest eagle. The perfect shade.

I hope your Thanksgiving and trip to Kentucky were great

Besides the long drive, the trip went very well.

OK, here is what I counted back on page 11

Nevelon wrote:
Bike w/melta
Bike Sarge
Bike
Attack bike
Sternguard sarge
Sternguard HF
9 assault marines
IG primaris psyker
c-melta tac sarge
c-grav dev sarge
Jump captain
Company champion
3 HG
HB mk. 6 marine

And sifting through my blog from that point I’ve added:
c-plas tac sarge
Drop Pod
2 Vanguard Vets
c-flamer tac sarge
2 command squad vets.
LSS
c-melta sternguard
DW MW Librarian
DW DA c-plas
DW WS marine
HG w/axe
JP Librarian

So 26 from the previous list, plus 13 since then, gives us 39. Not quite the 52, although there are some bikes and vehicles in there which count a little bit more. I’m sure I’ll get a few more done by year’s end, but not the 13 I need for my goal. And because a picture is worth 1,000 words:



(The primaris pyscher is not pictured, being delivered already)

As for the new year’s goals:

Nevelon wrote:But back to 40k. It's been an interesting year. To quote myself from this thread on New Year's resolutions:
Nevelon wrote:
1 Finish painting the odds and ends from my friend's SOB army that I worked on. Just a handfull of arcoflagelents, spare immolater weapons, some IG HQs
2 Paint all my new purchases. Right now this is just finishing an ADL w/quadgun, but my group of friends does our gift exchange this Sunday, so that pile might get bigger.
3 Make a display board for my army. I've had the sheets of foam insulation waiting to be carved for years, never get around to it.
4 Base my army. Someday this will happen.
5 Paint my spare bits. I've magetized a number of things, painted the primary set up, but never get around to doing the other options.
6 Try to get more games in.

There are a bunch of projects I'd like to do, but need to see what the budget looks like. So those arn't on the resoulution list. Make a Lysander counts-as, another squad of sternguard (deathwatch?) or just add a few more items to my army (TFG, some more tanks)


Well, from a resolution standpoint, 2013 was not a successful year. I made some progress on 1 and 5, but still have lots to do. I think all the new purchases that I had for 2 got painted, but overall I've picked up a lot more then I've painted. 3 and 4 never got started. 6 is an ongoing struggle. Not sure if 2013 was better then 2012 for games played.

As for the non- resolution projects, some got work, some dropped. Due to a massive influx of hobby cash I was able to pick up the TFG I wanted, as well as some more sternguard. But due to the new codex, I'm not going to make the Lysander counts-as, and the need for making the combi heavy sternguard went down.

For 2014 I'm going to keep the same resolutions as I used last year. To those six, I'll add:

7 Update my blog more often, and maintain a consistent pace of work.

The second half of 2013 is fairly well documented in this blog. I don't think I painted as whole lot before I started tracking things here.

So, things painted in 2013 (that I can remember):
ADL w/ Quadgun.
Lord Commissar
10 Tac marines (Battle of Macragge push-fits)
Sternguard w/ HF
Devastator w/ LC
2 Bikes (1 grav, 1 reg)
Bike Captain
Battle of Macragge pilot
IG GL trooper
3 Terminators
TFC w/techmarine
Chaos marauder w/flail
4 SM bikers (bikes still WIP)

Wow, summed up like that I feel like I've done nothing. By contrast, I've done a lot of assembly work, and did loose pretty much all the work I did on the Eldar due to the bad primer. I also started the year with just dregs of old stuff on the workbench. Spare parts and odd models. It wasn't until about halfway through the year when I started this blog after getting a windfall of cash did the painting side of the hobby take off. I think 2012 was a total of ~12 models, so it's more then that.

As for what to do in 2014, it's going to be more of the same. Slowly slapping paint on plastic. Mostly the stuff you've seen showcased here. One thing I need to do to make that happen is to get some new brushes. Mine are getting old, split, bent, and ragged. The only two that are still have any life left are a pair of detail brushes. This is one reason why the bikes are killing me. Takes forever to do with tiny brushes. I want to get back to the Eldar, but they really missed their launch window due to the primer incident. If I had gotten them moving, the momentum might have kept them active after the new C:SM codex dropped. But as a non-starter, they are just sitting there while the UM get all the love. It's not like they'll go stale, I'll get to them eventually.

I think that the 4/week goal might be a little too aggressive with everything going on in my life. I think I might try to maintain a 1/week goal. Considering what I did this last year, I should be able to maintain this.

So yeah. Not the bast year. Slow progress is progress, and at least I started basing, Oh well, let’s see what I can do in a few weeks. On the bright side I’m home for the rest of the year, so won’t loose a whole week again. On the down side, I need to start all my holiday shopping/baking.

And so it begins….


I’ve got the base blue down on one of the wings and picked out some of the details in grey. So progressing. I’d like to have it done by the end of the year.

Thinking about my goals, I might be able to fudge the numbers to make them. Back when I was keeping a 4/week goal, I counted vehicles as 4. If I use that accounting, it means I only need to do 7 more models to reach my target. So if I can finish the SR, and bang out 3 infantry, I’m good to go.

On that note, and also on the getting some progress on other resolutions, I started to put some paint on a pair of arcoflagelents. I have a feeling that these guys are going to be like the IG psyker that lingered around the back of the bench as a WIP for 6 months. Not a fan of the minis. I was hoping to use these guys for the infantry part of my goal, but honestly, I don’t have the motivation to get them done in a timely manner. While I’d like to clear some of the old SoB stuff off the bench, I’ll need to find something I enjoy painting if I’m going to get it done

Looking good, I've just starting my SR now too. I've been a bit AWOL recently but I did keep you with your endeavors in this blog and am just starting mine again.

Looking forward to seeing more.

I’m a bad blogger and hobbyist; I haven’t picked up a brush all week. Running around doing holiday shopping and baking cookies has eaten up all my time. Sooo many cookies. I estimate I’ll need to make around 25 different batches before the season is over. We give out a lot of baked goods around the holidays. While I can’t send actual cookies to all may faithful readers, I can do the next best thing: provide the recipes. So if you want a yummy way to procrastinate your hobby work, give one of these a try.

Brownie Roll-out Cookies


Cranberry Pistachio cookies

Candied Pecans


Shortbread


Cinnamon Bears


Rugelach


--Nev

PS. Good to have you back RandyMcStab, love your blog.

The only thing that's missing are pictures of the cookies!

Might try your brownie recipe... Where is the shortbread recipe? I love shortbread, and wouldn't mind giving it a crack when I've got some time to kill.

 Zambro wrote:
The only thing that's missing are pictures of the cookies!

Might try your brownie recipe... Where is the shortbread recipe? I love shortbread, and wouldn't mind giving it a crack when I've got some time to kill.

To post pictures of the cookies I’d either have to set up a non-dakka place to host them, or incorporate them into a wargaming type setting. Don’t want to violate the rules for the gallery here. As I’m a little too lazy and old fashioned to set up an off-site host, you will just have to bake them yourself if you want to see them.

The brownie roll out cookies are full of lies. As they are neither brownies, or rolled out. But they taste like brownies, really chocolaty brownies. We used to give out peppermint frosted brownies-bites, but had problems with the frosting and them going stale. These keep better and are more portable.

Not to be a terrible tease, but the shortbread is one of two family secret recipes. The other being the family buttermilk chocolate cake. We’ve been giving it out as gifts for the holidays since before I was born, and if anyone could make it at any time, it would cheapen the gift (and all our friends would gain 10 pounds)

That's awesome, I'll point these at the Mrs, she's in charge of baking (I do the majority of the evening meals, she does the oven operating).

Glad you like the blog, I'm impressed at your perseverance, kudos. I've enjoyed modelling again but am finding it hard to squeeze in right now but I've more pics to post yet.

Merry Christmas, and other assorted holiday well-wishing.

Once again, another week, another lack of progress. Although after I finish this post, I think I’m going to head back downstairs and actually put some paint down. But I just finished assembling my Christmas present, and needed to share:



No longer will I be assembling stuff on a old printer stand. My sister-in-law drew my name for the family secret santa, and (I suspect) went over budget to get me a new workbench. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. Also new on the hobby front is a green cutting mat (courtesy of The Wife), so I can stop using the cardboard back of a notepad. Sometime next week I’ll hit up the hardware store and look into options for the pegboard. So much space, so much potential for organization. But I’m sure I’ll get things cluttered up in no time.

Hope everyone is doing well this holiday season.

--Nev

I saw your post in the 'What did you get for Christmas' thread, and was waiting for the pic That is a hell of a nice desk! You got leg room, good lighting and enough space to have a lot on the go at once.

Hmm... Not sure on what to put on the pegboard. In my mind, traditional tools like hammers / saws etc. go on peg boards. I think mini tools (clippers/knife etc.) are a bit too small for the board. Although, maybe you can make a shelf for paints etc? Or even a shelf to store WiPs?

That is a serious awesome workdesk. Have fun with that beast and keep on building. I think I can tell that christmas was a blast this year .
Keep up the good work.

Grtz,
Remco

Great haul, now it just demands a propper new and befitting project!

A trip to Home Depot yielded two things for the board. One was an assortment pack of pegs. Pretty much your standard stuff. I think I’m going to buy some more of the little trays, I can see those being useful. I plan on using straight pegs to hold sprues for currant projects. The LS is just up an an example. Normally when I’m building something, I need to shuffle through a pile of sprues to find the one with the bit I need. This way, they can all be up and visible. The other big find was some pegboard magnets. One is holding paperclips, the other my files (I have a third, not mounted) The mounting system they came with didn’t work, but luckily I had some nuts/bolts of the right size, so was able to attach them without issue.


OK, my goal for the year was to finish up 3 more minis and one more vehicle. I’m not sure I’ll be able to do that my the end of the year, but possibly the end of the week. But I am making progress. Three vanguard vet bodies are done, working on the arms and jump packs now. One wing of the raven is complete, and the other one has it’s basecoats down. I’ve also started on some of the accessories (AsCs, MMs w/mount)

Which are probably dry and ready for the next coat now. Back to work!

Well, you're getting close to nailing your year's goal. It's a lot to ask to complete in a day or two, but definately doable by the end of the weekend.

Good luck

One more day to go. I’m probably done for tonight, as it’s time to watch some TV with The Wife. Might get a chance to sneak in another coat.

Here is what needs to be done:


The VV bits are progressing nicely. Just put down the brown wash. Both SR wings are done, as is the front MM mount. AsCs are almost done. The main body, of course, still needs to be started. If I paint like crazy, I might be able to pull it off in one day. End of week should be much easier. We’ll see how it shakes out.

Well, it's 2015 now, and I'm still not quite done. Finished the vanguard vets, so made that goal. The SR has the first coat of blue, black, and the green for the lights/lenses, but the main hull still needs a lot of work. As well as the cockpit cover and doors. On the bright side, the pilot and guns are done, and both wings and engines. Hopefully I can finish it by the end of the week. If that's the case, with a copious amount of creative accounting I can claim to have made my one mini a week goal.

Quick iPad pictures of the VV and WIP of the SR are in the blog section of my gallery. I'll paste them in to this post later. For some reason, I can't copy/paste the urls directly on my iPad.



Happy New Year all!

Happy new year, Nev!

Looks good to me, you have pretty much hit your one mini a week goal. kudos.

Before:

After:


Some of the arms/packs got shuffled around, but I went back and re-created the poses from the build shot. I guess I should build another 5 vanguard so I can field a 10 man squad. I should have the parts. Might need more magnets though, doing both arms and packs chews through them awfully fast.

The clock says 11:28, so the week is not over. Not that I’m done, but I’m close enough to wave the rest. The doors still need paint, and I’m borrowing the stormtalon’s flight stand for the pic, but here is the Stormraven:


Might not be 100%, but I’d field it. So if I play fast and loose on pretty much every term in my goal, I made it. And that’s good enough for me!

And now, sleep.

Edit:
…And the doors are done. Well, drying from their wash, but done.

Yay! Grtz!

Whats next?

Well, the new workbench is calling out for something to be built, so I suspect I’m going to pause on the paint for a bit. First thing that comes to mind is getting 5 more VVs done. But then again, my FLGS is starting an escalation leauge at the end of the month, so that might be a good incentive to get some eldar done.

We’ll see where the mood takes me. One of my friends who doesn’t play 40k, but builds/paints model cars is encouraging me to start a new army, just to break out of my rut. He really wants to see me weather stuff and push myself farther. Not sure if I’m going to let myself be persuaded.

First, a look back. What I painted:


Bike Sarge, melta and basic bikes
Attack bike
Sternguard sarge, HF, c-melta
9 assault marines
5 Vanguard Vets
IG primaris psyker
4 combi weapon sargents
Jump captain, librarian
Company champion, 2 command squad vets
4 HG
HB mk. 6 marine
DW Librarian, 2 DW marines
Drop Pod
Stormraven
LSS

Not a bad tally. And close enough to my one-a-week goal that with some creative accounting I’m calling it a win. Lets look at the rest of the resoulutions and see how I did on those:

1 Finish painting the odds and ends from my friend's SOB army that I worked on. Just a handfull of arcoflagelents, spare immolater weapons, some IG HQs
2 Paint all my new purchases.
3 Make a display board for my army. I've had the sheets of foam insulation waiting to be carved for years, never get around to it.
4 Base my army. Someday this will happen.
5 Paint my spare bits. I've magetized a number of things, painted the primary set up, but never get around to doing the other options.
6 Try to get more games in.
7 Update my blog more often, and maintain a consistent pace of work.

1 Well, I did the psyker, that’s one for that. And started two of the arcoflagelents. Progress, but not a lot.
2 While I still have big piles of plastic sitting around, this isn’t as bad as it looks, as most of it was picked up in 2013. I sifted through the blog here gathering info for this post and this year’s minis consist of:

Land Speeder Storm
GK strike squad
Vanguard Vets
Stormraven

Where the Vets and GKs were for my LotD counts-as. So I’ve painted half of my purchases, and the other half are built and primed. Not bad!
3 Yah, no progress at all. Big fail here.
4 I’ve done a few. Not quite a full squad, but I’ve got a system now. Just need to bang it out.
5 I did do a spare powerfist, but the pile of spares has gotten larger, rather then smaller.
6 More games? Probably not. While my memory might be a little fuzzy, I’m going to go with "about the same.” Consistency is worth something.
7 This is a solid win. I’ve been pretty good about weekly updates (at a minimum) and more-or-less maintained my weekly painting goal.

Overall, out of 7, we have 1 win, 2 fails, and the rest somewhere in the middle. Still, I feel it was a good year.

For 2015, I think I’ll stick with the same resolutions. I’ll get them all some someday! Although I’m going to modify #2 to “paint more then I buy” I think it’s a much more achievable goal, and based on my back stock, something I still need to work on.I’m also going to add and 8th: “Get my Eldar army to a playable level, 1,000 points minumum, with 1,500 or 1,850 being a stretch goal”

So for easy quoting in a year:
1 Finish painting the odds and ends from my friend's SOB army that I worked on. Just a handfull of arcoflagelents, spare immolater weapons, some IG HQs .
2 Paint more then I buy.
3 Make a display board for my army. I've had the sheets of foam insulation waiting to be carved for years, never get around to it.
4 Base my army. Someday this will happen.
5 Paint my spare bits. I've magetized a number of things, painted the primary set up, but never get around to doing the other options.
6 Try to get more games in.
7 Update my blog at least once a week, and maintain a consistent pace of work (1 mini a week).
8 Get my Eldar army to a playable level, 1,000 points minumum, with 1,500 or 1,850 being stretch goals.

What to expect to see in the new year; here is what’s primed at the moment:
5 LotD counts-as
4 Deathwatch
2 RT captains
1 scout sarge
1 HG
Razorback
Ven. dread
5 Dire avengers
1 ammo dump
1 chapter banner
(also some SOB/IG stuff)

Also things that were primed with bad primer, but were cleaned and might get a lick of paint (but might need more primer)
Farseer on bike
2 jetbikes (no riders atm)
wave serpent (still needs turret built/magnetized)
crimson hunter

Things on the short list to be built:
Finish cleaning the 5 eldar rangers
Eldar jetbikes (2x3 squads, autach)
Viper
Landspeeder (probably with the TML just glued on)
5 Vanguard Vets
MotF on foot, w c-beamer

Thing I might end up buying (very fuzzy here)
Fill out the HQ matrix. I have foot/TDA/Bike/JP options for captains and chaplains, but need a bike librarian and MotF to round out the list. If I’m picking up more bikes, a bike command squad could also be very nice to have, but that’s a stretch.
More tanks. Vindi or Hunter/Stalker are tempting me, but a second pred would be nice as well. Although with the SR operational the HS slot is kinda cramped.
Centurions. They’ve kinda grown on me.
Eldar stuff. Fire Prism being the first on the list, but a box of the “new” wraithguard also would be nice.

As there are enough things on my primed/short list to keep me in my 1-a-week pace for the year, buying new stuff is a low priority. Still, it’s nice to get some fresh things for the workbench.

Looking forward to a productive 2015!

--Nev

Nice little round up there, Nev!

Your consistency is solid. Regular updates here, as well as progress.

How often do you get games in? You've made reference to a few games in some posts, but I've never been able to guess how often you play. Getting more games in seems to be a gamer's new years resolution cliché - the gaming equivalent of 'going to the gym' I dont think, realistically, I can get more games in frequently. I play pretty much every tuesday night (one or two games of 40k/fantasy/X-wing), and over the past months I've played on the occasional sunday. If I start playing more, I'll never get anything done.

If this year is anything to go by, you'll nail the 'paint more than you buy' goal. 10 infantry and 2 vehicles purchased, and yet you crank out around 45(ish) models. Definately in the green with that one

How many points of Eldar do you have already painted? Painting 1000 points of anything is quite the big task (I spent a week on a drop pod, and that's only 35 pts! - And I painted it for an assault squad, so really it's 0 pts!!!). You might need to devote more time to the xenos than the ultras...

Z

 Zambro wrote:
Nice little round up there, Nev!

Your consistency is solid. Regular updates here, as well as progress.

How often do you get games in? You've made reference to a few games in some posts, but I've never been able to guess how often you play. Getting more games in seems to be a gamer's new years resolution cliché - the gaming equivalent of 'going to the gym' I dont think, realistically, I can get more games in frequently. I play pretty much every tuesday night (one or two games of 40k/fantasy/X-wing), and over the past months I've played on the occasional sunday. If I start playing more, I'll never get anything done.

If this year is anything to go by, you'll nail the 'paint more than you buy' goal. 10 infantry and 2 vehicles purchased, and yet you crank out around 45(ish) models. Definately in the green with that one

How many points of Eldar do you have already painted? Painting 1000 points of anything is quite the big task (I spent a week on a drop pod, and that's only 35 pts! - And I painted it for an assault squad, so really it's 0 pts!!!). You might need to devote more time to the xenos than the ultras...

Z

Every game I’ve played since I started this blog has been mentioned. I just went back and counted: 7 last year. 2x3 game tournaments (one solo, one doubles) and an apocalypse game. Not the best turn out. On the bright side my FLGS is going to be starting an escalation league/ game & hobby night on Wednesdays starting in a few weeks, and I cleared it with The Wife, so I’m going to try to make it up for that.

As for the Eldar, I don’t think I’ve actually painted any new ones since I took this picture at the start of this blog:

Painted and useable is a pair of falcons, 2 guardian squads, a viper, some warlocks, an Avatar and Jain Zar, and a wad of old metal harlies I might be able to get a legal squad out of. If I desperately needed to, I could recruit some banshees that were converted for my WoC army (when witch elves go bad). So while I have a nice basis for a force, it’s not going to be very effective on the table. My goal is to have an army that actually functions.

Just saw blog link over on the plans for 2015 thread, may well have to go back through and catch up, looks like you've got some nice stuff here. I'll have to steal the 'year in review' thing too

 GrimDork wrote:
Just saw blog link over on the plans for 2015 thread, may well have to go back through and catch up, looks like you've got some nice stuff here. I'll have to steal the 'year in review' thing too

Welcome aboard! I can’t take credit for the year in review thing; it’s fairly common. I was actually prompted into doing one by reading Gitsplitta’s over in his blog.

So I’m in the process of tidying up a little, and decide to reorganize the shelves. The Stomraven was not going to fit nicely, so another shelf has been brought into the fold of the Emperor’s glory.

We can look back on the Ultramarine’s march to glory, from a humble two and a half shelves (sharing with some IG)

to a full 3 shelves:

Getting a little crowded on 3…

To a glorious 4 full shelves claimed for mankind.


Hopefully there is enough space now so I won’t have to shuffle things around again, even when I paint what’s on deck. My foul xenos Eldar army has been pushed down to the bottom shelf, and all the books (and Silent Death stuff) that was there has been moved over to another bookshelf elsewhere in the basement. Which was conveniently cleared and moved to make room for my new workbench.

Speaking of which, I’ve started to assemble the vanguard vets. I might only put 4 together right now. I’d like to reserve the jump pack with the giant aquila on top for the sarge, so don’t really want to use two in the same squad. The two options I have are to do a swap with one of my assault squads, or try to trade bits and get a more plain JP. We’ll see what happens, there is no rush.

Huh, now that's a lot of ultras. Fancy.

Collections that size always make me jelous. It's a testament to your dedication.

Althought... There is room for more...

GrimDork wrote:Huh, now that's a lot of ultras. Fancy.

Zambro wrote:Collections that size always make me jelous. It's a testament to your dedication.

Althought... There is room for more...

It’s always hard to get a feel of what is considered a “large” collection. You look at people’s sigs, or answers in the “how many points can you field” polls and you see a lot of 10,000+ point armies, or massive collections. Now there might be a lot of self-selecting bias there, where the folks with the large armies are more prone to report/brag about them then the guys with the HQ +2 troops collections

Not that I’m claiming to have a small collection, I just don’t think of it as particularly large. As for “dedication”, my army is more a testament to my pack-rat nature and venerable age. Slowly add to something for 20+ years, and it’s surprising how large you can get. On that note, it’s been a while since I did a point count for the lot, I should do that again, always good for a laugh.

Edit: 8,323 points by rough count. Few spare minis that can’t find a squad, but not many. Looking back a year ago (pretty close to exactly) I had 6,508 painted. So that’s about 1,815 points of fresh paint in a year. Of course, some of that might be organizational. I painted a few sergeants, which might have allowed spare heavy weapon guys to form up into dev squads. I’d have to see if I kept my notes from a year ago to double-check. I wonder if I have enough unpainted plastic to push me to 10k? I doubt it, but would be fun to check...

--Nev

Well this a surely a very nice collection. I hope to one day be the proud owner of a similar collection. Keep up the good work and keep collecting .