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Well, it is the waning days of 2024. Soon, we will be in the far-future of 2025. Now seems the time to give a review of your 2024 in Wargaming!


I painted 240+ models, which is a big lift from last year. Most of it was Heroquest models, but I also painted a 6mm Hittite army, some ancients, about 5 Kill Teams, and some other bits and bobs. A pretty good year on the painting front!

Some images:

Gladiators


Heroquest


Gaming wise, I think I hit about 1 per month in total. However, my year was front loaded with games, with fewer and fewer as the year went on.

In Strife and Conflict


Fury of the Northman


Writing wise, I again had a big year on the front end. However, like gaming it was mostly front loaded. As the year went on, my output decreased.

I am going into next year with an Anglo-Saxon army on the painting table, but that is about it. That should keep me covered for the winter.

For more photos and words, you can check out my end-of-year wrap-up blog post here:
https://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2024/12/random-drop-curtain-on-2024.html

So, how about your victories and efforts for 2024?

I painted an absolute gak load of models. All my Heresy, all my Epic, and a good chunk of my Necromunda terrain pile.

Still lots to do, and I’m currently considering what shape my 2025 Hobby Odyssey will be. And that’s something I need to be restrained with, as I’m about to receive a chunky inheritance, and have much betterer things to spend that on (like a house!) than just models.

What I may do is base on “buy, build, paint” before further purchases (paints, tools and brushes not withstanding). If it takes me a day to do that, I can buy more. If it takes me a month, no more purchases until that’s done.

So let’s take a look at where we ended up:

At the start of the year I wrote:Here are my New Year’s resolutions:
1 Paint 8 members for the primaris battle company 8/8
2 Paint at least 24 Tyranids, and strive to keep them PoS neutral. 24/24
3 Paint more than I buy. 70/20
4 Paint at least 3 units that have been in the primed pile/Pile of Shame for 3+ years 3/3
5 Update my blog at least once a week, and maintain a consistent pace of work (1 mini a week).
6 Paint at least two units for 4 different factions. 7/8
7 Enter and finish an entry every month for the painting challenge. If the monthly challenge stops, enter at least one comp in the year.
8 Paint models to be able to field the SM/Nid combat patrols. 14/14 bonus spearhead

1 - So I did this one.
3x Ultramarine 3rd Co. Company Heroes - 72 points
3x Ultramarine 3rd Co. Aggressors - 120 points
2x Ultramarine 3rd Co. Intercessor - 32points
Technically the Gravis Captain has the red trim, but as I’ve already got 2 other primaris captains for the company, not counting him for the goal. Still,made the goal. Will need to do a state of the company to figure out what I still need to do.

2 - 2 dozen bugs: check.
3x Tyranid Von Ryan’s Leapers -75 points
11xTyranid Termagants - 66 points
2x Tyranid Warriors - 44 points
3x Tyranid Ripper swarms - 60 points
5x Tryanid Barbgaunts - 55 points
I’ll have to doublecheck, but I think this is also the last of the pre-leviathan nids in the primed pile. So good volume, and clearing out the old

3 - OK, so there is some flaky math here, but I’m still OK. I don’t count gifts, including when I spend giftcards that cover most of the purchase. But even if I count those, lets see... 13 nighthaunts, 29 soulblights, probably something I’m forgetting. But still under the 70 painted. It’s a win.

4 - Stormhawk, War Walker, and Librarian were my oldest, and got finished.

5 - Free square. OK, not really, as it does take a bit of effort to keep the pace and update the blog. But making it happen.

6- OK, more fuzzy math time. I’ve got this flagged as 7/8. Some of that is the wording. I didn’t want to just let one-off minis count towards my diversity goal. The idea behind the 2 units for 4 factions was to push to get more secondary army project move forward. Plus the diversity thing. Nids, like 5 units of those. Painted a whole mess of nighthaunt. Ultramarines: check. Soulblight/serephon/SoB/Eldar all just got a solo model. Now I am considering 30k legion UMs seperate from the 40k side. As I need more motivation to get them done. The dread and 3 RTB01s could count there, but the beakies are not really a unit. I could also use fuzzy math annd count the Triumph as more then one. It’s basically 7+ HQ models all stuck on a diorama base. I’ve got enough “pretty close” excuses to round this one up to a win.

7 - Comp is still running strong. Still at 100% completion rate. This is at the stupid dedication level I should add to my resume to prove that I can stick with things and maintain a constant level of output.

8 - Yes, with the added stretch goal of the Nighthaunt spearhead.

So that’s green across the board. All wins. Sure, 6 was a little fuzzy, but we’ll call that a clean sweep. I’ll need to make them a little harder for next year. All of them will remain largely the same, although I’ll tweak some of the numbers. I’ll have to see how many more marines I need for the company, and pledge at least half of that. 24 more nids is probably about half of what I have left, so not a bad call. Really tempted to focus fire them down for a month, like I did in October with the spooks. I could probably push 2 dozen across the bench in a month, as long as I didn’t have vacation and not much else was going on in my life. I also need a replacement for 8, with another general focus on things I need to push harder on.

More end of year ramblings in my blog, starting here:
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/5160/528437.page#11720796

Other than posting online and talking with a couple friends, I did almost nothing hobby related all year until late November. Dropfleet 2.0 got me out of my hobby funk, at least for the moment.

Painted over 220 models (some pics in the other thread https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/150/812571.page#11721013 )

Got my models into 28mag

Ran a 3 month Dystopian Wars map campaign
Ran a 6 month Dracula's America narrative campaign
Drove to another country for a Kings of War picnic
Drove to a different country for a Forbidden Psalm event (and took best painted)

Built and painted an entire weird wild west board

Ran convention demos of The Doomed, One Page Rules Warfleets, Verrotwood and Dracula's America

Wrote a game for Malev's 1-box-wargame challenge

Tried out Flames of Orion, Oak & Iron, Trench Crusade, and Man o War for the first time

Played a game of some sort nearly every Saturday of the year

Yea hobby life is pretty good

I returned to the hobby after a decade break....

Met some new people, made some new friends, and bought too many Rulebooks... and fell in love with Adeptus Titanicus.

Now, I'm playing catch-up on the 40k lore, learning about Horus Heresy and Age of Sigmar.

2025, will include a move to a new city, new job, and finally a place to start rebuilding my armies.

I've had a lot of fun since coming here, and this forum has been very welcoming.

Thank you for your advice, your humor, you odd British Colloquialisms, and most of all your friendship.

I painted:
* dozens of Legion Imperialis Solar vehicles (and don't feel I even made a dent in that pile...)
* about a dozen assorted 40k models
* about a dozen Sigmar models - mostly Gloomspite related
* an entire DG Kill Team
* the Kill Team equipment pack
* upwards of 100 D&D minis
* a couple of completely random minis from the backlog
And right now I have a salvaged SM Reiver squad that I'm slowly doing all the little details on - grenades, straps, etc.
Their previous owner gave them a decent Grey/Black scheme - but absolutely no detail work.

I built:
* almost 3k pts worth of Lumineth
* a 2k pt Grey Knights army
* a 2k pt Agents of the Imperium army (mostly DW stuff)
* a 2nd Voidraven Bomber for my Drukari
* 3 CK Brigands, 1 Knight Castigator, 2 Knight Lancers
* almost 4k pts worth of 30k Marines + dreads + vehicles
* a Votaan Kill Team
* and a handful of one-off minis - Christmas Grot, etc

In total for the year, I'll have 40 models painted, tying last year's pitiful number (the last three are just getting their basing done now, they'll be finished as of tomorrow for certain). Mostly 40k, but some AoS and even some Xenomorphs from Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps got worked on. I'm gonna need to step up my game big time, and actually finish things I get started (the number of models that I started on, got them "good enough" to count as painted for tournaments, and then never went back and finished properly is honestly kind of stupefying).

I'll have a year end review post in my P&M blog whenever I get around to it.

Painting not so much-mostly MCP minis and some battle tech minis that are super fast and easy to paint, i am pretty much done with my pile of shame painting for other games. most of my new arrivals for the year came in the form of new terrain, most of it already painted, custom dice(baron of dice FTW) and tools (MCP-measuring)

Games played-i average about 3 every Saturday so...around 150 give or take for the year.

Minis-
MCP-
.warlock
.quicksilver
.cyclops
.klaw
.the tick





battle tech-
.doom courser
.catapult K2
.devestator
.marauder II
.trebaruna
.talon
.heimdall
.typhoon (tank X2)
.cronus
.hatamoto chi-shiro
.shamash (2)
.atlas
.grand dragon

Aerotech-
.liberator
.york
.mckenna
.tharkad
.mako
.sovetskii soyuz





40K-
X3 chimera 3rd party 3d prints(makers cult)



Terrain GF-9
.space marine outpost parts i was missing from my already 3d printed collection (war scenery)
.tau city
.various battle tech hills, buildings and roads-

Other terrain
.stackable hills
.street scatter terrain (MCP)
.hover truck X3(star wars-3d prints)
.eldar maiden world ruins (3d prints from sacrusmundus)
.tech city(terrain mat)
.MCP city(terrain mat)

MCP has the Tick! I might need to re-think that game!

 Easy E wrote:
MCP has the Tick! I might need to re-think that game!

No sadly it does not, i use him to represent colossus. a sly 3d print designer has made all the TICK characters scaled for MCP. i just had to have the mini when i saw it.

I painted 458 models for the year, played in a half-dozen Conquest tournaments, managed a roughly 2:2 record, and averaged out to more than a game a week.

That ain't bad.

There's some impressive output in this thread, my count of thirteen seems quite meager by comparison. Still, averaging one mini a month is not entirely terrible. Here's my Class of '24:



Nine zombies from SFG's RE2 boardgame. Two Space Marines, both from different blind-box/gashapon line-ups, and lastly repaints of two more candy toys.

More in my P&M Blog.

Proressed with my builds until around august, then we moved, and haven't done flock all since but researching vintage WDs, Citadel journals and the like.. I really need to find me a new hobby space ASAP..

The move was awesome though! We now have our own personal Sauna, a luxury I haven't experienced ever before in my life prior to this. Pa would be proud (rest his soul), us meek worker family folks reaching something resembling a Bourgeois lifestyle

Painted Valdor, 1 Venatari Custodian.
Built and painted 4 or 5 Thatos hubs with barricades, containers, other scatter terrain.
Kitbashed and painted 5 Necromunda Slave Ogryns.
Built 10 Custodians.
Managed to get Warhound (I've had for 7 years hiding in the corner) standing.

A pretty good year. Kind of a transition year after losing our store in 2023 and having to make do for a while. Things feel more stable now, but a lot has changed in terms of what's en vogue.

40k is more popular than its ever been and for my money with good reason. Nearly half the models I painted this year were for either my Deathwatch (lol) or my Orks. Really enjoyed playing both and the community around them.

MCP had dulled throughout the year, but has recently become very hot again with a bunch of new players. Shatterpoint started pretty strong and remains popular but not exactly growing.

Infinity has seen a huge spike in interest with N5. I'll be curious to see if a community really forms around it. Judgement sadly hasn't quite taken off despite probably being my favorite game at the moment. I play it semi-regularly but with a small group that hasn't seen a lot of growth.

Warmachine and Malifaux have been firmly in the rearview this year. I'd be happy to see either back, but I've had my hands full with other games. There's some Sigmar interest and Conquest is very popular locally, but neither are quite my game.

Painting for the year:
MCP:28
Judgement:13
Deathwatch:48
Orks:56
Shatterpoint:51
Malifaux:8
Infinity:21
Warmachine:14

Also did up some new terrain. Hoping to have a chance to build some more tables this year. It's quite rewarding.

With the new year fast upon us and the holidays spent mainly coughing my lungs out, it's a good time to see what, if anything, was achieved last year.



Finished models 2024

28 mm:

- Imperial lady
- 20 table ornaments

Epic scale:

- 5 tech-thrall bases
- 6 Krios tanks
- 3 Minotaurs
- 2 Baneblades
- 12 Leman Russes
- 6 Basilisks
- 8 field guns
- 24 guardsmen bases
- 50 blast markers

BFG:

- 10 torpedo markers
- 3 planets
- 2 Dauntless light cruisers
- 1 Falchion
- 3 Cobras
- 9 Swords
- 1 Murder cruiser

So that's some 160+ things finished, of which maybe a 100 or so count as actual models if we're feeling generous. While it's certainly better than the previous year, a big chunk of those happened in few dedicated bursts of speed-painting, such as the three-day Guard marathon before Ropecon or the BFG waves at the end of the year. I also bought way, way more stuff than I finished, with heaps of LI and KT plastic piling up to smother me in my sleep. In 2025, I'd like to see a bit more steady pace at the painting station, like putting something out every month at least. On the other hand, I did also put out quite nice battle rep pics and learn my way around the new camera, so there's been constant hobbying throughout the year which will continue as well.

So what's on the platter this year?

A lot of small scale things at least! Guard, Mechanicum, some biomechanical titans perhaps, more BFG ships and terrain and so on. I'm drowning in tiny tonks
I've still got a handful of kill teams in the queue and some on the drawing board, as well as more suitable terrain for that package. Still haven't read the third edition rules, though
Maybe some 28 mm 30k? The destroyer squad made earlier is kind of crying for its turn on the painting table...