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Like many of us, I made a 2025 New Year's Resolution to paint at least one miniature a day. Surprisingly, I kept at it and currently have finished 327 minis so far (today is Day 228).

I don't really have any method to my madness other than to pick ancient (some decades old) projects off of my gaming table or from a nearby drawer or cabinet. Then I paint them. Because I have the laser beam focus of a gerbil, I have collected a lot of different miniatures for varied games, periods, and genres.

Since I have already completed 327 minis, I will post pics and notes of them a few at a time until I catch up to the present and then continue the blog weekly or so from then on until the last day of this year.

The first project completed were 26 15mm scale Russian Napoleonic skirmishers for the General d'Armee 2nd Edition ruleset. My local gaming group plays a lot of historical miniatures and our favorite periods are the Napoleonic Wars and World War 2. We favor the 15mm scale as most of us have been at it since the 1980s when 15mm miniatures were the hot new thing (taking over from 25mm).



The 26 Russian skirmishers are comprised of 8 line infantry in shakos, 8 line infantry in caps, and 10 Jagers in shako. The metal miniatures are by Old Glory 15s (OG15) produced by 19th Century Miniatures in the USA.







The detail on 15mm minis is limited but I did try to paint buttons and the sword knots with the right colors for these units. The line infantry have white trousers and the Jagers have dark green trousers with red stripes as well as shako plumes to distinguish them.

All in all a good start to my year of painting.

I wish that I could say after starting this year off right by painting the Russian skirmishers, that I pressed on diligently with more miniatures. However, I got distracted by several projects that had nothing to do with painting my pile of shame.

The first distraction was terrain. My gaming group needed more hills so I bought a couple of one inch thick 2' x 2' XPS foam panels and cut them with a hot wire foam cutter into the hill shapes that I wanted. I managed to give them sloped edges without making the edges so thin or feathery that they would break easily.





For paint, I asked my hardware store to mix me a quart sized can of nice bright green latex paint. Unfortunately, my idea of nice was something akin to GW Moot Green.



After my eyes recovered from the retinal burn, I went back to the hardware store and got them to mix me a nice, sane brown and a very comfortable green. This enabled me to paint my new hills with hues that my gaming group could enjoy.



The last photo is from today, and the hills have survived two or three gaming sessions per month for the last seven months. I should have sealed the flock on top of the hills. It has scuffed off a bit. When I reapply flock, I will make sure to seal it.

All of the hills came from one 2' x 2' XPS panel. I still have one more to make more hills, but that project has yet to distract me.





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The second distraction was a miniature wargame rule set for ancient battles, Age of Hannibal, by Little Wars TV. The rule set allows fast and simple, but really fun, simulated battles of the ancient times. The rule set also includes quite a few battle scenarios. My friends and I had already played the Battle of Issus, Alexander the Great's crushing victory over the Persians in 333 B.C. Now we wanted to play something with Romans so we settled upon the 218 B.C. Battle of the Trebia River.

Now, neither I nor my friends own any ancient miniatures so we play these large battles using paper miniatures! I download them from a website called Juniorgeneral.org, edit them to make units that do not already exist on that site, and print them in a 10mm size. Then I cut them out, glue them with PVA to thicker paper, cut them out again, and glue them to 40mm x 40mm square bases. It takes a few days but voila, a cheap and easy army.

My friend agreed to create the Romans so I only had to create the Carthaginians.















It is not art but it is very effective and the armies are very light and easy to transport to the game store.

The good news is that after these distractions and working on scatter terrain trees, which I will not inflict on you, I returned to painting my pile of shame.

After finishing my terrain and paper ancient projects, it was already April of 2025. I was already three months into the year and had only finished painting 26 miniatures!

I forced myself to refocus and concentrated on my 15mm Napoleonic Austrian army projects. Since the Habsburg Austrians are my primary army for Napoleonic warfare, I had a lot of unpainted minis sitting around my project table. Between the beginning of April and the middle of June, I painted 118 of my 15mm Austrians.



Two Austrian brigade commanders (minis by OG15s produced by 19th Century Miniatures)




Eight Austrian line infantry skirmishers (minis by OG15)



Twelve Austrian volunteer "Freiwillige" infantry, Archduke Charles Legion. I had half of the 24 man battalion already painted, but I needed 12 more miniatures to finish the unit. These are very old figures from a long defunct company called Heritage USA and later produced by Empire Miniatures, which is also out of business. A nice chap traded me the 12 minis that I needed so I painted them and they are the back rank on each stand. The firing miniatures in the front rank are the ones that were already painted.




18 Austrian artillery crew and four medium guns (6 pounder) by Minifig (2nd Generation). The bases with four crew and a gun are foot artillery. In my group's system, two bases equals one artillery battery. The base with the green flock is part of another battery that was already half finished. The two bases with three crew on each represent a cavalry battery. The Austrians did not have true horse artillery, where the crew all rode their own horses. Instead, part of the Austrian cavalry battery crews rode upon a "sausage" seat on the trail of their guns. This made them slower on the move than horse artillery but fewer men had to learn how to ride horses, fewer horses were needed for the battery, and the Austrian cavalry batteries took less time to get into action once they reached their destination.




36 Austrian infantry, 2nd battalion of Infantry Regiment #42, Erbach. Note the orange facings, collars, and cuffs. This was characterized as a German regiment but was actually from a German speaking region of the Czech portions of the Habsburg Empire. These 15mm miniatures are very well sculpted and are part of the Battle Honors range sold by 19th Century Miniatures.




36 Hungarian infantry skirmishing. The Habsburg Empire of the Napoleonic period included the lands of Hungary and their infantry wore a slightly different uniform from the "German" regiments. Blue pants with yellow stripes and a lace pattern at the top of each thigh were the most noticeable differences, but the Hungarians also had a slightly different cuff design. At 15mm scale, I don't worry about the smaller details but the blue pants with the yellow stripes are too striking to avoid. Note the many different facing colors of the skirmishers as they come from several different regiments.

By the end of June, I was burnt out on painting Napoleonic miniatures and started to focus on my backlog of 15mm World War 2 German miniatures for the early war period and North Afrika.

Lovely stuff! Nice to see more historical stuff on Dakka.

Because I was tired of painting Napoleonic troops, I turned to my hoard of unpainted 15mm World War II miniatures. For several years, a large collection of primed black vehicles had sat on top of my gaming table, occupying several square feet of space. In June and July, I painted them and got into a really good rhythm. Unfortunately, I also decided to add units, so I started making new orders for miniatures from Battlefront, Khurusan, Forged in Battle, and Peter Pig.

I am collecting Germans for the Early War, North Afrika, mid-War Eastern Front, and late War Western Front. Today's update will just cover the models that I painted for the Early War.





Since I use the Blitzkrieg Commander IV rules, I needed command/headquarters units. I chose Forged in Battle Kubelwagens paired with personnel on foot from Peter Pig. The forward observer models come from Battlefront. They are older metal models that I have had for more than 20 years.




These are motorcycle troops from Battlefront. I have had them more than 20 years and they are metal minis. I always love motorcycle troops, but these models were a bit painful since the motorcycle rider's arms hold the handlebars of his bike and are difficult to glue on properly.




My Early War Germans are based on the 7th Panzer Division in France so I needed some Panzer II tanks. These are resin models from Forged in Battle. They are nice models but have a resin base on the bottom of the treads. The tanks came with metal tank commanders but I did not use mine.




7th Panzer Division's main battle tank was the Panzer 38t, a Czech tank that the Germans were quite happy to acquire in 1938 and use for their panzer divisions from 1939 on. These are also resin Forged In Battle models and once again I chose not to use the metal tank commanders that were included in the kits.




All German panzer divisions had lots of trucks of varying types. It is not easy to find good models of trucks for a reasonable price. These are more resin Forged in Battle miniatures. Some of the trucks had stowage modelled on them. If I get more trucks, I might try the plastic kits from Plastic Soldier Company since they also make Opel Blitz, Mercedes, and Steyr trucks. I wish someone made some of the other Early War workhorse trucks in plastic like the Krupp Kfz 69 and 70.

I still have quite a few Early War miniatures to paint include Polish infantry, but I found myself distracted yet again by the lure of the desert.

This part of my project blog covers this year's progress on my 15mm German World War II Afrika Korps. Unlike my Early War Germans, I already had a sizeable collection of painted Afrika Korps tanks and infantry but not enough to field battalion sized battle groups. Some of the necessary miniatures were already in my hoard of unpainted stuff but I ordered some models from Battlefront, Forged in Battle, Khurasan, and Peter Pig to expand my collection.




This is my regimental commander. The Kubelwagen and other miniatures are by Peter Pig (all metal). The German Shephard is my favorite.





These are my battalion headquarters stands. The Kubelwagens are by Forged in Battle but the rear seat passengers are from Battlefront. The dismounted personnel are by Peter Pig





These are Flak 38 2cm anti-aircraft guns. The single barrel 2cm was not a good AA gun, lacking the range and punch of the 3.7 cm AA, but the Gerrmans had a lot of 2cm guns and used them against air and ground targets. When the 2cm was combined into a quad version on trucks, half-tracks, and tank chassis, it was a far more formidable weapon. These miniatures are from Forged in Battle. I modified mine by replacing the flimsy, soft metal barrels with similar lengths of pinning rods.





These are 8cm mortars by Forged in Battle (some of their nicer models). The infantry battalions usually had lighter mortars (5cm) in the infantry companies but there were platoons of the heavier 8cm mortar at battalion and regimental level, usually assigned to machine gun companies or the weapons company in the machine gun battalion.





This is a 7.5cm infantry gun and an artillery forward observer. Most of these are nice metal models by Peter Pig, but the gun crew are metal models by Forged in Battle. The 7.5cm infantry gun was an older weapon but provided useful support directly to the infantry regiments where it was assigned until the end of the war. In the desert with the Afrika Korps, it's lack of range and mobility was too much to overlook, and the gun was rapidly replaced with the 15cm version, either towed or self-propelled.





These are 5cm Pak 38 anti-tank guns, a very useful weapon for the Afrika Korps who fielded as many of these guns as they could get. Three of my guns are plastic kits from Battlefront and the gun with the shorter barrel is a metal kit by Forged in Battle.





These are MG34 heavy machine gun platoons by Khurasan. I had a difficult time finding good models. The Old Glory 15mm are too small, the Forged in Battle Afrika Korps heavy machine guns are awful. The gunner's machine gun barrel does not sit properly on the Lafette tripod mount, which is also poorly sculpted. I was fortunate to find Khurasan Miniatures. Their figures are a bit large compared to Peter Pig, Forged in Battle, or early Battlefront but they are about the same size as current Battlefront plastic miniatures. The Germans used their machine guns (MG34 and MG42) as light machine guns at the squad level and as heavy machine guns in platoons assigned to machine gun companies and battalions that could be detached to provide support as needed.






These two stands represent infantry platoons. I already had seven of these but added two more this year to expand my infantry to a full battalion. These minis are by Forged in Battle.





These are older Battlefront Sdkfz. 251/1 B or C model halftracks. They are resin and metal kits that I have had unpainted for more than 20 years. Nice kits, but one of them had two right side track pieces and no left side. Fortunately, you can use the right side on the left as long as no one looks too closely at it. I am looking forward to getting some of their plastic early war halftracks when they finally release them again. One of the nice things about Battlefront models is that they come with decals.





All of these miniatures painted in 2025 brought my Afrika Korps force up to a sizeable battlegroup as you can see in the photo above.





My panzer battalion has long barrel Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks. They are all Battlefront plastic kits. I have more Battlefront plastic Panzer II and Panzer IVD tanks to build and paint, hopefully in this year.





My support units are nearly complete but I do plan to add a 15cm infantry gun, recon units, motorcycle units, and trucks. The Afrika Korps needed a lot of German trucks. They also used British, American, and Italian trucks.





My infantry battalion still needs trucks and halftracks. All of my infantry other than the headquarters are by Forged in Battle miniatures. I would like some Battlefront Afrika Korps but they are difficult to find right now. The light machine guns and 5cm mortar are not used when I play Blitzkrieg Commander IV because those weapons are factored into the combat capabilities of the infantry platoons, but I can use them when my gaming group uses other rule sets.

My painting surge in 2025 got me through most of my unpainted stock of 15mm WW2 Germans. However, I was now burnt out on painting 15mm and cast my gaze upon other larger sized projects...

At the end of July of this year (2025), I was happy with the quantity and quality of the miniatures that I had painted, 288, in 212 days. Since I was a bit ahead of schedule and bored with painting 15mm historical miniatures. I decided to work on some of my 28mm projects that had been sitting unfinished for years.

My gaming group plays Saga 2 Dark Ages and I have four painted warbands: Anglo-Danes, Late Romans, Irish, and Carolingian Franks. Since Anglo-Danes and Anglo-Saxon warbands are very similar, I long ago acquired some minis to swap out the warlord and a unit of hearthguard so that I could use my Anglo-Danes as Anglo-Saxons, another faction option in Saga Dark Ages. The reason for the swap is that the Anglo-Saxons do not use Dane axes and my Anglo-Dane warlord and one unit of four hearthguard were equipped with those devastating weapons.




My new Anglo-Saxon warlord is a plastic figure from the Gripping Beast plastic set for Anglo-Danes. His shield has a transfer from Little Big Men Studios although it was smaller than the shield so I painted on the extensions to cover the entire shield and then went back to make the rest of the pattern match the new additions. His large round base is a plastic poker chip.






The new unit of hearthguard are dynamic plastic models from Victrix. I bought a sprue of them from an online seller whose name I cannot recall (maybe SprueDude?). The shield decorations are more transfers from Little Big Men Studios. These are intended for Gripping Beast round shields, but they fit the Victrix round shields pretty well. I painted a little bit of dark color around the rims. The sprue did not come with bases, but I have a lot of plastic Renedra 25mm round bases. The Victrix models look nicer than Gripping Beast plastics but have a couple of issues: they are slightly more fragile (especially the sword hilts on the sheathed swords) and the spear arms are a bit tricky to line up with the torsos and get a snug fit. You may have to use putty to fill gaps.

The basing for all of these models is just Vallejo earth texture painted with Citadel Dryad Bark and drybrushed with Citadel Ubshanti Bone. The plants on the bases are Army Painter winter and highland tufts.

With these five models completed, my painting total for 2025 was increased to 293 miniatures and I can play my Anglo-Danes as Anglo-Saxons.





This final picture is my entire Anglo-Dane/Saxon warband. The freshly painted Anglo-Saxon warlord and unit of hearthguard are in the center and the Anglo-Dane warlord and unit of hearthguard with Dane axes are on the right. The rest of the six point warband consists of two units of hearthguard with hand weapons, two units of warriors (select fyrd) with spears, and two units of levy (great fyrd) with bows.

So now this blog includes all of the miniatures that I painted from the beginning of 2025 up until the 3rd of August, a total of 293 miniatures or their equivalent. It took me four more days to complete the next miniature. Don't laugh. It was difficult. The mini was the plastic Moria cave troll from the 2005 Mines of Moria starter set for the Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game (MESBG). If you have that set or had it, you know that it is quite nice. I bought it twenty years ago, immediately painted the absolutely fantastic terrain, primed the Fellowship figures, and then put it all away in boxes or display cases. In January of last year, I started painting the Moria cave troll using the tutorial on YouTube by PlanetMithril. It is a very detailed tutorial and way too complex for me. I started on the troll and then got bored of it and started my 15mm Afrika Korps infantry (the ones that I painted prior to this year). But I forced myself from 4 to 7 August of this year to finish the damn troll!!!




Now I love a good painting tutorial on YouTube, but I just cannot go through all of the steps and paint mixing and filters and washes and blah, blah, blah that PlanetMithril does so very well. I tried it for a while, but then I went off script and painted the model as I damn well pleased. It doesn't look as good as his version, but I am satisfied...and I am still sane.

I wish that I could tell you that I was inspired to go on and complete all of the other models from the Mines of Moria starter set, but the opposite is true. I am traumatized by trying to paint like PlanetMithril, and I switched back to 28mm projects after I finished the Cave Troll. As a way of apologizing to you, gentle readers, here are the photos of the terrain that I painted back in 2005.




And of course, let us never forget:

Balin, Son of Fundin, Lord of Moria



Of course, even though the troll is large. It still counts as one! My 2025 painted figure count is up to 294.

After painting that LotR Moria Cave Troll for four painful days, watching thin coats of paint, and washes, and filters dry, I was done with meticulous painting, and I wanted something quick and easy. On my project table, I had a squad of ten Anvil Industry 28mm Republic Grenadiers. Four of them were mostly painted, a quick job done in time for a Warhammer 40K tournament many years ago. The other six were still primed black, waiting for their moment to receive the blessed paint that would allow them to join the fight for the galaxy.

Anvil Industry makes great models with sometimes quirky areas that look very uncomfortable on a human or superhuman. Their textures and details are crisp and easy to drybrush. So I quickly drybrushed the primed minis, filled in areas of color, made some corrections, did some washing, and then touched up some highlights. All done in less than a day after the troll.



Anvil Industry still sells this squad of resin miniatures on their website. You get seven troopers, one sergeant (Sergeant Fisto), one medic (always called Doc), and one communications/recon specialist (the dude with the binoculars). They also have some female grenadiers, but I do not own those models.



Yes, quick painting makes me a hack, but I am a happy hack and I still count those six models plus touchups/detailing on the other four as the equivalent of five painted models. My 2025 model count is up to 299 as of 8 August.




And this is why I collect weird, flamboyant miniatures, so I can put them together to match my own fever dream of a futuristic universe where Mankind struggles against hordes of enemies, living and unliving. The whole point of this squad of Republic Grenadiers is to guard one of my Inquisitors.



And now she has a full squad.

JB - You're doing amazing here. I love the diversity of all the different systems. I'm always tempted by smaller systems (although I know no-one I know plays them or is even interested sadly), but the feeling of 'this is a big army' always makes me happy. Great job on the painting too.

I love Anvil Industries. Those minis are from their future sci-fi game that never really took off (I think they did a kickstarter for it once upon a time)

Flapjack wrote:Lovely stuff! Nice to see more historical stuff on Dakka.

Thank you, I am a bit surprised that there isn't more historical stuff on Dakka, especially since I see more of it available now at game stores. It is a lot tougher to stock and sell at FLGS due to so many scales, rules, and periods of history. FLGS owners also usually don't have the knowledge to know what to stock. So it is complicated and risky for them. The wide range of minatures, rules, and periods also means the community of gamers that like historical gaming is very splintered, and that lack of cohesion may be the reason why there isn't more on Dakka. I will keep posting my stuff even if only one person in a thousand finds it interesting.

blockade23 wrote:JB - You're doing amazing here. I love the diversity of all the different systems. I'm always tempted by smaller systems (although I know no-one I know plays them or is even interested sadly), but the feeling of 'this is a big army' always makes me happy. Great job on the painting too.

I love Anvil Industries. Those minis are from their future sci-fi game that never really took off (I think they did a kickstarter for it once upon a time)

Thank you, without spoiling future updates to this blog, I can safely say that it is going to get more diverse. My pile of projects includes a lot more scales and genres that I haven't already shown here. What smaller systems do you find most compelling?

Anvil makes some great stuff. I have a few more projects from them. I ordered all of my stuff back when their game, Afterlife, was still a new thing. I didn't realize that it is now defunct.




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And that brings me to today's update which covers the time period of 9-10 August of this year when I painted three Forge World Cyclops Demolition Vehicles. I acquired the first of these little monsters more than fifteen years ago. I don't remember how I got it but I think it was from an eBay auction. Later, I ordered two more from Forge World. There was no rhyme nor reason to these purchases except that I liked the little tracked bombs. I have rarely used them in games of Warhammer 40K, and now I don't even play 40K so I will have to figure out how to involve these things in my sci-fi skirmish games.



These are Forge World resin models, and very easy to clean up, prime, and paint. I chose a simple color palette that used many of the same colors as my Cadian Imperial Guard unit, the 11th Assault Regiment.




The techpriest and two Cadians are older models that I painted before this year. They are probably covered in one of my other blogs or gallery photos but I won't bet money on that. I cannot remember if I talked about them or not. The fortified walls with vision/shooting slits are from Rackham AT-43 (a long defunct game), I think. They are a bit illogical from an ergonomic viewpoint as the vision/shooting ports are too low or too high for a normal human, but they look cool. Someday, I need to make my own more practical fortifications/barriers. I can think of lots of them. Sometimes, I even dream about concrete barriers and towers.





The three Cyclops bring my 2025 painted model count up by three to 302.

The sheer dedication and commitment to such a task is already worthy of all the praises. But then again so are your painting skills, keep up the good work mate !

SarpedonofSotha wrote:
The sheer dedication and commitment to such a task is already worthy of all the praises. But then again so are your painting skills, keep up the good work mate !

Thank you! I can safely say that none of my 2025 projects are going to be anywhere near as big as your Land Raider Reclamator. That is massive!

 JB wrote:

SarpedonofSotha wrote:
The sheer dedication and commitment to such a task is already worthy of all the praises. But then again so are your painting skills, keep up the good work mate !

Thank you! I can safely say that none of my 2025 projects is going to be anywhere near as big as your Land Raider Reclamator. That is massive!

Ahaha thank you for checking out ! It's part of my own salvaging effort to use most of what I already own before buying anything else !
But truly, your dedication to this project is an example to us all !

Today's project blog entry covers two painting projects because the Games Workshop Battle for Macragge force field shield fence posts are rather dull, although useful in many scif-fi skirmish game settings. I painted them on the 11th and finished the Bob Olley Scrunt Dog Handlers on the 12th.

The Bob Olley figures are the stars today. I usually enjoy his sculpts, especially dwarves, for Games Workshop and other companies. He disappeared from my sight for many years, so I was pleased to find that he was running his own line called Olley's Armies. I ordered these Scrunt (his name for his dwarves) dog handlers along with a separate dog and a sprue of weapons, all cast in metal. I painted the separate dog a long time ago, but these dog handlers languished in a storage box for many years. Now they join the fray!



The handlers are cast as one miniature together with their wiener dogs (giant Dachshunds). I used Renedra cavalry bases for them.




The two miniatures are not exactly alike. There are slight differences such as the addition of pouches, a canteen (with my freehanded rune), and different weapons. The scrunts have a slightly Imperial Guard look (which I increased with my choice of colors), but lack skulls or aquilas. I wish I had bought a few more of these since Olley no longer sells his scrunts in small packs. I think he shut down in 2008, and now the only way to get any of them from him is via his occasional kickstarters.


The Games Workshop force field fence posts are terrain from the 2004 Battle for Macragge starter set. I bought the set long ago and kept very little of it. I still have the lander pilot, some marines, and these fence posts. I got rid of the crashed lander terrain but later acquired a painted version of it.



The posts are plastic and were easy to paint. I might look for more of them so that I can create larger fenced in areas in my sci-fi games.




The fence posts and dog handlers increased my total painted miniatures for 2025 to 308.


EDIT: Added later because the mold lines on the dog's head, leash handle, and pouch were doing my head in so I cleaned them up a bit.

At this point in the project blog, we have reached August 12th, and I have finished painting 308 minis in 2025.

I spent the next two days painting the old version of Games Workshop's Aegis Defence Line. I bought my plastic kit back in the day when every faction needed one for tournament play, but I never used it (Edit: 2014). The poor sections and quad mounted autocannons sat primed and lonely in a storage drawer as I moved around the world. Now they are painted in a simple but pleasant color scheme.



There really isn't a lot to show here as the long and short sections are almost all identical except for some battle damage. The color scheme starts with black primer. The base coat on most of the models is Citadel Castellan Green. The detail bits use either Citadel Moot Green, Vallejo MC black, Citadel Leadbelcher, AK Interactive Intense Color Deep Red, Vallejo GC Brassy Brass, Vallejo GC Cold Grey, Vallejo MC Sky Grey, or AK Interactive Offwhite. I cannot recall (and failed to record in my painting journal) what I used for the light blue lights and buttons. It might be Citadel Caledor Sky.




The highlights are mainly lightly drybrushed Citadel Straken Green and Elysian Green. The models still need a protective matte seal coat and then I will go back over the shiny bits (lights, buttons, metal, and the lenses above the autocannons) with brush on gloss coat.



The dog model is the one from Bob Olley. The Cadian officer is an OOP GW metal model. It is a favorite of mine. I have a lot of the OOP Cadian metal figures from back in the day when you could easily get them in blister packs or boxed sets.

I gave myself credit for nine painted models so my painted total when I finished these models on 14 August was 317.

After finishing the Aegis Defence Line on August 14, my 2025 painted model count was 317. Since I was still ahead of schedule (317 miniatures in 216 days), I decided to paint something that I had been very much avoiding, an Old Crow missile turret that I purchased back in 2011. Another Dakkite, Flinty, had used this type of turret to create his own Hydra on a Rhino chassis, and I was inspired to do the same on a Chimera. However, I ordered two of the turrets but only used one. I had planned to make a second Hydra but other projects came along and the second Old Crow missile turret went into a storage bin until now.



The components of the Old Crow kit. The resin is very dense and solid, but porous enough to hold paint. Unfortunately, Old Crow no longer sells models.





My 2011 Hydra conversion using the first Old Crow turret kit based on Flinty's conversion.





My second Old Crow missile turret kit built with the stock components and painted to match my Imperial Guard regiment.




The turret will make a nice piece of scenery for my sci-fi skirmish games. I may put it on top of a casemate or tower. It painted up quite well due to the smoothness of the resin and the detailed lines between sections on the missiles. I need to have a look through my decals and see if I can find some suitable to use on the turret. I will avoid aquilas and regimental markings so that I can use the turret for other factions too.




The two Imperial guardswomen are shown for scale. I painted them back in 2011, I think. One is a sergeant/shotgun veteran with shotgun bits from Forge World and rank stripes made from green stuff. Her head and legs come from a very old and somewhat hard to find garage kit of female guard. I think it is resin. The kneeling grenadier uses bits from that kit as well. I believe it was created by the PhoenixWargamersClub and a chap called Darksoul. It was an exciting kit in 2011, but you can find much better female guard options now such as Victoria Miniatures.




I was very generous and gave myself credit for five models so my painted model count on August 15th after completing this missile turret was 322.

As of 15 August, my 2025 painted model count was up to 322.

After painting the Old Crow missile turret, I wanted to paint something with a face. So, I looked out over my crowded 4-foot x 8-foot project table and picked up a sealed box of Games Workshop Chaos Spawn!

I don't remember when I bought the kit or why I did so. There have been many times over the years when I have travelled for work and found myself in a far-flung hobby shop. And at those times, I often bought something that I didn't need just to support that shop. The spawn kit was probably one of those purchases.

The kit is an older one for GW. The models are not difficult to assemble but there were some gaps in the joins. I filled these with green stuff.



The kits are plastic and there are enough components on the sprues to make a lot of different variants of two spawn. I liked a couple that I saw in pics on the box, so I followed their example with slight alterations. I don't usually use Citadel Contrast Paints, but I used them on the spawn to lay down the initial coats. The contrast colors went on well over my Vallejo white primer.




I used normal colors to make corrections and paint details on the spawn. I found the end result to be quite pleasing and even named the fine fellows, Bill and Bert. Bill is the more flesh colored spawn, and Bert is the one with the really large hands. I will use these chums in my sci-fi skirmish games.




I took the final pic with some Cadians in it so that you can get a better idea of the size of the spawn. My kit came with 40mm round and 40mm square bases. I don't know if GW still packs them like that.


I finished the spawn on the 17th of August, and they increased my painted model count for 2025 by two to a total of 324.

good work! Your pile of Shame have no chance with this lot of progress.

 kabaakaba wrote:
good work! Your pile of Shame have no chance with this lot of progress.

Thank you and I applaud your optimism. However, you haven't seen my pile of shame, and it is bigger than an Armageddon Ork Waaagh! It certainly will not be slain this calendar year or the next. It doesn't help that painting some of the pile triggers an urge to buy some more models that can be used with the freshly painted models.

On a positive note, it feels good to paint some of these models that I have had sitting around for two decades. Imagine how good I will feel when I paint a box of GW plastic skeletons that I have had since the late 1980s (four decades ago).

Today's project log entry is a bit embarrassing. The day before yesterday's update covered August 15th, or so I thought. It turns out that I forgot that I had not only finished the Old Crow missile turret on that day, but I had also finished two trash bins. As punishment, I will include the bins in today's log entry that covers August 18th, and I will not include the two bins in my 2025 model count since I was also a bit generous by giving myself credit for five models when I painted the Old Crow missile turret.



The green dumpster is a Reaper Bones model and went together very well using superglue. The blue skip is an MDF model by Ironheart Artisans. I used PVA glue and superglue to put it together. The Reaper dumpster needed very thin coats of paint, and the MDF skip drank paint like there was no tomorrow.




I painted on paint chipping and the rust. Grognards might recognize the rust as the GW technique once recommended for Ogre Kingdoms, but now superseded by technical paints.




And here is the model that I finished on the 18th of August. He was supposed to be the star of the project log today, but now he has to share the spotlight with trash bins. I quite like the model, and it is metal so it is nice and chunky.




I have spent quite a bit of time enjoying the nice details on this mini and speculating about whether he looks more like a young Ernest Borgnine or Peter Falk. Either is fine with me.

I have quite a few Games Workshop commissar miniatures, and half of them are still unpainted. Maybe once I paint all of them, I can put them all together in a thread within the painted model showcase.




Oh, I forgot to mention that the Reaper trash dumpster has a lid that opens. You can actually put trash or a zombie in it. Be kind, don't put zombies in the bins to scare your friends. I suppose that you can also put zombies in the skip as long as you cover them with a nice tarp. That's not a bad idea. Maybe I should write a book on how to serve zombies?

I take full credit for the painted commissar so my 2025 model count as of August 18th is 325.

Salut!

God-Emperor... I looking for this commissar for at least a year... Nice work over him. My favorite commissar. I hate that I sold him with all other forces...

 kabaakaba wrote:
God-Emperor... I looking for this commissar for at least a year... Nice work over him. My favorite commissar. I hate that I sold him with all other forces...

Thank you, he is one of my favorite commissars too. Games Workshop released a commemorative event only plastic commissar in 2023 that has a similar pose, but it doesn't quite have the panache.

I have the current plastic commissar and he is nice, much better than that big hat monstrosity that GW sold before.

 JB wrote:

 kabaakaba wrote:
God-Emperor... I looking for this commissar for at least a year... Nice work over him. My favorite commissar. I hate that I sold him with all other forces...

Thank you, he is one of my favorite commissars too. Games Workshop released a commemorative event only plastic commissar in 2023 that has a similar pose, but it doesn't quite have the panache.

I have the current plastic commissar and he is nice, much better than that big hat monstrosity that GW sold before.

I have every non-named commissar, some painted some in pile. Except this one.

 kabaakaba wrote:

I have every non-named commissar, some painted some in pile. Except this one.

How many commissars is that because GW has been making commissars for decades?

3ed steel legion commy in gasmask with bolt pistol
4th Ed commy(this missing one)
Old krieg commy
New krieg lord commy
Commy cadet
Commy with power fist
Lord commissar with power sword
Commissar with tactical rock and funny hat
Current commissar(upscaled one)
Commemorative one.
There also 1st and 2nd editions but I never liked them.

And there is 4 named Yarik, Gaunt, Raine and Shand(commy with axe from hell's last).

Today's project log update covers the 19th of August. After painting the commissar, I wanted to tackle a few more figures with detail and personality. I chose a pair of old, metal GW death cultists and a resin scribe by Scibor. The cultists are eBay purchases and the Scibor scribe was bought at T3 Entertainment in Frankfurt, Germany sometime between early 2012 and late 2014.



I used a few contrast paints to start the death cultists while taking a different path with the scribe. I enjoyed using a lot of colors that I don't normally get to use on my historical miniatures or Imperial Guard.




For the bases, I painted them to look like tile floors. It is something new for me, but I was happy to try something different with these minis. The Scibor scribe came with a very nice resin floor piece but I decided to save that for another project since it raises him quite high.

I will probably use these in my sci-fi skirmish games with the death cultists serving as guardians for the scribe, who will hand out missions to players but give them very poor information and instructions. He's a bureaucrat, clarity is not in his job description.

These three models gave me a lot of pleasure during the painting process and finishing them brought my 2025 painted model count to 328.

Work looks great. One of my favorite scenery pieces I scratch built is a dumpster (You have to add the graffiti though!)

I have a platoon of Bolt Action italians (in metal, not the new plastic ones) for my historicals, but family reasons prevent me from bringing any germans in the house (not that the italians are much better, but still). I've always been tempted by Flames of War, considering I loved micromachines back in the day. I have a whole Legions Imperiallis Thousand Sons & Prospero Spireguard army (sans one single to be finished titan) but I still have never played a game sadly.

 blockade23 wrote:
Work looks great. One of my favorite scenery pieces I scratch built is a dumpster (You have to add the graffiti though!)

I have a platoon of Bolt Action italians (in metal, not the new plastic ones) for my historicals, but family reasons prevent me from bringing any germans in the house (not that the italians are much better, but still). I've always been tempted by Flames of War, considering I loved micromachines back in the day. I have a whole Legions Imperiallis Thousand Sons & Prospero Spireguard army (sans one single to be finished titan) but I still have never played a game sadly.

You have built a lot of great looking scenery but I could not find a pic of your dumpster. I might add a sign or two but no grafitti since the dumpster might be used for several different games.

Nice updates! The anglo saxons are my favorite, nice paintjobs.