The Final Day of 2013

Sorry for the radio silence over the holiday period. There isn't any new progress to report from this time, I have just been assembling models and generally relaxing as the year began to wrap up. So with nothing new to show I guess I should try to wrap up the year and make some new years resolutions...

So in 365 days I managed to paint 383 models, completing my primary goal for the year. I finished up 3 projects and started at least 10 more. I posted 57 times through the year with over 180 photos. At my peak I produced 54 models in a week (way back in week one, no less!) and one of the models I painted this year won 3rd place in a painting competition. I also posted 3 tutorials. Overall I am fairly happy with the outcome for the year. Sure I could have painted more (or better) but I have several shelves full of painted models to show for my efforts, something I wouldn't have had otherwise. Many of them still need basing though!

Where does this leave me for 2014? Well with the baby on the way (just 9 more weeks!) hobby time is going to become more scarce. This means I will need to focus on getting small projects done and not over extending by buying too much extra. I also want to prepare a much better entry for the terrain competition this time. Last years was rather rushed... I still have mountains of plastic, with more on the way, but by continuing what I have done this year I can slowly make my way through it all. At least I hope so.

What I want to finish next year:

• Complete my entry for the terrain competition.
• Build a Kings of War army for playing with.
• Build and paint a set of Deadzone battle groups.
• Build and paint a full Malifaux crew.
• Finish all of the Dreadball teams and MVPs.
• Finish painting an Infinity group.
• Make some headway on my Warpath fluff.

So painting-wise next year isn't very ambitious. Maybe 200 models total. I doubt I would get round to painting the KOW army as that would likely double the workload. Aside from this I want to get a permanent home table sorted out for the garage. Somewhere I can play on the weekend or in the evenings. I will probably convert my (not so) portable table into a permanent fixture, seeing as it never did fit into my car...

Well that wraps it up for the year. Thanks heaps for sticking through my ramblings for the year, chances are I wont be posting as regularly in 2014 (I will certainly try though) but you are likely to get stuck with my sleep deprived ramblings instead!

So until the new year stay safe and play for the enjoyment of the game.

Week 49 - Spinning a Yarn

Not a lot of progress this week. I have been mostly preparing models this week so am getting pretty close to having all the dreadball teams assembled. I have been thinking a bit about what got us all into the hobby and what keeps us in it. Many of us got into wargaming through GW, for better or worse. While many of us have left that abusive relationship behind there is something that always pulls at us, making us tempted to go back. The 40K fluff is that little string. It is a completely unnecessary thing yet once you get past the models, the game and the hobby it is the fluff that drives us. It is what makes us choose a colour scheme, play out scenarios and spin our own little stories in a massive universe.

So where am I going with this? Well for many game systems we have all moved on to there just isn't that same hook. Some are better than others, Infinity and Malifaux have quite deep backgrounds and history for their factions. Now while Mantic games are fun they are particularly sparse in their backgrounds. What is really lacking, even from the fans, is specific history, background for specific corporations, plague outbreaks, veer-myn hives and so on. So I have been thinking about writing some specific backgrounds for my models. I would like to go the 'whole hog' with this and get it all fleshed out, military background, corporate dreadball team(s), strategic assets, rival corporations and anything else I can think of.

If I get it done well enough I plan on rolling it out for my forge fathers and veer-myn. I also plan on making the templates available so that others can write up their own. If everything goes to plan then maybe it can all get put somewhere public and really flesh out the Warpath universe at least a little bit more.

I've also figured out a way to re-purpose an old terrain project for something I'm more likely to finish, not to mention get more use out of. But that can be for another time. There is quite a high chance that there wont be a post next week, or it may be very early or very late. I haven't figured that out just yet!

Week 48 - The Seventh Centurions Take to the Pitch

Another week down, man the end of the year is coming up fast! I finally finished up the full Zee team (currently called the seventh centurions) as have trimmed and assembled the last of the Nameless team. As far as Dreadball season 3 goes I have 6 Teratons to assemble, a few MVPs and then all of the boosters to max out the teams. I aim to at least have all the basic teams and MVPs assembled before the years end, it would be good to try a few games in the last couple of club nights for the year. The Zees are below.

I've got quite a bit going on between now and years end but I do have a couple things I think I can finish up by then. I think I can probably finish up my Rail Crew for Malifaux, maybe even my Kirai Crew as well. I would like to trim up and assemble 1000 points of my Abyssal Dwarves but that may be pushing it... With all the Deadzone news coming through it looks like mine will be shipping in a couple weeks, making it unlikely to be with me before I finish work for the year. That is a shame but not entirely unexpected. At least I will be able to focus on what I already have!

Day 335
383/320 Painted/Days passed
383/366 Painted/Target (104.6%)
6/6 Mercs - Kezai Wazza (100%)
71/71 Zombicide! (100%)
31/31 Dystopian Wars - Republique of France (100%)
48/55 Dreadball - Season 2 (87.3%)
32/40 Blindwater Congregation (80.0%)
11/18 Malifaux - Kirai Crew (61.1%)
50/82 Dreadball - Season 1(61.0%)
89/150 Corporation Marines (59.3%)
7/19 Infinity - Haqqislam (36.8%)
21/89 Forge Fathers (23.6%)
14/89 Dreadball - Season 3 (15.7%)
1/85 Kings of War - Abyssal Dwarves (1.2%)
2/474 Kings of War - Undead (0.4%)