Week 18 - Life Changes

So its been a bit quiet around here, the reason being that we are expecting a second child. This has meant that getting more painting done has been very difficult and will continue to be. I'm trying to wrap up my outstanding commissions before shutting up shop for a bit. The impact to the blog will be long periods of silence, as there simply wont be anything hobby related to cover.

I have morphed game nights into hobby nights with Knightwolf, as we both try to get our costumes together for Auckland Armageddon later in the year. In writing this I am realising that my wife's due date is within days of it, so odds are I'm not going to that... But I've been wanting to do this sort of thing for years, so I may as well continue working towards it for now.

The blog may return, but in many ways it has run its course. I've gone from painting a few models per year (to a fairly good standard, placing in a few competitions) to being able to paint a few dozen models in a week. Nowhere near the same standard, mind you. The blog facilitated that, as well as feeling like there might be some possibility of someday having everything painted. That was stymied by selling painted models and replacing them with new ones... Most of what I have now I didn't own when I started, but my total model count is around half it was. And I have more painted now than I ever had in the time I have been playing which is another solid win. But there isn't much more for the blog to do, its purpose has been served.

In the down time I will re-evaluate what the blog is for but for now it is back to getting ready for child #2.

Week 10 - Under the Weather

I've not been feeling great the last few days and work has been manic. This all adds up to not much painting progress. I did work on a few Stygians for Epic, netting me a new formation. This brings me to around 500 points which is nice, to make any further formations though I need to pick up more stuff, as unfortunately all the Dark Eldar stuff comes in units of 30 and the stuff I bought was packs of 25...

This adds another 6 models to my total for the year. I'm still working out the details for the basing, I'm trying to find something that looks decent but doesn't hide the figures, which is proving a challenge.

Day 71
143/71 Painted/Days passed
Achieved:
Commission models - 6
Myth - 41
Prussians - 30
Zombicide - 15
Stygians - 18
TNT - 1

Week 8 - Back on Track

It has been a long few weeks, we were getting our windows painted inside so I had to completely strip all my hobby gear out of the hobby room for the last four weeks. This obviously made painting a bit difficult. I managed to get everything back together late this week and do some small painting yesterday evening. I painted up 2 Raiders, 24 Scourges, 24 Mandrakes and 5 Wyches. These I am only counting as 12 models but it was good to get more done. Photos below.

I'm still working out the basing for this stuff but I am settled on hexes. They fit within both the Warpath and Epic Armageddon rules and should look a little more modern as a result. I just need to work out how many formations I have with what I've got and what I need to finish them off so I can play a little bit next time I'm up at the club.

Day 57
137/57 Painted/Days passed
Achieved:
Commission models - 6
Myth - 41
Prussians - 30
Zombicide - 15
Stygians - 12
TNT - 1

Week 4 - Building the Fleet

I made a lot of progress this week, focusing on smaller figures will do that! I've been working on my Prussians for Dystopian Wars mostly, as that will give me a nice array of stuff to play with. There are a couple things to tidy up on these, particularly doing turrets and flock but they are otherwise done for now. Photos below:

So that is 28 more models complete. On top of those I also finished off some more Mercs and Myth models, 10 more between them.

That all adds up pretty quickly, setting me nicely at 125 for the year, less than a month in... I'm over one third complete. In a couple weeks there is a gamer trade session up in Auckland, I'm hoping to be able to reduce some of my clutter by going to that, but more likely I would be swapping my clutter for someone else's... At least I should be able to reduce the amount of stuff I don't use and get in some stuff that I might use.

Day 29
125/29 Painted/Days passed
Achieved:
Commission models - 6
Myth - 41
Zombicide - 15
Prussians - 30
TNT - 1

Week 3 - Sturginium Powered

I wasn't able to get as much time as last week to work on models but that didn't stop me from making more progress. I still have to finish flocking the bases on this lot but the models themselves are done. This almost finishes my Prussian ground forces for Dystopian Wars, I have some more robots to do and then I have air and sea forces. Pictures of the 19 models below.

On top of these I did the final highlights on another Bones figure, this I have set aside for This is Not a Test. I like having the whole little crew done, I have another set to work on to act as a rival band at some stage. I've added the crew to the gallery now that they are all together.

So this weeks total is 20 models, putting me just shy of 1/4 of the way through the year. This is already shaping up to be a productive one!

Day 22
87/22 Painted/Days passed
Achieved:
Commission models - 6
Myth - 41
Zombicide - 15
Prussians - 30
TNT - 1

Week 2 - Myth, Zombies and Building

It was a busy week this week. the rest of the family was away so I had time to work on my garage as well as paint. It has taken me a long time working on that garage and now I have finished the major work, next up is the sanding and painting. No pictures until it is done though!

I have finished most of the Myth models now, I just have a couple stragglers left. I am left with the expansions after that, but no need to get ahead of myself as I've only played the game once now. See below for a photo of the 17 Grubers and 6 heroes finished this week.

Further to these I also finished off the Zombicide Crows my wife got me for my birthday. These were done fairly quickly, 15 stands.

Last up I put the finishing touches on some Dystopian wars Prussians. These had been waiting a while the shrubbery flock to arrive. I will go back and finish off the others I've already done sometime soon. This is another 11 models.

All up 49 models, not bad for a weeks work!

Day 15
67/15 Painted/Days passed
Achieved:
Commission models - 6
Myth - 41
Zombicide - 15
Prussians - 11

Week 1 - Hot Out of the Gates

As with each year I have tried to launch into painting and start to build a buffer. This could have been complicated by trying to finish a batch of commission work but I managed to do some Myth board game pieces.  See the pictures below.

Commission Work

Commission Work

This gets my first week total up to 24. A nice start but I have a stack more prepared for next week, which should launch my total up to two months ahead. Further to that I have prepared almost all of my Forge Fathers for working on during the year. This should be enough to get me well into the year along with all the commission work I'm likely to have.

Day 8
24/8 Painted/Days passed
Achieved:
Commission models - 6
Myth - 18

Week 52 - Last Day of the Year

It has been a bit quiet around here as I've been busy on various projects and such over the last few weeks. I've been taking the time to prepare models for the next year, work on some terrain and play some games. Overall it has been nice to have a break from painting and do something else with my spare time.

First thing in the new year will be finishing a commission I've had sitting for a while, some Age of Sigmar models and some more Hordes models. After that I have prepared some board game models to get my early numbers up and my wife has 'volunteered' me to paint some Zombicide models for a friend who got a set for Christmas. I should have over 200 models assembled and base coated already so I wont need to worry about clear weather for prep work in the near future! I've got Deadzone/Warpath, Myth, Dropzone Commander, Dropfleet Commander, Zombicide and Infinity all good to go. Odds are I will have something pique my interest in the middle of the year that needs to be painted in a hurry but at least I have a good start.

Day 366
374/366 Painted/Days passed
Achieved:
Commission models - 18
3D printed models - 15
Paint remaining Zombicide zombies - 19/19
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew - 7/4
Finish Zombicide survivors - 30/30
Finish Halo Covenant - 28/28
Finish Halo UNSC - 52/52
Finish Zombicide zombivors - 27/33
Finish DFC Shaltari - 10/15
Mercs: Recon - 68/142
Dystopian Wars Prussians - 48/164
Finish painting Infinity Morats - 0/1
Paint all DZC Scourge - 43/62
Onslaught miniatures - 11/54

Week 46 - Infinity Terrain Board WIP

I've been taking advantage of some sales this week and picked up some terrain, specifically so that I am closer to realising the Infinity table I've had in mind for some time now. A quick photo below.

I still need to 3D print a bunch more floor tiles to get even close to finishing just this one board, but it is a start.

Day 325
374/325 Painted/Days passed
Goals:
Commission models - 18
3D printed models - 15
Paint remaining Zombicide zombies - 19/19
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew - 7/4
Finish Zombicide survivors - 30/30
Finish Halo Covenant - 28/28
Finish Halo UNSC - 52/52
Finish Zombicide zombivors - 27/33
Finish DFC Shaltari - 10/15
Mercs: Recon - 68/142
Dystopian Wars Prussians - 48/164
Finish painting Infinity Morats - 0/1
Paint all DZC Scourge - 43/62
Build and paint remaining KOW Elves - 0/15
Onslaught miniatures - 11/54

Week 45 - More Gallery Posts

No visible progress this week. I made some more progress on the commission models and have assembled and spray painted some more Mercs and Dropfleet. I should be well set up for next year at this rate. I have posted some more pictures into the gallery for now. Some of these are less than complete, I have more models to finish and so will add to the galleries over time.

Day 318
374/318 Painted/Days passed
Goals:
Commission models - 18
3D printed models - 15
Paint remaining Zombicide zombies - 19/19
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew - 7/4
Finish Zombicide survivors - 30/30
Finish Halo Covenant - 28/28
Finish Halo UNSC - 52/52
Finish Zombicide zombivors - 27/33
Finish DFC Shaltari - 10/15
Mercs: Recon - 68/142
Dystopian Wars Prussians - 48/164
Finish painting Infinity Morats - 0/1
Paint all DZC Scourge - 43/62
Build and paint remaining KOW Elves - 0/15
Onslaught miniatures - 11/54

Week 44 - Updating the Gallery

No painting progress the last few weeks. It has been pretty busy in that time so to keep things going I took some fresh photos and posted them to the gallery. I will try and do this whenever I don't have new models to show. Eventually that will bring the gallery up to date.

I have been putting more models together, trying to set myself up for next year a bit. I have some commission models on my desk that I need to get finished, hopefully I will have some time next week.

Day 311
374/311 Painted/Days passed
Goals:
Commission models - 18
3D printed models - 15
Paint remaining Zombicide zombies - 19/19
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew - 7/4
Finish Zombicide survivors - 30/30
Finish Halo Covenant - 28/28
Finish Halo UNSC - 52/52
Finish Zombicide zombivors - 27/33
Finish DFC Shaltari - 10/15
Mercs: Recon - 68/142
Dystopian Wars Prussians - 48/164
Finish painting Infinity Morats - 0/1
Paint all DZC Scourge - 43/62
Build and paint remaining KOW Elves - 0/15
Onslaught miniatures - 11/54

Week 41 - A New Game in Town

With all the push last week to finish my Halo stuff for playing I didn't realise I was only 2 models away from completing my goal for the year... So I went ahead and painted a bunch of models for Dropfleet Commander! I've completed the ship bodies for 3 cruisers and completed 1 cruiser, 4 frigates and 2 void gates. Once I've played a couple games I will settle on which weapons I want for the cruisers and finish them off. This leaves me just one void gate short of having a playable starter set, which I wasn't able to fit on my spray painting jig. I have 5 more Shaltari to go before I have completed all I have. Then I can either start on my Scourge or wait for KnightWolf's pledge to arrive and get the rest of my stuff. Picture below.

For the rest of the year I will be working on various projects, finishing off some of those stragglers from my to do list and commissions that have been progressing slowly. I have been using my 3D printer again, making floor tiles and walls. And a pretty sweet stargate (that took about 10 hours to print!) so I hope to keep on doing those. It is going to take forever to get enough for a table and I will need heaps more filament but I don't have any pressing stuff to make on the printer, so why not?

Day 290
374/290 Painted/Days passed
Goals:
Commission models - 18
3D printed models - 15
Paint remaining Zombicide zombies - 19/19
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew - 7/4
Finish Zombicide survivors - 30/30
Finish Halo Covenant - 28/28
Finish Halo UNSC - 52/52
Finish Zombicide zombivors - 27/33
Finish DFC Shaltari - 10/15
Mercs: Recon - 68/142
Dystopian Wars Prussians - 48/164
Finish painting Infinity Morats - 0/1
Paint all DZC Scourge - 43/62
Build and paint remaining KOW Elves - 0/15
Onslaught miniatures - 11/54

Week 40 - UNSC Fleet Reporting

It took a bit of effort but I managed to complete all of my UNSC for Halo this week, 52 models all up. I went for a battle worn white scheme, simple but looks good at a distance. Picture below.

We got a game in this week, it plays quite nicely. The usual Spartan Games mechanics are in there, the exploding dice are kept under control though by preventing adding more dice. This makes the big ships really hard to take down without concentrated fire. Every ship base has 3 hit points which makes the number of tokens on the board nice and small. We played an intro game which skipped some features, we will add them in as we play a bit more.

Day 283
364/283 Painted/Days passed
Goals:
Commission models - 18
3D printed models - 15
Paint remaining Zombicide zombies - 19/19
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew - 7/4
Finish Zombicide survivors - 30/30
Finish Halo Covenant - 28/28
Finish Halo UNSC - 52/52
Finish Zombicide zombivors - 27/33
Mercs: Recon - 68/142
Dystopian Wars Prussians - 48/164
Finish painting Infinity Morats - 0/1
Paint all DZC Scourge - 43/62
Build and paint remaining KOW Elves - 0/15
Onslaught miniatures - 11/54

Week 39 - Covenant Inbound

The Halo Covenant have been completed. That is the last 5 ships done, so that I can now move on to the UNSC ships. This coincided with me receiving a shipping notification for my DropFleet Commander, so I really need to get a move on and try out this game before it (potentially) gets shelved for a long time...

I hope to finish up this years models in the next couple weeks, which frees up my time for other projects like terrain and the garage, in between commission work. A large portion of those will be UNSC ships I hope, there are a lot of little frigates and I have a couple more Mercs civilians to do to round it all out.

Day 276
312/276 Painted/Days passed
Goals:
Commission models - 18
3D printed models - 15
Paint remaining Zombicide zombies - 19/19
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew - 7/4
Finish Zombicide survivors - 30/30
Finish Halo Covenant - 28/28
Finish Halo UNSC - 0/52
Finish Zombicide zombivors - 27/33
Mercs: Recon - 68/142
Dystopian Wars Prussians - 48/164
Finish painting Infinity Morats - 0/1
Paint all DZC Scourge - 43/62
Build and paint remaining KOW Elves - 0/15
Onslaught miniatures - 11/54

Week 38 - A Halo in the Stars

I got the first batch of the Halo Covenant ships done today, for a total of 23 models completed. This was mostly the small ships with one medium ship. I've gone for something quick so that I can get them on the table, but it is also fairly effective in its simplicity I think.

There are empty flight pegs in there waiting for some of the larger ships. I have 3 medium and 2 large to go for the Covenant. And a big pile of ships for the UNSC, as they tend to come in twice the quantity. I still have about two dozen of those to undercoat first though, but I am thinking that they will have a similarly simple scheme so that I can test out the game with painted models soon.

Day 269
307/269 Painted/Days passed
Goals:
Commission models - 18
3D printed models - 15
Paint remaining Zombicide zombies - 19/19
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew - 7/4
Finish Zombicide survivors - 30/30
Finish Halo Covenant - 23/28
Finish Halo UNSC - 0/?
Finish Zombicide zombivors - 27/33
Mercs: Recon - 68/142
Dystopian Wars Prussians - 48/164
Finish painting Infinity Morats - 0/1
Paint all DZC Scourge - 43/62
Build and paint remaining KOW Elves - 0/15
Onslaught miniatures - 11/54

Week 36 - Another Commission Complete

So after barricading my painting desk with a large lego project for the last week and a half I managed to finally wrap up the commission models I have had for a couple months now. I've been slipping on my painting quantities so really need to find another stack of 'easy' models to push me through to the end of the year. I may be able to do that with my Halo models, I've just undercoated the last of the Coveneant ships today, now to figure out the scheme I want. I should be able to do a bunch of the UNSC ships pretty quickly too once I get some undercoated.

The three treemen are all technically touch ups as they all had some degree of paint on them to start with. I also got the black wash on 4 more Prussian vehicles to bump me up to a weeks worth. Time and energy have been hard to find lately, some easy ones would be nice for my last 80 or so to go.

Day 255
284/255 Painted/Days passed
Goals:
Commission models - 18
3D printed models - 15
Paint remaining Zombicide zombies - 19/19
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew - 7/4
Finish Zombicide survivors - 30/30
Finish Zombicide zombivors - 27/33
Mercs: Recon - 68/142
Dystopian Wars Prussians - 48/164
Finish painting Infinity Morats - 0/1
Paint all DZC Scourge - 43/62
Build and paint remaining KOW Elves - 0/15
Onslaught miniatures - 11/54

Week 34 - Slinking Back In

So its been over a month since my last post, largely since it has been over a month since I actually painted anything! It has been a long and sometimes rough month but I'm now back and should be posting a bit more reliably, at least I hope. I've got 2 commission models that just needing basing to show this time.

I have another two to go on this commission, but they are touch ups on an existing paint job so shouldn't be too difficult.

Day 241
277/241 Painted/Days passed
Goals:
Commission models - 15
3D printed models - 15
Paint remaining Zombicide zombies - 19/19
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew - 7/4
Finish Zombicide survivors - 30/30
Finish Zombicide zombivors - 27/33
Mercs: Recon - 68/142
Dystopian Wars Prussians - 44/164
Finish painting Infinity Morats - 0/1
Paint all DZC Scourge - 43/62
Build and paint remaining KOW Elves - 0/15
Onslaught miniatures - 11/54

Week 29 - Prussians Make Landfall

So I made a sudden leap in progress this weekend. I have pretty much finished up 44 Prussians for Dystopian Wars, I'm making the models themselves fairly plain and putting the colour into the basing instead. I need to go pick up some green foliage clumps to finish the bases and add a splash of more colour. Photos below.

I have another 4 that are almost done, but am going to wait until more are up to the same state before finishing them off. I still have a heap of these to go, including the Metzgers, and I recently picked up some air and sea units as well. Plenty to do but they are fairly easy which is always nice. Hopefully I can get some games in with them soon too.

Day 205
275/205 Painted/Days passed
Goals:
Commission models - 13
3D printed models - 15
Paint remaining Zombicide zombies - 19/19
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew - 7/4
Finish Zombicide survivors - 30/30
Finish Zombicide zombivors - 27/33
Mercs: Recon - 68/142
Dystopian Wars Prussians - 44/164
Finish painting Infinity Morats - 0/1
Paint all DZC Scourge - 43/62
Build and paint remaining KOW Elves - 0/15
Onslaught miniatures - 11/54

Week 28 - Security Forces Complete

I gathered up some energy and finished up the last 19 SecFor for Mercs: Recon. I've also been working on my Prussians which mostly involves figuring out the basing. I'm going for winter snow basing and I had an unopened container of it which helped. The scale really complicates things as at 1:1200 most basing material would be half the height of a person! I'm not usually that worried but I am trying to keep things roughly right for now. Once I nail it all down it should be fairly easy to get most of it painted up.

Day 198
231/198 Painted/Days passed
Goals:
Commission models - 13
3D printed models - 15
Paint remaining Zombicide zombies - 19/19
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew - 7/4
Finish Zombicide survivors - 30/30
Finish Zombicide zombivors - 27/33
Mercs: Recon - 68/142
Finish painting Infinity Morats - 0/1
Paint all DZC Scourge - 43/62
Build and paint remaining KOW Elves - 0/15
Onslaught miniatures - 11/54

Week 27 - Under the Weather

So everyone at home is sick. It is making us all miserable and making painting a bit difficult, not to mention how cold my painting area is. I managed to get another 5 SecFor painted for Mercs. I also started on my Prussians for Dystopian Wars and I am currently trying to find a scheme and balance of work that I am comfortable with.

Day 191
212/191 Painted/Days passed
Goals:
Commission models - 13
3D printed models - 15
Paint remaining Zombicide zombies - 19/19
Build and paint a full Malifaux crew - 7/4
Finish Zombicide survivors - 30/30
Finish Zombicide zombivors - 27/33
Mercs: Recon - 49/142
Finish painting Infinity Morats - 0/1
Paint all DZC Scourge - 43/62
Build and paint remaining KOW Elves - 0/15
Onslaught miniatures - 11/54