I
haven't stopped painting but the amount decreased. I went back to the
real world of work largely because a small change of in circumstances
which arrived on Christmas Eve. I am sure that this change is going
to keep me busy this year and for years to come. This will
undoubtedly lead to at least one more move this year.
All
this seems likely to reduce my painting time. I still have the urge
to paint. THINGS ARE LIKELY TO CONSPIRE AGAINST ME. No bad thing but
pretty bad for the blog. I will keep blogging and hopefully things
will get better.
The
plan, well, this is going to be cut down. The New Cruelty will hardly
deserve it's name this year. There is a lot I would like to do but I
am not sure what I am going to manage. Without sounding too much like
a politician, this is more about aspirations than realities. Money
has been tight again this year but in the new year things are looking
brighter. I have spent a bit of money on figures mainly in Star Wars
Legion so this means that there have been fewer new figures than most
years.
As
money has been tight I have looked through what I have got stored
away and gone through and painted some figures that were long
overdue. The average age of figures in the lead mountain has probably
dropped by five years. I have also painted a fair amount of figures
that I have brought this year with the other stuff I have acquired
being mostly prepped and ready to go. I have also been lucky with
Christmas and Birthday presents this year, I would guess my total
spend for the year would be around £200 with about as much in
presents. In the coming year I think I will be back to being able to
spend a bit more money.
Blood
Bowl is still something I like to look at on line. I managed a full sized team of the Chaos All Stars this year. I didn't put a lot of
effort in but they are a touch more than tabletop standard. Another
team is ready to go and I got more for Christmas. Another team or two
looks like it is on the horizon. Nurgle and probably Skaven would be
my first targets with Black Elves and Dwarves are also in the wings.
It would be nice to get an actual game in.
Having
played Star Wars as an RPG this year I would like to paint some
figures. I have spent a bit on it this year since getting the starter
set last Christmas, this has been the main object of my figure buying
and presents for the year. This has also probably been influenced by
one of my step kids being a fanatical member of the dark side. I have
even spent some money on it this year. My plan it to do some
conversions. My plan involves creating figures that can be used for
role playing and the rebel troopers box is cheap enough to make this
feasible. This should be this big focus of the year. Who knows I may
even get into the game. I could see me painting more than a hundred
of them if I don't get board. So far I have two sets of Stormtroopers
and one of Rebel Troopers. I can see this being my main focus this
year.
My
plan had been to do Zomtober again and maybe get some All Out War
figures painted. Well Zomtober didn't happen mainly because of the
coughing. I did start painting some of the outstanding All Out War
figures last week and a few are even close to being finished. There
are a few figures I have in mind to buy but they are not high on my
list so after I finish what I have I doubt there will be much
progress beyond the 15- 20 I am currently working on.
Post
apocalypse has, over the years, been my most beloved genre for
gaming. Earlier in the year Ross took me down to Salute and I spent
some money on urban stuff and rubble as well as the This Is Not A
Test rulebook. This was with the idea of playing some games. Well no
games so far. I haven't painted that much. I have probably painted
less than ten figures but I have painted and in some case built a lot
of scatter terrain. This includes some of the stuff from Salute, bits
I already had in, some bits box work to create scatter terrain and
six foot of fencing and gates.
On
top of the post apocalypse terrain I have worked on other stuff too.
Over the summer the weather was good enough that I could work in the
shed. For some reason I have always wanted mesa terrain. I found
myself with some thin fiberboard and a whole load of polystyrene. So
now I have mesa terrain. I prepared a load on fibre board bases cut
and ready to go, The advantage of bit power tools I guess. You would
be surprised how many bases you can cut if you have the right power
tools.
Fantasy
was an area I didn't do too much of although there was a fair bit
done which was a bit of a shame. There still isn't much I want to do.
There are a few figures for the Viking game I would like. I have my
eye on some hobbit and gnome figures. As they don't really fit what I
am doing I haven't brought any although that didn't stop me painting
the lesser lizard men. I have been looking at the gaps in the figures
I want for The Viking Game. Right now the most pressing thing is
light elves. For these I was planning on using early Saxon nobles
with a suitably different paint job. I am still taken with Frostgrave
and that looks likely to feature at some point. There are still a
number of monsters I want to paint.
Kingdom
Death Monster is still
a game
I would really like. I
have put it off buying because of the cost. I might look at making
this as my big purchase for the year. I just need to find some
players.
Sadly
I haven’t had the money and whilst I could be looking at it it as a
present that is just too much money to spend. This project looks like
it has died on the vine.
Titansgrave
has crossed my mind a couple of times. That is as far as it has gone.
I still like the idea but don't see it coming.
World
War Two became a thing for me this year but not in the conventional
sense. Six or seven years ago I was set on doing a Weird War Two
Game. Most of them are now painted with only the Germans left to do.
I may go a bit further with these this year and if I get the urge to
run the game maybe I will buy some more figures. I think I have
painted about sixty across the year with another thirty Germans to
go. With the thirty plus British paras this is not a bad size to
start running a game.
I
am not sure about the overall totals this year. There have been at
least three hundred 28mm figures painted. I think I painted about
three feet of post apocalyptic barricades and ten supply tokens which
were mostly made up of things from mantic. I lost count at about
thirty small pieces of scatter terrain most based on 2p coins but
there were a few bigger pieces. The mesas were a big piece of work as
were the post apocalyptic walls but these are not fully finished yet.
X-Com.
I think about this game every year. I was planning on using figures
from a game I brought off Kickstarter. Not only did it take three
years to get into production but I still haven't had my copy yet.
Thus has kind of put me off the idea. Still a back burner.
I
have been fooling around with a game that was originally big mecha
but has developed in to power armoured troops. My brain has moved over
to using 25mm figures. I have a lot of old stuff which would work the
bigger suits. Maybe I will get onto this at some point. A nice story
line is developing in my head and I like the idea all round.
Random
was the interesting find for me this year. Normally I like to paint
stuff in batches, It makes life simple and the painting quicker. The
necessity of finances made me paint what I had. This forced me to
paint to paint odds and sods figures simultaneously. Oddly my
productivity went up not down and up by a lot.
The
aim for the year is about 240-250 figures or about five per week.
Normally I say five a week and hope for ten but this year I think
that this is optimistic because of the recent arrival so no bad
thing. Star Wars Legion is looking like it will be the forerunner
with some Blood Bowl too. I
would hope that there is going some terrain complete with post
apocalypse looking like the main target.
Thanks
for reading the blog this year. I really do do it for me but it is
nice to know that somebody else is out there and reading what I have
to write. A happy new year to you all. Hope it’s a good one and
brings you everything you want.
