2021, The Plan

Usually do some sort of annual review and a look forward to the year ahead. I missed out on this at the New Year as I was kind of busy with other things (kids, work and the whole Christmas thing). So I thought I might trying and do something now. Months late, but what the hell. I used to think of myself as a completer finisher, this year has persuaded me otherwise.

To my great chagrin, the blog  was a bit of a washout in 2020. No furlough for me. What time I got to myself wasn't much and I chose to do other things with it. Priorities were definitely elsewhere. In all honesty they still are. As much as I would like to keep it at the forefront of what I do, work and more importantly family are where I am focussing at the moment. Every now and again there is a little bit of space.

In reality, there was some figure painting and terrain building going on last year that didn't make it into the blog. It has been a year of solid progress, although nothing like as much as I would have liked. I usually set myself a target of five figures per week with a hope of making it to ten. I don't have an exact number but I am guessing the number was more like two to three. There was a fair bit of terrain done alongside. Not the best year but I was happy enough.

What can I say? About half my annual spend goes on stuff at shows, which for obvious reasons were almost all cancelled or I missed. I could possibly have gone to one at the start of the year but stuff got in the way. The lockdown also means that I haven't been gaming and it what I am doing on tabletop that keeps me going. No tabletop means no motivation. So I have fallen back on my standard choices.

Painting wise I managed a Blood Bowl team, the Chaos All Stars. I came close to starting on the Nurgle Team last year and dithered between Skaven and Dwarves so much that I did neither. Santa got me another team and the New rule box with two teams, some more big guys and a few Star Players. When I was off with the new C word in January 2021 I have almost finished the Nurgle Team. I really enjoyed that as a project. Whilst this is technically my Blood Bowl team for the year I still have a few to go. This includes the new edition.

Star Wars Legion was something I have been painting. This was more for the roleplaying we were doing rather than the game itself. That said I would love to give the game a serious try. I managed to paint over half a dozen box sets, maybe forty or fifty figures, this year. There are some more primed and ready to go and a few heroes to paint up. I am waiting to see where this game goes this year. 2020 has really screwed up the production schedule for the game this year. Made worse buy the change in direction the game has had when it changed parent company. Most of what I want to get hold of is hard to get hold of and little that I saw on the horizon is tempting me, When we get back playing the RPG I guess my enthusiasm for the game will come back. 

I mentioned in my last post I was looking at cyberpunk-ish figures. Reality's Edge was purchased for me, thank you Amazon Wishlist and my other half. Almost the same game as This Is Not A Test (my current fave). I can do most of what I want with what I have already although a few more might arrive. What I have is already in the paint queue has a fair bit I can use. These are likely to be finished this year. In reality these are probably going to end up up in various sci-fi and post-apocalypse games. Stargrave is on the horizon, so who knows.

The post-apocalypse is still my favourite genre and there are some figures that will work for this. 2020 was good for the end of the world mojo. I got a load of stuff from Copplestone and a lot of it got painted. This was the biggest single area of interest in the year. In 2021 I am still working on a game based in a post apocalyptic London which I am currently calling SunderDground, a play on Underground. If the stuff ever turns up from Mirliton there may be some more to paint. Still waiting for this three months later, thanks to all the people who voted for Brexit for that or Mirliton who I feel have right royally screwed me over.

I got Zona Alfa for Christmas and I have been toying with the idea of getting some Lead Adventure Miniatures. Would like a game of this and I probably already have more figures than I need. That said I already have a lot of suitable PA stuff 

Having the shed available, when I was locked down, meant that lots of messy terrain projects were back on the table. I have managed a few. Lots of PVA, sand and paint. I finally got a cheap Chinese laser cutter. They are a piece of shit but this one worked. I also got a Proxxon foam cutter and a 3d printer. So many toys and no time to use them. I spent a lot of time gluing mdf sheet to polystyrene and cutting it up. Lots of little projects. The big project for the year was doing some 10cm hex terrain tiles. I think this might be marketable so I am sticking with the idea and will get back onto it. The shed began to be a bit of sticking point as one of the kids is now using it to store a bike meaning that I have to breath in if I wish to use it. Now at a stage where I can just about get into it again. So I am back at it.

2021 is going to be a terrain year I think. As I have mentioned before I want to do some terrain boards for skirmish gaming. There is a plan for a frame for the hexes but also to do a series of specific boards. My plan is that this is something that is going to take years so I hope to get at least two, two sided boards done by the end of the year.

Kingdom Death was another one of my real world pre-apocalypse purchases. I have painted some of the figures. There is plenty still to do. This is a rolling project. If I do get to play anymore games this year I am hoping that this will be one of them. There is a lot to do with the contents of this box. What is in the starting box is enough to keep me going for six months. Maybe I will get round to buying some expansions for this but only if there is a real chance that I might to play it again. My hope is that I will finish all of the base game's monsters by the end of the year and maybe some of the character figures. I did buy some very small magnets and maybe I will play around with making the figures all interchangeable.

Fantasy is something I haven't really mentioned in detail so far. The game I run is very much based in the dark ages do the figures I buy tend to be dark age in general style. Since I first started roleplaying I wanted to be able to have a figure that would mean I could do pretty much any class, in any race, in any gender. I already have plenty of dwarven miniature, quite a few black elves but almost none of them are female. Coupled with the fact I have almost nothing I can use as white elves, of either gender, and most of the dark age female humans are, how do I out this, are inappropriate in a modern context, I ordered some female characters from Bad Squiddo.

There are also have some hobbits coming to the paint queue. It's very difficult to find female hobbits so I have done a few simple conversions on the Copplestone Miniatures I purchased. I am also waiting from some from Mirliton (which are likely the last figures I ever order from them), all done by Mark Copplestone. Not very dark age, hobbits always seem to dress like the were from the seventeenth century and not the tenth, which is where I like to set my games. I guess this is more of a vanity project.

I am hoping that there will be shows at the end of the year. Perhaps I am a little paranoid but I don't see Boris's roll out of going back to normal sticking to the timetable. Somehow I don't see most of the shows happening, even the ones at the back end of the year. Nobody in their right mind is going to risk putting on a show and I am not convinced I would go anyway. There is nothing in particular that I am currently looking to buy online. I made one purchase just before Christmas and another in January. My paint queue is sufficiently large that I want for nothing. 

2021 is not going to be a record breaking year for either the blog or figure painting. That said, I doubt it is going to be the worst year ever either. There is a solid plan, if a low key one. There is a big part of me wishes I could turn my hobby into a business but I doubt this is the year this is going to happen. 

In the meantime, I have been buying figures. I probably have enough figures, primed, based and ready to go to last me for the year. Within the queue are Star wars legion, some long out of production spugs, some cowboys, fantasy, a variety of dark age stuff (including cavalry and I hate painting horses), some savages, robots, sci to, pulp, sci-fi, Rangers Of Shadowdeep (more dark age stuff really), modern and cyberpunk.

I have no immediate plans to buy Anymore figures but I have said that before. Will have to see how I feel about that when Stargrave comes out. If I get through everything else CP models have some Pictish dwarves and some very D&D gnomes.