Happy New Year or 2025: The Plan

 Well this is the first time I have done this for a few years. Fatherhood I guess. My little darling is with her mum and I have watched all the Christmas TV I can stand. So it's the end of another year and a chance to reflect. This is about the eighth attempt at trying to get this done. Fatigue is not fun. 2021 was the last time I managed this sort of post and I figured I have more direction when I have a plan.

I have done a bit more on the blog this year than I have done in the last few years. The blog has been on a bit of a decline since 2019. I will blame my health and the real world being slightly more important to me. I have found a bit more space and time towards the end of this year. Soooo...I think I will keep in going. This year will see as many posts as I managed in the last two years and I've done the highest number of posts since 2019.

I haven't made a huge amount of purchases in 2024, in terms of cash at least. I found a lot of figures for almost nothing. Mostly 28mm medieval stuff but a lot of random frames as well. Most was planned for Sludge or Turnip 28. It came with a load of extras. Then there was some Battletech and Star Wars Legion purchases and aside from some 3d printed oil barrels. I brought a couple of board games from charity shops and spent nothing on RPGs at all. The total is probably closer to £300 than £400. Spending in 2025 is dependant on my Bingo plan for the New Cruelty. There is scope for a change of plan.

I've been ill and this has really affected everything I do. I've been without a work space since 2023 and it was only in September this year that I had the energy to do anything.  Then it was October before I started painting. Historically I used to aim for ten figures a week. I guess I am closer to ten figures a month. Well not quite. I hit round abou fifty five. Still most were big figures such as Battletech mechs.

The biggest (and some of the smallest) were the Battletech mins. I've never painted Battletech before but I guess I have painted some stuff like it before. Something different I guess. Battletech is something I played back in the 80s. I was a bit meh about it then. Now I have two mates that are into it and suddenly I have played it a bit more. Enough that I have started to like it. I have some mechs in the queue that are primed, based and on the bench. I have kind of decided that I won't buy any more until I have painted what I have or are pretty close to finishing them. I might buy some more terrain.

I aim to paint more than I buy in any given year.. Failed at that. I found a guy on a car boot sale who was selling stuff off rather cheaply. This was mostly boxes. I guess I have had about thirty kits and a lot of random frames. I worked it out and I was pay a little over 10%. Most of the boxes are in a bigger box which has been hidden in the boiler cupboard. I have a good chunk of bits for bits boxes and a substantial Sludge army out of it. 

Oooh Sludge. I now have a substantial army glued together and a good chunk are primed. I need some more bases. I would hope to get this finished in 2025 and maybe get a game in. I like the aesthetic. Not sure anyone else does. 

Having acquired a 3D printer and a wash and cure station I think this will have an impact on what I do in 2025. The wash and cure needs a new motherboard but that shouldn't be too expensive. I might need to find the right project. I suspect I will aim more at terrain than minis. It is however half buried at the moment.

Over the course of the year I got two pots of paint, both for Battletech. By and large I don't actually need any more paint. My paint racks are pretty much full so I would have to laser cut some more. I have enjoyed using contrast and the original speedpaints. I might dip  my toe into the newer range of speedpaints. I did buy my first purpose built wet palette. I have been using a homemade one for years but couldn't find it. It wasn't going to cost that much more than making my own, so what the hell. Then I got some stuff to make my own transfers. I suspect I will make more of that in 2025.

Then there is The Damned from Atlantic via Game found. The current ETA is March 2025. So about two years from the time I backed it. I am giving my screen a Paddington Bear stare as I am typing.  It's five boxes and around another four boxes of loose frames. I wanted this very badly as the time. I think that time has passed. I am sure I will paint some but we will see. This was another reason not to back stuff online.

Star Wars Legion looks like it will play a part in 2025.  Probably at least as big as 2024. I suspect this will be a bigger deal as a 3D printing. About two thirds of what I got done this year was SWL. The new year looks like it has some releases of stuff I will like. So watch this space.

Every year I tells myself I am going to paint a Blood Bowl team. I have my Skaven team ready to go. I have actually played a couple of games this year and nearly spent some money on Star Players. I might just proxy them as I was looking at £100 for four figures. I have the dwarves ready to go and a lot of stuff still on the frame. It would be nice to get one or two teams done.

My Viking game got played a bit at the beginning of the year. I have painted a couple of dozen minis for this and worked on my background. In the round I could have done a bit more but I have almost everything I need. There is still some stuff I want in terms of figures. I still don't have dark age zombies in my collection. Now there is an idea I can get behind.

In terms of spending I am using the Bingo sheets to determine what I spend. I expect to spend more if I am doing more anyway. Given that I expect to be doing some 3D printing maybe I will spend less. This meant need to have a printing plan and not get distracted by new releases or old habits.

I usually allow myself one spending blind spot. As long as it reaches a particular objective. So one of my gaming goals is to have a figure for every fantasy trope class, of both genders for all classic fantasy races. There are always a few missing because, oddly, nobody does this in a single range. So I wait to find stuff that is about right or can be kitbashed. I can't face any more elves (or the people who habitually play them). Mostly good for male dwarves and adding to the females as I find them. This leaves halflings. Halflings are a bit of a bete noire. I get some minis and then I find something I like better. My role playing figures need to be kept in a broadly dark age theme. This may yet turn into Celtic Dwarves.

I finished about half a dozen Stargrave figures and some stuff for Frostgrave. No games tho. It would be nice to have a few games next year. I don't suspect I will be buying much in 2025. We will see what comes out of Northstar.

Whilst I like the idea of painting more figures than I buy. Some of what I bought was already painted but even with what I have this wasn't going to create a positive balance. And I am not thinking about the random purchases. Even at the high end of output, my backlog just found enough figures to keep me busy for something to three years. I look at it in terms of having the biggest pile of kitbashing bits of anyone I know. Do I count the Damned as this year or 2023? The plan says if I paint I can buy.

I want to do some more hex terrain this year. I already have a substantial number ready to get painted. I need to get some more hexes cut. I have some thicker foam and the plan is to do some trenches, tunnels and alien hives. I should really be doing some desert stuff to. I will actually have to use it. I do have the space available to do a couple of big terrain projects in the shed. Just need the energy to do that. And maybe a slight rise the the temperature

In the round I am hoping that 2025 will be a better year all round. I can see a couple of hurdles, but will will see. 2024 hasn't been a bad year and there have been a couple of high points but I am not sad to see the back of it.

Progress

Post Christmas I am back to doing some stuff. This includes reading, writing and painting. The fatigue is making things difficult and trying to do anything for a long period of time (something less than an hour) potentially starts a migraine. So it's stop and start. It's been easier to do less complicated stuff like painting bases. I have some rims to do but progress has been made. Usually involving a nap at some point.

So there has been some work on Battletech, Star Wars Legion and even the stuff in the background. This includes just about finishing half a dozen post apocalypse terminator style bots. Under the circumstances I am pretty happy.

2025 Bingo, The New, New Cruelty And Lessons in Prevarication

It is time to reinstate The New Cruelty!!! Would that make it The New New Cruelty? For the uninitiated, this is my way of getting things done. Well painting and gaming stuff done. The Big Bug put a stop to it as well as life in general. Well here we are.

My energy on the low side lately. A side effect on the Big Bug. It seems to get in the way a lot. So in an attempt to move things forward I thought I would pay attention to the wider gaming community and a bit from the wider world too. Yes I am talking Painting Bingo as an adjunct to The New, New Cruelty. 

Then I thought maybe I could widen it out a bit. So it started with Painting Bingo. The big bug has taken away a good chunk of my mojo. Maybe having something to nark off would help. Then I thought if I could get myself to paint at least ten minis a month that would be an achievement. I mean I would like to do ten a week. The same should probably go for printing 3D minis. So I figured of I managed to double a target I could get a bonus. 

Then my brain got working. Which is hard work itself. Back In the Days of the Gold Old Days of The New Cruelty that I was managing four times the output and I had less on. So maybe I would put in the opportunity for some bonuses. If I manage to do double a target then I get extra jam. But only up to so much.

 

I figured that maybe I could spread it out to the rest of my life. The big bug has made reading difficult. Well reading anything of size. So maybe I could read a novel a month. Then I thought about putting some goals in there. 

So here we are. Instead of doing I am farting about with perhaps the most involved Painting Bingo ever. Such is my way. When I need an example of what procrastination looks like, I will come and look at this page/.It has taken a while to get it written because I keep running on empty. Its a good way to make me fart about for a few hours. The blocks for something about the way are really there because I can't think of something to put in there. I will know them when it happens.

Not much point in doing this if I don't get anything out of it. So I was going to give myself £50 for every block I completed. Then I worked out how much that would be. That seemed a lot. So then I thought maybe tone it down a little. Maybe half that.

Really this is an ambitious goal for me. My energy levels are low. Perhaps the lowest ever. Thanks to the Big Bug. So I am looking at this as part of a recovery plan. Exercise should form a part of this too. Maybe that is just a step to far at the moment. Getting the energy to do the basics is hard enough without medication.

More Thoughts On 3D Printing

So I have been doing a bit of work with my "brand new" toy. I have run about ten jobs through it now. My first attempt was an outstanding success. It was exactly what I was after. So I have tried a few more jobs.

The first thought I have is that it isn't easy. Of the ten or so jobs I have done so far about have have failed to print. I think I have worked out what the problem was. Yes, it was my fault. Will it get better? I will see. There is another job running as I type, so we will see.

So the remaining half have succeeded then? Errrrrmmmm. I think there have been a few cases where I have produced minutes I am completely happy with. Even then, lets just say there was nothing wrong with the print. The size isn't quite right. I haven't amended the size, they are just way to big. If a mini has no supports you can usually work out the height. The trouble is, those without supports depend on me putting supports in which is not so great,

Then there are prints that fail. On a tray full of minis, some or all of them might fail. There have been more abject failures than successes. I printed a couple of robots which came out alright. The trouble is that they are so flimsy, in order to keep them in scale, that they are just too fragile. They more or less disintegrated when I took the supports off. 

When all said and done there are only five figures that pass muster, One of them manages this because you can't see the bottom. Three look really good but are too tall. So out of ten ish print runs, there is only one figure that I am really happy with.

What next? Well I am going to keep going. I hope I am going to keep learning. 

ABC Warriors

So I have been doing some gaming with a new gaming group. Having a ball so far. Have played a wide range of games, most of which I haven't played before. I seem to be enjoying myself. For all my current luck, I seem to be doing okay with the dice. Maybe a little bit of tactics too.

This was a game of ABC Warriors. This is a game I liked the look of but was never going to buy. With two cards that gave us the hand of god, a sniper with a gun that seems to do the damage of a large artillery piece and a robot that is all but indestructible, the good guys won. With hardly a scratch.

3D Printing, Christmas And Other Things

In the first week of lockdown I brought a 3D resin printer. Over the years I had brought a few 3D printed bits and pieces and had generally found that, as least as far as FDM, they were a bit cheaper to buy but the quality wasn't all that. Most of the resin stuff I had brought off eBay just didn't turn up or was crushed. I could never get the thing to work. It seemed like such a waste of money that I gave up on the idea for a bit. A friend was given a resin orinteer. Decided he didn't want the fuss and went at got himself a bambu Labs printer. I have to say that this does nice work for an FDM printer. So he gave the resin printer, and a wash and cure station to me.

When I got the thing out of the box and it was exactly the same model as the one I already had.  When I had got that one I had spent days trying to get it to work and I gave it another go last year. With no joy. So I wrote it off as a dead duck and moved on. I had done all the research I could and it just didn't work.

Despite all of this I thought I would give it another go. It took some time but I eventually figured it out. The problem wasn't me it was the slicing software. Not just the random software I was using but the bespoke software for the machine. If I saved it different and used the oldest tiniest USB stick I could find, it worked. Then of course the wash and cure station didn't work but I quickly figured out what to do with that. I just need a new motherboard. 

So here am I, 3D printing. After four years of trying. It's mostly Star Wars Legion stuff. That seems to be more current focus. 

Then of course Christmas got in the way. There is a lot to do. Not least of which is the naughty elf. So I just get on with that. Around all the arsing about with the 3D printer. It's a process.

Having figured out that my XBOX was working and that it was my long covid riddled brain was at fault, I started on Dead Rising 4. Having played it through a lot and at about 95% of the achievements done, I used to be able to play the game on the hardest level. My brain isn't up to that anymore and I can't focus for long but I am making the most of it.

All this means I haven't been doing much painting. The Star Wars Legion stuff is still on the table as is the Battletech. There is a game coming up so I guess I should be finishing the mechs. My painting bench is the the bedroom which is where the 3D printer. So I have taken the decision to sleep on the sofa. This is not a long term solution so I will have to come up with some sort of solution. 

So here I am. Things are going as well as expected.

eBay

To me eBay always seems like a good idea. It's even better if you can get a good deal. Sometimes people like to use postage as a surcharge rather than you know, using it for the postage and packaging. That's when something like this happens. At least it got to the right address. I seem to be swapping packages that have been misdelivered a lot.

There are a few that are totally boned, a few that can be pinned, well after a fashion, and one that seems to be fine.

Not Quite Black Friday

Christmas comes but once a year. Which might be too often. For me the season starts with Black Friday. Not because I start my shopping but because of Dead Rising 4. I do like my zombies.

It now includes the first movie of the season. I do like a good holiday movie. Thanks to the king of the comedy zombie movie Bruce Campbell for staring in Black Friday. A movie so good they renamed it Black Friday! It's all in the exclamation point. I know it's not today, but I think I am happy with the season commencing a few days early. I mean it snowed last week. It's totally fine.

So it is back to the bench. I am thinking I have some zombies in the queue. I need to finish my Star Wars Legion stuff. This is getting pretty close. For the most part I am down to the detailing and sorting the bases out. 

This should be done by the weekend. Then I have no idea what happens next. I have plenty of choice.

Back In The Swing Of Things

So I have been painting. Almost an army full. Well Star Wars Legion army full. It's been part painted for over a year. Probably about time I finished it. The plan was to finish Echo Base Defenders and Blizzard Force and some extras before the end of the year. I might just get there.

The Battletech mechs are still in the queue. These mechs  have become my current background project. They are shaping up and I think what I have started will be finished before New Year. I have a game mid-December, so they will probably get to the front of the queue.

I seem to recall I have set myself the goal of painting one Blood Bowl team per year. I have found my skaven team and think they are next in the queue. I like playing skaven but I don't like playing them long term. The fatalities always break my heart. I just need a colour scheme.

I've managed to get some of my Sludge army primed. Ideally the plan would be finishing this unit. Maybe two. This has been dropped as my primary goal. Too many shiny things. Same old story.

With the end of the year around the corner, I think I should be contemplating what I want to do with 3025. Yes it's not even Christmas and I am thinking about the new year. Last year work got in the way and this year, well it's been this year 

 So maybe I can start looking forward again.

More Tiny Steps

Long COVID is a barrel of laughs. I think I am having a good day then LC says forget that and pay attention to me. I did get some stuff done and then the wall said hello again. Suddenly I don't have the energy to change the channel on the TV. It can't be a bad day because I now have the energy to be upright. Two posts in two days says something else.

So I managed to prime about twenty minis including three Battletech mechs and some stuff for Sludge. I was planning on carving some raised terrain for Battletech and got one piece carved out of the twenty or so I had planned. On top of this I managed to put some things in the right place so I can finish some more hexes. Not for Battletech. 

Now I am hoping for some more energy tomorrow. Past experience says that is probably not going to happen. What I will get s another wall and a lot of brain fog. Still that will be better than the last few months.

Progressing With Battletech

Having picked up the brush for the first time in a year, I am making some progress. My pace has dropped due to Long COVID. I just can't focus for long periods of time anymore. So I will take what I can get. I wanted to keep up the tempo with the Battletech stuff.

I have acquired another two mechs. These were classed as painted. Lots of grey in the nooks and crannies but it's a start.

They are still a little way off being finished. I am working on some transfers but need some clear gloss acrylic varnish before I can do that.

Whilst not the best work I have ever done, let's say I am out of practice, they look better than a lot of what I am seeing online. 

Still it has given me the urge to start posting again. I doubt I will get back to a post per day, but a post a month would make me feel a bit more in the game again. I have a load of Sludge stuff to do. Not to forget the Grey Legion.

Unexpected Projects

I now have an almost pathological avoidance of games my friends want to play. Over time I have been drawn into many expensive projects that have been shelved before my first purchase has arrived. Many of those that don't fail for a variety of reasons like suddenly moving away or making a decision to buy every Napoleonic army in 6mm.

Still at the blobby stage

So a couple of my mates are playing Battletech. I've played it in the past. Almost forty years in the past. I had been thinking about it in much the same way. I have to admit I was wrong. They actually like the game and want to keep playing. As a birthday present I got a couple of box sets and some random extra mechs.

Suddenly I am back to painting. For the first time in months. Trying a few different things. Not least is a leaning more towards contrast types of paint. Then I've taken moulds of some mech bits and used greenstuff to make base scatter. 

I have some of my mojo back. My painting area is now back up and running properly after almost a year. I've even got a proper wet pallet as I couldn't find my home made one.

Once I've done the mechs, I think I have twenty four of them, I am going to move onto Sludge, and finish of the stuff that has been waiting for final touches for a year. 

6mm🤔

I have a mate who comes to visit and go to a couple of wargame shows. I have a good time and I enjoy the company. One of the shows is the Joy of Six. A show mostly aimed at smaller scale gaming.

I am not adversed to 6mm gaming. But it's not really my thing. Some years ago my mates talked me into buying a French Napoleonic army, mostly so they could gang up on me. I started painting. About the same time, I was talked into buying a GHQ American army when I already had a Heroics & Ros army. The figures are prettier. Neither have ever made it to a table.

So I kinda gave up on 6mm. So I turned up to the show whilst my mates went on about their stuff. So I sat down, had a brew and I ended up talking to John Treadaway for half an hour. Seems like a decent bloke. Which for me is high praise indeed.

Don't worry, he didn't get round to gnawing his own leg off. I did note he seemed to be with his now almost obligatory stupid hat. 

Over the years I have come to see that there are two types of gamers and they are summed up by the two main wargaming magazines, setting aside White Dwarf of course. Wargames Illustrated is about big battles or very expensively painted miniatures or both. This is about people who invest time and resources to make something beautiful. I used to write it off as style over substance but if you are going to put all that effort in, I am sure you want the substance to. It is a magazine for the more serious gamer and I don't see as much fun in amongst the pretty pictures.

Miniature Wargames, John's magazine, has always been more my thing. There is a lot more of the joy of the hobby in its pages. Maybe the games are not as slick but you get the feeling that people are playing a lot of games. More about fun and less about spectacle. Now I think John thinks you can have both and that his magazine is trying to offer that, at least some of the time. It does feel more professional since he took over, I will give him that.

What I am talking about is something a little different. WI seems to offer games that might not have taken a life's work, but maybe just a half a decade or so. For me, I would sooner be able to play ten smaller skirmish games to a good standard than one game of big battalions tons high one. I don't know, maybe I just have a short term memory problem. Er, well, about that....

1:2 Scale Miniatures Day

Not really been on here much lately. Long COVID or that damn vaccine has really laid me low.  Some days are better than others and today was a good day. 

I started my 1:2 scale miniatures collection about five years ago. I've only got the one. I can't imagine anyone fielding an army of them, it's more of a skirmish scale. If you have ever been in soft play, you will know what I mean. It took nine months work to get it ready for play and I had to get a lot of help with it. This one is totally lead free although you wouldn't think it if you drop it on your foot. I couldn't find any Osprey books on them or even one of those jokey Haines manuals.