2022 Round up! (and a look in to 2023)

 Argh! 6 months without a post. Not great!

Hobbying over the summer was pretty light - I managed a few games of Epic which we got in the can for the Life of Die YouTube channel, and I painted a handful of minis.

November saw the start of a new project that has been burning in the back of my mind for a long time... 6mm Cold War.

I picked up a couple of job lots from eBay to get me started, then added some bits I felt were missing. The main driver though is rules. I've checked out Cold War Commander 2.0 and a few others but my real desire is to write my own set, and it's been a really interesting experience.

I went in with 0 research, only my experience of playing a lot of games and working on engineering projects as my real world job, but it really pleased me to see that after getting a lot of ideas down and stitching them together, I was very close to what looked like a playable set of rules, then this was further validated by watching the 'Rule of Carnage' podcasts where indie game designers chat, and i was unknowingly following a lot of their processes.

Anyhoo - I'm hoping to have a decent 1st draft ready shortly - selfishly designed around the minis I have and my desire to see them on the tabletop.

Other than that the year is ending with bloomin' Space Marines... 

We are starting a slow-grow OnePageRules Grimdark Future campaign set in the Badab War conflict in 40k, where lesser represented legions of space marines battle it out. Should be a good cleanser project and get me back in to the swing of painting!

In terms of 2022 hobby goals achieved... Yeah, not great!

I did at least buy very little this year, and fairly sure I painted most of it. I was sooo close to a 0 pile of shame at the end of last year that I'm a little disappointed that my collection has grown again.

There was a decent amount of gaming at least!

Plans for 2023

Badab War - paint/repaint existing 40k stuff - buy nothing!

6mm Cold War - finish the rules, paint what I have - buy nothing! (sell the excess - ended up with far too many helicopters in one job lot!)

40k Other - Still got some Eldar and the Blackstone Fortress box to crack into if I want to paint something different - buy nothing! (maybe even sell some stuff).

Bolt Action - Get more games in! still got a box full of Winter Germans, British Commandos and British Commonwealth infantry I could do something with if the notion took... Again, buy nothing!

Everything else...

I got the Flames of War 'Hit the Beach' set for Christmas. It's an amazing box, similar to the 'Open Fire' one I had years ago when I first got back into the hobby. It's staying sealed for now as I don't need another scale in my life (again!). If the rules writing bug gets me it could be a great candidate/muse for a company level WW2 game, as FoW doesn't grab me, or could be great for proper sized Bolt Action Tank War games...

Epic - keep playing. We have a docket lined out for next year for games of Net Epic gold, and some discussion for 3rd edition too.

And now, an out of context photo dump!

 

June roundup - Grimdark Future... Mostly!

 So June has been a slowish month, in fact I only really completed 5 models I reckon.

Eldar Rangers were something that had been bouncing around my bits box for about 30 years half/badly painted and i decided to bring them up to date. Looking forward to getting these on the table for a game of Grimdark Future.

I picked up some more Slaanesh stuff for Epic and got them tabletop ready, but still need to do some finishing touches, probably will be spurred on if I'm fielding them at some point.

Other than that i catalogued/photographed everything that I have painted for 40k/OPR mostly for a reference for myself for list building.

I also picked up a 'Start Collecting Eldar Craftworlds' box, really just to get the Wraithguard and Wraithlord out of it to give me a decent small Eldar force.

In the coming months I'll probably just try to paint what I have left for 40k/OPR and maybe get back to Bolt Action too, but we'll see! I'm really just painting what I fancy day-to-day which is nice.

May Roundup - Epic, Space Hulk, Grimdark Future

Fairly busy May considering juggling holidays and work.

I started by picking up some Slaanesh Knights (finally!) for Epic, and along with a fresh pot of Emperors Children pink (terrible paint to work with!) I set about painting, using the White Dwarf article on them as a reference as I was struggling to work out what bits were what (very Slaanesh!).

while the palatte was wet, I figured some old school chaos dreadnaughts would compliment them, as well as some Blackstone Fortress Spindle Drones, which I'm going to proxy as Defilers.

As a wee cleanser I repainted my old Ultramarines Thunderhawk to join my Blood Angels and gives me a flight of 3 'modern' ones for future games.

Some Epic 40k Era plastic Chaos Marines in the form of Berserkers and Noise Marines also crossed my path and chucked some paint on them... (I'm not massively happy with the effort here, but they are fine for now)

I then moved back up to 28mm and finally re-painted my Grey Knight Terminator from my childhood. Much happier this time around. This then sparked a Space Hulk/Grimdark Future mind worm and i picked up some new plastic Termies and weapons and magnetised the lot for different load outs.

Next up, I've got more Slaanesh Knights to finish off, and then I'll probably take a short break, maybe circle back around and do some Bolt Action...

Squats! Eh... I mean April roundup.

 This month I have mostly been painting Squats. 

For those following this marks the 'end' of my pseudo quest to paint all the 2nd edition forces for Epic/Space Marine/NetEpic.

I neglected the Squats the longest as I don't have a major love for them - didn't own enough for an army the first time around and they never really grabbed me visually.

I think they are a great addition to the Rogue Trader universe of pirates, gangs, scum and villainy on distant worlds cut off from the imperium, but don't know if they scale well to mass battles. (And I guess GW maybe felt the same way?)

Anyhoo, that aside - I've played against them enough times to realise they are a force to be reckoned with and are very much worth having in the collection.

I kit-bashed quite a few of the vehicles that are either massively over priced, rare or that I really just don't like the look of, so this is possibly my cheapest army to date.

I still have some unpainted units that I plan on adding when the mood strikes, but for now i'm fairly burned out on stuntie miners.

It was almost exclusively epic/6mm painting this month, and this looks to continue a bit into May.

for some breaks from the squats I kitbashed some Sabre Tank Hunters for my Blood angels, made up some Eldar units that I felt were missing from my roster, as well as doing some re-paints of a Warlock titan and some Warhounds that were amongst the first things I painted almost 8 years ago when getting back into the hobby. I feel much better about them this time around and it's sparked a scary thought in my head to potentially re-paint a large portion of my Eldar and Imperial guard forces that I'm not too proud of.

On the table currently are some Slaanesh Knights - which I still want to get enough of to field as their own force, and some squat stragglers that may end up back in the pile of shame until a later time.

If I paint anything else this month it might be some Bolt Action fallschrimjager or Brits... we'll see!