Hobby Summary: January 2025

If put against previous years, this January was quite a fruitful month in terms of hobbying, at least in the aspects that can be achieved on ones own (even though I do believe I should try the solo options of some of the wargames in my repertoire). Either way, lets proceed to the summary without further ado.

A small reminder: the statistics on the right contain a unit only if it fits entirely in the category. That means that starting a unit last year (like the Warriors of Minas-Tirith) and painting the last models this year would put the whole unit in the painted category. The summary below contains the "real time" state, though.

Painted (38)

• 8 Warriors of Minas-Tirith (MESBG)
• 1 Redfist (Modulorka)
• 5 Ork Nobs (Wh40k)
• 18 Night Goblin Spearmen from Battle for Skull Pass (WFB)
• 1 Dwarven Cannon + 3 Crew from Battle for Skull Pass (WFB)
• 1 Saruman (MESBG)
• 1 Night Goblin Big Boss from Battle for Skull Pass (WFB)

As you can see, most of the things painted this month was from the Battle for Skull Pass starter set for WFB, totalling 23 models. 25 models were different variations of greenskins for three different systems. One new system appeared on the list, namely Modulorka. I have the stls for some of MrModulork's models and I really like them, so I suppose that sometimes a character model or a unit of some sort will be printed, painted and posted. We had also new WFB and MESBG factions appear: the dwarves for WFB and Minas-Tirith for MESBG. Hopefully we will se more in the following month. Painting Sarumans means that I now have painted all my Isengard hero characters and I have only 10 more uruk-hai warriors left to paint for  that faction in my collection. I do intend to get a box of scouts, some worgs and command squads for the warriors and scouts, but that'll happen in the future

Finished (27)

• 1 Redfist (Modulorka)
• 5 Ork Nobz (Wh40k)
• 15 Night Goblin Spearmen from Battle for Skull Pass (WFB)
• 1 Dwarven Cannon + 3 Crew from Battle for Skull Pass (WFB)
• 1 Saruman (MESBG)
• 1 Night Goblin Big Boss from battle for Skull Pass (WFB)

By finished I understand not only painted, but also based. This time I based the Night Goblins as I finished a row, so five a time to save a little bit of time later.

Printed (11)

• 1 Broder Ironfist (Print Minis)
• 1 Collossus Hauler (Print Minis)
• 1 Fleshforged (Print Minis)
• 1 Annointed (Trench Crusade)
• 1 Artillery Witch (Trench Crusade)
• 5 Heretic Troopers (Trench Crusade)
• 1 GrimGuard Trooper (StationForge)

It may not seem that much, but my printer is 90 km from where I live and currently I get to print only over the weekends. The Collossus Hauler on it's own was a great deal of printing, as it took around 9 batches. As we can see, most of the printed stuff is either from Printed Minis or for Trench Crusade. My friends are planning to start a Trench Crusade campaign, so I printed out my starting roster and plan to print some additions shortly. The GrimGuard Trooper and Fleshforged are miniatures printed to test out colour schemes and the Collossus will be a Heavy Vehicle for my Necromunda gang (we houseruled the stupid thing that Nomads cannot have vehicles).

Assembled (111)

• 16 Savage Orruks
• 2 Savage Big Stabbas (sans base)
• 10 Cultists from Dark Vengeance
• 6 Dark Angels Space Marines from Dark Vengeance
• 1 Librarian Turmiel from Dark Vengeance
• 4 Deathwing Terminators from Dark Vengeance
• 12 Bretonnia Peasant Archers
• 10 Deadwalker Zombies
• 7 Ulfenwatch
• 6 Corpse Rats
• 6 Bat Swarms
• 1 Yndrasta, the Celestial Spear
• 1 Lord Imperatant
• 1 Gryph-hound
• 1 Knight Vexilor with Banner of Apotheosis
• 1 Knight Arcanum
• 3 Annihilators
• 10 Uruk-hai Warriors
• 3 Praetors
• 10 Vindictors

The great battle to assemble miniatures and put them in less boxes to await painting finally commenced. I finally finished assembling the last models form Dark Vengeance, Cursed City (well, I have a foam insert for the models, so I had to assemble them to be able to use it) and Dominion. I also assembled the Savage Orcs that I put on rectangle bases to paint for my Orcs and Goblins army, some Brettonians and the last ten Uruk-hai Warriors that are on my painting list immediately after the Dwarf Warriors following the Night Goblins that are currently in progress.

Bought (20)

• DKoK Army Set - 18 Miniatures (1 x Lord Marshal Dreir, 10 x Death Riders, 6 x combat Engineer, 1 x Artillery Team)
• Goliath Maulers - 2 miniatures

Unlocked Achievements:

• More models painted than bought (38 vs 20)
• Painted a model (WFB)
• Painted a model (MESBG)
• Painted a unit (WFB)
• Painted a unit (Wh40k)
• Painted a hero (WFB)
• Painted a hero (Modulorka)
• Painted a hero (MESBG)

Finished: Night Goblin Big Boss from Battle for Skull Pass

 

Today's miniature is a Night Goblin Big Boss from Battle for Skull Pass, alongside his trusty squig. I decided to paint this model at the same time as the true model for today in the 1 miniature/day system, a Night Goblin spearman.

Almost all the steps for the miniature were the same, with the obvious difference being the squig. I used Nuclear Sunrise on the body, Ushabti Bone on the teeth and claws, Ahriman Blue on the eyes and then shaded it with Targor Rageshade.

This is one of two Night Goblin heroes from the box, the other one being a shaman. I have two copies of the shaman as I got one from a friend, alongside some Night Goblin archers that will get painted at some point to bolster the existing unit of 20.

Finished: Saruman the White

 Today's miniature is a very old Sculpt of Saruman the White. I wanted to follow the guide made by The Warhipster, but somehow ended up really not liking how the robes look in the tutorial vs how it looked on my mini. Maybe it's the sculpt (as the tutorial has a new sculpt, which is softer and the folds on the robe are just better), maybe the fact that I use old Nuln Oil so the contrast between it and Grey Seer was too stark or maybe my paints were not thinned properly. It is not important, the important part is that I dind't like the result, so I "reset" that part of the miniature and painted it to the point I was happy with.

The recipe (for those who for some reason's don't want to watch Josh's tutorial) for this look is:

• Grey Seer Primer
• Mortarion Grime on the robes
• Guilliman Flesh on the skin
• Black Legion on the staff
• Frostheart on the "gem"
• Nuln Oil on the hair and beard
• Black Templar on the brows and eyeballs
• Corax White on the hair and beard
• Base: as my uruk-hai warriors sans the tufts ast there is no space for  them. 

Finished: Battle for Skull Pass Dwarven Cannon and Crew

 For over a dozen days I've been painting Night Goblins (one each day). I wanted a palate cleanser, so I to test out the scheme for my Skull Pass Dwarves I picked up the cannon with its crew. I really like how this unit turned out and those models were a good warm-up before tackling the Dwarven Warriors that I want to paint after I finish the unit of goblins that is currently in progress.

If someone still has the contents of Battle for Skull Pass somewhere at home and would like to paint the cannon and crew in a similar manner, the recipes are down below

Cannon:

• Leadbelcher (Citadel Paints) drybrysh all over
• Retributor Armour (Citadel Paints) over details
• Nuln Oil (Citadel Paints) wash
• Light drybrush of Stormhost Silver (Citadel Paints)

Crew:

• Guilliman Flesh (Citadel Paints) on the skin
• 2 coats of Magic Blue (Army Painter) on the clothes
• Satchel Brown (Army Painter) on leather elements and boots
• Ashen Stone (Army Painter)/Skeleton Horde (Citadel Paints)/Ratling Grime (Citadel Paints) on hair and beards
• Basilicanum Grey (Citadel Paints) on top of the thing to clean the cannon. It might be a ramrod.
• Black Templar (Citadel Paints) on the hafts
• Hardened Leather (Army Painter) on wooden elements
• Leadbelcher (Citadel Paints) on most of the metal elements
• Retributor Armour (Citadel Paints) on decorative metal elements
• Nuln Oil (Citadel Paints) on metal elements
• Stormhost Silver (Citadel Paints) drybrush over those metal elements that can be easily touched without getting paint on other details

The bases are made in exactly the same way as those of my Skull Pass goblins.

Musings: The 1 miniature/day system

I noticed some time ago that I didn't feel like batch painting. The models that were supposed to be painted in batches were just standing there, on the desk, primed and nothing more. Which meant that day after day nothing got painted and even though might have looked otherwise, but I really did want to paint miniatures and even bought paints for new projects.

Then I came up with a rather unoriginal idea. What if paint just one miniature (with the intention of picking some Highland Miniatures goblins for this) per day instead of trying to force myself into batch painting? What if I do so every day that I can sit down and paint and if I finish one simple miniature and still want to paint more just take another project? Today is the 60th day of managing to do so! Of course I'm perfectly aware that this hobby streak will come to an end at some point, but I do intend to just paint that one miniature every day when possible.

Some users of the official OPR Discord channel wrote that I inspired them to paint one miniature/day as a challenge to themselves. Of course I don't see this system that way, but I keep my fingers crossed for their success!

This system, in which the first model of the day is simple requires one of the following: collecting a certain type of models (such as most of MESBG miniatures), have a very old backlog (with a lot of WFB infantry for example) or just print a lot of miniatures of this type, enlarging the backlog (which might not be a great idea if our intention is to fight against the grey horde). To supplement that I've chosen a technique that speeds up the process: slapchop. With this technique I'm able to "churn up" models that look cool enough and I can quickly get my daily dose of endorphins.

Adopting this system changed a bit in my hobby. Of course painting every day improves brush control, makes hands less shaky etc., but more important is the shift in perception. I don't see a pile of shame before me anymore, now it's a pile of opportunity. Nobody forced me to buy those miniatures, I did it of my own, free will. Now I can just paint whatever I want from that broad catalogue of possible projects. The second shift in perspective is about painting models as such. Due to the fact that I hadn't painted for many years and got hit by depression's anhedonia I treated this part of the hobby as something that requires a certain mindstate, a lot of time (a whole day without anything planned would be best) and that I have to paint many models at once, because if I didn't it meant just losing time. Now I'm again just having fun. I'm sitting down to paint when I have the time and the thought that another model will be colourful makes me happy. Of course it doesn't mean that I don't intend to batch paint anymore. I do, but probably as the "if I have the time and want to paint more" part of the system, rather than its base.

I would like to encourage anyone searching their way of fighting against the backlog to try out this system. It might work out for you or help you find your own method!

PS. In those 60 days I painted 69 models (nice). The goblin in the picture is the miniature painted for the 60th day.

Finished: Assault on Black Reach Nobz

 

Another portion of greenskin goodness. This time the 5 Nobz from Assault on Black Reach. They were painted in the same scheme as the normal Ork Boyz, with the only difference being that I put some Ghillie Dew Speedpaint on the "heads" of the grenades.

Nobz are bigger than normal orks, tending to order their lesser kin around (by krumping) and trying to grow even bigger to become a proper Warboss. In game terms, they can lead units of smaller orks or form their own troops. At least in Wh40k, in OPR Ork Marauders have a unit that is called Orc Bosses and Wh40k's Nobz could easily represent that unit. Nowadays they should be put on bigger bases, but I don't care about it that much. They could remain on 25mm bases for OPR and Modulorka and I can probably find and print some adapters if I ever want to play them in Wh40k.

Finished: Redfist

 

If someone has seen more than the last post, they know that I have a soft spot for orcs and other greenskins and really like to paint them. Thus it comes as no surprise that I observe a creator called MrModulork who creates exclusively "orky" stuff for his own more or less skirmish game (that I hope to try out).

When I gazed upon the renders of this models I was amazed. A truly wonderous concept: what if Hellboy was an orc? I felt the need to have this model and waited until the end of the month to subscribe to MrModulork's Patreon, as I really wanted most of the other offerings for the month: paratrooper gobbos, a great gobbo commander etc.

At first I wanted to paint the skin in my usual green, but then I decided to go with red and I'm happy I did. Maybe I'll print another one and paint the skin green, but I really like how Redfist turned out.

As usual, if you like what you see and would like to achieve something similar, here's the recipe:

1. Slapchop underpainting
2. Blood Angels Red on the skin
3. Space Wolves Grey on the trousers
4. Black Legion on the boots and the trousers' belt
5. Snakebite Leather on the pouches
6. Ratling Grime on the hair
7. Wyldwood on the horn stubs
8. Garaghak's Sewer on the leather jacket + Mournfang Brown drybrush
9. Magic Blue on the patches on the leather jacket
10. Leadbelcher on all the metallic parts
11. Screaming Bell on all the parts that we want to differentiate from the rest apart from the fist's "base"
12. Blood Angels Red on the fist
13. Agrax Earthshade on the metallics
14. Leadbelcher drybrush on the metallics
15. Base: Black Primer + White drybrush + Skeleton Horde on the skull + Basilicanum Grey on the rest

Painted: First batch of Warriors of Minas-Tirith

This is the first time that I can use the new statistics category. I painted those miniatures, but did not base them yet, as I don't have any ideas as to what I want to do with them. Find some cobbled streets stl (or a roller of that kind), slap some texture paste and call it a day? Or something else entirely?

This is the next of my "at least 1 miniature/day" projects, carried over from the last days of December 2024. I have one more sprue of those miniatures ready to assemble and paint, as well as Boromir, Denethor and Faramir for this faction, so it's entirely possible that they will land on the painting desk sooner rather than later.

If you like the result and would like something similar for you models, here's the recipe:

1. Slapchop gradient + Grey Seer on the face of the model
2. Black Legion on the skirt, sleeves, belts and shield
3. Black Templar on the scabbard, grip of the sword and the "body" of the quiver
4. Wyldwood on the hair
5. Guilliman Flesh on the face
6. Cygor Brown on the bow/haft of the spear
7. Skeleton Horde on the fletchings of the arrows
8. Corax White on the White Tree symbol on the shield
9. Retributor Armour on the decorative element on the spear, pommel and hilt of the sword as well as the decorative elements on the scabbard and quiver
10. Leadbelcher on the armour, sword and other "steel" elements
11. Nuln Oil on all the metal elements
12. Stormhost Silver drybrush over the metal elements

Taking a photo of these models was not that easy and the models are less shiny in reality than they are in the picture. The camera was rebelling against me, not wanting to focus on the front row etc. The result above is the best I managed to achieve for now.

Summary of 2024

Last year was a difficult one, both in terms of how life went and how hobby topics progressed. It started with one of my cats being ill for a very long time, then in the middle of the year due to the finiancial struggles the company I worked in faced I ended up unemployed and since then I'm still looking for a job (I'm officially unemployed since 19 of July), while sometimes taking tasks and coding for my previous employers to help them out (and just code). I have finally made my way to a psychiatrist and now feel much better. Thanks to medication I can finally fight depression and see the positive aspects of life, even during unemployment.

I like to look at summaries via numbers. In terms of played games 2023 was much, much worse than 2024. Necromunda reigned over the tabletop, I didn't manage to play even one game of OPR or KT... even MESBG didn't appear once on the table (which may seem weird when we look at the number of models for that game system that I painted last year).

As for bought miniatures, the year was terrible for the backlog. I got 488 new miniatures (by that I understand models that I physically received over the year, even if they were ordered the previous year), in comarison to 193 last year and I painted only 14 of the newly bought ones (the Ash Waste Nomads Warband and Dustback Helamites). I really hope that there will be less FOMO boxes containing huge numbers of models and that I will paint more.

And this may serve as a segway to painting. Much of the year was awful in that regard. I managed to finish the first model at the end of O(r)ctober and it was a miniature that needed only the last coat of paint and its base done. But when I decided to test out a system where I paint at least one not too detailed model per day and if I still have the time and wanto to paint more just grab something else and at least start working on it the number of finished miniatures skyrocketed. The year ended with 73 finished models, which is not bad for only about a month and a half of actual painting.

I don't like to set new year's goals, I'd much rather express my hopes regarding the miniature hobby for the year. First, I hope to buy less models than in 2024 (which will probably be difficult, but we'll obviously see how that goes). Second, I hope to play more games (this does not depend entirely on me, but the Necromunda campaign is still ongoing and some friends that like AoS moved much closer to where I live). Third, I hope to pay more models than last year (In 2024 I managed to paint more models than in 2023, so there is some hope for an upward trend in that regard).

What about the blog? It's by no means popular, but it was created to chronicle my fight against the grey horde and the slow journey across the sea of grey (hence the name of the blog). I deleted a few sub-page links by accident while playing with the settings of the blog. I do intend to bring them back, but probably after some rework. I will have to look through the achievements that I came up with in 2023 and possibly add some more. It would be nice to write a monthly hobby summary to show progress, both in terms of bought/assembled/painted/printed models and played games or achievements unlocked. I will have to devise a better way to update the backlog page as the table-style version did not work out as expected (especially that updating it was horrible, as I had to do it in a text editor and then copy the table which immediately converted into html). What difference does it make if the model was assembled, to  be repainted or is still on sprue? I prefer a binary approach - the model is either in the backlog or already painted. That means I have a lot of work in that regard before me! I will also create a sub-page with links to posts containing the photos of my painted minis, divided into games and factions. I will probably return to some of the posts to edit them. Possibly in the case of the post with Ugluk and the 11 Uruk-hai warriors I will separate them to make it look nicer on the sub-page.

Also, I will create a new category of models - painted. You know, those are the miniatures that have a coat of paint on them, but are still not based, as for example I don't have an idea how I want to base them (as is the case of the current project - some Warriors of Minas-Tirith). It might even mean that there will be more posts on the blog!