Monday 30 December 2019

Pooch's December Update and a review of 2019

Well, here we are. The last of the 2019 posts for me. Lets see how I did shall we?

1. Paint a new 40k army- DONE!

This one I have been working away at for the entire year. The Krieg army grew steadily from a few figures, to a few units, then a few detachments... until this point, where I have now actually finished every single Imperial Guard (Astra Militatium) model that I own. It's all painted, it's all done.

How much is done? Well, points wise it adds up to: 4,411 points.

This month I finished four Leman Russ, a Basilisk and a Sentinel. The basilisk and the sentinel are just stock standard kits, painted in the same grey as the rest.

The Leman Russ however are painted in the same 4 tone WW1-esque camo as the Shadowsword, and have had their main guns, and the hull gun swapped over. My goal was the get a vehicle that had more in common with the M3 Grant/Lee tank from WW2, or the St Chamond from WW1. It ws actually suprisingly easy to swap the battle cannon into the hull, it was more of an ordeal to carve back the lascannon mounting to fit into the turret. Not impossible... just... annoying....

Super happy with how it looks!

Six vehicles- 4 Leman Russ, a Sentinel and a Basilisk
A good shot of the swapped weapons


And this is the whole lot. I'll sort out a better set of photos for a future blog post
2. Create a table of terrain to support a game - DONE!

Finished this one in March, with a whole table of terrain to support the Cruel Seas game. It's more likely to get used for Black Seas now however!

3. Make a modular piece of terrain - DONE!

This one was the crashed Valkyrie I finished up last month. I had big plans to do for this one, but it ended up being a bit of a cop out....

4. Paint a naval fleet DONE!

Finished this one in March too, this was my Cruel Seas US fleet and U-boat.

5. Finish something for an army I haven't used in a year, and take it to a tournament DONE!

Did this one in July to expand my US army to cover both Scotty and I for Panzershrek. It was great fun running the US at a tournament, so I am actually doing something similar for Valleycon- lending a US list to another local, and expanding my US yet further so that I can run two independent 100 point US forces. Yes, it's possible I am loony.

6. Buy a starter box and paint all of it DONE!

I finished this one twice, first with the Gangs of Rome in February (who I will be using for our Frostgrave day today!), and the second was Aeronautica Imperialis which I finished up last month.

7. Paint every miniature for a game I own DONE!

I finished up this one twice before, in February with the Batman Miniatures Game, and in November with the Mortal Gods game. Both games I am looking forward to getting into in the new year, with both Batman V3 and Mortal Gods Mythic on the horizon.

And, I actually completed this for a third time this month by finishing up my Escher crew.... that I painted most of last year...

Necromunda is a game which our wider group has all seemed to more or less buy into, but not actually play many games of yet.

Didn't stop me converting one of the Chaos cultists in the Blackstone Fortress Escalation box into an Escher with Heavy Stubber (basically just a headswap was all that was needed!) and using the Primaris Psyker from that same box as an Escher Wyrd (will be a bounty hunter I'd expect).

Space Wizard, and girl with a very big gun
8. Paint a Space Marine Hero each month DONE!

I'll be honest, this one was a slog in October and November. I got the "the finish line is in sight and I can't seem to force myself to want to paint them" problem.

Not so in December. I had actually finished up the Krieg and everything else I 'had' to do this month within the first 10 days of the month, meaning that there was no pressure to paint the Storm Lord. And man was that refreshing!

So good in fact, that I painted two of them. the first is the final model from the Space Marine Heroes range, the Captain. The second, is a terminator from the Space Hulk boxed set. I removed the Blood Angels Icons, and had one of the locals 3d print a perfect base for him so that he matches the other Space Marine heroes.


And with that, the whole Storm Lords force is done!




9. Paint a stand alone force DONE!

Oh man did I complete this one. The Titans for Adeptus Titanicus in March, the Gellerpox in May and I finished up a squad of rebels from Star Wars Legion for me to use in Zone Raiders this month too! I simply had to add Jyn Erso to them too.... because it would be wrong not to....

Zone Raiders is another game I need to play in 2020!

Ugly camo, and jungle style bases. So cool.

Jyn!


10. Update and improve a table of terrain DONE!

This was my Team Yankee desert table, which I finished up in July so that I could bring it to Panzershrek. They turned out to not need it, but it will be used at Valleycon next month!

11. Paint something Napoleonic DONE!

I am going to start this off by saying that Black Seas is a good game. I expect it will annoy hard core Napoleonic sailing nerds, but it has enough in it for me to feel like I am playing a game with sailing ships, and I can do things and make things happen without consulting many, many charts.

And so, I am really excited to have my French fleet competed! Made up of two First Rate, three Third Rate, three Frigates, eight Brigs and a base of gunboats. I didn't put sails on them so that I could easily differentiate them when I play against some of the other club mates' fleets (who do have the sails). I did rig them up, and put little tricolours on the back however!

The full fleet!

The two First Rates- the generic one, and the Orient

I took them away on holiday to do the rigging... this was them all hidden into the carrying case


Another game that I need to play in 2020. Noticing a theme for that yet?

12. Finish something I should have last year DONE!

I did well here, finishing up two things in the first couple of months in the year- my Death Guard and the Polish for Team Yankee. Both I am contemplating expanding, but I am (for now) happy with where both are at.

Mortywatch! DONE!

And the bonus one! I am really, really proud of the work which I did on Morty. He was a big model, and by tacking him in sections I was able to make him achievable, and actually fun to paint. Added too, I am really, really pleased with how he came out- especially his face.

Reflections

So that was 2019, with all of my goals completed. Some better than others, but they did all get done. I started doing this blog to give myself some structure for what I painted in the year, and to give my inner magpie some constraints on what it purchased. While not always successful, I was better than I could have been, and most importantly, actually finished things I started.

With that in mind then, come back tomorrow for my plan for 2020!

Morty is watching....

Pooch

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