A(nother) return to blogging?

Greetings all.

So it's been a long time since I bothered to update this blog. I'm blaming it on having a small person around now, but mostly it's just because I got lazy. I've also let the domain lapse, so none of the old links to this blog will work... I think I'll just keep it hosted on Blogger for the time being, but I will be making more of an effort to update.

Despite having a miniature human to look after, I have actually managed to squeeze in a bit of time here and there to paint other miniatures, and even play a game or two. I'll do a bit of a picture dump of all the things I've painted this year, with a few words to accompany. My total painted is nothing compared to previous years, but frankly it is a lot better than I had expected.

First up, the re-release of Blood Bowl got me all excited, and since I'd long since sold my old team, I had to paint a new one. Obviously by "new", I mean "old". As I hadn't played in a while, and was therefore rubbish, I went with the classic starter team: Orcs!

Despite first getting into BB in 3rd edition, the 2nd edition Orcs were always my favourite, and I knew I had to have a team. So I present "Never Mind the Orruks":

I've added plenty of extra bits and hangers-on to the team, with a few more to come I think.

I also painted a greater daemon of Malice from the Pantheon of Chaos range. This was a very generous gift from my brother-in-lead, Alex:

Most of the rest of my painting time has been occupied by getting my Nurgle army up to scratch to play some Age of Sigmar. I know some veterans may not approve, but it really is a fun game, plus all of my Daemons are round based for 40k anyway, so it just makes sense. I added a lot more Daemons to what I already had, and painted a few Skaven Pestilens allies to hang out with them. These weren't all painted this year, but I did take some better pictures of my stuff, so it's all mixed in:

That's pretty much it for this year. I've got a few bits and pieces on the table currently, and lots in the pipeline (not the least of which is a bunch of old stuff for the new Necromunda). If I can stick to the plan of blogging a bit more then you might even get to see it...

Till next time!

Hobby Retrospective: 2016 in review

Greetings all.

So it's kind of the done thing to do some sort of hobby round up for the year, so I'll do something along those lines too.

It's been a pretty good year for me hobby wise, with a total of 140 models painted (of various shapes and sizes). The majority of these are for use in Frostgrave in some form or another. I've now got virtually every model I could possibly want for my warband, and a pretty big collection of wandering monsters and other enemies.

I've also had the pleasure of painting a few special pieces this year, including the private commission of Bad Ash (sculpted by Bob Olley), and the excellent "Time Traveller" (Eddie). I even had my face sculpted on a model by Kev "Goblinmaster" Adams, which then promptly jumped to the front of the painting queue.

Here's a big ol' picture dump of everything I've painted this year:

In terms of how it all matches up to my resolutions from last year (such as they were), I guess kind of well... I vowed to paint a whole load more models, and play a whole load more games. I actually achieved both of these, mainly thanks to the excellent Frostgrave. I didn't manage to make any progress on my Khorne Daemonkin army this year, nor did I manage to paint my Orc Blood Bowl team. I don't feel too bad about either of these things though, because a) I've barely played any 40k this year, and b) I was deliberately waiting for the new edition of Blood Bowl before I slapped some paint on the Orcs. I have had a real blast this year though, both in terms of painting and gaming. I've played a hell of a lot of fun games (mostly Frostgrave), been to BOYL for the first time, and had the pleasure of attending an exhibition of the work of Ian Miller, where my brother-in-lead Alex picked up an original piece!

The plan for this year is:

1. Actually paint my Orc Blood Bowl team! Now that the new game is out and I know what has changed (or mostly not, as the case may be), I can actually crack on and get these done.

2. Revamp my daemons for 40k. I was going to tackle my KDK army, but given that there is a new edition rumoured for sometime this year, I don't really want to start something from scratch. I've already got hundreds of daemons painted, and there are a few bits I want to work on just to make them into an army that I can start playing with again.

3. Work on my familiars side project. It shouldn't take me long to get them all done, but I'll only be working on them as and when I feel like it.

4. Paint a big bunch of Nurgle daemons for Age of Sigmar! I've finally been drawn in, and decided to give AoS a try. I never really played Fantasy, so I don't have any of the hang-ups about it that long time Fantasy players might have. It looks like a fun game, and seems to be growing well, so I'm gonna give it a try!

All of this will no doubt change as the year goes on, particularly as the wife and I are expecting our first child in June... It's good to have a plan though, so that's what I'm aiming for. I'm also looking to start attending a club again, and looking forward to tackling some more Frostgrave campaigns with my good buddy Alex.

Happy New Year!