I really like this model, it’s got loads of character. The painting took less time than I expected with me getting it finished in about three sessions.
This completion makes it 40 for the year!!
It’s the first finish of October and another step towards completion of my Age of Sigmar 1000pt force.
This one is the Aethervoid Pendulum, an Endless Spell that a wizard can conjure during a game. I bought this back in 2023 so it’s nice to have it finished.
This one takes my total completions for the year to 39!
I’m still not 100% sure about the way I’m painting the armour but I’m just going to run with it as it’s reasonably quick.
These two make it 38 finishes for the year so far.
I’ve got the rest of the pack for these somewhere but I don’t think they’ve even been cleaned up and primed yet so it might be a while before I get the group finished.
They take my completions so far this year to 36!
This means I’ve already surpassed last years 32 for the year :)
He’d been sitting waiting for his base to be painted for absolutely ages and, seeing as he was next to my Arab miniatures in the Works in Progress box, I finally sorted his base out while doing my Naffatun.
That’s another finish for the year! Running total now at 34.
Another model out of the Works in Progress box and it’s a Naffatun from Perry Miniatures. He’s going to be doing double duty for Open Combat and (at some point) playing Saga in the Crusades period. But that might be a good long while yet, I’ve only got two Arabs painted!
This finish takes me to 33 for the year!
They’re from what were originally the Viking Bondi box of plastic miniatures released by Wargames Factory some time ago but are now part of Warlord Games. The sculpting really isn’t great but they are easy to build without weapons - everything is separated.
These chaps will be used in my Dark Ages games along with some of the micro games I’m developing for Open Combat. The completions bring me to 32 for the year! Hopefully Nick will find his mojo and manage a finish or two, I know he’s sold a load off his mountain but will any of the mountain get painted this year?
I’ve finished the last six Crusader Miniatures foot knights with sword and shield from the 8 pack I bought a long time ago.
The first two are in the blue and white scheme I used on the previous two blog posts. These form the first ‘team’ for a knightly micro game I’m devising using Open Combat.
The other four belong to the yellow and black ‘team’. This colour scheme also matches my Lion Rampant retinue so gives me a few more minis for that too!
I’ve really enjoyed painting these, just the same as I really enjoyed the gladiators by Crusader Miniatures earlier in the year. Great fun!
These completions also bring me to 26 minis on the blog for the year.
I’ve completed another Crusader Miniatures Knight. It’s the second of four in a blue and white scheme.
Completion on the blog of number 20 for the year (I really need to take a pic of the other Minas Tirith Warrior I completed).
This is one completely out of left field. It’s a Crusader Miniatures Knight with sword and shield.
He’s part of a group I’m using in a micro game/scenario series I’m writing for Open Combat. These models are loads of fun to paint. I’ve given him a dirty look and feel as the scenario does involve models hitting the dirt quite a bit. Oh… and completion 19 (on the blog).
Anyway, moving on.
I did actually finish another Minas Tirith warrior in May but haven’t taken the photo yet. So that inclusion in the list of completions is pending.
I have a completion today though. It’s a Seraphon Saurus Warrior for Age of Sigmar, or rather the Spearhead variant of the game.
The model is one of the old plastic Warhammer lizardmen from one of the starter sets but I’ve based him up with a current base size to make him ‘legal’.
This one is a test for the sand/desert lizard scheme I’m going for. I’ll be doing some orange stripes from the spine on the bigger models, such as the Kroxigors and the Carnosaur. On the whole I’m reasonably happy with it.
It’s completion number 18 for the year!
When it came to putting the skin tone on the face it reminded me why I don’t like black primed minis. But given the mini is practically all black and silver there was no point in using a white prime.
Quite happy with the final result. It’s a bit messy but it was quite quick from start to finish so it should be relatively easy to move through the Minas Tirith force. Although I suspect it’ll feel a bit tedious after a short time.
This is posted at the quarter mark of the year and in the last three months I’ve completed 17 models. Not a bad start really considering I’ve been swinging wildly around periods/settings.
I started these waaaay back in January 2023. Along with regular men of Gondor warriors I’ve got 12 Minas Tirith rangers for the Battles in Middle Earth Strategy Gane by Games Workshop sitting in various states of work in progress. I decided I wanted to finish one to see how the scheme looked.
Got to say I’m quite happy with the result. The base colour is a nice earthy one too using Steel Legion Drab.
Here we go again… another random detour. This time a Viking woman from the original Bad Squiddo release. I bought this one, along with Lagertha when Annie at Bad Squiddo produced her very first minis for sale.
In all honesty they’re both very rudimentary pieces of sculpting (Annie was giving a new sculptor a chance) but I bought them as a sign of support for a budding new enterprise. I painted Lagertha pretty much straight away, she even appears in Open Combat. But this one with the axe has been sitting work in progress for many years.
Until now, and I’m happy to have finally finished it. I particularly like how the shield turned out.
After another fair old gap I’ve finally completed another of my Foundry Miniatures Seadogs and Swashbucklers.
He’s been awaiting just a few things to finish him off but for some reason I never quite got to him. This is the last model from this particular distraction for now. Hopefully, I’ll be back with the completed Ogroid Myrmidon for my Age of Sigmar force next time. I’ll try not to get distracted again… oh look, Vanguard Veterans for my Blood Angels…
After a bit of a gap (busy with house stuff) plus a mishap (cat pinging a figure off the table onto a hard surface and batting it around the floor one evening) I’ve managed to finish two more models.
It’s two more Seadogs and Swashbucklers, not the Ogroid Myrmidon but at least it’s two more completions. I quite like how the stubble worked out on the helmeted model.
I know, I know I said I’d be back onto the Ogroid Myrmidon but this fella was standing right next to him.
In the spirit of Finishuary I’ve accidentally finished an archer from the Foundry Miniatures Seadogs and Swashbucklers line. He’s primarily for Open Combat but I think he’ll be seeing action in Osprey’s Ghost Archipelago.
The last of the Gladiators are complete. Bringing the gladiator distraction to a close. These three were the last of my Crusader Miniatures gladiator models so it’s a good feeling to have all 12 in my collection completed (I’d already finished three before commencing the recent finishes this year).
With these three complete my completions for the year currently stands at 10 completions! Blimey, it’s a good start, albeit not the Ogroid Myrmidon I’m supposed to be finishing.
With regards to finishing, the knitting hobby has a thing called ‘finishuary’ where hobbyists attempt to finish as many works in progress as possible.
I’m going to see how many I can do, starting with (hopefully) my Ogroid Myrmidon.
In what is developing into a trend, January is continuing with the gladiator distraction. I’ve completed two more!
I do like the pose of the spear and whip armed model. (Also noticed I’d not dotted in the eyes, I ‘might’ do this later if my hand can stay steady enough).
The distraction continues with three more finishes for 2025. Three more gladiators from the Crusader Miniatures collection.
I’m really enjoying working on the simpler sculpts of these metal miniatures. I’ve got another five to go and that’ll be my entire collection of gladiator models complete.
I have actually put the Age of Sigmar Ogroid Myrmidon back on the table alongside the gladiator distraction so I don’t forget he’s what I’m supposed to be working on.
Fast on the heels of my first distraction of the year is another!
This time Hercules, from Foundry Miniatures. He’s been sitting in my WiP box (along with the Argonauts) awaiting completion and action in Open Combat.
I’ve based him on a large base to denote his epic strength and will be giving him suitable stats to reflect this. (I’ll probably add a few bits of greenery to the base later).
I’ve enjoyed painting him, Foundry Miniatures are fun to paint.
While working on my AoS Ogroid Myrmidon I remembered I needed to build a Chaos Spawn to fill a gap in my rejigged AoS Slaves to Darkness list. While finding the components I spied my box of WiP projects. Fast forward a couple of minutes and I’d got distracted and brought the WiP box out to have a look through.
The result of the distraction… a completed Gladiator from the Crusader Miniatures line.
I’ve also been eyeing some of the other WiP gladiators from the box so it might turn into a bigger distraction than just this one model.
My post in January 2024 last year highlighted what I was going to attempt to achieve. We can refresh ourselves here:
https://battlingaleadmountain.blogspot.com/2024/01/
You’ll swiftly notice that was a very large dollop of optimism right there.
The number one project on the list was my 1000 point Age of Sigmar Slaves to Darkness army. I’m happy to say I managed to stick to that project and stay focussed all year. Unfortunately a new edition (as is GWs way) of Age of Sigmar saw some of my army choices relegated to ‘Legends’ status which means off the table from official events as of June 2025. Owing to my haphazard event attendance that pretty much removed them from my options to field out and about.
I completed the Tarantulos Warcry warband of 13 models in early 2024 but they are one of the casualties of the AoS update. So they’ll just be used in Red Harvest and Open Combat now.
In response to their removal from my official events options I built and started painting the Darkoath Savagers. That build was an… experience. Beautiful models utterly horrible to put together. Those models are still work in progress but I did complete two earlier in the year. They are still street legal in AoS but more importantly when they’re finished they’ll be another part of the Red Harvest boxed set completed.
Another casualty sent to ‘Legends’ status was Khagra’s Ravagers. I love these models and I will still be using the sorcerer in my rejigged army list. Plus the warband has seen rebirth back in their origin game, Warhammer Underworlds, should I wish to dabble there.
The Age of Sigmar army as I intended but rejigged is not complete. As of December 31st 2024 I still had the Ogroid Myrmidon Champion and the sorcerer from the Khagra’s ravagers set to complete. Along with the Aethervoid Pendulum. But it did finish very close and I did actually use many of the models at an event in 2024!
Part of the new Age of Sigmar release is a game variant called Spearhead. I was very keen to play this so I bought the necessary components and books to give it a go. I did discover I needed a Chaos Chariot to complete my Spearhead force, fortunately my birthday in the middle of the year provided the model and, unusually for me, I built and painted it this year! I did have a huge incentive though. I was booked to attend a Spearhead event at Warhammer World. More on this in a moment.
The second project on my 2024 list was my Lord of the Rings Minas Tirith army. I didn’t really get back to this although I did manage to prime the remaining unprimed infantry models. I have now got the recently released updated rules and army books for this so intend to get these and an opposing force sorted as soon as possible.
My other projects, Lucrum in 10mm, Horus Heresy Blood Angels, 40K Tyranids and my box of miscellaneous WiPs sadly all saw no progress.
When I look back this is due to having five months of no completions across the year. That’s nearly half the year of no progress. An unfortunate lack of making the time being the main culprit for the large gaps.
So my final tally for models completed in 2024 was 32. (Down by 20 on 2023’s total of 52). But the near completion of my Age of Sigmar force and attending an event with the miniatures is a massive win so I don’t mind too much.
With regards to new models into my collection, a combination of birthday and Christmas plus delivery of a Kickstarter has seen my total added to the mountain for the year reach 50. So not much progress getting the mountain down in 2024 in fact it went up… again! Combined with the additions in 2023 that’s not a good trend. But I am enjoying myself.
The Age of Sigmar Spearhead format saw me attend a casual event at Warhammer World which was a great deal of fun. It’s two games in an evening where players are attempting to achieve quests as they play their games. Very relaxed and fun games.
Pictured above a quick snapshot of a game just about to start.
I’ve enjoyed the Spearhead format so much I’ve booked myself onto two events in 2025. Another evening Quests event in January and a full day competition in March.
Another event I went to in 2024 was the Warhammer Open Day where I took my Fomoroid Crusher to enter in the Legends of Paint painting event. I was very pleased to receive a bronze medal. Which has actually got me considering attempting to go for a silver this year.
Looking ahead to 2025 I’ve again got loads to go at but I think I’m keeping my sights fairly limited and continuing with my list of projects highlighted in January 2024. They’re still things I want to complete, I’ve other projects shouting from the sidelines but the experience of the five months dry spell this year means I’ll just focus on completing one thing at a time and see where I get to.
So with that roughly coherent review onto a new adventure, happy new year and welcome to 2025!
