Day 1095 - a 3rd year of paint-on-brush (Nick)

Yesterday was 3 years since Carl & I started trying to put 'paint on brush' or as it is now, at least do 'something' every day.

Sadly this year I've had a lot of misses for one reason or another, I genuinely forgot on several occasions or was just too tired (let's blame old age) and a brief bout of COVID has led to a prolonged period of not doing much and the wheels have pretty much fallen off my wagon.

Carl has been doing much better than me recently and is on quite a roll, however my efforts at end of the previous year (again) mean that the last 12 months of doing 'something' every day have seen 54 finishes from me although the calendar year is currently only 3!

I do intend to continue the mantra, but it looks like I need yet another bumper year end - as always I guess doing 'something', no matter how little, is still better than doing nothing... I just need to put those wheels back on my wagon.

As I write this cruising down La Seine hopefully this short break is what I need, I have even brought some paints and brushes with me should the mood strike!

Pendraken 10mm livestock (Carl)

 

The latest addition to my completed miniatures this year are actually something I’ve bought this year. They’re these 10mm livestock (cows and sheep) by Pendraken Miniatures. Considering how tiny they are they’re lovely little sculpts. I’ve enjoyed painting them - I even dotted the eyes in on them! 

There’s also a single haystack there which was the first of several also from Pendraken. The 10mm miniatures I e bought this year are part of my project to produce a 10mm version of the Lucrum board game I released in summer 2022.

Blood Angels Death Company and Chaplain (Carl)

Earlier this year myself and Nick went to a 10th edition 40K Boarding Actions warhammer 40K midweek event at warhammer world.

After a hurried rebasing session on a few Tactical marines I needed to finish a few other models to take.

These are are a five man Death Company unit and a very old Chaplain to lead the Boarding Action force.

They were a bit quick so a light on detail work and minimal colour additions but they do the job.

Tyranid Ripper Swarms & Spore Mines (Carl)

I’ve kept some momentum going with painting the Tyranid force made up from various models kicking about on the mountain. I’ve managed to finish two Ripper Swarms and three Spore Mines.

These follow the colour scheme from the old school first edition Space Hulk Genestealers. There will be another Ripper Swarm and more Spore Mines eventually (I’ve actually bought a new Ripper Swarm  to add to the models from the mountain for this force).

Miniatures bought in 2023 (Carl)

I recently did a bit of a totting up of the miniatures I’ve bought over 2023. Compared to what painting I’ve completed so far it’s a sobering sight.

In no particular order:

Models bought 2023

Bad Squiddo:

4 x Viking archers

2 x Samurai Women

Horus Heresy:

20 x Marines

Age of Sigmar

1 x Aethervoid Pendulum 

1 x Chaos Lord

1 x Chaos Knight

Pendraken 10mm

2 x cottage/farm buildings

8 x Haystacks

10 x Livestock bases

Warhammer 40k

10 x Termagants

1 x Ripper Swarm

Warhammer Underworlds - Gnarlwood

9 x minis in two warbands (4 + 5)

Fenris Games

38 x Terrain Features

1 x wizard mini

Titan Forge - Bloodfields

8 x Vampire Hunters & Beastshape Tribe (4+4) starter box

This comes to a total of 116!

That’s a big ask to equal in completed models painted let alone getting ahead and shifting some off the mountain. It’s going to take some serious effort to get to this number between now and the end of the year!

Genestealers from 1st edition Space Hulk (Carl)

With the release of the new 10th edition of Warhammer 40K Nick and myself have been enjoying getting to grips with the system using the Boarding Actions variant of the game.

While I’ve been using my Blood Angels for the initial missions I’ve started putting together a Tyranid force built from old models I have knocking around on the mountain.

So the first new (old) models for the army are these rebased 1st edition Space Hulk Genestealers painted in the traditional colours from waaaaay back in time.

These models take me to just 11 completed models for 2023. But I do have a load of works in progress which ‘should’ see me hit 52 for the year. By my standards in recent years that’ll be a massive change. 🙂

War of the Roses - Bowmen (Nick)

Beware the Ides of March! ...or something like that, although we're nearly into April and alas these are my first finishes of 2023.

I have prepped and assembled quite a few minis so far this year, and at least 'something' every day, but my attempts at painting kept ending in frustration almost like I had forgotten my own techniques - I think maybe some burnout after the frantic end to last year.
In fact these very figures were on the 'naughty step' for a long while until one day some simple base texturing and all was well again.

These metal figures are samples from the c15 Medieval range by Eureka Miniatures on which I decided to try out liveries for my new War of the Roses wards to use in Never Mind the Billhooks Deluxe and make a characterful change from the usual grey plastic from Perry Miniatures:

I have used the same tried and trusted technique as my other War of the Roses figures, using Games Workshop Contrast Paints and some additional highlights over pre-shaded white prime, just substituting alternative colours for the livery to the previous orange and green - by coincidence this will give me four different colourways using eight unique colours.

For those interested, the liveries are (L to R): Sir John Tuchet, Lord John la Zouche & Sir William Hastings all of whom have local connections in one form or another.

So all in all not the start I had hoped for in the New Year, in fact just one figure a month rather than one a day - but hopefully I'm on the road to hobby recovery and more will follow soon.