061 - Year In Review

2016 has been a pretty good year for my painting hobby. I have painted over 100 models, completed an army and feel that my painting has really improved.
At the start if the year I made some New Year Resolutions which you can read here. Completing two out of three resolutions wasn't bad. However I failed one miserably.
The first one was document what I have achieved.

So I created a ghetto Kaban board which was quite simple but let me know how I was progressing with projects. I stuck to a maximum of five active projects at one time which helped me commit to completing projects.
With regards to the second resolution I failed the stick to a budget quite quickly. I need to definitely reign in my spending with this hobby as I have full armies that aren't painted. I am going to have a more realistic budget this year and spread it out monthly rather than have a pool for the whole year.
The third resolution was quite a success. I joined the Independent Characters Hobby Progress Challenge which I completed with my Word Bearers army. You can see a post about the army here.

I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge but unfortunately there wont be a IC's HPC next year. There are plenty of other challenges on Facebook groups and the like so I just have to have a hunt around to find them.
So what are the plans for 2017?
I am going to concentrate on my two new armies. The first being my Iron Warriors 30k army which will mainly consist of Terminators and Perturabo. Here is a picture of my test Master of Signals to try out the colour scheme.

  

I am going to go for a battered industrial feel for the weapons. I have quite a few models to paint but this scheme is quite quick and simple which really suits me.

The second army is my Minotaurs army. It will be more of a High Lords of Terra task force with a core of marines and some fruitier stuff like the Custodes and Inquisitors.

These guys are also quite simple but I can add alot of variety of fluffy units just by using the Codex: Agents Of The Imperium.
Resolution wise I will probably stick to the ones I made last year but be a bit more realistic about the money I spend on this hobby. It is a really expensive hobby but I will definatly try to reign it in.
I am really looking forward to the this year and I can't wait to get some Iron Warriors painted!

050 - Word Bearers Display Board

This is my display base for my Word Bearers army that I have been doing for the Independent Characters Hobby Progress Challenge 2016. The Independent Characters website is here.
I haven't done anything like this before and I am defiantly going to be more ambitious with the next one I do. However I thought it was good for a first attempt.
Here it is without models (apart from the Predator which is basically scenery itself):

And here it is full of mighty Word Bearers!

I could have done a backboard for it and possibly added more details as it is a little plain at the moment. However this means that when you look at the display it's more about the models than the display board. I can also reuse this board to display other armies in my collection without having to pull off bits of debris. 

I'm quite happy with the finished board and really chuffed that I have got enough points for a gold award on the HPC 2016!

049 - Istvann Five Salamanders Tank

I really love the Salamanders Legion. They exemplify everything that is good about the Space Marines and are true heroes in the grimdark that is 30k and 40k.
Vulkan is a fantastic Primarch in the fluff and the Forge World model in my opinion is one of the best Primarch models they have done.
I have wanted to do a Salamanders army for a while but can't really fit it in with my other projects. I also had some old Rogue Trader models floating about which need refurbishment that I also didn't have time to do.
I have been doing a Word Bearers army for the Independent Characters Hobby Progress Challenge 2016. The Independent Characters website is here.  I started the army in February and had to do a commitment a month until I have 10 completed commitments. As an extra achievement you can create a themed display board for your army. I wanted to do a Istvann V board to match my bases.
I wanted black sand dunes but I didn't want the board to be featureless. So I took  a battered old Predator tank and started painting it in Salamanders colours. After a hefty amount of weathering I had a suitably battered opponent for my Word Bearers.

The completed model came out quite well. I am just finishing off my display board and hopefully it will all come together. Glory to the Word Bearers!

040 - Rhino Rush (Well not quite)

I am currently finishing off my Word Bearers force for the IC's Hobby Progress Challenge. I haven't used the newer Rhino kit which is a bit sad as it came out about fifteen years ago! Here is a work in progress shot:

They were really good models to put together and relatively easy. I could see these being a mainstay of any future Marine armies I do.
However the basic Rhino costs 35pts and the real life cost from Games Workshop is £22.50 it make it one of the poorest pounds to points models in the entire range. Not quite as bad as Mechanicum Thralls but getting there!
I fancy doing a few more of these in the future and possibly even some of the variants suh as Razorbacks and Vindicators.
I only have a couple of more
units to go before my Hobby Progress Challenge is completed so I better get cracking!

031 - Hobby Progress Challenge

I did a post in January about my hobby New Year's Resolutions (which is here) and one of them was to join a hobby progress group or concoct my own system. Luckily the Independent Characters Podcast has restarted and continued with it's Hobby Progress Challenge for 2016 which I have joined. Having a couple of Betrayal At Calth boxes helping when picking my army so I went for 30k Word Bearers.
Here is my progress as of April but I am adding to it every month.

The Hobby Progress Challenge consists of ten monthly commitments of at least one in game unit per month. You post a photo of your models at the start of the month and then when you have finished them post a photo of your completed work. This also helps me stay focused as when I have a few different projects as I feel I have to prioritise this slightly due to the monthly deadlines.
I defiantly want to get a nice crisp finish on these models have have them at least tabletop ready. The character models are a months commitment so I can spend a bit more time on them.
It's great to have a goal each month and I am a little ahead on my commitments. This is due to not committing too much and trying to keep the amount manageable. I don't want to make the Word Bearers my only painting activity as that would get boring really quick but I am slowly but surely rattling through the commitments.
It's a fantastic idea and Loopy on the IC forums is doing a great job running the challenge. I already have big plans for next year!

021 - New Year Resolutions

So this year I'm making some hobby resolutions and I am definitely going to keep to them (for at least a month). I'm going to keep them relatively easy so I have a good chance of sticking to them.

Resolution 1: Document what I have achieved.
I am really bad at remembering what I have done from one month to the next so I am going to keep an ongoing list of what I have done to help spur me on when I hit a painting dry spell. It might just be a handwritten list in my hobby desk and if I feel inclined possibly a photo of each unit or model.

Resolution 2: Stick to a budget!
I have alot of unpainted miniatures (two Betrayal At Calth boxes might qualify that statement on it's own) so need to get them painted. I get my head turned by shiny new releases and Ebay bargains so with that in mind I am going to keep to a budget of £100 for the year for models. Not a small amount but not really enough to buy a new army. I figure I can top this fund up by selling old models on Ebay rather than spending the quite considerable amount I spend per month at the moment.

Resolution 3: Join a hobby progress challenge.
A quick search on Google shows there are plenty of hobby progress challenges that I can join. It might seem counter intuitive to the budget resolution but I have whole armies in boxes that need to be painted. I figure if I can't find one I like then I will just do my own and document it via the blog. Hopefully this will get an army painted up within the year!

So that's my resolutions. Will I stick to them? Well you will just have to check in to find out!