Well that was a year. I’m sure 2020 wasn’t quite what people had planned going into it but hopefully it worked out okay. Looking back at where I was last year, I’m definitely in a different place but still got a fair few things to work on. This time last year I was starting to try and get a proper rhythm of painting before moving location… and then the everyday of the world sort of fell apart. I have definitely taken a long time
As a tradition, the end of the year means it’s time for the dreaded count of how much I got painted this year and my total (worked out from going back and checking the blog) was….
69 models.
You may insert whatever jokes/memes you’d like to here.
Maybe not as much as I would have liked but still nice. I’m yet to actually double-check how many I purchased but I already know I bought more than that. One goal for next year I think will be trying to make sure the buy to painted ratio is at least 1:1, if not tilted more in favour of the painting side. This is especially important once Project 3D Printing is up and running.
So with the basics out of the way, lets talk projects
Project ENFORCERS
Project Enforcers is my current focus. So far, I have 6 of the 18 models painted – I would have been faster but Christmas took its toll (mostly through playing other games, trying to relax and then massively oversleeping) and so I didn’t get it finished this month. That said, I’m really happy with the colour scheme I’ve settled on – the little cosmetic tweaks I made to the enforcer models being brought out with the Anvil Industry parts.
This is my number 1 project right now – I really want to get it all wrapped up before I move onto anything else.
Project WW2
Project WW2 has been sat waiting for far too long and is the next focused push in the stack. It’s one of those projects I’m so ready to do – I have the basic paintjob planned out, ideas for the story of the figures I’m painting, and a group of opponents to go up against (once we can meet up). The aim now is just the final push of beginning and sitting down with paint brush in hand.
Of course, I should also add that my Brits have been expanded with the addition of enough Churchill tanks to assemble a full platoon of gun tanks, an AVRE for building destruction and a Christmas/Birthday present from the Dastardly Opponent in the form of a Churchill Croc to burn it’s way through the opposition.
Of course, the other reason why I need to get on with my WW2 project is this wonderful gift that my Creative Opponent gave me for Christmas (a socially distanced deployment as he drove back home with a car full of IKEA). This wonderful box, inscribed with a fictional regiment that he created for me based on some rough ideas I had, is full of tokens for Chain of Command complete with wording and details of the regimental logo. You can tell he has a laser cutter can’t you? I’ll honestly admit, opening it up definitely made me physically pause with my mouth open as it was such an unexpected gift.
Project Fantasy
Warcry Catacombs has arrived. I have pulled the rules out and taken a read, and I’m very excited for them. However, I’m going to save assembling it until I have finished the Necromunda guys at least.
There is also the matter of a few additions to my collection that Warcry has prompted. With the two scenery packs on hand to add some battlefield difference, I also picked up a few Witch Elves to back up the Khanite Shadowstalkers including some special models which I’m very intimidated about trying to paint. More details once they arrive (and I stop freaking out about the concept of subassemblies).
Project 3D Printing
Oh boy okay. I should currently be showing off my 3D printer and some of the stuff I have managed to make during my time off.
You may notice I am not doing that. The reason for this is due to the fact that my 3D printer (an Elegoo Mars Pro) started off with a fault (the UV lamp that causes the resin to set seemed to be misfiring) and then got worse when I attempted to fix it. By the time I’d finished digging around the front panel connection had been broken off, leading to me being unable to control the device to even test for the original flaw. The reason for this? Well, its what comes when you attempt to rush a repair job to play with a new present and an unfamiliarity with the exact mechanics of 3d printing. At the first issue, I should have boxed it up and sent it back to Amazon.
Instead, I am now waiting for parts to arrive from China to let me turn it on before we can then attempt to get the original fault checked (which may require more parts). On the one hand, the device shouldn’t have failed, on the other hand, I screwed up and am now paying the price. However looking on the positive side, I now understand a lot more about what’s going on inside the metal box which will be handy for any future issues. There is a lot of learning to do outside of the printing (such as preparing supports and handling the resin) so as disappointing as this delay is, I’m fine with it – it will be what it will be.
Project Database
This is a new project technically, but I have been considering this concept for the last couple of years. To keep track of my painting, I mostly have been a Google Sheet and… well it feels a bit lacking. It’s only really good for basic tracking – anything greater such as specific queries or keeping an eye on purchases/completion requires a lot of extra work. So for a long time, I had been eyeing up the idea of making a database for it, delving into some of the web design work I had done at university to give me a lot more control over it (and let me run stupid queries like “whats the oldest model I haven’t painted yet”). This is also an excuse to get a bit more use out of my web hosting which I love heaving but offt I am paying a chunk for it.
So far, I’ve already done the hard part – deciding which columns will be in the table. The next stage is converting my Google Sheet document into a format I can add it to the database. This is made harder by the fact my current document is focused on a type with a number in it as opposed to rows for each figure. This is going to require some work but once it is done I can then start adding the fun bit such as taking pictures of each model, checking what’s in my collection matches whats in the database and then setting up the blog to have more details on it all.
So that’s my update. My aim for the future is to keep going and slowly improve. I’m not giving it a hard number but I just want to keep rolling, keep positing, keep painting and collecting. And One day maybe we’ll