2019/20 Hobby Season Review

 

Hi folks,

When I was preparing for the 2019/20 Hobby Season I was coming off the back of a pretty hard year, so I wasn't too ambitious with my To-Do list. I was a bit disenchanted by 40K, so focussed mainly on aiming to get my Space Hulk set painted. As you all know, this year really has been balls. I spent most of summer in Tasmania, which was amazing, but when I came home I always had one eye on the horizon and the other on my Bushfires Near Me app. With some time spent working from home due to the pandemic, you would think that there would be some extra time for painting, but it just wasn't the case. As a teacher, I found my workload more than doubled; things that I could usually do quickly were taking me a lot longer. Despite that, I did manage to do a whole of bunch of stuff I would have never imagined when I wrote my To-Do list. And, no, I didn't get my whole Space Hulk set painted...

Here is a trip down memory lane:

Warhammer 40K

Iron Snakes

A big year for my Iron Snakes, I managed to finish a 2000 points army that included some new Primaries figures. Squad Damocles, a 10 man Intercessor squad equipped with boarding shields, was completed for Squaduary.

Imperial Knights

For DreadTober I completed the second knight of my Walls of Ithaka detachment. This is "Theseus" Ferrum Fortis (Strong Punch!). 

Dark Angels

For Armour in April I finished this Landraider Excelsior, just in time for it to be relegated to "Legends" (or whatever they call those things now). Ah well, still a cool model, and very likely to be used in my casual games.

2nd Edition Army Challenge

Recently I have embarked on a 6 month challenge to complete a 1000 point army using 2nd Edition sculpts. I have opted for a classic Dark Angels scheme, starting the challenge with a repaint of two of my oldest figures; a Deathwing Master and Dreadnought.

Age of Sigmar

This year I managed to finish some figures that my daughter had chosen for herself. I also caught the Age of Sigmar bug and dove into Sylvaneth. To help motivate me as I started I entered some painting competitions along the way, all at my local Warhammer store. I won the Brushmaster title for the Treelord Ancient and the Kurnoth Hunters, with both the Kurnoth Hunters and my daughters Sisters of the Thorn featured for a short time on the Age of Sigmar Facebook group! Small wins, but they sure did keep me going during the tough initial slog through isolation. To be honest, the Treelord is probably my best work, it really, really, challenged me. 

Space Hulk

Well, this was meant to be the focus of my season. If you have managed to get to this stage in the post you can see just how distracted I was! I did manage to get the commanders done for each of the teams apart from the Fallen, which I painted the full team for. Calistarius, the Blood Angels Librarian was the real highlight, completed for The Jewel of July community challenge. The Broodlord was my Monster March entry.

Kill Team

I managed to speed-paint a H. R. Giger inspired Kill Team, as an alternative to my 4 Lictor murder list. I haven't tried it out yet, but I sure am looking forward to the Aliens quotes.

BattleTech

I know most of you are here for the 40K, and perhaps meander into Age of Sigmar like I do as well. But I also play a couple of other systems that do a great job of dividing my attention. With the delays to the Clan Invasion Kickstarter, BattleTech hasn't drawn my attention as much as it could have this year, but I still managed to paint a neat lance of mercenaries and a larger scaled piece for my mate Wade.

 

Phew, that's it, I think. 2019/20 has been crazy busy. I managed to get a lot more done than I ever intended, but I am still glad to put this year behind me. Tomorrow I will post my To-Do list for 2020/21!

See you across the table,

Marc

BattleTech: Foxfire Mercenaries Update

Hi folks,

During the last week I have been spending a bit of time each night painting to help reduce stress. I have been catching up on my BattleTech projects, in particular, a new mercenary unit I have had on my mind for a while. Foxfire company will be featuring some classic designs that were re-imagined in the new starter box, using a custom paint scheme I devised to give a few nods to things I love. It features the colour orange to invoke the concept of foxes, though really it is just me expressing my Dutch heritage (foxfire has nothing to do with foxes, after all!). Foxes are really cool in Japanese mythology, so I am also tapping into the kitsune mythos.The green spot colour represents the actual Foxfire they are all named after.

Foxfire: fungal bioluminescence

I have used white because, when you paint it well, people really notice and it doesn't overpower everything else. I also need the practise, as white has always been a huckleberry over my persimmon. The black legs are actually meant to represent what we call "Kung Fu pants". Let's just say I had a mate who was famous for wearing his Kunf Fu training pants all the time... everywhere. Here are the first four 'Mechs in the company parade scheme:


Wolverine: a medium weight, short/medium range brawler with fairly high maneuverability.

Thunderbolt: a brutal heavy weight brawler, which really shines at medium and close range.

Awesome: an assault class medium/long range obliteration engine. Calling it a sniper would be OK, if all snipers carried three rifles that fired lightning!

Griffin: my personal favourite of the four, the Griffin is a medium/long range sniper with fairly high maneuverability.

Here is a group shot; I have to say I am pretty darned happy with how the scheme has worked out. I have quite a few more to do, so I keep an eye out for the rest of the company.

I'll be switching focus to Monster March now (only 3 weeks down already!), as things have escalated in that regard pretty quickly!

See you 1.5 metres (at least) across the table,

Marc