2024/25 Hobby Review

 

Hi folks,

Well... 2024/25 has turned out to be one of those hobby seasons where I have had to "adult" way too much. Between increased weekend family responsibilities and the special kind of exhaustion that brings, it would be easy to feel like I didn't get much time at the paint table. The truth is, I had a hand in finishing off three armies, so it can't have been that bad!

Urban Dark Angels

First we have an army of urban warfare Dark Angels, inspired by the old Cityfight style of basing miniatures. I added a few Native American pieces to the construction of these figures, to pay homage to the Plains World of their origin. I still haven't managed to play a game with them yet; the last two have been cancelled due to life getting in the way.

Oscar's Orks

Around the same time I helped my son to finish off his first 40K army: Orks!! We had a fantastic time working on pieces together. He has now moved on to Tau, which still pretty much don't exist in my head cannon. Still, the mechs are pretty neat and the new Kroot models are blisteringly awesome.

Imperial Agents

During the first half of this year, I completed an Imperial Agents army for my 2nd Edition collection, using some very old Grey Knight models are repurposing some modern models to represent old Adeptus Mechanicum codex entries. Those Grey Knight figures are bucket list models for me; I was so psyched to have them on the painting table. Two of the Terminators are very old "proto" figures from the Rogue Trader era, kindly donated by Dave Weston from Confessions of a 40K Addict. He and his mates put together a care package for me a while back which completely blew me away. I have his letter on my table for a bit of inspiration when life gets crap, and I am saving some amazing models for a special project.

DreadTober

For DreadTober I painted two Blood Angels Dreadnoughts, Moriar the Chosen and Damodred, Light of Baal. A huge debt of thanks goes to DAM from over at 262nd Death Korps of Krieg, for sending the Chaplain Dreadnought. It is a truly magnificent model and, again, one for the bucket list. I have plans to return the favour, but need to find the right model 😉These are the first two models in a Blood Angels army I will be working on for the next 2nd Ed. Challenge.

Photography

After years of taking photos with a mobile phone potato camera, I asked for a digital camera and macro lens for my birthday. Wifey got me a really nice one which I am still figuring out how to use, so hopefully my photos will be a little more consistent the next 12 months. It's a steep learning curve!

Badges of Honour

It is worthwhile mentioning that I have been terrible at remembering to give myself badges to celebrate finishing things this year. Most of the time I have been working on stuff that wasn't even on my To-Do list! Ah well, there is always next year...

See you across that table,

Marc

TTCombat CHROMA Kickstarter

Hi folks,

A while ago I backed a Kickstarter by TTCombat for some decidedly old school looking terrain pieces. If you can remember the old blue-grey bunkers from 2nd Ed., that's the kind of vibe I'm talking about. The past couple of nights I have started construction of the scatter terrain. 

The pieces go together very nicely but do need some light sanding and gluing with PVA. To prep the pieces I also sprayed the back of each sheet black and coloured in any sanded surfaces with a black whiteboard marker. So far, I have just built a couple of power cores, crates and a command console. Next up, I have some "Brian the Sewer Vent" style pieces to do, which I am really looking forward to. 

See you across the table,

Marc

Vale Marcel van Holst

 

Hi folks,

This is going to be a fairly personal post, so I understand if you want to give it a miss and wait for something more hobby related. Each blog post that I do is a snapshot of where I am in life, so it feels remiss not to mention what has been going on.

Mid way through July I received a phone call that my father had been taken to hospital. This wasn't necessarily unexpected; he has been in-and-out of the emergency department very frequently the past 5 years, and seriously ill for at least 10. One of my first memories as a child is getting lost in a hospital. It is fair to say we have spent a lot of time in hospital rooms talking about serious things. We have said our last goodbyes on several occasions. 

This time was more serious, if that is possible. He was mostly unresponsive, though I got a squeeze from his hand the first day. I am sure he knew I was there. He passed away peacefully in his sleep a few days later. 

I wonder if any father-son relationship is truly simple. Our's was complicated. I cannot imagine raising a family with the kinds of experiences and challenges he had to face. I have intentionally tried to raise my own children in a very different way. He taught me many lessons about life which I cleave to, some of which directly relate to the hobby. His love language was building aircraft models with me when I was growing up. A lot of the things I know about model construction and painting come from him. One of my fondest memories was building an AV-8B Harrier model with him, hoping to get it done in time for show-and-tell at school. Knowing that good things take time, we decided not to rush it at the end. When I woke up in the morning, though, it was painted with all the decals on; he had stayed up all night to finish it off.

I find myself "picking up the pieces" at the moment. Some pieces broke off a long time ago and some have been ground into dust after many years of wear. It is hard to know what the vessel will look like when I'm done (if that every happens). It is taking professional help and the love of an amazing family to make progress. 

I'll wrap up the post with a photo of Dad as I choose to remember him. Happy and healthy, someplace by the sea, surrounded by friends and with me.

2nd Edition Army Challenge: June

 

Hi folks,

Just a short post today, as I am burnt out as all heck. After 6 months of effort, and no small amount of joy, I have completed the 2nd Edition Army painting challenge for 2025. This year I was working on Imperial Agents from the Codex Army Lists book (the "Little Black Book"). The models were mostly from the Inquisition, Grey Knights and Mechanicus portions of the list; no Sisters of Battle or Arbites. 

Finding proxies for some of the models and making new stuff look old was a real blast this time around. I especially have a soft spot for my Electropriests, so much so that i painted them a Rhino transport, lovingly named the "Voltswagon". The Electrohull vehicle card causes models that charge it to be thrown back, giving it room to deploy some frenzied electro-psychos into the mix! I also painted a Mechanicu Predator armed with a Conversion Beamer, using the vehicle conversion rules from the Dark Millenium book. The model itself is from the Horus Heresy range; what a beauty that kit is.

It has been another great journey this year and most of us are already planning for the challenge next year, assuming we can convince someone to run it. Now, though, I am tired. Teaching isn't getting easier and my father has been in palliative care for 12 months. I am still recovering physically and mentally from surgery 12 months ago. Without going into too much detail, things have been hard. I can't help but feel like I am in a liminal space at the moment and not sure at all what comes next. If you have stuck around with me this far, I thank you from the heart. I have the greatest respect for my "Blogger brothers".

See you across the table,

Marc