Retrospective II (2021)

Originally I was going to post this because I was going to Nottingham for a couple of days to see my partner b, but now I'm ill so I'm at home with P and the cats feeling sorry for myself, and unable to paint very much (I finished the loincloths on the ghouls). Not sure if I'll be able to do anything over the weekend but we'll see. In case I don't, and because I probably should do this at some point anyway, here's everything I painted in 2021 in order:

The curse of a mobile phone's flash on this Stone Troll

The third and final Stone Troll, wearing a banner as a modesty covering

Stone Troll mob, plus baby bird for morale purposes

Squigs! Bouncing stomachs reminscent of the alien in Dark Star except less friendly

Various Night Goblins. The two on the right ended up in the Squig Herd, and the one on the left ended up getting converted into a unit champion earlier this year

20 Night Goblin spears for the White Dag Stabbas

A Netter for the Yellow Dag Stabbas

Yellow Dag Shootas. I like the hat on the champion

Taurian GRF-1N Griffin - this has since been repainted and passed on to my friend C for his Davion unit

I'm quite proud of the fire pattern here

ID label so you don't forget what you're looking at

'Mech ID number - 2nd 'Mech, 7th Lance

Davion Guards WVR-6R Wolverine

'Mech ID number and weathering

Rear view showing jump jet scorching and missile backblast damage to the paint

'Mech ID - 6th Lance, 3rd 'Mech

Generic PDF UM-R60 Urbanmech with a nice big '5' on the roof

Business end of the AC-10 and small laser (pew pew BOOM)

Ejection port for the AC-10

When in doubt, add red stripes (why not, after all)

You can see why people call them trashcans

Jade Falcon Touman, Gamma Galaxy, Falcon Guards - a Summoner, Timber Wolf and Hellbringer

Three tone camo despite the very brown appearance in this photo

The Timber Wolf "Prime" is actually Aidan Pryde's Timber Wolf I think, with jump jets

Stomp stomp stomp zot zot pew pew

A Battle Standard Bearer for my Vampire Counts army

Side view showing some detail

I've been working on this army, the Tyrkan Nachtarmija, since the early 2000s

When in doubt, red always makes an excellent spot colour

Legio IV of the Nachtarmija - spears and shields and light armour. I love these old skeletons

Fell Bats! flap flap squeak etc

A view of the bodies. Exposed bone because they're undead maybe? If I did them again I'd probably hide that with green stuff

Legio Mortis, the shock unit of the Nachtarmija - they are almost always accompanied by a Vampire Countess on a barded Nightmare

A better view of the front rank and banner

View of the riders - they were SUCH a pain to get to stay on and rank up!

Rear rank. The one in the middle is a different colour because I painted it in about 2003

These metal riders and plastic horses look alright, but the new plastics (which I don't have) are probably better!

This is Isabella von Carstein but in my army she's "just" a Level 4 Necromancer, usually

The difference in style between minis like this and the latest Vampire models from GW is enormous

Using the Dogs of War character of Lucrezzia Belladonna for my Vampire Lady commanding the whole army is an idea I had in 1998, before the Nachtarmija was a thing.

It only took me 23 years to paint her up after getting hold of her and...

...DRAGON! This is the one that came with the Dogs of War character Asarnil the Dragonlord (who must still be kicking around in a bits box somewhere). The damn thing tricked me into individually hand painting every scale on its body

Which took FOREVER

On the other hand the end result is really good

Daughters of Khaine Blood Stalkers - this was the start of what has become my Age of Sigmar force

A block of zombies for the Nachtarmija - these ones are a mix of Wissenland troops and various peasants

The ability to mix and match parts from the 1990s and early 2000s plastic Warhammer Fantasy kits remains to this day something that I love about plastic kits

Another view, showing the variety of weapons held by the zombies

Legio V of the Nachtarmija - hand weapons and shields, with a mix of shield icons linked by colours

I'm quite proud of the freehand on the banner and the converted unit champion

Slightly battered minis that I made in about 1999 make up part of this unit

I had an old plastic Cadian lying around so I painted it up in the Cadian 122nd scheme from Codex: Cityfight

I had an idea to make an army of these chaps but it never happened, so this is the only one

I converted this Dogmata from an Imagifer that my son got me for my birthday

I'm still really proud of the backpack icon and the conversion itself

Batch painted a bunch of Cherubim for the Argent Shroud

Possessed Iron Warrior for my Iron Warrior army - specifically to guard my Sorceror

Celestian Sacresants - shields and halberds in the 41st Millenium!

A rear view showing some details and the Superior's shield

Another possessed

And another one! Tzeentch is pleased

House MacLeod of Skye Armiger Helverins - "Hunter" (L) and "Little Wolf" (R)

I think this is actually a Stormcast special character but I painted her up as a generic one. I like the pose, and I also liked the idea that the armour was filled with a spirit or soul and is magically animated - so I typically use the helms when I do Stormcast

A view of the cloak and shield

3rd Edition Age of Sigmar meant I got a free Stormcast from the local GW shop

So I converted it a bit with an old Empire cloak and a helm plume

Another possessed - who needs a bolt pistol when you can shoot fire from your uhhh hand?

Dark Reapers! I think these are 3rd Edition models. I have an Iyanden army that is very (very) slowly being worked on

Another possessed - the last one I did for a while

Angels Resplendent 8th Assault (Reserve) Company Captain - I've always loved this mini and eventually I'll do a jump-pack dominated army for her to lead

They're a Blood Angels successor and they typically wear orange armour!

I like the details on this model a lot

She's posed in a great and intimidating manner with her massive power axe

Every so often I paint a member of my Lost and the Damned army, the Karaboudjani XV Kataphraktoi

The Kataphraktoi were my go-to army in 4th Edition and during the 13th Black Crusade summer campaign

They used to be a heavy infantry force and now they're a rag-tag bunch of veterans wearing whatever they can scrounge up

Goff Ork Nob with power klaw, slugga, and pet squig

And a shoota too, coz yoo kan neva hav enuf dakka

Goff Ork Slugga Boy

I really like the 3rd Edition Orks - they paint up really easily

More Kataphraktoi. The one on the right is essentially wearing the original uniform (and has painted out the winged skulls)

Chaos star and a plain water bottle (scraping all the winged skulls off the minis was a huge pain)

Goff 'Ard Boy with shoota

More 'Ard Boyz with shootas - this mob ended up being 30 strong!

Death cookies! Four more Scarab Swarms for my Necron army - this gave me 10 swarms

Pan Planetary Shipping - we'll ship your goods anywhere! Scatter scenery for 40K, Necromunda, or generic SF

I got given these as a present years ago, and eventually used polyfilla to cover over all the skulls and skeletons

The end result is a much more sensible looking prefab fortification

No Empire army is complete without a Steam Tank

The plastic kit is gorgeous. This side shows Nuln heraldry

Steam boiler - brass and wood

And on this side of Emannuelle some Wissenburg heraldry

Top down view showing the deck and pressure gauge

And that was it - quite a lot of stuff from all sorts of armies.

Painting Points:
2021: 236 (!)

I hope you've enjoyed this retrospective and hopefully I'll see you all tomorrow if I'm not bedbound