Retrospective III (2023)

I'm off at the Gritlands LARP being all sorts of mooks, goons, robots, and random encounters, so here's all the stuff I did in 2023, from January to December:

Some 3rd Edition 40K jungle trees - I love these silly plastic things

I had the idea to make an armoured company by getting a Leman Russ each month, but in the end I only got this one - 1st vehicle, 'A' troop, Blue company, Black battalion, Paradisan CDXX Armoured

Side view showing vehicle number on the turret and a clear image of the camouflaged Vanquisher cannon

Rear view with the tank's name - Annihilation - and a skull-and-laurel

The blue-black-blue stripes on the front of the vehicle denote company (blue) and battalion (black)

From the top you can see the WW1 German inspired camouflage clearly, along with the Aquila.

A Captain of the Empire to go into my big unit of spears, the Wissenburg Black Spears

Rear view showing off his sash and massive pistol

Pistoliers - these ones are from Nuln, wearing black and cream. The "new" plastic Pistoliers are quite nice kits even if they have too many shooting arms that are at a weird angle

The black saddlecloths are also leaning into the Nuln theme

They all ride grey horses, because that's just the done thing in this regiment

You can see their black and cream uniforms more clearly here

Also hailing from Nuln, these Pistoliers wear black and blue because they're a private regiment raised by a noble, rather than being directly raised by the Elector Count of Wissenland and Nuln

You can see the champion's repeater pistol (and pistol-sword!) quite clearly here

Being raised as a private regiment the members are all aristocrats

I like the champion's coat being used as a cloak, it really imparts a lot of movement to him

No Empire artillery park is complete without at least one Helblaster - this is my second!

The plastic Helblaster goes together a lot more easily than the old metal one

Helblaster in action - otherwise known as "moments before disaster"

Dwarfs were my first ever minis from Games Workshop, and I enjoy painting these distinctly un-uniform little rotund fantasy Anglo-Saxon/Norse hybrid drunkards

Lots of chainmail and colour

Red shields to tie them all together, and a wide variety of hair colours and clothing choices

I had agreed a long time prior to this point to paint my friend A's Space Hulk set - I finally did it! They are painted in the colours of his Blood Angels successor chapter (except the Librarian, for which I had free reign so I leant into the Rogue Trader Blood Angel Librarian scheme)

Rear view of the Librarian and lone sergeant

Librarian's Crux Terminatus, and objectives - a CAT servitor, dead Chapter hero, and a grail

Librarian's force axe, CAT servitor, rear of the throne, grail

Terminator Squad 1

Terminator Squad 2

All the Space Marines

GENESTEALERS - in the classic scheme of blue and purple!

Genestealer Patriarch looming...

And a pile of skulls (the crew? Previous explorers? both?)

A menacing and frankly terrifying threat

And these - also A's - had waited for paint even longer. I'm so sorry A. Bugbear warrior and shaman

These are the official Dungeons and Dragons minis I think

I think this is meant to be a half-orc fighter in and out of heavy armour

I painted them so they could work as the same character or different ones

Tiefling warlock with various spells! Again this is meant to be a low and high level of the same character

I think I prefer the mini on the left, but the cool eldritch tentacles were fun to paint!

I was missing ghouls from my Mordheim Undead warband, so I picked some up from Bad Squiddo Games and this is "the bride" - she's got a wedding dress on. Or what was a wedding dress, anyway

Whatever her life was before the comet hit Mordheim, now it's got a lot more cannibalism in it

I have a plan for an all-Forest Spirit army for Warhammer, and that needs several Branchwyches

This is the current Branchwych mini from Games Workshop, and I already have an old style Drycha which makes this my second of three Branchwyches

This one is quite a fun conversion made from the Sylvaneth Underworlds set - I used the bottom half of one of the minis and the top half of another to make my third and final Branchwych

This view shows off her stave and jewellery quite nicely - I like the Sylvaneth range and I think they'll make the whole army nice if I scatter them around the Dyrad units

Sticking with the Warhammer theme I bashed out a quick unit of Dire Wolves for my Lahmian Vampire Counts army, the Tyrkan Nachtarmija

I had a set of the plastic 3rd Edition 40k ruins kicking around that were missing their floor pieces, so I made some out of cardboard and cracked them out - scenery is nice and easy to paint a lot of the time

And here's the inside - I've always figured the funny half-height ground floor is actually just a slightly sunken room/floor filled with rubble. But they do work nicely on the tabletop, so it's fine

What's this!? So the Votann were released and someone had the bright idea of comparing them to the various LEGO space ranges through the years, and I think the M-Tron scheme works really well...

As you can see here with this Mini of the Month Votann

The rune is actually the number 3 in Pentadic Numerals, for 3rd Squad

M for M-Tron Materials and Mining

Some wear and tear on the equipment, and a clear shot of the bionic legs!

I had a bunch of random Skaven lying around from somewhere, and it turned out I could make them into a Mordheim warband... so I did!

Rear view of the clanrats with spears and shields

This bunch of squeaking schemers are clanrats with swords and shields

Despite appearances they don't have armour (because they're not worth it)

This was originally a 1980s Plague Monk I think, but I have repurposed it into a Clan Eshin sorcerer

I like the spikes that suggest a quite mutated figure under the robe...

Many years ago I had a Deathwing army, and each box of Terminators came with a teleport homer. So I finally painted them up as objective markers - there is now a sixth one, which is about as many as you need for any game usually. They're all painted the same but numbered underneath in case you need to find a specific objective

I picked up the Votann Grimnyr and quickly knocked out her AI bodyguard drones...

...which I named after Odin's ravens, Huginn and Muninn

They even have bird crests on their shield generators, what else was I going to call them?

So the Skaven need a leader, and they got one - an Assassin Adept with Weeping Blades!

You can see the 1990s metal mould limitations here but I do love this style of mini a lot

What a cape, what toxic blades, what a genial face (I love the little rat-head pommels on the blades)

You can't be a Skaven warband without a Rat Ogre

I deliberately used all the parts that had as little strange steampunk additions on

This big fellow just wants a hug

And probably also your lunch

Two different types of Black Skaven - one that's essentially a Stormvermin, with armour, halberd and shield (because it is, in fact, an old early 1990s Stormvermin) and a trainee Assassin with Fighting Claws

I added the cloak onto the halberd-toting Skaven to make it clearer that he's part of Clan Eshin

Neither of these rats are likely to be the sort you want to run into in a dark alley

Gutter Runners - the cheapest of the Heroes, armed with swords and daggers

I do wonder how the one on the left can see with his hood like that

A nice view of the cloaks. The sheen is from the semi-gloss varnish I used to protect the metal minis

Sometimes a Henchrat might get a Lad's Got Talent promotion to Hero, so I used this mini for that possibility

Here you can see a sword on his back

And this angle shows a flask of... something

Advancing with purpose (he's seen some cheese)

Skaven with slings are infamous in the Mordheim world, so I only made a group of four

They all have a tail weapon, but I can't remember if that actually counts in-game

The one with a throwing star did in the end get a sling instead, thanks to someone who posted me one!

It's amazing what you can do with flat colours and an overall wash of Agrax Earthshade really

The giant rats at the front were painted some time ago, so this is the whole warband. It's WAY bigger than the maximum warband size but it does allow for a lot of options

SALUTE 2023 haul! A mix of stuff for a variety of games - from back to front, left-to-right: Foundry Africans for Song of Blades and Heroes, Celtos for Warhammer Chaos Marauders, the free mini and die, Bad Squiddo characters for Oathmark and Mordheim, Heroics and Ros and Brigade Miniatures 6mm for Battletech

I got to hold a (deactivated) PPSh! That was fun (amusingly my boots here are actually Finnish jackboots)

For some unknown reason 6mm infantry paint up really quickly, so these were done in the same weekend as SALUTE - the minis at the back are Brigade Miniatures Chinese, as are the 8x8 APCs. The ones at the front are Heroics and Ros modern Russians. Now they're all generic infantry for Battletech!

I have an idea for a Pictish inspired Oathmark army, but this is only the second mini I have for it. I do like her tartan trews though, they came out nicely

The shield is a Pictish design (apparently)

Real old-heads of the blog will remember (maybe) the figures I painted up for Song of Blades and Heroes way back in 2010 from Hasslefree and Mike McVey - well, these two are for that same little warband

I'm really pleased with how the snake came out on the shield!

And a rear view showing things like the tail and bangles

A nice paper banner for the standard bearer of my Slaaneshi Marauder regiment

Better view of the Marauder herself - I like the tattoos I managed to do!

Rear view, and more tattoos

This Dwarf Lord was made from parts in the Hammerer/Longbeard kit

I like the way the rubies came out

Sometimes minis are easy to paint because they're almost all metal...

This chap, even without magic items, has something ridiculous like a 2+ save in combat

The Hammerer champion looks very stern, but not particularly worried as he's not even wearing his helmet!

When in doubt, carry a REALLY BIG hammer

Again, lots of metal = quick to paint

Another one where the rubies came out nicely

This regiment actually contains a Lord and a Battle Standard Bearer (on the right), and is a potent force in combat... if it can get into combat, that is. I'm still really pleased with how the unit standard turned out honestly! That yellow hammer on blue background really pops

Even Goffs have Trukk Boyz, and they need, well, a Trukk. This one has a go-fasta stripe on both sides

They may not be Kult ov Speed, but they are Orks, so going fast and making noise is where it's at

This was great fun to paint - LOTS of drybrushing and slap-dash detail work

Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade are very much your friend when painting Orky things

Da Big Green! When you gotta explode some 'eads, 'oo yoo gonna call? Dat's rite - DA WYRDBOY

Back in the day these grots would actually be a couple of Ork Minderz, but nowadays Wyrdboyz are a bit more, um, well, "trusted" isn't the right word... left to their own devices, yeah, that'll do

Speaking of 'back in the day' here's an old 2nd Edition Runtherd to go with my 2nd Edition Grots (although his slugga is actually a Valhallan bolt pistol)

Mike Brooks of Ufthak Blackhawk fame liked this mini when I posted it on my Facebook, so that's something

Now dis iz da Kult ov Speed! Ork warbikers to go WAAAARGH and crash into things at 150mph

I couldn't resist, and had to give the one on the left a Rupert the Bear scarf

These modern warbikes are great, but they do make my much older 2nd Edition one look a bit quaint

Not that it matters, because Orks

I got given this Ork jet in pieces for free as part of a bunch of stuff someone was giving away, so I put it together without instructions and then gave it a proppa Orky paint job

There's a vaguely Mig-15 / Sabre jet feel about it, it's all very 1950s

I tried to use different shades of red on each panel to suggest an even more ramshackle construction

Da biznes end - 6 'eavy shootas and four rokkits

Deathskull Clan Runtherd with grots - this lot are dead handy for soaking up incoming fire and nicking stuff after a battle

All this in one box! It's actually a pretty good little kit, the Games Workshop Gretchin kit.

The core of my Wissenland army is a big block of spearmen, and these two completed it

The grey and white are the colours of Wissenland, the red is a unifying colour throughout the army, and the spears are painted black because the regiment is the Wissenland Black Spears

And this is the unit in the display case! The front rank contains the Empire Captain I painted earlier in the year, another Captain with the Battle Standard of Wissenland, and a Warrior Priest of Sigmar - the whole regiment is 30 strong including those characters, or 28 if you drop the Captain and Warrior Priest. It usually commands the centre of my battleline

A Bad Squiddo mini acting as a ghoul for my Mordheim Undead, she has a pretty bloody sickle and a fearsome aspect

At some point she's had a head injury (you can sort of see the staples in her scalp)

A Paul Muller ghoul from Heresy Miniatures, I converted this one a bit as the original one creeped me out a bit too much (I didn't like that it was eating a baby, thanks Paul, top quality nightmare fuel there)

The hag, with bloody fingers

When you're a ravening cannibal cursed to eat human flesh in service to a vampire, no-one really mentions your clothes or lack thereof

All three of the ghouls I painted, which sort of completed the Undead warband. Technically I could have another two ghouls, but I don't think I'll need them honestly

And that was that! A pretty productive year if I do say so myself.

Painting Points:
2023: 210

210 points! That's a lot of stuff done - and almost all of it from the pile of opportunity, too!