2013 Hobby Recap

The year is fading fast now, just a few more days to the Christmas. Before things get too mental I thought I would throw a look back over my shoulder at what I've done over the year.

I spent the first few months of the year finishing my unit of half dead for my fimir. I really, really enjoyed building and painting these guys. In between finishing the half dead, I started on my unit of marlwyms. I've been pretty monkish about getting the fimir ready for battle, which is hard going at my pace, which is not speedy. It's been pretty tough keeping on track with a plethora of new projects tempting me to deviate from my divine mission to bring one-eyed pseudo Celtic cyclopean doom back to the gaming table.

Once the bog zombies were done, it was full speed into the marlwyrms. To date there are three finished. I still have the unit champion to add, and the movement tray. It's a big movement tray. So much bog/moss/heather/rocks to paint.

Another model I finished was Crom, my first fimir daemon ally. All the daemons in the army are either daemons of Fimul, who are generally worm type beasties, or those who owe fealty to Fimul in some way. This model (and the marlwyrms, to a lesser extent) gave me my first chance to really experiment with drool and slime effects. After some false starts I found a great glue that had the right properties. I still need to perfect a method of applying the glue, but I'll have a lot more opportunity for that before the army is finished.

As September, and NWG (the deadline I had set myself for 2000 points) rapidly approached, I finished one of the smaller units, some warhounds. I say finished, but I still need to add a handler to the unit. I'll swap out one of the hounds and add a handler and hound, both on 25x25mm bases to fill the space left by the 25x50mm cavalry base.

At NWG I unveiled the army and was delighted to pick up best painted. I had been painting feverishly for the few weeks coming up to it, and so October was a bit light on hobby, with only a single movement tray rolling out of the hobby factory.

Once I got my mojo back, I took stock and decided to finish off any units that needed finishing. The last marlwyrm, hound handlers and some bases and trays. That's where I am now. I've built a larger base for Crom so he can masquerade as a hellcannon, and my latest endeavour, which has mutated utterly from it's initial function, was a base extender for my meargh so she can have a 50x50mm or 40x40mm base. This has changed so much it's now an entirely new character, a dirach on a floating stone plinth. He's magnetised so he can sit on the plinth or a 25x25mm base. This is my first real excursion into using magnets, and it's going well so far. He still needs his tail, arm and other wee bits added, but he's getting there. I'll also add a familiar and some other scrolls and such to the plinth, partly to disguise the join, but mostly for the hell of it.

Once this bit of army housekeeping is done, the next objective is to get the army to 2,500 points. A unit of fenbeasts led by a dirach, an athach (huge tunnelling Earth daemon), a unit of fianna fimm, nobles, there's a lot of options. I really want to get the army to the point where I can have some variety in lists, which brings me onto what I'll be doing in 2014. First and foremost I'll be getting the fimir army to a size where I can happily field different lists. After that, well, there's a lot to choose from...

Crack into the chaos dwarves?

Finish off the vampire counts?

Get that  Bloodbowl team off the blocks?

Welly into the cult?

Paint some Nurgle Renegades? (This isn't one of mine, sadly.)

I'm actively collecting bits and pieces for the cult. I've a fairly definite idea of what I want*, and I'm also waiting to see if Games Workshop release a cult supplement for the upcoming tyranid release.  That would be glorious.
*may not be true.

Then, of course, there's stuff coming down the line for 2014.

All Quiet on the Martian Front. I cannot wait for this to be released.

Mantic's Mars Attacks

Hmm. Definite Martian flavour to 2014. I feel a rising sense of panic looking at all the stuff I'd like to devote my time to. If I could grow several extra arms, give up all contact with the world, oh, and lose the need for sleep, I'd still not have enough time to do it all.

Still, it's fun trying, eh?