Happy New Year! As is tradition, it’s time to look back at the year just gone, and lament the fact that I didn’t suddenly develop hyper focus and stick to just one project. I say this with tongue firmly in cheek though, as despite my claims to my wife that this blog is my second job, I’m not actually getting paid to do it so I’d much rather paint things as they take my fancy rather than trying to paint in a ‘businesslike’ way. Spoilers for later in this post - it’s probably only going to get worse this year…
Tally
Having managed to squeak in a House Stark dog handler (although in hindsight, House Bolton probably makes more sense) before the end of the year, the Tally ended up at 52 vs 309 = -257. I’ve just realised - the blog has been running for 15 years now! I know the internet has changed, and blogs aren’t the thing any more, but I think I’ll keep posting even if it ends up being only Suber reading all of the surviving blogs. So, 15 years of stats:
2025: -257 (52 painted)
2024: -142 (62 painted)
2023: -194 (33 painted)
2022: 0 (85 painted)
2021: +16 (52 painted)
2020: -100 (47 painted)
2019: +3 (46 painted)
2018: +52 (52 painted)
2017: -14 (47 painted)
2016: -287 (56 painted)
2015: -96 (59 painted)
2014: 0 (80 painted)
2013: -416 (25 painted)
2012: -103 (68 painted)
2011: -173 (122 painted)
And as always, a graph:
It’s always slightly surreal seeing other people’s end of year posts where they say ‘unfortunately due to various issues I was only able to paint 763 28mm this year, as well as a variety of vehicles, terrain pieces, and one 1:1 scale battleship’. Around 50 is a standard year for me, and 100 would be a bumper year!
Posts
31 posts last year, which is on the lower side of average. It was an odd year - no posts in February, as I was busy enjoying my new ps5, and then the lull over the summer caused by having to find somewhere new to live not leaving much time for painting miniatures. Once we were settled in, I got cracking with Zomtober and doubled the number of miniatures I had painted so far for the year, and things were looking up. Then I got signed off from work the day before Halloween, and I suddenly found myself with time to play some games. 10 posts in December too, which nearly a third of the entire year’s output. So the secret is to not go to work, noted. Not really a sustainable plan in the long term though, especially since I’ve already started back at work…
Last Year’s Challenge
- Finish at least one playable force for a game
I did not in fact do this. This year though Gadget, this year…
Play at least 4 games in 2025
This I actually managed, playing 5 games of Frostgrave, but it was enabled by getting signed off of work for 2 months which left me a lot more time for games than I usually have… next year I’ll have to try and get games in more regularly throughout the year!
- Prep all the monkeys in the monkey box
I was actually tempted to try and get this done this year when I found myself with more free time than anticipated (the box is actually next to me as I type this), but got sidetracked by things like playing games. Admittedly, I did buy the first three modern Apes movies on DVD after finding them in the charity shops between Christmas and New Year’s, so never say never…
Convert at least one miniature
Quite a few kitbashes this year, including my Knight of the Order of St Lazarus, an in hindsight unnecessary Man at Arms for Frostgrave, and a bevy of zombies for Zomtober.
- Add to the Monstrous Alphabet project
Only one addition this year, and not a huge one as it was a pair of tiny Intellect Devourers. I actually had a dig through the Monster Manual recently to have a look at what options I have for letters that I haven’t hit yet, but anything that I want to paint that would be useful for the family D&D game I’d need to buy, whereas anything I already have a suitable mini for I didn’t really fancy.
Do Zomtober posts
Always! I love a themed post, and this year’s Zomtober actually managed to double the number of minis I’d been able to paint YTD, and set me up to aim for hitting the one mini a week average by the end of the year…
Do a May the Fourth post
These themed posts are good for getting me to focus, if only briefly with a Mandalorian painted this year. I keep being tempted to pick up my Star Wars project again for more than just one day a year - maybe of we ever get around to watching Andor season 2 I’ll be more motivated to.
Do a Festive post
Average at least a miniatures week (so at least 52 completed miniatures)
It was right, but managed it st the eleventh hour
- Finish more miniatures than I did in 2024 (so at least 63)
The drought in the middle of the year from getting evicted and having to find somewhere new to live didn’t help with this, to be fair
- End the year with the Tally in the positive (hey, I’m an optimist, what can I say)
I mean, I have managed it in the past, but on the other hand, damn those historical manufacturers for including so many miniatures for a reasonable price in their boxes!
Projects (according to the last end of year post)
Board games
My first finished mini this year was from the Umbrella Academy board game, but I couldn’t keep motivated after that. Which is odd, as it’s so much nicer playing with painted pieces, and there are a couple of other games that I’ve recently been eyeing on our games shelf with a thought to getting them painted. I wonder if we’d won the last game of Umbrella Academy id have been more motivated to paint the next lot of enemies…
Frostgrave
Unusually, I did in fact do the things I said I would in last year’s post - I finished off the Mausoleum, and even played through a three scenario mini campaign after playing through the two scenarios I had originally planned to!
Acolyte
The Acolyte is converted, and has some base coats applied, but despite basically living on my painting tile he never manages to be the most attractive mini there, so there he has stayed.
The Silver Bayonet
Foolishly, I tried to paint the last member of the Unit that I needed to be able to start the solo campaign during my end of year rush to get my numbers up, and he ended up looking a bit French, so I felt like I should use him in a different unit. Probably not helped by having bought the pack of special edition Silver Bayonet minis from North Star, so I’m potentially subconsciously sabotaging myself so that I can paint one of them instead.
Zombies
Still no sign of the Evolutions expansion for Last Days getting a legal rerelease, so my zombie work this year was limited to Zomtober. I say limited, I converted and painted ten more than I do most years…
Star Wars
As mentioned in the Challenge section, I did in fact do a May the Fourth post, but didn’t watch Andor so didn’t get motivated to do more than that. At one point my plan for next year was a relaunched Star Wars project, but as you’ll find out later that rapidly mutated int9 something else.
Cowboys and The Alamo
The closest I came was painting a zombie cowboy last year! My Mexicans remain unpainted, although I did prep the nice metal command for them that my Brother in Law got me from Boot Hill miniatures…
Superheroes
5 miscellaneous X-Men and X-Villains added to the painted total this year, but not any of the ‘proper’ X-Men finished. This may or may not have to do with how much yellow there is to paint on them, which I usually find quite tricky to get a finish that I’m happy with on…
Cyberpunk
I finished the videogame recently, but that doesn’t really count for this. A bunch of the minis that I dug out for this project have actually gotten folded into another project that is reappearing on the list this year…
Back burner:
Warhammer, Rangers, Battletech
Nothing really happened with these, unless you count me painting the tents that I had bought for the next Rangers of Shadow Deep scenario. I also bought a bridge for the same reason, although I haven’t even cracked the shrink wrap on that yet…
2026 Projects
Warriors of Athena
This comes out in February, so I’ll be grabbing both books as soon as I can. I’ve accrued a bunch of Greek sprues, so the plan is to grab some pals, stick on Jason and the Argonauts or Clash of the Titans and kitbash warbands. I suspect as per Rangers though I’ll need some specific monsters and scenery, which will likely be the biggest hurdle to getting it on the table.
Firefly
So, funny story. I saw someone over on the LAF was running a series of Star Wars games that were a mashup between Stargrave and another system, and thought brilliant, I could do that, I’ve got a bunch of painted scavengers and Stormtroopers that would do for a couple of enemy types, I could run an Andor like squad of special operatives, and all the scenarios work by just filing off the word ‘Pirate’ and saying ‘Empire’ instead. Then I thought about it a bit more, and thought that actually I could dig out my old long back burnered Firefly project, and run a crew of ne’erdowells doing moves in the ‘verse, and all the scenarios work by just filing off the word ‘Pirate’ and saying ‘Alliance’ instead… it’s not going to be strictly canon though, as there are no aliens in Firefly and I don’t want to limit myself to just fighting human enemies.
The problem with me starting a sci-fi project though is that while I do have some minis that can get press-ganged (scientists and security guards from my 7tv box will work just as well in space, as do more Cyberpunk minis) I’m going to need to build some terrain. Whereas any new fantasy project I start, I’ve now built up enough suitable scenery that it’s a much lower barrier to entry (and I know, I can do sci-fi games in the wastelands fighting over rocks, but I’d like some thematic stuff!)
Barons War
Side note - it’s entirely possible I’ll end up starting a Robin Hood project too using these rules. Or the Third Crusade. Or:
My interest in the Third Crusade (with it’s snazzy Templars, leprous knights et al) led me to buy Outremer Faith and Blood, a small scale skirmish game that it would be nice to build a band or two for. Rumour is that the Barons War Outremer expansion is going to get updated to Second Edition in the near future too, so if they run a kickstarter for that I might be tempted to pick up a few bits and bobs…
A Song of Ice and Fire
When finding out about Barons War, I was struck by inspiration that it might actually be the perfect rule set to use with my Game of Thrones minis that were largely painted about twelve years ago and never actually got to take part in a game (apart from some of the zombies, admittedly). Which is a shame, as I really enjoyed kitbashing these, and painting small batches to add bits here and there is much more likely to get finished than me trying to paint a big army. Barons War also has a fantasy spinoff called Warhost, which I might have to have a nose at to see if I can lift things - presumably there are monsters, so I could use the Mountain as some sort of troll…the only thing not covered I think would be pikes, but I can probably just count them as spears I guess.
So, vague plans - get the Lannisters and Starks up to 500 point retinues. Try to avoid getting sidetracked into starting new Houses # I’ve already planned what sprues I’d need to make some House Tully troops, but I feel like the sensible thing to do would be to actually finish the Starks first before I start expanding them…
Outremer
Silver Bayonet
Frostgrave
No definitive plans for the further adventures of Tim the Necromancer, but the good thing about Frostgrave is that I’ve got what I need to play a variety of scenarios if the fancy takes me. Knowing my luck though, I’ll get it into my head that I want to play a scenario that needs specific monsters and terrain painting, so we shall see…
Alamo
Zombies
I’ll do Zomtober next year, as always. I haven’t decided on a theme yet - will I go back to adding to my Zombieslayer Warhammer zombies? Will there be space zombies? Or will I go back t9 my original love as per the header of this blog?
Star Wars
I’ll do May the Fourth, but I can’t commit to any more than that. The previously mentioned idea to do Star Wars Stargrave isn’t off the table though…
This is definitively too many projects. But I am excited and enthusiastic about so many things, even as my rational brain points out that I can’t really do all of them…
Back Burner:
The usual suspects, Doctor Who, Warhammer, Battletech, Acolyte, Superheroes etc. they’re not my main focus, but if the fancy takes me…
As it’s the fifteenth anniversary of the blog, I thought I’d take a quick look back at the projects from my very first blog post and see what fifteen years of progress looks like:
Primary Projects:
Zombies
Although I wouldn’t necessarily describe it as my main project these days, I painted a bunch more stuff and actually played some games. I had originally planned to use my own rules, but then found Last Days which did the things I was planning on doing but better, with the benefit of also being able to buy whole rather than having to develop myself!
Three Kingdoms
I have painted a single mini for this project twelve years ago. There’s I think 32 in various states of basecoat though, as if that makes it any better…
Firefly/Serenity
I painted about half dozen minis for this project here and there. But next year it’s back on the agenda!
Strange Aeons
I actually painted a useable Threshold team, and a few monsters, but not enough to ever get a game of it in. Some of the monsters painted for this are actually being used by em4 on their website, and in their marketing emails sent out in the last month though, so that’s nice.
Doctor Who
Always on the back burner, but never fully off it, I’ve added bits here and there. My plan recently was to watch the series with my children and then use that as an on-ramp to some miniature gaming, but they found it too scary so that’s on pause. I’ve been converting some Torchwood troopers with the hopes of having enough to be able to play through the old Crooked Dice Canary Wharf booklet though, so if I can get some more beret wearing heads you may see more here in the future…
Secondary projects:
VSF
The “whole bunch of converted ministures” mentioned in that original post are in fact still in that same drawer. I’ve gone off the brits a bit though, they were converted from Wargames Factory Zulu war brits which were frankly shonky, no matter how nice the head from Ramshackle Games I stuck on top (and to be fair, my attempt at VSF-ing their rifles using pins and tiny beads doesn’t look great). I actually quite like my Martian conversions though, so maybe one day they’ll see the paint tile…
AEWWII
Nothing painted since I launched the blog. I actually found my box of unbuilt minis for this the other day…
Warmachine
I’ve painted some mercenaries, but no actual faction models. I do occasionally buy them though… they brought the game back, which is of little interest to me, as I was always more into the old lore and they blew up the world (but in a narratively sensible way, as it had been leading to that for something like nineteen real years, as opposed to the Warhammer Fantasy way).
Anima Tactics
I painted a single mini in 2011. I did steal some hefty inspiration from the rules for this game for the energy mechanic I use in the Gundam game that I play with my kids though…
Evil Genius/7TV
I’ve added bits here and there, but nothing since 2018 - I did buy Evil Genius 2 in the PlayStation Christmas sale though, which had me digging through my drawers of miniature and lovingly eyeing those Copplestone sculpted guards in hard hats…
Marvel Superheroes
Probably the project that actually gets the most regular love, whilst still being quite irregular. Being able to add a model here and there as it takes my fancy seems to be the key to success (as shown by me having stalled a bit trying to get too many X-Men prepped at once). I’ve played some games of Super Mission Force with my children using these, and there are also a bunch of Batman minis painted too that could probably get a run out using the same rules…
GW:
Hmmm, well. The biggest takeaway in the last fifteen years is that I realised that I’m not the target market for modern GW, and I’m fine with that. I still have vague plans for Mordheim, classic Warhammer Fantasy etc, but they’re so far on the back burner you can only see them with a sufficiently powerful microscope.
Fantasy
- Night Goblins - I think I painted a single mini? I struggled getting a skin tone that I liked, which has slowed progress somewhat…
- Skaven - the plan was to play some 500 point Eighth Edition, but it turns out I’m not a huge fan of batch painting. I painted an entire unit of slaves over the course of a month, which was a pain but did in fact result in me having a finished unit, as opposed to trying to paint clanrats half dozen at a time, which has not.
- Dwarves - Gotrek is a dwarf, that counts right? Another project that mostly lives in boxes…
- Mordheim - I still have the boxed game and enough miniatures for three plus warbands. My plan at the start of Covid lockdown in 2020 was to crack on with these - I wrote out warband lists, planned some conversions, and then a buddy introduced me to Rangers of Shadow Deep…
40k
- Witch hunters - a couple of inquisitorial henchmen, which may one day see use if I ever finish my Acolyte…
- Chaos - my Huron Blackheart mini has been undercoated for so long they’ve actually gone and produced a new sculpt…
- Space Marines - I actually made a start on getting a small playable force of Space Marines painted. Then Primaris became a thing. Also, I think I’ve lost interest in 40K a bit as they’ve revamped the rules so much, whereas for several previous editions the core was basically the same so I could trick myself into thinking that I could jump back in at any time…
- Orks - I did not in fact come back to these, and sold them on eBay. Occasionally I regret this, largely when thinking ‘boy I should start a Gorkamorka project’, but luckily these thoughts are usually easily squashed back down where they belong.
- Blood Pact - those conversions are still in a box. Every now and then I’m tempted to go back and start Gaunt’s Ghosts from the start again, which would probably make me want to revisit these, but the conversions are pretty wonky even for me…
So overall, it looks like I’ve not really done anything on the things that I was planning to do when this blog started!how have I managed over 500 posts then? By constantly starting new projects I guess… I’ve actually managed to play some games with my toys in recent years though, so I’ll call that a success!
2026 Challenge
So, here is the challenge for the coming year:
- Finish at least one playable force for a game
- Finish at least one unit for the Alamo project
- Play at least 4 games in 2026
- Prep all the monkeys in the monkey box
- Convert at least one miniature
- Add to the Monstrous Alphabet project
- Do Zomtober posts
- Do a May the Fourth post
- Do a Festive post
- Average at least a miniatures week (so at least 52 completed miniatures)
- Finish more miniatures than I did in 20245 (so at least 53)
- End the year with the Tally in the positive (hey, I’m an optimist, what can I say)
Some will succeed, some will fail (again, finishing a unit for the Silver Bayonet involves painting one miniature!), but we shall see - and as ever, these are going to be something to hopefully give me some structure or drive inspiration for things to do, rather than being a chain to best myself with…
