Slightly delayed, but here is my annual look back at the previous year, and comparing it to the plans that I made at the start of the year…
Tally
As Christmas was technically happening after my last scheduled post, the Tally took one final hit before the end of the year. My brother-in-law emigrated to the states last year, and so came through with (among other things) some beautiful Boot Hill Alamo minis (as my limited Hobby budget usually doesn’t stretch to the shipping costs from Brigade to the UK - why oh why didn’t I get into the Alamo when those minis first came out and they were available in the UK?!):
Also pictured is the 3d printed space pirate that the stl for was a freebie at Salute, as he also has a 3d printer.
With this last hit, the final Tally for 2024 looks like:
62 vs 204 (one of the space pirates isn’t for me) = -142
And adds to the long running set of yearly stats:
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)
So technically, it was my fifth most productive year in terms of figures painted…
Posts
39 posts this year, with at least a single post every month. The year started off with the usual random selection of things as and when they took my fancy, but then I fell into grooves of things I needed for games, like monsters for Frostgrave, or my late in the year start working my way through the Umbrella Academy board game.
Last years challenge
- Finish at least one playable force for a game (whether that be my 500 point Skaven army, my Silver bayonet unit, or something else entirely…)
I very nearly finished off my Silver Bayonet unit, but am still one model short from having a playable force, so maybe this year…
- Play at least 12 games in 2024
I only managed two games of Frostgrave and a single game of Super Mission Force, so that’s another fail. I have the bit of terrain that I need for the next Frostgrave scenario undercoated though, so if I can drybrush that grey the adventures of Tim the Necromancer can continue in 2025…
- Prep all the monkeys in the monkey box (I mean I couldn’t delete this one after so many years)
You all know I haven’t done this.
Convert at least one miniature
Two converted miniatures for the Silver Bayonet unit, so I get to cross something off! Generally what happens is I write the challenge, then largely forget all about it for most of the year.
Add to the Monstrous Alphabet project
Several monsters painted this year, but R and T were newly completed entries, so that’s another challenge ticked off
Do Zomtober posts
Four posts managed - I had some extra bits planned this year, but unfortunately ran out of time, so they’re still sat half-finished on my painting tile. Until next year…
Do a May the Fourth post
Do a festive post
Again, the secret to success it seems is setting myself a challenge that involves painting a single miniature, with several months notice…
Average at least a miniature a week (so at least 52 completed miniatures across the year)
62 painted miniatures this year mean I succeeded at this one!
- End the year with the Tally in the positive
I did not in fact succeed at this one though. Any year where I start a project that involves buying several boxes of plastic miniatures at Salute tends to end with me in the red on the Tally…
Projects (according to the last end of year post)
Warhammer
Unfortunately, no movement on my Skaven, although I did manage to add some minis to the Undead army thanks to Zomtober. Although that still doesn’t make for a legal unit of zombies yet, but there will always be another Zomtober…
The Silver Bayonet
While looking at my gaming bookshelf the other day, I realised that The Silver Bayonet is actually the game that I own the most expansions for, despite not having a finished playable unit. I managed to get most of the way there this year (and actually did paint the monsters that I needed for the first solo scenario), but need at least one more mini to get to that point. Conventional wisdom seems to be that I should probably actually take a couple of monks to make up numbers rather than another specialist soldier, but what can I say, I’m a sucker for cool stuff…
The adventures of Tim the Necromancer did actually continue this last year, as I made and painted some oozes to stand in for Vapour Snakes, and a tiny closet so that I could also play the second scenario in that particular chain.
Rangers of Shadow Deep
No movement last year, alas. The next scenario is somewhat scenery heavy, and building a river, bridge, ford, rocks as well as a bandit camp, which never seems to get to the top of my priority list when the next shiny thing is hogging all of my attention…then again, I do have the tents built and undercoated for this, so maybe I can sneak in a little progress in the near future…Nothing for Ronin of Shadow Deep either - I have a couple of minis prepped, but didn’t get as far as finishing any of them…
Battletech
Two mechs are half finished. Painting differently scaled miniatures to what I’m used to is weird, so I tried some other techniques that I’d usually use when modelling Gunpla, and it didn’t work out quite how I’d planned, so I took a breather that has lasted about a year now.
Zombies
Zomtober technically counts for this and Warhammer, right? Since I was no longer playing my monthly Last Days campaign, I didn’t have a burning need to paint anything zombie related. Plans for building the Farm home base stayed just that, with a pile of cut out wall pieces not having found their way back onto my cutting mat after we moved house.Star Wars
Aforementioned Tiny Grogu!
Cowboys
I painted a single drunk cowboy last year. What you didn’t see though, was that I also half-painted an entire Legends of the Old West Lawmen Posse, which got put to one side in favour of other things, and never got taken over that finish line.Board Games
This one was an actual success, I managed to paint enough miniatures to actually play a game of the Umbrella Academy board game using entirely painted miniatures! There’s still a bunch more to do, but I’m hoping to be able to repeat that feat this year…Acolyte
No progress this year.Until I played a few hours of Inquisitor Martyr right at the end of the year, and then all of a sudden we’re back on, and I’ve started work on my Acolyte:
It took as many days to carefully cut through that metal neck as it did searching through boxes looking for the replacement head I wanted to use (spoilers: it was two days).
2025 projects
Board games
If I can just paint the rest of the core members of the Umbrella Academy, and the other Allies, then I’ll have a fully painted base set of the game I think? Plus, if we manage to actually win a game, then I’d need to move onto painting the next set of enemies…
Frostgrave
I need to paint a single piece of scenery (that is currently sat built and mostly undercoated) to be able to play the next scenario, which is hopefully eminently doable. The next scenario story wise would be the only set in the library, but rather than having to make a million tiny bookshelves, I’ve seen people use dungeon tiles for this, which I handily have a bunch of for D&D…
Acolyte
I’d like to convert and paint my Acolyte! My friend has already painted his entire war and as well as the majority of the enemies needed, so if I can scrape together a warband from my painted minis and bits box then [hushed voice] we could actually play a game…
The Silver Bayonet
Again, just need to finish the Unit to be able to start the solo campaign, and actually have the two minis that I need for the scenario after that prepped and undercoated already…
Zombies
I’ll do Zomtober, at the very least. Unless Ash Barker releases the Evolutions expansion for Last Days, that might spur some modern zombie painting…
Star Wars
I’ll do a May the Fourth post, at the very least. Who knows though, the Andor sequel will maybe drag us back to watching Star Wars (having lost some of our enthusiasm for them a while back) and in turn, painting Star Wars more than once a year…
Cowboys and The Alamo
If the wind blows that way, I have an entire Lawmen Posse that’s half finished, and a bunch of converted Mexicans for the Alamo just waiting for some paintbrush attention…
Superheroes
Back on the projects list, as it’s nice to have something that I can play with my children! I had an urge to do something X-Men related, but unfortunately that only produced half painted miniatures last year, maybe this year I can change that…
Cyberpunk
Another one returning to the list - I got Cyberpunk 2077 for Christmas (having bought a PS5 on Black Friday), and due to my usual sickness of thinking about everything in terms of how I could do it in 28mm, was soon digging through boxes to pull out some suitable miniatures:
Back burner:
Warhammer, Rangers, Battletech
They’re not off the list, but realistically they’re not going to be top of my priority lists. Which is usual,y a sure fire way to have my attention swing back that way. And thinking about it, I was at a children’s birthday party last month and spotted that the Dad had a load of Battletech box sets on his games shelf, so who knows. Then again, if my children decide they want to start watching Doctor Who again, it’s just as likely that will jump back onto the list…
2025 Challenge
- Finish at least one playable force for a game
- Play at least 4 games in 2025
- 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 2024 (so at least 63)
- End the year with the Tally in the positive (hey, I’m an optimist, what can I say)
Fairly similar to last year’s, but with a couple of tweaks! Honestly though, after all these years if I actually get round to prepping all the monkeys in the monkey box, it’s probably a cry for help, and someone should come and check that I’m okay.
