2018 hobby achievements – 2019 hobby goals

As many others out there, I felt the need to sum up my hobby year and set some objectives for the next one.

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Community

First of all my 2018 round up wouldn’t be accurate without a big thank you to our online wargaming community.

Dear #warmongers of the twitterverse, blogosphere and instahell, thanks for your help, your gifts, your crazy ideas and all the inspirational work you share. I won’t name anyone, since I am too affraid to forget people, but I am very happy to have met you and hope 2019 will be rich in hobby nonsense and crazy threads.

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What was completed (at last)?

Before listing all that was done in 2018, I would like to mention two projects I finally completed and which are pretty special to me. I cared so much about these two that I was afraid to finish them for years (a curse that afflicts me is the « if I finish this mini I will ruin what I have already done »). I finally overcame my fear of not getting them right and it allowed me to get them done.

The Rhino of Pride (formerly Rhino of shame, so long in the making than the saying was « when the Rhino will be done » to mean « when Hell freezes over »).

« Zombie kill of the week », my first ever full scale diorama (which will get a dedicated post soon, so you’ll have to wait a bit to know more about it).

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What was painted?

I successfully painted 51 minis in 2018.

It may not seem an impressive grand total but to me it was quite an achievement. I am  a slow painter and tend to work on too many projects at the same time, so getting stuff done is not that easy or quick. Still, with the help and inspiration of the community and a bit of self discipline, I succeeded in painting more minis in 2018 than in any of the recent years (I think I did not paint that much since my Eldar days), so I am happy with it.

I think I also made some progress on my painting itself. Our trade is about practice, as we all know, and painting more often means painting better.

I mostly painted Confrontation stuff in 2018 since I finished the undead warband I started in 2017 (do you want to know more?) and did a complete Dirz warband (do you want to know more?). It was good to finally get some paint on all those Confrontation models I have been accumulating over the years. I also tried to do as much of my Necromunda stuff as I could, but this was not a great success, since the Goliath gang I started of the 31st of december 2017 (do you want to know more?) was not fully done on january the 1st 2019…

I also had a lot of fun converting and painting old toy cars for Gaslands this year and intend to continue in 2019.

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What was built and/or partly painted?

I tend to get distracted by new ideas a lot (which is part of my « slow painter curse » I guess). 2018 was no exception. I started far more projects than I could handle, so 2018 ended leaving me with a bunch of « partly done » stuff.

On the Necromunda front I still have to finish assembling my Faceless Mothers (do you want to know more?) ad obviously paint them. I also played with some Genestealers models that I test-assembled. I plan to do this bunch next.

Aside from my Goliath, that were 3 minis short (just some finishing touches to get them done actually) of a round 10 people gang on the 31st of december, I also started my « Butchers militia » (do you want to know more?), that I intend to run as a venator gang. At the beginning I only planned for a couple of NPCs but now I intend to grow them into a full 10 people gang as well (need 5 more to get there).

Here you have some pics of the next recruits for my butchers:

On the Confrontation front you could say my undeads and Dirz are done (eventhough I may add some models here and there in the couple of months, should we need more tactical options on the battlefield). At the end of the year, to celebrate me acquiring a shinny Dremmel mini tool, I started a Wolfen warband (I had two of the big guys painted a couple of years ago who were wainting for reinforcement). Two warriors and a crossbowman are assembled and mostly painted. I’ll then add a predator (undercoated), a priest and a leader to make a nice small warband.

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What games were played?

I do not play much, but as for painting 2018 was pretty good on the gaming front.

Of course we held our annual Mordheim campaign (do you want to know more?) and eventhough we did not have time to fight the last « decisive » battle of the campaign, I ended with the most victories of the weekend, so let’s say I won.

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I was lucky enough to drag some new friends into Confrontation. I provided the armies for them, since the minis are not available anymore, and I organize the games at my place. These games were the opportunity to write my first battle reports. You will find them here and there. We now are a group of 3 to 4 players and I am considering to run a campaign in 2019 using the narrative/experience system called « Dogs of War ».

Sadly I only got to play Necromunda underhive two times, more test games than real games actually. I hope to have more opportunity to play it in 2019.

Last but not least, I played Gaslands. Nice little nervous game, very fun and totally brutal. Quick to set up, quick to play and quick to learn, which means it is easy to bring more people to the table, which is always good.

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What was bought?

Well, basically, too many minis but what can I do? GW made some fantastic releases this year, I continued my quest to accumulate Confrontation minis and pledge some money on great kickstarters too. Anyway, I need my plastic crack so, let’s face it, I won’t stop buying minis.

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Hobby goals for 2019

As usual I decided to set some hobby goals. This year I decided to try to set achievable goals.

First of all sonce I painted 51 minis in 2018 I would like to paint 100 in 2019. It may not seem ambitious, but for me it is quite a challenge as I still struggle to get hobby time and, most of all, stay focus on a project untill it is done. For this I’ll use the #hobby100 hashtag.

To that end I pledged to complete the explorers from the Blackstone Fortress box I got for christmas in the #TaleOfMoreWarlords challenge. This should keep me busy for the beginning of the year and help me avoid the « christmas gift » curse (Necromunda is not yet finished and it took me 7 years to paint all the minis in the Dreadfleet box…).

I will also use the #painthammer2019 hashtag to keep track of my progress and get in touch with the community.

I also wish to complete a one mini project at the beginning of 2019, this should not compromise my #TaleOfMoreWarlords schedule (more on that later).

Once the #TaleOfMoreWarlords pledge is done I intend to complete the larger 2018 projects that I left unfinished: The Facless Mothers and The Butchers for Necromunda, the Wolfen warband for Confrontation.

Once all of this is done…well we’ll see. As I said before I want to set achievable goals and I am not disciplined enough to plan too long ahead.

Still, I have some ideas on what I would like to work on in 2019:

• my Orlock « Peaky Blinders » gang;
• my Genestealer gang;
• some scenery for Confrontation (yes, I did order something hudge from Tabletop World with my christmas bonus money and I would like to see it done!);
• some scenery for Gaslands as well.

There are also some larger and more ambitious projects I will consider starting seriously at one point:

• I want to have miniatures for all Mordheim unexpected encounters, since I will give a nice touch to our campaigns;
• I also wish to work on two KS I supported: « Troll & Goblin » by Aenor miniatures and « A day at the Fair » by Lead Adventure;
• I still have to pick my next TGG project, « Zombie Kill of the Week » made me want to do more dioramas.

To be honest I do not know what I’ll work on first. My idea is to finish as many « half done » projects before starting anything, so I try not to think about what’s next too much. Still, let’s be honest, on top of all that I will certainly start a new Confrontation warband (Goblins maybe?) and at one point I’ll buy the Cawdor and Delaque gagngs…

Well, if you are curious about how I do in 2019, I’ll keep you posted here and on other social media (mainly twitter, but you can reach me on instagram and facebook as well).

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Well that’s all for folks. Hope you liked what you read, see you soon.

Follow @levermenarque

All the pictures in that post are my own.

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