2014 in Review

Hello all! I think it's fair to say I painted one or two models in 2014; in fact, I painted just shy of 150 models overall. Given that I must have painted less than 50 in 2013, I'd call that a pretty marked improvement! I think it's a mixture of developing my ability to paint quickly, and also getting better results from the time I am putting in - nothing is less motivating than putting a lot of effort into models for a pretty low reward.

By far the project that was the most rewarding and took up most of my hobby time was my Warriors of Chaos. I think it's time to start drawing this project to a close - there's one unit of 18 Chosen and an Iron Daemon (which I will use as a Skullcannon) to do, and then I will rest them for at least six months. I am incredibly proud of how cohesive the whole army looks together - even more so after it came second in the Best Painted nomination at Raze and Ruin. I'm aiming for first place next year, even if it means sabotaging every other army there!

A shot of every model done for the army in 2014 - 104 total.

A small unit of 3 Skullcrushers. I mostly use them as charge redirectors and as a cheap chaff unit.

A unit of 10 Chaos Knights plus a Lord on Daemonic Mount. I try and sneak these into the backfield to kill War Machines and lone Wizards.

A unit of 5 Warhounds. I like to send these straight at my opponents toughest unit. They wreck house on the charge - I've yet to find a unit they can't handle in combat.

30 Marauders. Whilst not as effective as the Hounds above, they can hold their own in combat with the best of the Warhammer World.

The only other project I worked on last year was an Anglo-Danish army for Saga. Again, I am really happy with how they turned out - especially as they were a complete reboot of a previous army. New figures, new paint job, everything. They were easy, and fun, to paint - especially the chainmail. The fact that a mere 41 models makes a full army was quite nice too!

All 41 models. I think we can all agree their bases blend in much better with the terrain!

This pose is a very simple conversion to do with the Gripping Beast dark age plastics.

The shields were definitely my favourite part of the model to paint.

I would recommend the Gripping Beast models to anyone looking to start Saga.

So, that rounds off my recap of 2014! Looking forward, I have several projects I would like to work on this year:

• Eldar
• LOTR Dwarfs
• LOTR Easterlings
• LOTR Mordor Orcs
• Pre-Heresy Iron Warriors
• Scots for Saga
• Vikings for Saga
• Jomsvikings for Saga
• Sorylian Fleet for Firestorm Armada
• I'd also like to do more tutorials for the armies I paint - I have had a surprising number of requests for these!

Embarrassingly, these are all projects I currently have fairly sizeable unpainted (or even unbuilt!) armies for already, which brings me to my pledge for 2015: for every one model I buy, I will have to paint two I already own, and I won't buy a single model until at least the start of April. Hopefully 2015 will be another big year for my hobby! Wish me luck!

Thanks for reading (the longest ever blog post I've done, apparently. At least I broke it up with pictures!)

The Return of the King (Of Painting Blogs)

Hello all! Goodness, but it feels like a long time since I have done this. I'm sure I could write plenty of excuses to explain my lack of painting, and some may even be believable, but in the end it comes down to a simple lack of motivation to paint and distraction from other hobbies. I think I am over that hump now, and I should be back to my usual bi-weekly blogging from now onwards! :)

So, this post will focus on the new additions to my Warriors of Chaos army. I will do a post next week (two in a row!) with a review of my painting in 2014, and a look ahead at what I want to accomplish in 2014. The first thing that I have added to my Warriors of Chaos army is 14 more Marauders to bring my unit up to a horde of 30. I also repainted the banner for the unit as I thought it looked pretty bad! I do really enjoy painting Marauders, they just take such a long time compared to the Warriors of Chaos.

The 14 new marauders I have painted. They took a painfully long time to do...

I truly cannot overstate how much of an impact the Horsemen heads have on the look of this unit.

The full unit of 30 as it stands now. I'd like to add another 10 Marauders to bring the unit to a full horde of 40, but perhaps I'll work on something else in the meantime!

The repainted banner. It looked better in my mind, but I'm happy enough with how it worked out!

I have also finished building and converting a new Chaos Lord. The body is that of the armoured rider from the Chariot kit, the head from the Warshrine kit and the arm & shield from the Skullcrushers kit. As conversions go, it isn't particularly exciting, but I do think it's enough to make him stand out (especially with the huge horns!). I find that I really enjoy painting one off models like this, and it cane serve as a nice distraction when other units or projects get a little stale.

I absolutely love this helmet. It really fits the whole Chaos aesthetic.

I often prefer resting poses like this to those that are mid action. I think they allow for a little more personality to be shown.

That's all for this week! I will be back next week for my review of 2014, and I'll discuss what I achieved, what I failed and what I want to do in 2015. It will be absolutely riveting reading, I assure you. I'll try to break it up with plenty of pictures!

Here's a sneak preview of my full Warriors of Chaos army for next week!

"Hello, we're here to talk to you about our lord and saviour, Khorne."