Hobby Update- 2021

 


A quick Hobby Update, or rather an update to say that not much hobby is happening... I'm currently in the process of moving house, and so, I packed my miniatures and paint away to be ready for the move. This means that I won't now be able to do much hobby until, realistically, the New Year.

As is always the case, as soon as I packed away my projects, I've been unable to stop thinking about wanting to do some hobby (an unfortunate side effect given that it is often difficult to motivate myself when I have my paint station ready to go!). I thought this would be a good opportunity for myself to look back over 2021, take stock of my completed hobby projects, and look at what I have still to complete. (Note: the photos are not great- as they were taken during packing).

Miniatures completed in 2021:

  • Tzeentch Chaos Warcry warband- At the beginning of the year, I decided to make a Warcry warband- mostly for fun, but also for the possibility of playing a game or two of Warcry if it ever pops up. I wanted to build a Chaos band, but something different to the boxed warbands made for the game. I settled on some Kairic Acolytes, and used half a box to make a warband.
It's safe to say, they're not very competitive... But they are lovely miniatures! The weapons are inspired by the conjured weapons from The Elder Scrolls games.


  • High Elves Blood Bowl Team- When Blood Bowl 2020 was released towards the end of the year, I had picked up the Boxset (a fantastically good value way to start the game!), but decided I also wanted to create one of the 'teams of legend.' Having seen a few conversions of the Shadow Warriors box online, I decided to try my hand at making my own High Elf team.
I do like this team, and they've done well in the 2 Sevens games they have played.


  • Treebeard and Quickbeam- The release of a plastic Treebeard, accompanied by Merry and Pippin was my favourite release of the year. The kit was great fun to build, and a treat to paint- replacing my old metal Treebeard in my Ent Moot with a far more size appropriate leader for the army. Quickbeam, as my second in command, was my first ever ForgeWorld model. Quickbeam is a fantastic miniature, but the flash on some of the delicate leaves was difficult to remove, and he didn't feel like you got quite the same value from the kit as you did from the Treebeard set. These miniatures were used in one of the few games I managed this year, playing MESBG, and Treebeard was the hero of the day, winning a victory against all the odds.
Treebeard is great- definitely my favourite Kit GW have done this year!

Quickbeam is a very good miniature- but if it weren't completing my beloved Ent collection, I would find it really hard to justify Forge World prices!


  • Some Kroot- A slightly random purchase, I painted a very small group of Kroot for Kill Team. I had originally planned to expand on my Kroot force, but ultimately decided not to, as I didn't want to buy the Finecast miniatures in the range, and couldn't think of a good proxy miniature to convert into the hounds or Krootox.
These were a fun little project, and perhaps one I would return to, provided GW release some plastic Kroot...


  • Epic 40k- Black Templars- Building my Epic Black Templar force in the Autumn, I have completed a small Epic 40k force of Space Marines, which are patiently waiting for their foes to be completed. 
I've been detailing this project on the Blog this Autumn!



Miniatures still on the painting list:

  • Blood Bowl- My Black Orcs and Greebo P-Orclings are still sat, in various stages of painting. 
  • Epic 40k- My Ork force is mostly built, and partially painted, whilst the Chaos Knights are built and primed.
And there was 2021 in painting- not a bad year, though my Summer was very unproductive (these projects were all done in the Spring and Autumn). I'm hoping to finish off my painting of Blood Bowl and Epic 40k, and then look for a new challenge in 2022.



*Bonus*

  • Kharadron Overlords Warcry warband- Not my project, but I thought I would throw in my Partners painting from this year, a small Kharadron force (containing a few well known characters!) She only dips her toe into the hobby very occasionally, but the Kharadron stomped my Tzeentch force quite handily when we tried Warcry...
Cheers!



Comments

Post a Comment

The Hobby Breakfast Show

The Hobby Breakfast Show Youtube

Popular posts from this blog

Aeronautica Imperialis: Thunderhawk Review

Image
  The Thunderhawk Gunship I had been waiting to get one of these since it was announced last year! Despite a bit of a delay in actually getting my hands on it (out of stock for a while), its finally here- so what is the plastic Thunderhawk like? Value- 2/5 This one was tricky to rate. I have to admit, I had been slightly put off when the kit came out to see a single Thunderhawk for £26 (as of writing, it is about to see a price increase in March 2022). In a way, I view the Aeronautica range a little more like an Airfix kit- part of the joy is seeing the details of the larger aircraft recreated in such a small scale, but the cost of this is vastly higher than an Airfix kit.  Perhaps this is an unfair comparison- how does the Thunderhawk compare to another Aeronautica kit? The Thunderhawk compared with the Grot Bommer The Thunderhawk is large, and if it weren't for the wingspan, is starting to dwarf the Grot Bommers. However, I think the Thunderhawk feels like slightly worse value. F
Read more

Creating Middle Earth SBG Crebain out of AoS Miniatures

Image
  For my Isengard army that I'm currently building, I'm going to be including some Crebain- flocks of crows which Saruman uses as his spies. The first point of call would of course be the official models made by Games Workshop. However, the official models are Forge World- and a little on the pricey side... £27.50 for 2 Crebain flocks... I looked at reviews, which do suggest these are good models- but as I needed 3, I didn't feel I could justify £55 for 2 packs- especially as the rest of the army didn't cost much more than this...  I therefore had a look for some alternatives to make Crebain with- although there weren't a massive amount of crow models out there. I found some individual crow miniatures, but would have had to completely construct a base for them. This was perhaps a bit too much effort for what aren't something that I want to become a time sink. In the end, I circled back to Games Workshop, for some other miniatures they make for Age of Sigmar. The
Read more

Dead Man's Hand Plastic Gunfighters Review

Image
  Welcome back to the blog with my next review: Dead Man's Hand Plastic Gunfighters from Great Escape Games. I picked this box up as a small project for some skirmish gaming in the Wild West (I'd been watching a few Western's recently and wanted to scratch an itch). I'm intending to use the Ruthless rules, which I saw on the LittleWarsTV Youtube channel, and loved the look of these- I generally try to get plastic miniatures where possible (personal preference) and these appeared like good value (£15). So, what are my thoughts on the kit? Value- 5/5 You can't fault the value on this kit- 10 miniatures for £15 is already fairly reasonable, but with the options you get in the kit, this could form the basis for many different kinds of miniatures for miniature games in the West- you could just buy this box and be ready to play a game. The sprues contain twice as many heads as needed, and about twice as many weapons and extras needed too. The only note I would make in reg
Read more

Blood Bowl Sevens- Old World Alliance vs Halflings (S01GW01)

Image
Here it is, the second match of Game Week 1, the Old World Alliance team, the Altdorf Commanders face off against the Halflings team, the Mighty Mootland Mice . As always, punditry and highlights are brought to you by our ex-player commentary team, Brokk Frorson and Thistle Hedgehill. Pre-Game The weather is perfect for Blood Bowl, and with both teams starting undervalued- neither has brought any inducements to play. The Halflings win the coin toss, and elect to receive, and with that the game is off. First Half The Halflings receive the ball, bouncing just in-front of their line, and start to charge up to create an offensive line at the mid-point of the pitch. The initial stages are cagey- the Treeman and Ogre immediately clash, but nothing but a push-back is rolled. Midway through the Half, Dwarf Runner, Thrar Frondison, Blocks a Halfling Hopeful, and Badly Hurts the Hopeful. Brokk: 'With all the heavy hitters on the pitch, you'd never have guessed the Runner would get the fi
Read more

Middle Earth SBG: Saruman and Grima Review

Image
  As part of the Tale of Three Wargamers that I'm doing along with two friends on the Blog ( here's a link if you're interested ), I picked up the Saruman and Grima plastic kit that was released a couple of years back now. I've got a couple of these new kits for Middle Earth SBG now, and have been impressed with them all, so how does Saruman stack up? As always, I'll be breaking my thoughts down into value, quality, build and looks: Value: 3/5 As with all Games Workshop kits, you are paying a premium. All 3 miniatures (and the palantir) are squeezed onto a single sprue- which is impressive, but in terms of sheer quantity of plastic- it's not much for £26 if you buy straight from Games Workshop (you can get a discount from a FLGS for this though!) What saves this for me is that you're getting 3 miniatures, and a nice token/scenery piece in the palantir. When you compare this to a Warhammer 40k character sprue, for example, there you are getting just a single
Read more

Blood Bowl Sevens- High Elves vs Porklings (S01GW01)

Image
Welcome to the first game of the Sevens Blood Bowl League. Our first fixture today is going to see the High Elf Home Team, the Ellyrion Eagles face off against the visitors, The Blue Reach Boars (Goblins/Porklings). Lets have a look at the Match Highlights, and punditry from ex-players, Brokk Frorson and Thistle Hedgehill. Pre-Game With Perfect conditions for Blood Bowl, both teams arrive fully prepared for the upcoming fixture. The Porklings use the opportunity of some available petty cash to buy a bribe for the referee, and with that- it's time for Kick-Off. Brilliant Coaching is rolled on the Kick-Off table- but a resulting draw leaves neither team with an extra Re-Roll. First Half With a well placed Kick, the Porklings deftly aim the ball into the centre of the pitch- forcing the Elves to come towards them, and the Boar (Troll) straight out of the gate. This immediately paid off for the Porklings, as in their first turn, they were able to Blitz the Boar into an Elf Blitzer, KO
Read more