Dawn of the Lead

It’s a new year, yes it is! Another year behind us, and this blog is still going – not as strong as it once was but still happily plodding along with no signs of stopping. Must have been one of the most quiet years of the blog, averaging a neat one post per month. I’m not stressing over it, but I would like to blog more. Maybe that’s a new year’s resolution of sorts. I did paint a bit and do some other hobby stuff, although not as much as I would’ve wanted to. Home renovations, Emmi moving in and a new job in another city did cut into my hobby time quite a bit. Anyway, less grumbling and more positivity, so what did I do?

Painting numbers stayed low, but I did enjoy the things I did paint! I haven’t shown everything I’ve painted on the blog as they’re waiting for a suitable time to get a couple of photos. There were pirates, obviously:

Click for a larger version

Click for a larger version

And vampires, of all things:

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Click for a larger version

The things I haven’t featured on the blog yet? Terrain pieces, a battlemech, some animals and a few more pirates and civilians. Any of these tickle your fancy, dear readers, and I’ll be happy to bump them up the blogging queue.

I did get in on some Kickstarters and was happy with all of them! I got a Spanish fort from Slug Industries, some lovely ruins from Fenris Games and some samurai animals from Bad Squiddo’s onna-bugeisha Kickstarter. All of them are obviously still unpainted, but I’ll get around to them. The fort I’m definitely planning to tackle in 2019, hopefully the rest too!

As the years go by, other people in the hobby become more and more integral to enjoying it. There’s a small, regular crowd that frequents this blog as I do theirs, and a shout-out is in order to the wonderful people running sho3box, Leadballoony, The Raft, Azazel’s Bitz Box and Imperial Rebel Ork – as well all the rest of the wonderful people who drop by to comment. Your contribution and interest is one of my main motivators for doing the whole blogging thing, so a heartfelt thank you for that. Meeting some of you in person have been hobby-related highlights of the year for me.

I visited a couple of conventions, too! By now Salute is a regular feature of my year, and this will happen next this year as well. I went to Crisis in Antwerp for the first time ever this year, and can heartily recommend it! It’s a great show and Antwerp is lovely too, so we turned the trip into a nice little romantic getaway. Check out Thomas’ post on Crisis 2018 for a great recap of the event. If you want a great convention in Europe without the bustle, hassle and high costs of London (for Salute), I definitely suggest giving Crisis a try.

All in all it was a very nice year! I’m surprised that the pirate project is still alive – it started in 2015 for crying out loud – and still my main focus.

Not to get too much caught up in the past, what’s in store for 2019 hobbywise? In no particular order:

• Building and painting the aforementioned Spanish fort
• Painting the little boats I just bought from Games of War
• Painting more pirates and 18th century civilians
• Finishing a few unfinished buildings
• Building some jungle terrain pieces
• Getting in some solo gaming (I just realised the other day that I miss it)
• Blogging a bit more
• Focusing less on the buying side and more on the painting side – one can always hope

That’s it, dear readers! Have a great 2019 and thanks for your support, friendship and other warm, fuzzy things.

By now we’ve all heard several variations of “2016 was the worst year ever” comments. Enough of those! We all know the horrible stuff that has been going on for the past year, but this isn’t a blog about all that. Instead, a quick recap of the year’s hobby-related things and a cautious look forward!

Miniature output this year has been decent-ish. I think my total comes to around 30+ minis, but it could have been much higher. At this rate I’ll have all of my unpainted lead and plastic nicely painted around age 70 or 80 – assuming I don’t buy anything new. Apparently my painting output in 2015 was 33 miniatures, so this seems to be a fairly standard rate. I’ve also cleared out a fair bit of old lead that I know I won’t get around to painting. If someone else can get fun out of them, they shouldn’t sit in a cupboard tucked away in a box for years and years.

Reaching goals definitely happened. In my “Looking back on 2015” post I was planning on the following for 2016:

• Painting up pirates, 18th century civilians, navy types and colonial soldiers (✓)
• Building a second terrain board as well as a few different extra pieces (✓)
• Modifying and painting a bunch of houses (✓)
• Basing and touching up loads of palm trees (✓)
• Building and painting plenty of scatter terrain (✓)
• Most likely sneaking a few RPG miniatures in as well (✓)
• Salute 2016 as well as visiting plenty of awesome sights and people in the UK and Ireland (✓)

Seriously, I managed all of that! In a hobby that for me is characterized by unfinished and discarded projects, periodical slumps and time and motivation constraints, I’m super happy to have reached my hobby goals for once. Salute was great, and meeting Paul of sho3box fame was definitely one of the high points of the hobby year.

The UK and Ireland trip was excellent in general, and I got to spend time with some wonderful people who I’ve met through this hobby. I spent an evening in the pub with Annie from Bad Squiddo and Dameon from Hasslefree, had a browse through boxes of Roy Duffy’s brilliantly painted miniatures and got to visit Pete “the Mouldmaker” Brown’s workshop and see miniatures cast. Good stuff!

Project-wise my pirate thing is still going strong. This is an actual surprise. I started the project in May 2015, and to my surprise it still hasn’t died. I’ve built terrain, I’ve gamed, I’ve read a ton of literature on the subject…what is this madness? Not that I’m complaining. The project has also seen me drift somewhat towards historical gaming. It’s a scary thought, so I’m painting the occasional undead pirate, ghost and crab man to keep me on the right track. The pirate ship that you may recall is still not finished, and it definitely should be. That brings me to…

Hobby plans for 2017

• Finish the pirate ship. Started in 2015, if it’s still unfinished by the end of 2017, it’s going in the project graveyard, and that would be a crying shame.
• Paint a dragon. More on this later.
• Keep up steady work on the pirate project. There’s still plenty to do and I’m enthusiastic, so this shouldn’t be a problem.
• Play games. Much as I love the modelling part of the hobby, I’ve found that the occasional game keeps me motivated.
• Increase miniatures output. Nothing drastic, but maybe I’ll aim for 40.
• Update the blog somewhat steadily, as always.

Next year might present some challenges to hobby activities due to (generally positive) real life things taking up time and concentration, but I’m definitely hopeful!

As I’ve mentioned before, my warmest thanks to all of you readers, both regulars and occasional visitors. Your feedback and engagement does wonders for my blogging motivation, and I’m happy to see people enjoy what I’m creating.

Have a great 2017, everyone!

Fireworks photo by VasenkaPhotography, used under CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)

He sees you when you’re sleeping
He knows when you’re awake

Merry Christmas, dear readers!

The gingerbreadator (and photo) is by my dear friend, the incredibly talented Katri Lassila.

Not a single post since July, so it’s time to close down the…no, it’s not. While a super busy fall (and summer) has robbed me of nearly all of my miniatures gaming inspiration and brought about one of my unspiration periods, or funks as they say, I have no intention of getting out of minis. It’s been a lot more severe for a change – I don’t think I’ve read a forum or blog in months! So, on the off chance that some of you’ve been wondering where I’ve gone, I’m right here! My work assignment is ending in a few weeks, and I predict that will bring about a new enthusiasm for painting little lead men. Fear not, like the zombies this blog draws inspiration from, it’s quite hard to kill even if it tends to stand around doing nothing every now and then.

With less than six hours of the year left here in Finland, it’s time to take a quick look at what went on during the past 12 months, divided into handy categories.

Blogging-wise this was a very, very dry year. I scraped together a paltry 30-something posts, which is approximately half of my normal yearly output. I’ll try harder next year, so this might be my new year’s resolution. On the other hand…

Painting-wise this year wasn’t too bad! I managed to get a decent number of minis finished. Here’s a random selection:

Click for a larger version

Click for a larger version

Click for a larger version

Click for a larger version

Modelling-wise it was quite a nice year as well, with new terrain built and painted:

Click for a larger version

Click for a larger version

Gaming-wise the year was excellent in my book. We played a grand total of six Utopia games, which might not sound like much, but actually is. Additionally, a whole lot of computer games, board games and RPG’s, so nothing to complain about there.

All-the-other-stuff-wise the year was all in all very decent. I loved my visit to London and Salute in the spring, and will be doing that next year as well. Come by and say hi if you’re there!

With this rushed, last minute post I want to wish you all a happy new year 2014. Hope it’s a good one!