With the end of the year closing in fast, lets check in on what the team has been up to last month.
Rockfish
Bit of a quieter month for me, I had quite a bit of burn out at the start of the month from a combination of work and life stuff. I still managed to get a eclectic mix of things done, just fewer then I might have hoped for.
I kicked the month off with some historicals, these were actually some preview models so that was neat!
I also did some battletech stuff, just a couple of bases worth of stuff I knocked out quickly.
These were some quick guard to make a bit more progress on a actual army rather then one off stuff, all of these were kept under a evening or two so they wouldn’t hang around.
Now it wouldn’t be me not to start at least one random extra scheme or project in a month, this time it was some angry tree spirits. I expect you’ll see these pop up not irregularly but I am also not feeling like bashing out a bajillion of them out in a rush to get a army on the table.
SRM
While I knocked out their captain in time for the Warcom article, his running crew were a couple days behind. My thoughts on these models have been somewhat mixed, flip flopping dependent on the day. As of writing I’m okay with them, though I still feel these jump packs on the existing Assault Intercessor bodies would probably be a better look. I’ve used them in a couple games where they’ve reliably failed charges and gotten me a few points on board control secondaries if I’m lucky.
I unfortunately was not ready with this crew in time for our initial coverage, but I got to write a review of the models all the same. I’ve absolutely meticulously edge highlighted myself into a corner with my Cities of Sigmar scheme, taking entirely too long for piddly 10-15 point models with a single wound. That being said, I’m real dang happy with how each model in this army looks, and it’s absolutely one that has been laser beam focused on my predilection towards the poor bloody infantry – there are few infantry poorer or bloodier than these at the end of the day. This crew was a lot of work to churn through, but I came up with the idea of mounting the heads to separate bases and color coordinating those bases with the bases I mounted their bodies to so I knew which head went with which body. I also may have semi-accidentally procured another pack of these guys, gals, and doggos, so we’ll see when I get to round 2.
In a big month for model reviews, I also got to write up a whole dealiedoo about Neave Blacktalon and her little adventuring party. You can read my full thoughts in that review, but they weren’t anything too unusual for Stormcast. Painting up Lorai, the Idoneth in the party, was actually where I found myself finally getting to experiment. I had no plan to paint more Wet Elves so went for swampy, murky blues and greens to define her miniature. The whole crew really was a delight, and did a great job bringing the characters from the animated series to life.
Alongside the Blacktalons, I also knocked out this pair of 2019-2020 store anniversary models. The ways the Stormcast aesthetic has evolved can at time feel subtle until you have these late first generation Stormcast next to the new Thunderstrike crew. The details on this pair were so much chunkier, and instead of having things like armor plates strapped over cloth, they just had big empty cylinders of armor that somehow clung on. They were still plenty enjoyable to paint, both being characterful and well detailed, they just are so much less model than the Blacktalons.
I closed out this month with a half dozen mechs for my Northwind Highlanders, the group I send all my clan mechs and leftovers to after painting my “red team” and “blue team” collections. I changed up how I painted their tartan and threw a couple transfers on for visual interest. After painting 23 fairly involved models with fairly involved schemes, it was nice to just wash and drybrush my way through this bunch. I should hit 200 painted models for the year by the next time one of these articles rolls around, and I definitely have a few of these lazy mechs to thank for it.
Michael O “Mugginns”
This month was huge as I had the Michigan GT in early October, something I’ve been working toward for months. It was mostly just AOS practice, if I’m honest. While the Beasts of Chaos range is huge, I have almost everything painted for it, bar a few smaller selections that aren’t as popular.
I did end up painting the smaller display board pieces with the standing stones and prisoners below. I also finished the last six Tzaangor Enlightened that I used. They’re 3d printed from Clay Beast Creations. I already have a ton of official Tzaan Enlightened on Discs so I really didn’t need to purchase more just to throw away the discs.
After the GT ended I needed some more relaxed stuff to do, so I worked on my minis for Don’t Look Back. DLB is a four player cooperative horror movie sim with a lot of theme and a ton of options. I picked up some new Killers from BlackSiteStudios and my buddy 3d printed me some as well. They paint up super nicely.
Credit: Michael O “mugginns”
I also put together this Granger Residence from Black Site Studios. It’s a hell of a kit, massive and with lots of rooms and pieces. It probably took a week of nights to complete. It’ll make a great centerpiece model for DLB games as well as others like Walking Dead, modern games, etc.
We also managed to get a few games in so far with Don’t Look Back. Jason Voorhees terrorized teenage campers at a lakefront summer camp and then Longboi interrupted a teenage documentary shoot about a missing person in a woodland trailer park. Tons of fun was had.
Momma Negan
This month was not exactly productive, only managed to start a bunch of models, but only really finished one. Work and personall life has kept me off the hobby a bit much, though I did get my hands on a large pile of 3rd edition Dark Eldar models, so I would say that’s a win.
The big thing I finished was this Panzer II for a review, but also for my Berlin Volkssturm army, I’m not the greatest fan of painting vehicles, and I will say painting it was a bit of a slog, still I am quite happy with this miniature.
While he is not finished, I do feel like he looks presentable enough, this guy was part of the big Dark Eldar Haul and I’ve set out to paint him relatively faithful to the 3rd edition paint scheme.
In other news, my main hobby this month has been a lot of research into the history of a certain company and tabletop game, talking to the founders, etc. so I hope I will be able to have something done by next month.
Soggy
What little hobby time I did have in September was spent on getting models ready for reviews and releases in between attending a load of events. That said, one of these was easily the most classic Warhammer model I’ve painted in a long time.
This model completely owns bones and I’m looking forward to learning how to play AoS with the new Cities of Sigmar wave. A huge thank you to MiniPainterMeg’s guide on how to paint feathers, which I think turned out pretty well!
I also painted up some of the new MK III marines as Veterans or counts as Destroyers equipped with volkite serpentas.
These have really grown on me over time – I do like how chunky they are and would love to convert some up as breachers or support teams. Next month I’m hoping to get some work done on some 40K marine kits to keep me up to speed with their new codex.
