It’s the last week of 2020 and for the Goonhammer crew that means it’s time to look back at the year that was and reflect on our hobby progress. In today’s year-in-review, Mike Bettle-Shaffer is looking back at the year that was.
I don’t think I’ve actually stopped to take stock of how much I’ve painted this year, so pulling these pictures together is going to be a journey! That’s also probably a good reason to make a resolution to start using my Kanban board again. My motivation definitely ebbed at certain parts of the year but I’m confident I was reasonably productive, so let’s find out!
January
And we’re off to a solid start! Some tiny tanks from what I believe is the Hit the Beach! box set, Milites Christi sergeants and a Chaos Knight. Not bad at all.
February
Hey what do you know! It’s the rest of the Milites Christi force and a couple of Warhounds. I tend not to have a huge amount of focus with what I’m painting but the Milites Christi was a little bit of an exception here, as I was preparing them for a game the following month.
March
So for one reason or another March was kind of a wash and thinking back, I really don’t remember getting a huge amount done! I’m sure I had my reasons but looking at next month, I made up for the lost time.
April
Whew so a handful of centre piece models and commanders for my Sylvaneth force. I think I’m actually pretty close to finishing this out now as well, and it’s something I might just revisit in the New Year to round out the collection. I also spent some time making scenery, with trees large enough that they work for 15mm and 28mm scale.
May
Another neat mix of stuff and May marks the month I got a fancier light box too! Some weapons teams for use in my US roster, a Stuart and a T34. I also reshot the Chaos Knight and reviewed the Satria Battlesuit.
June
Aha, the month I finally bit the bullet and finished my Warlord and god damn what a fun model that was. The trim was pretty gruelling as there’s just so much but it’s absolutely worth it. This also seems to be about the time I jumped in on Infinity, painting up the Yu Jing half of Operation: Kaldstrom and rounding out my reviews with the Pendekar Battlesuit.
July
Another month and another seemingly random project. I finally decided how I wanted to convert my Slaves to Darkness warband after receiving the Start Collecting for my birthday. Conversion work like this is pretty time consuming and it’s definitely not something I’d want to tackle for a longer term large project but containing it to less than 1000 points seemed reasonable and made for some fun work.
August
More review models and focusing down my big box of terrain! I actually remember this, and the rather large box lid that those pieces were living in. I wanted to clean up my hobby space but it actually meant finishing stuff so after I picked up some Golden High Flow acrylics I went to work on the buildings. The Waterloo Centre Company were a pretty big departure for me, and something I painted as part of a HTPE for our Historicals team.
September
A pretty quiet month and a bit more review work! This time the Sector Corvus Isolation Protocol Kickstarter. I ended up backing this and now have a huge pile of unpainted terrain. One of the nice things about your 3D printing backlog is that it doesn’t take up any room, it just sits on your hard drive!
October
From a drought to a flood! A pair of Warhounds and a pair of gangs for Carnevale. I really love the aesthetic of Carnevale and getting a cool board together is going to be a project for 2021 now I have a pair of gangs. Whether I go down the MDF or 3D printed route, I’m still undecided.
November
The last of the box lid was cleared out with the completion of The Unmade and I managed to get one of my larger boxes done by finishing up the Sylvaneth Endless Spells. The Chaos Lord on Karkadrak was a super fun project combining a number of kits.
December
And my productivity fell off a cliff! Mostly due to the release of Cyberpunk 2077 if I’m being honest. I plan on wrapping it up shortly and then it’s back to some Infinity most likely, I have the latest releases from CodeOne for Yu Jing to paint up and they’d nicely round out my White Banner forces.
Looking to 2021, I’d like to be a little more focused with my projects and get back on top of my Kanban board. I’d also like to paint a better balance of terrain, because even if current circumstances mean I can’t game in person, when the time comes I’d like to be prepared. Focusing on smaller games and points sizes has certainly helped keep me a little better focused towards the end of this year, and I’d like to try and keep that up!
