2018 in the rearview mirror

A game of Dux Britanniarum in full swing. We use Lord of Rings figures and the heroic Free Men are getting squashed (mainly on my flank) in this Xmas-game with Laffe, Thomas and Koen.

Another year gone and even more minis painted.

I had a goal that the tin- and plastics-mountain would actually be smaller at the end of the year, so let’s see how that turned out (for an explanation on the idea and how I count see here)

A shoot-out with  the Fistful of Lead-rules at the Club.

The year in summary:

Bought

Well, my fingers sort of slipped on a couple of Kickstarters this year; Uboot (8 minis, as 1/72 figures counts as ½ a mini), Cthulhu – Death must Die (84 minis) and Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon (38). Minis from these do count, as I count models when they are actually bought. On top of that a box of 40 farmyard animals, a couple of tanks in different scales, a few airplanes, 44 Vikings and a handful of other minis.

234 models bought, far more than expected.

Being swamped at Zombicide: Black Death

Sold

I have really excavated the tin- and plastics-mountain this year. Stuff I know won’t be painted have been sold off or put in the For Sale-box at the club. With another hundred hitting the sales-box in December I’ve reached 285 minis.

Painted

All of the Mesozoic critters.

It’s been a modest year of painting, as I have just finished 139 minis. You’ve seen most of them here already. The year ended with the final dinosaurs from Tamiya’s excellent Mesozoic Creatures boxes (I got two) and a couple of random 28mm figures.

Finished in December: A Prospector from Brimstone and The Major from SMOG: Rise of Moloch (and I painted another 5 zombies for SMOG also, but no pics of those)

Terrain-wise it has been much better, with lots of different terrain finished, much of it 3D-printed.

A game of D&D in the printed dungeons.

So my goal was reached! I actually sold more minis than I bought and with the models painted I reached -190 models. Not bad at all.

3D-printer

I finally bought a new 3D-printer this fall, a Prusa i3 Mk3. It’s been printing mainly dungeon-pieces for my Dungeons & Dragons campaign, but also some scatter terrain and a couple of houses. You’ll see more on the dungeon soon.

One of the demo-games of What A Tanker we staged at Smashcon.

Well, I think that neatly sums up 2018. A good year in many respects, even though it was rather weak on painted minis.

So, what about 2019?

I will try to shrink the tin- and plastics-mountain even more, that’s for sure. Otherwise, I don’t know. We’ll see what happens.

I wish you all a very good 2019. Hope to see you all in this and other blogs, and maybe meet some of you in the flesh.

James, a nurse and September Tally

The final two minis finished during September were James from Zombicide: Black Plague and a nurse from Shadows of Brimstone.

James in the art does look a lot like Sean Connery from The Name of the Rose, and that might explain his name.

The nurse is a hero specializing in healing and taking samples from monsters and whatnot, hence her green bottle.

A summary of September:

Painted:

Total: 19

Bought:

2 pulp characters from Bad Squiddo Games and a 1/48 car-kit.

Total: 3

2018:

Bought:         194

Painted:         -116

Sold:              -180

Total:            - 102

June to August – Miniatures Tally

Minis from Shadows of Brimstone, useable for other games too.

Summer was, as always, rather slow painting-wise, so I’ve bundled all the summer months into one tally-post.

Animals are always useful, from tiny dogs to large dinosaurs.

So here is summer summed up:

Painted:

Total: - 31

SAGA archers, hero Athalanta from Mythic Battles: Pantheon, Morgan from Zombicide Black Plague, and a ghoul

Bought:

2 T-34 tanks in 1/72 scale for 2 points.

Oops – I seem to have backed Cthulhu – Death May Die, and with that come a lot of minis. 84 to be precise. Cthulhu/pulp-stuff is my kryptonite…

Total: 86

Two Baddies from Rise of Moloch, a nun and two soldiers from Mercs.

Sold or given away:

I gave away at least 100 1/72 minis; WWII late war brits, commandos and 8^th Army, and also a Char B.

Total: - 51

2018:

Bought:         191

Painted:         -97

Sale:             -180

Total:            - 86

Assorted scenery bits. Not counted in the tally, but still finished.

The year is still in the minus-field, that is, the tin- and plastics-mountain is getting smaller! But that has only been possible thanks to rather massive sell-offs, which is not necessarily a bad thing. But I only have that much stuff that I actually want to sell, so this can’t go on for ever…

May – Miniatures Tally

It’s been a month with extreme weather, warmth like in high summer and sun the whole month. I think it rained one day for about five minutes. That weather, combined with work, a major renovation of the summer place and a garden that needed love and care made this a quiet month where nothing much happened modelling-wise. 

May summed up:

Painted:

Five zombies for Rise of Moloch, more on those later when all are finished, and a couple of birds…

Did some terrain for my circus/carnival, but that doesn't count in the tally.

Total: - 11

Bought:

The month started with a 1/35 scale T-34…. Yep, we have another “little” gaming project going J More on that later.

Then it went downhill. My pal Koen wanted to buy a Warlord barn, and for just a couple of £ more you could get a Farmyard Animal set with that. Was I interested? Yep, and with that came 40 animals, some are tiny but still count. 

I will paint through most of them fast, I hope. Anyway excellent scatter-‘terrain’.

Total: +41

Sold or given away:

Total: - 0

2018:

Bought:           105

Painted:          -66

Sale:              -129

Total:            - 90

April – Miniatures Tally

April has been a rather quiet month. Dead quiet the first three weeks and then a modelling rush during the last one (as you might have noticed from the updates). A few minis painted, a few bought and nothing sold.

April summed up:

Painted:

Total: - 12

Bought:

I just bought one 1/72 scale gun and four 28mm pulp figures. They are still in the mail, but I look forward to them, as at least two of the figures will hit the painting table fast. What are they, I hear you ask. Armed nuns!

Total: 5

Sold or given away:

Total: - 0

2018:

Bought:              64

Painted:            -55

Sale:              -129

Total:            - 120

March – Miniatures Tally

Not that many figures painted this month as I concentrated more on terrain, but that terrain will certainly see much use, so it was time well spent.

I had a game of SAGA v2 at the club, and (Damn you Ulf!) was instantly hooked. Then my fingers slipped… and I suddenly had a warband in the post. 44 added minis, I’m afraid, and that means that I have bought more figures this year than I have painted. Those sold make up for it, but it’s a less than ideal situation.

In April I will hopefully paint at least one unit of my SAGA Vikings, and as usual there will be a mix of other minis with a bunch of shacks and wagons for the carnival.

March summed up:

Painted:

Total: - 8

Bought:

Total: +44

Sold or given away:

Sold a couple of games at Gothcon, one of which was a box of Mercs: Recon. That’s another 20 miniatures less in the mountain.

I don't think there will be many more 28mm figures sold this year, as I've gone through the hoard now. Next to get an inventory is my 20mm stuff.

Total: - 20

2018:

Bought:             59

Painted:         -  43

Sale:              -129

Total:            - 113

Welcome new follower Phil R!

February – Miniatures Tally

February summed up:

Painted:

Off record are 10 columns from the Pantheon game. Always useful as terrain.
Total: -13 points

Bought:

I backed the UBoot Kickstarter, and that comes with 16 plastic figures and two guns. Eight points for the figures as they are in 1/72 scale and one point each for the guns.

I also jumped on a friends pledge on Annie’s Freja’s Wrath Kickstarter and that got me four cats. Also got a free mini through the club, of Gustav Vasa based on the painting by Carl Larsson. A beautiful mini!

Total: 15 points.

Sold or given away:

A total of 59 figures were either given away or went to the For Sale-box at the club. SF, fantasy and near future from Mercs:Recon, Johnny Borg Castings, Mantic, GW, Gamezone, WotC and Reaper Bones.

Total: - 59

2018 total:

Bought:         15

Painted:       -35

Sale:            -109

Total:           -129

Even if I only count my painted minis, and not those in the sales-box, I still have a smaller stash of unpainted minis now than I had at the start of the year. At least according to how I count (only minis bought this year count, not old ‘sins’ getting delivered this year). If I count both painted and for-sale figures I’m comfortably in the green.

January – Miniatures Tally

I have this (rather hopeless) idea of actually getting a smaller plastics- and tin-mountain. It seems unreachable but it is worth a try, so let’s see what happens over this year.

To make this manageable I’ve thought about some rules:

1. All miniatures count as 1 (figure small or big, vehicle – they’re all worth 1 point)

2. Except 20mm figures count as ½ (but vehicles is still 1)

3. I only count what I get this year (i.e., the odd box of kickstarted stuff that happen to land on my doorstep doesn’t count if I bought it 2017 or earlier, but stuff I kickstart this year does count, even if it isn’t delivered).

4. If I sell or give away stuff that counts as a minus

5. Terrain doesn’t count

If it wasn’t for rule #3 I would certainly loose as I expect kickstarted World of SMOG: Rise of Moloch, Shadows of Brimstone and more to arrive this year.

I plan to have a group-shot for each month, but as all Conan-minis is at the club now, there will be individual shots of what was painted. First Belit's Guards from Conan

Hyaenas from Conan

Lots of Picts from Conan

Two modern cops from Hasslefree

So, January summed up:

Bought: 0

I painted 20 Conan figures and 2 modern minis, for a total of 22

Sent to the For Sale-box at the club: 39 Mercs minis and 1 Reaper Bones, for a total of 40. 

I’ve started to look through my rather large stash to find those minis that never will be painted, could be because I’ve got multiples of them or because I just don’t like them. They are destined to the For Sale-box. There will be more, that's for sure.

Bought:         0

Painted:         -22

Sale:              -40

2018 total:     -62

Looking good so far, but things can change fast.

(I got the inspiration to finally do this from Neil at Meeples & Miniatures)

As a bonus - a couple of shots from last weeks' game of Conan with fully painted minis.

Conan doing what Conan does best - that die-roll effectively killed all the Hyenas

Worthless shooting - that was after re-rolling the equally worthless first rolls.

The Captain of the Guards falls after the three heroes join forces

Hadratus stops the reinforcements while Conan and Shevastas kills the guardian beasts and frees the princess!