282 Days

 Last November, in the Before Times, I posted about starting up an Instagram account and getting a #hobbystreak thing going.

This past Saturday, for the first time in 282 days, I did not do anything miniatures related. I broke my streak.

Two hundred and eighty-two days. That's pretty impressive, I have to say. I've never done anything approaching that in my miniatures gaming hobby, and I've been at it for nearly 30 years!

Unsurprisingly, I got a lot done. I still have unpainted minis on my shelves, but their numbers are massively reduced. Once I finish my current project of WWII Eritrean Colonial Infantry for my East Africa 1940 project, I still have:

• Sisters of Battle
• Genestealer Cult
• Death Guard
• 28mm Gempei Samurai
• Some Warlords of Erehwon warbands

And that's about it! Each of the 40K projects are small, about 30-40 models a piece, and the Warlords warbands are even smaller (with the possible exception of the Goblins).

This is a massive shift from when I started back in November. In that time I've painted up three forces for Sharp Practice (two AWI, one Napoleonic), two 6mm Sengoku samurai armies, a WWII German platoon plus support, jump-off points for  Chain of Command, several classic Grenadier fantasy models for Warlords of Erehwon, and an assorted miscellany of other figures, plus taken on a handful of painting commissions.

Honestly, without those commissions I'd probably be done with the above list, or very close to it. My original intention was to break my streak in late July anyway, since I thought I'd be going to Gen Con, and my initial schedule had me getting everything except the Erehwon figures completed by then. But it's all good; I'm always happy to help other folks get painted figures on the table, and the cash helps pay for more minis (not that I'm buying too many of those these days), paint, and other supplies.

I'm optimistic I can get the rest of the above-named projects done by the end of the year. After that, I want to get back into experimenting with 2mm Napoleonics, as well as a special "black & white" WWII project and working on lots of terrain. I'll probably continue with my painting commissions as well.

But on the main, I'm anticipating 2021 will be my year for terrain projects the same way this has been my year for figure painting. Hopefully by then I can start hosting games in my house again...

Anyway, I'm really proud of the streak I hit and the progress I made, and after taking a few days off I'm itching to start up another streak. Let's see how long I can keep this one going, eh?

I'll leave off with photos of some of the projects I completed during my 282-day streak:

Hobby Streak!

The last couple months have seen me painting more frequently than I have in years. Possibly decades.

This was partly due to taking on a couple commissions in addition to my regular personal painting. In fact, I was painting so much, I started to develop carpal tunnel pain in my painting hand! As my day job requires me to do a lot of typing, this was seriously worrisome.

So I'm hanging up my commission painting cap for a while (though I will probably still eBay painted figs from time to time) so I can take it easy and go at a slow-but-steady pace that isn't going to mess up my precious hands.

Because...

I'm gonna flippin' do it, man. I'm tired of staring at the unpainted figures on my shelves. I figured out that if I complete around 30 figures a week, I'll get nearly everything finished by the time Gen Con rolls around next year. Why Gen Con as my goal? Simply because it's sort of the beginning of a new "fiscal year" for me, both professionally and in terms my hobby. So it seems like a reasonable goal, and the math worked out pretty well.

I recently discovered Dana Howl's excellent painting tutorial channel on YouTube, and through that I found out she's been posting a #HobbyStreak photo on her Instagram every day for nearly a year. Talk about inspiration!

It's so inspiring, in fact, that I've started up an Instagram account linked to this very blog. I'm one week into my own personal #HobbyStreak and feeling good. The carpal tunnel has gone away (thankfully!) and it's already been really gratifying to see new painted figures appearing on my shelves again. Woohoo!

Hoping by around the first week of December to have two AWI forces painted up for Sharp Practice, at which point I will ideally get a game in soon after. I'll then move on to some 28mm Napoleonics (inspired by one of my recent commissions)—also for Sharp Practice—as well as 28mm Genpei War-era samurai for Ronin. That should close out the year, at which point I'm turning my attention to my patchwork of unpainted WWII platoons...

In sadder news, I was supposed to play Malifaux this week for the first time in a very long time, but it was cancelled at the last minute due to my opponent coming down with a cold. We've rescheduled for two weeks from now. I took pictures of the table so I can set it up again, but figured I'd share one here as a teaser...

More Malifaux!

Since my last post I've managed to put in a couple more games of Malifaux.

I've been getting my ass handed to me by My Esteemed Opponent, mainly because he is a very good player but also because he's got his Sonnia Criid crew dialed in and I continue to try out different crews to see how they play, which means it's mostly a steep learning curve for me every time.

These past two games, I've played first the Ortegas (Guild) and then Yan Lo (Ten Thunders/Resurrectionists). Both were lots of fun to play. Lists are reproduced below.

Ortegas (35 SS)

• Perdita Ortega
• Papa Loco
• Abuela
• Santiago
• Guild Austringer
• Hans

I thought the Ortegas would be good against Criid with their emphasis on ranged attacks, but I had trouble coordinating their signature chain-activation ability...and then the flames started raining down. :-/

So many Burning markers...

The game ended up with Hans the sole survivor and pretty crushing loss on my part.

Ten Thunders (35 SS)

• Yan Lo
• Reliquary Upgrade
• Chiaki the Niece
• Soul Porter
• Ashigaru (3)
• Penanggalan

I fared a bit better in my second game. I chose two Schemes with good synergy ("Breakthrough" and the Ten Thunders-specific theme, "Watchful Eyes"), both of which require depositing Scheme Markers near deployment zones. Unfortunately, I was unable to effectively defend a couple of my markers, as My Esteemed Opponent sowed his usual death and destruction—though not to the same extent as in the Ortega game! I'm definitely learning some effective counter-measures against Sonnia's mastery of the Burning marker the hard way, though.

(I really should take a look at some of those tactical guides on Pull My Finger one of these days...)

Speaking of Burning markers, My Esteemed Opponent showed up for this game with some badass custom 3-D printed markers! The condition markers even have tiny little magnets embedded that hold them together. The future is now, everyone.

A glimpse at the Criid crew

I still have a couple other crews I want to try out: the Dreamer (who I played once before to horrendous result) and the Brewmaster (and his trusty Whiskey Golem!). We'll see how that goes...