2019 - The Autopsy

I like to do these year in review posts. I treat my blog as much as a personal diary than anything else, and a look back at the year gone does help galvanize me to dive into new projects. Let's begin the procedure then, shall we? Scalpel please nurse.

The year began with me adding the finishing touches to my Khorne bloodfleet for Man O'War. This was a project that kind of blindsided me. I had watched some of my hobby peeps working on their own fleets and I was suddenly gripped with a want to build one myself.

It was a nice contained project. One squadron of death galleys, two of ironsharks and three bloodships. Enough for a decent sized fleet. I intended to add maybe a couple of monsters and maybe a chaos dwarf ally contingent, but not until I'd played some games with the fleet as is. Games played with the fleet to date: zero.

Once the bloodships had left the dock I returned to a favourite faction of mine, the genestealer cult. First up were a couple of the new models, an acolyte and metamorph.

The new range is damn nice. There are so many great bits and pieces on the sprues, I feel hopelessly spoiled. I had to paint up one of the buzz saw acolytes first, it's such a cool weapon.

There are some games/ranges that hit our want button head centre, where there is no question that you'll buy every kit, card and custom dice. The cult is one for me. I hoovered every model in the range. I even have one of those big drill terrain pieces that I'm plaaaanniinnngg to paint? This gives me a pleasantly large amount of parts I can draw from when making cult models.

With my cult mojo high, the next thing I worked on was a cult terrain piece.

The Watcher was a smashed up old statuette a neighbour gave me. An odd gift, but he knew I was into modelling and though I could make use of it. He was correct.

The artwork in the revised cult codex of a giant cult statue was what set me off. It was a terribly fun project, hunting for tyranid parts large enough to suit and green-stuffing it all together.

The next while saw more cult added to the ranks of the faithful. A neophyte icon bearer based on one of the original Bob Olley hybrids, a cyborg purestrain, aberrant and some mindslaves all moved through the paint queue.

The mindslaves are part of an attempt to build a cult list for the old 2nd edition White Dwarf tyranid list. Some old school tyranid warriors, squigs and maybe even a screamer-killer are all lined up to add in. In more modern games the slaves will work as purestrains.

The next model up was probably my favourite of the year. Kol Renko, jackal alphus of the Wyrm Forged.

I painted this fellow up for my cult, but also to take part in the Great Ash Wastes race at BOYL 2019. I had wanted to build a cult rider for years. All that squirreling away cult bits and pieces came in very handy here. I drew the concept art for the head myself a while back, which was then sculpted by Mr Bob Olley. Once at BOYL I learned there was a painting competition, one of which I entered Kol into. The competition was judged by Tony Yates, Garth James and John Blanche. To my delight Kol brought home the win. It may seem I'm blowing my own trumpet somewhat here, but like, the trumpet is right there. What's a man to do?

Anyhow, pre-BOYL there was still some painting to do for upcoming games, including Asslessman's Epic bash. So it was another hobby bucket list model got ticked. The classic warlord titan.

The Misericordia is an Iron Skulls chaos titan. I've had some waiting in the wings for years, and it was deeply satisfying to get some paint on one. I magnetized the arms and weapons as I plan on adding some more titans to create a battlegroup in time. 

I had a game of Strontium Dog coming up at BOYL too, run by the excellent Michael Cassidy, so I took the opportunity to paint the Foundry version of Middenface McNulty. 

Middenface is a Tim Prow sculpt, which I always enjoy painting. The sculpts, not Tim. Apparently he based Middenface's rather pert bum on his own, which is information I'm not entirely sure what to do with. So now you get to deal with that. Tim must do a lot of squats.

Lastly, another surprise favourite of mine for the year was Faherty the dog from Shieldwall. A very good boi. He was for use in the Cheetor's Terminator game at BOYL, which was a great laugh. We all died. My character (Ulysses Jones) was shredded by a T1000 with a minigun. Good times.

Post BOYL my good pal Cheetor sent me on one of the limited 'Bubba's Revenge' minis from Warlord Games. I was so chuffed I painted it right away. 

I enjoyed the Strontium Dog game I played, it's something I could do more of I reckon.

As the year waned things went all undead. I've been quite taken with Warcry (which I also haven't played yet) and decided to build an undead warband. I had the core of the band, so I added in a few new wights and skeletons to bring it up the muster. 

This was my first real foray with contrast paints, which I used on the wights black iron armour. It's good stuff, I'll be using it much more over 2020 I think. 

You can see the contrast here on the the Morley wight. It's Black Templar over Leadbelcher spray, lightly drybrushed with Stormhost Silver. Simples.

Finally, as the year closed out I began working more on my Gaslands gang. Early days still, but I did finish the first car, The Preacher.

Early 2020 will see me add some pals to the gang. It's fun re-purposing old toy cars. This one, once used in my Dark Future games, had been unlovingly flung in a box and forgotten. I think it's about thirty years old!

So, while I did paint some long desired miniatures this year, on the whole my painting total is way down, at a paltry 23 models. Terrible. My gaming this year is as bad, with BOYL and a couple of weekends with friends being my only gaming for the entire year. Bad Mr Saturday, BAD.

On the plus side, BOYL was AMAZING. I loved it. It was also my first one. Meeting up with pals old and new and just rolling about in hobby for days does wonderful things for the complexion. I also finally made my pilgrimage to Nottingham to kneel at the altar of Warhammer. That was great to do, after many years wanting to make the visit. 

Also, I did get an article printed in the November edition of Wargames Illustrated, the Dredd special, along with several photos of my miniatures. So that's nice.

So what for this year? Well, as mentioned, I have some Gaslands cars for my gang, The Faithful Sons, I want to work on. After that I think I might Warcry it up some, once the card packs for the chaos warbands are released and I know what I can take. Some Underworlds too perhaps. Who knows? 

Mr Saturday's Big Adventure - Warhammer World and BOYL 2019

In full BOYL mode: Sean, other Sean (TheOttoVonBismark), myself, Thomas (Airbornegrove) and JB (Asslessman).

Another BOYL post you say? Well, this one is special, as it's my first one. After many years crying into my pillow while the BOYL photos and posts roll in this time of year, I am at last able to join in. YEAH! Come with me on my whirlwind adventure into hobby overload. Prepare yourself, this is wildly self-indulgent. (Warning: I have shamelessly lifted photos from all over. Should one be yours and you want it removed I will forward the request to HR and legal and we'll be in touch.)

I set off to Notthingham last Thursday. After I met up with some of my my gamer bros who had similarly arrived early, we went on the rip. Several drinks later some more folks arrived and buoyed up by excited anticipation we had a couple more drinks. A good start in my book.

A Meandering Wander Back Over 2018

I quite like doing yearly reviews, it ties into why I blog in the first place. For me, blogging is as much a diary and archive as it is a means to present myself to the hobby world. I quite enjoy looking back over old posts and more than once I've looked up and old post for a name, company or link I'd forgotten. So, grab your walking stick and join me in the main lobby as we peruse the last twelve months in the Mumblings. Sherry?

Welcome to the January room. Take a seat on one of the chaise lounge if it pleases you.

This time last year I was working on some diminutive undead for the Bonefields project from Macrocosm. These were great fun, and I churned out quite a few. I particularly enjoyed the goblin vampire. Sadly I didn't get to keep most of them, but they did turn up in the Bonefields rulebook, so that's cool.

Once the undead dwarves and gobbos were off to the UK (sob) I consoled myself with building a gang for Dracula's America based on the Shadow Dragon Tong posse. But in space. Based on the Big Trouble in Little China movie. With eldar tech. And terracotta warriors.

Looking back, this was probably my favourite project of the year. I was really happy with how it turned out, and I overcame my fear of painting black. It also added some spice my my Shadow Empire army for Dragon Rampant.

Moving on, (we're into April now) I got bitten by the Underworlds bug. The miniatures are really excellent, and so I returned to the cold bosom of the undead with the particularly gorgeous Sepulchral Guard.

Actually, maybe this was my favourite project. I loved painting these. You may have noticed warbands were my schtick in 2018. Maybe my attention span is narrowing. As signs of age go, it's not too awful. You should see my eyebrows. Nobody tells you about what happens to your eyebrows as you get older. Then, one day you're in the barbers and the hairdresser asks: 'Will I do your eyebrows?' and you think 'What the actual f*ck? Do my eyebrows?! What do you mean, do my-' (looks in the mirror) 'Yeah... I guess you better.' What next? Tops of my ears?

Anyway, miniatures. These were magic to paint, but in some cases total bastards to assemble. I painted a few in sub-assemblies and didn't take enough precautions regarding how they'd go together once painted. I learned much. Like how much self control I have. I amazed myself by not eating some of them in pure frustration. Happily the minis survived my ill-prepared attentions, and boy is it worth it once they're done. I have some pretty solid plans for what I want to work on in 2019 (hah!) but I'd love to do another warband. The Skaven maybe, or the Tzeentch lads.

Follow me through now into the May gallery. What's that smell you say? I was taken by some more Kickstarter goodies in May, and painted up some of the Circus of Corruption minis.

These are part of a set sculpted by Jason Fairclough, whose work I really, really like. I have many more in storage and it's a project I can see myself returning to sooner rather than later. The bearded lady for sure. I think almost everyone want to do a Nurgle force at some point, it seems to be one of life's major milestones in the hobby. 'Well John, this year my goals are to get fit, eat better and paint that Nurgle warband.' That's what I want to see on operation transformation. 'This week Sally lost 3 lbs and finished her plaguebearers.' I'd watch the crap out of that.

Moving into the Summer terrace I have the most unusual mini of the year, the meatwalker. This was  another kickstarter by Theoc Games and sculpted by Johan Tieldow.

Mental, isn't it? Originally part of the Oldhammer sculpting contest, I had my eye out for a sneaky copy ever since. It's the first troll I've ever painted, certainly the first troll controlled by stabby brain sticks. Perhaps the start of a future greenskins warband? Only Mork (or Gork) knows.

As Summer settled in I briefly returned to a favourite project of mine, the Kabeiroi, my Genestealer Cult. I have plans to greatly expand the cult in 2019. In July 2018 the cult received two new members, an ancestor and brother Sloth.

I'm a big, big fan of the new cult releases. The new plastic kits are magic. At the time of writing images of the next wave have just hit the internet and I am positively foaming with excitement at getting back to painting more cult. When I started this project the cult was a dimming memory from the 1980s, now it's a hugely popular range for current 40k. All those tearful entreaties to the star Gods paid off it seems. I really want to clear the decks once my current project is done and then roll about in cult parts, American Beauty style. 

Toward the end of Summer I started on a new project that would hoover up all my hobby time (which was about to diminish drastically) for the remainder of the year. Yarr, it be Man O'War!

I decided to get in on some local Man O'War enthusiasm and finally paint myself a fleet. I chose KHORNE, (the blood God demand caps AND bold) and with almost zero knowledge of the game or fleet requirements, I nagged my gaming pals (and anyone else in earshot) until the gave up the info. Even my wife wasn't safe. 'So, what do you reckon? Does this sail work? Does it? Is it straight do you think? What glue should I use to attach it?!'

I harangued all mercilessly until knowledge of the arcane mast and sail making process was also mine. With these new powers I got to work hunting down ships, sail templates, masts and other fiddly bits. Eventually I had enough to assemble a fleet worthy of the blood God. It turns out the blood God is big on attaching working jaws to the front of his ships.

First up was a squadron of Death Galleys, the Cogs of War. HIM (His Infernal Majesty's) Bloodhound, Damnation and Brass Retriever.

The next addition to my nascent Khorne fleet was my flagship, the Guns of Anarchy.

Most recently I finished up two squadrons of Ironsharks. The first consists of The Gorger, Mercy of Iron and The Wrathful Tide. The second squadron is The Coward's Due, The Hateful Word and finally The Harmstead.

At the moment I am putting the finishing touches to the last two ships for the fleet, the Bloodships Worldeater and Impetuous Glory.

It has taken waaaaaaay longer to build the fleet than I had hoped, but sure, that's the way it goes. When a project drags on like this one has, motivation does suffer. The last two ships in particular have been on the painting table now for about a month and a half. Normally I would maybe switch over to another project for a bit and come back to them. However, being so close to finishing I decided to plough on and take the hit in mojo as I dislike leaving projects almost done.

So, the total for the year is about fifty miniatures painted, which is pretty poor, and about average for me. Once again I will shoot for one hundred miniatures in 2019, but we'll see how it goes. More importantly I want to get a lot more gaming in this year, as last year was pretty dismal, with only a handful of gaming outings, and only one (YES, one) wargaming session. It was a good one, granted, but that a terrible result for a year's gaming. Christ.

So, I wish you all the best for both brush and dice in the year ahead. As I said, I am rubbing my claws together for the new genestealer cult releases, oh yes I am precious.

2017 - The MrSaturday Hot Take

It's that time of year again, time to glance back over the last 12 months and see what I've done in the hobby. It's been an extraordinarily intermittent year, veering between hot hobby flushes with wondrous gooey mojo in abundance to nihilistic hobby desolation where brushes sat untouched and unloved for weeks on end. You ready? Let's kick off so.

I started off the year with three Chinese Yaoguai for my Shadow Empire army for Dragon Rampant. I'm super happy with these guys. I chose quite saturated colours to make them stand out against the rather monotone terracotta warriors. One thing I was quite chuffed with was how adding metallic silver to the sash highlights gave them a pleasant sheen that mimicked silk rather nicely.

This guy was probably my favourite mini of the year, the lost and found again brother Victor. Rescued from a terrible fate, stripped, whittled, repaired and rebuilt, he was a fun project. This was also the first model I used weathering powder on. He looks hilariously tiny now, compared to the Primaris marines (Which I like too ) though the scale discrepancy bothers me not so much.  I wonder when someone will convert a squad of beakies to ride primaris into battle?

This fellow however marks the last mini I would paint for some time.

But when I did come back to painting, this lad was waiting for me! Lo Pan, the leader of the Shadow Empire and a bucket list character I've wanted to paint for years. I completed him toward the end of March, finishing my command unit for Dragon Rampant. 

Still basking in the post finished unit glow, I took a sharp about face and headed North, into the wastes. Actually, that's not right, is it? Chaos doesn't live in the North anymore, does it? It's bloody everywhere in AoS. Under the bed: chaos. In the sports section: chaos Khorne team wins county cup. On the way to work: Nurgle salaryman lets one rip in packed tube with THAT smile on his face. Knock on the door: Two incredibly well dressed lads ask have you heard of lord Tzeentch? No? Excellent, that's because he's so sneaky. Welcome to the fold. Here's your suit. No sign of Slaanesh though. Maybe I should check under the bed again.

Well, anyhow, I was quite taken with Gorechosen, so I decided to paint up a gladiator, the not over the top at all slaughterpriest, Markus Scissorfist.

He's quite big, twice the height of a Realm of Chaos thug, but y'know, it's chaos, so feck it. I also swapped his head out for a UGE mutated helmet. I figure if I'm gonna go Khorne, I may as well go full Khorne. After this dainty flower was finished I headed back to the Shadow Empire.

We were in June now. These odd gents are guardians, as seen in Big Trouble in Little China. I figured Thousands of years ago Lo Pan might have has a few more, so I made a unit for the army. Fun little spuds to paint. This was my last addition to the army for the year, though I have many additions planned. Bronze cavalry ridden by terracotta warriors, the three storms, Chinese vampires, a war chariot, even undead snakemen, the sculptors of the warriors.

I spent the rest of the Summer slowly adding to my Khorne warband, which I enjoyed very much indeed. I was light on hobby for most of the Summer, but adding a model to the band here and there kept me in the game. I love the old thugs, and I hope to add quite a few more. Ultimately it would be nice to have a force to play larger games of AoS or Dragon Rampant with.

As we wore into Autumn I learned that Essex miniatures had a hearty trove of Bob Olley minis in their ranges, including undead. This guy was sent to me by a kindly soul on the proviso I paint him up post haste. Now, anyone who has painted an Olley and not just drybrushed the whole thing knows there are place an Olley sculpt can take you you may not return from. Folds within folds, time and space cease to follow the laws of the universe, everything you know is called into question.

This was most definitely the wrinkliest Olley I've painted. You'll never be the same, but damn they are satisfying models to paint.

Around this time I had a friend calling down once a week for games. It was a most welcome weekly event, as otherwise my gaming has been most poor in 2017. I tend to play in other places apart from at home, often on tables with spectacular terrain, so my home terrain set is starting to show some deficiencies. I took to touching up some of my terrain boards, and then my eye lit on this tower which has been sitting in a closet for a decade or more.

It took very little time to update this old Battlemasters tower, and it's a grand piece to have in the collection. Gawd bless Typhus Corrosion.

As Winter closed in I started working on some minis for Macrocosm's Bonefields project, starting with undead dwarves and goblins. It's very fun, and I've got another pile on the painting desk at this very moment. There's something very tongue in cheek about the range I really like, and I now want to see all sorts of fantasy stalwarts undeadified. The Kickstarter begins toward the end of February if I am correct.

As the year wound up I found myself in possesion of this fine fellow, sent on by Ross of Krakon Games. Conand here was part of the Wrath of Cichol Kickstarter, and as even the dogs in the street know, I'm very keen on the fimir, or in this case, fomorians.

It was very pleasant indeed to work on this guy, and gave me a grá to work on more fimir. I refined my fimir palette a little for him, and I'm liking the result. I have several other fimir-like minis on the painting desk at the moment, many from Bloodmoon Miniatures, which I should have finished months ago.

Finally, just before Christmas I cracked out this tiny fellow. He joins my chaos Santa, and over the years I'll add a few more Christmas themed minis. I already have evil elves and the Krampus lined up for next year. Who knows, in time I might have a Christmas warband.

So a fairly lean year, productivity wise, with less than forty minis painted. On the plus side, I already have the first ten minis or 2018 almost finished, which puts me well ahead of the curve on 2017. As always I have plenty of ideas for what I'd like to work on this year. A force or terminators from 2000AD's Nemesis is high on the agenda right now, as are several other ideas, so we'll see, you know how these things go.

 For the first while though it's all undead flavoured, with a light fimir seasoning.

Battles with the Butterfly

Come at me bro. You can't beat the butterfly.

No miniatures for you guys today. Today it's time for a meandering ramble on the wealth of gaming goodness that can lead to hobby paralysis. Read on for pure hobby navel gazing.

Kissing 2016 Goodbye - A Year in Review

So there we are, another year gone. The sands of time slip through my fingers, never to return. What do I have to show for it? Well, a fair bit. Up yours angst.

This year I vowed to double my 2015 total of 32 painted minis. How did I do? This year the total is 60, so ALMOST double last years total. Many folks paint a lot more, but for me that's great progress. Next year we'll shoot for 100.

I started off with this big fellow. I had great plans to paint more of them, but there's just so many things to distract one in this hobby, isn't there? I was glad to see the game getting taken up again though. Ironclad Games have taken over the property and are the process of revitalising the game. Good luck to them with that, I'd love to see it brought back to life.

Early in the year I was quickly seduced by Frostgrave, and took it upon myself to build a warband. I'd always fancied doing something Deadite flavoured, and this seemed the perfect opportunity to do so. Sticking to Bob Olley sculpts where possible, I painted up a group of Kandarian evilness.

The warband was built for a game at KnaveCon where I meet many of the Scale Creeps/Wipsters for the first time. Scale Creep was born in February, and the fellows there had already been a source of inspiration, encouragement, support and jibery for some time. The chat runs almost 24/7. Long may it continue.

As well as the Frostgrave game, our Rogue Trader RPG hit the table for the climax to season 1. Below is my own character, Techpriest Samdai. He was a pretty battered looking lad when I got him, but some careful GS reconstruction and a new chain axe and he was as good as new. I plan to add some more Adeptus Mechanicus to Samdai's retinue in time to build up a small explorator team.

I painted up some jetbikes for Macrocosm (An excellent company, incidentally) in the Spring, which I had originally developed the concepts for, among others.

The Mumbling is my hobby blog, but I'll quickly and briefly veer off on a wee tangent. This year saw me work with a a number of excellent folks on various miniature-related projects, which was, frankly, great. April saw the Pantheon of Chaos kickstarter, something I had been working on for some time with a group of artists and sculptors. This was a great success, and it was a privilege working alongside such a talented and excellent crew of fellows to produce what became a rather big range! I've had several great sculptors produce work based on my concepts, which is mega satisfying. Added to that seeing boyhood heroes like Bob Olley and Kev Adams produce models based on my work is a major bucket list tick. To anyone I worked with during the year, a big thank you. Here's a taster of some of the concepts I worked on, many of which are now finished miniatures.

Now, back to the hobby! The Judgement Day project hung up it's (tight) boots this year, the last entry coming in April, a Copplestone mini I'd had and gamed with for many years, the rapscallion and mercenary, Odysseus Jones, It was great to finally paint him up. Cheetor and I may return to it at some juncture, you never know. Especially as I picked up a few Mechanismo robots and street judges recently.

I have several unpainted characters from my gaming youth I would love to hurl back into the fray, maybe this year Lord Vortag and Stern Fluxbringer will rise again, if the brushes will it.

In May was delighted to be invited to add a painting tutorial by Geoff Sims for sourcebook The Woods: Legends of Shandisholm. This guy is available in the Myeri clan box, which is chock full of characterful minis, the mushroom picker and smith being some of my favourites. He is based on Alan Lee's Fomorian painting. You can find Oakbound here, and their Facebook page here. 

I'm also throwing the occasional article at The Golden D6, a new gaming magazine, the latest mag featuring an article on my current main squeeze, Dragon Rampant. You can take a look at the magazine here.

During the Summer the aforementioned Dragon Rampant took me to it's warm bosom, and I set to work on a project I had long incubated in the damp recesses of my to-do list. The Shadow Empire, ancient army of LoPan, disciple of Ching Dai and evil sorcerer.

I've had elements of the army in storage for years, and it finally came together this year as a take on what LoPan from Big Trouble in Little China might have been getting up to in China thousands of years ago, not long after he was cursed by the first emperor.

So far I've painted up three units of terracotta warriors, and the first couple of members of LoPan's retinue. Right now I have three Yaoguai Chinese demons on the painting table.

This year I deliberately decided to take breaks during longer projects to paint one or two models for other games/factions etc. This has worked well, stopping me losing enthusiasm during the slog of drybrushing dozens of terracotta warriors and allowing me to paint up some 'palette cleanser' minis at the same time. This chaos thug below was one of these, painted up to fight for me in the Gorechosen game by Games Workshop. It's tremendous fun, a great casual game.

Arnuld here got me interested in some old school Khorne guys. I have a whim to build an Age of Sigmar warband from the General's Handbook. It would be small enough to be achievable and would give me a Realm of Chaos/Dragon Rampant warband at the same time. Happily, my entry for the Scale Creep HeroQuest hero quest fitted in nicely.

The HeroQuest hero quest has seen a lot of hobbyists paint up a HQ mini. It's rather fun seeing the set slowly painted up by the community. Go check it out, I tell thee. 

As well as a fine gargoyle, this lad will make a good bloodsecrator (heh) or greater warbeast. At a push he could even see action as a terracotta statue of Ching Dai. Utility eh?

The final mini of the year is my chaos Santa. I've been meaning to paint up a seasonal mini for years, and again, the Creeps shot out a selection of Christmas themed minis, and so I finally got him painted. Next year I'll give him a wee friend maybe.

On the gaming front, it was a good year. I got a good few games in with some mighty folks. There's nothing like taking your newly painted warband for an outing, having some laughs and a few alcoholic refreshments. Rather than give you a tedious blow by blow account, I'll show you some pretty pictures and you'll get the vibe.

So, what for 2017? Well, right now I intend to finish the Shadow Empire. I need to add some cavalry, a chariot, some vampires and the three storms. After that, I think my genestealer cult could do with some love. With the new kits out, I'm very keen to paint up some new hybrids. I have half a dozen other projects I'd like to continue as well, there are the cylons, some more Sov judges, a few more fimir, a Bloodbowl team, a titan or two... 

Who knows what the hell I'll get up to.