Taking advantage of a very rare sunny, reasonably temperate, not excessively windy day to get a whole lot of priming done. 🤞🏻 the weather holds until late tomorrow, as I have some more to be sprayed, but need to finish assembling them first…
Hmm. It looks like The Mighty Brush no longer make the transfers I used on my Cities of Sigmar - meaning I have a finite number of extra units I can add before I use up my existing sheet. It does seem like there’s a new version “coming soon”, but the design is very slightly different - though I’m sure no one will notice but me 🤔
I just used the new Micro.blog feature to add a blogroll of all the hobby blogs I subscribe to: https://worldsinminiature.com/blogroll/. So if you’re looking for a new blog to read, I’ve got you covered! 🙂
And if you have a miniature painting/wargaming blog of your own, please let me know!
Oh, cool. My local Warhammer store is starting up their adult beginner classes again. Given I’ve not found time to play since 40K 7th Edition, or very early AOS 2nd edition, I might try to book in to some of these.
I’m increasingly finding myself drawn to the smaller, niche/“boutique” Games Workshop kits, rather than the regular ranges. Case in point, the previewed Darkoath set, Callis & Toll, the Witchhunters, the Gnome Blood Bowl team. The various weirdos of the Warhammer settings, basically.
Starting off March by assembling the rest of my Endless Spells that have been in their bag since 2018. The Prismatic Palisade was assembled years ago, so I’ll have to go hunt that out before completing the set… these will be a nice change of pace from the masses of infantry I’m working on elsewhere
I know I’m several years behind on this, but - oh my, the Purple Sun of Shyish model is an absolute masterpiece in miniatures engineering 😍
February Warhammer Accounting
Overall a month of pretty steady progress, even though I didn’t finish that much. The headline numbers are:
- Miniatures purchased: 5
- Miniatures assembled: 58
- Miniatures started painting (including priming): 78
- Miniatures finished painted: 28
- Warhammer Fund withdrawals: £40
- Warhammer Fund final balance: £47
The purchased minis are a box of Gossamid Archers I bought myself with some birthday money. As such, these didn’t come from the Warhammer Fund like they would have normally. They round out the initial Sylvaneth collection I’ve put together from Stormbringer miniatures and some Dryads I had lying about.
Assembly was a thing I made big progress on. The number includes 26 Sylvaneth miniatures (5 Tree Revenants, 16 Dryads, and the Gossamid Archers), 29 Blades of Khorne from the very first Age of Sigmar boxset, and a couple of Order models I had lying around. Nothing for 40K this month!
I also managed to squeeze in a bit of priming, or otherwise starting to paint, plenty of models. Everything I have for the Sylvaneth, so: everything mentioned above, plus a Spirit of Durthu, 5 more Tree Revenants, an Arch Revenant, Branchwych, and an Underworlds warband. On the 40K side I got 15 Dark Angels and 25 Cadian Shock Troops ready for more paint.
And happily, I managed to finish painting my Cities of Sigmar boxset. This added £54 to the Warhammer Fund, briefly bringing it up to £87, before I withdrew £40 to finally buy the Space Marine Codex + an issue of White Dwarf (technically more than the £40, but I had some change in my pocket so I’m not going to be too fussy).
It did take some willpower to not splurge cash on the new Dark Angels release over the weekend. I’ll be adding Asmodai, the Inner Circle Companions, and some more upgrade sprues at some point, but I need to make more progress with the sets I already have first.
Hopefully I can get at least one of the in-flight projects finished off in March and get The Fund topped back up!
I pulled a box of Dryads out of the backlog that I’ve had taking up space since AOS launched in 2015, which feels like some sort of achievement. Got them built and primed today too, so hopefully they won’t spend another 9 years hanging around in limbo 😅
And with that project finished, another £54 gets put into the hobby fund. A couple more projects to go before there’s enough in the kitty for the big summer releases
Transfers on, so I guess my Cities of Sigmar box set is finally finished!
It was a bit of a grind in the end, and sloppier in places than I intended when I started out, but I was determined to get them finished this weekend and out of the perpetual “todo” pile.
— #Warhammer #WarhammerCommunity
Getting close to the finish line now. Last few metallics, washes, plus transfers to do tomorrow.
— #Warhammer #WarhammerCommunity #AgeOfSigmar
My Cities of Sigmar are finally starting to come together. Really only got the heraldry, some more metallics, and small details to do. 🤞🏻I might get them done this weekend.
— #Warhammer #WarhammerCommunity
I’m not saying it’s been a long time since I last worked on my Cities of Sigmar box set, but I did have to brush some cobwebs off of these miniatures before I could do a little lunchtime painting…
The new Dark Angels upgrade sprue is even better now I’ve seen it in person. There’s enough shoulder pads on each sprue for 10 Intercessors, 5 Heavy Intercessors, 3 Aggressors, 3 Bladeguard, and 5 Terminators. Then there are loads of heads and trinkets too. Plenty of bits to customise a project!
Gamifying the Miniatures Backlog
I’m sure that, like many hobbyists of a certain age and level of disposable income, my backlog1 of “models to paint” goes up faster than my ability to work through it. It’s been this way for a few years now, and it’s honestly becoming a bit of a mental burden to have so many unfinished projects lying around.
My estimably better half is doing a thing this year where, for every book she finishes, she adds £1 to a savings pot and that’s her budget for buying future books. I’m thinking I might do something similar for a “Warhammer fund” that will encourage me to bring my backlog size down first and foremost. For every miniature I complete, I will save an amount relative to the size of the miniature (see the table below), and seeing the number go up will turn the process into a form of reward. On the flipside, there will be a simple rule in place: future purchases can only come from this savings pot, which means I’ll have to work to grow the pot to buy the models I want
| Model Size | Amount to Save |
|---|---|
| Infantry (25mm - 40mm base) | £1 |
| Large Infantry/Cavalry (~50mm/oval base) | £2 |
| Small character | £3 |
| Vehicle or Monster ( <= 110mm base) | £5 |
| Centrepiece (>110mm base/Special Character) | £10 |
| Bonus: finish all models in a project | £15 |
The exact figures are still to be fully worked out, but this feels about the right level to start at. As an example, if I finished the Aeldari Combat Patrol on my painting desk then I would put in:
- £11 for the Guardians,
- £12 for the Skyrunner jetbikes,
- £5 for the Wraithlord,
- £3 for the Farseer (regular character models might need an adjustment…)
- £15 for finishing the project
For a total of £46 into the savings pot. Any further purchases can only come from the pot, making it important the pot goes up at a rate that ensures I can’t refill the backlog faster than I’m completing things - which is why it’s not a 1:1 mapping between how much a miniature cost and how much goes in.
If I were to start this today, backdating to the beginning of the year, how much would be in the pot? £26. So if I want to add those lovely looking new Dark Angels Inner Circle Companions that are upcoming then I better get painting!
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Feel free to substitute backlog with “Pile of Shame”/“Pile of Potential” or whatever descriptor you use for this :) ↩︎
Not me desperately trying to free up space and get organised because I found out I’ve got two Deathwing boxsets arriving in the next few days…
Of all the previews coming from the Las Vegas Open, it's only really the new miniatures of Callis & Toll (and friends) that have caught my eye. I enjoyed watching their short animated story before Christmas, and was thinking just the other day they'd make a great "Black Library Day" release. These miniatures would also go great alongside the other "Agents of Azyr" I've painted recently!
I really need to get around to reading to their previous books, to get caught up on their story!
Paint deliveries are the best deliveries.
I’ve had these various Witch/Vampire Hunters from Games Workshop sitting unpainted at the side of my desk for over a year in some cases; I had such big plans, before running out of “oomph”… not wanting them lingering around any longer I gave them a batch speed paint using the “slapchop” method.