So, today marks the fateful day when I decided that 40k was pretty badass and that I had the time and available funds to get back into it.
Jeeze, what was I getting myself into?
Here’s a little photo-summary of what I’ve done in 2 years:
My first guardsman built, when compared with a Tau Shas’ui and Ork Big Shoota that I had assembled and painted back before 2004.First guardsman fully painted was completed shortly thereafter (2 days). I like to think my painting has progressed mightily since then.By the second week of February I had a fully painted squad and a Sentinel good to go…Chimera #1 shortly after that…Chimera #1 then had company quickly, with the Vanilla Russ assembled and ready to go. We’re into March now, 2 months before I moved out of my apartment and…Got hitched!
Fast forward a tick to September 2013… The house is now functional. I painted walls, not miniatures… There’s some breathing room on the VISA once more…
And we’re finally starting to see some progress on the Russ.But before the Russ is even finished, we’re starting to see some exponential growth… Chimera #2 and a Hellhound appear!Late October — We got a great big convoy….I’m pretty sure this was my 1,000 point list, ready to go after about 10 months.December 2013 – Chimera #3, and Sentinel #2Merry Christmas, 2013… The Flow’ry Meadow enters the world…January 2014 – My desk is gettin’ crowded, now…February 2014 – Took me 4 friggin’ months to actually fully paint this bastard.March 2014 – Pask is born.April 2014 – a lot of mans are starting to take shape.May 2014 – After having built him 5 months previously, I actually start to paint this thing…June 2014 – I start giving my infantry a lot more attention… AND I MADE A BLOG! To help me more accountable with my painting and post reports of my exploits (and idiocy!)September 2014 – Manticore!October 2014 – Wyvern!October 2014 – Hellhound had fallen from grace (thus being exiled to the far corner), but this is my hobby table at that point…November 2014 – Taurox!November 2014 – Commissar!December 2014 – Scions!
And since this point — I’ve been pretty well painting almost exclusively Tyranids.
Anyways — in 2 years my force has ballooned out from 1,000 points as of November 2013 (or so) to 3,500 points in about a year. It’s always fun to keep that in perspective! Most of it is painted too. I just have to keep going with that brush, and I’ll get there eventually.
I like this. Seeing people’s hobby journeys warms the cockles of my cold, dead heart, although I don’t miss taking 10 months to have an entry-level army ready to go, not at all. Still – v. inspiring stuff. I’d do something similar if I were any good at documenting my projects…
If you take away the 4 months I was setting up my house and unpacking and enjoying newlywed status and stuff like that, it’s actually closer to a half year at a reasonable purchasing rate. I had about 1,000 points of Orkz I was playing with in the meantime while the guard got battle-ready.
One of my biggest things I’ve learned since I’ve opened this blog is to remember to take pictures along the way. My battle reports are sometimes lacking in that regard because I’m getting carried away throwing dice.
What I could really use is a full time photographer. Wishful thinking, eh? LOL
I sense that you might feel I’ve accused you of not hobbying hard enough or something stupid like that, which is not the case; my intent was to comment on the length of time and money involved in putting a starter army on the table while remaining a functional human being.
I have never been a great one for putting pictures in my blog posts (I figure people don’t read my blog for the quality of my paintwork – or photography). The other big issue is the very temperamental camera; stopping and starting all my activities to photo-document them would frustrate me to the point where nothing got done. I don’t replace it because a) it still technically works and b) it’s not Von’s Blog About Photography – I generally have something gameable on which I’d rather spend the money.
Battle reports are a bugger, though. I don’t always have a handy Hark to take photos for me – you can always tell when she’s been along ’cause the photos are actually good.
Nope, didn’t take that as an accusation at all. 🙂 Trying to make sure our measurements were accurate. If you were taking into account being a regular human being, then the assessment of 10 months is appropriate 🙂
I hear ya with respect to the photography. I find it easier to take pictures of my painting projects than I do for battle reports, because I have to dig through my pockets for my camera (it’s my iPhone 4S), interrupt the flow of a game, that generally already takes more than 2 hours to play to start off with.
It sometimes takes the fun out of the game for people: “Do you reeeeally have to take photo evidence that your Bullgryns wiped out my terminators in assault…?”
Stuff like that…
While I always want to take pictures, I feel like I’d rather try and squeeze in a second game by playing quickly… thus the blogmanship suffers.
That’s all right then. When I think about it, I still didn’t quite have 35 points of Warmachine stuff done for SmogCon, and that was a four month painting project with a league to prod me along.
The other thing with photography is that, being mostly a Warmachine player, I often play in environments with timed turns and high concentration demands – distracting myself with photography really doesn’t help in those circumstances.
Bullgryns haven’t been fully finished yet… but they’re definitely in progress. I’m going to try to finish the Trygon first, and then I’ll finish them bullgryns.
fun post. makes me wanna start my own blog maybe. on a side note, i impulsed bought yarrick *and* straken off ebay. so, feel free to post your thoughts on either of them! 🙂
straken is probably a bit overpriced seeing as your paying 130 points ON TOP OF the command squad and yarrick is what? 5 points more? plus, if i have straken and plan to get him into CC, i’d probably pay the points for a medic to give him a 3+/5++ with FnP, so now we’re at 205 points for everything? however, the idea of giving a 30 man blob and/or a squad of bullgryns furious charge and counter attack is hard to pass up. and the only thing you need to do is keep straken out of close combat with anything that can challenge him out and has strength 8+. i haven’t done the mathhammer, but i feel like a blob charging a tac squad with strength 4 and the extra attacks does a whole lot better than rapid firing flashlights and and then getting charged the next turn.
Wow, a lot of good thoughts here that I haven’t really mulled over very much (some of which I might have to test out!)
So I guess the real question is “What do you want your HQ choice to do?” because they’re both *VERY* different.
My biggest concern with Straken is that while he swings like a Monstrous creature, he’s still Toughness 4. Everybody and their cousin is going to challenge this guy. In this way, I’d really consider bringing Nork Deddog in order to eat the challenges for you. And once you’ve purchased 2 meltaguns, the medpack, a heavy flamer and a chimera (you WILL take a Chimera, won’t you?) you’re talking about a unit approaching 400 points, not including any advisors. This is a pretty big cost, and pretty much impractical for all but the biggest of games.
Yarrick on the other hand is a Command Squad unto himself. My issue with Command Squads 90% of the time is that I have to stick them in a Chimera (expensive!) and have them chase after the Veterans as they get into position, in order to make the best use of the 12″ command bubble. With Yarrick, I could simply have him riding shot-gun with those same Veterans.
Alternatively, you could bury him in 30-50 bodies, which is the ultimate in durability, as he shouts out orders to his own unit, giving them Ld 10…
Anyhoo, that’s about all I got on this topic for now… Cheers!
yea, T4 is problematic for sure. and on top of not having eternal warrior, he has a special rule that makes him issue and accept challenges whenever possible. so nork would be a waste at that point. it’d be important to keep him away from any opponent characters that can insta gib him. shouldn’t be too many. at least in my meta, i rarely see anyone swing in CC at Str 8. except maybe a marine with a powerfist, but he’s gonna kill any regular marine with a powerfist before they swing.
haven’t given too much thought on it (since it was totally impulse haha), but the problem with putting him in a chimera is then you gotta disembark and then wait a turn to charge. i suppose you can charge with regular guardsmen (so they eat overwatch) and then charge with a straken CCS in the ensuing turn. but yea. we’ll see. competitive? probably not. but fun stuff to try.
Forgot about the Challenge shenanigans. That’s a deal breaker for me. Abaddon, the Swarmlord, just about any character would tear him a new one. Regular sarges would be turned into a red paste, though…
if you keep him on foot, there’s too many ways to kill him with only 4 ablative wounds.
If I were a marine player, this could be accomplished relatively easily with about 3-4 heavy bolters and a single krak missile.
‘There’s finally some breathing room on the Visa’
…And then suddenly there’s a lot moar troopies and tanks and a baneblade and…
😀
Ya gotta love this hobby.
Lolz.
Yeah. It’s one of those things. it gets pricey, if you do it all at once.
My New Years resolution this year is to be more disciplined with my gaming budget on a monthly basis, because sometimes I can splurge on a huge box (like that Deathstorm one — BECAUSE VALUE!)… and still spend my budget the next month…
Not how this stuff works, Oak… Big kit = nothing next month. You’ll be bogged down painting it anyways, so no worries.
The spending will definitely add up over the years, but I get a lot of gaming out of it, and even more from the hobby and blogging aspect.
It’d be a lot worse if they just sat on the shelf, right?
There are actually a lot more expensive hobbies out there, believe it or not. I got a buddy that collects guitars. GUITARS. He can’t possibly play 16 guitars at once. but there they are, on a wall. Some of them really expensive, too. He’s maybe played them 3-10 hours, total and spent more than I’ve spent on my Guard in 2 years.
The Emprahs Mighty Flowry Meadow 
I like this. Seeing people’s hobby journeys warms the cockles of my cold, dead heart, although I don’t miss taking 10 months to have an entry-level army ready to go, not at all. Still – v. inspiring stuff. I’d do something similar if I were any good at documenting my projects…
If you take away the 4 months I was setting up my house and unpacking and enjoying newlywed status and stuff like that, it’s actually closer to a half year at a reasonable purchasing rate. I had about 1,000 points of Orkz I was playing with in the meantime while the guard got battle-ready.
One of my biggest things I’ve learned since I’ve opened this blog is to remember to take pictures along the way. My battle reports are sometimes lacking in that regard because I’m getting carried away throwing dice.
What I could really use is a full time photographer. Wishful thinking, eh? LOL
I sense that you might feel I’ve accused you of not hobbying hard enough or something stupid like that, which is not the case; my intent was to comment on the length of time and money involved in putting a starter army on the table while remaining a functional human being.
I have never been a great one for putting pictures in my blog posts (I figure people don’t read my blog for the quality of my paintwork – or photography). The other big issue is the very temperamental camera; stopping and starting all my activities to photo-document them would frustrate me to the point where nothing got done. I don’t replace it because a) it still technically works and b) it’s not Von’s Blog About Photography – I generally have something gameable on which I’d rather spend the money.
Battle reports are a bugger, though. I don’t always have a handy Hark to take photos for me – you can always tell when she’s been along ’cause the photos are actually good.
Nope, didn’t take that as an accusation at all. 🙂 Trying to make sure our measurements were accurate. If you were taking into account being a regular human being, then the assessment of 10 months is appropriate 🙂
I hear ya with respect to the photography. I find it easier to take pictures of my painting projects than I do for battle reports, because I have to dig through my pockets for my camera (it’s my iPhone 4S), interrupt the flow of a game, that generally already takes more than 2 hours to play to start off with.
It sometimes takes the fun out of the game for people: “Do you reeeeally have to take photo evidence that your Bullgryns wiped out my terminators in assault…?”
Stuff like that…
While I always want to take pictures, I feel like I’d rather try and squeeze in a second game by playing quickly… thus the blogmanship suffers.
Always the balancing act. 🙂
That’s all right then. When I think about it, I still didn’t quite have 35 points of Warmachine stuff done for SmogCon, and that was a four month painting project with a league to prod me along.
The other thing with photography is that, being mostly a Warmachine player, I often play in environments with timed turns and high concentration demands – distracting myself with photography really doesn’t help in those circumstances.
Timed turns? Wow. Is that built into the core gameplay?
Nope, but given that 90% of pick-up Warmachine is with people who are currently practicing for a tournament, it might as well be. 😉
Looking good Mate How you getting on with painting up the Bullgryns you know painted models do better on the table dontcha :p
Do you use a proper camera to take your pictures because the quality of pics is always great
Bullgryns haven’t been fully finished yet… but they’re definitely in progress. I’m going to try to finish the Trygon first, and then I’ll finish them bullgryns.
Promise.
XD
fun post. makes me wanna start my own blog maybe. on a side note, i impulsed bought yarrick *and* straken off ebay. so, feel free to post your thoughts on either of them! 🙂
straken is probably a bit overpriced seeing as your paying 130 points ON TOP OF the command squad and yarrick is what? 5 points more? plus, if i have straken and plan to get him into CC, i’d probably pay the points for a medic to give him a 3+/5++ with FnP, so now we’re at 205 points for everything? however, the idea of giving a 30 man blob and/or a squad of bullgryns furious charge and counter attack is hard to pass up. and the only thing you need to do is keep straken out of close combat with anything that can challenge him out and has strength 8+. i haven’t done the mathhammer, but i feel like a blob charging a tac squad with strength 4 and the extra attacks does a whole lot better than rapid firing flashlights and and then getting charged the next turn.
Wow, a lot of good thoughts here that I haven’t really mulled over very much (some of which I might have to test out!)
So I guess the real question is “What do you want your HQ choice to do?” because they’re both *VERY* different.
My biggest concern with Straken is that while he swings like a Monstrous creature, he’s still Toughness 4. Everybody and their cousin is going to challenge this guy. In this way, I’d really consider bringing Nork Deddog in order to eat the challenges for you. And once you’ve purchased 2 meltaguns, the medpack, a heavy flamer and a chimera (you WILL take a Chimera, won’t you?) you’re talking about a unit approaching 400 points, not including any advisors. This is a pretty big cost, and pretty much impractical for all but the biggest of games.
Yarrick on the other hand is a Command Squad unto himself. My issue with Command Squads 90% of the time is that I have to stick them in a Chimera (expensive!) and have them chase after the Veterans as they get into position, in order to make the best use of the 12″ command bubble. With Yarrick, I could simply have him riding shot-gun with those same Veterans.
Alternatively, you could bury him in 30-50 bodies, which is the ultimate in durability, as he shouts out orders to his own unit, giving them Ld 10…
Anyhoo, that’s about all I got on this topic for now… Cheers!
yea, T4 is problematic for sure. and on top of not having eternal warrior, he has a special rule that makes him issue and accept challenges whenever possible. so nork would be a waste at that point. it’d be important to keep him away from any opponent characters that can insta gib him. shouldn’t be too many. at least in my meta, i rarely see anyone swing in CC at Str 8. except maybe a marine with a powerfist, but he’s gonna kill any regular marine with a powerfist before they swing.
haven’t given too much thought on it (since it was totally impulse haha), but the problem with putting him in a chimera is then you gotta disembark and then wait a turn to charge. i suppose you can charge with regular guardsmen (so they eat overwatch) and then charge with a straken CCS in the ensuing turn. but yea. we’ll see. competitive? probably not. but fun stuff to try.
Forgot about the Challenge shenanigans. That’s a deal breaker for me. Abaddon, the Swarmlord, just about any character would tear him a new one. Regular sarges would be turned into a red paste, though…
if you keep him on foot, there’s too many ways to kill him with only 4 ablative wounds.
If I were a marine player, this could be accomplished relatively easily with about 3-4 heavy bolters and a single krak missile.
‘There’s finally some breathing room on the Visa’
…And then suddenly there’s a lot moar troopies and tanks and a baneblade and…
😀
Ya gotta love this hobby.
Lolz.
Yeah. It’s one of those things. it gets pricey, if you do it all at once.
My New Years resolution this year is to be more disciplined with my gaming budget on a monthly basis, because sometimes I can splurge on a huge box (like that Deathstorm one — BECAUSE VALUE!)… and still spend my budget the next month…
Not how this stuff works, Oak… Big kit = nothing next month. You’ll be bogged down painting it anyways, so no worries.
The spending will definitely add up over the years, but I get a lot of gaming out of it, and even more from the hobby and blogging aspect.
It’d be a lot worse if they just sat on the shelf, right?
There are actually a lot more expensive hobbies out there, believe it or not. I got a buddy that collects guitars. GUITARS. He can’t possibly play 16 guitars at once. but there they are, on a wall. Some of them really expensive, too. He’s maybe played them 3-10 hours, total and spent more than I’ve spent on my Guard in 2 years.
Anyhoo. Got off tangentially there. Cheers!