2018 – Hobby in Review

Well, another year in the books.

What were my goals again?

Y’know what?  I’m not even going to set goals for next year, short of “Continue Enjoying the Hobby I Love.”   Anything else would set my expectations too high, and my morale would suffer whenever I come up short of them because of other stuff in my life is happening THAT I AM ALSO IMMENSELY PROUD OF.

On this basis, I’d say this past year was a rip-roaring success.  Those times I grabbed a paint brush were about as relaxing as things could be.  So, without further ado, time for me to cruise through my camera roll and see what I got done.

Firstly, a pair of cool operators, assassins both.  One subtle, the other sly.

Then I wrapped up a group of 10 mooks, given to a colleague for a Secret Santa gift.

Then a pair of ripper bases – I suppose I need a third to round out a unit, but these little ankle biters were a good change in pace.

Carried that momentum into 6 Wyrdvane Psykers (who may never see the tabletop ever, but at least they’re done).

Which kind of takes us into May/June…  I had started all kinds of projects in that month, buoyed by my productivity and apparent ‘free’ time.

And then this happened:

Known as “Leviathan” online, he was born mid-June, and adopted enthusiastically into our home.  Everything changed, and yet all things were the same.  Suffice to say it’s amazing what you can do when you’re sleep deprived.

Like, for instance, commencing another truly insane batch-painting project:

Though, it should be noted that I’ve now finished about 15 of that batch, putting the finishing details on them about 5 models at a time:

https://twitter.com/Oakenhawk/status/1059423717485395968

I finally finished up those Zoanthropes that had been sitting around for about… 2-3 years now.  They’re looking very sharp indeed.

Then Mr. Tickles, the Toxicrene (or Cthulhufex, whichever you prefer)

I can’t get over how menacing this guy is

Around this time I made a renewed push to finish Belasarius Cawl and slap some paint on a flying hive tyrant, but unfortunately I was distracted by smaller projects…

The Lord of the Fallen, Cypher, painted because I like to give my Dark Angel bro… feelings…

https://twitter.com/Oakenhawk/status/1065662225413738497

…and a few weeks later I had wrapped up my Space Marine bullet magnets!  These guys were immensely satisfying to camo-up, though I’m not a huge fan of the models themselves.

https://twitter.com/Oakenhawk/status/1076604252712325122

Then my Christmas present to my Dark Angel bro, left over from last year and finally deemed ‘good enough to gift’

https://twitter.com/Oakenhawk/status/1078825990187610112

I still have a few projects on the go presently, most notably trying to get another Christmas Present wrapped up before the weekend.  These boyos are almost done.

I can’t say I super enjoy painting power armour, but it does look nice and crispy when finished up as the Sarge is in the middle.

So the final tally for 2018 is as follows:

• 4 Characters completed
• ~30 infantry, done, another 30 close
• 3 large based, medium sized models
• 1 monstrous creature done, another one close

Not bad!  At this rate I’ll clear my backlog in… well… a decade I guess.

LOL

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year folks.