X.VIII - Cold Warriors

As the snow gently falls outside, it's a reminder to once again visit a past project, in celebration of my decade of blogging. It was 2015 and quite an easy year to choose a highlight from, as I focussed on just two main projects. The first of these, at the start of the year, was painting a Wars of the Roses force to play Lion Rampant. I made really good progress and painted the whole lot in about three or four months. Billmen, archers and men at arms.

As pleased as I was with my historicals, it was fantasy once again that took the crown for best of the year, in the shape of a Khorne force based around the Age of Sigmar starter set, with a few classic metals from my collection added in for good measure.

I don't consider myself a particularly talented convertor, but I was really pleased with a couple of these figures. The ogre in the marauder unit was built from plastic bits, a rat ogre and an ogre kingdoms head. The khorgorath (daemon beast thingy) from the starter was a more complex job, adding an old metal bloodthirster head and a little basic greenstuff work. Compared to the work of other talented hobbyists, it is beginner level, but I was happy with the results. 

X.VII - Men, Elves, Dwarfs and so much more

It's time for another look back on the ten years I have been blogging. 2014 was an excellent year to be sure and I had lots of painted items to choose from. At the start of the year I painted up a block of 36 skeletons for my Vampire Counts army, quickly followed by a couple of characters. A few weeks later I painted up a dwarf character, one of my finest ever beards I think. My chaos army got some love too, with marauders, marauder horsemen and a chariot added. I even managed a unit of finely painted high elf archers. All this in the first half of the year - if only every year could be this productive!

Historic gaming was becoming more of a staple for me and I finally found a range I was very happy with - Drabant Miniatures Vikings. I also added a few more plastic dark age warriors and some metal archers to my growing collection.

But it was a further expansion of my Lord of the Rings collection that really pleased me in this year. Having collected a decent size Orc force, I made a start on a small Rohan warband. And then later in the year I painted up these dwarf rangers - and having visited Scotland that summer decided that they would look really good in kilts!

I cannot imagine any year being surpassed by this one, in terms of the quantity and quality I achieved. It was peak hobby performance in 2014, a fine vintage.

X.VI - More Undead

Hobby time has been a bit thin on the ground - thinner than a skeleton's bicep - so it's time for another scrabble through the archive. We have reached 2013, which turned out to be an excellent vintage for a variety of reasons.

This was the year in which kickstarter really took off - I painted up some of the now forgotten Sedition Wars figures. There was plenty of fantasy painting, including a tentative start on an Empire force. 2013 was also the year in which I really made a significant dent in my collection of Lord of the Rings figures, with hordes of orcs poring out - Morannon orcs, Mordor orcs and uruk hai. And finally I painted up a decent viking force for Saga gaming. Phew, that was a very good year! I was tempted to choose the orcs, but I think in the end my most prized painting of that year was more units for my Vampire Counts, including this mighty varghulf and a unit of grave guard built from Lord of the Rings plastics.

X.V - Ghouls

It seems a fitting day to be posting another look back at my ten years of blogging. We have reached the halfway point, the year 2012. So far, the majority of my favourite work has been related to my chaos army and, true to form, I did paint a large and rather splendid unit of marauders, which almost made it to the top slot. 2012 was also notable as the year I made my first steps in playing historical games, most notably collecting a Saxon force for games of Saga. But it was this unit of ghouls painted at the end of the year that I have chosen to showcase.

There's something really nice about having the figures posed on these multi bases, they seem more alive. They are fairly flexible too, using wound counters, though not much good for skirmish games. But at the time I had no idea that massed fantasy gaming was on the way out. The ghoul hag/necromancer was a later addition, but she was always meant to be the leader of this horde. I should really repaint the edge of the base to blend in more!

These figures also reflect a continued change in my painting technique. I had for years slaved away at the old method of base coat, shade, layer, layer, layer. But after reading articles on painting armoured vehicles I had started to glaze more and more. It had always been my aim to be able to paint figures purely on glazing from white, and these figures reflect that. White primer, glazes and some stippling were all it took. The character had some more traditional layering too, but again it was nearly all simple glazing and stippling. It's a technique I use almost exclusively to this day.

X.IV - Nurgle Giant

It's my look back to the year 2011 as part of my X celebration series. This was a very busy period for the blog, as I added to three of my main armies.

The dwarfs got the bulk of my time and attention as Avatars of War released plastic dwarf berserkers. It was quite an exciting time, I struggle to remember if there were any other plastic non-GW figures around at the time. It re-ignited my interest in my long dormant beard collection and I added two units to the army, berserkers and warriors.

Towards the end of the year I also made a start on resurrecting my very first fantasy army, as I made the first faltering steps in a new Undead army. I hammered out a large regiment of zombies and a couple of characters. Looking back, I was very productive at this time, regiment after regiment painted up. If only my current stamina levels matched those glory days.

My pick of the year is this friendly looking Nurgle giant. It's not a GW model, but possibly the first resin figure I ever added to my collection - an Ilyad Games grotesque which I was lucky enough to find on ebay. The company are long gone now, one of many that produced high quality figures but never managed to find their niche in the market.

I chose this figure for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I really like it - a good enough reason to be selected. Secondly, it marks the point when my painting changed to something resembling my current style. I started to use white primer and multiple layers of thin washes and glazes, a technique I have continued with to the present day. The result can be very subtle, as this close-up hopefully demonstrates. I find it far easier than the base/shade/layer/highlight system, and far more realistic.

So, another year assessed, another chaos appearance. I did also paint up a very nice unit of chaos ogres. At the time, the chaos army was my "elite" project, the one that I was in no hurry to finish, just wanted to achieve a high level on every element of the army. Apologies if you are not a chaos fan, there will be some other factions eventually, but chaos certainly ruled at the time. If you disagree, have a word with these friendly looking chaps, I'm sure they will be very understanding.....

X.III - Daemons

In this, the third of my celebratory posts, I am looking back at the year 2010. I painted lots of fantasy in that time, and played it almost exclusively, so there's a good selection of potential candidates. I added a few units to my orcs and goblins army - black orcs and green squigs stand out - and made more progress on the wood elf army. I also built but two pretty big conversions - a treeman and a shaggoth, which get honourable mentions. I reckon that already qualifies as a good vintage, but my biggest achievement for the year was putting together a small contingent of daemons.

I started by building and painting a unit of daemonettes. My aim at the time was to try something a little different, and a pink/purple palette was definitely that. These days I tend to paint in small batches of eight or twelve, but I obviously had more stamina in my youth - eighteen daemonettes.

After that I rewarded myself with a character model, a herald built from an old Warzone figure, with a whole host of (cute?) little attendants.

Then I finished off the project with a unit of pink horrors, the classic metal figures from that time and still my favourite renditions of the model.

Though the daemons started as an add-on for my chaos warriors, I did have grand plans to develop them into a full army. I have metal plaguebearers painted up and bloodletters half-painted, plus more daemonettes, screamers and various other figures. However, as with so many grand plans, nothing came of it.

One figure I did add a few years later was a Daemon Prince, converted from an old Azazel model. I left off the wings and replaced the head with that of an old school metal Fiend of Slaanesh, the tail I forget the source. I had this model half-painted for a good few years, but thought it would be nice to finally complete it as part of my celebrations.

X.II - Chaos Marauders

The second of my celebrations of ten years of blogging. 2009 was a return to a more typical year for me. I returned to my wargaming heritage - painted and played mostly fantasy. I made a solid start on a chaos warband, painting marauders, spawn, hounds, warriors and a few characters. Then I had a crazy idea to develop an elf army that could be used as either High Elves or Wood Elves. From all those models I have chosen this unit of chaos marauders as my pick of the year.

This was the first time I had tried something new in painting terms. Previously, I had stuck to the prescribed method of base coat, shade, then highlights, but I felt that this was only really suitable for darker coloured models. With all the light flesh to paint, I tried a white primer, then used glazes to add the colours, in just one or two easy steps. It proved to be very quick and very effective and I started to use this method on more of my painting. So this unit marks that significant change in the way I paint. It saves time and looks better (in my eyes) to the old layering method.

This unit was also the first of a chaos army that was to feature heavily in coming years. Chaos had always appealed to me for so many reasons. There was huge variety, there were so many units to choose from. The background pantheon allowed for great creativity - these marauders as followers of Slaanesh would have looked different had they taken up arms for Khorne, or been blessed by Nurgle. The army could also be built up quite quickly as many units (though not marauders) were low count - chaos warriors, ogres, knights, trolls and the like. This unit was the start of a big, ongoing project.

X.I - Orks

I thought the easiest way to celebrate my ten years of blogging was to pick something from each of the years, starting back in 2008. This first year I actually started the blog in June, so there's less to choose from, but I still managed to find three contenders.

I painted a Norse team for Blood Bowl and a few regiments for my Warhammer Orcs and Goblins army, but my pick of the (half) year would be these ork shootas. They were the start of a new foray into this ruleset. I never quite got to grips with the 40K gameplay, I found it far more fiddly than the fantasy rules. In recent times I have enjoyed playing the orks using one-page-40K, but sadly these boyz have been in storage for the best part of the decade.

As a celebration, a ten year old snap is a little lacklustre, so I have dug out the boyz and persuaded them to pose for a few more photos. The whole force was painted in fits and starts over a couple of years, with many units left abandoned as grey plastic or still in the boxes. Shame really, as there are some really nice models here.

First up, the original mob of shootas, with a nob (boss) and the warlord in the background, persuading the boyz to get stuck in. The yellow was chosen as something I would not usually paint, and also as a less frequently seen ork clan the Bad Moons. According to the fluff, this meant more shootas than usual, hence this first unit.

The Bad Moons are the richest ork clan and thus have plenty of equipment. So I gave these ard boyz some serious amounts of armour. If memory serves, these are all converted from various plastic and metal bits, some fantasy parts in there too. They have a truck that is 90% painted, just waiting for the final touches.

Finally, my favourite unit of the force, both in gaming and painting terms. The warboss is a lovely model, seeing this figure was one of the main reasons I started collecting orks in the first place. And I just love the squigs, which I painted in a funky blue to contrast with the yellow. 

There's far more sat in storage waiting to be loved again - nobz, deffkoptas, burna boyz, grots, lots of standard boyz, a few meks, kans.........maybe in the next ten years they will get finished.

X !

I was flicking through some of the older posts in the blog, looking for something from days gone by, when I suddenly realised that I have been writing this nonsense for ten years! A little bit more in fact, as I started blogging in June 2008. A little celebration is surely in order, so help yourself to a slice of cake.

I will be marking the occasion by trawling back and showcasing some of my hobby highlights from the last decade. I will get the first of these celebrations on the blog over the weekend.