Hobby Goals 2020 The first point about this hobby goals post is probably the most important. Time. Even this post is later than I wanted to post it (the past two have been done in late December), but I’m ‘time poor’ right now as I have so much stuff going on! I’m actually sat in the Audi Carlisle reception waiting for my car to be diagnosed with a fault (not even fixed yet! ??), and there’s only so much badly transcribed BBC breakfast I can watch, so I’m starting this post now… I started 2019’s goals saying I should hang my head in shame because I only completed half my hobby goals, but if that’s the case I really should hang it in shame this year! So a recap of my goals for last year: • 40k/30k Alpha legion army (build/paint) • Inquisitor (buy more, paint more, write more) • Warhammer Fantasy (paint Bretonnians) • Improve my Sculpting and Gardening skills • Learn how to play a guitar • Star Wars legion. • Historical – new army • x wing and imperial assault (play more) So how did I do? Well, not very well… I guess, technically, that’s not very true, as i’ll get into later but in terms of my actual hobby time it is. • I didn’t touch my alpha legion. Although I did manage to pick up Alpharius. I got one on eBay for about 25 cheaper than he retails for, complete in his box never been touched. I thought that was a pretty good deal. He’s now added to the ‘lead pile’ awaiting the day I crack open those space marine boxed sets. • Inquisitor not much notable movement on this project for yet another year. Although a couple of the little side projects I’ve done see me progressing on this on at a glacial pace, but progress is progress! I did also pick up a couple of new models for this, with an absolutely stunning limited edition cast from Artel W, and an out of print cast from Stavros Zoulaitis which i got from the man himself. • Bretonnians I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t touch the bretonnians for another year. However within the first week of 2020 that’s already changed, so I’m happy about that! • Legion I’ve painted a few things for this actually, with the tank, AT-ST, royal guard all being complete, and some storm troopers and scout speeders well on the way to being done. Nothing close to a game ready force though. They are however getting there, one day I’ll get a game in! The beauty of these is that i can pick them up at any time and I instantly know what i’m doing, so they’re nice palette cleansers and filler projects. • Historical well it’s been a dry year for me and historical games, which is a shame. On the plus side, unless the guys at the club come up with anything in the mean time, I know what I want to do for my next project, which is more than i can say for last year. It’s a secret though until I at least purchase something. At present though there are other projects that are more pressing… • X-wing and imperial assault. It’s a crying shame that I put so much effort into imperial assault, and nothing has been done with it! I really want to play the campaign for this but time is not on my side. This sits waiting in the wings ever hopeful I’ll get the time to do it… X-wing. Another one that deserves more attention. Version 2 knocked me for six with x-wing. I was happy playing version 1, I know it had its problems, but I enjoyed it. I travelled a lot to play the game and had loads of fun. Then one day FFG said they were releasing the game, and a lot of my physical collection was only worthy of the bin. The ‘buy in’ for version 2 was expensive and even if I bought back in, id have to relearn the rules (I believe it’s essentially the same game at its core though), but all the cards would be different and there were new game modes and some ships weren’t legal in some game modes. I bought the starter set and one of the 3 conversion packs I needed, but the sheer mass of cardboard to sift through, with my limited time has meant the box just kept being put back on the shelf, then every time I tried to look it up online it seemed like there was something else thrown in to confuse me, regionals and nationals aren’t called that any more for example, so I couldn’t even look up when the next event was to kickstart me to get ready by a certain point. Road block after roadblock put up in front of me to stop me getting back into this game… In reality, I guess I just need to organise a game and let someone else make a list for me, but as with the theme of this post, time is against me. I want to play x-wing, I have everything I need to do it, but the barriers, some physical. Some imaginary are weighing down on this and stopping me, so far it’s been 12 months + without a single game, which is so sad because i LOVE this game! I promise, if nothing else gets ticked off this year. I’ll play x-wing again! I promise! • Sculpting This one took a bit of a sideways turn, although i said I wanted to get back into digital sculpting that’s been a life goal, not even a hobby goal for probably 6-7 years. I have hardly touched any green (or brown) stuff this year, although there have been a couple of bits and pieces which is what my hobby goal was supposed to be about. Digitally though, i’ve actually done a lot! I’m nowhere near back to my glory days when i was modelling 12+ hours a day when i was at uni, but over the past year I have actually modelled some real items, printed them and even sold a few! I’m starting small and I know my limits, but I’m really really pleased with how things are shaping up so far with this. Digital sculpting will be another of my main goals this year, both personally and professionally. Watch this space for more sculpting soon! Unfortunately, I got quite busy towards the end of the year, and now I’ll have to start the whole process again. • General Stuff So other than Legion, which is new, the vast majority of things I’m looking for to add to my collection tend to be out of production, this year I managed to add a few more items to my OOP collection, adding to my Tallarn force (more heavy weapons and special weapons) as well as a still in box griffon mortar, and a boxed warhammer seige attackers set! A couple of things took me by surprise this year, the first being Aeronautica Imperialis. I loved the game the first time round, and still have a few of the ships. They released the boxed set for the new one and the ships are SOOO nice it’s unbelievable! The price was actually really attractive too, so naturally I purchased the starter set and I actually started painting them. Both the imperials and the ork are about 60-70% completely painted. This is a tiny project but a fun one. Hoping a few hours at the painting bench will finish these off. While they’re high up on the priority list, there are still things higher at present… I also bought Adaptus Titanicus, on a whim. I saw this when it came out, the grand master collection was about 180, which for a game that only comes with a handful of figures is way out of my price range. But after a few months, a guy from one of the clubs back home put his copy up for sale, listing it as having one of the titans missing. He put it up for 40. I thought that was a mighty bargain! I love a bargain and i was very tempted! I enquired and he said that one of the titans was missing and he wanted it gone, so I asked if he would post it, and said I would give him 60 if he posted it… Which I thought was fair. Long story short, he didn’t post it in the end, and gave it to a mutual friend who passed it onto my parents. A couple of months later It found its way to me. So I paid 20 on top of the asking price, thinking it would be posted, it wasn’t. And when it eventually got to me, some more of the parts were missing, so instead of having 6 knights in the box as advertised there were only 3. Surprise surprise, when I messaged him, no response… Now, I still have the rules, the terrain, 1 warlord and a set of knights… All for 60, which is probably a bargain in of itself, but that’s not enough for a game, and the whole experience left me a little sour, so This one can marinate in the cupboard of shame for a while longer yet. In June the mighty Dragon from the Joan Of Arc Kickstarter showed up! I went in on this one with a friend who backed for everything but wasn’t bothered about the dragon. About a year went by then it eventually turned up. My F**king god this thing is huge. I thought it would be a cool painting project which would sit in my cabinet once done. Turns out, the thing is too big to go in the cabinet… so yeah… More importantly the laughs we’ve had about the whole kickstarter at Graham’s expense were worth every penny paid for the dragon. Hopefully one day I’ll live in a house big enough for it to be on display, and then I may think about painting it… I also bought the starter set for Battlestar Galactica, partly because I was a little down about the whole x-wing thing, partly because it’s battlestar!! Yet to have a game. (time. sigh…) Blood and Plunder. In July at the club we played a pirate game, based on the cowboys game we sometimes play. Everyone got hooked and I ended up buying an STL for a massive ship, printing it off (it took 60 hours to print!!) as well as a couple of other ships. I also bought a bunch of blood and plunder figures so I could have my own pirate crew. The figures were not that impressive, I was quite disappointed in the quality, but I’ve painted them up anyway. I think i bought a starter set of 24, and about 16 of them are painted. Rough paint jobs, but enough to game with, they just need varnished and based. Thing is, I started them in July, and got them to this point in about July/August… then nothing. We also haven’t played since then either. Vampire counts. I can’t quite remember what happened here, but there was money in my paypal account, then there wasn’t… and there wasn’t any vampire counts in my collection, but now there is! Oh dear… ?♂️ The biggest “Hobby” thing for 2019 was actually mainly to do with my business, but still related here. I had my own miniature commissioned. This was for the Wargames show that I run, to give away at the door. I used legendary sculptor Stavros Zouliatis to sculpt the King of Rheged (the show is in the Rheged Centre) King Urien. He’s a Romano British General in real terms, and an actual historical figure, but also part of the Arthurian legend. I got him sculpted on foot as well as mounted, and i am really really pleased with the results. Ian at Shellhole Scenics cast them up for me and they went down really well at the show. I’m still contemplating what to give away for this year’s show, and time is ticking on… watch this space! I won’t go on too much about Bow and Blade (because you aren’t on this page for that), but it has had a significant effect on my hobby time this year. It started in about August 2018, with a single box full of dice, I had some modest plans for growth and figured they might take 3-5 years to achieve them. Turns out, we’re less than 18 months in and I’m already way ahead of my 5 year target! I’ve been invited this year to some really great shows too that I’m excited to attend. I love wargames shows, and as a trader it’s been really fun! Very hard work, but fun none the less. I basically try and stock things I a) know about, and b) you can’t normally get elsewhere. So far it’s going well. Although I won’t be packing in the day job any time soon it’s been a fantastic journey so far and I can’t wait to see where it goes. My main focus for that this year is to keep on sculpting and then print my own designs. The items I’ve sculpted so far have went down really well, so i really hope to build on that. I’m not forgetting my roots though, dice will be a big part of 2020, but so will airbrushes, paints, green stuff world and grass tufts! So my plans for 2020! (jeez this is a long one so far!! kudos for getting this far! ?) So this year I’m keeping it simple. • Bretonnians. I’ve made good progress for the first time in years on these in the first week of 2020. I’m gonna keep up momentum and get this game ready for me and Ian to play in Feb. • Tallarns Gonna paint up all my extra bits and pieces and put the airbrush to good use to paint up all those tanks! • Legion Gonna keep plugging away at this project, bit by bit until I have enough for a game, then take it to the club. • General Get some games of X-wing. Also do some other games too, mainly led by the club members at my local club, really I just want to roll some dice! If i find time I’d love to run imperial assault, but that might be pushing it. Keep sculpting! If I can output one new product a month I’ll be happy. There we have it, a retrospective on my previous year’s hobby, and then a quick look forward at my plans for the coming year. I’d really really like to hear from people about what your hobby achievements have been this last year and your hopes for 2020 too! so let me know in the comments, or if you have your own blog, please post the link! Thanks for reading I hope everyone has a great hobby year! All the best Chris x P.S I don’t update my blog all that much anymore, but my facebook page is more active, you can find that here: https://www.facebook.com/CJSutherlandPainting/ There’s also my Facebook page for Bow and Blade Games here: https://facebook.com/BowandBlade as well as my website: https://bowandblade.co.uk Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Δ