D&D vs Warhammer 40k

I completed three figures yesterday and got them varnished today. These have been quite enjoyable to paint.

Two Mimics and a Ultramarine Terminator…

The pair of Mimics are from ‘Nolzur’s Marvellous Miniatures’. Both had almost no mold lines, and are great figures with a fair amount of detail, particularly with the transformation from inanimate object to hungry shape-changer. I’ve wanted this pair since they came out in 2020. Most of the online stores that I get figures from (and a bunch of other places that tried to get them from) over the last 18 months or so have been out of stock. One or two places had them (like eBay), but I wasn’t going to pay what they were asking. Mid this year, I checked again, and finally found places with stock at normal prices. I love the finished pieces.

The Terminator (a veteran Space marine with rare and much heavier armour than usual) has been painted in Ultramarine colours. He’ll go into my Space Crusade game box for now, since that’s where the rest of my 40k figures originate. This figure was given to me by a mate. I think he got it with a GW magazine – possibly White Dwarf. It was a multipart figure that snapped together allowing you to move the arms separately and swivel the upper torso. He’s glued solidly together now.

A return to painting & hobby plans

The house move is done, and we are pretty much set up and settled in. There continue to be little things that need to be fixed up in and outside the house, and a few things we’ll probably move around until we are happier. The old house is finally on the market to sell. If all goes well next month, I may treat myself to a new board game, and/or some more miniatures (if I see something I really want).

From the hobby perspective, I’ve been finding time to read, think about RPG’s, play some games and in the last week – paint!

In terms of figure painting, 2022 has been the worst for figures completed since I re-started painting in 2013. The figures I’m currently working on will more than double this years output. There are good reasons that contributed to this – Covid, planning to move & moving house, more writing RPG material earlier in the year than playing RPG’s or painting, and so on. I’ve also painted the majority of my figure collection now, so unless I either buy more figures (which I’d prefer not to do) or push to complete the remainder of unpainted ones, painting will remain less.

This isn’t a bad thing… after spending a lot of time on painting Zombicide: Black Plague (2016-2017, and really enjoying it) I considered a target of 100 figures a year to be something worthwhile. I got to 93 in 2017, but I’ve only averaged 70 a year over the previous 5 years, not looking at 2022. When I paint sets of figures (Zombicide, all my Orcs / Skaven / Star Wars, or some board game figures, etc) I tend to have a greater output, and I’d say I enjoyed it more. All in all, I was considering that a target of 50 would be more likely, but I think I’m better off not setting a target at all and being happy with whatever I achieve.

So… I would like to complete the GW Beastmen I have that aren’t painted (about a dozen), and dig through my figure boxes to see what else is left. I’m also thinking of making some terrain. I’d be starting with some plants for Gamma World, that might also be useful for a fantasy setting, and considering some walls and ruined buildings. Early next year I should have the Witcher Board Game (Kickstarter by ‘Go on Board’) arrive with some miniatures that I’m looking forward to painting. I have a lot more RPG writing to complete too. More than that, who knows! I’ll see what happens!