With the color scheme decided, it was time to get this team up and running. I decided to go with the typical plan of working through lineman, specialty players, and finish up with stars and staff. I understand the usefulness of batch-painting, but I have a hard time spreading myself over more than five to six models at a time. I get excited when a model goes from the ugly patchy phase of having base coats to the when it starts coming together, and batch painting large groups keeps models in that ugly phase for a long time. Did I also mention it’s really boring? My brain likes to see progress, so my batch groups stayed small. Continue reading →
For me, basing has always been the last thing I do on my models when I paint them. This tends to make basing one of my least favorite things to do as its the last hurdle needed to call a project done. My current basing style looks fair, but I also feel that it takes a long time to get that look. I want to find a faster way to get things based without sacrificing on the quality. Enter Geek Gaming Scenics! Continue reading →
Back in another lifetime it seems I put together a Blood Bowl Team emulating the Cleveland Browns. The idea got me thinking of continuing the trend of blending Amorical (American) Football teams into the game of Blood Bowl. I’m not going to lie I probably (most certainly) own enough teams to do a full 32 team league, but alas I don’t paint fast enough to have enough lifetime to get to that goal. The original goal was to plow through the AFC North Division first, but instead I drifted over to the AFC East and put together a lovely Chaos Chosen team. Continue reading →
Almost two and a half years ago, I created a few ninja vehicles for Gaslands. At the same time, I put together some foot models to go along with those rides, but I never got around to needing them. Well, since then Xenos Rampant has come out, and we’ve started developing some light house rules for pedestrian models in Gaslands. The time was right to get some ninja on-foot models ready for Roswell ’98.
I have a long history of incomplete hobby projects. My usual method of operation is getting excited to start a project, buy all the models to make it happen, start the hobby part of the project, add to the project to make it larger than the original scope, get burned out on the project, and then move on to the next project with the original unfinished. With Blood Bowl being my main hobby project, it’s no surprise that almost half of my teams are incomplete to one level or another. With the prospects of a retro Blood Bowl event in 2024, I figured now was the time to wrap up my longest unfinished project.
2023 was the first year I ever tracked hobby goals and I can’t recommend the process enough. Not only did it help me stay focused to complete high priority projects, but having a checklist of sorts became a little intoxicating. Seeing tasks getting that strike-thru of completion gave me a real sense of progress. For the first time, it felt like real work was getting done. There’s light at the end of this tunnel! In fact, crossing through projects was motivating enough to see me completing far more than I anticipated.
Why did a “2023 in Review Part II” post appear across your feed/search from this little hobby blog? I realize that my review post only captured models painted. Sadly, I omitted the heart of this hobby for me…games played and time with friends. This mini post will capture all the non-painting wins I experienced this year. Like the high number of models painted, this was also a banner year for other accomplishments.
I play in a large (14-16 coaches) Blood Bowl league that consistently meets every other Wednesday. I’ve attended four Blood Bowl tournaments, and performed the best I ever have when it mattered most… the largest BB tournament on US soil… Chaos Cup 2023 in Orlando, Fl. I placed #13 out of over 200. I got in my first games of BattleTech Alpha Strike and Classic (surprisingly, I think I prefer Classic), Ronin, DungeonBowl, Gutter Bowl, and Gaslands (finally!). I played many games of Blitz Bowl and Pokemon against my son. Was able to fly out, or host, games with dear friends scattered across the country for gaming to include running a small BB 7s tournament at the house. And not minis related, but the family was finally able to travel to Japan… which became a large inspiration for my Ronin village. Additionally, I was able to get my post-apoc minis published in an issue of Wargames Illustrated (#428 August 2023 – pic above). The same issue also had articles from Daniel Mersey, Rick Priestly, and the Perry twins. For kicks, I can joke with my friends that those illuminaries of the hobby are “WI contemporaries of mine” hehehehe.
All in all, at 48, I’ve probably had the best year in this hobby that I’ve ever experienced. I’m excited for 2024 and hope I can make the 2023 results the start of a trend!
2023 was a banner year for me regarding number of models painted and projects done. Going into the year I had no intention of painting a Black Orc Blood Bowl team, but I already had 10 models for one previously painted (six goblins and a troll from the Goblin BzB team and three black orcs from the Black Orc BzB team). Painting three Black Orcs was low hanging fruit to get another full BB team option in my locker-room. What else did I knock out this year? Read on for the numbers.
A year or two ago, I expanded Dwarf and Union Elf Blitz Bowl teams to full Blood Bowl teams. Though I have yet to ever play with the Dwarves, and have only fielded the Union Elves sparingly, I found myself with a few of their star players which sat unpainted for a good long while. As 2023 wraps up, I’ve done pretty good about completing projects here and there, so I figure I might as well wrap up the unpainted models I had for these two teams.
In my games of DungeonBowl, I’ve pretty much made it the norm for each team to have a College Wizard for free. They’re all the same cost, at 100K, so it balances out. Plus, it helps further separate DB from BB proper with each team having a Wizard-Coach. I picked up the Collegiate Arcane – Mystic Battle Wizards box as it comes with enough bits to make four wizard models of multiple college types.
Wyrd Stones and Tackle Zones 