A Reflection on 2023

Welcome back to Chris' Miniature Woes! It's been quite a journey, and I appreciate your patience as I navigate through the challenges that 2023 brought into my wargaming and roleplaying world. Last year was a bit of a rollercoaster of health issues and a subsequent focus on my career, leaving my beloved miniatures gathering dust and the gaming table silent. Today, I want to share with you what happened, how it impacted my hobby, and the exciting plans on the horizon for 2024.

Health Struggles:

Last year marked a challenging period in terms of health. My GP switched my medication for chronic pain, I moved onto new antidepressants, and I also had access to legal medical cannabis for the first time, which altogether brought both physical and mental adjustments. A hernia operation in the summer added to the mix, demanding my attention and time to heal. The confluence of these factors affected not only my personal life but also spilled into my professional sphere.

Career Focus:

In response to the health challenges, I made the decision to channel my energy into my career. This shift required a significant portion of my time and dedication, but I am pleased to share that the effort has paid off. I'm now in a more stable position at work, providing a solid foundation to refocus on my personal life and hobbies.

Home Renovations:

Despite initial plans, home renovations were put on pause in 2023 due to health issues, work commitments, and financial constraints. However, I'm excited to share that it will be a major focus in 2024. The pending changes, especially in the dining room (until this point the area has mainly been a temporary dumping ground for boxes and furniture from our house move), will finally create a space where we can entertain with friends, which will include board gaming, wargames and roleplaying games!

Returning to the Hobby

With my health stabilising, career on track, and a renewed focus on long-awaited home renovations, I'm excited to announce the return of Chris' Miniature Woes! I acknowledge that 2023 was a year of minimal output, but I'm committed to reviving the blog with a semi-regular posting schedule to begin with. Starting with two posts a month, expect updates every other Wednesday, where I'll share insights into ongoing projects, new releases, and the latest from my miniature-filled world.

Upcoming Post Preview:

Look out for my next post, "2024 - A New Year - Motivation, Projects, Aims & Goals," where I'll delve into the specific projects lined up for the year. I recently acquired a resin 3D printer and a wash and cure machine, unlocking new possibilities for miniatures and terrain creation. Among these projects is a Cyberpunk 2077-themed skirmish game that has been brewing in my mind for quite some time. Stay tuned for more details and updates!

Conclusion:

Thank you for sticking with me through the ups and downs of 2023. Your support means the world, and I can't wait to embark on this exciting journey with you in 2024. Let's roll the dice, paint some miniatures, and create unforgettable gaming moments together! Thanks to my wargaming friends online, who have kept my inspiration burning! A special shout-out to Lewis, a consistent blogger and one of my best friends - it's mad that after so many years of friendship (as well as living in the same country, and only a couple of hours away!) that we've yet to meet up for a game! Perhaps 2024 is the year? Let's make it happen!

#6MMRPC - PLANNING STAGES

So, here's what I want to get finished over the next challenge:

1. SAGA - 4pt Viking force - probably the easiest task I have at the moment - I currently have 2pts of Warriors complete, with another 1pt Warriors, 1pt Hearthguard (Berserkers) and Warlord (the SAGA figure Jarl Sigvaldi, although he'll be a character of my own design).
   Notes: I actually have at least 2 Viking forces planned, based on the amount of miniatures I have for this faction (I recently got a load of Foundry Viking reinforcements and I'm currently the proud owner of around 15 Berserkers!)
2. Misc. - The Townsfolk - around 35 villagers from various ranges - Gripping Beast, Black Tree Designs, Reaper Bones etc. - the population of a Dark Age town (meant to be generally multi-use - I'd be happy to use them for Medieval townspeople or the villagers in Fantasy games (there are even a few figures in this project that are specifically fantasy-related)). I've recently made headway with these, with around 20 painted and awaiting proper basing. The others should be easy to work through.
3. Misc. - Livestock/Wildlife - a fun project currently in the works to fit with the town and for wilderness encounters - pigs, chickens, donkeys, wolves, dogs, bears, foxes, cats and more! This one is about 30% complete at the moment. Another fairly easy project to complete.
4. SAGA - 4pt Saxon force - currently 2pts of Hearthguard complete, with another 3pts of Warriors and 1pt of Levy planned. 
5. Lion Rampant (Game of Thrones) - Wildlings - this project is a recent upgrade from a warband of around 14 Wildlings up to a planned force of around 50. This mainly uses the Games Workshop Lord of the Rings range with various conversions.
6. Lion Rampant (Game of Thrones) - Nightswatch and Northern Allies - as above, focussing on conversions of Lord of the Rings figures.
7. Judge Dredd Miniatures Game - East-Meg 1 Judge Strikeforce - this is a starter box from Mongoose Publishing/Warlord Games, consisting of 6 Judges, a small spybot and a large robot. I may add to this faction when the time comes.
8. Judge Dredd Miniatures Game - The Angel Family - another starter box of 5 miniatures.
9. Judge Dredd Miniatures Game - CitiDef Squad 1 - a series of conversions of various Copplestone Castings Future Wars figures into a Block Defence Militia themed to a certain City Block.
10. Judge Dredd Miniatures Game - CitiDef Squad 2 - as above, but for another City Block - the idea being that one would ally with the East-Meg 1 invaders whils the other would remain loyal to the Justice Department.
11. Post-Apoc - this project will tie into the Judge Dredd Miniatures Game and consists of updating the basing and some detailing on a number of already completed squads/gangs of miniatures as well as completing a number of extras to round out these forces. Approximately 50 figures to rebase and 25 figures to paint from scratch.
12. Lovecraftian Horror Project - this will be similar in style/theme to the game "Strange Aeons" - a Government Agency tasked with hunting down summoned Elder creatures, stopping Cultists and the like. The Agency will be similar in scope to the BPRD from the Hellboy series - standard FBI-alike Agents plus more specialised "Consultants" - occult specialists, pulp heroes, local hunters etc. and the opposing forces will be cultists, Deep Ones, shoggoths and the like from various ranges. This is a brand new project for 2015 and will have a low-figure requirement.
13. Song of Blades and Heroes - TBD

This is a bit of a placeholder at the moment - these projects will get their own pages as part of the blog to show what's done and what is left to complete!

2015 Plans

So, my plans for 2015...

Dark Ages

• Complete another 2pts for my Vikings, plus a couple of the character/leaders I have
• Build a small Dark Ages village and paint the villagers/animals I have - I love the look of the Song of Shadows and Dust rules and I'd love to re-purpose them for disputes between rivals in a Dark Ages town
• Build a 4pt Saxon force - I got a box of the plastic Saxons for Christmas, plus I have a bunch of plastic Dark Age Warriors left over

Judge Dredd

• Build 2 rival Citi-Def gangs - these are inspired by the wonderful Citi-Def over on The Leadpile - I requested a couple of the sets he's used from Copplestone Castings for Christmas. 
• Assemble the Angel Gang - I got the new version of these from Warlord Games/Mongoose. I also want to have a scout through my misc. figure boxes to see if I have any other wasteland scum to join these, and will also be sprucing up some of the post-apoc figures I have to run a campaign in the Cursed Earth
• Assemble the East-Meg Judges - another Christmas present

Lovecraftian Mythos - this is a pretty new project...

• Lovecraftian creatures - these will be done in the same basing style that I use for the majority of my collection, meaning the creatures can be used in multiple genres. Creatures planned are Deep Ones (from Reaper Bones figures), a Shoggoth, Dimensional Shamblers and this creature from Pure Evil Miniatures
• Cult leaders, cultists and madmen - a mix of miniatures here, with the cultists coming from the Artizan Designs Thrilling Tales range
• Agents and misc. helpers - figures from Artizan, Copplestone (the Gangsters range) and Statuesque Miniatures

Darkest Dungeon - a planned fantasy skirmish/RPG based on the Kickstarted PC game - using all manner of figures from my Fantasy Skirmish stuff, with added characters from the games Player Characters:

• I already have a bunch of figures built and basecoated for this - it's just a case of getting them finished!

Phew. This barely scratches the surface on my plans! But these are some of my focuses for the next year...

So, boardgames and card games...

Here are some things that I've been playing lately...

Zombies!!!

Kingmaker

Munchkin Cthulhu

And here are some of my latest purchases:

Cards Against Humanity (UK Edition) - I've wanted to play this with my friends for ages, finally caved and bought it!

Settlers of Catan - another game that was recommended by a friend - I thought I'd pick this one up as it seemed very cheap on eBay!

One of my few New Years Resolutions each year is "play more", whether that's with the figures and terrain I lovingly craft and paint, or the brilliant boardgames out there - I think I've really done that this year!

New Project - Post-Apocalyptic Gladiatorial Combat

I've recently started new project that I've been thinking of for a while - post-apocalyptic gladiatorial combat. Inspired by the brilliant gladiators of Carmen's Fun Painty Time, I bought the fantasy gladiator Red Sand Black Moon rules from Two Hour Wargames and downloaded the free Red Sand Brown Sky post-apocalyptic add-on. 

The add-on actually uses Carmen's gladiators, and rightfully so - they're brilliant post-apoc savages! The first of my gladiators are from Urban War's Junker Gladiator range - I've previously bought and painted one of the characters from the range, a portly brute with long hair and beard, who is the current leader of my post-apoc raiders. He'll work well against these too. My plan is to link the warbands I currently game with into the fighting pits - with them betting on matches or even entering their own fighters.

Feel more than free to comment - I regularly post on Instagram (easy from my iPhone) and I'll get around to posting up the various other bits and pieces I've recently finished/been working on shortly! Still getting in lots of games of Flying Lead!

Busy busy busy!

I've actually got a lot of miniatures finished recently, but I've decided to take nice pictures on terrain and add a little bit of background - in no particular order:

• Aruk - an alien warrior (ogre-sized) from the Cobalt-1 sci-fi range (with some converting).
• Not-PC Danny from Hot Fuzz (to hunt zombies) from Hasslefree Miniatures.
• Not-Marv from Sin City (same), also from Hasslefree Miniatures.
• Ghoul gunslinger from Copplestone Castings.
• The Ogre from Reaper Miniature's Bones line. More on this particular guy in a future post.
• A Horrorclix Shoggoth rebase/repaint.
• Thrullg from Hordes - a swamp beast that feeds on magic. I'll be using it as alien fauna in Rogue Trader-esque games.
• A not-Gears of War Marine-type. Painted as a Vault (Fallout) Security guard.
• Last, but not least, a vampire-hunting post-apoc cyborg sheriff. Yeah. One of my favourite ever conversions.

I also dug out my Dark Eldar and various other figures, and currently have the following Painting-in-Progress:

• 10 Dark Eldar Warriors - I ended up changing the sand/gravel mix on these. They've gone from bare plastic to the above stage.
• 5 Hellions - mostly basecoated. I've gone with silver/metallic skyboards to avoid the mauve overload...
• Haemonculus (the special character). He's now basecoated.
• Evil Not-Batman (a Heroclix conversion, rebase and repaint).
• The Mime (a Horrorclix conversion, rebase and repaint).
• Doc and Wabbit, two Copplestone Castings post-apoc characters.

Quite a bit to look forward to, right? Comment below to let me know what completed minis you'd like to see first!

I decided to get the Dark Eldar finished as I like the idea of playing a shantytown vs vicious alien invaders.

Also, the new 40k boxed set looks brilliant. I must have 100 autogun cultists!

Starport Terrain - Vehicles

I've been collecting bits and pieces to expand my terrain collection for a while now, with a view to creating some Starport terrain - a couple of landing pads, various scrap piles, shipping containers, loaded pallets, various different vehicles, plus parts of the town that has sprung up around it, that will link into the rest of my post-apoc terrain. I also have plans to retrofit some of my post-apoc terrain, specifically the caravans - I want to change them from being supposedly abandoned into being shops and homes. 


These are the first new pieces I've done for the Starport in a little while - forklift trucks for loading the ships. 

This the the first completed - I wanted them to be dirty and rather rusty - the world they're being used on is a border planet, on the edges of civilisation, so the equipment would need to be very robust and able to withstand the rigours they'd be put through.

This here is the second forklift - similar, right? They were painted together, along with a third vehicle (see the next blogpost in a day or so) in order to make them look like they belong to the same company. I wanted them to look quite uniform amongst the piles of refuse and broken pallets.

This guy is here to give you an idea of scale - he's from the em4 Miniatures (Mark Copplestone-sculpted) range and is one of the basic Troopers from a squad of soldiers I'm putting together. Looks quite large, but it has been manufactured for use by humans and non-humans - booster seats are available...

This is what the forklifts looked like when I bought them - they were two for £3 from Wilkinsons.

Finally, this is what they looked like before they were undercoated - I took them apart (which was simply a matter of undoing two screws), sanded/shaved off any symbols and writing, removed any moldlines, keyed the surface of the whole vehicle so it would better take acrylic paint. Once this was done I put the vehicle back together, filling the screw holes with model filler, supergluing certain parts that were quite loose and adding filler to simulate areas in which rust had built up. I also ended up replacing the bar that joins the forks together, as it was quite flimsy. 


Very happy with these and the other vehicle - I recently received some pallets in the post, so I will be modelling some crates and fuel cans to go on those. I also have plans for an anti-aircraft gun mounted on the back of a civillian truck as a sort of added security for the fledgling Starport...

Approaching things from a slightly different direction...

So, the Wyches have finished in their bath of Fairy Power Spray, they've been re-based and now, re-undercoated in white...

I've also finally picked up a wet palette from eBay. I've been meaning to pick one up for years, but finally went ahead and purchased it to work on the Dark Eldar. Who won't be too dark...

Both the white undercoat and the new palette are an attempt to try something a bit different - I'm wanting a very particular style with the Dark Eldar, rather pastel but with some lovely blood splatters, hopefully these will help towards that.

In entirely unrelated news, I actually finally managed to join a gym! I had my induction yesterday and I plan on going back today for some more cardio. Anything that helps me lose some weight and build up my knees will be brilliant!

Getting there...

On the way to my shelves being cleared - some of this stuff will be going into my parents attic, some on eBay, some to charity shops...


It's going to be nice to have a less cluttered bedroom that's all about the sleeping (and perhaps more athletic pursuits...it's been a while!). For the past few years since I've been living back at my parents (darn busted knee!) my room has pretty much been an apartment in it's own right. It's a large room, with a full-sized fridge and with a kettle, most of my non-working time is spent here. As such, it's usually a bit cluttered with whatever project is going on at the moment - my desk is generally a giant mess, no matter how many times a week it gets sorted out.


In my new apartment I'm not planning on having a desk in my room - I'm going to build a workstation to use on the dinner table or the breakfast bar. Easily cleared away, can go under my bed or into the storage cupboard to keep things presentable. Part of me wanting to have more of a social life, less of a stuck-in-my-room-painting life. This will definitely lead to me gaming more, which is something I've wanted for years! Expect battle reports here eventually!

Seeing in the new year...

Happy new year and good will to you all! I hope 2011 is a wonderful year for anyone who reads this. I have some major plans for this year - I hazard to say "resolutions", as I don't really believe in those (how often do people really do what they say in a New Years Resolution?), but these are a few of the things that I intend to do in the next year...

General Life

• Move back out of my parents - I moved home after living away at university for a few years due to a knee injury that required surgery. Now that I'm literally back on my feet, with a decent enough job and income, I can finally afford to move back out. Towards the end of January I'll be moving into a lovely apartment with my best mate (also called Chris).
• Build some self-esteem - the knee problem, and subsequent operations had meant that exercise was out of bounds and comfort eating often became the norm. I've already begun to eat healthily, but living in my own place will mean I'm able to cook meals more easily. I'm also moving to a different, larger town (a lot closer to work, shaving around an hour and a half off my travel time), with easier access to decently-priced gyms and swimming pools. Taking better care of myself and using the time saved by living in the town to do some exercise will mean that I lose the weight gained and generally feel better. 
• Get a social life - at the moment, I rarely get the chance to hang out with my good friends, or meet new people. I'm hoping to be able to do interesting things on my days off, meeting up with friends for drinks and good food, cinema, games nights and the like. I can't remember the last time I met a girl that I was genuinely interested in, so hopefully the change of location and the self-esteem building should facilitate that...

Wargames-wise

• Play more games - I say "more", but just playing a game a month would be superb. My games board is built and I have a decent amount of terrain and a massive amount of painted miniatures. I'm hoping to sort out games with my normal gaming partner, some Space Hulk with my new housemate (he's not a gamer, but the boardgame-esque format will interest him) and maybes the roleplaying nights with a wider group of friends. 
• Plan armies before painting begins - I've always been more of a modeller and painter than a gamer, so this is quite new to me. I can write an armylist, but it's one of my least favourite parts of the hobby. Despite this, I think setting targets of 250/500pts and then rewarding myself with something "special" would spur me on to get working my way through the lead and plastic mountain. 
• Sell what I don't need - I'm sure to have a good few boxes of stuff that I have no need for - they could go in a fund for the things that would come in handy.
• Painting - there are a couple of things I want to change here. Generally, I'm happy with my painting style. I do like it dark and gritty! It suits most of the genres I paint things for. As for the tools of the trade - I've recently come to the conclusion that I don't take enough care of my brushes. I do store them upright, but I often use my normal brushes to mix paint - not conducive to having a healthy brush. So last night, after the clock struck 12, I had a tidy out and threw away a bunch of older knackered brushes, washing out all of my remaining brushes properly. I used a mild detergent, but I'm going to invest in some brush soap and also some new brushes. 

Well, that's about it - feel free to make a comment if you have any suggestions!