End of the Year, 2020

I didn't score a Bingo on the wargame hobby bingo card, but I came pretty close. Here's a look back at my projects of 2020, and a look forward to what's in store for 2021.

 

 
Convert a Model Into a Different Unit or Character–

I converted an old-school Necron Lord into a Necron Overlord with a kit-bashed warscythe. I had put these pictures on Twitter, but I don't believe I've ever showed it on this blog.

 

 

Add a New Unit and Paint it before Using it on the Battlefield–

Convert a Model–

The Necron Deathmarks and Immortals check these two boxes.

 

I had also posted a tutorial about cutting and re-posing Necron Warriors. I spent a few hours painting them up so I could move them to the "finished" column on my painting queue.

 

 

The New edition of 40K was released, along with a new Necron codex, but due to the pandemic, I haven't been out to play a game nearly all year. So, I didn't bother picking up the new 40K rules or the codex. I haven't gotten any of the new Necron models, in fact, choosing to focus on my Nighthaunt army and scenery projects instead.

Scratch-build a Piece of Scenery–

Build a Scenery Kit–

My watchtower was a fun scratch-build project, and the Charnel Throne was a (mostly) stock-built scenery kit.

 

 

 

Build and Paint Three Pieces of Scenery, Themed to Match the Same Battlefield–

The statue garden and house are two pieces, and for the third, I'm counting the stand-alone plinths from my Tombs of Tithing.

 

 

 

Make a 2' x 2' Battlefield Section or Army Display Board–

 

The X-Mansion display board that I made for Atomic Mass Games fits the bill nicely.

 

 

Make Something For Your Hobby That's Not for the Battlefield–

 

As my Nighthaunt army has grown, I've needed a solution for transporting them. Foam trays with all the spindly, pointy bits don't really work, and the time to unload them and set up before a game was really becoming a drag. So, I made a set of magnetized movement trays and carrying cases.

 

 

Paint a Monster–

 

I've struggled with this square every year. I'm basically full-up on my monster quota for the Legions of Nagash, and the Nighthaunt don't have any monstrous creatures to speak of. With this Verminlord completed, I'm out of monsters for my Skaven, too. Here's hoping there's a new zombie dragon or something if there's an undead release so I'll have a monster to paint next year.

 

 

Build and Paint a Thematic Marker to Represent a Spell, Etc.–

The endless spells are a nice fit for this square. I built two of the three Flesh-eater Courts endless spells. I'm not sure what I'll do with those horses from the Corpsemare Stampede...

 

 

 

 

Paint a Unit and Add Scenic Bases–

The Myrmourn Banshees all come with modeled scenic bases. I had to do a little work so they would match the rest of my army, but retained much of the original detail.

 

 

Finish Painting a Model That's Been in Your To-Do Pile for More Than a Year–

I didn't touch these Spirit Hosts for all of 2019, so this seemed like as good a time as any to finally finish them.

 

I painted a big chunk of my Nighthaunt collection this year, and even entered it in GW's Armies on Parade competition.

 

 

With the exception of these last 12 Glaivewraith Stalkers, I've completed all of my Nighthaunt troops. I'm trying to finish them before the end of the year, but at this rate I probably won't make it. (First thing in 2021, though!) Then I'll start in on the remaining characters from the Soul Wars box, Kurdoss Valentian, and the Black Coach.

 

 

One project that I didn't get to this year was the Gaslands cars. I was all set to paint up a group of cars (I even printed stickers to make some Gaslands dice!), but Covid put the breaks on going to the shop, so Gaslands fell by the wayside. Maybe next year...

Something I'd definitely like to finally tackle next year is my Primaris Space Marine force. I think I have found a solution to painting yellow quickly– This figure was primed with GW Wraithbone, then sprayed with Tamiya Camel Yellow. I followed that with a spray of Testors Dullcote so the surface wouldn't be to slick for the wash, and shaded it all with GW Cassandora Yellow straight from the pot. This gave the armor a nice yellow-orange tone. All it really needs is black-lining between the armor plates, and some edge highlighting, but the work of painting and shading the base yellow went super quickly. I'll be sure to post a proper tutorial on this when I finish them.

 

 

Once I've painted some Imperial Fists and topped off my Nighthaunt, maybe I'll start in on a Flesh-eater Courts army. I need to take a new full-army photo of my Legion of the Infernal Skull, and I've been toying with the idea of playing a huge Death vs Skaven 10,000+ point battle report while I have it all out on the table. I had been considering whether I should play an End Times battle using the 8th edition Warhammer rules, or another scenario using the Age of Sigmar rules. I think I've settled on Age of Sigmar so that I can use all of the Endless spells. Plus, at this stage, I'm so far removed from the old Fantasy rules that it would be like starting from scratch! I've also got a lot of great ideas for projects from all of you, and I'll try to get to as many as I can.

 

Here's the Wargame Hobby Bingo card so you can try your hand at it in 2021:

 

'Til next year!