The Butterfly's Hobby Tally 2025

Happy New Year! It took me some time to get this tally of my hobby activities together. But now I invite you to have both a look back and a look ahead with me!

Pict 1606: Legions Imperialis Blood Angels Army for A Sector Ablaze

The Hobby Tally 2025

As always, I will start by having a look at what I set out to do at the beginning of the year. I had three goals lined up: 

• Paint 2 pieces of terrain each for the SciFi and the Fantasy collection
• I did finish both the fallen head for my Amon Hen table as well as a Cottage made by ForgeWorld. I did, however, not paint any Sci-Fi related terrain. So halfway there!

• Once again paint more than 100 miniatures.
• Smashed it mate! The final tally stands at 219 finished miniatures. Quite an impressive number and the highest since 2020! One additional stat: I posted 169 pictures to this blog and of course took loads more.

•  And again, buy less new stuff, paint the stuff I have and most importantly play with it!
•  While I did buy quite a bit more stuff, I'll still count this goal as mostly fullfilled. Mainly because I really did paint a lot and because I'm happy with the amount of gaming.

Again, if you want so look back at my painting progress of previous years, here are the links to the tallies of the past: The Tally 2017, The Tally 2018, The Tally 2019, The Tally 2020, The Tally 2021, The Tally 2022, The Tally 2023, The Tally 2024

Looking back through notable projects of 2025

• Scenery: The two terrain pieces I finished this year: the head from Amon Hen and a simple Cottage. I quite like the both of them, but I yet have to play a game with them. I really should paint up the Amon Hen ruin and make a board to play the narrative scenarios!

Pict 1529: Amon Hen Statue Head

Pict 1560: Warhammer Forge Cottage

•  Legions Imperialis at Warhammer World: One of the highlights of the year has to be going to Warhammer World for the first time and playing in the A Sector Ablaze narrative event. Winning a trophy for my objective markes was the cherry on top!

Pict 1607: Legions Imperialis Blood Angels Army for A Sector Ablaze

Pict 1612: Legions Imperialis Forward Operating Bases and Trophy from Warhammer World

• Heresy at home and abroad: During the same trip to Great Britain, I also got to play in the Discordia narrative event in London. I painted quite a few additional Blood Angels both for this event and the tournaments and narrative games at home! I still have yet to try out Heresy 3.0 and my painting progress has stalled after its release. Right now, I'm focused on small scale Heresy to scratch that sci-fi itch however.

Pict 1617: Horus Heresy Blood Angels Army for Discordia

• DreadTober: Speaking of, this year's DreadTober project of two Reaver Titans and a bunch of magnetized weapon option fits right into the Epic Heresy. I feel like I stepped up my game, especially with the additional decals on them. I really should try and get them to a gaming table!

Pict 1664: Legio Solaria Reaver Titans

• Adeptus Titanicus: In addition to the two Reavers, I also did some good work for the Legio Solaria with four Warhounds. And I painted some of their retainers, the Knights of House Procon Vi with four Cerastus Lancer Knights and four Atropos Knights.

Pict 1535: Blood Angels Tacticals advancing with Cerastus Lancer Support 

Pict 1546: Legio Solaria Warhound Titan on the Prowl

Pict 1563: Legio Solaria Warhounds

Pict 1655: House Procon Vi Cerastus Knight Atrapos

• Ents: Lastly, for Middle-earth I painted two more Ents – one Birch and the third character, Beechbone. I played them in one tournament and had great fun beating up a whole load of orcs while doing so!

Pict 1579: Ent

Pict 1631: Beechbone

Hobby Plans for 2026

Looking ahead, I don't have a specific project in mind. But I want to try and focus on playing and reducing my backlog again. So the three simple goals are:

• Once again paint more than 100 miniatures.
• Paint the stuff I have and buy fewer new miniatures.
• And most importantly have fun and play with my miniatures.

 

An Old Cottage on Old Stuff Day

Finally Old Stuff Day falls on a Sunday and thus on my usual blogging day. This means, in addition to show of a bit of what I did during the last week, I also get to put a spotlight on some old posts of mine as well as those of other bloggers!

Pict 1560: Warhammer Forge Cottage

Pict 1561: Warhammer Forge Cottage

First up, however, is the one miniature I finished since my last post: To do something completly different to my Blood Angels, I painted up this Cottage made by ForgeWorld for Warhammer Fantasy. I painted it using my usual recipe to go with my other Fantasy terrain. I really like the simplicity of the sculpt. It does not even have any skulls mandatory for later Warhammer sets, so it will fit nicely on a table used for games of Middle-earth SBG.

Pict 1562:  Legio Solaria Warhounds, House Procon Vi Cerastus Lancers (WIP)

And to show of what else I have been doing: The Legio Solaria Warhounds and the Cerastus Knights have had the base colours finished as well as the decals and the oil wash. Once the latter has fully dried, the Titans and Knights should be done quite quickly.

Man, it was great fun to think about blogs and specific blog posts that I liked during the last few years. I also scrolled through some of my favourite blogs, which was a very enjoyable evening. Please do have a look at some of these posts and maybe give these blogs a follow if you don't already!

 Old School Gaming - Forest Dragon

Marc's blogposts are always a delight, but I really loved the Wood Elf Highborn riding on the classic Forest Dragon he painted a few years back. The colours are super smooth and vibrant and the base uses a lot of different textures including some seeds that look a bit like dragon eggs.

Chucking Monkeys - Carnifex in Drop Pod

While I'm not painting any Tyranids right now and I don't really plan to, I think about this conversion every once in a while. Actually putting a Carnifex into the Tyranid Drop Pod is such a cool idea. It really makes you see how the miniature works within the world.

Confessions of a 40k addict - Devilgants

40kaddict really is a prolific blogger and his Tyranids are iconic. Once you see them, you will always recognise them! The linked post shows a group of Termagants armed with Devourers – my favourite load out when I started playing them, even if it doubled their points costs.

Kaiju Country - Imperator Titan Build

Goddenzilla's Imperator Titan build is an amazing read and I highly recommend the whole series. This particular post shows his process of detailing the immense engine and in particular the build of the head.

Rob Hawkins - Skaven Orrery

Another great project log that follows an amazing build. Rob's skill in utilising the Citadel plastic parts, combining them and adding in his own parts is such an inspiration!

262nd Death Korps of Krieg - Reaver Titans

After getting into Adeptus Titanicus recently, I went back through DAM's posts of Titans to look for inspiration on posing mine. They were some of the first posts on the blog that I read and I still love DAM's use of colours and his basing!

Death of a Rubricist - History of the Leman Russ

Speaking of small scale miniatures, I love this look back through the history of the Leman Russ. Before reading, I had no idea how many different miniatures were released for it. Its a fun design exercise to compare the details through the various iterations.

Würfelwiese - Acastus Knight Porphyrion

I really like Würfelwiese's painting style, the colours are always so strong and the contrast with with shadows really makes them pop. The Knight in the linked post is also impressivly weathered and the addition of a Techpriest on the base really sells the size of the engine.

Omnissiah's Skunkworks - Replicating Reavers

Carl only recently migrated his website to blogger and I'm very happy that the beautiful Titans (especially the Legio Solaria) still have a place on the internet. One of his current projects is to rebuild a classic Titanicus army from White Dwarf with modern plastic kits.

Nicky Grillet - The Wandering Ruins

Nicky also recently revived the blogging on her website. I love the mood she packs into her miniatures and her terrain. Looking through her pictures is always an inspiration!

And to advertise some of my own goods as well, here are three posts that I am particularly proud of:

Building an Uruk-hai army like it's 2001

I'm still very proud of my full metal Uruk-hai Scout army and have recently taken it out to play some games with it. To have a bit more versatility when list building, I have contemplated converting some more Scouts without any equipment, but for now the blogpost from five years ago is still a good representation of this collection!

Cursed City completed

This one really is one of my greates accompishements! I love the look of all the completed miniatures and I really would like to play another campaign. I'm still missing some more miniatures for the expansions but with all the stuuf I have on my desk right now, I don't see myself painting them in the next little while. Still, getting to look at these pictures brings me joy!

Converted Mordor Troll Chieftain

Lastly, this big guy in probably my best conversion to date. It really pushed my ability to use green stuff and I'm still very happy with it. It's a bit sad, that I can't really use him in a legal list right now. But I could see myself getting some Morannon Orcs to revive my Black Gate army.

Starting up Legions Imperialis

One last post for 2023: December really flew by and with the holidays left little time for the hobby. Nevertheless I managed to make a good start on Legions Imperialis with a small scale version of my Blood Angels. I even managed to play a first game of LI and a first game of Heresy! These inspired me to build some more minis for these systems. But I also finished some of the Vampires and assorted undeads.

Pict 1392: Legions Imperials Blood Angels

Pict 1393: Legions Imperialis Blood Angels Contemptors

These four Contemptors were the first miniatures I painted for the Legions Imperialis version of my Blood Angels. I love these miniatures! Of course, I like the Contemptor chassis. But they really did a great job to recreate them in the small scale and still give them a good range of motion and easy dynamic poses. Painting them pretty much took only an evening for all steps, so I can really see myself painting these LI miniatures quite fast.

Pict 1394: Legions Imperialis Blood Angels Legion Command

Pict 1395: Legions Imperialis Blood AngelsTactical Legionaries

Pict 1396: Legions Imperialis Blood AngelsTactical Legionaries

Pict 1397: Legions Imperialis Blood AngelsTactical Legionaries

Pict 1398: Legions Imperialis Blood AngelsTactical Legionaries

The Legions Imperialis Space Marine infantry is also really nice. I did some carving to improve the undercuts, but really you do not have to do this make them look good on the table. That work will only ever really be noticed on pictures magnifying the models beyond what you would usually see.
Anyways, I decided against painting them unassembled – the power armour leaves just enough room to get the brush in and I'm quite happy with the way they came out. The hardest part really were the eyelenses - that's the first time I acually used a maginfying glass to see what I'm doing! And even now, the blown up pictures show all that went wrong. But I don't mind, you'd never see them during play.

Pict 1399: Winged Vampire, Bastet and the Werefox

In the end I only managed to finish up the winged Vampire, the two versions of Bastet and the Werefox during December. The other Vampires and the Necormancer are still waiting for the highlights. I will really have to make an effort next year to finish all of these started and abandoned projects...

Pict 1400: Blood Angels Tartaros Terminators, Moritat and Contemptor (WIP)

I also got to building some more Blood Angels in the big scale. The Contemptor is geared for anti-tank with a Lascannon and a Chainfist – same as the Moritat, who would also like to open up some cans with his two Infernopistols. The two Tartaros Terminators are the start of a big squad. I used the ForgeWorld Iliastus Assault Cannons with the Cataphractii arms and put them on the heavy weapon arms that would usually hold the Tartaros' Auto Cannons. The Tartaros Praetor only got a helmet to keep that face safe even when fighting in space!

Pict 1401: Legions Imperialis Blood Angels Thunderhawk (WIP)

Pict 1402: Legions Imperialis Blood Angels Thunderhawk Conversion (WIP)

Pict 1403: Legions Imperials Blood Angels Fire Raptors (WIP)

Lastly, since I planned an Aerial Assault formation to start Legions Imperialis, here some planes. I really love the Thunderhawk model – they are so big in comparison! And of course I would probably never get them for the 28mm collection. I also was inspired by Chaosbunker's Thunderhawk conversion and decided to recreate the open front hatch.
The Fire Raptors had their cupolas magnetised, even if it look like I will probably only use the Lascannons in LI. But I might play them in Aeronautica and then would want the options. Anyways it was quite fun little project using small steel ball bearings in the cupolas and a magnet inside the hull right between them.

Infinity Mercenaries: Kaplan Tactical Service

November once again provided very little hobby time, so this post will be a quick catch-up. I managed tp finish a small project for Infinity: a company of Kaplan Mercenaries. I also did a little bit more work on the Oldhammer undead miniatures I had started at the start of the month.

Pict 1389: Kaplan Mercenary Company

Pict 1390: Kaplans, Yuan Yuan, Ghulam and the Yu Jing Ambassador HVT

One of my friends is really into the Mercenaries game mode for Infinity and has been trying to get me paint up a team as well. I had an old box of the Kaplan Tactical Service and took the opportunity to paint them in different (but similar) colours to my usual Haqqislam/Dashat Company collection. Besides the Kaplans I also added in a Yuan Yuan, a Ghulam and an HVT to round out a small 100 point list. I'm really happy to have this use for the Ghulams - I already have six with this exact load out in older poses painted.

Pict 1391: Vampires, Necromancer, Werefox and Cats (WIP)

I also worked on the Undeads from last post - they are now basecoated and had a wash. Highlighting them and doing the detail work should not take to long!

Blood Angel Mortalis Destroyers and Aster Crohne

During these past two weeks I managed to finish up all the Blood Angels for my tournament list, that is the ten Destroyers and their Rhino. I also put the finishing touches on my rendition of Aster Crohne. I then converted more Blood Angels heroes and started on some more Undead miniatures.

Pict 1383: Blood Angels Mortalis Destroyers and Rhino

Pict 1384: Blood Angels Mortalis Destroyers and Aster Crohne

First up, here are the ten Mortalis Destroyers as well as Aster Crohne. I really like how they came out! The Destroyers use a bit of a darker red. Combined with the black panels, this really makes the gold and green details stand out! Aster Crohne is also very nice. I pushed the contrast on the gold this time around and I have to say it does pop more than with my ususal recipe. I might have to get myself some Destroyers to swap out the special weapons for flamers since Crohne gives them a boost...

Pict 1385: Blood Angels Rhino with Reinforced Armour

Pict 1386: Blood Angels Rhino with Reinforced Armour

I'm also very happy with the way this Rhino came out. As with Crohne, I pushed the contrast on the gold. Other than that the big panes were quite fun to weather. It has been quite a long time since I last painted a vehicle and I could see myself doing more of them. Besides the Dreadnought Drop Pod I have still on my table there are also two more for Infantry.
Anyways, this meant I managed to paint every model I neede for the tournament, only to get sick a few days out preventing me from going. Next time it is then...

Pict 1387: Blood Angels Librarian Conversion, Raldoron and Vigilator (WIP)

After finishing everything I needed for the tournament, I went back into build mode and did these three heroes for my Blood Angels. The Vigilator is pretty much stock with only a little bit of green stuff to elevate the helmet a bit. Same goes for Raldoron – here, I removed the sculted blood from the blade and of course I also gave him a helmet. I realised that the Blood Angels Preator in power armour uses a helmet that is based of an illustration of Raldoron and so I had to behead my painted Praetor... He'll be getting a new head as well. The Librarian is based on the model for Ahzek Ahriman, I still had from my Betrayal at Calth box. I used plastic Mk IV head and torso and removed a lot of the sculpted detail. I really like the clean look I've achieved and very much look forward to paiting these three!

Pict 1388: Warhammer Vampires through the Ages

Lastly I also played a short introductory session of Cursed City on Halloween which reminded me of all those beautiful miniatures I want to paint for my Undead collection. I got the project box out and selected a few miniatures to paint up next. They come from various eras – the Vampires and the Werefox are from the Night Horrors line from the late 80s/early 90s; the metal Neferata and her cat Bastet are from the 6th edition Vampires whilst the plastic Necromancer is a modern sculpt from the 8th edition. Ever since the plastic Neferata was released during the End Times, I wanted to convert her on foot. I've had the bits, including a scond hand Yvraine, for quite some time now and after fiddling with the Librian, I also started outlining this conversion – the next step will be the green stuffing and some minor details.