The Butterfly's Tally 2023

Happy New Year! As is tradition, the start of a year calls for reflection on the past and for plans on what to do in the upcoming cycle around the sun. I'm really quite happy with what I have achieved in 2023 and am looking forward to the projects in 2024!

Pict 1404: Sanguinius leading the Blood Angels

The Hobby Tally 2023

So to have a look back, this is what I set out to do at the start of the year and how I did:

• Paint and play at least the first of the two Cursed City expansions (it's only 6 miniatures: 3 giant bats, Radukar the Beast, Lady Annika and Carmilla DuSang)
• I managed to paint all of these, but decided against playing just the one expansion. Ideally I'd like to start a fresh campaign with both expansions painted.
  I did, however, play one session over Halloween, which was great!

Pict 1405: Cursed City Villains of 2023

• Paint 5 Infinity miniatures and play a game with them
• In the end I painted 11 Infinity miniatures and even had a few games scheduled in, but they all did not work out in the end. I will have to be better with getting together with people to play these games!

Pict 1406: Haqqislam, Dahshat and Kaplans of 2023

• Paint 10 MESBG miniatures
• I painted 16 MESBG miniatures - not as many as in prior years, but I'm still happy with them! Again, having a game scheduled makes for great motivation to paint at least some of the miniatures you need.

Pict 1407: Mordor Orcs and Rohan Heroes of 2023

• Paint 3 more tiles of the modular gaming board as well as the rest of the Garden of Morr (that's 6 pieces of wall)
• This is probably the biggest achievement of this year! I'm super glad to have finished a 4x4 gaming board and the Garden of Morr pieces. I still have quite a few more pieces of terrain fitting in with the collection, but I can play games at home, which is amazing.

Pict 1408: Garden of Morr Scenery 2023

• Paint at least 100 miniatures in total
• 100 is always a good and round number to aim for and of course I managed to smash this goal as well with 176 miniatures painted in total!

Looking at these resolutions and my way of achieving them makes me really happy. I did not go for to many specific projects because I know, I will get distracted over the course of the year. What could have gone better is gaming – while certainly also a question of free time, I could have been more agressive in getting together with friends. But in the final days of the year I managed to get to hobby club about an hour away and get in my first Heresy game. I do hope to contiune this trend!

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

Other Big Projects of this Year

Pict 1409: Horus Heresy Blood Angels of 2023

I added quite a bit to my Blood Angels army this year: Aster Crohne, 1 Consul, 10 Mortalis Destroyers, 5 Assault Destroyers as Zephon's retinue, 1 Castra Ferrum Dreadnought, 15 Inductii Despoilers, 10 Scouts, 15 Assault Marines, 1 Rhino, 6 Seekers, 1 Avenger Strike Fighter and of course Sanguinius!
All in all 67 miniatures – quite the collection seeing it tallied up like this!

Pict 1410: Tyranids of 2023

With the new models coming for the tenth edition of 40k, I also did some work on my Tyranids. While I'm still not that enamoured with 40k, these were quite fun to get back to.

Pict 1411: Badab Enforcers of 2023

I have gotten quite a good start to a Necromunda collection without even intending to do so. I plan to use these as the bad guys in a Inquisitor game but they could also see use as a Badab War Kill Team. I should really get onto painting the Inquisitor, the retinue and some more terrain I have sloted for that project...

Hobby Plans for 2024

Which brings me nicely to the plans for the coming year. I will once again try to not be too specific and be ok with getting distracted. I also want to try and not get to swept up an the hype of new miniatures and get to the projects I already have at home. And I do want to play more games

• Paint 2 pieces of terrain each for the SciFi and the Fantasy collection
  
• Finish up the Cursed City collection. This is 10 Grave Guard, 5 Direwolves, 3 Vargheists and a Necromancer – 19 miniatures in total, the should be doable!
  
• Once again paint more than 100 miniatures
  
• Lastly, make a concerted effort to buy less new stuff, paint the stuff I have and play with it
   

Finishing up a few projects and starting new ones

These past two weeks I managed to finish up a few more small projects for a variety of game systems: painting a squad of Blood Angels Seekers, refurbishing some Hormagaunts and finally highlighting my remaining Sepulchral Guard models and a Wight King for my collection of undead models.

Pict 1348: Blood Angels Seekers

Pict 1349: Blood Angels Seekers

The first few miniatures I finished this week were these Seekers for my Heresy Blood Angels. Usually I like my units to be in a consistend armour mark, but I can imagine the Seekers using the cobbled together MK V whilst scouting ahead of the main army. I might build some more of them to fill out the squad with more of the special ammunition Bolter or Combi-weapons. But for now, they are done and there a q lot more Marines built and ready for a lick of paint.

Pict 1350: Tyranid Hormagaunts

Pict 1351: Tyranid Hormagaunts

Last weekend I played my first game of tenth edition 40k. It was great fun, to take the Tyranids out of their box again. I think my last game of 40k was right at the start of 8th edition, so it must have been sometime six years ago. My opponent hadn't played even longer. So it took us some time to figure out what we were doing, but in the end it was quite fun and did feel appropriately 40k.

Anyways, my bugs sustained some dings and scratches during their slumber. So I set out to refurbish them somewhat and started with these Hormagaunts. Whilst I was ironing out the dings and scratches I also updated the markings on the carapace to bring them up to speed a bit. If I find myself playing more 40k I will have to get eight more models to fill out the squad. And of course, they still suffer from the falling disease of all Hormagaunts so I might have to get myself some fitting washers to put under the base.

Pict 1352: Wight King and Sepulchral Guard

Pict 1353: Wight King and Sepulchral Guard

I also finished up this selection of skeletons. These poor miniatures sat in my box of current projects for over a year. And of course they were only missing the highlights! In the mean time the Wight King recieved some rules to use him in games of Cursed City, so after finishing the Vampires a few weeks back got him and the remaining four skeletons from the Sepulchral Guard higher up the queue. Still, nineteen more miniatures to paint to finish that second Cursed City expansion!

Pict 1354: Aeronautica Imperialis Xiphons

Lastly I started to prepare for Legiones Imperialis in the hopes that this new edition will be released soon. I managed to buy these Aeronautica Xiphons second-hand for a good price. They were already built quite nicely – only a few mold lines that had to be removed. The basecolours went on rather quickly after priming them. The 8mm scale is new to me, but I could get used to it! Next up will be an oil wash and some highlights to finish them up.

Tyranid Trygon and a Whole Bunch of Blood Angels

Not that much painting got finished these past three weeks, but one big boy at least: my ForgeWorld Trygon. I also slapped some paint on Seekers and Scouts for my Heresy Blood Angels and built a whole bunch power armoured marines.

Pict 1339: He's right behind me, isn't he?

Pict 1340: ForgeWorld Trygon

Pict 1341: ForgeWorld Trygon

Pict 1342: ForgeWorld Trygon

Pict 1343: ForgeWorld Trygon

The only miniature I finished is this Trygon. Really a beautiful miniature! However, the paint somehow really does not want to stick to the primer. I hope the varnish will keep it together! But I have also already prepared a foam storage solution.

Pict 1344: Blood Angels Seekers and Scouts (WIP)

Other than the Trygon, the only painting I did these past two weeks are the base colours and the oilwash on these Blood Angels. I converted the Seekers over a year ago, right as I got back into the Horus Heresy and Space Marines in general. By now, I have added in the limited edition Imperial Space Marine from 2016 as a sergeant since they are one of the few models that can actually take a Combi-Disintegrator that the model is equipped with.
The Scouts were done at the same time and I'm quite happy with the way they look already. They will be quite a neat unit once they are done! I particularly like the decal on the sergeant's power fist - really stupid to put a warning sign there, but very warhammer in my mind.

Pict 1345: Blood Angels Assault Destroyers (WIP)

Pict 1346: Blood Angels Mortalis Destroyers (WIP)

Pict 1347: Blood Angels Despoilers (WIP)

And here is the explanation for why I did not do that much painting: I went really hard into build mode. There are 20 Destroyers, 10 with Jumppacks and 10 without. To go with them, I also built the beautiful Forge World Moritat with the double Volkite Serpenta and converted up my version of Aster Crohne. Lastly there are 15 Despoilers to bolster my Troop choices and to make use of the new Inductii rules.

Mordor Orcs, Cursed City Vampires and a third Venomthrope

During the past two weeks, I painted quite a few Mordor Orcs including a Captain and two Warg Riders. I also finished the two Vampires from the first Cursed City expasion: Lady Annika and Carmilla DuSang. And while I did not paint any more Tyranids, I also converted a third metal Venomthrope to make them a legal unit in 10th edition.

Pict 1332: Mordor Orc Reinforcements

Pict 1333: Mordor Orc Captain, Orc Warriors, Warg Riders

Pict 1334: Mordor Orc Captain, Orc Warriors, Warg Riders

With some Middle-earth games going on, I got back to painting Mordor Orcs. The foot troops are all beautiful metal models that were originally released in 2001 and were availiable recently as a Made-to-order. Having painted them now, I have grown to love them even more. They are so characterfull. Especially the faces and helmets.
Same with the Warg Riders - the metal versions are vastly superior to the plastics and with a bit of converting, you so get some more poses that the three that were released. Here the one with the bow is the unaltered one, the shield bearer my conversion. I had converted these models and started to paint them in November 2021... really a good feeling to get them done now!

Pict 1335: Lady Annika and Carmilla DuSang

Pict 1336: Carmilla DuSang and Lady Annika

Pict 1337: Carmilla DuSang and Lady Annika

As a quick little project inbetween I painted the two Vampires I was still missing for the first Cursed City expansion. Two really great miniatures with completly different characters. I'm happy with the way they turned out. But I have to say, painting the faces was tricky behind the mask and the armour spikes respectively.
While I'd like to get these two on the table before long, I think I will paint up the models for the other expansion first. I'd like to start a new playthrough once I have all the minis together.

Pict 1338: Venomthrope (WIP)

I also got myself a second hand metal Venomthrope to make a legal unit. After dissasembling and removing the old paint, I went about converting a more dynamic pose. Cutting off the head and reattaching it on a slant unlocked the turning body and the tentacles simply fell into place. Now I want to get more even of them and make more cool poses... But first, I'll have to paint the bunch – we'll see, where the butterfly takes me next!

Screamer-Killer Carnifex

Only a small update today after the having cought up in the last one. I finished a Screamer-Killer to get back into painting Tyranids and made some good headway on the Trygon as well. I also converted five more Blood Angels Scouts and primed them up, ready to be painted.

Pict 1327: Screamer-killer Carnifex

Pict 1328: Screamer-killer Carnifex

Pict 1329: Screamer-killer Carnifex

Before taking my painting to the expensive ForgeWorld Trygon, I wanted to refamiliarise myself with the process. And of course I could not say no to the big boy of the new box and painted up a Screamer-Killer Carnifex. It's a neat miniature but in places you notice that it's easy-to-build / monopose. Nevertheless I'm quite happy with the way he came out using my Kraken scheme. While certainly not my best model of all time, it painted up quickly which is important when going for a big swarm of Tyranids!

Pict 1330: ForgeWorld Trygon (WIP)

The Trygon is also quite far along, with only the red stages of the carapace and some cleaning up left to do. Having painted the plasic version in the past, I have to say that the ForgeWorld mini really is miles above it in terms of details. There a virtually no flat surfaces so that everything looks suitably organic and like a living organism.

Pict 1331: Horus Heresy Blood Angels Scouts (WIP)

I also converted five more Scouts for the Blood Angels Legion – including some more funky hair styles and a Sergeant with a power fist and a hand flamer, just because it's cool. I also primed them all with the usual formula of black primer with a red zenithal. They should not take to long to paint but I might be distracted by the Tyranids for now...

Catching Up: 40k Terrain, Bats, Enforcers and Tyranids?!

So, my last post was a full four weeks ago! The Real Life™ really had its talons in me... Nevertheless, I managed to finish up a few things and and finally photograph them too: There are some Fronteris terrain pieces, reinforcements for my Badab Enforcers and Fell Bats for the Cursed City. And of course, the 40k hype train did not pass me by and I started to work on some old Tyranids.

Pict 1317: Badab Enforcers on Patrol

Pict 1318: Fronteris Landing Pad, STC Hab Bunker and Bastion Vox Array

Pict 1319: Fronteris Landing Pad, STC Hab Bunker and Bastion Vox Array

In my last post, I showd a WIP of some more 40k terrain. Shortly after this picture, I threw on an oilwash and once this had dried, put on some highlights with a sponge. And of course the finishing touch are the weathering powders. I'm really happy with these and look forward to playing a game of 30k or even 40k on them!

Pict 1320: Fell Bats

Pict 1321: Fell Bats

To get back into finishing up miniatures and highlighting (instead of just building and putting down base colours) I finished these three Fell Bats. Once again, these will be part of my Cursed City collection and do count towards my resolution of painting and playing at least of the expansions.

1322: Arachnos Rogue Dox and Orderlies, Badab Enforcers

Pict 1323: Arachnos Rogue Dox and Orderlies, Badab Enforcers

I also finished up these reinforcements for my Badab Enforcers. Once again painted to be usable as part of the Tyrant's Legion. Doctor Arachnos and especially his two cultist orderlies were a bit more of an experiment on what skin tone I could achieve with sponging and an oil wash. In the end they are a bit pale for my liking but I will call them done and be content for now.

Pict 1324: Horus Heresy Blood Angels Scouts (WIP)

Keeping with the Sci-Fi theme, I converted some Scouts for my Heresy Blood Angels. I removed the wings on their chestarmour and added some era appropriate bits such as the Thunder Edge pattern Chain Swords from the MK III kit as well as a Vexillum and a Nuncio Vox. I really like how the bare heads from the new MK VI kit look on the scout bodies. To avoid to may repeats, one of them got the obligatory Blood Angel boy band haircut.

Pict 1325: Wight King BSB (WIP)

Whilst building, I put together this Wight King BSB that was made by ForgeWorld. I recently got him in a bits lot fro really cheap sind he was missing one of the skeletons holding his banner. Thankfully a dive into the bits box rectifyed that vacancy quickly. I'm looking forward to putting paint on him; probably at the same time, I get to the Grave Guard needed for Cursed City.

Pict 1326: Trygon and Vernomthropes (WIP)

Lastly, the terrain was not the only thing that got me back into 40k. A new edition is always a chance to get back to some favourites. And of course, for me that's the Tyranids, the miniatures that started me on my hobby journey.

For now, there is not that much to show - just a base coated ForgeWorld Trygon and a pair of Venomthropes. The Trygon has sat in this state for years now and I really should do them the honor and get some paint on them. The Venomthopes probably were my first attempt at a conversion using metal miniatures. I'm surprised the hacked of and switched out tail of a Zoanthrope did not fall of as often as it did – back in the day I did not use pins between the bits! Anyways, I had taken them apart and stripped them a few years back. Redoing the conversion at my current skill level was really satisfying and I'm looking forward to painting them!

The Butterfly's Tally 2018

As I said last week, this will be a post to take a look back at 2018 and make some resolutions for this coming year. In between, I'll show what I got done in this first week of January

Pict 556: Tally 2018 - Tyranids

The Year in Review

Pict 557: Tally 2018 - Iron Hills

Pict 558: Tally 2018 - Hunter Orcs

First I want to look at my resolutions for 2018 again: I wanted to paint more Tyranids (check, but there are still some in a box...), Iron Hills Dwarves (check), Hunter Orcs (check even though it took pretty much the whole year), the Balin's Tomb Diorama (check) and the White Council in Dol Guldur Diorama (check), as well as a Shire force for Battle Companies (nope, but I did Arnor instead).

Pict 559: Tally 2018 - The White Council

Pict 560: Tally 2018 - Balin's Tomb

As you can see in the panel on the right, in the end I painted 232 models versus the 238 I bought. With that I added slightly to the pile of shame but I also managed to sell/give away quite a few. I didn't keep a tally on how far along the painting process any of these miniatures were, but I managed to get rid of 192 miniatures and thus reduced my pile considerably!

Pict 561: Tally 2018 - Arnor

With 45 posts over the year, I missed a few more weeks than the year before. Sometimes I just didn't have the time to paint during the week; others I missed because I was out of town and hadn't prepared a post. Still, I'm happy with the 45 posts as it is!

Pict 562: Tally 2018 - Illithid Raiding Party

Pict 563: Tally 2018 - Twilight Ringwraiths

Other than that here are some of my favourite projects of this year. Looking back through my posts, I really liked the Illithid Raiding Party, the Twilight Ringwraiths, Zuggtmoy and of course the add-on to my mounted Rohan army to make it ready for the new edition of the game.

Pict 564: Tally 2018 - Zuggtmoy

Pict 565: Tally 2018 - Rohan Army Additions

This Week's Painting

Pict 566: Rangers of the North (WIP)

This week however I only managed to get a bit further along with the Rangers of the North. Now the base colours are all down and the washes are dry. With only the highlighting left to do, I hope to have them done next week. I also added in two miniatures of Aragorn in similar clothes. And since I plan on using him with the others, I also changed his usual scheme and gave one of them the black livery my other Arnorians have.

Plans for the Future

Lastly I want to make a few plans for this year and write up my new year's resolutions for 2019. I want to continue with the Middle-Earth miniatures and right now, I'm most excited about the new miniatures I showed before priming a few weeks back. One thing I'm really missing however is an evil army from the Lord of the Rings era. To remedy that I collected Easterlings and Khandish Warriors. Beyond that, I feel that I painted very little for other systems other than the Middle-Earth SBG and I want to change that by doing the Haqqislam and more heroes and monsters for D&D. Both should challenge me the former because it's clean Sci-Fi and the latter by being very divers. And lastly there are those Ruins of Osgiliath still waiting in a box unser my table...

Pict 567: Haqqislam, Khand, Rhûn, Rivendell (WIP)

So, all in all here are my resolutions: I will paint an all mounted Rivendell army with dismounts, an army of evil men from Rhûn and Khand, at least 20 miniatures for D&D, my set of Osgiliath-Ruins and my Haqqislam army for Infinity. At the end of the year I want to have bought less miniatures than I painted and I will also attempt to paint a total of 365. We'll see if I can make it this year!
As for the blog itself: Since I missed some weeks, esspecially towards the end of the year, I'll change my posting shedule to every other week. Other than that I plan to go ahead as before with pictures of my painted miniatures and of the ones that stand unfinished on my table.