Hobby Season To Do List 2026/27

 Season of Amber 

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #warhammercommunity having covered my achievements over the past hobby season, it's now that I look forward to the new one.

Last season I streamlined my TO DO LIST and this is even thinner on the ground. The thing is all the 40k miniatures just seem redundant given how little we play. And with my knights just done they will be my priority if we actually do, so why would I need anything else? I've also found myself in positions when I've been ambushed by my gaming crew to paint something. Often those unexpected items [in my painting area] have filled me with a huge sense of satisfaction. But when I have my own stuff to do I've been pushing back. So, I need space to fit those items in rather than say "no". But the items I have kept on the list are being painted for the joy of the hobby, hobby points and to reduce the pile of shame. So they are valid reasons enough, even if they never get played with.

Hobby health and wellbeing

As previous years I am going to begin with these two items, which are enshrined as the most important things TO DO every season…

• Develop a more healthy hobby/life balance - go to bed at a decent hour[ish]
• 1:30am is the latest, but try for 1:00am
• 8 hours of sleep a month to be the majority, not minority over the season
• Continue to play games, they bring me so much joy and fun...
  
• Continue with battle records - to help document that joy and fun without feeling obligated or guilty about not sharing every detail

Adeptus Titanicus

2 and 3 will be my #DreadTober pledge, but I might have to throw some other things in the mix.

1. Adeptus Titanicus MDF terrain, I think there's a total of 8 buildings and ruins to finish detailing and paint. These are my priority for the beginning of the season as I need the space they take up on the shelf.
2. Project W
3. Project AP

MESBG 

• Boromir on horse

Terrain

• TT Combat MDF terrain build and film
• MESBG terrain

Imperial Knights

I like painting these, they're fun and different. It would be nice to finish all these off. I'd quite like a Typhus and an Icon Bearer to join the mix too.

1. Imperial Navigator
2. 'Sir Hekhtur'
3. 2x Knight Pilots
4. Adeptus Mechanicus Rangers

Death Guard

I like painting these, they're fun and different. It would be nice to finish all these off. I'd quite like a Typhus and an Icon Bearer to join the mix too.

1. Gellerpox Infected
2. Poxwalkers
3. Myphitic Blight Hauler

Dark Angels

I've still done nothing on my Indomitus Dark Angels and they will probably remain on hold, with only the Lion and Sammael as priority and those two tanks... well it'll be one or the other:

1. Dark Angel - The Lion [it's the only thing part painted, wouldn't take too long to finish off so may well finally get done this season]
2. Dark Angel - Sammael on Jetbike [rumour has it a new plastic one is coming, this could be a waste of time. No wonder I have little enthusiasm for painting it].
3. Dark Angel - Old skool Crayola Whirlwind, or
4. Dark Angel - Proteus Land Raider
5. Ballistus Dreadnought?

Tyranids

I don't really have much to paint. It might be nice to rebase another 20 gaunts but realistically it probably won't happen

1. Deathleaper [I got the new one]
2. Rebase 20x Termagants

ArmiesOnParade

• 2026 - Who knows? There's no plans been revealed. I had an idea of what I was going to do. Adeptus Titanicus for the no board category and Goblin Town for the board category. But with Liverpool saying they've been told nothing and hosting a Combat Patrol Parade, which I haven't been able to join in with it seems as if AoP is stuffed this year. So sad after such an improvement in 2025.

Turnip28

Maybe finish that squad of chaff, it might not take as much effort as I think...

The Big Build 

Continues, this season. The principle is sound and pays dividends with those items that tend to be off-list that get built through to painting and completion. Yet again I did not get to build the two Dark Angel tanks last season. They've been delayed for so long apparently enough is not enough. Getting them built will at least mean they're ready to be painted. But as they are proper Legends now what is the point? I've so much new Mechanicum stuff maybe that's where my focus should be, rather than continuously kicking this can down the road. 

• Boromir on horse
• Dark Angel - Crayola Whirlwind, or
• Dark Angel - Proteus Land Raider
• Dark Angel - Sammael on Jetbike

I've had a number of items that I classed as pipe dreams, both painting and building and instead of keeping them here for the records I'll refer back to a previous season should I need them next season. 

So that's my 2026/27 list, much simpler but how will I know when I'm satisfied? Well I have my hobby points to do that now. The goal is 100 points, which [looking back] I've never missed. But even so, whatever I do is enough. The TO DO LIST is not a stick to beat myself with, it's just there to help direct my efforts. All the best for your own efforts this season.

Hobby Season 2025/26 Review

Afternoon #warhammercommunity The 2025/26 Hobby Season (the Season of Chrome) draws to a close, and how did I do? So lets start with my first task:

Develop a more healthy hobby/life balance - go to bed at a decent hour[ish]   

I keep saying I need to work on this! And it's the same story this season. 10/12 months have been over 7.5 hours sleep. With one month just below and one month 8 hours 11. But  I've had months of 1:00 to 1:50am bed times and even strayed into 2:00am territory. I genuinely thought I'd set a limit on those, setting 1:30 as the absolute latest as a rarity. But I can't seem to bring it down. So, I will re-commit to this promise - I will try to make 8 hours the goal.

Continue to play games, they bring me so much joy and fun...

We continue to play so many games in Otty's shed. It's the absolute highlight of the week and I was so chuffed that Tyler got to join us for a game.

And Woll was back as well. These selfie pics bring me so much joy and happiness.

And then we only went and won Shed of the Year 2026. It's testament to the great space Otty [and friends] built that was acknowledged by the judges. 

But, onto the hobby, and first of the season was some Crisis Protocol/Legion terrain 13 models [41 hobby points]. A great start and these look great in our Star wars Legion games.

Another 6 'Bento boxes' were added shortly after. I counted them as just 2 hobby points [43 hobby points]

I followed that with finishing off my Adeptus Titanicus force, with 2 Cerastus Knight Atrapos.

And 4 Adeptus Titanicus Questoris Knights. Trying to match my existing 40k Knights, plus a completely new Questoris scheme.

I then added and Adeptus Titanicus Warlord Titan 1

And Adeptus Titanicus Warlord Titan 2, alongside additional weapon options. 10pts for the Titan and its normal compliment of weapons. Then I did 8 additional weapons, which I treated as 1 point each making 18 points, which brings me up to 83 points for the season so far.

For Christmas I got a wealth of 3D printed terrain for MESBG with these Middle Earth Osgiliath Ruins - Tower and corner ruin

 

Middle Earth Osgiliath Ruins - Viaduct and ruin

Middle Earth Osgiliath Ruins - Cliff Ruin

They do look pretty awesome on Otty's boards.

I then added another set Adeptus Titanicus cream battlefield assets to match Liam's army and standout on different battlefields.

It also included a set of 'steampunk' fire arcs, which I love 😍

This Death Guard Space Marine 'Hero' had been knocking around for ages. So close to complete it just needed a little push to get it over the edge.

And Tha missing Goblin Town goblin turned up under the hobby table, so he was completed too. Quick projects to cleanse the palette before bigger challenging tasks.

Now, these 6 extra Warlord Titan Weapons [well 4 and 2 Warglaive Melta Lances] may not look like a big job, but alternate weapons always feel like a chore.

Even if they look awesome when they get used.

With the success of the Space Marine hero, I decided to finish off the Death Guard Myphitic Blight Hauler. Candidate for model of the Season? I mean it's just gorgeously disgusting. So much so I got a second one, which will no doubt sit for a few years waiting to be painted!

Star Wars Legion Geonosians These were a 'trap'! Liam ambushed me with them and I went through a variety of ideas for colour schemes until I settled on the super-bright synthwave approach. These might be the other nominee for models of the year [69 models so far].

I was then tasked with painting some additional Red Planet BASE!🔴 boards. These were to swap out some of my own Realm of Battle boards. I got the colours scheme way wrong and had to give it a bit of a do-over but it worked out in the end.

3d Printed Capillary Towers were a slog, no lie. [79 models]

I did eventually manage to paint my shed. It's looking spanking and although it's another model, a large one for 20 points and technically terrain for a 5 point bonus I've exported the hobby score now! But we all know. 🤩

And what of the Cerastus Knights...? Well I just fell short they are 'done, not varnished' which in my book is not done. It's a tough one as I'm not happy I didn't quite finish them for this season. And I'm not going to be happy that they will start next season off when 95% of them were done beforehand. But what can you do? Well, in future I will close the book on my review a week before, when the new season is announced. It won't feel like I have to push myself and I'll be happier there is a proper cut off point. And I know full well there was opportunity to get them done well in advance that I could say I squandered. But let's focus on what I achieved rather than undermine it with what I didn't and beat myself up over it.

So there we go 79  models painted, compared to 230 last season! And 289 hobby points, versus 461. That's just over a third of the models for almost two thirds of the points - not bad going. But, I never expected to deliver as much as my most productive season ever. So, the headline should be that I've exceeded my goals, yet again and I am satisfied. However, and bearing in mind the TO DO LIST is never meant to be used to punish my efforts when I fail to deliver on them. But, I am disappointed Sammael has not progressed, or some of the older Proteus Land Raider and Crayola Razor back. But given their unknown status in 40k maybe I shouldn't be upset... OK, it's now known and they have gone to legends. But I've already been here when I finished the Talon Master and the Attack Bikes and they were Legends within the year 😣 Maybe spending time on models that will never be used is a poor use of my time. Not a waste as there is always satisfaction in painting long unpainted models. But maybe directing my efforts to those that mean something more might be a better plan?

The Big Build is my 'self-help' initiative to build miniatures. Building isn't always my favourite thing but without a construction phase I can't have a painting phase. So I recognise the special effort this challenge is to me, so I can progress through to the painting stage.

The Warlord Titan was fixed, magnetised and based.

Alongside finishing building and basing 4 Adeptus Titanicus Questoris Knights.

And two Cerastus Atrapos Knights.

And a lone Goblin Town Goblin that had been hiding under my painting desk.

Geonosians, I didn't really build them, but I did base them.

And then rebuilt them when they were dropped on the floor and broke apart like confetti!

7 million

Afternoon #WarhammerCommunity another 5 months since I hit the 6 million mark and now I have 7 million on the clock... But most of these are bots and crawlers as usual. So I'm not holding store by it, just acknowledging it. 

However, Google analytics tells me it has been 139,000 views in that period [up from 43,000 in the last million blogger views], with an 'event count' [whatever that is] of 550,000 [up from 100,000 in the last million blogger views!]. I've had 181,000 active users with:

• 29,829 new users on 17th August
• 25,360 new users on 22nd August
• 26,419 new users on 23rd August

The previous million never included any stats like that. 14% analytics views compared to blogger views compared with 4.3%. The highest spike in new users in the previous million was just 924 new users. So, is there a new way analytics works? Or is it 179,000 genuine new users? Well, having had a momentary feeling of excitement. as I look at the data I just spotted that 156,000 active users came from Singapore 😞 That doesn't seem genuine to me.

So, although we acknowledge and move on I will be taking a closer look at the numbers in future. Comparing them to the analytics results to see what patterns if any are happening. In the mean time, thanks for the real people who do visit amongst the chaff.

Imperial Knights - Cerastus Twins in manufactorum pt12. Black Highlights

Afternoon #Warhammer Community I've been #PaintingWarhammer on the Cerastus Knights. It's time to highlight the black.

It's amazing how quick these are starting to come together. It is literally just an evening's work to get all the black done. And that is with my obsessions getting in the way of efficiency.

I keep rebuilding the knights, putting the armour plates on and off. Where, if I just kept them unattached I wouldn't have to deconstruct/reconstruct, every time. 

It may only be a few minutes, but it's wasted time.

Not to mention the subsequent time spent just gazing at the progress. 

I think at this point I may have had some reservations about the red. The casing for the Castigator Bolt Cannon clearly is too light.

In places the highlights had gone too pink. I do remember glazing them in the past with Bloodletter.

So that will need to happen, and I'll use some darker reds in places to add saturation.

Just in case it isn't obvious some of the panels have already been gloss varnished in readiness for the decals.

Really excited to start putting them on, even if I find the process quite frustrating and laborious.

But the add so much. It's worth the effort but it's yet another task I would rather was over and done with.