Hobby Spends 2020

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity 

Following on from previous year's spending record I've kept another log for 2020 [and will do so for 2021]. The final figure of £226.90 was roughly a 30% increase than last years gross spend of £150.42. But there were less vouchers to support the hobby, so my net spend was.£190.90, compared with last year's £55.42!

I had used some of my Element Games [Use this code: DAV910 for DOUBLE Element Crystals] to contribute half to Liam's Adeptus Titanicus foray. But I was never expecting to match my frugal spending of 2019. Almost a third of those spends were on paints though and I will not feel bad about that either.



So my net spend of £190.90 over 12 months is £135 more than last year! My figure purchases were up, but they were also due to magazine purchases - Conquest and Mortal Realms. Conquest got me some great items like the Galvanic Servohaulers and they were even at sale prices.

Mortal Realms was 10% of my spends. Obviously I'm not into Age of Sigmar but we all know it was a bargain, the first issue in particular - so many Chainrasps and Stormcast Eternals, paint too. It was an absolute boon. The most bizarre side effect is despite living in my home town for over 45 years [minus my 4 years at university], every time I drop my son off at school and drive through town I have flashbacks to purchasing these issues of Mortal Realm. So my abiding memory from all this time is buying these toy soldiers - I don't understand it.

Anyway, I had an OK year. 2021 might be a bit odd. Lockdowns may still be in place and having gone a year without a game it'll be a challenge to get back into it. I don't have anything that is 40k 9th edition, but the Dark Angel Codex is due, which I will get and then at some point I will have to get the rules, whether I look at one of the starter sets - I've little interest in the figures though, who knows...

'nids 302 - Tyranid Warrior & Hive Guard TO DONE! White pics

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've been #paintingwarhammer Tyranids. OK, the finished showcase pictures on a white background, you know the deal by now.

I was really pleased with the maroon highlights on the Impaler Cannons. Adding a little Bonewhite to the Khorne Red gave them a different tone, something I've seen them do on the GW painting guides.

I had thought the backs were a bit scruffy but they look OK in these pics.

There are still some bits I've missed, there's a claw missing on one hand that needs some blood adding, for narrative reasons.

But I need to consider how and when I may look at the 4 original Warrior to Hive Guard conversions and bring them up to this standard. I may wait until after the new Codex as I fear they may very well get some kind of nerf that makes having 6 ludicrous.

The same goes for the Warrior's brethren. There are 4 of these and their Primes that need a little bit of titivating to be up-to-date.

 

There's nearly a decade between them regarding my skill level and the evolution of the paint scheme.

 

As you can see here, the two outer ones are nearly a decade old, the 2nd from right might be 6 years old...

You can see how that one has slightly more defined striations on the chitin. But all of the older generations have Khorne red weapons, whereas I randomly went Bloody Red on my new one. I'll have to decide whether to keep or match them when I do look at a revamp.

As you can see the chitin is where the biggest improvements can be made, although some extra recess shading elsewhere and 2nd level bone highlights will easily match up.

The 2nd from right is almost up to standard with the chitin, but I'd probably bite the bullet and redo it anyway. Perhaps if I do all the bone first it'll give me an ide of whether it's worth it.

Anyway, that's a project for late 2021, or another year altogether. I've other priorities for '21. Now I tend to have mixed feelings hobbywise about a new year. Everyone starts making hobby resolutions/promises. Now, I've never really held to the concept of resolutions as they're too easily dismissed. I do make TO DO! lists, usually jobs around the house. But hobbywise, I make my TO DO list at the start of my Hobby Season, so I'm out of sync with most other hobbyists, which makes me like the inevitable promises made tomorrow a little annoying. Don't mind me though, I'm just bitter and envious I chose Betamax instead of VHS! 😉 

Have a happy new year, there's no magic wand that will render all the troubles of 2020 gone at the turn of the clock. No doubt we still have many months of lockdown and social distancing to come. But it is a turning of the corner, with vaccines on the way we may well come back to something approaching normalcy next year, and for that I am hopeful. I look forward to games and actually using these models I've painted. So, all the best for 2021.

'nids 301 - Tyranid Warrior & Hive Guard conversions TO DONE! Red pics

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've been #paintingwarhammer Tyranids. These were almost complete for #NomVember #NidVember but I just missed the deadline and as my blogging was tied up with Armies on Parade there was less incentive to get them completed.

So when I had other priorities just getting those last bits, like the teeth, varnish, even some of the bone chips on the Hive Guard, was just to much to contemplate.

The festive period has gifted too much hobby time, but that's OK. However, I usually like to build something at Christmas but that didn't end up on the cards, so the least I could do was get these finished.

It was a few nights work, that first one with the the teeth and varnish and then I realised I hadn't done the bone chips and the lone toxin sac [I know they're not an option, it was already on the donor Warrior when I did the conversion and I couldn't be bothered to remove it].

So another night to finish up the painting and one more session for all the flock.

One bonus for the night of flocking was I had leftover PVA, which prompted me to soak some string fibres and actually add some nerve fibres to my Tyranid Void Shield Generator!

That's right folk I have some progress and I think I may well get some more done on it ready for an attempt at the final few nights of sculpting it needs!

I really like how this Warrior turned out, the pose in particular feels quite threatening.

He'd definitely be in my Kill Team if I did one, surrounded by Termagants, although he'd probably have been better off with a bonesword perhaps, maybe a lash whip. I don't know I never run them with anything other than Scything Talons.

A few of my other mid-sized beasties in the background.

Y'know for desktop patterns and such.

And the Hive Guard.

And so I gets me my Great Big Granite Stamp of Approval - TO DONE!'

HAPPY X-MAS

Good morning #warmongers and #warhammercommunity  and a merry X-Mas from Professor Egon Seuss and the rest of the Magos on Ferron Proxima. Additional felicitations from the guys and gals at the Vulcan Institute of Techno-Archaeology. May all your X-mas wishes be plastic [or resin]. 

In case you're not X-mas orientated please accept the following good wishes:

I had planned a 'what's on my palette?' or even a 'where's my head at?' but this will do. Following all my efforts for Armies on Parade, #DreadTober, #NidVember #NomVember I've gone through a fallow period. I wouldn't describe it as burn-out, certainly not with the hobby, but my routine has shifted a bit. With my son home from university we've been back watching TV shows - Raised By Wolves and the Mandolorian [currently]. This has impacted my hobby time and I'm getting tired in the evenings too. 

So, although I'm desperate to crack on with things - my Tyranid Warrior and Hive Guards have been sat with just teeth and varnish to do for weeks now, I'm also happy to just take a break. There's a little worry that once these are done I'm not sure what's next. I've some bits of terrain that I can crack on with, my Nurgle Blood Bowl Team, Genestealer Aberrants, Adeptus Titanicus models and then sculpting my Tyranid VSG. So there's plenty to do, I just need to find time and [head]space.

I have my hobby spends post for the end of the year, but if I don't write another post this pestilential 2020 you know why. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Swapping to a new calendar may not bring about a change in fortune for us all but hopefully there is more potential compared with what has gone before. Enjoy the festive season as best, and as safely as possible. 

'nids 300 - Tyranid Warrior & Hive Guard conversions washes and bone

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've been #paintingwarhammer Tyranids. It seems like forever since I last posted on these Warrior to Hive Guard conversion, unless I have overlooked an update.

This is just the Bonewhite highlight on the body, but I don't think I even updated with the washes all over. I can't find a post anyway.

Warrior too, I love the effect on his sternum.

 

And it's almost unnoticeable where I had to cut and shut the tail, when I'd originally planned this to be the Hive Guard conversion. 

Now I picked up some new paints. This was Miniature Paints, they're a company in Bootle, Liverpool. I've a few of them already, my Turquoise is one. They're £2 for about 30ml, they have a slight satin finish to them, but they're really durable [compared to craft acrylics]

Not sure if this is a retail only site but if you're interested here's the MP range and it comes in 30ml, 90ml and even 500ml. I also picked up a matt varnish to try. If it's good that 500ml might be tempting...

Anyway, this 56 Cream is a bit lighter than the highlight I previously mixed for my nids.

The Hive is evolving and so you will see some difference between old and n

Even moreso because my old Hive Guard conversions don't seem to have had that second highlight at all! I was so devastated when the Purity Seal frosted them, I could never imagine at the time going through the process of repainting them. But I can realistically contemplate that in the next year or two, depending on how they are treated in the next Codex.

The Warrior too appears super pale.

 

But I do love this pose.

I mean just look at the difference so far, that one on the right is 10 years old.

They'll definitely need a touch up at some point too.

P.S. 300 posts on Tyranids [and their genestealer brethren]! Man, what a ride. 17% of my posts on gribblies! Who'd have thought...

'nids 299 - Devgaunts - TO DONE! #NidVember #NomVember

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity I've been #paintingwarhammer, I know it's a little late now but the Devgaunts got finished and I'm only just getting round to blogging about them.

It was quite the little challenge in the end.

It doesn't seem it but getting my head round painting some of the elements required a force of will just to get me over the finish line.

I was then hit with the crappy matt varnish, that started to peel off like a thin veneer of rubber on the base edges.

That setback, so close to the end and alongside the Tyrannofex just made it so hard to pick up a brush and re-varnish them with Army Painter Anti-shine.

Also, I randomly decided not to gloss the Adrenal Glands... I dunno. Despite all other Termagant glands being glossed I just didn't do it.

There's no rush, I can always gloss them some other time.

I think the addition of that black around the edge of the Devourer really helps set it off.

The highlight is helpful also in defining the weapon.

On my original Devgaunts I just covered them with Tamiya Clear Red X-27 so it was nice to have a little more definition in their weaponry.

Obviously the 3 Hormagaunt bodies are nice in adding a little variety to the profile of this brood.

Obviously they're known for tipping over [even more so with the big Devourer gun] so hopefully the slate ont he base and the more upright poses will help them balance.

They look good from above.

And make a really nice little brood.

And so I gets me my Great Big Granite Stamp of Approval - TO DONE!'