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.

The Season of Amber! The 2026/27 Hobby Season starts soon, join me!

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #warhammercommunity the 2026/27 hobby season will be starting soon so for those alumni who joined in last season it's time to start looking back at your TO DO lists - at what you've TO DONE!, what might have slipped and those lovely unexpected successes that happened despite life getting in the way and loss of mojo - I speak from experience [yet again].

The original plan when I started with 'great big stamps of approval' was that I wouldn't do multi-coloured stamps, just alternate between red and green, but who was I kidding? Once again I have tried to come up with something cool but time has escaped me and I thought it best to stick to what I know best. As I was a big fan of Gamboge, before I went all textured stamps I thought I'd revisit the colour, with a twist. So I give you the  Season of Amber  and the  Great Big Amber Stamp of Approval  However I was not happy with the finished results. The contrast was not great on some of them. But time was against us and my Photoshop-fu is clearly lacking after not keeping up-to-date with my creative exploration. So, shock horror, I actually did some AI versions. So, you tell me which you would prefer and which you'll be using. have I sold my soul or actually made something a little bit more legible and representative of what I had in mind

Feel free to download and use them on your blog as and when you get stuff  'TO DONE!' Human intelligence on the left, artificial intelligence on the right.

Or you can record your achievements with an 'unbranded' version.

And should you feel inclined to differentiate your efforts yet further here's the major goal stamps

And minor goals [which I occasionally find a use for].

And I've also got the Big Build...

 and Base [and obviously prime] Stamps done too. I heartily recommend this video from Tabletop Minions to understand where I was going with the 'Big Build' concept, he's touched on and expanded exactly why I created this a few years back. This is definitely the worst version I created. I just wasn't happy with it, which is why I tried AI and got a great result - what do you think?

Just a reminder of what it's about, in 2011 I made my first To Do List, amusingly it now/still looks like this:

• AoBR Tactical Squad
• AoBR Dreadnought
• AoBR Terminators
• Scout Squad
• Ravenwing bike squad
• Dark Angel Drop Pod
• Purity Seal all of my son's Tyranids
• Gloss Varnish all of my son's Tyranids
• Tyranid Prime
• Mycetic Spore
• Paint Vent Tower
• Paint defence platforms x4
• Complete pot pourri vegetation
• Complete future containers
• Complete 40k Cathedral tower
• STC Single story ruin
• STC Hex Defence platforms
• STC Targus Assault Blockade
• STC Vent tower
• STC Athena plateau
• STC Mercury plateau
• STC 40k Cathedral tower
• 60mm Dreadnought crater

So 4 things still haven't been done and quite frankly never will 😉. The purpose was to try to focus my efforts to outline a list of things I'd love to do over a twelve month period and if I achieved any of them - great, all of them, so much better. But more importantly I needed a structure to cling to when my efforts became aimless. That's not to say deviations from the list were forbidden it was more for when I went 'well what's next?'

It became an annual blog post to review what I'd done and set new tasks. Throughout the season I would reveal my 'To Dones!' as completed items both on and off the list. Showcase posts are nothing new to hobby blogs, everyone else does it at the end of the year/beginning of the new year. But for me it was a structure to help build the identity of this blog. Then, in 2014 I invited readers and passers-by of the blog to join in. Well, when you have a good idea why not share it around? I got about 10 people joining in and it looked like we were quite a supportive little bunch. I think over time steam ran out a little bit, but folk continue to join in each season and hopefully the same will ring true for 2026/27.

To help things out a bit I eve created a Hobby Season Facebook group, it's here [but not very popular[:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/278747245819138/

So, if you're joining in just ask and I'll add you into the group, that way you can share your blog posts or any efforts to those also joining in. I hoped this platform will allow more interaction for those taking part and keep us all motivated.

I guess the last question is why 28th August as the start/end date, why not January 1st?

I think back in 2011 it was at that time I thought a structure needed to be in place and it was as good a time as any to post a To Do List, afterall the footy season starts around this time too, no one complains about that, do they?

Anyway, 28th August join me for the new Hobby Season :)