I’ve never jumped on this sort of bandwagon before, but upon seeing Lord Commander Eloth getting his hobby achievements for the year out on the dining room table, I was inspired to do exactly the same thing.

These are the things that I have painted/finished off this year.

I’d like to start by mentioning the Paint-a-thon, I did with Heretic Deb as this feels like it was a real hobby high-light of the year for me. Heretic Deb and I painted for 12 hours to raise money for Cancer Research and we managed to raise £570. It was a great fun day and live-streaming the event was brilliant.

The ‘Chaplain’ Stormcast on the end has been added to my new Cities of Sigmar army so I shall have to base him up in their scheme (When I have it figured out) which leads me nicely onto these guys.

These handgunner miniatures were given to me by my Brother-in-law and were the test models for my Cities of Sigmar army. Setting the basic paint-scheme of red and purple, again I need to base these but I’ve a few things I’d like to work out before I take the plunge and give the base scheme a try; I’m hoping to get a forest floor type of base for them but need to look at a few tutorials and figure a couple of things out for them – but I love how this army is progressing and the vast model range for it so expect a lot of this army in 2020!

I started painting this year with my daemon army and it’s mostly finished. I’ve a few Khorne Dogs, a second Bloodletter Unit, two more Bloodcrushers and a skull canon to paint before I can add anything more to them. It’s a victory that’s so close I can taste it; just need to push on with them and get them done!

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This year I started painting ‘random models’ too. Buying a few models here and there that I just liked the look of. That I could pick up and paint as the mood took me, rather than having to think about dedicated paint schemes and larger armies. I urge any hobbyist to do this, as it’s very liberating! I’ve a few random models in my hobby to-do list at the moment and I’m looking forward to painting each of them. Another random model I finished was for a miniature swap – this models is no longer in my hands as it was sent to it;s new owner in time for the deadline (Sadly, I am yet to receive a model in return, so I cannot share an image of the swap properly)

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I was inspired by Azazels Neglected Model challenge to pick up and finish off my Lizardmen army – I started Lizards for Oldhammer and didn’t really enjoy seeing them in Age of Sigmar, so finishing them off was a purely nostalgic thing. It was great being able to paint some bigger models and the sense of achievement I have with them now is epic! I’ve only a few smaller models to finish off (A couple of heroes and three terradons) My aim was to finish them all off before Cities of Sigmar was released and I painted a lot of my Lizardmen up in the month or so leading up to the Cities of Sigmar release. As well as these three large models and the hero, I finished off/based most of the large and skirmish units.

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Unfortunately, I did precious little to my Home-Brew Space Marine Chapter the Blood Guard this year – other than a single Captain and a Librarian (Neither of which are based as I’m in a similar position with my Cities of Sigmar army with them; their bases need addressing) I’d like to pick the Blood Guard up again in 2020 and get a lot more of them painted and finished off – too many base coated red models with no work done on them are making me feel guilty!

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I did however, paint a lot of other Space Marines this year. My Shadowspear Mortifactors. I am the most proud of these models and their bases and I think they signify a ‘level up’ in my miniature collection. They’re some very fine models but I am most proud of their bases as I made them out of a box of Citadel skulls and some old Tomb King bits.

2019 was a bit of an odd year, hobby wise. I felt very spread thin. I was hobbying, drawing, writing, parenting, etc. And while I look back on this post, I don’t feel like I have painting and finished nearly enough to be happy, I then recall that I’ve finished over 70 bust commissions ontop of drawing my own artwork (and other commissions) so it’s no wonder that my hobby fell behind a bit!

My goals for 2020 are to finish off some of my part-started collections (before I add too them). My daemons are so close to being finished, for example. As well as some of the random models I have brought. (I have a pin-up commissar for my Astra Militarum that I am really excited about painting!) As things stand at the moment, I am thinking of cutting down on the drawing – I’ve not been enjoying it as I once did – and being more productive on the hobby front instead. I’ve also got the book reviewing blog which I am enjoying so I’d like to keep that going in 2020. Also putting in the pledge to be more active in the hobby community on here; commenting more on others blogs, etc. I’m excited about the prospect of the New Year.

I was brought this painting handle for Christmas – I really like the GW painting handles, they help a lot – so I was thrilled that I’d be able to paint even faster with this red one! (Also helps cause more than half my armies are red!)