2021 Reflections

The Analogue Painting Challenge is always a highlight of the year

...made even better as a Dad and Lad event

Well this is the 13th Man Cave Year in Review! Aat the end of 2020 we were all looking forward to 2021 but then...  Well, everyone in my family is well so there is lots to be thankful for, and there were a bunch of other positives both professionally and personally this year.  Here are the Hobby highlights:

I finished my 3 year Warhammer Fantasy Beastman Army project and got them into action for Easter

I painted up this 8 x 4 Urban tile terrain system 

I ran a small 6 player Blood Bowl league, which was cool

Won back the coveted Shamrock Cup from Comrade James!

Disocverd 3d printing: This was my first terrain peice

Built an Enforcer gang for Necromunda

Painted a Caesarian Army for Infamy, entirely while in Quarantine

da Durty Duzen: my first ever Orks

Got my Renegade Astartes featured on Warhammer Twitch!

And to enable all that fun, I had my Man Cave pimped up from a dingy and functional garage into this gaming emporium! The whole family chipped in with the labour but it was my Dad who had the skills to make it happen. Thanks everyone!

Actually, added to the games of 40k, Space Hulk, Blood Red Skies, more Blood Bowl, and Kill Team, and 2021 was a pretty decent hobby year in toto

and 2022? I've broadly given up planning the year ahead. Not because of COVID or anything but because I am so distractible (and seemly getting worse).  I'm also going to be travelling a lot in the next 2 years so that will impact my output.  That said:

- AHPC Season 12

- DungeonBowl teams

- 28mm Silver Bayonet force (and bad guys_

- 15mm SF / Moongrunt project

- 40k Chaos Space Marines when the Codex comes out

 - I'm feeling the itch to start painting the Warhammer Fantasy Battle Chaos army I've been collecting figures for.

- and I'd love to get to that 28mm War of the Roses project one day

and regardless, as long as I get to spend some good gaming time with Reilly and the club lads it will be a successful year.

Separately, I squeaked in (just) on my annual Reading Challenge and next year will be my 10th consecutive. I think I am likely to go less in quantity but finally get stuck into the Expanse series - I've been promising myself for years!

Twitter continues to be my go-to Hobby social media platform. I've decided to persist with the blog anyway, mostly though monthly roundups and bigger AARs. That said, its more of a personal journal than anything these days.

Anyway, best wishes to all for 2022 and here';s to making lemonade from lemons, as they say!

SpaceX Dragon capsule for Moongrunt

Space X's Dragon system currently operates from Earth to Orbit with 7 pax payload. For my Moongrunt setting, I can imagine that some of these could be modified for lunar operations. Without the issue of escaping earth orbit, the weight saved can be utilised for additional payload (troops). Maybe two or three of these could be strapped into a lunar cycler from Earth orbit / Lagrange points and released in Lunar orbit for independent (but limited duration) ops.

But thats all rationalising and hand-wavium really,  I think they just look cool; a nice balance between Cold War utility and too much SF tech, and size wise it wont overly dominate the table. So this week I 3d printed one and am pretty happy with how its come out.

I will be using this as a USMC Lunar Landing Craft - Personnel

Just a small update, but it feels good to get this project going at last.

https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/dragon/

AHPC XII: 28mm Lovecraftian Night Gaunts and Ghosts

AHPC 12 has kicked off and each Challenge I try to get an entry done in the first few days. While generally very simple offerings, they give me a sense of first steps taken, a journey begun.  Some lads here are into the Napoleonic Horror game Silver Bayonet - I think it's a salve for the thousands of Nappy troops that should be used more often, plus its just cool! Uncharacteristically, I'm not one of those with thousands of Nappy troops (in fact I don't have a single one) so I am focusing initially on the monsters.  

Here are a trio of Lovecraftian faceless horrors known as Night Gaunts to oppose our heroes. They have been patiently sitting in my pile of potential for some years, but I believe they were by a company called Hobby Products and are now OOP.  

And a trio of Ghosts - older GW Army of the Dead model from their metal Lord of the Rings range. Base coated in white, washed in Fluro Yellow (Vallejo 70730), washed in a GW Warpstone Green (diluted into an ink) and drybrushed again with Flouro Yello.

Thats 6 x 28mm figures to get me off the mark with 30pts, and 20 bonus points for the planet Istavaan V due to their horror/cultist/heretical nature.

Best wishes for a great AHPC everyone!

https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2021/12/from-paul-og-28mm-lovecraftian-night.html

2026 EDIT: Of course, these make for good monsters and pact devils for Devilry Afoot too!

Merry Christmas

Its 40 years since Mad Max 2 (known in some parts of the world as "The Road Warrior") was released so this seemed very appropriate for this year's Man Cave Christmas message

I hope you all have a great one after what was a pretty crap COVID year.