2015 Hobby Year in Review

Once again, I’m obligated to produce a year-end retrospective.

Overall

I started the year strong, and burned through outstanding projects once, but then bought back up, of course.  It’s been managed pretty well, although I just spiked due to Wyrd’s Black Friday sale.  40k went on the back burner this year, with only a few models painted and a handful of games played.  Malifaux (including adding Gremlins as a new faction) and Dropzone Commander (new to me this year) has been taking my attention.

I built and started regularly using the Spin-o-matic this year, which produces neat 360º views of my models.  I just almost completely replaced the setup with one which should be easier to use in a consistent way.  Maybe someday I’ll post about it.

I also upgraded my photography setup in the middle of the year, with a new lens and lighting set.  It’s improved the look enough that I’m tempted to reshoot old stuff when I got back to look at it.  I doubt I’ll ever find the time.

hobby-burndown 2015

  • 144 individual models completed (+9.9% YoY)
  • 62 Malifaux models (47 on 30mm bases, 7 40mm, and 8 50mm)
  • 56 Dropzone models
  • 27 terrain and misc models (including 2 with my daughter)
  • 1 40k model (plus a few extra weapons)
  • Exclusively used painted models in every game, even when starting a new faction and a whole new game.

Malifaux

Malifaux header

I started playing Malifaux the middle of last year, and it has become my main game this year.  I did Tale of Malifaux Bloggers with Zoraida in the spring.  After Adepticon I realized I needed a second faction to keep things fresh, so I moved Zoraida over towards Gremlins.  Now I swap between the two every couple of months.

Dropzone Commander

bears_kodiaks_header

I got a free starter box at Adepticon and managed to squeeze a demo in between other events.  After I got home, I decided to give it a go, and built up a UCM army.  It’s behind Malifaux in favorite-ness, but the mobility and scale is very interesting.

Terrain

I decided late this year to build a board for home use, to allow gaming when I couldn’t get away from the house.  It hasn’t seen a whole ton of use, but I’m glad I have it.  I’ll probably slowly build up the terrain collection, and hopefully get people over more often.

Other

No list would be complete without an ‘other’ section.  This includes the only Reaper model I’ve painted this year, and a few projects I’ve done with my daughter and wife.  It also, surprisingly enough, includes the few 40k models I’ve done in the last year.  40k hasn’t been grabbing my interest so much these days, although I’m sure I’ll be back.

Looking to 2016

I expect Malifaux will continue to occupy most of my gaming attention, with Dropzone sprinkled in for flavor.  I’m not finding myself super pulled towards another Malifaux faction, but Resistance in DZC has been tempting me.  I’ve also just picked up a Team Yankee US starter, although I haven’t played any games or decided how much energy it’ll get.

I’m signed up for Adepticon for a second year.  Malifaux, Dropzone, Space Hulk, and seminars are scheduled.  I’m hoping to have time to explore other games and products.

We’ll see how much Team Yankee grabs me.  I dig the WWIII semi-modern setting, and 15mm scale tanks are cool.  I don’t know how many games I’ll actually get in, since there don’t seem to be a ton of players around, but I’m looking forward to trying to airbrush camo.

A table of my very own


I’ve been thinking about putting a table together for garage gaming for a long time.  There are times when it’s hard for me to get out of the house, but I could host somebody pretty easily.  Finally, I broke down and built a 3×3 board, ordered a Mat by Mars and some terrain to go on it.

I saw the Tri-City Laser Old West buildings at Adepticon last year, and thought they looked really nice.  The etched texture seemed to take drybrushing nicely.  There are also a couple of add-on kits that let you add a bit of variety.  I really like it.  I do have one complaint: the tape they use to hold the pieces of the kit together leaves a bit of a mark in the wood, which shows up when drybrushed.

I also picked up a couple of 4Ground kits for a little more variety.  I figure the under construction building can work in theme with the rest of the town, but soft cover without breaking line of sight.  The crates and wagon work as scatter terrain.  The 4Ground stuff seems to a bit smaller scale than Malifaux, but it still works okay.

Malifaux: Zoraida Avatar (Mysterious/Lucky Emissary Proxy)


I was feeling left out on the whole wave three emissary thing, so I decided to pick up a metal Zoraida avatar.  Since Zoraida is dual-faction, I can use the model for either the Mysterious or Lucky Emissary.

Zoraida Avatar (front)
Zoraida Avatar (front)

The model comes with Zoraida floating in front of a tree, plus a swamp monster.  I thought I’d try something a little different and put them back-to-back, with the idea of there being something interesting from every angle.  Alternately, one side is Mysterious, and the other is Lucky.  Or something.  I don’t think it quite works.  Instead of every angle being interesting, each angle has a distracting background.

Zoraida Avatar (back)

Zoraida Avatar (back)

I had some extra green stuff from gap filling, so I sculpted a quick-and-dirty giant voodoo doll.  It’s a little doughboy-y, but fun.

Painted Guys: The Next Generation


Ruth, my four-year-old daughter, has been very interested in my hobby stuff.  She asks to see what I’m working on.  She especially liked the egg that came the Wyrd Easter order.  So I asked her if she’d like to paint it.  Of course, she said yes.

She helped me wash the model, and I cleaned up the seam lines and glued it to the base.  She primed it with the airbrush (with some help), and eventually we found a time to actually paint it.

Puppet Dude
Puppet Dude

I worked on a different model, but Ruth was much faster.  She soon asked for another.  Luckily  I had some random Reaper stuff primed, so gave her a second.  This one she said was sitting on the sun.  My wife suggested glitter for the basing material.

Kobold on the Sun
Kobold on the Sun

They might not win any awards, but we had fun.