Hobby Review of 2025

 

As we reach the end of 2025, I'm taking stock of what I got up to hobby wise this year. Much of the year has been taken up with a house move, but I did get a bunch of painting done before we moved. I haven't started painting in the new place just yet, but we should get onto that some time soon.

I started the year finishing up a Battletech Lyran lance. The idea here was to get to the point where if an opportunity for a starter game comes up, I'm ready to go with a painted lance. An opportunity hasn't come up yet, but it's a good thing to have ready to go.

HATE then ran a slow grow "introduction to N5" Infinity league, so I decided to get some miniatures painted up. I started with Oktavia Grimsdottir, and I think this was my favourite paint job this year. I'm incredibly pleased with how she came out and I'm hoping to get some more paint jobs to this standard this year.

I also got an elf rogue from Strata Miniatures Dungeons and Diversity line painted up. I'd had her part painted for a while, and was keen to get her done before I moved. Having a good range of potential adventurer miniatures is something I'm keen to build up.

Similarly, this Wizkids Frameworks Tiefling Warlock was a model I'd picked up alongside some models I needed for a D&D game. He got a nice simple tabletop quality paint job. I'm keen to plug through a few more useful fantasy models for future RPGs in the coming year.

I also got Agent Dukash painted up for my Shasvastii. He's no longer available in vanilla Combined Army since the most recent update. At least I got to run him at a tournament in vanilla before the rules changed!

These Hedge Witches from Conquest are good for Frostgrave and RPGs. In RPGs they might end up as PCs or NPCs, depending. Flexible miniatures like this are really great picks for RPGs.

And finally, I got these goblins painted up. I had these Aenor Miniatures on my paint table for months, if not years, before I finally got them done. It was great to get them finished before I packed up to move house.

So, a relatively quiet year from a painting point of view. The goal for the coming year . . . can wait, for now. I have thoughts, but for now, I can sit back and be proud of a good range of figures I got painted this year.

Peach Con - General Event Thoughts

On Sunday, my wife and I went to Peach Con in Derby. This is a small convention in a school cafeteria organised by Peachy Tips. The event is in its second year - last year seems to have been more of a Patreon meet up, while this year has graduated to a good sized small convention.

This was the main hall, with a good mix of demo tables and vendors. There was a painting competition in a side room. I also heard later about a quiz being held in another side room, and the corridor to the main room had a table with free teas and coffees.

There were a good number of games to try out - from the Games Workshop games you'd pretty much expect, to Baron's War and Team Yankee.

While I saw Team Yankee's launch, it never took off locally to me while I was in London, so I've never seen a game of it played. It was interesting to see a full urban table and an awful lot of miniatures for it engaged in a big battle.

Trench Crusade also had a table there. Sadly, I didn't manage to find the time for a demo outside of times it was already incredibly busy.

Warlord was also there with a pretty big historical table, though I think it was a display rather than an active demo.

Similarly, there was a table for Relicblade that I think Exit 23 had bought.

Battletech also had some representation - I think Alpha Strike by the cards.

Of the Games Workshop demos available, I decided to take a photo of this amazing Bretonnian force.

The Tabletop Smithy had this Ork Furby, that was deeply disturbing...

This post has already gotten long enough. I'll be posting more on Peach Con, hopefully later this week. I saw a few cool previews or releases I'd like to talk about, and they deserve a dedicated post or two...

The end of eternal January

 

Well, I'm done with January. And also January is over. I had a pretty productive hobby month, finishing up a few models that have been on my paint table for a good while. This Lyran lance means I've definitely got enough models to try Battletech when I'm inspired to.

I am a little behind on "buy less than I paint" right now, down to a Made to Order box of Blood Bowl Halflings and Blue Giant Studios ending a few product lines. But six painted, twelve bought isn't too catastrophic, and is easily recoverable. If I can finish Agent Dukash and the goblins I've had on and off my desk for a whole age, I'll be back to neutral.

Getting back into painting Infinity was pretty darned great. Getting Oktavia painted and playing a game with her was a really positive vibe. There's a small amount of stress to be painting miniatures that I'm likely to use soon, which I'm not liking and will likely avoid in future. I've got an Infinity tournament next weekend that I'm currently planning on playing Combined Army at. I'm starting to consider shifting to playing one of my mercenary factions for a while until I've got the core of Combined Army painted up to take the pressure off.

I also managed in the last week to get another quick pass of undercoating done. The Anathematic, Rindak and Dartok are now ready for painting. I'm not sure what I'm going to pick up and paint next - I'm thinking I want to get a bit of volume painted, so I really need to go with what's enthusing me in the moment.

I also got back to HATE at its new venue, which I really like. It's a little harder for me to get to and needs a little more planning to reach. But I've had a couple of games there now, and I'm looking forward to more. I've also missed being able to get food at the venue, and have appreciated being able to get dinner there.

The Old World campaign day was also a great success. It confirmed to me that I like the Old World game, and that the effort to put my miniatures together and paint them won't be a waste. I'm not going to be doing quite as many events this year, but this and the upcoming Infinity tournament in February is a nice start to the year while I have the time.

Lyran Guard Battlemech Lance

 

After spending way too much of 2024 on my painting desk with a simple basecoat on, I've finished up this Lyran Guard Battlemech lance for Battletech. It's a pretty simple tabletop quality paint scheme, but it means they're done and sorted.

I now have six painted Lyran mechs overall, and that's plenty to learn the game with. I'm not going to be jumping into that straight away - I've got an Old World campaign day and my first game of Infinity N5 next weekend, and I expect the combination to leave my brain as total soup.

Working towards finishing up for the year

 

The year is nearly over, and I'm trying to finish a couple more things before the New Year. First up is this Battletech lance. I've brought the white up to where I want it, so will be hitting the blue next, before moving onto the details. I'm keen to get these finished up, as the plan is to move on to getting some Combined Army figures done for the new edition of Infinity next.

The other one I'd really like to get finished up is this rogue by Strata Miniatures. She's been sitting "barely started" on the desk for way too long, and as a single figure, it shouldn't be too much time investment to get her done before I close out the year. If she's not done by then, it better be because I'm trying to add more fancy detail...

Joining the painting table this week, replacing the finished halfling adventurers, are these goblins by Aenor Miniatures. I'm not trying to get them done by the end of the year, but they're basically on the desk to be picked up every time the mechs and the rogue's paint is drying, so I keep progressing something rather than sitting browsing my phone...

UK Games Expo - Miniatures

 

I tried not to go too mad with getting miniatures at UK Games Expo, as its not like I have a shortage of miniatures to paint right now... First up are the multi-part Battlemechs from Catalyst, a I can't really get them from anywhere else...

The Phoenix Hawk and the Wolverine both work as Lyran Guards, so that's nice and simple. The Eris and the Rifleman are both not really suited to the Lyrans, so I'm thinking they'll join my militia force.

Finally, the Stormcrow and Vulture, which are Clan Omni-Mechs. While I'm not against playing my Lyrans in the "ilClan era" (the modern setting), both of these mechs aren't quite right for that either. So, its likely I'll pick a Clan paint scheme for a few Mechs. I'm a bit torn between Sea Fox and Jade Falcon, and will probably end up picking based on a paint scheme I like.

There are a couple of freebies I picked up, which is definitely guilt free. First up is this lich for Necropolis 28. He was being given out loose, and that pointing figure was definitely making me anxious...

I also had a good chat with the person behind Fauxhammer. He had a bunch of painted power armoured figures with his face on it. It was good to chat with him, and I'm sure I'll find a use for this.

I grabbed some filament printed scenery from Crafted Campaigns. I picked these because they were really nice practical pieces that weren't so specific you won't get much use out of it, and they were robust looking scatter of rocks and vegetation that looked pretty easy to paint. I'm not sure where they are on the website, sadly.

I had to pick up the latest miniatures from Bad Squiddo. She's got four halfling adventurers, which given I'm currently painting a few halflings at the moment, I really wanted to grab. These ones have some more obvious spellcasting types, which are good options to have available.

Finally, another freebie, but the miniature I'm most excited about of everything here. This is a Bucklerman for Warcrow, Corvus Belli's new game. If I was some kind of professional, I'd be assembling and painting this as a massive priority for the internet traffic from being early to publish... But I'm busy tidying the hobby space and have a LARP to go to right now, and then have a bunch of stuff I'm in the middle of painting that I want to finish...

WIP Wednesday - Battletech and D&D Adventurers

 

I just spend the majority of the weekend tidying the hobby room - in the end I got four crates of stuff and three other big boxes of stuff all up to our storage unit to make more space in the flat. That was at the expense of getting some painting done, but I've got a few things on the table.

I'm getting a Battletech Lance painted up, and alongside that are the leftover Warmonger Halflings from January, and a rogue from Strata Miniatures.

The painting scheme for my Lyran Guards Battlemechs is pretty simple and I think I've got it down now. I've started off with a thorough drybrush of navy blue and light grey to get the basic colours blocked in. Next will be a lighter drybrush, a little tidying and a few details.

I've got quite a lot of posts about UK Games Expo to get out over the next few posts, so it'll be a while before I check back in again on the painting... Hopefully there will be plenty to report on.

Taking stock

I've been doing a little taking stock of my current hobby projects, and thinking about what my priorities are. Planning things a little bit in advance so I can set myself some goals means that as one thing starts to flag a little, I can start motivating myself by looking forward to the next thing.

With the Battletech Mercenaries Kickstarter due soon, I'm prioritising knocking out one of my lances from the "Game of Armored Combat" box so I don't fall too behind with the painting there. Four miniatures with a simple tabletop scheme is a nice simple job that's not too big, especially as June is a LARP month so I won't have a huge amount of time.

Having a fully painted Lance will mean I can start finding some games to start learning how it plays. I may have found a demo at UK Games Expo by now, but some games with my own models will be good.

I played in the latest club Infinity league with my Nomads, who are currently unpainted. I'm looking to paint those soon, and am looking for what to play while I'm painting up the first force. I decided it's time to dip back into my Combined Army. I have a Shasvastii force painted, and it won't take many models to expand the force to a Vanilla force. It's a quick scheme to paint so shouldn't be a big time investment.

Also, I might dip back to Shasvastii at some point and see if I can make Jayth Cutthroats work.

I really enjoyed playing my Guard again, but oh my goodness are there a lot of changes needed made to bring my models up to scratch. I'm searching for bits to update some additional models, and also looking at what to expand. The new Cadian miniatures are the first time I've been interested in getting some Cadian models, and as they now have their own profile and special abilities compared to Infantry squads, I'm thinking the first thing I'll get is the new "Start Collecting" box...

... but first, I have a unit of Bretonnian Men at Arms who are still only part assembled. Getting them ready for paint before I get another big unit to assemble feels pretty much essential. I put them to one side for a little bit to finish painting a few bits and pieces first. The Bretonnians and a box of Wizkids Kobolds are now my remaining annoyingly half finished projects from this year. I'm doing a lot better about having fewer of those.

On the subject of half finished projects I have lying around, I haven't played Malifaux since before the pandemic. There is a charity tournament at Dark Sphere at the end of June, so I've found someone to give me a refresher game, and if that goes OK, I'll look to get a few more models assembled in time for that.

The recent Age of Sigmar announcement has shown off some very, very pretty new Skaven models. I have previously abandoned my Skaven project, but I think I'm going to fall back into my old ratty ways... I don't know when the new AoS is out, but right now, I'm not going to worry about it.

That said, I do have a painted Stormcast army I'll be able to play when AoS 4 comes out, which I am determined to do, having missed playing the first three editions...

Work in Progress Wednesday - Battletech Lance and Infinity TAG

 

As a reward for getting my Gnoll Wizard painted on time, I assembled the Szalamandra TAG myself for my Nomads, along with her pilot. She was a bit of a faff at times - the gun was a pain to get to line up with the arms, in particular. Still, she's now assembled and ready for some test games.

Meanwhile, I've got the mould lines, basing paste and undercoat sorted on the second Lance from "Battletech: A Game of Armored Combat". I don't know all their names yet, but looking at my notes, I appear to have a Locust, Shadow Hawk, Catapult and Wolverine. These will be getting painted up in a Lyran Guards paint scheme.

Reviewing February Goals

It's been a pretty productive month all told. The various half done models from the D&D in person game prep are all assembled, undercoated and ready for paint. (A couple have even started being painted...)

The original plan had been to paint a couple of Combined Army figures as this month's "project", but the fact I had two Battlemechs that needed some colour correction won out because they fell under the "half finished" banner. I also got a lance worth of 'mechs prepped up as planned so there's more selection of projects on the "to do" pile.

I also exceeded expectations a little bit by painting this little mushroom I sculpted with leftover milliput. I've also been trying a new paint technique and am halfway through the four 3D printed civilians from the Sheffield Satellite using it - meaning I got five miniatures painted this month in total.

So, a month where I set myself some sensible goals and proceeded to hit them. Possibly unheard of? Still, it's a busy month in March, so I'm unsure I'll be as successful next month...

Keeping the hobby pace up

 

I got another one of the 3D prints from the Sheffield Satellite painted up this weekend. This one is obviously based off Aramaki from Ghost in the Shell. I went with slightly different colour choices to try and move away from that look a little bit.

I've got a Battletech lance undercoated and ready for paint for March's project. There were a few mould lines to clean up, some basing paste and then a bit of nice weather on Sunday which allowed that gave me a bit of time to get them undercoated...

Back on the painting desk, three of the D&D Frameworks models have a base undercoat on. I'll tidy it up with a brush and add a zenithal before ticking them off. I started painting the two Oathmark Dwarf characters when waiting for other paint to dry. Getting them done will be a happy bonus. I've still got two Frameworks characters I bought for parts that I didn't use - the Tiefling Rogue is now assembled and just needs basing material and undercoating, while the Human Rogue still needs assembly.

I do have a couple of bits and pieces listed on eBay right now. There's a few PanOceania miniatures where I needed some of the box, plus a few Fenris miniatures where I accidentally ordered duplicates of models. I've listed everything at 99p to start, so there's a good chance of grabbing a bargain.