Plans for 2023

2022 was a pretty solid year for my hobbies. I got a bunch of stuff painted, I attended some tournaments, and I got back to LARP. I struck out on not buying more models than I painted by a long way, but I have realised how much of the clutter in my flat is stuff I've bought since I got back into the hobby, not my stash from way back when.

So first up, I'll be getting back into selling stuff I'm not using. As well as the stuff I never started, I intend to go through all my painted miniatures and pick out any I'm not using or don't love. I think this will be a good "end of year" tradition to start. Similarly, I'll be checking both the pile of half finished projects I put to one side at the end of 2021 as well as going through anything that's part finished this year.

I am pretty happy with where I'm at with Infinity. I've got White Company, Druze, Ikari and Dahshat commission painted, and I've painted a bunch of Shasvastii myself. I have the rest of the Combined Army, O-12 and Nomads to paint too. For the coming year, I want to get a "teaching force" of O-12 painted that I can run people through a game of Code One if they're interested. I also want to finalise my Nomads paint scheme so I can line up to get started on finally painting my Nomads, the first force I bought for Infinity.

I really need to get some of my Malifaux painted. It's just embarrassing now. I like the game and like the minis, but just haven't managed to get paint to model.

A small, tabletop quality project I'm looking forward to is getting a viable lance or two of Battlemechs painted. I've got the "Game of Armored Combat" box to paint, along with a couple of Urbanmechs. I'm currently tempted by getting an Atlas and King Crab for my Lyran Guards, the Alpha Strike starter box for a good Mech selection, and the new Beginner box for the variant Mech in it. But first, painting what I have!

I've been having fun with the test scheme for my Alpha Legion, although I have learned about not fully assembling models with cloaks the hard way. I'm still faffing about what I want the base scheme to be, but we'll get there. Starting with a small "Zone Mortalis" style force seems to be a sensible way to build up my army. I've not managed to have a force where I build it up a unit at a time rather than buying way too much all at once.

I've really enjoyed painting an assortment of general fantasy miniatures with a general intent on building up a collection to run D&D with, and play games like Frostgrave or Rangers of Shadow Deep. Right now I've got a massive pile of models to paint that I've picked up on a whim, and while I want to paint through those, I want to be in a place at the end of the year where I'm picking up D&D miniatures with a purpose and some kind of structure. I've been kicking around an idea for a world setting for a while, and I'm also keen to find miniatures suitable for Eberron, my favourite among the published settings.

I also really want to put together some solid options for playing Stargrave and other generic sci-fi games. I've heard some good things about Xenos Rampant, but I should probably still start small and work my way up.

With 40K, my real goal for next year is to actually play a game of the current edition. I believe 10th edition is probably coming, but I can still have some fun with the current edition. I'm also deeply excited by the Boarding Action rules, as they seem like a sensible size of game, and would be a good terrain project for home.

The Stormcast Eternals are also ready for a game, though they're lagging a little behind the Deathwatch in my enthusiasm stakes. The problem might just be the army - Stormcast aren't an army I'm excited about, I just had a bunch cheaply from a variety of sources and I thought it best to commission someone to paint what I had rather than buy a whole new army when I had one already lying around.

That's certainly plenty for me to be getting on with. I'm not sure how much of this its possible to get done in a single year, but its worth pausing and taking stock so I can keep an eye on my progress.