In Which EvilFuzzyDoom Is Entirely Surrounded by Grey [BATG 2026]

[EvilFuzzyDoom]

It piled and it piled and it piled. EvilFuzzyDoom told himself that never in all his life, and he was goodness knows how old—thirty, was it, or forty?—never had he seen so much grey. Years and years and years.

(With apologies to A. A. Milne)

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Sometimes, packages arrive at the door like rain pouring on the roof. Our hungry hobby ambition has honest intentions but humble hobby time. Humiliation haunts us. We are surrounded by grey.

These are the times we must be strong.

This, I suppose, is my message in a bottle:

HELP! 
EVILFUZZYDOOM (ME)

And that’s really all any of us can do.

That and paint, of course.

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I’ve been doing this for four years now. When I started out I had 1156 models in my backlog.

In 2022, I painted 243, sold or gave away 13 and added 386.
By the end of the year I had 1312 models in my backlog.

In 2023, I painted 232, sold or gave away 68 and added 201.
By the end of the year I had 1049 models in my backlog.

In 2024, I painted 300, sold or gave away 64 and added 298.
By the end of the year I had 1022 models in my backlog.

In 2025, I painted 163, sold or gave away 1 and added 300.
By the end of the year I had 1209 models in the backlog.

Easily my most productive years ever, but the pile still isn’t shrinking very vast.

Nevertheless, I am enjoying myself.

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Links

• Paint & Purchase Updates
• Goals & Projects for 2026

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2026 Scorekeeping

• Any new models will be added when they arrive in my possession - so anything that’s in transit as of New Year’s Day will count as 2026 purchases when they arrive.
• If I buy a model and sell it in the same year, it will be removed from the “Models added” count.

Here is a link to the 2026 BATG spreadsheet

• Models added: 15
• Models painted: -16

BATG Score: -1

[EvilFuzzyDoom]

Paint & Purchase Updates

Links to each post will go here. Click through the links to see models

• Jan 4 - Astra Militarum: Painted 5 Veterans (-5) -5
• Jan 16 - Heresy Militia: Added 5 Tempestus Scions (+5) 0
• Jan 23 - Heresy Militia: Added 10 Tempestus Scions (+10) +10
• Feb 6 - Heresy Militia: Painted a Rhino (-1) +9
• Feb 8 - Heresy Militia: Painted a unit of Grenadiers (-10) -1

[EvilFuzzyDoom]

Goals & Projects for 2026

Well, I’m still here.

Last year I added a lot of random infantry to my collection - particularly several big 20-man boxes of Horus Heresy marines. Of those, about 60 haven’t been painted even if I’ve primed or built them. Meanwhile I’m looking at my Heresy armies and thinking “oh boy these are kind of missing centrepieces” or “oh boy that big centrepiece model is still in a thousand pieces because I haven’t made time to get it done.”

Instead of focusing on troops, I’m going to try and focus on bigger models this year, both painting and adding to the pile of shame - so then at least it might be a little easier to come out ahead on the paint/add balance. If I try and paint the troops I already have, but still allow myself to get excited about big models, maybe I’ll finish five grunts for every titan I add, or something?

I also have a lot of scenery that needs a couple of proper long hobby sessions to complete, which have been hard to organise this last year. I’m going to try and arrange some hobby days with friends to help or at least body double for motivation, to get more of that stuff done.

So between those two factors, my goals for 2026 are:

• Buy less infantry
• Buy more big stuff
• Finish more centrepieces
• Finish or retire more projects
• Sell some stuff

Projects

Centrepieces

• Astra Militarum Baneblade
• Astra Militarum Shadowsword
• Astra Militarum Rogal Dorn
• Horus Heresy Saturnine Dreadnought
• Horus Heresy Land Raider
• Heresy Militia Cargo-8 Hauler
• Astra Militarum Valkyrie (2)
• Astra Militarum Vulture
• Bad Moon Loonshrine
• Troggoth Hag
• Mancrusher Gargant
• Chaos Dwarf Sorcerer with Lammasu (“Checlis”)
• Chaos Dwarf Lord on Lammasu
• Chaos Dwarf Bale Taurus
• Hellcannon
• Ogor Mawtribes Great Mawpot
• Age of Sigmar Deathknell Tower

Armies & Collections

• Heresy Militia
• Heresy Death Guard
• Heresy Iron Hands
• 40k Astra Militarum
• 40k Word Bearers
• 40k Adeptus Mechanicus
• Badab Carcharodons
• AoS Gloomspite Gitz
• AoS Sons of Behemat
• AoS Ogor Mawtribes
• AoS Chaos Dwarfs
• TOW Warriors of Chaos
• Fantasy Death realm terrain
• MDF Terrain
• Zone Mortalis Terrain

[EvilFuzzyDoom]

Alternative & Supplemental Scorekeeping

Shame Golf bonuses and penalties

In Dana Howl’s “Miniature Shame Golf” you get additional bonuses for completed units and for selling or giving away models, while you get penalties for buying new releases (within a month of release). I’ll be tracking those here, and tallying them at the end of the year. These bonuses & penalties are on top of normal paint/purchase scoring.

Starting this year I’m going to allot an appropriate bonus & penalty for things that align or don’t align with my goals for the year.

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Bonuses

-1 per model sold or given away
-1 per completed unit of 5 or more models
-5 per completed “Centrepiece” model (annual goals)
-5 per completed faction starter box (11-30 figures)
-20 per completed 2-player starter box (31+ figures

Penalties

+5 per purchase of 11 or more figures at once (annual goals)
+5 per preorder box of 1-10 figures
+20 per preorder box 11-30 figures
+50 per preorder box 31+ figures

Models bought and sold in the same year will get removed from the main count
Models count as a “New Release” if purchased less than a calendar month after release

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Updates of a Shameful Nature

Sales/Giveaways

Completion bonuses

• 8 Feb: Completed a unit of 10 Grenadiers for Heresy Militia (-1)

Penalties

–

Total Shame adjustment: ??
Final adjusted score: ??

[EvilFuzzyDoom]

Is four posts enough? Maybe. This one is reserved as well as the others.

[EvilFuzzyDoom]

First Post

This was reserved, so it might not update correctly. Whatever.

I had kind of a crummy day today, but I got to put the base rims onto some minis I almost finished on New Year’s Eve:

Five Veteran Imperial Guardsmen, who will play the role of command squad filler in Horus Heresy before they actually get to be veterans. They also don’t have any friends handy, so might not get bulked out to a full squad for a long time. They’re basically just catch-all unit filler for now.

That’s not really important though, what’s important is that I’m starting the year with painted minis and still haven’t bought anything yet! I’m feeling good about that.

I also primed a Baneblade today.

Five off the pile.

BATG Score: -5

[EvilFuzzyDoom]

I had planned not to buy anything in January. In keeping with The Year of the Centrepiece I’ve been working on my Baneblade, starting with the turrets:

However, I was fiddling around with some kits I had lying around while considering a question that’s been bugging me since the Imperial Militia rules came out for Horus Heresy 3rd edition: what do I want my Grenadiers to look like?

Like this. The answer is that I want them to look like this:

The original Indigan Praefects inspired my Heresy Militia army, after all - although I did simplified them for mass production. I’ve seen remarkably few examples of them online, so it was quite a surprise to see just how absolutely badass the combination of Tempestus Scion bodies, the Skitarii Vamguard heads and the Genestealer Cult Neophyte shotguns look.

To that end:

I’ve added 5 Tempestus Scions to my pile. I’ve also got a pile of shoulder plates coming from Victoria minis, because even I can’t be bothered paying GW bitz prices for legit Tank Commander shoulder plates.

Five on the pile.

BATG Score: 0

[EvilFuzzyDoom]

Well, I’ve been left unsupervised again, so I’ve added more things:

Ten more Tempestus Scions. I realised that I love this kit so I should just lean into it.

I also received some resin shoulder armour, so I’ve bulked out the first unit of Grenadiers for my Heresy militia:

Tempestus Scion bodies, Genestealer Cult Neophyte Hybrid shotgun arms, Skitarii Vanguard heads and the shoulder plates - mostly from Victoria Miniatures but a few plastic ones from various Astra Militarum tank commanders.

These look even better in person, and I’m planning two squads. I’m planning to prime the first squad today, but we’ll see how the weather goes.

I’m also getting a little further on the Baneblade:

Another painting session should get the turret finished, and then it’s onto the hull. I might need to pull out the airbrush…

Ten onto the pile brings us into the positives, but we’re well within allowances for this stage of the year.

BATG Score: +10

[EvilFuzzyDoom]

Today’s update doesn’t count because it’s not a full model, but its been nearly a fortnight since I last posted and I need to prove I’m still here.

I painted a turret for a Leman Russ Demolisher:

Here it is on a chassis, with its three friends:

It’s not a full model so it doesn’t count towards the pile, but it’s been on my desk for a little while now.

The Baneblade is still mocking me, but I’m probably going to wait until I have some time to get the airbrush out before making more progress on it: the next step on the hull is to paint the whole thing in grey Speedpaint, which will be easier through an airbrush.

Next is likely to be some infantry, but we’ll see how we go.

BATG Score: +10

[EvilFuzzyDoom]

Okay, this one counts! I’ve painted up Rhino number 4 for my Heresy Militia:

I skipped the airbrush for this one, it’s all done with bristles and elbow grease, so the base coat of Garaghak’s Sewer over grey primer is a bit thick and inconsistent, but after the weathering the only place you can tell is the underside, and who cares about that?

The only finicky part of these models is the big red stripe, which required some masking tape:

I’m a bit scared about trying this on a Land Raider, but I suppose I’ll work my way up to it.

I’m also experimenting with a colour scheme for my grenadiers:

This guy isn’t based so he doesn’t count yet. I think I’m going to try a redder metallic for the armour trim, to give a bit more definition. That’s the next job.

One off the pile!

BATG Score: +9

[EvilFuzzyDoom]

Hoobly doobly, I painted some dudelies:

These are my new Grenadiers for my Heresy Militia, I’ve been trying to decide how to do them since the middle of last year when the HH3 rules dropped.

I am very happy with the models - I should have just gone with the Indigan Praefect look all along - and they’re heaps of fun to build. They’re almost a joy to paint, if not for the stupid trim on the breastplates, which sucks and I hate painting metallics but I’ll put up with it because Army Painter Rough Iron looks great.

Now I have to make like thirty more of them to justify all those rhinos…

Ten off the pile, and that takes me to a cheeky negative one. I should pic something else to paint shortly, before I pick up more Tempestus Scions to turn into the next unit of grenadiers.

BATG Score: -1

[Reaver]

Nice weathering! And all brush painted!