Cities of Sigmar (converted from Necromunda Cawdor)
Turnip28
A big heap of MDF terrain
The terrain from Kill Team Nachmund
And… possibly more?
That is definitely too many projects - even if we were to roll the Astra Militarum into a single project (which I’m not going to).
This year, I hope to close some of these collections off, either through completion or by getting rid of them. I would also like to prevent this list from growing, so I will try to keep a one-in-one-out approach going for projects, as well as models.
Also, one of the big patterns I’ve noticed in previous years is that I tend to buy up big early in the year and spend the whole year playing catch-up. I want to try and get ahead of the pile, this year, and keep the growth under control proactively.
Also also, I’m starting the year with a total backlog of 1049. I want to get that under 1000, so I’m going to aim for Silver and a score of -50 or better.
Also also also, I’m getting married this year so I’m going to try to exercise some financial restraint!
This year, I’ll just be doing the pure BATG count, although I’ll track anything sold or given away, and take them into account in the final reckoning as a separate score.
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 2024 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.
BATG Score
Per the official Battle Against the Grey thread, one model added to collection is +1, one model painted is -1. Low scores are good.
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.
Bonuses
-1 per model sold or given away -1 per completed unit of 5 or more models -5 per completed faction starter box -20 per completed 2-player starter box
New Release Penalties
+5 per box of 1-10 figures +20 per faction starter box (up to 30 figures) +50 per 2-player starter box (30+ 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
I’ve been using the “Figure Case” app by Warganizer since late 2020. It’s an iPhone-only app (sorry, Android users!) that has a customisable workflow for tracking models’ status in detail, and allows you to track “effort” to accommodate larger or more-complex models.
I’ll update this at the end of the year to see what happened to my collection as a whole.
Uh… so much for getting ahead on painting. Ah well, let’s try and be in the positive at the end of each month, instead.
That’s 3 Bullgryns and 10 Genestealer Neophytes in the boxes, as well as another Neophyte that I picked up from a bitz seller so I have one spare to make up as an officer.
The last of my initial batch of these lads is painted, the newer eleven are all built but the weather is very hostile to spray cans and the garage is very hot so airbrush priming isn’t happening yet either.
I’ll probably have to paint something else while I wait for good conditions.
One to be a medic for my Heresy chaps, and another for… reasons.
Also, I’ve moved on one of the Corpse Carts I picked up for my abortive Cities of Sigmar project from 2022. A friend is collecting Vampire Counts for The Old World and needs it more than I do.
I spent my hobby time this weekend building the trolls, tidying the Marauders and undercoating things, then cranked out three test models (2 trolls and 1 marauder). The non-contrast marauder is a test model from circa 2010 when I was thinking about building a Chaos Warrior army but didn’t go ahead with it.
The trolls are all undercoated and ready for a quick paint job, while 15 Marauders are ready but 8 needed some more modelling before they could be ready.
The Chaos Warriors are waiting on an order of 30mm square bases, and will be led by the Lord of Plagues I got on Saturday. I’ve also got 5 knights and a mounted sorcerer on order, which will get properly based up when they arrive.
Once that lot is all taken care of - and if I still have the motivation - I’ll pick up a Lord on Manticore to lead them all. That will be only seven extra models once they come, which I think it pretty reasonable for a project which will hopefully put me well ahead on the backlog!
10 Genestealer Cultists, the last recruits for my heresy militia for now - although I’m planning to pick up a Clamavus at some point to play as a vox caster for them.
10 onto the pile - but I have a big WIP pile that should have me in the clear if I get enough painting time this week…
Prep work makes the job go faster! Having a big pile of pre-zenithal’d models ready to go is incredibly convenient. If all holds up I should be in the negatives pretty quickly. I have another 9 Marauders and 4 trolls prepped and ready before I have to hope for decent priming weather again. I’m not sure when that will be.
I put together some Chaos Warriors to see if I had some good heads for them - since their original helmets are now doing duty in my Chaos Dwarfs bitz box, some Necromunda Cawdor heads are doing the job.
Some Heresy grenadiers also got basecoats and the Daemon Prince got based. Productive, but only 2 off the pile.
Dang… you’re hitting this HARD already!! Wow. I was all impressed thinking I was going to get into the negative with my Golden Hat painting… then I realized most of what I’m painting is stuff I’ve made for the contest, which is going to undo some of my efforts!
It helps a lot that my traditional January burst of hobby energy is being directed at a pile of models that I happened to have in my cupboard!
What I’m trying to do with this project is find time to prep entire units with a pre-shade before tackling them. That means I can grab a handful off the shelf and block in the colours whenever I have some free time. Being able to paint in shorter sessions should allow me to paint more in total over the next few months.
I’ve now got pre-shading done for the full 25-man Marauder unit and 3 more trolls, as well as 10 of my heresy grenadiers.
This weekend I’ve also undercoated a full unit of Chaos Warriors and a Daemon Prince, which will just get a drybrush so I can paint them in line with the Nurgle stuff I painted late last year.
The keen-eyed among you will notice that I’ve switched to a different blue (Terradon Turquoise rather than Frostheart) so that the colour scheme can be a bit more god-neutral.
This update will put me very close to “zero every month” so long as the six models I have in the post don’t arrive in the next couple of days. If they do I guess I’ll just have to paint a bit more!
As a surprise twist, instead of getting 5 of the older model chaos knights, I got 4 old and one new!
I’ve contacted the seller, who says there must have been a mistake in packing, so maybe I’ll arrange a swap, maybe not. So I have Chaos Knights, but am not necessarily in a position to start working on them immediately,
That’s okay though, because I’m still chomping through the Chaos Marauders. Today I finished another six:
It’s six because that’s how many Citadel painting handles I have and I’m just in a place where I want to use them rather than my rattly makeshift ones full of rocks!
Five on, six off the pile - which means I’m on net zero for January because it’s January 31st here!
Woooooohhhhhh!
Hopefully I can keep going like this and stick to at least zero every month!
-4
10
+20
Total BATG score: +82
Unassembled: 341 (493)
Assembled: 431 (727)
In Progress: 277 (393)
Finished: 818 (1122)
