This will likely be
my last blog post of this year, so what better way to end things than
with an update on all the miniatures I managed to get painted this
month (and to see if I actually managed to keep to my goal of
painting more than I buy this year).
So, first up is this
little fellow…
...now I actually
told a bit of a white lie when I got him earlier in the year – as
it was actually going to be a Xmas/thank-you gift for a friend that I
game with (one who will often give me a lift home when I need one).
As such I didn’t want to spoil the surprise (just in case he
stumbled across the blog) so apologies for making up a story about it
being stuck to a plinth and used as a trophy :)
Anyway, the next
mini’s I splashed some paint on where these two reaper bones
models…
...which I painted
up with the intent of using them for a few solo games of ‘Age of
Fantasy: Quest’ (perhaps setting the scenarios in my old Age of
Shadow campaign world).
Next up where these
guys…
...which are more
undead from Mantic Games’ Dungeon Saga kickstarter. Now I was
hoping to get all of the undead from this set done over Xmas – but
I got sidetracked with other things… so I still have three zombie
trolls to go.
And, speaking of
getting sidetracked, my brother has recently bought a Bambu A1 mini
3D printer (as it was on sale)… and he’s printed a few things off
for me (and I’ve also been having a bit of a play around with it
myself when time allowed).
As such, pictured
below are three skeleton mini’s from Fat Dragon Games… one fresh
from the printer (though I did accidentally break the spear and had
to repair it, then add some ‘wraps’ for strength)… one primed…
and one painted:
And for FDM prints
(using the 0.2 nozzle, and the settings provided by Fat Dragon
Games), I have to admit, I’m pretty impressed. In fact, here’s a
few more:
The HeroQuest style
one he gave to me – as he didn’t want it because it’s printed a
bit small, the oversized crawling claw was the first one I had a go
at printing off myself (as it wouldn’t take very long), and the
mummy was the first one where he downloaded two separate files (i.e.
the mummy and the base), and merged them together (though some of the
wraps did break off – but it was easily fixed with a bit of
greenstuff).
Anyway, getting back
to regular miniatures… this next one is going to be used in a
co-op game of ‘Grimdark Future Star Quest’ (set in the 40K
universe):
(kitbashed from a
reaper bones model – with a stargrave ‘trooper’ head, and a GW
‘arbite’ shock baton).The game itself is
going to be played online with one of the guys from my Discord
server… but we thought it would be cool to use mini’s we’ve
actually painted (rather than generic tokens) – and it turns out
that it’s not all that difficult to turn a front & back photo
into a standee that works pretty well on Tabletop Simulator (as can
be seen below).
But yeah, this is
going to be used as an enforcer captain in the hive city where our
games will be set (the idea is that it will be a homebrew planet of
Mercia Magna – which I/we can use for RPGs, war/skirmish games,
solo adventure games, and so on).
And seeing as how I
might also play some solo games myself (perhaps more StarQuest, or 5
Parsecs Bug Hunt), and as I say, run some one-shot RPGs in the hive
city of Magna Prime (working title), and maybe even the odd
(narrative) game of ‘GrimDark Future: Firefight’ …that means
I’ll need some more enforcers to back him up.
So, to allow me to
do that, I’ve done a bit of kitbashing to make some ‘security
gunners’ (using the GrimDark Future: Firefight army builder)…
...which were made
from Wargames Atlantic ‘bulldog’ bodies, Stargrave Trooper heads,
and the Wargames Atlantic extra weapons sprue.
These are
accompanied by some ‘security fighters’…
...which are also
made from Wargames Atlantic ‘bulldog’ bodies and ‘cannon
fodder’ arms, Stargrave Trooper heads, and Games Workshop ‘arbite’
shock batons.
And to round them
out I’ve also put together this ‘veteran gunner’…
...which uses
similar parts with regard to the head and body – but this one has a
shotgun from GW’s ‘hive scum’ kit.
I also found this
model buggy/truck on Thingiverse – which I think has the perfect
look to go along with my enforcers.
However, to print
this with the highest detail and the smallest nozzle would have taken
around 9.5 hours… which I would probably have done if I had my own
3D printer… but since this would be done on my brother’s machine
(and I didn’t want to tie it up for an entire day) he instead
installed the larger (0.4) nozzle and used a thicker layer height to
get it down to 2.5 hours.
As such, the
resulting model does have some pretty obvious layer lines if you look
closely – but on the whole I still think it’s great.
And finally… the
last models of the year are these guys:
Again, these were
(free) 3D prints (I think they might have been on the Cults 3D
website)… and they’re actually intended for use as ‘basing’
decorations. However, I’ve blown them up 200% when printing them –
so that they fit nicely on a 20mm base in their own right (and can be
used for little gribbly creatures of the underhive… or even as
dungeon vermin in a fantasy setting).
So, that’s
everything that I got painted in December… which brings the grand
total up to:
148 painted models
in 2024.
Which isn’t bad at
all!
However, the whole
3D printing thing has thrown things a bit out of whack with regard to
the number of miniatures I bought… as ‘technically’ I only paid
for the 3 Fat Dragon skeletons (which I picked up as a thank you to
FDG – seeing as how we were using the printing ‘profile’ he
provides for free).
So technically
(there’s that word again ;) ) I only bought 3 mini’s this month -
as the rest were free downloads ;)
And that brings the
total number of models that I paid for this year to:
115 models bought in
2024.
Which makes this
whole endeavour a success right?
Well… not quite.
You see, I also got the DarkTide boardgame back in July for my
birthday (which contains 20 mini’s)… plus I had a bumper gaming
Xmas:
...amongst which are
8 Dark Souls miniatures, 7 animal adventurers, 5 (dire/giant) wolves,
and 20 orcs & goblins on sprues (so that’s another 40
miniatures there).
And if you include
the other 8 free models that have been printed… it actually comes
out to:
183 models acquired
in 2024.
But yeah, I think
I’m still going to count this as a win, as I DID paint more models
than I bought (which was my original aim… I did specifically use
the word ‘buy’ in my first post back in January :P) – though
I’ll admit that it’s a bit of a stretch to claim that :D
In any case, it’s
been good fun all the same… and it’s great to look back at the
folder where I’ve been keeping all these pictures, and see
everything I’ve done this year all in one place (even if you don’t
share your pictures with anyone, I really do think this is a great
thing to do).
Anyway, that’s
pretty much it for this year’s hobby projects… but if you’re
interested, I’ll be starting the new year with another terrain project – one that everyone can take part in – so I’ll see you
then!
