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):
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!
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