A hobby review of 2016

And there it went in all it's rubbishness. Good riddance 2016, you shall not be missed in the slightest.

The final moments of last year were spent coughing and spluttering and feeling like Nurgle's chosen vessel for all things snot-filled - o well. I hope that everyone else saw the new year in far more enjoyable circumstances!

One thing for 2016 that I can say is that I was far more productive on the painting table than ever before! As well as 47 posts for the year, I managed to get two full armies painted (My 15mm Confederates and 28mm WW2 Soviets) and a fair few sundry pieces to bring my yearly totals to:

146x 15mm minis
72x 28mm minis
2x large scale minis (A dragon and a Hill Giant - see below)
6x Vehicles and Artillery guns
3x Terrain pieces

Not bad at all in my books and a far improvement over last year's tally. I've enjoyed the projects I've worked on and have very much appreciated all the comments and words of support that have been left throughout the year.

My final painting effort of the year keys in with my final game of the year, which was with Sean of the blog Sean's Wargames Corner. He was in the area for the holidays and we were able to throw dice, drink tasty wine and do our best to run through a game of Dragon Rampant. The swift battle report can be found HERE.

In the above Batrep a Hill Giant features, but was not fully painted just yet. I managed to finish him up prior to the end of the year:

This is a Reaper Bones Hill Giant. Not the best paintjob, but it'll do for gaming and rpg's.

In his batrep, Sean had given all the characters in our game names. This giant is Skeggi - I like this name, so it stays.

This Xmas I was lucky enough to be gifted a few hobby-centric things, a couple small Charliefoxtrot Models Eastern Front buildings to add to my collection, some Wargamesfoundry early war British Commandos (WW2) and a nifty book from my son on late 80's/early 90's jet fighters. Knowing that Xmas was going to be a bit lean, I indulged myself and spent out in early November on the pre-order for the recently regular release of Warlord Games "Project Z: Lock and Load" set. I know, more new projects and in an entirely new setting, but it came with 40-odd zombies, some SpecOps soldiers, a pack of dogs and a lovely mdf compound terrain set with a tonne of scatter terrain pieces too. At the pre-order price, I couldn't pass it up really.

This brings me to my initial hobby goals for 2017.

#1. Paint up those British Commandos - for a 500 point Bolt Action army, there's only 25 or so figs to paint and no vehicles. Really shouldn't be a problem.

#2. Project Z - with so many zombies and special forces figs and terrain to boot, there'll be plenty here to get on with. The sculpts  are all very crisp and relatively easy to put together. The game though seems a bit simple for my tastes, but we'll see how I feel after a few playthroughs.

#3. I've mentioned them before, the opponents for my recently completed Winter Soviets, a 1000 point Bolt Action Winter Germans force. All sorts in it and I'll post more on this project at a later date.

#4. Get my Winter theme'd gaming table sorted. Lots of snow drifts to be cut out of polystyrene insulation, tree's to base and add snow to and buildings to paint and also add snow. It won't be an amazing effort as I can't spend out on this, but it'll look good enough for some snowy WW2 battles!

#5. I read that Flames of War 4th Edition is being released in a couple months. Guess I should really finish those left over projects so I'll have fully painted armies to play with when me and Densmol test out those new rules.

#6. That game of Dragon Rampant made me realise that I need to paint up loads more of my fantasy minis so I can play some more of this fun game with some more fantastical options.

To close out, here are some photos of where I'm at with both terrain and minis right now (Not pictured {cos I'm a tit and forgot to photo them} are 42 Project Z zombies and a dozen Spec Ops troopers awaiting paint:

This is a mix of Black Tree Design and Wargames Foundry earlier war Brit Commandos. The two producers sculpts mix in well enough and should be a fun little project. They've since been primered and are ready for paint!

In this pic to the rear I've got the left-over Soviet pieces, a squad of Scouts, a 2nd Lieutenant, Medic, Commissar and a pair of Anti-Rifle teams. In the foreground are a trio of Project Z dogs (Mastiffs or Rottweilers I think) a Zombie brute and some sort of scientist character mini who looks suspiciously like Doc Brown from Back to the Future. These are also primered  and are ready for paint.

Terrain pieces are all put together and also ready for paint and weathering.

Project Z compound buildings. All by Sarissa Precision terrain and very easy builds that look smashing once done. Not pictured are seven other wall pieces, large enough to completely surround the building with room to spare.

A small Hunter's cabin type thing for my Eastern Front project by Charlie Foxtrot Models. There's also a second similarly sized building that didn't get pictured. Both are also ready for paint and snow effects! The mini shown for scale purposes is some sort of ancients freebie sent in the Wargames Foundry parcel. A Persian maybe?

Gaming wise, I already have a game of Bolt Action with my Soviets scheduled for a couple weeks against a fellow member of the Bolt Action gaming group here in Sac, which is a good start. There's been mention of a tournament as well next month at a local LGS that I may well attend. Stuff to look forward to!

Thanks again to all who stop by to read and leave comments here. Your kind words, encouragement and your own wonderful blogs help keep me motivated to continue to whittle away at my unpainted mountain of plastic and metal. :) Let's hope 2017 is a good one, eh?!