Looking forward to 2023

 

The days are shorter and the nights are longer and we are reaching yet again the end of another year. 2022 has been a year of me recovery and rebuilding my hobby love from the Covid years. I am not much of a reflector I tend to look forward more and focus on the future. My Blog is my meanderings and reflections on what I have done in the hobby that month. However for 2023 I want to have a bit more of a focus to my Hobby Year. So I have chosen 5 areas that I want to be my main focus for 2023.

Number One: Star Wars Legion.

This has been my latest new starting Hobby project and so far played 2 games and really enjoyed the flow. My first army is the Shadow Collective and have enjoyed painting the models so far so expect to see some completion shots over coming months.

I am looking forward to the complete rulebook coming out in mid January and will do a write up of the book once I have got hold of it.

Yearly Goals: 

1200 points of painted Shadow Collective. This will allow me to have a selection of choices to build 800 point armies.

Build a themed table: At the moment I am toying between a Hoth and Genosis table. But more on this to come.

Number Two: Horus Heresy

HH was my major hobby achievements of last year. Having completed the starter box baring the Spartan and painted a lot of the other releases. So I really need to get some pictures posted up of the completed units.

I have still not played a game of the new system and really want to get this sorted out early in the new year. 

Yearly Goals:

Buy and Paint Horus as a focal point for the army.

Play at least 3 games in the first quarter of the year.

Start a 1000 point loyalist army so that I have an opposing force for someone to use on the table.

Number Three: Commemorative Models

On tidying my hobby room I have found that I have a load of commemorative models that have been bought and not painted and added to the pile of shame. I also want to improve my painting skills on single focus models and this is a great reason to reduce the pile of shame and improve my skills. 

Number Four: Secondary Games

I have a number of secondary game loves and want to make some time for getting these painted and have some games. The great thing with games like Bloodbowl, Necomunda and Battletech it is a small model count and quick game time, means that they can be nice break up projects.

Number Five: Online Gaming

I have not really ever talked about my online gaming. I have two loves the first being Eve Online which is a deep immersive space game. Now that sentence really does not do Eve Online any form of justice. But will delve deeper into the game in future posts. 

The second in roleplaying with COVID it stopped our gaming group from meeting up so we moved online and tried out to varying degrees of success online platforms. Having settled on the FORGE I have now been part of an online group for around 18 months now. Call of Cthulhu being our favorite system so far, but we have tried other games such as Alien, D&D and using the systems to play through some our fav horror and sci fi films of the 80s and 90s.

Work is coming up to some major projects that I know are going to hit on my free time out of work. So my hobby is going to be an important part of keeping me sane throughout the year. 

So with the last post of 2022 all for me to say have a Happy New Year and I will see you in 2023.

HOHO HOBBY VICES

 For those of you that are in the know will already be aware of HOHO HOBBY VICES, and may be part taking.

This is the third year for me and the premise is really simple. You join up on discord or Instatgram #hohohobbyvices around about Nov time you get sent a questionaire where you talk a little about your hobby and what you are collecting and what projects you are on. You then are matched up with someone and they read through your mad ramblings:) and then go and buy you some cool hobby gifts.

This year Ben (Not giving surname to protect his identity I think he might be in the A-Team) was my hobby Santa and what an awesome haul he sent me.

I jotted down that I am on the Horus Heresy night bus with SoH and Imperial Fists and he sent me a nice praetor which is ripe for conversion and 5 terminators not pictured and some cool nifty pin badges. These are not picutred.

Also mentioned that was just getting into Star Wars Legion, Ben not knowing anything about Legion popped to his local hobby store and they advised on these 2 characters. Spot on the buffs that Darth Vader has received as operative have made him a shoe in for my upcoming stormtrooper list. Along with Gar Saxon who is one of the Command options for the shadow alliance. 

Along with the Red Gobbo and some nifty EAVY METAL DICE was a lovely written card.

Of course Christmas is not Christmas without Choccie and Ben sent some Orange Chocolate DAIM bars which sadly did not survive the photo.

Many thanks Ben and I hope your hobby vice Santa put as much thought and effort into it as you did.

Star Wars Legion Bossk Complete

 

So next up on the painting table is Bossk first featured on the bridge of the Star Destroyer in Empire Strikes Back and then more fame in Star Wars Clone Wars cartoon series. 

The base needs a bit of tidying up, the yellow is far brighter in the photos than it shows in real life. I think the green is maybe to green and needs to be more camo green colour. But happy another model complete. Next up on the painting table is Gar Saxon to lead my Shadow Alliance Force.

Count Dooku Complete

 Finished my first Star Wars Legion model this week and it is the face of the Separatist Alliance Sith Lord himself Count Dooku.

Painted with a mixture of normal and contrast paints I was please with how it came out and the level of detail showing on the model. I think as I learn how to paint this scale and work out my weathering, I may well come back to him and go for a pure paint job with no contrasts. 

Up next on the desk is the start of my Shadow Alliance Gar Saxon and Bossk.

Star Wars Legion: Cad Bane Assembly

 

First up on my assembly bench for Star Wars Legion is the infamous Cad Bane from Clone Wars and more recently The Book of Boba Fett. The more recent waves of Star Wars Legion now come in hard plastic and with the characters a couple of poses. The first is in a gun slinger pose aiming one of his blasters. The second he is using a com link on his wrist.

 I went with the classic gun slinger pose and the build is very clean and crisp with very few mould lines. Once assembled there are no gaps for filling. Looking forward to getting some paint on the model over the course of the weekend. I have included the sprue shot and shot of the other varients.

 

 

Star Wars Legion

Me and friend where chatting on Monday this week about what gaming we would like to do over the Christmas break. We both been watching a lot of Star Wars recently and we decided on Stars Wars Legion. Being pay day I popped to Element Games and picked up some box sets to see how I like the models. So now in my greedy paws are the B1 Battle Droids, Anakin Skywalker, Darth Maul and Cad Bane. Will start building up the Battle Droids tonight and pop a post tomorrow. Don't worry my Sons of Horus have not been neglected, just need to get some pictures taken.

 

Horus Heresy: MkVI and MkIII Tactical Squads completed.

 Also completed this week are my first two Tactical squads a Mk III and a MK VI from the new starter set.