The Best of 2020 Awards

 So the Covid-19 infused year has passed, and with hope on the horizon for at least a normal second part of 2021, it is time to look back at the year and take a look at my totally subjective view of the past 12 months.

As it has become a sort of yearly tradition, it of course handles about all the geeky related stuff once again, as I barely follow politics or economics in daily life...

 

 

Strating this year's list is my choice for Best Movie, and I selected The Lone Ranger.  A really underrated movie in my opinion, it was good fun and an epic trainchase scene!

 

In Best Series, was there any other possibility then the second season of The Mandalorian.  That finale... that unknown X-Wing... geekgasms galore!

The Best Book I read this year was the Warhammer Underworlds tie-in novel, Shadespire: the Mirrored City by Josh Reynolds.  It really emerges one into the setting, and adds nice cameo's of the various warbands from the first season.

Best Toy is something I only received this christmas actually, with the full series of Anime Heroes for Saint Seiya, consisting of Seiya, Aiolos and Saga.

Best Anime goes to Gundam Build Divers ReRise, and while perhaps not actually the best one I saw, it was a weekly dad and son moment as Thorin really enjoyed watching all those flashy colours.

 

In the Best Game category, I`m placing Rangers of Shadow Deep, a game I would never have discovered had Covid not happened, but the solo play and endless possibilities for a setting made it one I really enjoyed playing this year on the dining table.

Best Videogame goes for the second year to Harem Heroes, so that also means I actually haven`t been playing anything "serious" during the year, as I mostly spend my off-time with the little guy or painting models.

Best Wargame Figure is of course the GW model of Thorin Oakenshield, for obvious reasons!

The baby influenced a lot of the choices this year, and for music it is Blinding Lights.  It was topping the billboard here when Thorin was born, and it is actually a catchy song as well.

The Best Trade I did this year was a large box of GHQ micro armour for a measly 40 euro, though I still need to start painting them, something I plan to in the coming year... perhaps...

For Best Convention or Event I have to go with the Underworlds tournament I played in the beginning of february... because it is also the ONLY event I managed to get to this year.

 

Because what else then Covid-19 can be this year's biggest disappointment, grinding the hobby life to a complete standstill...

And that's it for 2020, the awards of the year from my highly personalised viewpoint!

What I painted in December 2020

 The AHPC is back, and to that end I have been doing a lot of assembling and undercoating mostly this month, and managed to get a bit in at the end of the month.

But in the weeks before, I did manage to paint up some models, though mostly this has been terrain items... but not all.

 

Kicking off the month are these two Babirusa for dungeons and dragons, a price I gained through Instagram. 

For some holiday cheer in this pandemical year, Santa Hashut came to town (or at least to an Instagram painting challenge).

On a terrain level, a lot of wall sections, 40 to be precise, have been printed and painted for Rangers of Shadow Deep.

More terrain was finished this month, as a couple of 6mm models have been rounded out for the various tables I`m building as well.

 

But then the AHPC started, and making full use of the week between christmas and new year that I had off, I went in with a vengeance to get at least some entries done and points on the board towards the 1k goal.

 

My first entry are these Shrewzerkers, one for me, and one for the Challenger that reaches X at the end of the annual lead mountain reduction challenge. 

As well as a first "non map" entry, in the form of these classic citadel zombies

And as such, we end the year with another 65 models to the tally, concluding a very paint strong 2020 due to the lockdown and all, and masses of terrain being finished.

The 2021 Hobby Goals

And here we are, at the start of another year and hopefully one that brings life back to normal.

As always, I`m setting myself some (impossible) hobby goals, and for this year it is going to be all about Lord of the Rings again as "main" target.

And this includes some carry-overs from the last year, and that are some that have been open for quite some years now, namely first and foremost paint up 1000 points of Rohan, and 700 points of Rivendel.  But adding to that I also made a Scouring of the Shire scenario checklist, as I plan on completing every model needed for the small table scenarios.  A fourth target for LotR is completing a 400 points Easterling force.

Now, as far as dedication goes, I`m planning to finish at least 2000 points of Tau Gundam inspired mobile suits for a big battle we will be holding at the club in october, as well as a 4500 Sonnstahl force (my The Great Wall plan) for The 9th Age.

 

Other goals this year are of a simpler stock: finish all Crisis figures once more, and complete the AHPC goal I set myself.

For the not miniature related stuff, I`m of course aiming at clearing out more backlog as well as getting through new material, and based on what me and Noshi binged last year, the numbers are being shifted a bit again.

I do need to mention first I have put no goal on attending events or conventions, as it isn`t certain at all when the world will get back to normal after the pandemic.  But for the other targets, I aim at the following:

 

Read 25 Books: a bit higher then last year, as I found a good public communing / doing other stuff balance again.
Watch 25 movies: status quo with last year
Watch 20 series: double of last year, and maybe a bit to ambitious, but the past year me and Noshi have been going through Netflix a lot, and now with Disney+ added...
Watch 20 anime: Noshi is a bit "out of that" for the moment, so a slight decrease on this front, as I nowhere made my goal last year, shame on my otaku soul!

And those are the targets for 2021, no idea what I will reach or if hobby gaming life picks up again in the new normal, but we`ll see!

The 2020 Goals, what was achieved?

So, a very, very strange year has gone by, with the pandemic still around and my only club evening dating back to the first week of january.

But I don`t mind, because in March my greatest miniature ever arrived: baby Thorin, making everything else irrelevant.

Of course, these factors combined had a huge impact on my hobby life, and while I churned out a really fantastic numbers of painted stuff, clocking off at 838 models, that didn`t mean I was focussed at all at what I wanted to achieve 12 months ago...

On the contrary, even though some got pretty close to achieving, like the 700pts Rivendell force (I just need to paint up Arwen for Noshi basically and it is done), others fell far short.  The Tau Gundam force, like in the past years, have been an on and off occassional addition, and they end the year at 840 of the projected 2000. 

 

Now, I expect to get them during the AHPC to 1000 or slighty above, so that will be enough to perhaps get a small game in during the period Covid might finally be over, and they will get some serious boosting as I aim to get them up and running for a big game we have planned at the club the first weekend of october. 

The Crisis models are still 5 short of having painted the full range, so I decided for myself to really get up to speed on them in the coming months.  

In epic paint failures come the Rohan force of 1000 points, currently sitting at a measly 112 but with a new goal system set in place for 2021 (more on that tomorrow) I`m confident that won`t be a problem to get to in 2021, but the Infernal Dwarves for T9A where sold off when I had 1400 pts (out of 4500 projected) and the North Africa italians (30 points out of 3000) where secerly negelected.  On the other hand, I am still going for that T9A force, but I`m sticking to my original plan now of a force of Sonnstahl based on the The Great Wall movie, with a lot of plastic Warlord boxes now in the cellar for that.

The paint 10 larger scenery pieces has been smashed, clocking out at 17 and more will be added in the coming year, and while the Battle Companies fall short at 13 out of the 38 different ones now painted, the AHPC alone should probably be adding 3 or 4 to the completed list for starters.  

On non painting levels, only the Amime series failed (18 as I wanted to watch 30 at least) as Noshi wasn`t really into it this year, and I didn`t have decent headphones for watching something during lunch at work, a problem now solved so next year those numbers will rise again hopefully.  But the other goals, being books (27 out of 20 planned), movies (29 out of 25) and series (17 out of 10) where decently passed.

The wargame conventions and tournaments also came up woefully short from the planning, but we can all tell what happened this year to lead to cancellation after cancellation...

So all in all, it wasn`t to bad a year at all in goal scoring, 2021 will see a totally different set of goals and numbers laid out, so check back tomorrow to see what I will try to achieve then!

The Haul Report 261: Xmas Lootings

 Santa came by and het stuffed my sock with awesome thingies!

Though the most awesome one is the coffeecup for my collection I got from Thorin, when he was just a wee little baby barely able to do tummy time.

Now at times we would want him to lie still for just a moment when we change him 😂

There was so much more awesomeness that came down the chimney, as you can see:

 

On another note, Dark Realms released the next set from their Patreon, in the form of walls for the city of Arkenfells.

A merry week for sure!

On the Painting Desk 175

 The AHPC is running, and as a result a plethora of projects now linger the painting desk.

One of those are the Warriors of Rohan, noble soldiers in a world where almost everythings seems bigger and badder then they are, yet they stand their ground.

 

I hope to get this week, where I`m off from work, to get a line and an "entry battleline" in place, to tackle the rooms I want to unlock on the way to the Snow Lord, but until then I guess it'll all remain a bit chaotic.

Check back next week to see if I succeeded!

Lord Ipsqueek's Adventures: Twas the night before Christmas

 Hello everyone, yesterday I celebrated my very first christmas eve together with mommy and daddy!

We all dressed up very sharp for the occassion of course, because my parents tell me christmas dinner is an important moment to share with loved ones.

 

And I even mamaged to sneak in a bite of a cheesey cookie hihihihi. 

I had this great plate all for myself, with cookies and yoghurt! 

 

Certainly looked better then my parents odd looking and smelling food.

But something mysterious happened, as suddenly my yoghurt exploded all over the place!  I have no idea at all what happened!

 

Afterwards, it was time for presents, and I professionally unwrapped them in the same manner my daddy does.

I got some nice big sleeping bags, and some cool building blocks, and a cute blue koala bear!

 

It was great fun, and a lovely evening even in these trying times, hopefully next year it will be with my whooooole family!

Seasonal Greetings

 And may 2021 bring good health, fortune of the dice, and a return to the normal!

From Tomsche, Noshi and Baby Thorin

AHPC11: Classic Zombies

For this entry, I have some really old models I found in my bit box: the classic WFB zombies.

 

 

While I don`t plan on an army, they are suited for "NPC" zombies in various fantasy games, as they are so full of character compared to the current day plastic kits of various sources.

 While I do use the plastics for the "masses" sometimes needed in games, these old metal jewels are used for that lost friend or fallen city guard in smaller scale games, and as such I painted them up in a variety of clothing schemes, though generally I took the old Empire city states as a guideline.  Heck, I am still at heart a Warhammer player, as that was my first game back in 1994...

 So now I have these 8 lovely chaps to shamble around my gaming boards in search of brains and daring adventurers, though those two often don`t go together if you look at the average Dungeons and Dragons session...

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AHPC11: The Fee of Entry

 Something new in the AHPC since last year, is the fee of entry.  In this, you paint up one figure, and this has to be mailed to another participant that reaches the endgoal of the challenge.

As the model has to be submitted within the first month of the challenge, I always go at it as soon as possible, and so I duly did this year as well.

The model chosen as an entry fee is a Shrewzerker, produced by Oathmark in their lovely Burrows and Badgers range, and a game I'm keen on collecting and playing more in the future.

 

This fella really looks the business, wielding his huge axe while taunting the enemy barechested!

 

But what's more, as I didn't have one for myself either, I opted to paint not one, but two of this mighty warriors, one for the lucky winner, and one for my own collection.

And as such, we are off for another year of painting extravaganza during the next three months, with a goal of 1000 points to score and not that much paint time at all with Baby Thorin.  So carefull planning will be key, but at least the first 10 points are on the counter now!

Good luck to all the participants and may funtimes be had and lead mountains dwindle!

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