The 2024 Goals: the year of the Chaos Dwarf

 Life tends to go in circles, and in my case that usually ends up returning painting wargame figures.

And to that end, after the hiatus of Covid-19 and little Thorin throwing agenda's on it's head, it is time to return to the tabletop.

Mind you I never stopped, it was more of a forced break to find footing again on how and when to paint and game, but with the little guy now a bit more on his feet and life returning more or less to a normal rhytm, let's add some painting goals again.

And of course, most will be about Chaos Dwarves, as those who follow this blog know, my beloved Dawi'Zharr have been the mainstay of wargaming career, including the "out of retirement" phase of last year.

 

And to celebrate it has been 30 years since I bought my first Dawi'Zharr!

I've set myself as such three goals for them this year: paint a 1000 points Warmaster Revolution (the fan-made second edition of this classic game) force, a 15mm force suited for Hordes of the Things (HOTT) of 12 points to start out, and expand my "normal" force with at least 250 models in scale heroic 28mm, meaning I would need to paint at least a regiment of 20 models every month and then some.  Yes, that all is ambitious as it is a lot of models in one go, but that would also mean that the pile-of-shame will be reduced severely... hopefully... as it currently stands already at a mighty 422 models to paint.  

 

On other paint projects, I want to finish all the Underworlds warbands we have, which is still 8 needing to get painted as I publish this (and might go up actually if I get more bands), and create a 2000 points force for Age of Sigmar of Idoneth Deepkin (currently 180 points painted) to finally get going in that system.  These all for the build-up to 2025, where I will be making a full swing return to competitive gaming!

But these have no high priorities at all, as it will be mostly in the form of birthday gifts and the likes that I will be asking for figures, considering the high tally I have to paint up already.  So I doubt these additional armies will be finished quickly, rather occasionally growing and being purchased, as I have some very high costs at the horizon... which I will revealed in due time.  But what I mean to say, don't expect to many spectacular Haul Reports in the current year.  For example, I`m going to limit my anime figure purchases solely to Lunamaria Hawke figures I still lack in the collection, and don't stray to much outside that.

 

Of course, the regular mainstays of anime, books, series and movies remain as well, as does the new from last year's beer discovery journey.  But with the whole wargames back in full swing now that I am finally learning to drive and as such can make the displacements to events, I won`t be focussing to hard on my GunPla / PlaMo this year I fear, so I dropped those out of the goals equation for 2024.  

 But in sheer numbers, I aim for a huge 100 anime, and 20 movies and series each, as these are numbers I`m feeling comfy with, and try to discover yet again 50 new beers at least.  

 

But on the reading part, I`m going to split the numbers three ways this year, to work away some backlog.  I am aiming for 25 manga volumes, 10 books / rulebooks (with for example ToW on the horizon, a lot of stuff will be coming out) and 50 magazines / fanzines as well, I have a lot of older ones I still want to (re)read and blog about.

Another specialised anime challenge though, as I`ll be trying to complete mostly seasons of series I started in the past years and never went for now beyond for example the first season, so for completeness sake I`m going to be aiming at those instead of a letter challenge or a 200+ episode series.  To that end, I drafted a list of 85 anime sidestories, movies, ONA's and OVA's I still need to watch, in addition to the anime I will be viewing through the year, to make up that 100 watched anime's total.

 

And on a totally different sidenote, in anime collecting I`m aiming to complete my Weiss Schwarz cardseries of Date A Bullet, the expansion series for Date A Life. This will be done with the aid of cardmarket to get either boosters or loose cards, as I still lack quite some cards, though I`m not shelving out 100s of euros for the special signature cards.  But including those, I need 19 cards still to complete the series - foils preferred hehe.

This will be as such a year of big numbers and very lofty goals, and I doubt I will manage to obtain them all.  But never the less, I will be barging in there and aim for the highest!

 

December 2023 Loot

 Welcome into 2024, and the final episode of this series, which ran for 2 years.

Because 2024, with life finally getting on the rails since Covid and little Thorin setting into a pattern, the focus will shift this year back to wargaming, and getting outside to practice that hobby more again.

So to that end, this will be the last anime loot report of sitting inside, huddling stuff.  I don`t quit or such, but I won`t be so actively hunting manga and figures, with the desposable income shifting back to miniatures for a large part, meaning the additions will still be shown in the weekly haul reports, just not an end of the month summary video which will be phased out for the Status of the Chaos Dwarf video's that I began past summer on my YouTube channel.

But without further ado, here is the final heap of links for this video:

Gachapons, Darling, Slime and the Touring manga's: they came from the Akiba store in Antwerp

F91 Gundam HG scale: this I picked up in the Nendo Addicts store.

Darling, Academia: these manga's came through from Archonia.

And there you have it, the final monthly loot overview for my anime collections.  For the future, they will be integrated into the regular weekly Haul Reports instead, and receive seperate video's on YouTube as a result.

The Haul Report 385: Christmas Joy!

 Naughty or nice, it is the question we all ponder about for when the jolly bearded man comes down the chimney.

And it seems in my case I have been very nice, as the loot has been fantastic, thank you everyone!

On christmas eve, we unwrapped presents and I got a lovely stash of goodies.  Finally a new keyboard, saying farewell to my Logitech G15 after the better part of two decades.  I also received a Snowball microphone, which I now have to figure out how to use, but will improve my sound quality for my YouTube videos AND will give the opportunity to comment during games of FF14 or the likes.

Other gifts included a poncho for the rainy weather when cycling to work, sporting my new NASA socks.  I also received the second and third volumes of Asumi-chan is only intrested in Lesbian Brothels.

At my mother-in-law's, Secret Santa came to visit, and he brought along the Deathgorge box for me, which was highly welcomed and the Idoneth warband is going up and front of the paint line for 2024!  He also brought along a cardgame which I'll be cracking open on the traditional games night with friends on new year's eve.

So those where some awesome gifts this year, thanks everyone!

On the Painting Desk 262

 The last one of the year, which isn't hard of course as tomorrow it is New Year's eve.

And with a week of holidays behind me, albeit a mighty busy one, I did some minor advancing on the projects... because I took up tanking again, this time in FF14.

Which is mainly of course the big Fomoroid Crusher, a model I had scheduled to complete during december, yet failed on that part, as it is currently first layer completed only, with some minor work already done on the second.

The Alchemical Monstrosity has been put to the side for now, until I can dedicate some decent paint time into it, but that is one that doesn`t even need to be finished in the first quarter of 2024 anyways, so slow and steady some work will be done in between on it, only some green added to the beastie for the tentacles.

The january project though already received some minor loving, as I began painting on the Hobgoblins for the force with their first layer of skin.

But I will be pushing forward on that warband though, as I want them actually finished rather fast and be able to join a (in the very early planned stages) Mordheim play day at Tin Soldiers of Antwerp.

The Best of 2023 Awards

 Another year has flown by, so that means it is once again time for my totally subjective view of the geeky stuff I liked the most in the past 365 days.

And it is to be honest a bit of a mixed bag this year, as wargaming came back into swing next to the anime dominated editions of the past two years.

So without further ado, let's have a look at my personal awards!

Best movie: a fairly recent one, this is A Haunting in Venice.  I've taken a liking to Kenneth Brannagh's portrayal of Poirot, and the fact this is expanded on an existing short story actually made for a good who dunnit tale, without knowing the outcome in advance as there is no book of this movie written by Agatha Christie.

Best Series: not counting the final 10 minutes of the series, 1899 was by far one of the most entertaining shows I saw in a very long time, and grabbed my attention from the get-go.

Best Performace: even though Netflix has cancelled (unrightfully so mind you) the Shadow and Bones series, Freddy Carter's performance as the dark and glooming crime lord / anti-hero Caz Bekker really stood out for me this year.

Best Toy: is there any discussion then the GGG scale of Lunamaria Hawke?

Best Anime: Space Battleship Yamato 2199, a remake from 2017 of the classic 70s anime, and while just as excellent in story, it is also gorgeously animated.  The take-off scene of the Yamato alone was for me the goosebumps moment in anime for this year.

Best Game: while I could pick The Ninth Age for getting me going again, it goes instead to Warhammer Underworlds and it's Rivals format.  This makes it ideal for a quick take along for some games, ideal for a working person and family life timegrabbing combination.

 

 

Best Videogame: while I kicked off again with Final Fantasy XIV in december, this year still goes to Super Mecha Champions, which I thoroughly enjoyed until about mid-august.

 

 

Best Wargame Figure: I cannot pick anything else then the Chaos Dwarf Earthshaker here.  Not only did I always love these big cannons, it got my back to the wargames table.

 

 

Best Music: Lorenzo with Coco.  I heard it while lying on the tattootable at the Arel Tattoo Convention, and it stuck into my head for about a month.

 

 

Best Trade: a big box of old metal Clan Wars figures I received from a collegue long out of the hobby.  The goblins for one are the levy troops in my Infernal Dwarf force that could be seen on this blog in the past months.

 

 

Best Convention or Event: the Arel Tattoo Convention for my Thorin underarm Kitsune piece.

 

Greatest Disappointment: the loss of my father, who fought a short and hefty battle against lungcancer, passing away in august.

 

And that is it, the look back to the year of 2023.  Time to move on now and get going for a next year of geekiness, and all the things it will bring about...

What I Won in 2023

 Okay, first of all, there is no way I guess I can top the huge win streak of 2022, which yielded over a 1000 euro in prizes.

But that doesn't mean we won`t be going to give it a shot!

 

The year did start slow though, and the first thing I'd win was on the 17th of february, with this lovely looking Himiko Toga over on Tokyo Catch!

Hopefully she was the start of a nice streak, and on the first of march I caught myself a Demon Slayer Hashira noodle stopper.

A day later, I managed to grab a Nezuko figure over at Otaku House, a claw machine and webstore in Singapore.

And she was joined by Yushiro a few days after.

I had these shipped out the 19th of march, and they safely arrived the 8th of april.

On the 12th of march, another Nezuko joined the wins, this time again over at TokyoCatch.

 

 

But that is not all, because on the 14th, Trunks joined the "to be send out" pile as well.

And it kept coming, as the 16th I caught Lemillion, a figure I wanted since it was announced as a prize.

More Otaku House winnings, as the 18th I grabbed another Demon Slayer chibi figure.

The day after I had the above 5 TokyoCatches shipped out, lady luck smiled on me again as I got Anya and Bond Forger!  As none others where caught in the storing period, she was shipped out on her own though.

And on the last day of march, a Tanjiro chibi was caught, I guess this one goes on the trade pile...

They where shipped out on the 27th of march.

On the 4th of may, I won "that guy I don`t like at all as he is scary" namely Shigaraki from My Hero Academia.  At least it's his version without those creepy hands...

As well as this Kirby's Dream Land Interior figure, which will cover free shipping.

On the 17th of may, Kanroji, the love hashira joined the prize pool.

I had them all shipped to me on the 28th of may.

On the 29th, I scored again, grabbing a One Piece DFX The Grandline Men Kin'emon figure.

 

While on the 2nd of june, I grabbed that one prize figure I did just have to have: Dress-up Darling's Marin!

On the 7th of june, I scored a double with both the Mist hashira Tokito, as well as a pillow from Sailor Moon being caught.

Adding to that pile, the 13th of june Ichika joined the loot.

They where all shipped out at the end of june, so a fresh batch could hopefully be won... and the 5th of july, I scored a Demon Slayer Kanao as such.

While the 7th, I obtained a figure for my waifu collection with a Kurumi

 

On the 9th, I treated myself to a little birthday gift lol, as I grabbed none other then Seiya himself!

I also won the Spot My Car contest of Art Photo Studio Ribbi this month, and received a good fun price.  Also, beer!

On the first of august, Best Jeanist joined the pile of loot for this year.

On the 7th of august, Asuka Langley joined the pile as well.

The 24th of september added another One Piece figure to the loot of the year.

Adding to the stack to ship out together, another copy of the Asuka has been caught...

I had both shipped out as such end of october.

 

On the 21st of november, a Rimuru acryllic plate joined the loot pile, something that will look good on the Slime shelf as a backdrop.

 

While a day later, a figure of Dabi joined the loot pile.
 

Playing a Warhammer Underworlds tournament on the 25th, this saw me bring home some price support after 3 years at last, in the form of alternate art cards and acryll wound tokens.

On the 13th of december, a week before I planned to have the above two items for TokyoCatch shipped out, another Toga joined my loot pile.  She was the first win of the year, and in all probability this version will be the last price for 2024 as well.

And so wrong I was about that, because on christmas eve, Daki decided to grace my collection with her sexyness.

That means a total value of 680 euro has been amassed this year.  Not as huge as last year, but definitly not to shabby to expand the collection!

The Goals of 2023 result

 So, the year has passed, and that means it is time to look at the achieved, or failed, goals.

And it is a bit of a mixed cookie to be honest, as this was an emotional rollercoaster year to be sure.

For one, my father got severly sick from lung cancer, a diagnose he received last year december.  Finally finding peace after a long struggle,

But on the other hand, I picked up on my wargaming again, even playing tournaments this year, the first social outing in that hobby eversince the corona pandemic commenced.  this also meant I finally reclaimed my printer, to be able to print bases and movement trays at full speed.  Heck, once october came, I really threw myself back at it, playing in two tournaments, respectively 9th Age and Underworlds, though the results as expected where not that awesome... yet.  That will grow once I get back to more regular gaming outings, and with a drivers license on the way, I will be able to attend more in the coming years for sure.

But let's have a look now at the planned goals for the year, and I must say I achieved quite some "green" lines this year round.

One I didn`t manage to obtain was having four tattoos worked on / placed.  The cleaning up of the Hagen tattoo will be for the first quarter of 2024 instead, because agenda's, while I didn't find what I wanted at the tattoo conventions I attended, so the search for cool flaming dice continues, so it ended at 2 out of 4 planned, though the second one wasn't actually planned unfortunatly...

The beer goal though, that was blown out of the water, going far over the 50 that I had set myself.  Helped by attending 2 beer festivals and some trips to other regions to find a lot of local beers, I do realise that for future goals of this, it will always be harder to get to 50 new ones, but we keep tasting as we close the year with 184 new discoveries!

The 1/400 Gundam MechaTop models went in two parts: I managed a couple in the beginning of the year, before as I mentioned starting wargaming in earnest again as I build a 9th Age army from april onwards, while near the middle of the year I did more as that said army was nearing completion.  I ended up at 4 out of 10 planned in the end.  One can say that GunPla went the same, falling just short of the goal with three being finished at the very beginning of the year and one at the end, but this resulted in 4 out of the planned 5 completed in the end.

The reading and watching goals all where obtained without to much trouble, the last one, anime, clocking off at it's goal in the beginning of november.  To that end, I read 53 out of the 50 planned books and manga, while I watched 25 out of the 20 planned movies.  Series went very well this year, often watching something while painting, and came as such to 32 out of the planned 20, way more then expected and I still have a backlog to see with Noshi in the evenings.  On an anime front, while 50 seemed a lot (wait for my goal for next year!), I ticked out at the end at 58 out of 50 seen, and the alphabet challenge completed (which counted for 27 of those finished anime series).

Only the struggle aginst the scales went not really according to plan, being still way of the goal of 80 kg at the moment, standing at 92.40 kg's.

But all in all, with 6 out of the planned 10 goals achieved, I call this a more then okay year for certain.  Next week, the goals for 2024 will be posted, and the motivational rat race can start over, which will contain some hefty miniature gaming goals as well after a few years hiatus...

But for now, I`m just going to enjoy the fullfilment of the goals I obtained this year.

Beware of the Dogs!

 Recently, I have been painting up some mastiff's for my Chaos Dwarf force, where they can serve as unit expanders by adding one or two to the ranks of warriors.

But I also painted them with the idea of getting back to some solo gaming in the coming year.

As I have been looking at some scenarios to play, these fierce dogs will become enemies of the heroes, by replacing a model left or right, yet retaining the scenario's original monster's statistics.

I can`t say to much yet about those projects, as they are still in their very early stages, but for now, here are eight fierce wardogs for the Dawi'Zharr ranks.

Hope you can run fast!

Unboxing GGG 1/8th Lunamaria Hawke

 Boy, was I suprised a couple of months ago that there would be an actual scale upcoming of my uberwaifu Lunamaria Hawke.

Okay, that was before the new movie that has been announced for january, so it makes a bit more sense, and also an opportunity for maybe a new model or two of her.

But part of the GGG (Gundam Girls Generation) comes this 1/8th scale Lunamaria in swimsuit, produced by MegaHouse.

So let's umbox this lovely lady in this video:

 

 

 

A what a great figure for the final unboxing of the year, with a fitting clothing for the season lol.