2020 in Review: Models Painted

A quick look back at 2020 and how much I managed to get built and painted in the year. Turns out it was a reasonable chunk, with around 100 models in that time. 

2020 was a pretty challenging year for most people in general. In the hobby world, it ended up providing an unexpected block of extra hobby time to use for some, while for others they ended up with no spare time at all. I've probably ended up somewhere in the middle - working from home I saved public transport time each week, so I had a few more hobby hours than in a normal year, with output to match.  

Even before Covid, I had also been planning to trade off a certain level of detail and precision to get more models done up to tabletop standard. The particular method I use to paint my blood angels is a bit time consuming (but I'm now committed to), however anything new I'm looking at needs to be a time efficient scheme. 

The list is a decent mix of a lot of different units - 

• 19 Genestealer Cultists (10 kill team, 6 hybrids, 3 characters)
• 6 Sector Imperialis Boards
• 15 Blood Angel Terminators (+50 magnetised weapons)
• Terminator Ancient
• Terminator Librarian (with 3 weapon options)
• Mephiston

In 2019 I also got something of an itch to work on Eldar after a break of 20 years. By May, I had started to add some notes to a separate blog (Surathin - Eldar word for Dice here). This has been quite a lot of fun alongside the marines as well, and I have a much more efficient colour scheme now applied to...

• 40 Eldar Guardians
• 4 Weapon platforms (+20 magnetised weapons)
• 15 Wraithguard (+105 magnetised arms*)

In total, that was 96 miniatures, plus six 2x2 foot game boards painted in a year. I'm not sure whether counting each of the 6 boards each as a 'model' is fair one way or the other - it's largely drybrushing and using a massive brush, however they are also massive, and each one has at least a couple of areas of detail (inset marble panels for example took a couple hours each). 

*Ok... only the first 30 wraithguard arms are finished, but the rest have been airbrushed and washed. The models themselves are finished and could be fielded with at least one completed loadout so I'm going to count them for the year :-). 

Highlights and things learned - 

1. Using an airbrush scheme with very little edge highlighting is a great policy for troops. I think I must have gotten through all 40 eldar guardians in the same time it would usually take me to do 10 marines. Need to carry this over into eldar vehicles and aspects next. 
2. I had just about forgotten how much fun a character can be to paint. The librarian and Mephiston each took more hours than I was expecting but having done them - definitely worth it as the added detail looks great, and they are a chance for testing some specific new techniques carefully rather than churning out squads.
3. The character models were also a good break from slogging through troops - definitely good to switch between the two modes so there is a sense of progress from doing a full squad (or two) quickly, then a sense of achievement with a centrepiece model. 
4. The sector imperialis boards took longer than I was expecting, but also turned out better than expected. Each step is pretty quick - then when it has to be done multiple times on very large areas... and about 20 steps in total... the time adds up. Still very happy with the outcome - it's probably the largest multistep project I've had within the blog (here)
5. I may also have a magnet problem. Having done them, the option to switch out all the terminator arms is great. 50 loadouts felt like a lot at the time but was sort of ok. However, there was a point about the 90th wraithguard arm I was fitting for magnets that I started to ask myself if I was going insane.

Plans for 2021...

• Finish the wraithguard arms up quickly. Still 75 to go, and don't want them to take long.
• Clean up and crank through 15 Dire Avengers in white & green
• Finish off a farseer model that was started in December
• 20 tactical marines to build - which will finish off the core of my BA troops
• 10 assault marines (possibly as bikes?) to finish off the battle company
• 2 BA dreadnoughts that have been due to get worked on for some time

I also have a forgeworld avatar that looks really exciting. It's already cleaned up and primed, but I'm expecting it to take a good few hours to work up the molten metal colours next. For a resin model it's a very good sculpt, and I'd like to do sections of it in between other projects rather than rush to get it done in one go. 

Should be a good year ahead for hobby time.