And a Happy New Year once more! It seems like only yesterday I was saying this, but somehow an entire year has flown past since then.
The Year That Was 2024
I always find it entertaining to look back at the goals I set myself at the beginning of 2024 and see how many of them weren’t achieved or changed to something else. That might sound like a somewhat pessimistic way of framing my previous goals – and in all fairness it is, but it’s a good reminder that above all else this is a Hobby and not a job. Hobbying shouldn’t feel like a chore and I always count my blessings that I’m not hobbying in order to keep a roof over my head.
So the list I created for myself looks like this:
24 for 24
Complete a usable Legions Imperialis force
Sort out a gaming table for Legions Imperials and get some games in
Create a tutorial on painting World Eaters in Epic scale
Finish designing a range of custom Legions Imperialis bases
Paint the second wave of Death Guard for my Age of Darkness army
More work on my Golden Demon walker project
Participate in a Necromunda Campaign weekend (Feb)
More blog posts – weekly would be great
Create a few more YouTube videos & more blog tutorials
OK, that seems pretty spectacularly poor on the surface if I’m honest, however it isn’t actually anywhere near as bad as it seems!
Legions Imperials / Epic
I set myself the goal of creating a usable Legions Imperials force alongside a gaming table, playing some games, sorting out some 3d bases and creating a painting tutorial. Broadly I achieved the “core” of these goals. I now have a painted World Eaters force, a number of pieces of scenery and in October played a few big games – albeit Titan Death. In addition to this I painted up a Warmaster Titan in a Legio Interfector scheme. The 3d bases are constantly going to be “ongoing” – I’ve finished the tank bases and did one for my Warmaster, so they’re “finished” in that sense.
Second Wave Death Guard (Age of Darkness)
Nope, they’re still sat on the shelf! Instead I’ve almost finished painting an Age of Darkness Mechanicum army – this is part of a doubles force which will be being played at a Greetings from the Warp event in April. Mechanicum were always going to queue jump and they certainly did that! I don’t feel bad not touching the Death Guard and still focused on Heresy miniatures. I’m still waiting for my MkII power armour and a plastic Arquitus – both of which are core to making my Death Guard a functioning army.
Golden Demon Walker Project
This one didn’t get a look in at all. Being honest with myself it was far too big a project for my first 3d sculpt and I’m still learning what prints out nicely and what doesn’t. What did get done though is some 3d sculpting on base pieces and a custom weapon for my Mechanicum army – I certainly wasn’t sat idle on the 3d sculpting side of things and this idea will get resurrected at some point.
Blog Posts and YouTube Tutorials
Probably my biggest “failure” in 2024 was that I didn’t manage to keep the momentum going on this blog, nor did I create any YouTube videos. I kept posts going until May time and that then petered out. The posts themselves don’t take too much time, however sorting out nice pictures and video editing is hugely time consuming and I slightly begrudge the time they take when I feel I could be more productive doing other hobby. It’s something I want to work out a better balance for, but I’m unsure how to do this without making it feel like a second job or compromising quality.
Necromunda Campaign
The Necromunda Campaign started last February continues! We managed three campaign weekends in 2024, which is the most amount of gaming achieved for a long time.
24 for 24
Probably my biggest success was doing hobby on an almost daily basis of 24 minutes or more. There will be another blog post on this and what I’m doing for 2025, but suffice to say there is something monumentally rewarding about knowing I’ve done something hobby related for 350 days this year.
The Year Ahead – 2025
I’m going to try and have a slightly more modest list this year
Daily Hobby – Similar to 24 for 24
Continue My Mechanicum Force (doubles force to start)
More Gaming – Complete a White Dwarf Bingo Line
Try To Learn NMM
Blood Bowl Team
Golden Demon Project
Hobby Room Update
I think this feels like a fairly achievable set of goals for the year – less specific projects and more generalised ones. One big task this year is going to be moving my entire hobby room for some desperately needed space, this will be combined with getting the loft floored and a permanent ladder fitted so that I can move a lot of my hobby items in the garage indoors and give myself a bit more elbow room and light whilst hobbying. It should also allow me to try and get a better set up for photographing miniatures which could help making blog content – who knows!
