Hobby pledges for second quarter 2015

Hi folks. we're partway into quarter 2 of 2015 and so I wanted to jot down exactly what hobby targets had been achieved so far in 2015 and what I was hoping to achieve by the halfway point this year. A look back through the blogs tells me that so far this year I've managed to update my largest army (Blood Angels) for the new edition including a much beloved Mephiston conversion. This entire project was in itself no mean feat as there was so much to do. The next major hobby progress was finally getting the Heroes of Badab project underway and to a stage I could be happy with. I consider this more or less achieved, with all the models purchased, assembled and basecoated and all the bases underway separately. Some smaller projects have also cropped up, such as an update for Tyranids (Warriors/Broodlord/Carnifexes and Prime Conversion), some Necron painting and little bits and bobs here and there, such as putting together some FW Legio Cybernetica and starting with the final assembly hurdle for my Orks. Also worth a mention is some work I did on the Eldar and Harlequins painting-wise recently, which I will post about in due course. All in all a fairly busy and productive 3 months so far.

Now we move onto what needs to be achieved in the next 3 months, which we're already a few weeks into. I've decided to put two of the armies needing attention on the backburner, namely Luna Wolves and Imperial Guard, until such time that an update makes them top priority. (In the case of Luna Wolves the Age of Darkness boxed set will be their time) Which leaves a couple of other armies needing minor work and after that everything should be up to date. Here's my schedule for the next 10 weeks, after which I will be taking a much needed 2 week holiday in the Sun before returning to the painting desk.

Necrons - assemble 20 warriors, 5 Immortals, 5 deathmarks, anni barge, 5 Lychguard, 3 wraiths, 5 bases of scarabs and 5 characters. Make some bases separately before undercoating them all and then basecoating the rank and file in chrome and the upper echelons in brass. This is quite an undertaking TBH and I suspect that given there is so much else to be done not all of this will be completed in time and thus will spill over into July. I already made a start on the Crons, however, by assembling and undercoating a Triarch Stalker and 3 Tomb blades.

Orks - assemble and undercoat 20 boys, 2 converted buggies, 8 nobs, 1 converted Gorkanaut and 1 fighta-bomma. I'm halfway through the Ork stuff now and so have a good momentum going with everything out on my desk . In fact, I hope these guys will be done by end of this month.

Eldar - while I will be sure to blog about the new Codex and release, I will likely not get any of the new models for quite a while. There are more than enough things to keep me occupied and TBH money is short with the GW release schedule and I have no desire to stock up on jetbike cheese. I hope to give Eldar/Harlequins some love later in the year with maybe a couple of purchases but for now nothing.

Heroes of Badab - these guys have gone from strength to strength in the past few months and I hope to now enter the final phase. All the bases need doing (nearly there!) in their entirety and I'd like to basecoat all the models before putting them on the bases. Fairly achievable so long as I keep chipping away at them I think.

Skitarii - I couldn't help but get a box which are to be assembled as 5 rangers and 5 vanguard. I actually picked up some Legio Cybernetica stuff a while back and have half assembled the robots, having 1 Vorax, 1 Castellax and a Thanatar fully assembled and undercoated. (leaving 2 Vorax and 1 Castellax). These guys will proxy quite well as dragoons, Ironstriders and Onagers I reckon. Though not a priority I'd quite like to get this little allied army assembled and maybe even basecoated (I'm thinking Ryza Orange) if not now then at the start of Q3 as a priority.

Blood Angels - I took it upon myself to spray 160 32mm bases in Mournfang Brown and so now these chaps are awaiting rebasing. I think I will gradually start to wade through this with no particular timeframe in mind, though I would hope that by the end of this year the whole army are updated from 25mm to 32mm.

Tyranids - Though they're all assembled etc and I basecoated the entire army some time back, there are now a few newbs that need basecoating and also some models that need transferring onto the new 50mm bases. Not a priority but still something I'd like to do ASAP, especially with a game coming up next month and a few units being bright white still!

Horus - OK, I finally did it. I bought a Primarch and have just finished assembling him. Although I said I wouldn't do anything with the Luna Wolves he's the one exception and I hope to start painting him ASAP. My intention is to paint one Primarch every 4-6 months as a background project.

Odds and ends - there  are several projects which may get attention in the next few months or, more likely, spill over into next year. I have a stormtrooper squad for the Inquisition to assemble, 10 Templar Honour Guard, a Deredeo dreadnought for the smurfs and a Captain for the Imperial Fists.

Upcoming releases - the other side of things is how upcoming releases will affect my hobby allocations. So far I've been reasonably good this year, focussing more on books and cards while passing over the temptation to buy more plastic crack. The exceptions to this being the Heroes of Badab and Necron releases, though to be fair I already had plans to give these guys love anyway. The Assassins rumours are pretty cool and I think I'll have to pick up that set despite having a set of assassins (mostly painted) already. We'll see what they have to offer over the next few months. I will revisit this post in 8 weeks time and see how epically I've failed to achieve anything!

Cheers.