Hobby Season 2023/24 Review

Afternoon #warmongers and #warhammercommunity The 2023/24 Hobby Season (the Season of Blood) draws to a close, and how did I do? So lets start with my first task:

Develop a more healthy hobby/life balance - go to bed at a decent hour[ish]

I need to work on this I've recently been getting later and later to bed though. My average sleep time continues to increase but I need to get better on having the will power to actually go to bed..

Continue to play games, they bring me so much joy and fun...

Fun has been on the agenda, whether it been MESBG - I actually went to a tournament!

Recently we've played Star Wars Legion, Speed Freeks and even a couple of games of 40k! Games have come thick and fast, so much so I haven't been able to keep up recording them. That's a shame as it's always nice to have a record to look back on and feel the joy in reminiscing. But I think I also need to not feel guilty if I don't report on it. I need to find a balance, maybe that's something to work on...

Part of that balance has cropped up as the hobby season came to an end. My eldest will begin teacher training in September, and so has a proper 'school holiday'. That means I'm occasionally watching things with him in the evening which has impacted my hobby efforts. So, I've been less motivated to come out to the shed. I had some last minute goals to try to achieve but they might not have made it. But what did I do?

First on my list of TO DONES, I did this Nurgle Blood Bowl player and two Tree Sprites.

The High Rule Dude was part of my #Dreadtober pledge. I started early, as usual it was such a big beast. As I write this now I can't believe how quickly I forgot about it. How I was somewhat downbeat about my efforts but this is epic in a grand way, not a tiny way.

I also painted these Two Screamer Killers for Dreadtober and that's not a small endeavour either. OK, all three figures were done over a two month period so I could have chosen one thing and done it start to finish but where's the fun in that?

I entered #ArmiesOnParade2023 with my Blood Bowl megabowl pitch and teams. It was so great to see them all on the board for the first time.

And then we come to the Deathwing Knights 5 of the 16 terminators I decided to batch paint. This was a massive task as I put so much detail into all these models.

The Close combat terminators too, with their banners, shields and power weapons.

Command unit models and heavy weapons were also a challenge and just as I finish all my terminators I ended up with another 6 from the Leviathan box!

#SwordsAsWalkingSticks - Deathwing Strikemaster was the last of the 16 and this was so much effort I think I was 'content' with my hobby season progress at this stage. Anything else felt like it might be stretch goals.

I had this MDF terrain base knocking around for ages, which was finally good to get finished.

Then I went completely off list and bought and painted these Imperial Knight Armigers. Again feelings of intense satisfaction and amazed how quickly I got through these.

I finally painted Ironsoul's Condemors - Angels of the Covenant test scheme. This is a TO DO LIST item and I genuinely will paint my Indomitus/Leviathan Primaris marines in this scheme... of course when I do that is another thing, but I was happy at least with these results.

As satisfied as I was at the Deathwing stage I desperately wanted to paint my Adeptus Titanicus Titans. Getting these done would truly satisfy my season goals, even if they were not on them.

Adeptus Titanicus Reaver Titan 2. But that is the whims of the season and off-list items are always acceptable, especially when I found painting the original Titans so hard.

Adeptus Titanicus Warhounds. It was great to get these all done, without feeling overwhelmed, enjoy the process and feel like I could paint another titan without the doubts I had at the beginning of these, thanks to that first experience.

I did sacrifice painting Adeptus Titanicus Cerastus Knight Lancers alongside the Titans, but it did not take me long to jump back onto them and get them done. All my Titans are done now, so what was next?

So there we go 36 models painted, compare to the 91 last season. But, I'm just going to reiterate that last season I allowed myself to be less productive for 23/24. Although that number may not be high, it does not account for how hard they were to achieve. And, let's not forget I also painted 18 additional weapon options, which is where I could arguably say there were another 18 models, but this is where I get confused - do I count the actual loaded weapon options as part of the model [as I have done] or do I start inflating my numbers by adding in those as well? I think we all know the answer to that one. Bottom line, the lesson I need to learn from this is:

Whatever I achieve each season is enough!

The 2023/24 Season of Blood is over, the 2024/25 Season of Wood starts now, what will I achieve next?

The Big Build is my 'self-help' initiative to build miniatures. Building isn't always my favourite thing but without a construction phase I can't have a painting phase. So I recognise the special effort this challenge is to me, so I can progress through to the painting stage. First on my build was The Lion. Lots of magnets for the heads and some slow progress but he's technically 'built'.