I wrapped up my 2019 goals just in time, breaking the 350 mark in December. I thought I would blow through it and raise my goal for 2020. But, I think 350 is fairly easy to achieve. I painted somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 miniatures and about two dozen vehicles if you count the two commissions I was working on, but I won’t be increasing it.
So what will my main projects be for 2020? Eisenkern, Terminator Genisys, kobolds, old school 25mm sci-fi, and Battletech. I’m certain I’ll mix in some Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), zombies (both modern and WWII) and hopefully some 15mm stompy robots to mix it up a little bit.
But why have a painting goal? Well, the lead pile isn’t shrinking on it’s own! Seriously though, I enjoy painting and it’s an escape, a little ‘me time’. I escape into the basement and spend an hour or so a night painting my little toy soldiers. It’s almost a meditative exercise. I can get 10 or 15 done a week depending on paint schemes. Often I throw in a couple unrelated minis like D&D civilians or zombies where the exact paint scheme doesn’t matter. After 2020, I’m hoping to have my lead pile down to a manageable size so I won’t feel guilty when a backed Kickstarter arrives.
I’ve started on my Eisenkern early, a set of plastic miniatures that were done by Dreamforge games. It was a well rounded line with several different troops, heavy weapons, power armor and even giant mechs. Unfortunately, they stopped producing them in plastic as I was able to start picking them up. I found a guy who was getting rid of around 150 of them, assembled well and unpainted. I plan on putting together a platoon’s worth this year, along with some support options. They paint up pretty quick in ‘Space German’ colors with mostly smooth panels and easy to dry brush details. I have enough for a company, including a heavy weapons platoon and other specialists, but we’ll see how many I wind up actually making.
I’ve always been interested in Battletech since the early 1990’s, but the game has never really gained any traction in the areas I’ve lived aside from small groups gaming at their homes. Now with the Internet, I’ve been able to contact some people to set up games. Guess I need to paint up some more of my 6mm stuff. I’ve had a small assortment of figures from the past 20 or so years that I’ve somehow managed not to lose, plus some additions over the past year so I’ve been exploring other rules systems too. Hopefully they’ll go quick since the Battletech Kickstarter will eventually deliver.
One of the other systems I’ve been slowly getting my hands on and assembling even slower is Starship Troopers. I’ve been a fan of the movie and the book for decades and drooled over the game when it came out. Unfortunately I wasn’t in a position to collect it at the time. Thankfully it can still be bought for reasonable prices if you’re patient, some of it even new stock from a couple of miniature companies. The only problem with these minis is that normal plastic glue doesn’t work well on it, I’ve used Plasticstuct glue but it’s a pain and I’ve spilled several bottles which has slowed me down.
I’ve amassed a large collection of old school 25mm Sci-Fi minis, mostly Ground Zero Games (GZG) and West End Games’ Star Wars line. I got both of these collections for pennies per figure, and GZG still produces their 25mm lines so I can fill out a lot of what I don’t have. The West End Games (WEG) lines are a little disappointing to be honest. There’s very little selection of figures outside of the main rebels, stormtroopers and Imperial naval troopers selections.
Anything more than a couple of squads and there will be a LOT of duplicate poses. Some of the lines, like the Snow Trooper, Jawas, and Sand People only have one pose at all. Thankfully the WEG figures size up fantastically with the GZG games and the plastic WoTC vehicles are a pretty close match so there are a lot of possibilities. Anyone want to buy 80 mono-pose Snowtroopers at a good price?
Over the past couple of years I’ve also been steadily painting up D&D minis for a game I’ve been running with my sons and wife. I’ve bought several large piles of kobolds and I love using them in the game, my kids stopped laughing at them when I almost TPK’d a party of five 5th level players with far less than a CR5 amount of kobolds. Rebel Minis did a kickstarter for kobolds. So did the Reaper Bones kickstarter. Now, I have 50 or 60 more to add to my collection. Kobolds also allows me to slip in the occasional other D&D monsters that fit in with the same color schemes I’m hoping to clear a backlog of orcs and goblins along the way.
So we’ll see how I stick to my plans this year. I’m hoping that using this blog, venturing into vlogging and Youtube, will keep the creative juices flowing and inspire me to stick to the plan.
