my 2026 hobby

I’ve been signed up to Mantic’s Walking Dead tribe since it started a couple months ago, so i finally decided to get working on it, starting with the Prelude to Woodbury.

I’ve had the physical core box for years, and it was actually on my “to sell” pile. But my wife and I started watching the Walking Dead a while ago, so i decided to get it back out, and had forgotten how good a game it actually is. The great thing with their tribe is that it also includes terrain pieces as well, so look out for some of those on this project one day.

And yes I’m including the badge as a painted miniature….

And finally for this month, the thing I’m most proud of painting, and probably one of the best paint jobs ive ever done. Not only that, its the first time i’ve painted something bigger than 28/32/35mm scale (big monsters and dragons don’t count). I’ve had this file for ages from Loot Studios, and decided to print and paint it up for my Wife who loves the Alice in Wonderland video games

I loved painting this model, it pushed me to use my skills to the best of my ability and I’m immensely pleased with how she turned out, and think I’m going to try and paint more stuff like this in the future.

So that’s this months work. A pretty productive one, hoping i can keep up this momentum…and REALLY hoping there’s no more heatwaves…

End of month status: 148/365 – 3 behind target, better pick up the pace
Backlog minis painted: 61
New minis painted: 87

A good month, not as great as i would have liked it to be…but i blame the heatwave for that… i don’t deal with heat well at all (anything double digits is the unhappy zone…). But still got 32 minis/items painted this month, so pretty happy with that. So lets get into it.

First up we have 3 units of Roman Hastati for Epic Hail Caesar. These are 3d printed minis from Cromarty Forge as im not a fan of the warlord plastics. Annoyingly i wasn’t allowed to count this as 180 minis, so i have to settle for it counting as 6 (3 units of 2 bases)

Sticking with the ancients theme, we have some gladiators. This is the free sprue that came with June’s Issue of Wargames Illustrated which hit the stores last week. Got them painted up immediately, lots of fun and very much looking forward to giving the game a go. Currently printing off an arena board, so look out for that in next months progress update.

Next up we go to the multi award winning Moonstone. I love painting Moonstone minis, so much character in them and forces me to paint differently to how i usually do, and to try new things.

Also dabbled in a bit of LOTR this month, the end is a lovely scuplt from Davale Games that i 3d printed. Had to scale it down a couple mm to fit it on my printer, but dont think youde be able to tell, its still massive.

Also started working on some Orcs for an Army of Gothmog army, not my best paint jobs, but was quick to get them done, and they should look good once a full band is on the table.

Not a great month, only 23, short of my target, but still happy with what i’ve done. Another month focused on trench crusade…to the point where its actually all i’ve worked on in April

First off, some reinforcements to my red brigade, pretty pleased with the two halberd and shield guys as it actually involved a bit of basic stl modification and some of my own modelling to get what i wanted.

Next up is another anointed for my Heretic Legion

And then finally, i gave a friend a demo game of Trench Crusade last month, and he wanted to try the Trench Pilgrims, so i printed off a band to use for the game, and naturally afterwards i had to paint them!

My favourite model of the Trench Pilgrims that i painted though was the Shrine Anchorite. Had been looking forward to painting one for ages as, in my opinion, it’s one of if not THE most iconic unit of the game ,and im very pleased with how it turned out.

So there we have it, my progress for April, and I’m realising i need to set myself a rule…

The main purpose of creating this project was to try and make a decent dent in my backlog, however over half of the models I’ve painted so far this year are new ones that I’ve 3d printed for Trench Crusade, so my rule is this. By the end of the year, at least half of the models I have painted should be from my backlog.

Now I’m not going to make this required rule. You lot reading this know that forcing yourself to paint something that you’re not really feeling doesn’t end too well, with either not being happy with your result, or even burnout, but it is something i am going to try and do.

See you next month!

End of month status: 116/365 – Behind Target (just….)
Backlog minis painted: 45
New minis painted: 71

Another good month of painting, pretty pleased with my progress so far this year.

As you can probably tell from my previous posts, but also from my Terrain Fest project if you’ve seen it… theres 1 game thats dominating my focus at the moment!

But first we’ll start with another Maladum character, as before, I’ve still not settled on a way to base them yet.

Right now that’s out the way, lets get to some Trench Crusade

Starting off with more Red Bridade:

Next up was then the free demo model from the kickstarter for the Cruciform Order of Saint George

Rounding out my “good guys” we have a couple of Mercenaries that the forces of Heaven can hire, an Observer and a Mendelist Ammo Monk

Now onto the forces of Hell, I’ve printed off and painted a band of Heretic Legion

And finally the beginning of my Great Hunger band…and the most gruesome mini i’ve ever painted.

Overall i’ve painted 32 minis this month! Bring on April and more Trench Crusade!

End of month status: 93/365 – Ahead of Target!

Was a slow start to the month, but then i was prepping for my wedding, so i think i can be excused… But afterwards i decided i needed to try and do my best to pump up those numbers, so i dug out all the easiest ones from maladum to paint up and smashed them all out in a nice, peaceful sunday morning.

Again, please excuse the bases, im still to decide how im going to do them, but once i know what i’m doing, ill smash them all out and add an update here.

I also completed my Prussian Warband for Trench Crusade, with the two characters in the set.

and added to my Red Brigade as well with a couple more easy paint jobs.

So that makes 23 minis painted for the month, not as much as i would have liked, but, as i said at the start of this post..it was rather a busy month.

However i’m still ahead of target which is nice, and i’m hoping that i’ll manage to pick up the pace a bit now that things have quietened down. See you next month!

End of month status: 61/365 – Ahead of Target!

Finishing off January then I’ve managed another 14 models.

First up, 6 models of Red Brigade Yeomen for Trench Crusade

This brings my total to 7 Red Brigade models painted now, as I also have a shock trooper with lewis gun which was a test model i did a while ago

Next up is some more Trench Crusade, this time its the 3 Yeomen & 3 Shocktroopers from the Prussian set.

And finally, rounding out the month, it is Syrio and Artain, characters from Maladum. I haven’t figured out how to do the bases from the set yet, but I’m counting these as complete regardless.

End of month status: 38/365

This year I’ve decided to set myself a goal: paint at least 365 minis. Simple…I’ve done it before, but the last couple years ive been slacking, so its time to pick up the pace again.

This project will essentially just be a photo dump, I wont be posting tutorials etc, just photos of the finished models, although if anybody does have any questions, I’ll be more than happy to answer.

For this post, I’m glad to say I have completed the first 24 models of the year! Some archers for my Bretonnian army.

Progress so far: 24/365

(I’m aware the heraldry isn’t fully finished on these models, I’m looking at options for making the symbols, planning on picking up Goblin Hobbies stamping plates some point soon to try those, but I’m counting these as finished)