A 2019 Retrospective - James' 2019 in review and goals for 2020

Well that went fast! 2019 is almost at a close and with it my first year of "real" hobbying - where I actually managed to build, paint and play with my models and not just continue to amass a collection of grey, meaningless plastic to sit on my shelves and make me feel guilty.

It feels customary that at the end of the year you spend some time looking back at what you've managed to achieve and what your plans are for the next year, so with that in mind here at the blog we've all been writing posts on what we've accomplished in 2019 and what great things we've got planned for 2020! And as per usual I'm the last one to get my post up and just in time as well. Some things will never change

Tales from the Tabletop - Fun'n'Fluff After Action Report

Hey guys,

So last weekend saw myself, Medge and Tim descend on the Darksphere Megastore in Shepherd's Bush for the 1500 point Fun'n'Fluff tournament. It was a great weekend all around and I wanted to do a quick summary post of my games there and how it all went. But first there's one question that needs answering - did I actually manage to paint all my models in time?

Of course I did!....

OK they were done the evening before the event. I am nothing if not predictable. 

I'm really happy with how the whole force turned out though. I wanted to push my Custodes to the best of my abilities and I can clearly see improvement across the models over time. So here's a full shot of the Golden Host ready to take the fight to the enemies of Terra!

Tales from the Tabletop - Fun'N'Fluff 1500pts Tournament Update #1

Hey everyone and welcome to the first of two updates I'll be doing on my preparation for the Fun'N'Fluff 1500 point tournament at the end of October. The event is built around bringing a fluffy and more relaxed list and trying to have as much fun as possible. You can see my initial post here detailing what I needed to get done by the end of September. So then how did it go and am I on track?

Tales from the Tabletop - Getting ready for the Fun'N'Fluff 1500pts Tournament

With my Custodes Tale done for the year I find myself wanting to continue painting the army I've really enjoyed working on and there's no better motivator than a tournament. It gives me a hard deadline to work to and a list of units that all need to be done.

But which tournament? 

We're quite lucky in that there's a few places nearby that host regularly scheduled events but I've never been one to want to play at the cutting edge of the 'meta'. I like my games with a bit of narrative weaved in and I've always shied away from playing the Custodes to the most competitive version they can be. Which means I'd end up invariably struggling to win a single game at a standard tournament. After having a look around the local scene I found an event that's perfect for my style of play - The LWGG Fun'n'Fluff Tournament.

Mustering For Vigilus: James' Adeptus Custodes - Wrap Up and What's Next?

And with this post, my watch has ended....

Our inaugural Tale of Four Warlords is now over, with all of us having finished up work our armies. Now it's time to enjoy the end results of some lovely painted miniatures and plan ahead for what to add next.
The Mustering for Vigilus has been a great little Tale( I say little, it lasted 6 months!) so I wanted to post up a summary of what I managed to paint, what I've enjoyed about the Custodes and where I plan on taking the army in the future!

Mustering for Vigilus: Neil's Ultramarines; Epilogue

Hi all, our Mustering for Vigilus group project has ended so I thought I would do a post to reflect on how it has gone, what I got painted and what my plans are now.

The Warhammer 40k project was done with the aim of getting all of use back into 40k a bit more and to build up forces to go to a doubles event so armies of around 750-1000 points.

Mustering for Vigilus: James' Adeptus Custodes, End of Month 6

So then, here we are at the end of all things... or just the final month of another Tale of Four Warlords. It's been a good one and I've managed to finally get some paint onto my Custodes, something I'd always been meaning to do. I must admit as the Tale drew on I was finding myself lacking motivation. There's only so much gold a man can paint before it starts to lose it's lustre (pun totally intended). However now that I've managed to get some games in with the army, and somehow pick up wins, seeing those painted models on the table has given me a real drive to get the rest done. Well that and we all know that painted models are 100% guaranteed to roll better... and die first of course.

So what did I add to the collection of painted models this month?

Mustering for Vigilus: James' Adeptus Custodes, End of Month 5

Here we are at the end of month 5, with only one month of the Tale left to go the time seems to have flown by. For this month I decided to pull back on my pledges and just focus on one unit, with the goal being to really try to focus on getting at least one hours painting in a day. For me the important part this month wasn't to get loads done, but to really start building good hobby habits that I can move forward with to help my army painting. 

Mustering for Vigilus - James' Adeptus Custodes, End of Month 4

So then April has been and gone and I've completely forgotten to do a hobby update. In all honesty it wasn't a good month for me and I've struggled to find a decent amount of time to really sit down and paint much at all. My pledge for April was to get through a Shield Captain, 3 Allarus Terminators and at a stretch the Achillus Dreadnought. In the end I only managed to get the Shield Captain and a single Allarus done. Rather than mope around on missed opportunity I thought I'd focus on ways I can get my painting mojo back and work out a schedule to keep me on track.

Mustering for Vigilus: Neil's Ultramarines; End of Month 4

April is over and another stage in our tale of four gamers Mustering for Viligus is over.  This month I'd planned to paint a single Ultramarine, but he is the primogenator of the Chapter and the Legion before it, the Primarch Roboute Guilliman and some members of the Adeptus Custodes to accompany the Imperial Regent, a trio of Allarus Terminators.

So this was my aim, how did I do with the painting?

Mustering for Vigilus: James' Officio Assassinorum, End of Month 3

//Initiate Vox Transmission

+++ Date: 21.128.VCM

+++ Ref:VGS/0016749/AsKT

+++ Initiator: REDACTED

+++ Re: Mission Parameters - Vigilus/Update

+++ Kill Team Talonbreaker Status: Standby

Mustering For Vigilus - James' Adeptus Custodes: End of Month 2

Hi guys,

Vigilus is in need so it's just as well our 2nd month is at an end and we can provide some much needed reinforcements. Or at least that's what I would be saying were it not for the fact I really haven't painted that much this month.

Mustering for Vigilus: James' Adeptus Custodes, End of Month 1

Hi guys,

February is here and that means one thing - It's time for pledge updates! 

This month my goal was to paint a squad of 3 Custodian Guard and top it off with the mighty Trajann Valoris, Captain General of Legio Custodes. As you can see from the above picture I managed to complete my first pledge and I'm very happy with the final result. 

Mustering for Vigilus - James' Adeptus Custodes Introduction

So then here we are at the start of 2019. There's a chill in the air, I've got plenty of chocolate to eat and it's time to start a new project!

I've always been envious of those hobbyist's who could just collect and paint a whole army in a matter of months. The New Year exemplified this feeling as I'd see swathes of gamers pop into the local Games Workshop ready to buy all their lovely miniatures for the brand new army they're starting, meanwhile I'd have to once again tell myself - "No James, you've got mountains of models that need painting, no new models for you...."