Projects

This blog has been dormant for a while now, as I had not been doing much miniature gaming (in favor of more board gaming) and out of sheer laziness.  But I recently read a blog post where the author laid out his current and planned projects, and it has inspired me to do likewise.  If for no other reason than it can help me plan how I spend my hobby time.  Plus, I can use it as impetus to add posts about these projects.

CURRENT PROJECTS

Battlelore

Last year I decided to paint up the miniatures in the Battlelore 2nd Edition board game.  I started with the Uthuk Y'llan faction, and I have made good progress.  I'll try to get some pictures in a blog post of what I've finished so far.  I picked up the models for the Undead faction, so this is a project that will be ongoing for some time.

Undead army

About 10 years ago, I purchased some 28mm scale skeletons from Mega Miniatures and a necromancer from Reaper Miniatures, with the intention of creating an undead warband for use with fantasy skirmish rules.  And never got around to painting them.  However, I began playing Dragon Rampant recently and it's inspired me to paint these models up for a DR warband.  I bought a box of the Warlord Games plastic skeletons to add to the mix, and a few other bits.  This is a project I expect to complete in the next month or so.

Dwarf army

Another pile of lead I picked up years ago and didn't paint.  These are from Alternative Armies, bought along with Elf models that I actually did paint and base for Hordes of the Things (HotT) at the time.  Since I've found that my group-based 15mm HotT armies work perfectly well for Dragon Rampant, I'm looking at double duty for all of my 15mm fantasy stuff going forward.  Or maybe triple duty, as I have a friend that likes to use Hail Caesar for fantasy in 15mm.  I believe I can finish the models I currently own for this in the next month or so.  Though I'm considering buying some bear-riding cavalry from Battle Valor Games, just to give them a little variety, as all the stuff I have now gives me an army with just crossbows and heavy infantry.

Star Wars Legion
Over the last year I've completed 800 points worth of both Imperial and Rebel models, so I could play a standard-size game.  I've continued to purchase more as they are released and will be painting additional units for the foreseeable future.

You might wonder why I'm juggling four projects, rather than focusing on one at a time.  The simple answer is that I find I get more done this way.  When I've tried to force myself to stick to one project at a time, I'll get a bit bored at times and stop working all together for a while.  The variety of things to work on encourages me to do more than I otherwise would. 

PLANNED PROJECTS

Wood Elves
After the 28mm Undead army is finished, this is next on my list.  I picked up a Reaper Minis dryad and bought some small tree men (I believe they call them "saprolings") to be her retinue.  I also got Reaper's "Spirit of the Forest," which is essentially a large tree man.  I very much like his dynamic pose.  Although I'm thinking I may do a bit of conversion work to make him taller.  For the actual Wood Elf figures, I'm considering a box or two of the new Oathmark plastic Elves.  I like the aesthetics of their Elf figures, not being over-elaborate in their dress or weapons.

Hive Creatures
This is a project that was started years ago and abandoned.  I bought a box of GW's Tyranid Hormagaunts and some Reaper Minis "Hooked Terrors" which matched their look, as perhaps leader-type figures.  They were intended to be insectoid xenomorphs for scifi skirmish games.  I painted up one sprue and one metal mini, then lost the impetus to finish them.  But I think they would also make an interesting all-melee force for Dragon Rampant, so I'm newly motivated to get them painted.

Alexandrian Macedonians
Quite a few years back, I had some gaming friends that floated the idea of playing Neil Thomas's Ancient & Medieval Wargaming rules in 15mm.  So I went out and bought a bunch of Old Glory 15mm Macedonians, enough for 13 units (6 x phalangites, 2 x companion cavalry, 2 x peltasts, 2 x light cavalry, 1 x hypaspists), but this notion never went anywhere.  But between the fun I've had recently playing a friend's Hail Caesar game and the other compatible rule sets I've got for ancient wargaming, I want to do this army and some opponents.  There is a nice variety of units to paint from this period.

Lizardmen
I've always wanted to have a Lizardmen army for 15mm fantasy gaming.  I'm rather liking the Battle Valor Games stuff and I think they would paint up pretty quickly.  I haven't purchased anything yet, but this is likely to happen sooner than later.