2014 Hobby Challenge Lite

Below (slightly edited) is an email I sent out to a few people I know who love to hobby. Some of you reading this may think to yourself "Hey, I know that guy, and I also love to hobby. What gives? Where was my email?"    Well person who talks with the same voice I hear in my head, its simple.  I either don't have your email address, didn't think you would be terribly interested in it, or simply forgot. (Happens often to me).

Email below

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So this year I’m going to present a challenge for all of you.  A Simple, low requirement challenge that I think all of us can do to help us keep working on our forces and plan to play more games.

Each month of this year we will need to have something completed.  That is  Acquired / Built / Primed / Painted.

I know we are all busy with life so your monthly project requirements will be light.

We will have a minimum amounts of whatever you are working on but you can do way more if you want.

• One ten man squad of marines \ xenos (Or if you picked up the cheaper 5 man squad that.
• One ten man unit of Fantasy troops (i.e. 10 brettonian archers, or 10 skaven warriors)
• Two  Clam pack Hero / HQ choice options   (I put a minimum of 2 cuz… come on.  You can do 2 in a month)
• One 40k vehicle, or Fantasy Large model (think Giant spider or steam tank)
•  Any terrain  (but make it look gooooooood)

These are examples but you get the idea.  You are not required to go out and by new stuff for these monthly challenges, go through your stuff, organize it and figure out what you have.   1 month to get a 10 man troop choice done should be easy for us all to do.    You can do more though, just to show up your friends.  Jerk.

It will also keep our minds on our hobby a little more.

To start all you need to do is send me a picture of what you are starting with, and at the end of the month what you are ending with.   All of you have phones with cameras on it now.  #NoExcuses  Even if it’s a picture of a sprue.   All the pictures are going to go on my blog.  (This is a 2 fold resolution for me to keep writing btw).  I will simply refer to you by your first name (no details) unless you would prefer some kind of edgy pen name like “Magenta the Destroyer, demon of the dark”.  At which point I will do it and also ridicule you as much as possible.  But don’t let that stop you.

For whoever keeps up on it and shows the most progress in terms of things completed/attempted, and who seems to really be trying hard there may be a prize at the end of the year.

Let me know what you think, its near the end of the first month so if you can show me 1 model you can pump out in the last days I think we can accept Jan as a starter month. 

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Seems pretty simple hey?

I sent this out on the 16th, and have gotten a number of responses already that they are interested in doing it.  Only one image though.

Our first challenger is Tim one of my best gaming friends who submitted a group of Brittonian Bowmen.  He was already working on them and its a great way to get January into the bucket.

Tim's entry is a small unit of Brettonian Bowmen for Warhammer Fantasy Battle

My personal entry.  This is Gonk. Gonk is a Warhammer 40k, Ork "Boy". 

That is really that.

I'm expecting 4 possibly 5 more entries so I will be adding them as they come along.

If your interested in joining the fun message me and let me know. If you are unsure how to start I would love to help explain things.

Thanks for reading.

PROGRESS UPDATE  1/23/14

For right now I'm just going to update this post with more information and pictures as people submit them.

I have both another submission, and a mostly completed entry.

Jeff submitted an Ultramarine battle standard bearer.  Uh.."your arms off". 

I like that you are starting with a highly detailed single model to start off the year. There is no earning points for painting fast or slow. So go at your own pace

I on the other hand sat down tonight and cranked out Gonk.

Curse you wretched flash.   I didn't base him yet cuz I have no idea how I'm basing this army. I just wanted to get some experience painting green on green on green.

I went with yellow just cuz. Seemed to flow with the green skin well. Not sure what clan I'm going with though, any suggestions?  Yellow tends to be a pain in the ass to do. Orks can get away with "slopping" paint on though.

The skin was an Ork hide shade, then dry brushed Knarlock Green. then dry brushed Goblin Green, with a Thraka green wash.

Aright boys, lets do dis!

Update - 1/26

Our next entry was submitted by Michael "Da Warboss", who is submitting an Ork Warbiker mob.

He started painting them last week and as you can see, is no slouch in detail.

Git ova here litta 'hmie. I got sum'fin for yas.

I know, I'm working on my Ork Soccer hooligan speak, it will get better.  Now I feel my lone boy has been out-classed.  Only means i need to work harder now.

Update 1/29

My friend Ryan sent me some pictures of a Dark Angels bike sargent he just finished up.  Looking rather nice for someone who has only recently started his Warhammer addiction.

I have come to drive all over your rich mahogany!

Put me down said the Dark Angel, I do not wish to fall!

The second I get back on the road I'm going to cut down some mailboxes.

Yes, if you send multiple pictures I will post them with funny comments too.  I'm cool like that.

Keep up the good work guys, and remember send those pictures in.

You know what I hate? When people don't update their blogs.

Especially if I like what they write.

Yeah I got not excuse other then "life" "kids" and "winter".  My hobbies tend to slow down since all my stuff is in the basement.   I just don't have the drive to be in the cold.


Well, in the time since we last talked I have had a few very small projects started and attempted.

1) I tried to continue painting my bloodbowl team, that met with limited success.  I played a game of Bloodbowl with Jeff in November. Once that was done we talked about another game, but since it never came around I kind of just left the team on the table.

2) I bits ordered a Karl Franz, cut his legs off and started to put together a model of him standing up (instead of sitting on a horse).   So thats in a little bag that I will get back to

3) I picked up the Start Trek: Attack Wing, Smallworld, Takenoko, Unspeakable Words and Blood bowl Card manager.  I started in with board games lately, and with a bit of irony I typically can't play them because I don't have anyone to play with. (This often is from my desire to play stupidly complex games that my wife doesn't want to have to try and learn).

Current plan for projects / this blog.

Blog - I will try and be more active with my writing.  I think when I write and people post responses I tend to want to do more projects and updates.

Projects:

Currently I'm trying to figure out if I want to create a small Warhammer 40k project.
Two possible ideas.

A) Create a Word Bearers army.   Using the 6th edition starter box I have a great start.  This army would be used mostly against Jeff's Ultramarines.  Because that's how the story goes?

B) Create a Dark Angles Alliance force for my Space Wolves.   Of which I would make a fun little model depicting the ritual combat they have when the 2 forces meet. (I'm picturing a wolf just punching the ticket of an Angel)

Now that I posted, I will try to keep it up.  Once a week shouldn't be that hard, and it will help me focus.

Thanks again for taking the time to read my blog, till next time.