A year in review – 2018

So, I have spent a great deal of this year not updating this blog. Between being back at work full time and other distractions it has fallen by the way a little. I am going to take some time now to have a look at what I’ve achieved hobby wise this year and see where I can go from there.

First of all: commissions. I managed to do a grand total of two this year. I did a Blood Angel Sanguinary Priest and Erebus and Kor Phaeron.

The first featured a patterned cloak, which was a lot of fun.

These two jerks were a lot of fun. I learned that painting for other people is a lot of fun and also tends to make me work a lot quicker as well. There is a sense of urgency when working for someone else that isn’t present when doing your own miniatures.

I have improved a great deal over the year; let’s have a look and compare the first and last ones – or as close as I can get at least.

I had to use Ahriman as an example as I have painted that miniature, and it’s 40K counterpart, a lot this year. Between the diorama, practicing for different techniques and actually collecting Thousand Sons, I have painted him a total of 8, soon to be 9, times now. The galaxy cloaks have come a long way since I did the first one and I am more than pleased with how far I have come with them.

My edge highlighting has become far more precise than I have ever been before, as can be seen on Cypher (below). I never thought I would be able to do anything as sharp as this and am thoroughly chuffed with that.

Then there is the Golden Demon entry. Never did I ever dream I would enter such a contest. I may not have won but the finalist pin and commended entry card was just the icing on the cake for me. People laughed about the creation and I am so proud of it. It is on the mantelpiece still and it’s still sinking in that I was able to create something like that.

The there was the mini swap that I took part in over Christmas. It is not the last mini I will paint this year but it comes close. I am proud of Krom and how well he turned out. His new owner was pleased too and that is what matters. The snow effect paint looked particularly effective in my humble opinion and I will certainly be using it again.

Last of all, I want to mention the tartan I attempted to paint the other day. It is not perfect, it could be improved certainly but that is something to work on. I have never painted tartan before and this was the result. I never once thought that I would be able to do something this intricate.

It has been a good year. I have come a long way this year and although there is a long way to go – I doubt I will ever be happy completely – I can be proud of my achievements thus far.