2016 Hobby Resolutions

Greetings O interwebs!

It has been a busy time here on Objective Secured and momentous year for me in my personal life.
I started a new career path in engineering, going to college one day a week, with all the studying that entails as part of my job role. There was a new addition to the family in the form of my son, and on Christmas day I asked my partner to marry me, and gladly she said yes, although we have to now start saving for the wedding, so things are going to be a bit tight for a while. Because of all these things my hobby time has, and will be, been understandable limited, so I have to be smart about what I spend and use my hobby time for. Of course this time of year is perfect to plan ahead and set goals for the upcoming year, and I have a significant backlog of things to paint, as well as a few ideas for conversions, so here goes.

1. Finish painting 1850 pts (minimum) of La Danse Macabre. This goal is for the pure Dark Eldar part of the force. The elder allies will be a different resolution. To complete I need to paint the following to have a well balanced core force to game with:-

• x2 Raiders and crew (I have one nearly finished, the other is not even assembled)
• x2 Venoms - convert and paint
• x5 Scourges - Paint
• Talos (I have 3 to do but at least one needs to be painted)
• 10 warriors (split into two 5 man squads, each with blasters)

2. Paint and convert 1000pts of Elder allies for La Danes Macabre. A portion of this is already converted, and I have a few conversion ideas mulling around in my skull. Completing this will give me some nice flexibility for my force, and also enable me to actually have a fighting chance in games, instead of feeling like I have a no chance at all of victory, especially against the newer codeless with all their good formations etc. To do:-

• Paint the Wraithknight 
• Paint 10 guardian conversions
• Convert and paint guardian gun platform from troll king model
• Convert and paint x5 swooping hawks from harlequin and scourge kits.
• Convert and paint warp spider conversions.

3. Infinity. I have a huge pile to do on this so I really have to just focus on a few to actually keep me going, as just looking at all of them gets me defeated before I start.

• Complete Morat sectorial. This includes x2 Raktorak, x4 Daturazi, Kornak Gazarot and the Raicho. Once complete I can purchase new Rodoks and Yaogats.
• Paint a chunk of my Japanese sectorial so I can field a fully painted force. I will focus on models I tend to use in most games, and then pick a few that I like the look of. x2 Ninja's, Oniwaban, Raiden with HRL, Tokusetsu Support crew, Shinobe Kitsune, and 4 Aragoto bikers. Phew that is a lot but should keep me focused and busy for the coming year. If I can get all those done I will be very happy.

Malifaux. Not much to do on these luckily before I have a full crew. Hopefully two will be completed by end of Jan, which leaves me room to breathe. 

• Build and paint Chiaki the niece and 3 rotten canines and 
• Finish painting Isamu the armour and Toshiro the Daimyo

Dropzone Commander. I have bought every model in the Scourge range, (and multiples of some) and I would dearly love to get them all painted this year, as droplet will be arriving soon, and I might get distracted. I won't list every model but suffice to say there is a lot. Luckily they can be quite quick to paint so I hope to smash them out quickly.

You may have noticed I have not included any Space Wolves in my to do lists and there is good reason for that. I can now field multiple different army list builds, all stocked with fully painted models. I do have quite a few unpainted ones waiting in the queue, but I feel no pressure to get these done. I am quite happy with the fact I can pick up a model or two when I want a break from the list above, but feel no obligation to finish any for a deadline, project or tournament etc. This is the first time in my hobby life where I have been in this position. It is very refreshing.

Now I have written all that down it seems a pretty daunting task. Still, it is always good to have goals and I am confident I can achieve all of this in the coming year.

My goals for the blog are much simpler (and shorter thank goodness :) ). I feel it has been a successful year, and the blog has grown nicely, considering I have only been writing for a year and a half. Of course there is always room for improvement and growth, and I hope to increase my readership base a little if I can. Numbers are not the goal however, as I love writing here, and the interaction from all of you has been great, and really made me feel a part of the wargaming community. I will continue to post even if no one reads my stuff (although I hope that will not be the case :) ) and all the goals above I hope to convert into pictures and posts.

I will be doing a few more reviews of products I use, and have one or two planned already. Also I am going to be writing a few more tutorials on painting and modelling, as I enjoy writing them but also feel I have a few simple but effective techniques that may be of help to some.

If you, my dear reader, can think of anything else you would like me to write about, or improvements you think I can make to the blog, please share in the comments below. I will take everything into consideration, and hopefully implement some into the coming years posting.

Anyway enough rambling from me. I wish you all a fantastic new year, and hope that peace, success and happiness find you throughout the whole of it (and of course lots of little plastic men to assemble and paint).

God Bless

NafNaf