2021 roundup sorta/kinda

Some of you, a lot of you i think actually, often do a bit of a hobby roundup at the end of each year. You list and count all the minis you painted, terrain you’ve built and painted and games you’ve played. Others will list books and movies they’ve watched etc. Despite finding these posts quite interesting and being quite inspired and determined to count up my own tally’s I never seem to keep track of these things. 

The year seems to pass by in a bit of a grey plastic and multicoloured acrylic blur! 

So, as I don’t have any totals to offer you, I thought I’d share some random thoughts and bits and bobs instead. 

Turnip28 (that weird bloody project) has made me quite happy for the last few weeks of the year. It’s quirkiness is very much my cup of tea or plate of vegetables. I’m actually a huge fan of Pork, Lamb, Chicken, Beef, Venison and all types of fish but of late it’s all been about turnips hehe. 

I thoroughly enjoyed dabbling with my Wild West project called CoffinWood in 2021. I’ve made some good progress on the buildings and have a ton of minis to paint. PLUS, some of you might remember, I’m developing my own game for this project. It’ll be a relatively simple affair and even though I haven’t done anything tangible with it I find myself pondering it a lot while I work. 

The Tau project has been something I’d wanted to tackle for a while and I’m quite pleased with the progress I made on it this year. Still more building and painting to go but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel for this one. It’ll be nice to actually tick a project off the list for once haha. 

The Ork challenge in Orktober with fellow hobbyist and all round cool dude Wudugast was an absolute standout hobby thing for me in 2021. I liked trying to keep up with him. I like that we are both mad Ork fans. I liked that it was a draw, 37 all. Haha. Great fun and I’m really looking forward to doing exactly the same thing in 2022. Hopefully others might join in the fun too. 

Another major highlight for me in 2021 which was sorta hobby related was “Dawn of the Shed”. I had sooooo much fun building a 1:1 scale cabin hehe. It was kinda like building a terrain piece just… bigger. It’s the perfect little hobby space. Actually I wouldn’t say perfect. I think a three bedroom house just for me and my hobby would be perfect haha but I love it all the same. 

I chipped away at a couple of other projects like Bolt Action ‘48 (my WW2 project) and started the Valhallan Ice Warriors project. 

I got into painting Chalkware Booson Heads which is quite random but a lot of fun. Still have six or so heads to paint. 

I started 2021 with a fairly big treehouse diorama project for the Fembruary challenge which I’d say, apart from the Cabin build, has been my favourite project of 2021. Funnily enough both the treehouse and the cabin have a round window. 

One more highlight for 2021 has been having a couple of zoom chats with Mark Morin and The Imperfect Modeller (Dave). It’s been a little tricky to stick to a regular day and time for a number of reasons but I’ve very much enjoyed every chat. Thanks fellas. 

It’s been a fun year when I look back. I wonder what 2022 will have in store on the hobby front? Definitely more turnips, CoffinWood but also some HellGate work, WW2 things, Rorke’s Drift, my medieval project and a whole bunch of other bits and bobs I’m sure. 

Here are some random bits…

While at the shops with my daughter the other day I saw this and couldn’t help but chuckle. We all know I have a huge dislike for elves and now they’ve even taken over the makeup world. 

I’d bought some more napoleonic minis on eBay for the turnip project and received this lovely little note in the parcel. I’ll definitely be buying more from these chaps. 

Today I braved the shopping centre as I do once a year every year to do my own Christmas shopping. After, I went to a comic store in my local area for the first time in the hope of finding something cool for my 14 year old daughter. I recently loaned out some graphic novels from the library and I was pleased when the daughter enjoyed reading them too so it got me thinking about Christmas ideas for her. I ended up with this. 

I want to wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. I’m on holidays from work until the 3rd of Jan and probably will get some hobby stuff done but won’t be posting anything until January. 

All the best to you and your hobby goals for 2022. 

Cheers

IRO