What's Next?

Since my last post (which, admittedly, was far longer ago than I had planned), I've been working hard to clear through my 'Pile of Grey' ('Pile of Shame' and 'Pile of Opportunity' are just terms which don't work for me. It's neither a 'shame' or an 'opportunity', it's just a 'pile' ... If that makes sense?).

Uriel Ventris, an Attack Bike, a unit of Celestial Sacresants, even the miniatures from the Star Trek Away MIssions core game and a Death wing Veteran Miniature of the Month have all been painted.

That leaves some Assault Intercessors, Blade guard Vets, a Centurion Assault Squad, Retributors, some terrain, Grombrindal and a half dozen random minis still left to finish. Quite the backlog and, because of this, I'm trying to be good and refrain from purchasing anything more that'll simply be added to that list.

However, I'm not one to not think ahead and, as such, I've recently found myself pondering on what to do once my current collection of unpainted minis is all finished.

I recently played my first 40k match, a combat patrol battle using my Strike Team Solarien models and, while I enjoyed it, the battle's length made me realise that I will most likely never play a game that is beyond 1,000 points (maybe 1,500 at a pinch). Also, despite currently having two armies on the go in the Ultramarines and the Adepta Sororitas, I've decided to focus on using only the Ultramarines though the rest of 10th Edition, holding back on using the Sisters of Battle until 11th (therefore, reducing the amount I will need to spend on Codexes during each edition).

Therefore, with 1,600 points of Space Marines already available to me, I've decided to change tack a little once my current pile has emptied.

I recently discovered that an old friend of mine has two armies: Stormcast Eternals and Kharadron Overlords. Learning this, I feel like moving (even if briefly) into the Age of Sigmar universe. Therefore, what I'm thinking is next for me are Callis & Toll: Saviours of Cinderfall, the Warcry: Crypt of Blood Starter Set and the Soulblight Gravelords Spearhead.

Now there is a logical reason for all of these.

First up, the Saviours of Cinderfall is a box set that I've admired since its release. With effectively six character miniatures contained within and my recent enjoyment in painting Uriel Ventris and Vitrian Messinius, I feel it would be a nice series of months to focus on a string of characters, one at a time. Also, though, rather than them becoming simply a paint and display collection, I've realised that the Saviours of Cinderfall could be combined with Grombrindal to form a nearly 1,000 point Warcry warband.

And this brings me to Warcry's Crypt of Blood starter set. With a warband in my pocket, it would make sense to learn to play Warcry and put them to good use. Also, the inclusion of Xandire's Truthseekers would give me a degree of variety instead of using Grombrindal. Now, I could simply pick up one of the larger box sets as opposed to the starter, which truthfully doesn't contain all of the rules or even whole warbands compared to the larger boxes. However, what really attracts me to the Crypt of Blood set is both the gravesite terrain included within it (which I think could also be used in 40k) as well as the Crimson Court, which I think looks absolutely phenomenal.

Leading me to the final part of my plan; the Soullight Gravelords Spearhead. This is a box set which makes up to about 750 points in AoS. However, beyond the awesome set of 29 miniatures contained within (which would keep me painting for a good long while), I'm pretty confident that this is an army that can be combined with the Crimson Court to reach 1,000 (or close enough) in both Age of Sigmar AND Warcry.

So, with that in mind, I think that's my 2025 all planned out. Now, granted, I have other ideas to paint alongside it, such as the Picard Expansion for Star Trek Away Missions (just to see how the character swapping works in that game), as well as some vague plans for beyond.

But, for now, I'm glad to have a plan for once my currently pile ends.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

10. Completing my Tactical Squad (Recess Shading & Highlighting)

Image
When I took up this hobby nearly two years ago, the first full set I bought was the Space Marine Tactical Squad. Since then, my building and painting of the miniatures has been somewhat piecemeal. While I immediately built and painted all ten at the time, the paint scheme I used was a little more original as I had planned to create my own custom chapter. However, plans changed and now all of my painted models are Ultramarines, it became a thing that the previously painted needed to be amended, a job that took time as I focused on newer models. Well, eventually, the paint scheme was amended on my Tactical Marines but one thing I had never done to them was either shade or highlight. Again, this became something of a piecemeal effort, leading to only three of the ten being completed by the end of 2023. But now 2024 was here, I decided to make a concerted effort to get this long gestating miniatures finished completely, planning to get the entire unit finished. First up was the power armou...
Read more

6. Completing the Sisters' Rhino

Image
Throughout October, I attempted to focus on one specific model: The Adepta Sororitas Rhino Having bought it back in August, I really wanted to get it completed and ensure I had a fully prepared Combat Patrol for when I finally had the bottle to ask my wife's permission to leave her with the kids and go to my local wargaming club (it'll never happen, I'm too dedicated to doing my bit around the house. But still ...). Therefore, almost immediately, I primed the entire Rhino (including the interior) with Chaos Black spray. However, rather than begin painting immediately, I decided to hold off, painting my Librarian and a few Infiltrators first. The reason; I wanted to make some 'modifications' to my Rhino. This was nothing extreme by any means. However, I wanted to give myself a few different options of display if I wanted to, such as removing the gunner, the hunter killer missile and the side doors. So, with a selection of two differently sized Magnetics, I went to wo...
Read more

Bladeguard Veterans: reaffirming my armour painting

Image
In January, for my first project of 2025, I decided to catch up from Christmas 2022 and finally paint my Bladeguard Veterans. In fairness, there was a dual reason for this as not only did allow my unpainted pile to become a little more recent but it also gave me a chance to effectively reaffirm the process I used to paint battle armour (something which seemed a little all over the place in 2024) So, after a Primer of Macragge Blue (along with using the pot to catch anywhere I missed), I proceeded to wash the armour only with Nuln Oil. Once that was dried, I drybrush a final coat of Macragge Blue before drybrushing over it with a coat of Calgar Blue. This left me with a tone of blue which look visually consistent to how I'd gotten Uriel Ventris and my last batch of Assault Intercessors After that, it came down to painting, washing and highlighting the rest of the minis. Those colours were broken down like this: Joints/Carapace/Flag - Abaddon Black (B), Eshin Grey(h), Dawnstone (h) ...
Read more