2025 - A painting plan in three parts

With 2025 just around the corner, I find myself with enough of a pile of opportunity that it'll probably bleed into 2026.

2024 has seen me work through my armies as I (maybe mistakenly) took part in the Independent Characters Hobby Progress Challenge, but learning new skills and improving my overall painting as I do so.

One thing 2024 did teach me was that army building isn't my thing as I've become bored are completing whole units as well as my recent enjoyment in focused painting of the White Dwarf.

With that in mind, my plans for 2025 can be easily split into three parts.

Part 1: Primed projects - 

The first part and what will be taking over the first third of the year are my primed projects. Made up of My Bladeguard Veterans and Centurion Assault Squad for my Ultramarines and my Hospitaller and Retributor Squad for my Sisters of Battle, all of these make up the oldest members of my pile of opportunity. However, while it makes sense to make a start with them, it's also down to necessity as nothing else can be primed until April when the temperature is warm enough to prime outside again.

That said, these four units also present further opportunities to refine some painting techniques, such as drybrushing and layering, skin tones and ensuring I've got the blue for the Ultramarines armour colour nailed down.
Part 2: Unprimed Army Projects - Part 2 will continue the army painting, but with newer, unprimed units which were recently picked up thanks to the Warhammer 40K Combat Patrol. These units, consisting of a 5 man Internus Squad, a Captain in Terminator Armour and a Librarian in Terminator Armour, will finish off my Ultramarines army by reinforcing my knowledge of the techniques practiced previously as well as getting in in the frame of mind for the upcoming collection of Character Minis I have in my pile.
Part 3: Character projects - The last part, as previously mentioned, will be my now burgeoning collection of character miniatures.

The Invocation of the Elements, the Saviours of Cinderfall, the recently released Provisionally Prepared and Lieutenant Titus as well as the Picardd and Sela Expansions for Star Trek Away Missions are all recently picked up by me and, as such, the last things I'm planning to paint.

However, the reason for this also comes down to the fact that I can practice on my Ultramarines and Sisters of Battles in order to get my skills up to snuff ready for these much more intricate models.

Also, thanks to my recent work on Grombrindal, I'm hoping that I'll wind up having more fun as I focus on a collection of individual projects (including the minis found for Star Trek and in Saviours of Cinderfall) which I'm hoping to stave off any boredom I felt while painting units.
And that's the plan for my year! There are some bonus projects which I hope to also get to, which predominantly focus on re-painting early minis such as my Primaris and Phobos Lieutenants, my Veteran Intercessor Squad and my Infiltrator Squad. This is to bring them more in line with some of the newer painted minis.

But, hopefully, all of this will provide me with a whole year's worth of painting.

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