It’s that time of year, when people typically start to assess the previous twelve months and address the issue of what they aspire to achieve in the coming twelve, and our hobby is no exception when it comes to this self-reflective process, so let’s get down to business…

Firstly, we should really deal with the elephant in the room…

The pandemic has had a disproportionate effect on my hobbying over the course of 2020. Don’t get me wrong, I am really pleased with my level of productivity, especially in terms of how many units I’ve churned through for my Dusk Raiders project, but the simple fact of the matter is that, rather bizarrely, the lockdown has meant less hobby time, rather than more. Typically, as a freelance trainer and lecturer, my schedule is fairly stable with clear downtime at the start of the year (January/February), and over the Summer (June to August/September), however this year, the ongoing adjustment to the new normal and the need to pivot to remote working across all my contract and agency work, meant that I just didn’t see a break until Christmas & New Year.

That being said, let’s look at how I’m doing – Below is a list of units I’m tacitly planning on including in this project, and which ones are complete, partially completed, or purchased (but sitting in boxes):

HQ (3 Max)
Legion Praetor ‘Ullis Temeter’ (and Command Squad)
Legion Praetor ‘Huron-Fal’
Legion Centurion – Moritat ‘The Ash-Maker’
TROOPS (6 Max)
Legion Tactical Squad #1
Legion Tactical Squad #2
Legion Breacher Siege Squad #1
Legion Assault Squad #1
Legion Tactical Support Squad #1
Legion Reconnaissance Squad #1
ELITES (4 Max)
Legion Destroyer Squad #1
Legion Cataphractii Squad #1
Legion Rapier Weapons Battery #1
Legion Apothecarion Detachment (assigned to Command Squad)
FAST ATTACK (3 Max)
Legion Sabre Strike Tank Squadron #1
HEAVY SUPPORT (3 MAX)
Legion Heavy Support Squad #1
Legion Land Raider Battle Squadron #1
Legion Vindicator #1
LORDS OF WAR (1 MAX)
Legion Falchion Super-Heavy Tank Destroyer #1

As we can see, I’m actually doing fairly well considering that the project only really got underway during 2020. The list probably also gives an inkling as to my overall gameplan, which boils down to focusing on ‘unique’ units first (e.g. HQ, Elites, and unusual Troop choices), before moving on to more bog standard units (i.e. Tactical Squads), before finishing up with larger-scale vehicle projects.

I’ve also quickly realised that I work best in batches of five miniatures (max) – This is the reason that the Assault Squad is partially completed (10/20), as is the Reconnaissance Squad (5/10). I’ve also realised that, to avoid burn out, I need to intersperse with miniatures from other systems as palette-cleansers. At the moment, due to inclement weather preventing priming, I’m going back to Dystopian Wars miniatures that I primed a few years back, but never got around to painting. Moving forward, I very definitely intend to try and get my small force of Enforcers for Mantic’s Warpath/Deadzone completed – The idea here is, that I would then have a force available for guests to field against my Asterians.

In terms of my general ‘pile of shame’ of other miniatures, I have a good collection of classic Bauhaus miniatures for Warzone (the Target Games iterations), a fair amount of Prussians for both Dystopian Wars/Armoured Clash and Dystopian Legions (the Spartan Games iterations), a variety of starter forces for Mantic’s Deadzone/Warpath/Firefight games (Marauders, Rebs, and Plague), and a sizeable collection of Dark Elf-style miniatures from Raging Heroes’ earliest Kickstarter which were going to be an allied detachment for my Warhammer 8th ‘Warriors of Chaos’.

There’s also a smattering of other things, some Kingdom Death miniatures from a friend, as well as Kingdom of Britannia for Dystopian Legions, some complementary sprues for each of the major factions from Hawk’s original Dropfleet Kickstarter, and some Mashinen Krieger model kits, not to mention a lot of other odds & sods. But the essential take-away is that I have enough variety to find worthwhile palette-cleansers inbetween my batches of Dusk Raiders.

In terms of where I’d like to be by the end of 2021, I’d be happy if the partials made it to completed, and I would definitely like to have made significant inroads into those purchased but still packaged, but I’m not going to beat myself up too much if that’s not the case – Personally, I’ve always felt it’s better (and far kinder on yourself) to have aspirations for the New Year, rather than resolutions…