Tuesday, January 7

2013 Review and Lame New Year Resolutions

I guess it is time to write a review post to wrap up the year. I always like these kind of opportunities to look back and see what I have done throughout the year; it was one of the reasons why I started this blog actually. So, let's get started...

To kick off 2013, I announced my new army project: An Araby-themed Bretonnian army which I call "The Arabian Knights of Saladin". The bulk of the army was from Black Tree Design's Warriors of Islam product line, with several figures from Perry Miniatures and Reaper Miniatures. Also don't forget the cheap plastic toys and numerous bits from other kits.

JANUARY

In January, I was mostly into the Arabian Knights project and my -late- birthday gift for Mr.Lee, "The Oppressor". This has been a thing between us for quite some time now. We started giving miniatures as gifts to each other at first; but then it evolved to giving painted busts.


On the left, some early musician knights, from Perry Miniatures. The other photo is the orc bust.

FEBRUARY

Quite a slow month, with only three updates. I started the month with an usual figure: Prince Apophas from Tomb Kings line. I painted this one for a local kid, who was so generous to the club to give us a free PC...!

Another update was the towering manjaniq, trebuchet substitute for the Arabian Knights army.

The last update was a Magma Cannon for the chaos dwarf army, my previous project. In a moment of weakness, I couldn't resist the urge to get my hands on that.


MARCH

This is the month in which the Arabian Knights project really took off. Every single thing that came out of my workshop was Arab-Breton guys: A couple of mounted damsels, a bunch of camel rider knights and a unit of vulture riders knights, pegasus stand-ins.


APRIL

April was a productive month for my standards; but also it was a week with mixed focus. I started the month working with Arabian Knights again; but halfway in the month I was distracted, again... My distraction took me to chaos dwarf lands once again. This time it was a unit of K'daai Fireborns. After that, I moved away from Warhammer altogether in favor of Infinity. Back then I and a mate from club started promoting Infinity heavily in our club. Every thursday we held Infinity nights to keep the interest going. As a result of that, I redirected my efforts to Infinity miniatures. Antipode Pack was the most notable of those.


MAY

With the summer knocking on the door, it was another slow month with only a couple of updates. One was another Infinity figure, a figure that Mr.Lee gave me for my birthday before... Due to Infinity being stagnant at best in our club environs, it stayed in the drawers so long.

The other update was about a monstrosity. No kidding there, it was a Hellcannon of Chaos project that I long had in my mind. I was very happy with the result to be honest and I received nothing but praise from my buddies...


JUNE

Before I go on talking about the minis, I must say somethings about the turmoil in Turkey which erupted on the very last day of May. The protests against demolishing a park at the heart of İstanbul quickly turned to a massive turmoil throughout Turkey after violence from the riot police. Mass protests went on for more than two months and I was either on the streets protesting or before my computer to convey information to those on the streets. I don't want to bore you to death; but you can read more on my blog post about the Gezi Park protests.

The protests really changed the way we lived. Many people joined the protests immediately after they were out from their day job, only to go home to sleep. Those days, I was rarely before my workshop, so the only thing I managed to complete was another bunch of camel rider guys.

Also, since it was summertime, we had pre-planned vacations. One of the most impressive destinations was Lisbon, Portugal. I was even able to hunt down a GW store there and went on to meet and chat local guys. You can read about my insights about the Portugal travel here.



JULY

Literally no updates. Was still protesting...

AUGUST

The protests were settling down and we actually went for swimming and do other summer stuff without any guilt. No real updates; but I published an Infinity battle report over three blog posts. This batrep proved to be a success, drawing attention to my blog from many sources, most notably from the official Infinity forums. If you are interested, you can read more about the most awesome Infinity battle report from part 1, part 2, part 3.


SEPTEMBER

No updates again, due to job change. It was helluva busy month for me since I was expected to transfer my responsibilities to other people at work, where there were still business to take care of for the customers...

OCTOBER

After starting working for a big corporation, my leisure time was increased significantly. Most of the times, I was busy with Infinity scenery which we all chipped in to buy. The very first piece I finished was the District 5 L Apartment. I tailored my post about that piece to include some kind of review as well and I covered every piece of Infinity scenery that way from then on.

Before the month's out, I was able to squeeze another Infinity figure, a Para-Commando proxy for my Aradna force.


NOVEMBER

Even though it was quite a productive month, I was too lazy to post about what I completed. The only post from this month was for the Sarissa Precision Gantry Set. However, I managed to complete two of MAS' District 5 Apartment, one Objective Room and several concrete wall sets. By then we had some decent Infinity scenery in the club and we held our very first Infinity tourney. It was a 200pts tourney with only four players; but I'm inclined to see that tourney as the crowning achievement of our efforts to promote Infinity. Wish I won that one though :)



DECEMBER

With the extra motivation of the Slow-Grow fantasy tournament started in the club, I turned my attention to the Arabian Knights once again. The first step was for 750pts which I easily matched; but for the next step, I was expected to have 1250pts. That required me to paint more and more Arabs and so I did. After increasing the number of the archers to ten, I completed another unit of camel rider guys in a couple of waves: Regular guys first, command guys later.

With the year is over now, I am pleased to see that my Arabian Knights project is a 1500pts worth of an army now. I even took a family photo :)




So what happens now...? Why, it's time for the lame new year's resolutions of course. Even though I still have many Arab guys lying around, waiting to get painted, I don't think that I'll do much on that front until I learn about the future of the Breton army. There are some rumors about the army that it might be consolidated and whatnot, so it's best to see what GW thinks of the army first.

I am still keen on keeping my last year's resolution which was to have a new painted army every year. I think this year it will be a new Infinity force; but I haven't decided what it will be yet.

Also I'll have to finish the bust that I bought for Mr.Lee for his birthday, which I'm already late as usual. Oh well...

Thanks for reading all the way down here. I wish you all had a nice year and wish you the best for this one.

1 comments:

MrLee said... [Reply]

Glad to see your year end review. Sad on the news of Turkey, as I know how much you were, are, and to be honest will be affected by it. Hopefully it gets better before it gets worse.. but failing that you always have a massive Viking bust to paint up and deliver to me for my belated birthday :) Hope to see you in UK at some point, and failing that.. well I will show you the photos of the conventions, gaming clubs, and stores from here :) Enjoy mate!

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