I thought a little hobby update for the end of the year – which was a couple of days ago now.

The 28mm bubble has truly burst wide open. If I’m not careful I’ll inundate myself with so much new lead that I’ll be turned off the scale again!

In the last couple of months I’ve jumped on (belatedly) to another KS, made a couple of eBay ‘bargain’ buys and bought new stuff from retailers.

• Stonehaven Miniatures KS for a load of Halflings – this is in addition to the Oathsworn KS stuff AND Conan AND Zombicide Black Plague (oh, and High Heavens finally arrived – read “nearly 40 28mm gods and goddesses to paint.” More on that KS later).
• eBay; 10 Confrontation miniatures (Big ‘uns)
• LAF/TMP second hand sale; Lots of Infinity and more Confrontation stuff
• Santa; A couple of 2000AD box sets I bought myself for my kids to give me for Christmas (sad, I know)
• More 2000AD stuff from Wargames Foundary (plus some sci fi and Viking-types – 20% sale)
• Hasslefree Miniatures; a sample of 9 miniatures from their fantasy ranges (duped by the offer of a free miniature with my order – why do I fall for that?)
• Did I mention the Warbears and Stagriders KS? Jumped on that one too. And I haven’t mentioned any of the non-28mm specific KS or purchases I’ve made!
• 20mm! Contacted David at Splintered Light with a view to ‘completing’ the whole range of Woodland Folk sculpted by Bob Olley. See some earlier paint-ups here and here. Clearly, David, fully understanding the collector syndrome, was more than happy to pull together an order with a single sculpt of every miniature in the range that I do not already have. I say 20mm but as owners of these miniatures will know, being anthropomorphic ‘beasts’ their real-world scale is dubious at best and they can happily be fielded alongside 15mm or 28mm. All depends upon how you envisage the ‘magic’ that makes these creatures human-like – does it increase their size as well?

Anyway, aside from the crazy buying spree I’ve been trying to finish off these Dark Elf (15mm Demonworld) cavalry for a couple of weeks now. For some reason it takes me so much longer to paint a.) cavalry and b.) units sharing the same heraldry. I think I loose a bit of impetus along the way.

Part of the reason for the fuelled 28mm transition it an increased interest in smaller scale fantasy skirmish games – Frostgrave and the like. (Yes, I know I’m well placed to do all those games in 15mm – and I will – but part of me wants to start gaming with ‘real’ people and the majority there will be doing so in 28mm). So I rummaged around some of my older miniatures (when I say older I mean OLDER. Probably older than many of the people reading this!).

I’d forgotten I had a box set of Witch Hunters from the Mordheim GW game which are really nice models (and go for a mint on eBay) and are now ready for painting. Additionally a box set of Rackham Griffon chaps which are equally brilliant. Both will help make an rather nice warband or two.

In a similar bid to be more 28mm-friendly are the Guildball miniatures. The KS was a while ago and I jumped in for a few teams. The Fishermen below are ‘table-ready’, probably at about 80% complete. They will probably stay that way until I get another team or 2 done to the same standard so I can actually play a game with painted miniatures. All the others are prepped, assembled and undercoated ready for colouring in.

Enough waffle for now. Here’s to a splendid 2016 to all!