[The Backlog Project was a January 2023 Otherverse Games and Hobbies community project. As such, you may happen across references to Otherverse and see its logos. The goal of the project was to dig into our respective piles of “shame”, select some yet-to-be started/unfinished projects, and see how much we could knock out in one months time.]
2022 threw a few expected wrenches in my hobby plans. If I wanted to compare 2021 and 2022 by the numbers, then 2022 indeed appears underwhelming. Let’s go over what I accomplished.
2021: 88 models painted, all 40k Necrons
2022: 43 models painted. 16 pieces of terrain, not counting a few barricades quickly primed and dry brushed.
That’s 59 miniatures total in 2022. Not bad, I say.
Only a few days into 2022, we were greeted with a week-long hospital stay and the birth of our first kid. I had so many unanswered questions about balancing hobby time and life with a newborn. Would I have any painting time? Could I paint while the baby sleeps or plays? Would my hobby supplies and models sit in the basement all year, collecting dust?
The month of January, the first few weeks after our son was born, was actually the easiest time for me to be in my hobby space. He slept almost all the time, my wife was tired too, and that gave me lots of hobby time. Almost everything I finished in 2022 happened in January. I started off strong with finishing a third squad of rebel troopers for Star Wars: Legion. At that point, I had a decent size Legion army that was painted but not based. I broke out the DIY texture paste and quickly based them all.
In the spring, I continued with small but slow hobby progress. I magnetized all the bases for my based Legion army. I based the vehicles. I painted a new vehicle, a rebel airspeeder. I even made painting progress by completing the acrylic base coats on a few rebel heroes.
In April I got a terrain bug, wanting to be able to play some games at my house. I watched lots of Youtube videos, and eventually decided to create cargo crates with weathered, canvas tarps covering the tops.This required a trip to the hardware store to get some foam, lots of cutting and gluing, but the end result is beautiful. I made decent progress on some DIY forest terrain.
Come to the end of spring and early summer, I was actually going to be on paternity leave for 3 months. I was going to get so many hobby projects completed! My hobby bench would be empty of half-finished projects! Boy was I wrong. Being at home all day with a 3-6 month old infant was exhausting, leaving me with barely any hobby energy at night. I went to bed at probably 7:30 or 8 pm every night. I was able to play a few games at a FLGS here and there, and finish some more DIY canvas crates terrain, but nothing model-wise.
In early summer, I decided that I was going to take a hobby break. I wanted to do some professional development, so I spent about 4 months finishing some self-study for an IT networking certification I was studying for. I studied for months, eventually feeling confident enough to pass the certification in early fall. Then the holidays came, I got bogged down with lots of family visits and holiday plans, and that kept going all the way until the end of the year. I made some small painting progress here and there in the winter, but nothing got finished.
Towards the end of 2022, I took a day of PTO to make time for a narrative 40k game with some local hobby friends. We spent all day geeking out with our grimdark scenario. The battle was well-fought to the bitter end. My interest in the grimdark universe was reignited. I quickly got to work on some half-finished Necrons.
January 2023 Backlog Project
As I type this paragraph, I’m nearly finished with the last infantry of my 40k Necrons. All they need is basing, just like last January with my Star Wars models. I painted a whopping 40 Necron warriors as soon as I started painting 40k minis. I got burned out on them, and I still had 20 left. They sat in their box for a whole year. I primed them, then they sat for another 6 months. I half-finished the base coats on some of them this past summer, but these guys need to be finished so I can focus on other projects.
What’s planned for 2023?
- The one thing left of my 40k Necron models is the old sculpt of the Monolith, which I will save for this summer or fall as a big project.
- I have a 500 point Star Wars: Legion Empire list that is currently half-glued and sort of primed. I still have a few boxes of rebels on sprue to flesh out my rebellion.
- My half-finished forest terrain project calls to me. I’ll need to bust out the jigsaw to cut out the mdf bases for it.
- I plan on starting a Chaos Space Marines Legionary Killteam for 40k this year. Kill Team looks like a new miniature game I could definitely see myself getting into.
Do I have any particular order for these plans? No.
Clay
I live in rural New Hampshire with my wife, our son, two cats, two dogs, no more chickens because they all got eaten, too many fantasy books, some miniature models, and my wife says I have too many keyboards (only three). Small and steady hobby progress wins the race when you have a toddler.
