Can I make “Realistic” Hobby Goals for 2024?

Success, Failure, and (hopefully) realistic goals

Over the past few years, I have spent a day digging out all of the models I painted in the previous year. Then I posted the picture where literally only my friends, already painfully aware of my model addiction, could even see it. Some years, I also make impossible goals to complete in my hobby adventures. With the birth of the Galleries section of the website, I would rather show glamor pics and let people see the collection that way…

But, I took a picture anyway…

And I am still ganna write about my Hobby Goals! I’m not a savage.

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Largely Failing in 2023 goals

I had some lofty goals and expectations for my Hobby in 2023. I find myself going into the final weekend of 2023, staring at my computer, with a head cold Covid making me cough and ooze shit out of my head. Leading me to the conclusion that I will not get any more models done this year. Well, if that isn’t a perfect representation of my year of hobby, nothing is. 

2023 went wildly off the tracks. Then that train crashed. Exploded. Burnt up and someone came by and pissed on the ashes. At least that’s how I feel about the year, but can it really be that bad? Well, last year around this time I posted my plans for the year. Let’s start by take a quick look at how the plan shook out:

• I painted a few Grey Knights, but still have 3 to go.
• Gaunt’s Ghosts are still untouched.
• The Burning of Prospero was not touched.
• Ditto to Space Hulk
• I did get the terminators primed and painted, but not all of them (since, of course, I bought more) and the Resistance models haven’t been touched. 
• Kera and I painted Zombicide. Score. And we even started painting Hellboy, but didn’t get far. 
• Instead of finishing my Flesh-Eater Court army, I bought more models, but at least I am painting them now as the year ends. 
• I didn’t even touch the Gravelords army, other than adding unpainted models to the cue, but I did half-paint a few Cursed City models…
• The Salamanders spent the year in their box in the “work on me next’ position next to my desk, which made the Iron Hands jealous, as I i never even thought of working on them.
• And both the Warhound and the Warlord are still unbuilt. Fuck.

Ouch. Typing that up makes me feel worse, yet, there must be some successes, right? 

• I got almost 80 Ultramarines painted for Horus Heresy between January and February. 
• 1k of Black Legion got painted, minus the single squad that was done years ago, and I finished my Blades of Khorne army in the Spring.
• Some Star Wars Legion models were finished for articles in May, right before the Otherverse brand was abandoned. 
• I spent the summer painting the Leviathan box. Well, I guess I painted the marines as Ultras in the summer, and then spent months working on the Tyranids half of the box while I suffered from hand pain brought about by Trigger Finger and Carpal Tunnel. Plus there was a good dose of depression, having given up on my LLC. I managed to add the Tyranids from the Leviathan box into my Hive Fleet Behemoth army by mid October. 
• In the span of three weeks, Kera and I painted nearly 100 zombicide models in the core box and the abomination expansion. I felt super-productive and I was hoping that my drive to hobby had returned. Wrong. I painted practically nothing else after that. 

I do consider getting back into tabletop roleplaying games, as well as game-mastering, a total success. I have posted a few articles about the games I have run and my friends seem to be enjoying themselves as much as I am. This return to a long lost hobby has hurt my miniature painting time. I can’t help but wonder how much more I would have painted in the later half of the year, had I not given half of my Wednesday painting nights to Pathfinder. No regrets here. I just wasn’t smart enough to buy less miniatures during a time when I was painting less. 

All told, I added over 400 models to my painted totals, with a little help from my wife along the way. The Zombicide project turned out to be a little over 20% of my year’s total. A majority of the rest of my progress was Ultramarines, both from Heresy and the 40K Leviathan box set, and a bunch of Tyrandis as well. 

Unfortunately, I got over 700  models in 2023, including a significant boost from the Imperialis set and several box sets as XMAS gifts. 

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2024 – Try planning for success

On top of a few things that sent me off course, I set myself some seriously unrealistic expectations for 2023. That’s not even including taking up Pathfinder. Even if all the time dedicated to Pathfinder was instead used to paint models, I still think that I would have largely failed the goals I set and probably would have still acquired more models than I painted. I never expected to get through it all, but I did assume that half or more of them would get done. That idea makes me laugh at this point, looking back at how the year turned out. 

My first priority for 2024 is to set a more realistic goal. I need to take into account other hobbies. I have too many games unplayed on Steam, and Pathfinder will continue to occupy some of my free time. 

The second priority will be to get some projects done: there are a lot of things in the works. I need to get some of the smaller projects completed. on top of a large project. So, what are we ganna try to get done this year? 

Let’s start with the big project. Last year, it was Ultramarines. This year will be Dark Angels. I have Azrael and the Lion built and primed, plus a couple thousand points of Deathwing and some vehicles all ready to go. Plus, Games Workshop  just announced the new Deathwing box set for their range refresh early in the year, and I am ganna stick all of that in my “shame”, for sure. Hopefully, I can get it all painted throughout the year. 

As for smaller projects, I think I can get the following done:

• Finish two AoS/Old World armies (flesh-eater Courts are nearly done, and I am definitely getting Tomb Kings)
• Finish two Warhammer 40k Armies (not including the Dark Angels, maybe Nids and Grey Knights)
• Finish two Heresy armies (emperors children and Salamanders ally detachments are half-done)
• Finish two Board Game (no really. I am ganna paint Prospero, and maybe even Space Hulk)
• Finish two non-GW games (probably the Terminator: Genysis and A Song of Ice and FiIre minis)
• Finish one Titan (probably the Warhound)
• Help Kera paint a bunch of Fallout: Wasteland Warfare miniatures

By “Finish” I mean: paint all the models that I own which are planned for that project. This should not be taken as an acknowledgement that I ceased collecting new models for the army, only that I will clear that project from my Pile of Shame. Like in art, no army or collection is ever finished, only (temporarily) abandoned.

In addition, I am going to do everything I can to get more models painted than purchased. My personal goal will be to paint 50% more than I purchase. Let’s see how that works out: hopefully I won’t ruin that plan in January…

Check back here throughout the year to see how my hobby is going.

I roll into 2024 with 2,880 (yes, two-thousand, eight hundred and eighty) unpainted miniatures in my Pile of Shame Awesome, and The Old World preorder was just announced… Wish me luck!