Between a lot of things rolling out over the past few months and my current project taking longer than I’d expected it to, I’m starting to feel a little oppressed by my backlog. That’s not great!

When the pandemic hit, I definitely entered a state where if I thought I was going to work on a thing: I’d better get it in hand because I might not be able to get it when I was ready. That really kind of worked for me, too, for the first couple of years. But: backlog is starting to accrete. I’m painting more slowly and, uh, buying more quickly.

So, I thought I’d take a beat to enumerate the different projects I have floating in my backlog. This wouldn’t be everything rattling around the hobby closet (I’ve got some stuff I really need to clear out), just the stuff I want to be working on Right Now.

This should hopefully help inoculate me against getting suckered into picking up one of those new Games Workshop holiday bundle boxes.

• Stormcast Eternals – This is what I’m working on right now. It’s taking longer than my instincts expect, but a lot of that is work and seasonal changes (and accompanying allergies) just kicking my hobby productivity in the kidneys. I’ve got 15 models left, which isn’t too many; I’m more than halfway done.
• Black Templar Intercession Kill Team – Kill Teams are kind of the perfect hobby project: paint a dozen or less models of something different. Guardrails up against it spiraling out too far. Finding out the BT Army Set is extremely inexpensive prompted me to snap one up for this purpose.
• Into the Dark Terrain – This stuff is ready to go. It’s even been masked: I just have to do it to it. I expect it to paint quickly… but I’m also not in the biggest hurry to tackle a new terrain project after knocking out the Masters of the Universe terrain and a traditional Kill Team table over the last few months.
• Masters of the Universe Wave 1 & 2 minis – Just four models plus the Tyrantisaurus. It’d be nice to get them done before Wave 3 comes out.
• Masters of the Universe Wave 1 & 2 terrain – This is 99% Wave 2 Preternia terrain, and I’m breaking it out because terrain’s a separate brainspace.
• Morats – I’ve about half the sectorial unpainted since I snagged a great deal on a lot of them back when the faction got the glow-up. Now they’re getting new models and units and that’s only widening the gap. I should get that Action Pack painted.
• Bushido – I have 4 models (2 Minimoto, 2 Ronin) I need to build and paint to catch up
• Halls of Thranduil – I’ve printed off like everything I could possibly need to play these guys and they’re just sitting around in trays.
• Imperial Navis Breacher Kill Team – These guys look cool! I want to paint ’em!
• Kroot Farstalker Kinband Kill Team – These guys look cool! I want to paint ’em!
• Horns of Hashut Warcry warband – These guys look cool! I want to paint ’em!
• Rotmire Creed Warcry warband – These guys look cool! I want to paint ’em!

Each of these should be like a 2-3 week jam (well, the Morats would be several of those)… and that means like half a year’s worth of work is sitting around, ready to go.

Just about done with these turkeys. 12 Annihilators to go, but I’m starting to burn out on these guys… so I think it’s time to pivot to a palette cleanser before pressing on.

I’ve been printing off some of the stuff from Iain Lovecraft’s recent Viking Saga Kickstarter. I’ve got to say: this is kind of the perfect way to do the thing: yes, there are buildings and scatter terrain… but there are also kind of a lot of civilian and livestock models. Also a lot of troops and ships. Everything short of a monastery at Lindesfarne you’d need to do Viking-age stuff for ~$40.

I can’t overstate how much I value the little things to make the printed village feel more inhabited.

I’ve been printing houses, mostly, at .2mm layers, and it’s been taking forever. 24h +/- 4h for each building and almost as much for each roof, but I’m not complaining: they look great.

Though I will say some of the “interior” spaces are… impractical.

Not fitting models in there easily… or getting them back out.

But I’m happy with how the prints came out! I’m glad I started when I did: it took about two week’s time… but I’m not sure when I’ll get to painting them. I’ve got a lot in the backlog at the moment.

Man, I JUST the WordPress app to start working, and here it is broken AGAIN.

I clearly need to stop screwing around with it and lean on the web interface. Vexing!