Stahly’s Recap of 2022 and Hobby Resolution for 2023

Another year gone by, and oh boy, this year was a very special one for me! In this post I show you all my painted models from 2022 and tell you why this year was a milestone for my hobby career.

Contrary to my previous recaps, this time I’m not starting with my list from last year – I achieved almost none of my goals anyway. No, this year everything was different. After over 10 years of running Tale of Painters I somehow transitioned from a hobby blogger to a more “serious” content creator. I published videos more regularly, covered all major GW releases, reviewed multiple new paint ranges, and published more tutorials than ever before. I also painted a Primarch, got invited to the Horus Heresy Open Day, started a new game system, learnt more about scale modelling techniques and weathering, and much more.

Thanks to Games Workshop, The Army Painter, Duncan Rhodes & Trans Atlantis Games, Redgrass Games, Vallejo, Chronicle Cards & all the other companies that provided us with review samples ahead of time. Also thanks to Ross from Fauxhammer for being such a great mentor, and last but not least, thanks to Garfy & our contributors for sticking with me!

But most importantly – a very big thank you to YOU, our dear readers, followers, and supporters. All of this is only possible because of YOUR support, by liking and sharing our posts, subscribing to our social media channels, using our affiliate links, and supporting directly via Patreon. Thanks to your help I was able to reduce my working hours a little bit this year, so I can have more time for Tale of Painters. Without it, it just wouldn’t be possible to run this site at this rate anymore. In terms of time invested, Tale of Painters is no longer a hobby, but a part-time job, and I can tell you that the video editing took up a night or two last year.

My painted models of 2022

Unfortunately, all of this effort meant that I painted fewer models this year than in previous years. My personal hobby had to take a back seat, nevertheless, I would like to show you what I have achieved:

January to March

At the beginning of the year I was working on a Primaris Ancient for my Silver Skulls, plus a unit of classic Skeleton Warriors I painted to match the scheme of my Nighthaunt. Then, after years of waiting, my favourite faction, Craftworld Aeldari, got a large wave of new models, so I painted one of the new Warlocks plus three Ulthwé Storm Guardians for a Warhammer Community showcase. You can find tutorials for both the Skeleton Warriors and my Ulthwé scheme over on my Patreon.

April to June

As I’ve mentioned in the intro, I was invited to the Horus Heresy Open Day in May along with many other fantastic content creators and tasked to paint one of Forge World’s Primarch series, Magnus the Red. The level of detail on this model was challenging, as was the deadline, which resulted in over five weeks of frantic painting, which was quite draining. It was worth it in the end, as the event was amazing, it was great to meet many of my favourite painters and creators like Juan Hidalgo, Darcy Bono, and Pete the Wargamer, and it really hyped me up for the new edition of The Horus Heresy. I decided on a Sons of Horus army, for which I published a tutorial here, and finally took the plunge into The Horus Heresy novel series, and have now reached (audio) book six.

I also made a video about painting Magnus with some impressions from the Open Day, check it out here:

Apart from that, I was really excited for the Aeldari Corsairs from Kill Team: Nachmund, so I painted one for a tutorial, and I also updated the paint job of my Myrmourn Banshees, painted some Age of Sigmar scenery, and added all the parts to make a Gladiator Valiant to my Silver Skulls Impulsor.

July to September

Despite the temperatures, summer was a quite busy period. Still buzzing for The Horus Heresy, I painted one of the new Kratos Heavy Assault Tanks, plus a few of the Sector Manufactorum ruins from the 40k starter set I had in my subscription of Warhammer 40.000 Imperium. I also painted an Imperial Fist for a Patreon tutorial, a test model for a planned Alpha Legion Kill Team, and a Traitor Guardsmen for a tutorial you can find here. I painted the fantastic new Autarch model, and painted some of the Gallowdark Space Hulk terrain from Kill Team: Into the Dark for another free tutorial.

October to December

At the end of the year, one of my main achievements was to paint a Raven Guard Phobos Strike Team for Kill Team, for which I used a lot of weathering techniques I learnt when painting my Sons of Horus. I also painted quite a few models for tutorials, an Emperor’s Children Legionary for a Patreon exlusive tutorial, a Hearthkyn Warrior for a free tutorial you can find here, as well as one of the new Cadian Shock Troopers which you can find here. I also painted another model for my Sons of Horus, a Contemptor Dreadnought, a Skeleton player test model for an upcoming Blitz Bowl team, and the first half of the Kill Team: Moroch terrain.

I also painted three more models for my Alpha Legion Kill Team I haven’t posted yet, and started a five model Tactical Support Squad for my Sons of Horus I wasn’t able to finish in 2022.

So in total, I’ve painted 37 models (amongst them a Primarch and enormous tank!) and 5 terrain pieces plus about 20% of the Kill Team: Into the Dark terrain. I also reworked 4 existing models and one terrain piece. As I’ve mentioned earlier, quite a bit less than last year, I’m afraid. You can compare that to my output from 2021 here.

2023 hobby resolutions

For 2023 I have decided not to make a tick off list in the sense of “I want to paint X units and Y kill teams”. This year, I’m just going to let myself be surprised by what Games Workshop comes up with.

But, I have two overarching goals: Firstly, I want to better balance my personal hobby and content creation (like covering the latest releases for you) – because if the hobby becomes too much of a job, the enthusiasm gets lost, which I noticed at some points last year.

And on the other hand, I want to grow my YouTube channel. I invest a lot of love and time in editing my videos, and the feedback in the comments is always very positive, but the growth is still slow. The YouTube algorithm is relentless and as a small channel it is not easy to become more exposure, especially as there are so many established (and great!) hobby channels out there. If you haven’t already, I’d be very glad if you could head over to my channel and hit that subscribe button, you won’t regret it 😉

Otherwise, have a great 2023, and if you want to share your hobby output from 2022, feel free to join our Tale of Painters Discord channel. Thank you, and happy hobbying!

Find my resolutions from 2021 here, 2020 here, 2019 here, 2018 here, 2017 here, 2016 here, 2015 here, 2014 here, 2013 here and from 2012 here.