Garfy’s 2024 Hobby Resolution and Recap of 2023

Celebrating the last 12 month’s of hobby output is an annual tradition here at Tale of Painters. I’m going to take a look back through the year and share what I managed to paint and how many of my 2023 hobby resolutions I succeeded in completing, I’ll also share my 2024 hobby resolutions and as a bonus, I round up all 30 paint recipes cards I made this year at the end of the post.

Last year I wrote this small list for my hobby resolutions:

• Paint a Slaves to Darkness Legion of the First Prince army.
• Paint a Disciples of Tzeentch army.
• Paint the next two Warcry Boxsets

So how did I do? Well I never started my Slaves to Darkness Legion of the First Prince, not a single model. So that’s an epic fail. I did paint a Disciples of Tzeentch army though and I did paint the next two Warcry Boxsets! As meatloaf once said, “two outta three ain’t bad”.

January

I started the year with Warcry and some of those Warcrys were added to Tzeentch army project. I also painted a Fluxmaster to lead the Disciples of Tzeentch. I also managed two cinematic photographs during January one of which were the Seraphon I painted in December 2022. You’ll notice this trend in this post that cinematic photos happen a lot later than the finished model group shots.

February

Warcry and Tzeentch themes continued into February the Claws of Karanak and Flamers of Tzeentch. I also managed to paint the Terrain from the Bloodshot boxset. Catching up on cinematic photography in February I shared fancy shots mainly January’s models, my favourite being the Fluxmaster opening two small Realmgates.

March

Leaning into the Tzeentch project, I continued delving into my old Start Collecting Daemons of Tzeentch set and painted another two units. I also painted two mortal chaos heroes that Games Workshop sent me. They were added to my Chaos forces straight away and actually got atmospheric photos in the same month they were painted.

April

The Tzeentch train stops for no one! Luckily an Underworlds’ warband was released during this month that was Tzeentch based so I could add that to the growing force. I also painted the Stormcast warband and for a change of pace I attempted to get back into 40k with the awesome Dante model. Screamers finally got their cinematic photo this month and I had an absolute blast with this biblical shot of Dante taking on a Bloodthirster.

May

OK so the Tzeentch train broke down and the wheels fell off during May. Warcry is in full swing though with the entire boxed game of Nightmare Quest painted. I also made a start on a couple of units from Leviathan, the big 40K release this year. I caught up on my photography during May completing the Underworlds photography from last month and photographing the Warcry set from this month.

June

Leviathan was coming along nicely with the completion of the Terminator squad but then Games Workshop sent me Jerrion’s Delegation from the Dawnbringers series. I had really enjoyed painting the Royal Beastflayers from last month, so I dropped what I was doing and tackled more Flesh-eater Courts. I managed to paint the entire set!I even had time to paint the Cursling, so maybe the Tzeentch train was back up and running! Photography wise, I shared some Blood Angels and Underworlds models as well as a magical storm featuring the Cursling, another one of my favourites from 2023.

July

During July I was sent the new Warcry Starter Set. It’s a pretty lacklustre set with a flimsy paper gaming mat. I decided to remake it from scratch as a proper gaming board and I documented it too, you can read about it here. I also managed to paint the terrain from the set and the Stormcast warband. I was a little bit exhausted from the constant Warcry content so I revisited my Tzeentch project and painted the last model from from my Start Collecting Set, a Burning Chariot of Tzeentch. Photo wise it was just a couple of glamour shots of my new terrain board and Warcry Graveyard terrain.

August

August was a funny month, I was sent the Legions Imperialis set which I started painted and then the date was moved and I couldn’t share them until November. Disheartened I put all the Epic stuff away and went back to my Warcry board project, adding more terrain with scratch built platforms from balsa wood and plasticard. Then I painted the Vampires from the Warcry Starter Set finishing that box off completely. At a loose end I managed to secure a copy of the out of production Flesh-eater Courts warband online and painted them. I guess the Tzeentch army is over and Flesh-eaters rule supreme. Fancy photos in August was limited to a single image of my Burning Chariot.

September

Feeling the Flesh-eater Courts force growing, I purchased a Charnel Throne and an Arch Regent to paint. Games Workshop sent me some Orruks and the Terminator Chaplain which I really enjoyed painting. There was one model that was niggling at the back of my mind, I’ve been itching to paint the Harbinger of Decay since it was released, so I just thought sod it and dropped all my projects and painted him. Feeling like I was getting really behind with my photography (and the pressure to post on Tale of Painters) I cranked out a whooping 7 photos. I had fun with the Orruk one where I got to be a foot model.

October

During October I added Endless Spells to my Flesh-eater Courts, Thricefold Discord warband got added to my Slaanesh collection, I started on two jump pack intercessors and for fun I painted a Mawpit from the Hunter and Hunted Warcry set. Trying to stay on top of the photography I got three of those things photographed in a cinematic way.

November

I started November by finishing off the Blood Angel squad which was a huge chore. I just couldn’t get into the Space Marines this year. The embargo on Legions Imperialis was lifted so I painted up some more tiny tanks and troops. I finished the month by adding some Putrid Blightkings to my Nurgle collection. I loved painting the Harbinger of Decay so much from a couple of months ago I had a Nurgle itch I wanted to scratch. Photography wise I shot my epic models on a classic green flocked board and Games Workshop asked their content creators to photograph their epic models in real life situations, I thought mine was quite funny, ‘Iron Within, Iron Without’… they didn’t use it.

December

Here we are, at the end of the year and I cranked out a load of Epic Scale Iron Warriors so I could use them in a small game of Legions Imperialis (game was great, can’t wait to play again). I was meant to have received the Flesh-eater Courts army set back in November and after a month I got in touch with GW who said they’d send me out another. While I waited I painted the Self Loremaster from the Shadows of Hammerhal Warhammer Quest boxed game. This was a generous gift from my good mate Dunk. No sooner had I finished the Aelf the Flesh-eaters turned up and I finished the month painting the Gore Warden and the Varghulf. Just two atmospheric shots in December both for Legions Imperialis, using the background card that came in December’s issue of White Dwarf.

2023 Resolution

In the 12 years of doing these recap and resolution posts I can’t think of a single time where I kept a hobby resolution and completed it and there’s a reason! I don’t know what Games Workshop’s release schedule is and there is always something new and exciting that comes out and scuppers my plans. However, this time I know what some of the things in the pipeline are so here are my 2024 resolutions.

• Paint a Tomb Kings army #newyearnewarmy
• Play a 1500pt Legions Imperialis game (I have to paint 500pts)
• Complete my Disciples of Tzeentch by painting a Lord of Change

This post marks my 12th annual recap post. Find my previous resolutions for 2022 here, 2021 here, 2020 here, 2019 here, 2018 here, 2017 here, 2016 here, from 2015 here, from 2014 here, from 2013 here and from 2012 here.

During 2023 I documented all my paint schemes with these handy recipes cards. I made 30 of them! They’ve always been free, I don’t ask anything for them, no Patreon, no Kofi nothing. I feel strongly about sharing the knowledge and enabling people to be able to paint their models so another bonus resolution for 2024 will be make more recipe cards and continue to share them for everyone to benefit from.