40K Addict Hobby Season 2015/16 To-do List

I'm determined to make up for my poor hobby progress this year with a really solid final third of the year. To that end I've decided to take part in the 40K Addict Hobby Season that Dave Weston runs. There's no formal goals or score sheet or anything just a to-do list at the start and a progress report at the end. The season starts today (you'd have to ask Dave why today) so this post will cover my objectives for the season.

As regular readers will know I'm currently trying to get my Tau army up to scratch for our mini tournament at Warhammer World on Sept 5th. That's only a week away which clearly isn't much time. Here's a reminder of what I'd like to achieve in the next 7 days:

• Sept/squad markings
• Panel lines
• Highlights
• Transfers
• Improved basing

I'd be pleased if I managed to get everything but the basing done. That'll take significantly more time than the rest. I'm tempted to get the panel lines and transfers done as a priority and then go back for the sept markings and highlights. Clearly the highlights will take longest of all and by applying the transfers first I can decide where the sept markings will look best. Might give it a trial run on a piranha and see what happens. I've got tons of transfers so I can afford some mistakes.

Well, that only takes me up to the end of the first week of the year so clearly I need some more goals. The next thing on the agenda for me is to get my scenery finished since both Siph from Weemen and NafNaf from Objective Secured are putting me to shame. You may recall that in my 2015 Hobby Resolutions I vowed to have no unpainted scenery left by January!

• Base all of my current scenery
• Paint all of my current scenery in my ice world theme
• Create some new scenery pieces from my bits box
• Begin work on my desert board

The final point there is a pretty long shot. I imagine I'll get burned out from doing the other scenery so it'll get pushed back but I'd still like to get it done in the next 12 months. I've got some ideas already and it'll fit in nicely with the desert theme to the basing of my Tau.

Once that's out of the way I'll be back to working on my Imperial Knights project. I'm still yet to finish the first one and I've got a pile of kits ready to build the next three too. Here's what I'd like to achieve:

• Complete my first Imperial Knight
• Assemble and magnetise the next three
• Batch paint the other three together
• Weather and base them all together to achieve a coherent effect

I still think the current colour scheme needs work. I think I'll be adding more white and black to break up the excessive amount of orange on the model at the moment. Either way it'll be great to get the first one finished and the others should be much quicker to finish thanks to the lessons I learned with the first.

I'm not naive enough to think I'll be able to concentrate on these projects without getting distracted so to finish here's a list of a few things that I can do to break up the monotony of painting all that orange and looking at piles of snow.

• Work on getting all of the Tau to the same standard as described above (the rumoured new models are sure to tempt me)
• Get through the huge pile of things that I want to flog on eBay to fund the above Tau purchases
• Bolster my Space Wolves army and start work on bringing their paintwork up to scratch

I've pretty much completely ruled out doing any work on my Dark Eldar but I may have to cave and paint the lovely grotesques Liam made for me. Frankly the army just isn't much fun to use in 7th as there are too many auto-includes for my taste. I'm still determined that I'm going to sell my Dark Angels for similar reasons in that I feel like it's Ravenwing or bust. Having said that I still haven't made any bold strides towards shifting them. Barring any freak turn of events I can't see my painting the Orks much more than I already have (well not this season anyway).

In summary then:

1. Work hard to get my Tau to a decent standard for next Saturday
2. Churn out as much snowy scenery as I can stand (including some new pieces)
3. Complete my Imperial Knight army
4. Get all of my Tau up to the same standard
5. Flog stuff on eBay
6. Start work on updating my Space Wolves

What do people think then? Reckon I'll actually achieve anything on that list? Knowing my usual apathy I'll be surprised if I manage even half of it but it's good to have goals to try and keep yourself motivated. I haven't got any particular tournaments coming up so this Hobby Season thingy provides a good replacement.