My top 10 of 2020

Well, it's about bloody time I posted something if only to prove I'm still alive.

We have moved into our new house and we're currently living on the ground floor while we're having the rest of the place done up. My unpainted minis (except the ones Alicia got me for Christmas) and virtually all my paints are in somewhere in the garage, which currently looks like this:

Shit. Tomorrow I'm going on a hunt for them. Wish me luck.

Anyway, here's my personal top 10 figures from the endless stream of shit that was 2020:

10: Zombie Strippers

I'd long thought these figures were pretty tacky, which is yet another thing that proves how dumb I am. I was eventually persuaded to get them when I saw the great job Keith had done on his. They were a ton of fun to paint and are a great addition to my zombies.

9: Chaos Warriors

Chaos Warriors are a vital part of a warband, and once I finally got around to painting them I had a ton of fun. Slaanesh allows for bright colours and strange paint schemes, so I just went for it. It's surprising how menacing a mini can be when it's wearing bright pink armour.

8: Gutrags, Stitch Golem

Gutrags was rescued from the Magical Box of Unloved Lead after a 12-month stay. He'd ended up there because my original painting looked so crappy. I redid him with better colours and more attention to detail. My then-new rust effects paints really helped too.

7: The Changed

There are four Changed minis, but as I'm an idiot I only bought three of them. The one on the left was painted first, and the other two over a year later. I just really like these minis and the painting I did on them. They're wonderfully creepy.

6: Ultramarine Medic

I'm not just happy with how this chap turned out, I also had a blast going down memory lane with my friend Flynn to those far-off teenage years of 40k, sunshine and hope. The Medic is the first Ultramarine I painted since around 1994 and it helped spark my interest in Oldhammer.

5: Troll

Reddit, as I named him, is one of the many minis I've bought just to qualify for free shipping on Amazon. I had to convince myself to try doing an aquatic paint scheme rather than just plastering him in green, and I'm glad I did as he turned out looking great. 

4: Ana Polansk miniatures

These miniature nightmares were originally on a Kickstarter that I missed. I managed to pick them up from Harwood Hobbies, and by "pick them up" I mean "whipped out my credit card so fast it got friction burns". They're great figures and really stand out in my display case, or at least they will once I've put the display cases up in whichever room we end up using for our hobbies.

3: Sister Hazel, Plague Nurse

I'd long wanted to buy Sister Hazel as she is a great sculpt and let's face it, there isn't a more apt mini in this day and age. The only issue I had was coming up with a colour scheme for her, so I just copied the one on Reaper's site. The stripes worked so well I wonder sometimes if someone else did them.

2: Dark Young

Tracy, as I named her, was my first attempt to participate in a painting challenge, in this case Keith's Monster Month May(hem). After a fun six days(!) of painting she was finished and I was a happy bunny. Tracy also has the honour of being a member of one of the few only painting challenges I've actually managed to complete (*cough*Warhammer Cottage*cough*).

1: Phemorous Vardonai, Champion of Chaos

Phemorous takes the top spot for three reasons:

1. It took me a while to pluck up the courage to even prime him thanks to my lack of confidence in the paintjob I could do on such a classic Citadel figure.

2. He looks awesome.

3. Mostly because Roger from Rantings from Under The Wargames Table described Phemorous as "very 'Eavy Metal" and I can't think of a bigger compliment.

Honorable mentions: Daughter of Yog-Sothoth; Dark Elf Queen on Throne; Mi-Go; Daemonettes; vampire for Vampifan; and my many post-apocalyptic survivors.