My top 11 of 2021

Crap, I spared every expense doing a header image and then accidentally deleted it. Oops. So here's one I nicked.

It doesn't seem that long ago that I posted my last top 10; at the time, we were still living in the basement, the house was still undergoing renovations and decorating, and I hadn't painted anything for a month. This year's been a bit different, with me churning out minis to the point of insanity. Yes, I'm looking at you, Monster May(hem). 

I had a bit of a bugger choosing these, which is why there are 11 instead of the usual 10. To be honest I could have easily chosen 20, but you have to draw the line somewhere. 

As we stand on the cusp of 2022, I'd just like to say thanks to all my reader(s) and the people who've taken the time to comment on my posts and painting, offer help and encouragement, and just being generally kind and awesome. Happy New Year to all of you!

11: Weird and pissed off

OK, so the Dog-Thing resembles a slightly miffed sheep and looking at it five months on it's not as good as I remember. On the other hand, this little diorama stands out to me thanks to the Forgotten Heroes challenge taking me right out of my comfort zone and getting me to actually sculpt my own mini for it. 

10: Death Guard

These pustulent traitors spent over two years in a ziploc bag until I dug them out in February for the Paint The Crap You Already Own! challenge. They're the old metal Death Guard and they're great sculpts, so I don't know why I took so long to get them done.

9: Billboard

I've never been too good at scenery, as last year's Season of Scenery challenge proved when I couldn't even get one piece done in eight weeks. This year's challenge was another matter, and I even ended up scratch-building this piece out of foamboard, coffee stirrers and dowels. I'm absurdly proud of it.

8: Kyrie, Female Barbarian

Kyrie was a freebie that came with a Reaper order, and I chose her because she was the best of a fairly mediocre bunch of offerings. But she looks great once painted, and was a solid entry for Fembruary.

7: Porkchop the Porkgre

Porks was picked up via a Kickstarter, and he's one chunky all-metal mini. His skin tones came out so well despite me thinking I'd screwed up halfway through painting him, and overall he's just an inventive and frankly scary sculpt.

6: Maggotcrown Ogre Juggernaut

Another large model (2021 seems to be the year I painted a ton of larger figures), and one that I tried out new techniques on, in this case mixing black and brown to get an instant old metal look. I was especially pleased that my homemade rust wash worked so well to make this ogre's armour look ancient.

5: Aina, Valkyrie

Aina was rescued from storage after almost two years and painted for the Neglected but Not Forgotten challenge. She looks great, but thanks to all the little details I was happy to finally get her done. I'm even happy with the snow base.

4: Yog-Sothoth

Yoggers was part of the marathon of paint and screaming that was Monster May(hem), when I managed to paint 98% of the figures in Cthulhu: Death May Die in a month. He might look like a large, misshapen scrotum armed with teeth and tentacles, but he's my fave figure from the game.

3: Convenience Store

This store was my main project for Season of Scenery, and I constructed and painted it over two weeks. The MDF building itself was simple to build and paint, and it was the detailing that proved to be the most fun; the vending machine, the boards across the windows and the graffiti all add a lot of character to a post-apocalyptic shop and help tell its story.

2: Blood Angels Terminator Captain

I painted this Jes Goodwin classic in the middle of Season of Scenery just to get a break from making stuff out of foamboard and MDF. I'd wanted one of these for ages and immediately bought it when I saw it on Ebay. Not only am I chuffed to finally have a Terminator Captain in my collection, I'm also very pleased at my painting, especially as he's my first Blood Angel.

1: Undead Chariot

I decided this would be No1 about five minutes after finishing it. I can't think of another mini I've painted this year that beats the Undead Chariot; some might be more colourful, some might be bigger, but this one stands out a mile as it's such a classic sculpt.

Honorable Mentions: The tent; the barricades; the Warhammer cottage; Space Wolves Terminator Librarian; Skull Rock; Ruined chapel; everything else I painted for Monster May(hem); the Alien; and the many post-apoc survivors.