The Tally of 2025

Another successful orbit of the Sun completed! Well done, team.

For those who don't know, this is the idea behind "Project: Micawber"...

"Annual leadpile twenty Thegns, annual painting nineteen Thegns, nineteen Ceorls and a Gebur, result: stagnation.

Annual leadpile twenty Thegns, annual painting twenty Thegns, nought and a Gebur, result: progress."

Project: Micawber

The premise is simple: paint more models than I acquire, add them up at the end of the year and bring down that leadpile!

I had a good run last year, and have managed to keep the momentum going by (wait for it) actually finishing projects!

Bought

An impressively low number this year, which was due to the fact that, aside from a handful of Old World models, most of my purchases were for Marvel Crisis Protocol. These have the advantage of being a) low model count and b) too expensive to go crazy on.

Acquisition total: 60 models.

Painted

• 12 x Halfling Blood Bowl 
• 2 x Treemen 
• 24 x Ceorls 
• 24 x Geburs 
• 1 x Warlord 
• 2 x Red Skull, Master of Hydra & Hydra Troopers 
• 2 x Arnim Zola & Baron Strucker 
• 1 x M.O.D.O.K. Scientist Supreme 
• 24 x Black Orcs 
• 2 x Mangler Squigs 
• 1 x Orc Wyvern 
• 1 x Giant 
• 4 x Magneto, Toad, Sabretooth & Mystique 
• 2 x Pyro & The Blob 
• 1 x Mister Sinister 
• 1 x Juggernaut 
• 1 x Omega Red 
• 2 x Rogue & Gambit 
• 1 x Colossus
• 40 x Goblin Archers 
• 3 x Nasty Skulkers 
• 1 x Magik 
• 2 x Warlock & Sunspot 
• 2 x X-23 & Honey Badger 
• 2 x Cable & Domino 
• 1 x Carnage 
• 2 x Punisher & Taskmaster 
• 3 x Shadowland Daredevil, Elektra & Hand Ninjas 
• 2 x Sentinel MK4 
• 1 x Sentinel Prime MK4 
• 1 x Marvel Champions Captain Carter 
• 2 x Emma Frost
• 3 x Avalanche, Exodus, Lady Mastermind 
• 1 x Shadow King 
• 35 x Heroquest 
• 2 x Logan, the Wolverine & Sabretooth, Apex Predator 
• 1 x Deadpool 
• 1 x Spider-Woman 
• 1 x Iron Fist 
• 1 x Loki, Prince of Lies 
• 2 x Weapon X & Maverick 
• 1 x Apocalypse 
• 1 x Cockatrice 
• 24 x Gor 
• 20 x Bestigor 
• 1 x Wargor Battle Standard 
• 1 x Bray-Shaman 
• 10 x Gor 

Painted total: 275 models

Marvellous! That brings me to a very respectable score of 215 to my credit!

As well as the traditional Blood Bowl team, and the sweep of Marvel Crisis Protocol, I was very pleased to finish off some long term projects: Anglo-Saxons for Saga, Black Beastmen for Old World and the new Heroquest - some of these have been on hold for a while!

Shockingly, no Warhammer 40k this year - and I've even started selling off some unassembled kits (which is good for the leadpile and bank balance, if a little damaging to the soul). There is a half-painted unit of Noise Marines staring at me, waiting for the reunion tour.

Other notables of 2025

• 
  
  Favourite unit:
  They weren't exactly the most complex models, but I hugely enjoyed painting the Anglo Saxons for Saga. They look rather neat now I've got proper shield decals on them, and they had a marvellous debut killing Danes and Welshmen.
  
  
  
  
• Favourite model:
  Not an actual model, but I was very proud of my efforts to make a display board for my Weapon X squad.
  
  I really want to make some more of these display boards next year - and since I'm signed up to some more events, I have every reason. It may cause me some storage issues, and doesn't even count for my painting tally, but that's tomorrow's problem.
  
• Favourite battle: 
  It would be hard not to choose one from Kraken's excellent Necromunda campaign - my favourite was the semi-final that saw the end of my Escher team's run, an absolutely insane contest to stop jhnlk's Chaos Helots from covering the Underhive in their heretic graffiti.


• Battles played: 
  Not quite as many as last year (running a campaign does tend to pump up the numbers, but a respectable showing: MCP (26), Necromunda (4), The Old World (3), Blood Bowl Sevens (3), Saga (3) and 40k (1).
  Naturally, you can add dozens more Blood Bowl games against the PC, as I grind my way through every team available.
  This gets me to 40 - fewer than last year, but crucially, lots more in-person games.
  
  
• Blog posts: 
  I'm going with Pootle's flawless recreation of 1980s paint styles on his old lead Eldar - more please!

Goals from 2025

I didn't do too badly. A goal, after all, is just a guideline.

• Play at least one offline game per month
  This tied in to a resolution to have a monthly chicken burger n' tabletop session with the Welsh Woffbooters. We managed 10 out of 12 months, which is pretty consistent going. For the other two, I forced my family members to play with me. I don't know if it counts under duress.
  
  
• Paint up some more Blood Bowl teams
  I painted one more Blood Bowl team. That is, technically, 'more'.
  
  
• To paint X-Men for Crisis Protocol
  Well... I painted X-Force, Weapon X, New Mutants, Brotherhood of Mutants, Hellfire Club, Servants of Apocalypse and Sentinels. I fell short of painting any of the key members of Uncanny X-Men (partly due to a shipping delay which meant I didn't get the models until December).
  While I painted enough merry mutants to field a legal team of X-Men, I think I'll carry this one over to next year.

Goals for 2026

• Play at least one offline game per month
  And also to eat at minimum of 12 chicken burgers (across the year, not in one sitting).
• More display boards
  Ideally, a new one for each event I attend (but let's just say at least one more).
• Paint models from only one games system
  This could be a daft as the time I tried to stop buying miniatures, but I'm willing to give it a go. Excelsior!

Have a great 2026, leadfellows! And don't worry - it's only 12 months until Doomsday!