Tag: hell dorado

New Year, New Start

Last year wasn’t a great year for hobbies. Work kept me busy enough through most of the year that when I got home I was often too tired for any hobby activities. Overall, four minis were finished for the whole year – the last of the three miniatures as part of an experiment with colour schemes1, and three more Hell Dorado figures slowly completed over a few nights.2

I’ve also got a terrain project that’s close to completion, but hasn’t made it yet – it has been mostly painted but play-testing has found that the slopes of the hills on it are still a bit too steep despite my best efforts. I have a plan to fix that, but it does mean I’ve got a bit to redo. There’s also a small cairn detail that remains unpainted, but that can wait until the piece is fixed and the rocks also repainted.

A large painted terrain piece, consisting of four ruined columns spaced around a large hill
A large terrain piece sits on a table, clearly showing the slope of a hill that rises up towards the centre of four large monoliths.
This slope proved a little too steep for most minis.

I also managed to conclude a long running Numenera Campaign and the beginning of a new Invisible Sun campaign. That campaign is still very early, but so far is looking good3.

But this year is already off to a better start. I had a few friends over for a hobby day on New Years Day, and it lead to much fun, camaraderie and a productive afternoon of hobby activities. Two more Hell Dorado troops have been finished, as well as one StarGrave crewman (with three more started and in the pipeline).

A figurine of a man in ornate plate armour stands, brandishing a sword.
A figurine of a man in plate armour, shown from the back to show off the shadows and highlighting of his flowing red cape.
A figurine of a man with a musket and a sword, wearing a wide brimmed metal helmet.
A figurine of a man wity a sword and a musket, viewed from the back.
A figurine of a man wearing a red trenchcoat with yellow accents and bracers.
A figurine of a man wearing a yellow t-shirt with a red trenchcloak and pants. He brandishes a pistol and has a medallion of some sort upon his chest
Several figurines, most in various stages of being painted with a red and yellow paint scheme sit on a teal painting mat. One completed figurine painted in the same scheme is also present to act as a reference.
Basecoats down, still working on the rest.

Overall, a pretty good start to 2026. Here’s hoping I can keep the momentum up as the year continues.

  1. A Screenshot, Some Colours and a Scheme ↩︎
  2. See Resuming after a break. You can also see how the two Hell Dorado figures I finished on New Years Day looked at the end of 2025. ↩︎
  3. One of my players maintains an in-character journal, you can read their first post here ↩︎

Resuming after a break

I’ve gotten to pick up my paintbrush and hobby tools a lot less this year than I would like, in part because my professional life was particularly hectic this year. Combine that with my paint desk being occupied by old computer parts for a few months whilst I was testing them and either fixing them or listing them for sale

An old X-Box that broke sometime back when my eldest was just a toddler has been returned to service (one replacement HDD and one hair-clip fished out of the disc drive and it’s all good to go again). A lot of the old parts I didn’t need got listed for sale online and I’m glad to say I found homes for most of the old parts, freeing up a bunch of space and putting a modest amount of change in my pocket – I even managed to offload some defective items to someone who wanted to have a crack at repairing them. Working through it all was a PITA, but I’m glad I did it this way rather than just dumping the lot and adding to the e-waste problem.

But of course, while this was happening I didn’t have my paint desk to use, and so having freed it up again I was recently glad to be able to get back into painting.

A hobby station surrounded by a wet palette, magnifiers, paints, a light and of course - a cold drink.

I eased back into things for the first paint session in awhile, starting by finishing up some Hell Dorado Westerners that had been languishing in a mostly completed state for most of this year. Two are now finished up, one is very close and two more are on their way but still need a bit more effort.

A small hand-painted figurine of Francisco Vargas, a Spanish-style captain from the Hell Dorado Westerners range. His red cloak is flowing around him and a gold cross is emblazoned on his breastplate. He stands holding a holy artifact of some sort in one hand and his sword in the other.
Francisco Vargas, ready for battle.
Fransisco Vargas viewed from the back, showing off the shading of his flowing red cape.
Francisco Vargas has a nice cape
A painted figurine of a Hell Dorado Arquebuser stands, firearm at the ready wearing his uniform and armour.
Another Arquebuser, ready to go
The arquebuser, viewed from the rear, showing the various packs and satchels he's carrying full of supplies.
And from the back
Another Hell Dorado Westerners figurine, this one holding a blunderbus.
Looking good from the front.
A Hell Dorado Westerners figurine, holding a blunderbus. Viewed from the back some details still need to be painted.
Mostly there, but need to work on the hilt of his sword.
Two partially painted Hell Dorado Westerners figurines stand on top of a cyan hobby mat.
These two still need a bit more work

Pretty happy with that, and already looking forward to the next time I get to pick up a brush.