We could have done more in 2024...

As Charlie mentioned in October, 2024 has not been a great year for many at the Beard Bunker.  Nevertheless, hobby sure has hobbied, maybe less hobby for some of us than previous years, but as is our increasingly consistent tradition, we’ll take a whizz around the Bunkerites and have a look back at their year in nerdivision, and their aspirations for 2025.

Tom

For me 2024 has been all about the Raven Guard.  It started with scouts, for which I had long been waiting.  But then a fateful conversation with Charlie led me to realise how close I was to finishing off a Battle Company and suddenly my focus was on getting that finished.  Once that was done, it highlighted some imbalance in the units I had, so next up was adding a Gladiator and some Inceptors, taking me to the middle of the year.

The thing is, I really do have to be careful about what I say in these yearly reviews.  The first time I did one I said “Unlike many of the Nerd Herd, I am not planning to do ‘new year new army’” and the next year had to shamefully present my new army.  Did I learn?  Obviously not.  Last year I joked “I’m hoping that 2024 is going to be a continuation of this trend of rational productivity.  That or I fall off the wagon entirely and buy myself a Thunderhawk…”  What an idiot.

Real Life^TM has somewhat got in the way of doing a lot of hobby in the second half of the year but what I have done has largely been focussed on this ridiculous brick of resin.  

I feel like I should try saying something like “next year I’m going to try very hard not to win the lottery” or something, but typically the Fates don’t take that kind of thing in good humour, so instead I shall simply say I’m going to approach next year with an open mind and see what happens.

Charlie

I may not have been wildly productive, but I’ve really enjoyed what hobby stuff I have done. This year we really doubled down on collective terrain painting, and that’s been a thoroughly pleasant way to haul big chunks of plastic out of the Cairn of Opportunity and onto the gaming table. Ork terrain, Stilt Town, and a third Boarding Action board have all gone from plastic to painted.

For my own armies, I’ve bounced around like a crack-addled chinchilla, and you know what? That’s fine. The minis I painted are all additions to existing armies, so I wasn’t labouring to reach that first thousand points of a viable force. After all, I’m not starting any new armies. (ominous_Hans_Zimmer_honnnnk.wav).

You can see every last model on my Goonhammer roundup but here’s a few choice offerings:

Chief Librarian Diokles Adrastos

Primaris Whirlwind conversion

Modular Sanctum Administratus

My first diorama - a book nook!

But what of next year? (ominous_Hans_Zimmer_honnnnk.wav)

Will something else begin? (ominous_Hans_Zimmer_honnnnk.wav)

This winter, a new force shall arrive. (more_ominous_Hans_Zimmer_honnnnk.wav)

Who the f— are these idiots? The first ten men of my first ever Chaos army, that’s who. More to come in the new year.

Until then, have food, have fun, and thanks for reading the Beard Bunker. I am forever charmed that people do.

Andy & Maisey

A variety of factors mean these two champs haven’t been able to engage with the hobby much at all this year. Time will tell what 2025 brings!

Jeff

I came here all set to do the “wellllll, I haven’t achieved much this year” post, as much like some of the others my life has been going through Interesting Times. Let’s not go into it, suffice to say I’m doing a lot better now and looking forward to 2025. But (and it’s a big one and I cannot lie) because I’m me, the limited amount of hobbying I’ve achieved has led to some big ol’ gains. For starters, the glorious men and women of the Kessarine 4th armoured brigade got damn near all of their infantry finished. 

So a whole army, that seems like a lot, but no, buy one army project and you get an entire fleet for an older one free*! (*Immediate disclaimer, nothing about any of this is free):

And that’s not all, that same older army (my beloved Word Bearers that everyone appreciates and no-one thinks are giant floppy space penises) got reinforced with a pair of not-inconsiderably-tricky-to-paint demon engines and a solid brick of terminator just for funsies:

So I have to be completely honest and say that again, because I’m me, what has been a dismal year has resulted in a fairly substantial amount of hobby output. Believe it or not, that isn’t even the end of it. Because as a result of the kindness of friends and a re-release that really whetted my appetite for them, I’m returning to an older obsession and giving it the glow up it’s been waiting for since the idea of running a firstborn marine army got taken behind the toolshed and sent to live with friends upstate. Yes. The Blood Angels are back:

Haven’t blogged about them yet, spoons were light, but those are the test minis for The New Way for painting my Blood Angels and thus you can expect to see the glorious brothers of the 3rd company heading back to the sector in no time. 

So what of 2025? Well, as I’ve mentioned, the chaos is subsiding, what I dubbed Operation Life Raft has worked and thus a whole new year of hobbying beckons. My plans, such as they ever are, are as follows:

1. Buy a small spray booth for my teeny tiny flat so I can safely bust out the airbrush again, then absolutely boss some Kessarine armour so I can finally get that army to the tabletop and have glorious guard shenanigans. 
2. Continuing the Blood Angels, I’ve got a whole army set of them to paint along with some bits and pieces lying around from older notions. I’m resolute that this will not be “Jeff paints an entire company of Bangles” again but hey, weirder stuff has happened. 
3. Commence a currently sneaky-sekrit New Year New Army plan with Drew. We’ve got notions.
4. When the yen strikes, rework the Genestealer cult to be compatible with the modern version of the army. Might even take another look at the Drukhari, but that’s more “ooh we’ve got a cool thing we’re intending to do” specific.

I know that all sounds like kind of a lot but tbh, some of it is smaller jobs than it sounds and again, I am me. Happy new year y’all. May 2025 be just a fraction kinder. 

Pete

It all started innocently enough with a single question to a friend: How do you even play Warhammer? They “graciously” introduced me to the dazzling world of Warhammer 40k. Little did I know that seemingly harmless rabbit hole would quickly spiral into a full-blown obsession. Before I touched a miniature or opened a paint pot, I devoured hours of lore videos and painting tutorials, convincing myself I could already wield a brush like a maestro. Spoiler: I couldn’t.

Choosing a faction was like picking a lifelong partner. After much searching (and even more YouTube), I found myself drawn to the Blood Angels, a tragic blend of noble warriors and dark temptations. Their crimson armour, paired with their backstory of loss and redemption, sealed the deal. My first foray into the hobby was a single Intercessor, affectionately named T.I.M. (Test It Mini).

An early iteration of T.I.M.  Let’s just say “battle-ready” feels generous.

Poor T.I.M. He endured countless paint jobs and stripping sessions as I obsessively chased a result I was happy with. When I finally found a scheme that felt right, T.I.M. paved the way for my first full squad of Intercessors, followed by a squad of Jumpack Intercessors.

Each project felt like a small victory, though I’m still learning. My captain from the Combat Patrol box stands proudly as the leader of my growing force, though he’s still waiting on some final touches, most notably his power sword and the base.

Captain [INSERT NAME HERE] is almost ready for the tabletop. Really need a name for him…

The pièce de résistance of my descent into hobby madness? An airbrush. The promise of flawless zenithal highlights and smooth blends was too alluring to resist. While I’m still grappling with the nuances of cleaning it without spraying half the room, the satisfaction of that first clean base coat was worth every penny.

Looking ahead, the next steps in my Blood Angels journey are both exciting and daunting. First up is a squad of Sanguinary Guard, arguably one of the most iconic units in the chapter. Their ornate golden armour will be both a painting challenge and a chance to push my skills. They’re already primed and ready, waiting for me to stop procrastinating. To round out my force, I’ll add an Impulsor and a Gladiator Lancer, giving my army some much-needed mobility and firepower. Then there’s Commander Dante, the chapter master himself. Painting such an important character feels like a rite of passage, and I’m looking forward to the challenge of doing justice to his ancient, gilded armour. These units will bring tactical depth and complete my first proper 1000-point list.

And, of course, lurking in the shadows of my hobby room are the Death Company. I couldn’t resist picking up the box (FOMO), and they’re already built and primed, ready to go. But the prospect of tackling their black armour has been giving me serious second thoughts. Nailing those edge highlights without making it look chalky feels more intimidating than facing a Tyranid horde. 

Editor's Note: If looking at Pete's first ever models makes you feel a bit sick because of how good they are and his laughable concept of what counts as "battle-ready", don't worry, we feel it too. 

Kris

Where to start? Probably with an apology. When it comes to writing I’m about as eloquent as a brick in a bin bag so if any of this comes across as remotely readable that’s entirely down to the editors. 

The core highlight of my nerdy year was getting back down the Oxford for the first time in over a decade and being welcomed into the plump and nerdy bosom of the Beard Bunker. I took a very sneaky bugs list with me when I visited and played two very fun games. One against Drew and her space elves and one against Charlie and the boys in blue. The former describes it as a jump-scare army. Other than a couple of combat patrol games they were my first real game of 40K so thank you both! 

Since that visit in the early spring, I returned once more with a slightly meatier version of the same army to test myself as I had ambitions of entering a tournament. As the old adage says, “If you want to get better surround yourself with people better than you.” As you can guess I got spanked by Charlie and his marines and then by Harvey and his Guard in quick succession. It was glorious! I’m sure the Emperor is very proud! 

Near the end of this year, I did enter a combat patrol tournament and I’m very happy to report that I won both the tournament and best-painted army for my Insidious Infiltrators. Both of those successes can be attributed to the fine folks in the Bunker. Playing with experienced players increased my knowledge so quickly and Charlie gave me my first painting lesson when I first dipped my toes into the hobby many years ago.   

2025 looks like it will be off to a good start with a 1k tournament planned for January and a visit down south for February. My nerdy goals include more games, trying out new techniques for painting, playing a 2K tournament, more fun, and a reduction in my ever-increasing pile of shame (hopefully).

Drew

Echoing the sentiment of my fellow Bunkmates, I too haven’t hobbied as much as I would like (mostly because I have the attention span of cocaine-addled chinchilla editor's note: this is like Charlie's attention span referenced above, but with a bigger budget). The few times I have managed to engage though has turned into a bijou army of the world’s bestest birdy battle bois!

The Bird Box sequel has a distinctly lower budget

I’m a xeno girl at heart, so when the Kroot range got a big, sexy refresh, I was extremely excited (several thigh rubbing GIFs were exchanged). I bought the starter box when it launched and have been adding bits since then, including a couple of boxes o’ hounds from some darling nerds. 

Prior to these guys my only other army has been Craftworld Aeldari, which needs a lot of edge highlighting and typically favours the noble Hide&Cry™ on the table. Other than just the banging new sculpts, the draw of Kroot was the opportunity to play with a new colour palette, paint style and to learn a new way of playing that doesn’t involve my being horrified at anything moving less than 7’ a turn.

The hunt for a new painting technique led me to try underpainting and contrast for the first time, as it seemed to favour more natural shapes and textures, and was pretty pleased with the outcome. 

The three stages of my underpainting: Administratum Grey, Uthuan Grey and White Scar. Or maybe it’s awful lighting: I’ll never tell.

The Kroot scheme is distinctly faster than the method used for my beloved knife ears (who could have foreseen this?), and it also allows me to avoid my least  favourite stage, the dreaded tidy up, by just doodling warpaint over any mistakes. Huzzah! I also got to try a new base scheme which involved a bunch of new techniques I haven’t tried before. 

Largely this year has been spent figuring out how I like to hobby: what works for me, and what is just a chore. 

For next year, my goals remain lofty, and hope springs eternal (even if hobby time does not): 

• I’ve started work on a small, 500pt force of Salamanders as part of a planned boarding action campaign. 

• We have a couple of group terrain projects planned that are always a joy to get stuck into (Honestly: I can’t recommend them enough. They turn what can be a daunting amount of work into an afternoon with your favourite idiots). 
• I want to dip back into my first love, Iybraesil. To finish your enormous backlog, I hear you cry? We’ll think about it, but those delicious new Warp Spiders aren’t going to paint themselves… 
• As mentioned above, Jeff and I have a planned teeny, tiny project, which he’ll no doubt write up for you guys in short order. 
• And lastly, with the range refresh imminent, I feel the call to She Who Thirsts and will hopefully be starting my very own pack of Emperor’s Children. 

Happy hobby year, everyone: Sex, drugs and dice rolls for all!

Harvey

I've painted a lot in 2024, and I'm looking forwards to even more in 2025! It was mostly an Imperial Guard and Night Lords flavoured year, with a bit of eldar at the end for variety's sake (oh, and a whole lot of terrain). It's been a year of really enjoying and appreciating the hobby side of the hobby, and coming to enjoy painting and creating new things with friends in a way that has been less possible in recent years (see: an actual global plague, and finishing my studies).

Admittedly, this is just an army photo we happened to take this year. About half of this army was painting in 2024... Still a lot!

As far as gaming is concerned we've played a few really memorable games, and (sorry not sorry) I'm somewhat responsible for the above Pete’s absolute swan dive into the Blood Angels. The best bit about gaming for me in 2024 was actually using all the cool terrain we've been churning out - stilt town in particular is a favourite of mine. 

Sorry Pete. No, actually I'm not.

Stilt Town, this time the setting of another clash between the noble Night Lords and the perfidious sons of Guilliman. A thousand curses upon their house!

It's also the year in which I finally pulled the trigger and started writing full on house rules for 40k 10th edition, which has been a very mixed bag for me, especially when I imagine my “ideal tabletop Warhammer game” and compare that unrealistic fantasy to what 10th is. The main thing I feel is missing is the same ability to make an army your own in the same way you could with 8th and 9th (and some earlier editions too), what with it stripping out subfactions and replacing them with indexes temporarily. That would have been fine if variety had swiftly been reintroduced, but for my favourite factions it wasn't (looking at you, eldar and guard). So I wrote my own guard rules, and I've had a great time with them since.

The other gaming joy I've had in 2024 has been co-op. Charlie knocked it out the park with Fury of the Swarm in 2023, and Tom and I saw in the new year (2024 not this one) with a full campaign of Guard Vs Tyranid nonsense. It was an absolute blast and I, frankly, want more. I've also been involved in playtesting Fury of the Beast with Charlie this year, and I can't wait to play some more of that too!

Thomas A.

Every time I sit down to write my yearly hobby confession, I always seem to think that I did not paint anything over the year, but looking back on photos I often realise how productive I have been. 

I went into 2023 with no plans for a new army and I can almost say I managed to stick to it. This year has mostly been about adding to my existing armies, my Sister of Battle army has been expanded with a Castigator tank and my Ork army has been expanded with… an entirely new detachment. With the release of the 10th edition Ork codex I fell in love with the wacky Dread Mob detachment, big giant clanking orky walkers that remove obstacles in front of them with all sorts of weird and wonderful (destructive) armaments. 

Revisiting the Ork army also encouraged me to finally break out my Ork junk-themed scenery board aptly named ‘The Junkle’ and have a few battles on it. I really enjoyed watching my friends be amazed by the scenery they had only ever seen in pictures. 

My final project of the year was revisiting my very old Death Korps of Krieg army. I have never quite managed to settle on a paint scheme for their tanks, but I think I finally managed to find something I am pleased with and just in time for the announcement of Games Workshop redesigning the Krieg so they get even more plastic miniatures!

Projects for 2024 -

The time has come for my Death Korps of Kreig to emerge from their trenches with grim determination bolstered by the new range of miniatures.  This long-awaited project has been lingering in the depths of my hobby backlog for years and I am excited to see where I can take this army. 

The objective is clear: to capture the unyielding spirit of the Krieg. Every infantryman and tank will be weathered with mud, battered and damaged by an endless war of attrition, yet driven forward by the grimdark determination that war is nothing but a game of numbers. 

I can easily envision the Death Korps fighting alongside my fanatical Sisters of Battle. The unrelenting faith of the Adepta Sororitas, paired with the unwavering discipline of the Death Korps of Krieg. It is a perfect combination of zeal and sacrifice. 

Boris

2024 started strong with me trying out my new airbrush I got myself for the previous Christmas on the 1st of January 2024 and ending up in the minor injuries clinic. Airbrush needles are sharp and uncomfortable when inserted all the way to the bone. I and am, evidently, cursed with klutz.

Using an airbrush has been a massive journey for me, and I'd say I loved 99% all the minutes I spent with it. It made my painting process a lot quicker and allowed me to do bigger things which I would not usually tackle. 

Just like a small Combat Patrol of Necrons, which I had completely forgotten about until now… 

The year also led me to dabble with demons (probably in more than one sense) and painting my first demon engine (Forgefiend) as well as a Lord of Change. Both models had a certain fascination but I never really liked the demon aesthetic - until I painted the minis. They are both absolutely glorious to paint. And they made for funny reels on Instagram.

Whilst I got little gaming in, all games were glorious and I am most grateful for the fabulous company. I love my nerd herd!

A notable gaming session was probably me bringing my new custodes (colour change paint for the win!) which didn't even exist a week prior. They have been great to play and we had a few very heroic moments against Orks and Traitors alike.

The year also brought the first game to our new home, which also was the first game of my Thousand Sons. Thank you, Charlie, for the brilliant game!

This year ended for me with doing a little diorama for Drew to welcome her new Salamanders onto the Anvil. Dioramas and terrain are so much fun!

Now that I write this, I can say that it was a really good hobby year, even though it didn't feel like I was making the progress I wanted to make in terms of quantity at the time.

Plan for 2025? Terrain - lots of it!

Happy to year to you too!

That wraps up the Nerd Herd's hobby progress for 2024. If you have questions for any of us, including today's guest contributors, sling a comment our way. Thank you to every reader that left supportive and/or insightful comments on our posts this year; we hope you had fun with your hobby in 2024, and that you have even more in 2025.

Thanks also for your patience while we continue with the temporarily monthly pattern of posting. I hope and expect that we'll return to weekly posts soon, but don't want to make specific promises just yet.