Despite most of the year living out of boxes, 2015 has probably been the best year for Broken Paintbrush. This post makes for the 70th one published this year, and the community involvement has been great, with 54 comments with over 19 of you amazing hobby addicts joining in on the discussion.

On the Hobby Front

As I’m not much a gamer any more, my hobby time has started to diverge. For me this mix of armies has been a great motivation so I’m not stuck painting endless amounts of the same colors. Its also given me a chance to a wider range of tutorials (down below).

Coming into 2016 (as mentioned in my previous post) I am embracing this method even more so.

Mentor Legion

The Mentor Legion project has been a true labor of love as I have found they are a rather difficult color scheme to paint (part of my original decision to choose them – to my continued pain!). This year I was able to bring them from the original troop squads to fill in a complete army, and almost a Demi-company.

• Storm Talon – part of a Storm Wing box from way back
• Captain Rothn Ryn and his Command Squad. A really fun unit to build as I create each as a mini-character
• Librarius – I already had one Librarian from the Dark Vengence box, but I custom built three more from various bits (and two captains) to create a full Librarius squad
• Scout Squad – not a terribly exciting squad, but it helps in creating a scout detachment for the new Space Marine codex

Knight Titan

My still-yet-unnamed Knight Titan was finally finished this year. It was an awesome project, and an epic model. While he is painted, I haven’t yet crossed him off my done box as he is waiting for a name, honor markings, and LEDs! I had wired LED lights into his thermal cannon and eye lenses with the purpose of combining my hobby with my embedded skills.

Tyranids

With the release of the Shield of Baal campaign the Tyranids got some love with some new models, and finally getting pictures taken of previously finished ones.

• Hormagaunt Brood – a veritable crap ton of the little guys that I had painted while watching last years super bowel
• Broodlord  – this monster was a limited edition to the Shield of Baal box and is truly epic in size
• Warriors – the new box kit, bringing the total warrior count up to 6
• Hive Tyrant – the older metal guy of death. I am pretty sure this is the last large metal model I will paint as my hands hurt just remembering holding him while I painted
• Carnifex – the second such beast in the army and so much fun to paint I used him for two tutorials!

Orks

The Ork Boyz received a boost in the start of a Dread Mob.  Orks have become among my favorite armies to paint. They have character, you can be really messy (actually you HAVE to be), and they are just so wacky!

• Killa Kans – I couldn’t image they would be any good (or from Greggles‘ experience!) but they are such cool little guys
• Deff Dread – The little guys big brother, so many little pieces of character dripping from this model
• Warboss – The boss from Assault on Black Reach, some one has to lead the mob!
• Trukks – Finished two trucks for the boyz to cruise in, mad idea to create a fully mechanized Ork army

Iron Warriors and Traitor Guard

I retook and posted a bunch of pictures of my original armies, but nothing new was finished. 2016 is gonig to be a different story though!

Tutorials and Cool Tools

I had wanted to up my game in 2015 on tutorials and other tips & tricks for my fellow hobbyists. With 8 tutorials and 9 Cool Tools articles, I am pretty happy with my results. But even better is that I had a number of comments from readers who found something to bring into their own painting.

Tutorials

• Custom Banners – Not only did I have a great time creating this tutorial, but Adam from SpueGrey published in is Golden D6 eZine, if you haven’t picked up a copy yet, you should its awesome!
• Painting the Carnifex - The first of my Tyranid tutorials
• Painting Large Bases – I had so much fun with the Carnifex that that I did a tutorial on his base as well
• Painting the Broodlord – The Broodlord took what I did for the Carnifex and up’d it a bit for this character
• Ork Warboss – The Orks got some love as well with a step-by-step on the warboss
• Painting an Ork Trukk – The Trukks were used as my tutorial for Ork vehicles as they have so much going on
• Trukk Wheels – I even broke out the wheels as a separate article to show how I did the muck and grime

Cool Tools

I started the Cool Tools to showcase some of my favorite tools or software apps, things beyond the normal sales cycle of GW’s expansion into the hobby tool market.

• Painting tools: Brush Soap, Flow Aid, Paint Retarder, Airbrush Medium, and the Wet Palette are some of the tools that have helped bring my painting up a level or two.
• Building tools only included Testor’s Plastic Glue and Silicon Shapers but are indispensable for my own build process.
• Software Tools included two free tools. Trello for keeping track of my progress (and HUGE to-dos) and Feedly for keeping up to date on all the other hobby bloggers out there.

Ready for 2016

As Broken Paintbrush continues to evolve and I figure out what I want to do when I grow up (ha!), 2016 is looking to be an even better year. Not only for what I’m trying to do, but I hope, also for you, my readers.

2016 is going to have a lot more tutorials, reviews, and resources. I’m going to be focusing more on the process of the building and painting rather than completing armies.