This year I painted a lot, 73 models in total. I also played a lot (for me), 3 games!
Of those 73 there are 36 that I wasn't super focused on but still had a lot of fun. I built and painted 24 tiny spaceships from scratch this summer after getting really excited about A Billion Suns and Void Admiral. I even played a solo game of a Billion Suns. It was fun but for physical space purposes I had to cut the measurements in half and that was immersion breaking enough that I didn't come back to it. Maybe I could try again. The other 12 in this group were some 15mm WW2 dudes that I wanted to try out with an eye towards playing 28mm games at half scale with the right models.
Of the other 37 I did a lot of work this year that I'm proud of.
I kitbashed and painted two 6 man warbands for Aetherpunk28 and then I played two games with Alex! This was really rewarding across the entire process from kitbashing to painting to playing. The paint jobs aren't my best but I think they really stand out and tell the story of the models well.
I finished my little Cygnar army which was as satisfying this year as finishing that little Infinity army was last year. These models hold a lot of nostalgia for me and maybe this year I can make some progress on the Khador half of the project.
At the end of the year I got really excited about Battletech. I stripped some models, bought a few over Black Friday, and built the start of a force that I hope I can use with Battletech Aces in 2026. These models also helped me zoom in on a visual style that I've been hovering around for a bit. I started it with the Lunar and BLKOUT models I worked on a year ago but got more comfortable with on these mechs. I'd like to keep exploring this colored shadow, bold highlight, high contrast style more.
Hopefully in 2026 I can play some more games with Alex and/or get through an Aces campaign.