2020 in review, and looking forward

No more shall the shame of missing a pledge be felt, from now on we will all travel in tubes!

….Wait…that’s a different thing!

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Everyone (to 2020):

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2020 was set up to be a year of events; Company of Legends, Scarring of Alspa, Damochan, Heresy.Scot, Melos….We had plans to each complete a titan legio, a militia list, and add to our 30k frontline lists. We even had the supposed opportunity with lockdowns being forced to stay at home. So what happened…

…COVID (Der H: “If you didn’t know the answer, turn on the TV…”)….COVID happened. Der H is a doctor and so the year has been busy. But even with days off and annual leave, progress wasn’t as amazing as we all thought it would be. Several podcasts, (looking at you Age of Darkness!), have hit the nail on the head in their recent ‘casts: a lot of people feel ashamed of their lack of ‘progress’, especially when the time was seemingly available.

At work there is a lot of talk about fatigue, and what that means. The daily “Do I have a temperature?”, “Have I got my mask?”, “Can I go to that shop?” etc takes a toll. I write this between two 13-hour shifts in a large ICU. Constant FFP3, ceaseless admissions, more deaths and life-changing ICU admissions than usual takes a toll - the Hobby we do in our free time shouldn’t be what shames us. The Age of Darkness Podcast do a Two week hobby challenge - its great, but results in many fellow hobbyists landing in the box of shame. They have recently (here I think) ended the box of shame, and will be taking a new approach without shame, but celebrating progress….and that’s what we’re going to do!

2021: Celebrate achievement, don’t shame failure

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So, for 2021, we are going to focus on celebrating what we get done each month. Not focusing on our failures. Thers is a joy of ‘butterflying’ between projects; there’s always so much on the go!

Keep an eye out for our respective January in review posts, as well as the February “whats on our workbench” post in the next few days!

Handro's Orky Gubbinz

Wherein Handro realises he’s simply got too much Orky stuff…

Hey guys, remember me?

Alright, so with the Gorkamorka push on the front foot, I thought it only natural to massively overreach myself by attempting to kickstart my mechanised Ork army (Der H ‘I thought we weren’t allowed to talk about them?’). an abandoned, over-ambitious project (never!) from the mists of, ooh, say 2017, probably.

‘We’’s ready, where’s da rest ov da boyz?’

The plan is hopefully just plug away with larger units in the background whilst ostensibly ploughing on with Gorkamorka stuff, i.e. if I need to paint 7 boyz up for my mob, 3-4 more for a full unit is a no-brainer. If I want a new trukk/buggy (Der H ‘truggy?’) or a bike for a gang member, I might paint up (read, ‘start’) all my vehicles at once, or a unit of 3 bikes…

Killa Kanz!

Hmm, you know what? I feel a list (of shame) coming on…

Fings what are unda way:

Bosswagon

Buggy

Battlewagon

Truggy

3 bikes

Garok’s Gangerz (Morka gang ~4 models)

3 Killa Kanz

Looted Tank

15 Stormboyz + Zagstruk

5 Burnas, 5 Lootas

Deff Dred

3 Meganobz

Deffkilla Warbike

Boomdakka Snazzwagon

Big Mek w/ Shokk Attack Gun

Fings what av paint on ‘em:

Shoota Boyz squad

Warboss, squig + 10 Nobz

Runtherd + 10 Gretchin (although I still can’t find them!)

Painboy

Wazbom Blastajet (undercoated, still counts!)

Fings what ain’t even built yet:

Snikrot + Kommandos

3 more bikes

~10 Boyz

12 Snap-fit Boyz, for conversion

Flash Gitz

Fings what are ready ta fight!

Nob + 10 Slugga Boyz

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So yeah, hopefully that last section might grow. A bit. Possibly.

Patreon Review: Grimdark Terrain

Its no secret that Der H loves a good Patreon (Brother Handro: “Dont get him started on Kickstarter!”) and we thought we’d share his most recent indulgence…

Der H recently found his way back into Titanicus (Der H: “I wonder why…”) and as such began trawling for information. Der H also enjoys podcasts, and the Eye of Horus: Engine Kill is no different. Episode 13 dropped on Monday, and included a nice chat with a German chap called Rudolf! AKA Bronco Fish AKA GrimDark Terrain

First off; check our the Instagram pages via the links above - some gorgeous work by Rudolf, and the EoH guys for that matter!

Secondly; check out the awesomeness of the Patreon…

The content so far is amazing! Der H signed up and has just printed the wagons (Der H: “5 so far!”) and has trains, pylons and more on the way.

For our needs, Brother Handro put it best…

…and the Siege of Grandia, with agri-fields, torn up by trenches, craters, broken pylons and the ruined Grandia Grain Train line will make an excellent board for our Legios to battle over.

Please check out GrimDark Terrain:

Facebook

Instagram

Facebook

Instagram

New website features...

New year….sort of new site

Brother Handro: “I mean, its not really new…”

Der H: “Meh…”

In 2021 we decided to accept certain things:

1) Instagram is where the hobby is…

2) We don’t use some features here

3) We want to have this site as a place to put blog posts

4) Out wall of shame is so out of date it isn’t even funny

As such, here are some current, and some proposed, changes :

1) The gallery

The old gallery was a random collection of "some pictures” rather than what we’re actually doing! The new Gallery page has our last 20 posts as a grid, with links to our pages. That’s it. Gallery done…

2) The home page

This was a little tweak rather than anything else. The search bar is now up top, and the last 5 posts below. There is still the link to older posts, and the format here has also changed…

3) The Archive

This was previously an endless (Brother Handro: “Dont flatter yourself…”) list of previous posts, but now it is by month and year…much easier!

4) The wall of shame

This hasnt changed, yet….we need to take inventory…..this might take a while…

5) About us…

For now this will stay, until we find a better use for it!

6) Hot links bar

The links section has been tweaked as well: we have more of them!

From left to right we have THB Instagram, Brother Handros Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, YouTube, Cults 3D, and Thingiverse…..quite a list of socials….we arn’t on TikTok…don’t ask (Brother Handro: “Are we really ‘on’ YouTube”)

7) HB-3D

This is a recent re-branding of Der H’s 3D kitbashing…for more details, check out the links, or the blog post here.

That’s about it I think….Let us know if you particularly like, or dislike, anything. Stay tuned for more Hobby Butterflies madness!

Brother Handro's Work Bench - January 2021

In which Handro briefly describes the random assortment of bits and pieces he’s been not quite finishing for the last six months…

I actually finished a titan…

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Y’know, flitting from one project to another on an almost daily basis goes without saying on this blog, but honestly I’m not sure I’d have it any other way. Some people have thousands of points worth of stuff for one faction or system all painted and ready to go and the luxury of being able to pick and choose your force from a pool of finished stuff is one I’m not overly familiar with (Der H ‘I’ll say….)’, but to me it will always be about keeping the hobby mojo going by knowing there’ll always be something lurking in the Hobby Cupboard of Doom (tm) to grab my attention…so without further ado, I give you….Handro’s stuff and things….

Not this one though…

So I’ve been mainly working on Adeptus Titanicus in the last few months. I cannot get enough of the models, and the New Year’s teaser images of a potentially new chassis give me impetus to continue the charge. It doesn’t hurt that my efforts spur on Der H to finally get on his Legio Fureans stuff either. (Der H ‘Alright, alright!…)

Or this one…

Aside from big stompy death machines, I’ve been airbrushing my 30k scale Knights (Der H ‘Errr….still big stompy death machines?’), building and starting to paint a Star Wars Legion clone army, and building a World Eater assault force. My newly-airbrushed Imperial Fists Zone Mortalis stuff is looking at me disapprovingly…

Looking after the new guy…

I’ve recently built some Ork vehicles for that Gorkamorka thing Der H always bangs on about…gives me a reason to dust off (literally) the piles of Ork stuff I’ve got lying about…

Orky 8-wheeler!

Seeing the awesome stuff Der H has got lined up, I’ll have to pull out all the stops for my Orky vehicle konvershuns….

Hobby Goals 2021

So since it seems to be the thing to do, I guess we should have some hobby goals! This blog started as a way to get us painting out backlogs, and what better way than shared shame…(Brother Handro: “Don’t you dare use that gif again….”)…Lets see what we want to achieve…

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Brother Handro

1: Titans!

If there’s one thing I’ve fallen in love with in the last few years it’s Adeptus Titanicus. (Owning, not playing, apparently…) I just can’t get enough of that not-quite Epic-scale goodness. Expect more legios than you can shake a rangefinder at!

2: Clones!

If there’s another thing I’ve got into, it’s Star Wars Legion! Although I love all the factions, I’m a big fan of the Republic so expect to see me wade through my clones painting white and various unit markings…we may even learn how to play it properly!…(Der H ‘Easy now, tiger…’)

3: zone mortalis!

By which I obviously mean His Imperial Majesty’s Most Glorious Fists…(Der H mutters something about iron cages under his breath..) Der H has been chugging away at his magnificent ZM board and the classic match-up of Iron Warriors versus Imperial Fists will be a suitably fitting clash for this deadly stage….

4: World Eaters!

Do you hear the voices too?! (Der H ‘sanity is for the weak!’) I’ve long harboured a dark ambition to do at least some justice to this famously annoying-to-paint legion. The core of the force is built, now I just need to muster the courage…

5: Orkses!

Hey remember when I bought a whole Ork army around the beginning of 8th Ed? Yeah….Der H wants to do Gorkamorka, and I do love a good mechanised infantry theme…alright I’ll do it!

Der H

1: …I mean, titans i guess….

Brother Handro has been suggesting (Der H “Strongly….”) that I should paint my titans for some time…they are all currently gun metal with shading and have panels in various stages of completeness. We bought in HARD at the start, and each have a grand master edition jsut waiting to be played…Legion Fureans is, as such, my number 1 completion for this year!

2: Death korps of krieg

Ok, this one is serious….its been here looking at me forever it seems! I’ve expanded it with some tanks, two bombards, a minotaur, and 10 OOP renegade ogryn. I have lists on battlescribe, I have fluff and a theme….but none painted….this shall not pass!

3: Oak and iron

Yet another Kickstarter I hit HARD in the last few years. Duplicate of everything they make has been sat unpainted for a long time. It did get a coat of white (Brother Handro “wow….easy there…dont want to peak at a Golden Daemon too soon”) in 2020, but nothing since. Citadel contrast paints seem to be the way to go, and they’ve been bought and ready for some time too. Thy need to get finished! I have started this already, so its jsut a matter of motivation, dedication and strict attention to…oh look, SWL…

4: Zone Mortalis

Yea we both need this…I bought the board on LCtB last year whilst waiting for my FRCA Ceremony! (Der H “My wallet hasnt recovered”) It is mostly painted except for details and stencils. a few good sessions and we’ll be done…..now….where did that ZM door STL file go…

5: Play some games

Ok, ok this one is a pipe dream….but COVID-19 has had a wide range of effects. My professional life has certainly changed! like all of us I miss gaming; I miss events (I think…) and I miss playing games with my buddy! 2021 WILL change this and we’ll be sick of learning when to brace for impact (and what game that even is…) again before too long…

Back from the dead...

“Back from the dead, assholes....Boba’s got himself a lightsaber now!”

#ifyouknowyouknow

So…..2020 was a blast…

Even before the pandemic, The Hobby Butterflies wasn’t the most productive blog on the internet (Brother Handro: “Understatement…”). We had hoped that a series of national and regional lockdowns would help that process but it turns out that Anaesthetists are kinda useful during a pandemic…(Der H: “So what’s your excuse Handro”, Brother Handro: “Dont you work form home two days a week…?”)

We have been active, and our instagram posts over at The Hobby Butterflies and Brother Handro are pretty active…the Hashtag game is certainly strong Hobbybutterflies was even included in the mighty Edge of Empire podcast (Although not related to us!)

We have also been churning through a variety of old and new projects including 3D printing, 3D design, BFG, and some side projects inspired by a popular YouTube video series!

We continue to be true butterflies with a range of projects from 30K, Adeptus titanicus, BFG, Arc Worlde, Star Wars Legion, Oak and Iron, Blood and Plunder and a range of others, so sit back and watch as we finally (Brother Handro: “Yes, but lets ACTUALLY do it this time…”) get down to posting regularly and progressing through the endless plastic, metal and resin piles around our desks!

Change in Facebook!

Its been quiet here of late…too quiet!

Most people will have seen our activity over on Instagram (both The Hobby Butterflies and Brother Handro accounts) or on Facebook.

Today we change from a Facebook Account to a Facebook Page…tedious I know, but the account will be removed at the start of august.

Progress is happening, slowly, and projects about so take a look at our instagram, our facebook page and look out for us at events over the next 6 months (COVID permitting) and stay safe!