Sometimes life outside the hobby blocks us from getting our little dudes built, painted and played with, sometimes it inspires us and sometimes it’s a bit of both. Right now, for me, it’s the third option. As well as being busy assembling my troops for my ongoing Imperial Guard project I also had to go and retrieve a whole heap of stuff that had previously been stored in my parents’ loft. Needless to say, there were miniatures in there; stashed away during one or other of my various house moves, waiting to be collected “soon”. So now I have a heap of boxes cluttering up the house even more than usual and I need to get them sorted, organised and out of the way before my wife looses her patience. Enter Anne’s 2026 Miniature Assembly Challenge!

The challenge runs until the 31st of January and participants simply need to commit to building as many models as they choose and then actually getting on and building the damn things. I had already promised myself that I would build at least 6 kits in January and so I chose some that I was particularly keen to get on with and signed up. My plan is to work my way through the following:

Palanite Justicars for Necromunda (my Christmas present to myself)
Palanite Enforcer Captains & Sergeants (also Necromunda)
Orcs riding Gore-gruntas (big pigs)
Rockgut Troggoths (that’s Stone Trolls to you and me).
Nurgle blood bowl team
Marauder bombers (Aeronautica Imperialis)

So, with roughly half the month gone how am I getting on? Well not badly actually; halfway through the month and halfway through the list. Of course I’d probably be a bit further on if I hadn’t gotten distracted and built some other things as well but obviously those need done too so it’s all to the good.

My first target was this pair of stone trolls. I painted one of these back in 2022…

…but the other two from the set have lingered, unassembled, until now.

Then it was time to take to the skies with a pair of marauder bombers for Aeronautica Imperialis.

The most recent addition to the backlog are the Palanite Justicars for Necromunda which I got as a wee Christmas present to myself. I’m very keen that going forward nothing is bought only to sit untouched so I cracked on with them next.

And whilst I was in the Underhive I made a start on the Palanite Enforcers too.

After that however, rather than moving on to the other things on my list, I turned my attention to the various boxes that only had a few quick and easy odds and ends in them; things I could build quickly in the interest of making maximum space for minimum effort.

It’s been a while since I did anything very much with my Ogres but they’re a collection I’d really like to get back to. This lumbering Irongut already has several mates in the painting queue, and getting him built allowed me to flatten and dispose of another box.

This chapel comes from the Garden of Morr, and is the last piece from that set to be built. I have a plan to paint up some suitably morbid terrain for my various undead to fight over but as with so many things it hasn’t happened yet.

When the latest iteration of Warhammer Quest – Darkwater – was released I decided to give it a miss (too expensive, not enough time or space) but I wasn’t about to pass up the chance to snag a few Pestigors for my warriors of Nurgle army when I spotted them on ebay. There’s something “old school” about this version – as opposed to the other ones that were recently released – that I really like. Time to get the grubby goats assembled too then.

Lastly we have a load of orcs from the LotR/Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game. I know a lot of people love the Lord of the Rings game but I’ve never got beyond painting a few orcs for it, and these ones never even made it off the sprue until this week. Who knows, perhaps once they’re painted I’ll get drawn in and finally build myself an army worthy of Mordor.

Anyway, that’s where I’m up to. Despite it being a busy month (although when is it not?) I’ve managed a good bit of progress and I’m feeling relatively confident about tackling the remaining kits on my list in the second half of the month. Next on the list; big ugly orcs on big ugly pigs!