HAPPY 5th BIRTHDAY!!

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE ART OF CAESURA!!

Cue the confetti-poppers, my weekly blog is FIVE YEARS OLD!! That's half a decade of posts every single Friday right here on The Art of Caesura!

And what a year it's been. With these birthday celebrations, I don't want to dwell on the negative, but I will just acknowledge that this has - without a shadow of a doubt - been the hardest year of my life. And not just because of the pandemic, but that certainly exacerbated everything. So it's with some degree of pride that I managed to keep painting and posting despite it all. Your support, through comments and just tuning in, has been especially wonderful this year. 

Five years is quite a long time to do anything. It's longer than I've been in my current career, it's over three times the length of time that my daughter has been alive, it's longer than I've been married, it's longer than most university / college degrees...that tenacity is another source of pride for me. 

Okay, I'll stop patting myself on the back. Let's Paaaarrrtay!

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<As in previous years, scroll down to the bottom of this image to see larger images that might be easier to read depending on your device>

Depending on your device, it might be easier for you to click on these cut-up images below. 

Let's dig in, starting with my hobby goals.

In 2020, I really wanted my make my hobby more physical. I had previously entered online painting competitions and played online versions of Warhammer games, but this past year I wanted to push things IRL, so my hobby goals reflected that. I was literally a week away from my very first beginners "tournament" of Warhammer Underworlds in Galway (a couple hours away) for which I had registered, painted my Thundrik's warband and constructed my first deck. I had also played a lot of Warhammer Underworlds Online and poured over the rules in anticipation. And then the pandemic hit. Anyway, of all the years, this proved to be a laughably bad one to choose to get into the face-to-face aspects of the hobby. Oh well - first world problems. 

On to this year's goals. Each year, as my responsibilities as a father and with my career grow and expand, getting in a blog post each week becomes more and more challenging (but still very rewarding), so I will keep this as my first goal. 

As a total sucker for Kickstarter, Games Workshop, and the hobby in general, I have a few miniature board games in some stage of completion. I would love to add some more of these (at least one more) to the ranks of The World of Smog and Silver Tower (the two games that I have "100%ed").

My final goal is a riff on my goal from 2019 which was to submit something to White Dwarf. I am being a little more general with this one, to keep my options open into where I might submit my work in case I feel inspired to do some more creative writing or something else...

Above we have some peaks behind the curtain. I have tried to be more active on The Socials this year (posting to about 10 different Facebook groups and also to Reddit, Instagram, Board Game Geek, Cool Mini Or Not, The Grand Alliance, Kickstarter). It seems this has brought more people to the blog, so welcome all, I hope you enjoy your time here!

In previous years I would sneakily have posts ready and scheduled to post themselves weeks in advance (in the run up to my wedding and honeymoon I think I had SIX WEEKS prepped!) but it's amazing what a baby will do to this kind of prep time. But how can you resist this face...I mean come on!

Anyway...where was I? Oh yes, let's look at some places the blog went this year.

Every year, for the past few years, I've said that I wanted to increase the variety of posts on the blog. I've always emphasized that I want to keep the main focus on miniature painting, while mingling in other bits. As a sidebar to this, I was really surprised at the variety even within my miniature painting: that the miniatures I painted on the blog this year came from FIFTEEN different product ranges (and 40k wasn't even one of them - lol). 

I'm finally satisfied with the balance of post topics. I'm also excited to have added a new type of post (Comma, Community) to the other semi-regulars: The Birthday Posts, The Multiples of 100 posts, The Full Stop, The Question Point, and The Autumn Reading List. I hope you enjoy the variety too!

Through gifts from my wonderful wife, I have been building up my merch empire. Preparing to take on Nike! First T-shirts and mugs...then THE WORLD!

Here's that wonderful wife that I mentioned. 

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2020 Favourite Minis

Now, this is always one of my favourite parts of the blog's birthday post, where I get to look back over the past year and pick out some of my favourite minis that appeared on the blog this year. They're not necessarily my "best painted" minis, but rather ones that are memorable for me as I reminisce over the past year. And man, looking back over this crazy crazy year, for a bunch of these minis I was like "I painted that last year?! Feels like ages ago!". Even on this 5th birthday, I have given up trying to make this a "Top 5", so we'll follow in last year's tradition and go with a "Top 6". 

And now, in 6th place...

6) Dishonoured's Corvo (Artel W)

The miniature itself does a lot of the heavy lifting to garner its place on the Top 6. I had recently been playing loads and loads of Dishonoured and fell head over heels for the setting, atmosphere and art direction of the game. So when I saw this model of the game's protagonist, Corvo, I had to paint him. And what a joy this model was - crisp details, dynamic pose; completely capturing the character of Corvo. 

5) Blood Bowl Ogre (Blood Bowl)

This model was a painter's paradise. Lots of different textures and all on a large canvas. This was one of the first models I tried my bright metallic blue on and I'm still really happy with how it worked out. It was also my first real foray into decals using microset an microsol, and with the larger area to work with, I felt like I really levelled up on painting faces. It's much easier to paint eyes when they're like four times the "normal" size in 32mm. 

4) Skyriggers (Age of Sigmar)

These were recent additions to the blog, I only painted them a few weeks ago, and it was hard to pick between them, the Endrinmaster and the Navigator. I think it was the tentacles that pushed them into this fourth slot in the Top 6. I always like painting my Barak Mhornar Kharadron Overlords; I like painting the rich copper, the dirty beige and the dark blue. Relishing all the details, I always spend ages on my KO so I don't get through them very quickly, but I'm slowly working my way towards an army. 

3) Preyton (Forge World)

I didn't really go into this in my posts about this model but I actually spent about 2 years on it! I think I started it around October 2018 painting most of the Preyton itself. I remember when we moved, one of the only things that broke was one of this guy's antlers. At the time, I had a vision for its base but was scared to try to execute it for fear of messing up the model. When I finally sat down to finish the job I also gave another highlight pass on the Preyton itself and I'm thrilled with how the whole thing turned out!

2) Balrog (Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game)

As I mentioned in my post about it, this was a model that I had been looking forward to painting since it was first released - and it lived up to expectations! Seeing it now fills me with pride and brings me right back to that epic scene in The Fellowship, one of my favourite of the whole trilogy!

1) Hyg (Zombicide: Green Horde) 

Now, I admit that this one comes out of left field. It's not as epic as the Balrog, nor was it as time-consuming as any of the other miniatures on this list. But Hyg encapsulates a lot of The Art of Caesura for me. I have been told before, by friends in the hobby, that my painting style comes into its own when I'm painting neutral cloth and dirty metal. I have always loved playing with textures and Hyg has textures aplenty! In the past year (really starting with the Blood Bowl Ogre above) I have come to greatly enjoy bringing life into faces and I think I accomplished that with the ruddy complexion and "thousand-mile stare". At the time of painting, I was also totally enamoured with Vikings - binging on all available seasons of The Last Kingdom. Hyg was my favourite character in the big Zombicide: Green Horde campaign that my wife and I completed this year. A lot of accolades for one little model. And that's why he takes my top spot for 2020. 

There are bound to be rabid Caesurians out there screaming "But what about Gandalf or the Trebuchet?! And you can't have forgotten the Vault Warden or the Conan Warlock! And you must be daft to have left out the Aetheric Navigator!!!" Well, there are only so many models you can fit in a "Top Five". Six, to be exact. 

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The People's Choice Award

Each year I'm tickled (and always surprised) to see which model or post drew the largest audience to the blog. This year the people's choice award goes to...my write-up on playing the solo missions for Warhammer Underworlds!

"A Crushing Terror" - Warhammer Underworlds Solo

Interestingly, the next two most popular posts of the past year were the Balrog and the Skyriggers, marking the first time that the People's Choice aligned with choices from my own Top 6. 

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Biggest Model of the Year

Ooh-wee this party is really ticking along; I think it's one of the biggest blog birthday parties we've ever had - which is only right and proper for a FIFTH birthday! 

So far, we've looked at the sexy sexy infographic and my "Top 6" minis of the past year. We've smirked bemusedly at the recipient of The People's Choice Award. Now, each year for the birthday post it's right around this time that I reveal the behemoth of the year. I always paint my biggest model of the year as a birthday present for the blog, and this year's "miniature" is a REAL doozy!

What the heck is that thing!? All shall be revealed...next week!

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That brings us to the end of this 5th birthday party. I know I've had a great time and I hope you have too. Thank you one and all for joining us for any of the past 43 800 hours that The Art of Caesura has been on the interwebs.

And with that, I shall bid you adieu! And as always, I'll see you next Friday on The Art of Caesura!