Come one, come all, to the EIGHTH birthday celebration for The Art of Caesura!
When I started this blog, I had no idea that it would having the staying power to still be here eight years later. But I have found that my enjoyment of creating the blog has only grown with time! I certainly have less time to devote to the blog than I did in the pre-kid era, but I have found ways to continue to make it what I want it to be, to be relevant for me, and (I hope) enjoyable for you!
Let's kick this party off in the time-honoured manner that the best parties are kicked off: with an infographic featuring cutsie pastel anthropomorphized sea creatures. Yes, I really outdid myself this year!
Let's slow down for a moment and take a more reflective look at what's been going on over the past year.
For anyone keeping score, there have been 416 Fridays in the past eight years...but there have been 421 blog posts. That means that I've never missed a Friday, and 5 times I released TWO blog posts per week. Most recently, this past Christmas! I'll have to get thinking about something extra special to do when the blog hits double digits in a couple of years (if you have any ideas, feel free to leave them in the comments below).
If I were to suggest a theme for my life in 2023, it would be "Career Health". I won't go into too much detail about this because it is not the focus for this blog but I will give you a little peek behind the curtain. After about 6 months of intense introspection and reflection, reading books on the subject (including Doing Good Better - Will MacAskill, Atomic Habits - James Clear, and 4000 Weeks - Oliver Burkeman) meeting and speaking with over 15 prospective workplaces, I settled on 3 positions that I hope to carry on as my long term careers. I have been working in these roles for many months now and am feeling satisfied and fulfilled.
I re-worded my second goal slightly after having given it a bit more thought:
Live like the kind of person who is actively engaged in their life.
And I feel like I have accomplished that!
I also made some sneaky hobby goals for 2023:
1) Get my Gallowdark terrain painted.
2) Play at least halfway through the Oathsworn campaign.
3) Have painted at least 750 points of my Black Templars.
So, how did those go?
1) Ha ha nope. I did, however, buy 2 secondhand Arks of Omen books (which enable you to use the Gallowdark terrain in games of 40k). So that counts right? This is actually going to be one of my main hobby goals for 2024. I really think that Boarding Actions will be a game type that will really REALLY suit my troop-heavy focus (you can't use tanks in this game type) and my slow painting (the armies are small in Boarding Actions games) and my minimal available time with quick, atmospheric games. So I am very invested in this hobby goal for this year.
2) Lol. I love Oathsworn. But it's like an excellent novel that you just want to read all the time, but life and kids and work prevent you from doing so, so then you lose momentum and kind of forget the relationships, stakes and mechanics...of the novel. Okay, my simile is starting to breakdown. But that's what happened to my wife and my Oathsworn campaign. I know I'll come back to it at some point, but in the meantime I'm still plugging away at the awesome minis from the game...more on that...in a few minutes...
3) Well now. Here it is. THIS is my moment to shine. My goal was to have 750 points of my Black Templars painted. But little did I know that I would be so motivated by the gaming aspect of 40k now that we have a FLGS where I can get semi-regular games in (5 games of 10th Edition at time of writing)! I actually have over 1250 points of Black Templars painted (yes, that does mean that I have a bit of a back-log yet to show you). Very exciting.
It was really special getting to be Best Man at my brother's wedding. And holy smokes baby number 3 is due to make her grand arrival in just a week or two at time of publishing. This coming year is set to be a big one (especially involving the recent career events mentioned above). I recognize that I will not have as much time as I have had this past year. But one of the skills that I am quite proud of having put a lot of effort into developing is that of prioritization and dedicating time where I really want to. This philosophy came out of a quote that I had above my desk for many years:
You will never find the time, if you want time you must make it.
Regular readers will know that up until this year I have been pretty exclusively a painter. I often said that it wasn't for lack of interest in the game, but due to not being able to find anyone in my rural corner of Ireland who was into Warhammer. That all changed with the opening of our Friendly Local Gaming Store, The Guild Hall. We now have a vibrant community and a very active WhatsApp group - it's everything a Warhammer nerd could hope for.
It has been so exciting to see my lovingly painted Black Templars take to the battlefield (including my Land Raider Crusader from my original Black Templars army 20 years ago). After each game my head spins with new ideas and new inspiration for painting and playing. I am still very much a novice player but I have won a handful of games and literally each game I come away having learned something new and excited to apply it and build upon it in the next game.
It's true! There are times when Thursday evening rolls around and I still haven't finished the next day's post, but I get inspired by the people who tune in. You! I know that blogs are no longer (or perhaps never were) the favoured form of consuming media related to our hobby (that honour lies with Youtube), so I am even more grateful to you who take the care to read this. I hope you enjoy our time together as I do!
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Fave Five!
Let's continue these party celebrations by honouring my 5 favourite models from the past year. It's always fun for me to look back and remind myself what I actually painted this year! We'll also have a look at what was, collectively, your favourite post on the blog in 2023.
These were some of the earlier Black Templars that I painted for my current army, and I love how they incorporate so much of the quintessential Templar aesthetic: tabards, swords, leather, tilting shields, purity seals etc. I used some of the old Terminator pauldrons for their right shoulder pads and I really love how chunky it makes them look. These models were a joy to build and paint!
5) Neophytes
I challenged myself with these guys to paint them each with different skin tones. This was somewhat laborious but I'm really happy with how they turned out. I love how the whole Primaris Crusader Squad looks on the tabletop: between the Sword Brother, the Initiates and these Neophytes - they are an awesomely diverse looking squad (and they rule under the current rules).
The only non-Black Templar to make the list this year! When I first saw The World of Smog: Rise of Moloch on Kickstarter all those years ago, Major Dreadful was the model that really spoke to me. He's like a steampunk version of the Modern Major General from Pirates of Penzance! What's not to love!?
3) Apothecary
It was a nice diversion from all the of the black that I've been painting this year to paint a bit of white. It was my first time using Streaking Grime on a Space Marine (having used it extensively on my Reichbusters dudes). I love how it turned out! I had some comments on the Black Templars forums that he was a little too "off-white", verging on Death Guard, but I think he really looks like a Templar Apothecary; out in the trenches patching his brethren together (or harvesting their guts as the case may be).
Don't tell Grimaldus, but this is actually my favourite Chaplain model of all time!(and it's not even made by GW!) I ADORED painting this model. Everything just felt so easy and fluid. He's got candles, he's got ribbons, he's got lashings of skulls...he's got it all! I don't really have anything else to say about this dude. Peak Grimdark.
Of course my model of the year was going to be my Land Raider Crusader. My 20-year-old Land Raider Crusader that I lovingly transported across the world, lovingly took apart (well, actually it did that part for me), lovingly put back together, and lovingly repainted (and even got to use in a game - it died Turn 1, but BOY did it look scary on the battlefield before it did!).
This is obviously a very special model for me and I was glad to be able to dedicate a month to it on the blog. I think it has earned it's place as miniature of the year!
So, those are my picks for my top 5 (approximately) minis of the year on the blog. But, to be honest with you, I have two more minis that I painted a few months ago which definitely would have made this list (one would even likely have tied with the Land Raider Crusader for first place)! While they are painted, they have yet to have their grand reveal on the blog. So, depending on how the rest of the year goes, we may see them pop up on this list at the 9th birthday!
Another post that I want to give a little attention to is my Black Templars armour post. After 2 years (or so) of posting pictures of my Black Templars, I finally consolidated my technique into an evergreen master post. It seems to be quite popular and I hope it is helpful for those interested.
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People's Choice Award:
Now, enough about me! How about YOU!? What did you think was my best post from 2023? Well if you were like the majority of people (which, statistically, you are likely to be) then your favourite post and the winner of the People's Choice Award goes to...
The Wyrm! YESSSSSS!!!!! Hooray!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!! This is one of the first years in the history of the blog that The Reader's Choice model has actually aligned with one that I felt was worthy. Many years, the post which drives the most traffic to the blog doesn't even involve miniature painting (as was the case last year), and then the years when it does involve a model, it's often a very perplexing choice - as was the case for the blog's 3rd birthday when the Necromunda objective markers were deemed to be more popular than any other post that year. Yep 5 years later I'm still scratching my head on that one!
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Blog's Birthday Present:
My goodness gracious me! Is that the time!? What a joyous event this has been! Thank you for celebrating The Art of Caesura's 8th birthday with me! But it wouldn't be a birthday party without presents, and here is the blog's present for turning eight; the largest model of the year:
Oooo Creepy! We'll be seeing more of this guy in the coming weeks! And with that we must draw the festivities to a close. Thank you so much for joining me, I am so grateful for the time you give out of your day to take a peek at what's going on in my hobby corner on The Art of Caesura!
Happy Birthday, blog!
See you next week!
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