Charlie's 2025 Hobby Year in Review

Aping an estate agent’s 'gift' for positivity, I’m going to describe 2025 as having “copious rich-tapestry-of-life content.” I generally assume no one has cause to pay attention to how much I post on Goonhammer, but the especially keen-eyed will note that I essentially fell silent after completing work on Fury of da Beast in April. I wrote two drafts of this post that went into more detail before deciding that, since I was mostly supporting people who were having a terrible time, these are not my stories to share. My wife in particular is due a shoutout; 2025 happened to her, and I am grateful and proud that despite all she has endured, she remains so helpful and loving to the people in her life.

Throughout this year, I took the view that other people were the ones having a hard time, and I was therefore fine. Several people, including my boss and one of my friends, expressed concern that I was perhaps not looking after myself. This was proved to be an accurate statement when, as soon as I took some annual leave, I proceeded to spend two weeks in a dark room. I had no idea that’s what I needed to do, but I’m very grateful to my wife for not freaking out over this bizarre, subconscious decision, as it turned out to be most restorative.

I’d love to end this introductory section with some sage advice on balancing self-care with caring for others, but clearly I am, like so many people, fumbling into the future by the seat of my pants.

The year is enough of a conceptual mess that it's actually quite hard to reconstruct a timeline. Instead, then, I'll run through the year's efforts by subject rather than month.

Fury of da Beast

I completed work on Goonhammer's own Ork-themed co-op Warhammer 40,000 supplement Fury of da Beast in April. The people who are playing it are enjoying it, but the whole thing felt bittersweet at the time. I worked hard, and stayed on time despite everything, but I knew going into it that the original Tyranid version Fury of the Swarm would likely get more traction. Swarm tied so smoothly into the release of 40K’s Tenth Edition box set, leaving everyone with loads of Tyranids. I’m happy with the design work that went into Beast, making the Orks feel more like Orks. In some ways I think it's a superior product to its predecessor, but it simply hasn’t had the same response from the community, and that’s just how making stuff goes sometimes. I’d like to do some follow-up missions at some point for both Tyranids and Orks, but there's no specific timescale on that. Since I assume 2D painting still counts as hobby progress, here once again is the cover art:

Fury of da Beast. Credit: Charlie Brassley

The Order of the Iron Ring

The other main project early in the year was my first foray into collecting Chaos. I was initially thinking of collecting the Black Legion, but was intimidated by all that trim, and decided that using Heresy kits to make a 40K Iron Warriors force would be far less daunting. This proved true, and I produced a complete Boarding Patrol, but as yet I haven’t gone back to them. Time will tell if I find the right headspace. These marines are essentially an Iron Warriors warband who abandoned the Legion so long ago that they barely even remember what it is. You can read more about their lore and paint scheme here.

The Order of the Iron Ring. Credit: Charlie Brassley

That One Ork I Painted

For a long time Ork fan you’d really expect more, and so would the ladz languishing on sprue in my Cairn of Opportunity, but here we is. It’s the Goff Rokker mini, but I use him as a Weirdboy, and wrote a rather silly origin story for him over on the Beard Bunker.

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A Little Birthday Wizardry

The latest member of my social circle to turn 40 is the mild-mannered, unstoppably whimsical, mildly deranged and distinctly kind Boris. I asked him if he’d like me to paint him a single 40K infantry character of his choice, and he immediately picked Ahriman. It was a cool opportunity to paint something completely different, and what a model! It’s complex as hell, but very cool.

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Spaceships

I’ve been running a campaign for my friends Drew and Tom on and off this year, as circumstances permit. This TRAGICALLY involved my having to paint some spaceships for the fleet aspects of the campaign. I have lots of Battlefleet Gothic ships squirreled away, painted dreadfully by my teenage self and crying out for new liveries, so this was a fun bit of renovation. BFG ships are extremely quick to paint, so of course I slowed myself back down by painting the ships' names on the bases.

A squadron of Imperial Navy capital ships and their escorting frigates. Credit: Charlie Brassley

I also needed civilian/merchant vessels. I had some adorable little system ships from the original range, and acquired some more standard transport ships to go with them. These guys formed a scared shoal of refugees for the players to protect and/or use as bait for the Ork invaders swarming the system in the campaign.

Imperial Navy transport ships. Credit: Charlie Brassley

Terrain Team

This one’s a team effort, since other members of the Beard Bunker gaming group contributed, but we finally finished our modular urban board: both the modular paving/road tiles for the city, and modular, stackable ruins made from Sanctum Administratus kits to bolster our existing urban terrain. I started this ages ago, but I have a diploma in not getting around to stuff, and teamwork is surely the best way to smash projects like this. I will in time collate all this in a Goonhammer post, but for now, you can read about making the paving and modular buildings on the Beard Bunker.

Cobalt Scions Space Marines patrol a manufactorum district. Credit: Charlie Brassley

Modular paving tiles carved from Foamex. Credit: Charlie Brassley

Modular Sanctum Administratus sections. Credit: Charlie Brassley

The Main Event: Becoming a (Battle) Company Man

I started collecting my current Ultramarines successors the Cobalt Scions in 2019, and intended to paint up a small showcase force. I don’t usually paint line troops to high standards, as it takes me ages, but thanks to encouragement both within my own gaming group and from the Independent Characters podcast (thanks Adán!) I finished it it in 2021.

Except I didn't. The scheme is very satisfying to paint, and Space Marines are equally satisfying to play. So I just sort of... kept adding stuff until I found myself wondering: if I were stupid enough to paint a whole battle company, what would I put in it?

That's important because my friend Harvey has offered to run a narrative campaign for myself and big Raven Guard appreciator Tom in January '26. Tom has the Raven Guard’s whole Fifth Company. I did not have a whole company. Rationally, I knew I didn't need one. But... what if I did?

Since each individual marine takes an average of six hours to paint, the amount of hobby time I have means I can paint one unit of five dudes a month. In theory that's an hour a day, give or take. To get to company strength, I needed thirty marines and another Lieutenant. By my usual pace, that’s six months of painting time. Fortunately my sheer excitement at the promise of the coming campaign got me moving earlier in the year, and for more hours per month than normal. In the end, I put the finishing touches on the final squad last night (22nd December).

To say I am thrilled would be an understatement. Having a full Battle Company is satisfying on a bone-deep nerd level.

I even painted two bonus marines. First among these was a new sergeant for Squad II, since Sergeant Lytanus was given a fatal chainfist experience by a Night Lords Terminator. I don’t kill off my characters often, but I feel it adds stakes to those who remain.

Converted Intercessor Sergeant. Credit: Charlie Brassley

The second extra marine was a sixth Eradicator to hang out with Squad IX, since three-man units do not fit conveniently in the ten-man company squads. Since he'd have to be from the reserve companies, he has the appropriate company colour on his kneepad, and a different squad number entirely. These are the lads I finished last night:

Cobalt Scions Space Marines Eradicator Squad. Credit: Charlie Brassley

Among the various additions to the Company were a number of Phobos units. I don't use transfers in this army, and there's no moulded shoulder pads for Phobos armour, so that sure did mean a bunch of freehand painting. Fortunately I've gotten used to painting the blue gauntlet (symbolising the Gauntlets of Ultramar).

Cobalt Scions Reivers. Credit: Charlie Brassley

Converted Storm Speeder Thunderstrike. Farewell, Brother Tinnitus. Hello, Impulsor turret. Credit: Charlie Brassley

Cobalt Scions Space Marines Eliminators. Credit: Charlie Brassley

With half of Squad XIII covered by the two Storm Speeder crew and three Snipers, the other half got filled up by painting some Infernus Marines:

Cobalt Scions Space Marines Infernus Squad. Credit: Charlie Brassley

Meanwhile Squad X had five Outriders in it, so filling out the other half of the squad with fast lads felt apt:

Cobalt Scions Assault Intercessors with Jump Packs. Credit: Charlie Brassley

I'll end this flood of red white and blue with a shot of my new Lieutenant. I'm pretty happy with how he came out, particularly the freehand heraldry on his pauldrons. You can see more angles on the Beard Bunker.

Cobalt Scions Space Marines Lieutenant. Credit: Charlie Brassley

Of course, in order to fight a campaign, it is only right and proper to have an interactive map (some might suggest this is overkill, those people are of course degenerates). So for my final bit of 2025 hobby, I present to you the mostly complete hive city campaign map. Tom and I haven’t quite finished making all the icons needed for his Raven Guard units, and Harvey has more place names to add, but it's basically there now.

Campaign map for Hive Massinissos. Credit: Charlie Brassley

I hope to return with more Goonhammer content in the new year. Ideally something less ambitious than a 39 page illustrated supplement. Just, I dunno, a regular article about narrative gaming. Maybe about this campaign; it's been a few years since I did a campaign log, and readers seemed to enjoy that format.

If you’ve made it to the end, I wish you a merry jingly and as enjoyable a time as is available to you. If you didn’t make it to the end, I still wish you a merry jingly and three (3) Christmas-themed phishing emails.

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Tags: Space Marines | Warhammer 40k | Charlie B | Year-in-Review | hobby round up