Goonhammer Hobby Round-Up: November 2025

Turkey time is over (for the Americans, at least) and we're buckling down for that long, dark, wintery month of good cheer. What have the various hobbyists of the Goonhammer office been up to in the last four weeks?

SRM

I’m scrawling this out on my phone while half buzzed in the Portland airport, so you’re getting the True SRM Experience here.

Ultramarines Cato Sicarius. Credit: SRM

First up is Cato Sicarius; while I was late to the party for the actual model review, after a headswap I was happy to get painting this particular Ultrmarian hero. After a headswap to make him seem more like a storied veteran and less like an upstart jerk with a Macklemore haircut, I got to work. He’s a genuinely difficult model to paint - not just because details like his filigree are hard to work out and cleanly delineate, but because of how the layers of detail on this model make it physically hard to get a brush around. Ultimately I’m very happy with the end result, even if it was a bit of a headache to get there.

Ultramarines Lieutenant with Combi-Weapon. Credit: SRM

Upon seeing the new Ultramarines upgrade sprue, I knew I wanted to use this particular scarred head for the combo-weapon LT. I’ve slept on this model all edition as I’ve chiefly been focusing on Templars, and fighting nids isn’t really part of the story of my army. A quick look at my record against Tyranids with them will tell you as such. I delighted in returning to my Phobos Ultramarines scheme - drawing from the Heresy Destroyer Squad livery - but also in coming up with way too involved heraldry for this guy as well. He’s already served well, dying immediately as I don’t know how to use him yet. Still, he was an enjoyable model to paint, with plenty of new Tyranid textures for me to figure out.

Black Templars Lieutenant with Combi-Weapon. Credit: SRM

Clearly not yet done with sneaky bois for the month, I also painted a combi weapon LT for my Templars. This one is based on the Space Marine Heroes/Kill Team Eliminator, which Fowler so kindly sent my way. I wish I just painted his cloak red instead of doing the camo pattern, but verisimilitude overtook convenience just this once. He came out okay in spite of that, and I had a suitably scarred head to swap on for just such a model.

Ultramarines Apothecary Biologis. Credit: SRM

Lastly, I caught up to the red-hot meta of summer 2023 and painted an Apothecary Biologis for my Ultras. He’s in a scheme based on the 4th edition Apothecary box art, largely because I don’t want to paint a gravis model white. Call me a coward, those curvy boys have too much surface area for me to want to paint em white, and this particular one has too many extraneous details to work around. Painting behind his Instant Pot was a challenge, and I left it in my weapon casing black scheme to keep it pretty neutral. I instead wanted the focus on the model itself, hence Calgar’s helmet and the titling plate with his own unique heraldry. Hazard stripes and power weapon effects were applied to his tools, naturally, and weathering the bright yellow Pip-Boy on his wrist was a delight as well. On the table, he still hasn’t been enough to convince me that Eradicators aren’t garbage, but so it goes.

As for December, I’ve gotta crack down if I want to hit 100 models this year. I’m sure you’ll forgive me for painting an all-time annual low, but I won’t. Until then, I’ll keep huffing Macragge Blue primer.

Bair

I won't forgive you, you better hit that 100.

I really cannot believe it's nearly December already, time is not real, and this is insane. I'll write more in my year-end-review but the start of this year was as close to literal hell as I've hit in real life so far and not looking to beat that any time soon. But November was fun, I painted a few models, played some games, and built a lot of stuff that I expect to paint across December.

To start with, it was a paltry 14 models this month, and two of them are hardly even models really. I was recently given two starter warbands for Shroudfall, a very involved fantasy skirmish game, that I'm working on a review for and you'll be able to read relatively soonish so I'll talk a lot more about the models and the game there! I've managed one learning game of it so far though and it'll take a few more to fully get to grips with all of the actions and rules.

The two warbands encompass completely different aesthetics to each other, the first being what I best describe as a sort of flesh-horror-alchemist warband of freaks and the other being pandas, including red pandas, which just absolutely rules. Like the vast majority of my painting I had basically no idea how I wanted to paint these, outside of the more obvious colours, until I started putting down onto them but think they've both come out pretty well; when I'm working on smaller model count warbands I like to spend a bit more time on each model to try and paint in some texture to the cloth especially. Only when writing this, just now, did I realise I accidentally made a classic Red vs Blue scheme between these two! The red on the Umbral Veil (that's the alchemists) was to help show that they're the bad guys, I haven't read the lore yet but there's no way that these are the good guys right?

Shroudfall Umbral Veil starter warband - Credit Bair

Shroudfall Chosen of the Spirit Tree starter warband - Credit Bair

On the building front I picked up what will be my first World War Two projects at Warfare, starting with a US Infantry box from Perry (because 42 models for £25 is absurd, and they look great) and a bag of Victrix German infantry to have an opposing force. With great luck my most-frequent-gaming-buddy is also looking at starting up his first historical force and doing World War Two along with me, the aim being to play V for Victory for now. "But Bair I see metal models too!" yes I also got some Empress Minis to pad the US force out.

Perry Miniatures US Infantry - credit Bair

Victrix Late War German Infantry - credit Bair

Lastly, something very different from the rest, putting together a small project to play 10mm scaled Sword and Spear with Lenoon, I've gone for Carthaginians because they get elephants. Decided on 60x30mm bases and there will probably be articles to follow about this project. I like how neat these came together to make a perfect square with the camp at the back.

So, this puts me at 405 finished, painted, models (one base=one model) for the year of our Lord 2025 putting me at just 96 more to go to beat my all-time-high of 500 minis in a year. Good news then that I have nearly 100 models between these two World War Two projects to get me there! Let's see how it goes.

Ilor

As always, I am plugging away at various historicals projects. This month I finished off a couple of M3 "Honey" Stuarts that I assembled for last month's round-up. I did these in my usual British North Africa color scheme. As an example of a vehicle from earlier in the war, these ones were a tad excessive in the number of rivets they included. Thank the gods for Tamiya brown panel liner.

So...many...rivets!

A pair mf "Honey" Stuarts, the nickname coming from how smooth the vehicle's suspension was. Still very much an early war design, the armor was riveted rather than welded. (credit: Ilor)

I have a bunch of German and British tanks finished now (enough that I should be running games of What a Tanker), and I have some Italian tanks assembled and primed, so those will be going on the list at some point. But as always, it's hard for me to stay focused on any one project for long, so who knows when I'll get around to those.

Next up were some Victrix Dark Age Archers, the last few I needed to complete my Norman force for SAGA.

Victrix Dark Ages Archers

With the four I had already finished, these 8 fill out a complete "levy" unit in SAGA. (credit: Ilor)

I have a couple of options for how to field these guys now. I could just do a regular 12-man levy unit with all its arrowey goodness, or I could choose to field only these 8 and class them as a unit of mercenary Scouts. Mercenaries don't generate a SAGA die, but Scouts are kind of cool because they get a free Move activation every turn and treat uneven terrain as open. More importantly, they allow other units in your army to treat uneven terrain as open too. With a cavalry-heavy Norman force, being able to hide behind woods and still charge through into enemy units beyond them is pretty cool.

Victrix kits are fantastic in the number and variety of options they offer, including heads. I did this set with mostly conical caps to keep them themed with the rest of my Norman force, but there were a few options I couldn't not use. My favorite was this guy, which I painted up to be just a grizzled old tattoo-headed Viking ready to put arrows in someone:

Victrix Dark Ages Archers

"You! Yes, You! Stand still, laddie!" (credit: Ilor)

The same Victrix archers kit also has arms for slingers, so I build a couple of those too:

Victrix Dark Ages Slingers

Turns out, rocks are pretty dangerous. (credit: Ilor)

Finally, I have been working on some terrain projects. A recent sale at my FLGS netted me a deep discount on a couple of Rubicon terrain kits, including these log-rail fences. This is a nice, easy kit that looks great, paints up quickly, and can be used for a staggeringly large span of historical periods. I only have three pictured here, but the kit comes with 16 sections and 4 gates.

Victrix Dark Ages Archers

Typical archers, feeling brave so long as they are defending an obstacle! (credit: Ilor)

Now I'm off to assemble more 8th Army British infantry, filling in an extra squad that is a common support option for Chain of Command. We'll see if I can get those done in time for the next round-up!

Cronch

I painted a bunch of Stormcast, trying to make a dent in my large collection. I talked about it a bit more in my Road Through, so go check that out, but here are some photos!

Lord-Terminos. Credit: Rich Nutter

Liberators. Credit: Rich Nutter

Prosecutors. Credit: Rich Nutter

Leena Stormspire. Credit: Rich Nutter

Annihilators with Meteoric Grandhammers. Credit: Rich Nutter

Boyes

At the time of writing this, it's just hit December, and it's finally dawning on me how much my life has changed. Last year, I was halfway across the world on an adventure that lasted two years of my life, and it feels like it's been over for a decade already.

I've got a lot of feelings about that, but I'll save it for the end of year proper. These past couple months have been packed with stuff for Necromunda, my newest obsession, and I'm absolutely loving it. I've started a campaign with some great friends and we're tackling it as complete newcomers.

I'm acting as Arbitrator, and I've had a blast putting together lore posts, gang rosters and updates. It flexes those rusty DM muscles of mine and has got me eying up setting up a game of Wrath & Glory or Imperium Maledictum again...

The Champions of 'the Refused', cultists obsessed with the mysterious 'Kings in Yellow'. Credit: Josh Boyes

Bol'vuk Touchsludge, missionary of 'the Refused' Credit: Josh Boyes

Cawdor is a perfect trinity to me, mechanically, thematically, and aesthetically. I love these little freaks and their garbage guns blasting templates across the table and annoying my friends when I make that 4+ check to set their entire gang (and half my own) on fire.

I really pushed myself on these freaks, and they're not perfect (I can see all a few mistakes I left in right now in fact) but I am very proud of them. I challenged myself to not touch a single metallic paint while doing up these weirdos and I think I nailed it. I love how their guns look.

Print Minis Relic Vendor Credit: Josh Boyes

Games Workshop Rogue Doc Credit: Josh Boyes

My adventure into the underhive didn't stop with my gang either. I've already got some other imperial weirdos ready to make an appearance on the table for my friends to encounter. Both of these were done as speed challenges, which was a ridiculous idea given how long I've wanted to paint the Rogue Doc for, but I'm in love with how both of these models came together. Gryph-hound orange, my beloved, never change.

Painted by Josh Boyes

And the Underhive wouldn't feel complete without terrain. I handled a lot of these big bits but bits, bobs, and details were all handled by my friends in a massive painting session we undertook before the campaign started. It's not much, but it's a start and that's what counts.

Off-world, my Black Templar have slowed down in recent months which lines up with me playing a lot less Warhammer in general. I think fatigue got to me a bit as I was pretty much playing two times a week, minimum for about two months. I know it sounds like I'm complaining about something good, and it was mostly good, it was just a lot and I needed to do other things.

It hasn't stopped me from updating some of my Templars with some nicer details and pictures though. I'll save more for a year in review, if I get around to one, but here's some of my favourites.

Crusade Ancient 'Tark' Painted by Josh Boyes

Judiciar 'Lars' and Execrator 'Yorris' Painted by Josh Boyes

Look at that crispy crackly leather. Painted by Josh Boyes

My eyes are already set on this being a very Necromunda Christmas. I've got dreams of a Palanite Enforcer gang alongside all the new dudes they're bringing out in plastic. If you were someone on the fence about Necromunda like I was, just dive into it. Grab a gang box or a couple of weirdos and paint them up. It's well worth it.

Tags: goonhammer hobby round-up