TheChirurgeon's Road Through 2026, Part 12: Vacation Hobby

Welcome back, Dear Reader, to my ongoing blog of hobby and competitive progress through 2026. Last time around I was doing some hobby work, painting my Red Corsairs and planning Iron Warriors, and planning some downtime for my upcoming vacation. I'm happy to say that over the last week I've been on said vacation - but that doesn't mean I've been idle. Something about the idea of missing a weekly update to this column didn't sit right with me, so I went ahead and decided to pack some models and hobby supplies, knowing I'd have some time to at least build some kits.

St. Maarten

I've been to St. Maarten a few times now - my in-laws have had a timeshare there for something like 40 years now - and it's a cool enough place to visit. When we lived in New York, it was an easy trip - there are direct flights from Newark and JFK; there aren't any from Texas. Partly because the place appeals more to wealthy New Yorkers and their Miami-bound parents/grandparents, and partly because if you live in Texas, you can just go to Mexico, which is faster and cheaper (and has better guacamole). That means the flight is kind of a major pain in the ass now - we have to get up at 3am to catch a 5am flight to Atlanta, then hot foot it over to the B terminal for a 10am flight to the island.

The island itself is lovely and we've arrived about a week after the Heineken Regatta has blown through town, so most of the crowds have dispersed by the time we arrived. The last time I was here was in early 2020; in fact, the week I returned to NYC was the week travel bans for COVID were being announced, and March 2020 was the last time I set foot in the office of my old job. We had planned to go back a couple of years later, but my son got Strep and threw up the night before our flight, scuttling our plans. He was three the last time we went, so this is a big trip for him as he has very little memory of that particular trip.

This creates some interesting tensions for the trip; one the one hand, the wife and I have been here multiple times so our inclination is to hang out and drink, spend time by the pool, and eat good food. That's a bit too laid back for the boy, so we create a compromise: We plan on doing one "thing" with him every day. The goal is to make interesting and memorable experiences for him, while still getting time for us to chill and just relax.

On the first day that was heading over to the tallest mountain on the island, where they have the world's steepest zipline. My son is too short/young/light for it, but they have chairlifts which go up and down the mountain and taking those up and down is a good enough ride on its own, plus they have an innertube slide that goes halfway down which he is large enough to ride, so we take that. You can get some great views from the top of the island - including seeing clear to Anguila and St. Bart's.

The second day we hit up the airport bar, which is kind of a famous spot in St. Maarten. That's because the airport itself is right on the beach, and when planes come in, they land right there, often coming in low enough to result in some insane photos. I didn't personally grab one this year, but here's one from Shutterstock to give you a pretty good idea. It's trivially easy to take one of these yourself if you hit up the bar across from the airport. The best time to go is on a Saturday between 11am and 2pm; that's when all the flights come in.

Source: Shutterstock

On a related note: That beach itself sucks. The planes also take off from that runway, and when they fire up their engines on that end of the tarmac, they blast sand across that beach and it hurts like hell if you're caught in it.

We also hit up an aviary, did a sunset cruise, and spent time at the beach more or less every day. The island itself is fine; you can get some good food there but personally I think it's kind of overpriced for what you get, and you're always getting nickel-and-dimed for additional charges. I'd rather just hit up an all-inclusive in Mexico where I can get a similar experience and have a better idea up front about what I'm going to spend on a daily basis. The big challenge there is finding a resort that has decent food.

Hobby-wise, there's nothing on the island. Any hobbying I'm going to do is going will have to be something I bring with me. On that note, I've been talking for a awhile about Traitor Guardsmen and Accursed Cultists but never actually assembled any. For the most part, that's a matter of personal preference: I have never been a fan of cultists or traitor guard. I think they're neat, I think they deserve models, but I'm here for the Chaos Space Marines.

That said, I need these kits if I want to run Chaos Space Marines competitively, and I probably have to assemble multiples of each. So I brought one of each with me, along with some hobby tools. The basics, really: Clippers, mould line remover, hobby knife, glue, and a piece of wire to clean out the glue tube. Remember when you travel your hobby knife and glue go in the checked bag. Also: always bag your glue. Super glue in particular gets fucked up by plane air pressure and will explode if you try and open it on the plane or even afterward - be prepared for that thing to just spurt out a bunch of glue you weren't expecting.

Anyways, I don't normally hobby on vacation but I knew I was going to have some down time on this one and well, the balcony from our unit is a damn fine place to hobby, with lots of natural light.

So over the course of three separate afternoons I spent some time assembling the kits I'd brought, first the Traitor Guardsmen - who I initially gave too many special weapons - then the Accursed Cultists. The cultists themselves were fine but hoo boy I'd forgotten how weird those Torments were to assemble. I'd put together three before but dumped them onto 50mm bases, intending to use them as Chaos Spawn. I think I'm going to just go back and put them on 40s so I can use them with these for a full unit of 16 with minimal work. I also had a traitor Enforcer and Ogryn I got from my buddy Max, so I assembled them too. Here's the final haul:

Everything fit easily back into my case, meaning it all took up less space going back than it did coming down, which is a huge win in my book. Those single-layer GW cases are solid, btw, and fit more than I expected it to.

I'm not one for painting on trips unless I can borrow someone else's supplies, so they'll have to wait until we get home for a coat of primer. That said, it was nice to knock a few hours off my home hobby time and have some additional progress to write about on this trip. I find that in a given week having this blog/article series serves as great motivation to play and paint more. There have been multiple weeks where I've only played a game to have one to write about, and I'd have never brought models on vacation with me if it weren't for this series. But I'm glad to have done it because otherwise I'd have just been taking a nap or something.

Next Time: Finishing Red Corsairs

That's it for this week. By the time you read this I'll be flying back home, and then I need to get back into the process of painting my Red Corsairs and finishing that army. I have a few other things I need to do as well - odds and ends related to other armies - but the big thing is the Corsairs, of which the traitor guardsmen and Accursed Cultists are a part. Successful lists for Huron's Marauders look to be running Accursed and that makes sense given they get +1 to hit and have access to the Orders Stratagem. It's past time I bit the bullet and ran these mortal servants of Chaos.

See you next week.

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