2022, a year in review!

Now that 2023 has started, we wanted to look back at 2022 and see all that we accomplished on the blog. It is hard to believe, but we have now had the blog for a full ten years! I am happy to say we were able to maintain regular blog posts while also continuing our podcast, and weekly Twitch streaming. With this post we wanted to look at our most popular posts of the year, while also highlighting our favorite episodes of the podcast.
Most popular blog posts of 2022:

We had a total of 51 blog posts in 2022. Our most popular post was one where we built one of Paul-Friedrich von Bargen’s 3D printable Space Marines, specifically one with MKV Heresy armor. It was great to see some of his creations in person, and convert some weapons for them. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the second most popular post pertained to the revised Horus Heresy. While we had a number of posts looking at some of the newer Horus Heresy plastics, the one reviewing the plastic Deimos Pattern Rhino rose to the top. Finally, the third most popular post was one reviewing our blog’s output in 2021. This was the first post of 2022, so it had the most time to accumulate views, but it was still nice to see that people look at these review posts!

1: Paul-Friedrich von Bargen's 3D printable Space Marines (2990 views)

2: Horus Heresy: Deimos Pattern Rhino review (1605 views)

3: Between the Bolter and Me: 2021, a year in review (1616 views)

Most popular Instagram posts:

Although our year on Instagram was largely defined by Space Marines, due to the new Horus Heresy releases, our most popular post actually pertained to Mordheim! We spent the last few months of the year building and painting models for the Mordheim 2022 event. The most liked post showed a lightly converted zombie beside an ogre we created years back. The second and third most liked posts were related to Space Marines, with one showing a converted MKVI Space Marine with a smaller bolter next to a member of the Church of the Red Athenaeum. To our surprise, the third was a diminutive MKIV Dark Angel. The model was unconverted, and simply painted to be used as a scale reference for other Space Marine models. Despite the awful proportions, the paint scheme does make the model easier to accept, ha ha.

1: Zombie and Ogre (2609 likes):

2: Klaasje Akhmatova, bibliognost for the Church of the Red Athenæum next to MKVI Space Marine ( 2298 likes)

3: MKIV Space Marine (1847 likes)

Notable episodes of Dragged into Turbolasers:

Although we were not able to release an episode each month, we did record a total of 9 episodes of Dragged into Turbolasers in 2022! The episodes ranged from talking about new model releases to interviews with notable hobbyists. We think the most important episode was actually the first of the year, which had us talking to Greenstuff Gretchin about mental health and how it impacts the miniature hobby. We also had a wonderful chat with Witchhammerstudio and their experiences at Adepticon 2022. We closed out the year with an episode of the podcast talking about the Mordheim 2022 event with three of the other participants!

1. Dragged into Turbolasers Episode 91: Mental health and miniature wargaming.

2. Dragged into Turbolasers 92: Inq28 at Adepticon 2022 with Witchhammerstudio.

3. Dragged into Turbolasers Episode 97 - We go back to the City of the Damned, a Mordheim 2022 recap.

Beyond our most popular blog posts, Instagram posts, and notable podcast episodes, we want to highlight some of the other exciting things and topics we explored in 2022:

Mordheim 2022:

Coming into 2022, we had not been to a hobby gaming event since 2019. Fortunately, we were able to participate in a new event in 2022 that celebrated Mordheim! Hobbyists from all over converged in Houston, Texas to celebrate the skirmish wargame with Mordheim 2022! The level of talent and passion involved was staggering, mirroring Mordheim 2019, which celebrated the game’s 20th anniversary. Mordheim 2022 was too large to be adequately covered in a single post, as it spanned three days, and was accompanied with too many excellent people, so we separated our coverage into multiple posts. Leading up to the event, we talked to the host Bill Ford (@the_ruin.501) about the planning of the event. We also had multiple posts showing some of the models we painted and converted, including a zombie, a converted version of the 2019 promotional miniature Mad Meg, and another sinister looking Choir member. We even found an old Elf mercenary from the original Mordheim range that we painted sometime before starting this blog. After participating in the event, we wrote a small recap of it, followed by two posts about the undead games, and one about the witch hunter games. We also recorded an episode of our podcast with Bill Ford, Eric of Eric’s Hobby Workshop, and Alex of the new YouTube channel Tabletop Wizards to talk about their experiences at the event!

Tutorials:

Although we were not able to top 2021’s three weapons tutorials (an Autopistol, Autogun, and the humble Lasrifle), we still created two tutorials based on the Horus Heresy MKVI Space Marine models. The first was converting an Umbra Pattern boltgun to be smaller and more reasonably scaled in relationship to the power armor. From the same model kit, we also showed how we downsized the bolt pistol holster.


Building a Lunax7070 Space Marine:

One of our favorite hobbyists, Lunax7070, has spent the last few years building an array of Primarch-scale Space Marines from many different Chapters, ranging Iron Hands to Luna Wolves. Early this year, Lunax7070 surprised us with a stunning diorama of an Astral Claws’ Dreadnought alongside one of its power-armored brethren as a thank you for gifting him a few old Forge World books. This pushed us to convert one of the resin casts Lunax7070 had given us, which he uses to create his own true scale Space Marines. After converting each piece, we made a silicone mold of the pieces allowing us to more easily build more. Finally, we built and painted a Dark Angel from one of the resin casts! We even assembled an old 54mm Artemis model from Inquisitor to compare its scale to the Lunax7070-based Dark Angel.


Bone Forest:

In 2022, Helge Wilhelm Dahl worked with Nitri Michele to create a miniature game called Boneforest. The game was released by Hollow Press at the end of 2022. Although Ana Polanšćak, of the Gardens of Hecate fame, did the official painting for the game, Helge contacted us and asked if we would be interested in painting some of the miniatures to be displayed as alternative paint schemes for the game release! We ended up painting two models from the game, one of the Addicted (which Adam painted), and one of the Witches (which Eric painted). Both were painted in a scheme that used a lot of purples and blues, which were new to our painting repertoires. We were so enamored with the scheme that we also painted one of Ana Polanšćak Custodian Wraiths in a similar fashion. Furthermore, when we were waiting for the miniatures to arrive, we also painted one of Helge’s older sculpts, the corpulent Forest Dweller.


Horus Heresy:

After the release of Primaris Space Marines, we assumed Games Workshop would never make another traditional Space Marine model. To our surprise, Games Workshop used the release of a new edition of the Horus Heresy to redesign a traditional Space Marine in the wake of years of Primaris releases. We reviewed the MKVI Space Marine models, along with creating a tutorial for converting a smaller bolter for them. The new edition of the Horus Heresy resulted in the release of a number of vehicle kits that had previously only been resin or resin-plastic hybrid models from Forge World. This year we purchased and created impression/review posts on both the Deimos Pattern Rhino and the Leviathan Siege Dreadnought.


Dark Angels:

Over the last few years we have been slowly converting and painting a variety of Dark Angel models, the majority with true-scale in mind. This year we painted a variety of Dark Angels, most focused around the new Horus Heresy release. We began the year painting a 3D printed MKV marine created by Paul-Friedrich von Bargen. We then painted a metal MKVI marine from the Rogue Trader area alongside one from the new Horus Heresy release. To fit with the other armor variants and served as a scale reference, we also painted an unconverted MKIV marine.

Miscellaneous:

We began the year painting a selection of models created by Andrew Rae of Statuesque Miniatures. The first was a small ghost, Deirdre, from his line, the Ghosts of Yellowfield House. The second was a pair of delightful stuffed birds, the Hoodie Crows. Like last year, we again participated in chilvers_industries Olden Demon painting competition, painting a Rogue Trader era MKVI Dark Angel and an ancient sergeant model from the Death on the Reik line of models.

That is a summary of our output in 2022! This caps off ten full years of Between the Bolter and Me! All in all, it was quite a productive year (and decade!); we cannot begin to thank everyone who has followed us and supported us over all of these years. We are excited to venture into year eleven, the start of decade two (hopefully?!)! As always, never hesitate to contact us with questions or comments!

- Eric, Greg, and Adam Wier