I'm not sure yet if I want to make this year's army a public process or not. The Eldar were given a blog treatment but the pirates were 100% under wraps. I did enjoy blogging the progress and I'm not sure keeping the pirates quiet really added any surprise. I will be thinking it over during the holidays, leaning towards a blog as it is very conversion intensive.
Realizing how long I have waited to start (Pirates were all done but paint in September last time) I went ahead and ordered everything. Forge World took the biggest chunk, but between that, regular GW kits, conversion bits and Plastruct materials it hit four digits rather quickly...which hurt but it's always worth it and a one time cost. However models, bits and accessories are one of the few things I enjoy buying. Rent, food etc....that's no fun :) The size of the overall army also adds to the cost. The pirate list was rather small. This one is very big, and there are two models for every one in the list (modelled vehicle riders.)
Also one thing that is very different this year - I bought everything before making a list. I usually make a competitive list and try and model around it. This time I am making a list around all the models I love. It still won't be bad on the table, I chose things that tend to be good anyway, but the Codex is a good one and there arent a lot of bad choices. The only thing it definitely will be hurt on is kill points.
For giggles I did go ahead and make a rough list in army builder today. It was a bit short so I had to duplicate a troop unit (but that never hurts anyway) and add a model I should have included in the first place anyway.
None of this makes any sense I am sure since the army isn't revealed, but that's another point in favor of posting progress :)
