In this end-of-year chaos episode, I’m joined by Jeff, Ross, and Patrick for the Painting Phase awards… which are, as always, infamous and definitely not pointless. We kick off with Secret Santa, and it immediately goes off the rails: Element Games “element crystals” get weaponised, charity shop treasure-hunting becomes a full-on sport, and I end up staring down a box stuffed with the kind of absolute nonsense that somehow becomes genuinely useful (and mildly traumatic) at the same time. After that, we get into the actual roundup: best 40K mini, best AoS mini, and then the big ones—worst tactical rock and best tactical rock of 2024. It’s a lot of honest hobby chat: what impressed me, what felt a bit “meh,” and where I think releases have been giving with one hand and taking away with the other (especially when it’s upgrade sprues and what you lose compared to older kits). The big takeaway is pretty simple: I’m still here for great sculpts that feel dynamic and fun to paint (Kroot Rampagers absolutely did it for me), and I’m still going to call it how I see it when something feels like less value or less choice. Also: yes, this episode is 100% sponsored by jam.