End of Year Round-up

For reasons too trivial to go into, I track my progress painting models and building terrain for wargames on the basis of a year that starts on 1st September and ends on 31st August. This year has been pretty damned productive, though I do say so myself.

I keep a diary of items bought and items painted sorted out into broad categories. I try to always be in credit, as it were, in each category at the end of each year. This year the category totals were as follows:

Buildings/terrain models

Built/painted 35, bought new 4, net progress +31

The building of models for Mexican and Woebetides Sharp Practice games has been a focus this year.  

I also completed the portable battlefield for the Lützen let's-have-a-game-we-can-play-down-the-pub game just in time for a nationwide closure of pubs!

On a similar basis I completed 9 game markers and stands of various kinds (against none purchased all year).

6mm vehicles 

Built/painted 14, bought new 4, net progress +10

In previous years 6mm vehicles were a major focus but this year the only real attention they got was the brief flirtation with Future War commander in July-August. I bought and painted a single pack of Baccus grav tanks before we deiced 6mm FWC didn't work for us as a game-by-Skype.

6mm figure units

Built/painted 45, bought new 27, net progress +18

The 27 new units' worth of figures are some Baccus scifi chaps I bought at the end of June whereas the painted units were mostly Catholics and Swedes for Lützen, bought before and painted shortly after the start of the wargaming year.

6mm aircraft

Built/painted 3, bought new 0, net progress +3

Future war Commander models again! My two gunships were converted from very old, and not very authentically sculpted, Hind gunships I'd acquired years ago in a cheap eBay assortment of 1/300th scale models. Likewise the delta-winged strike aircraft that appeared a couple of times with the government forces in our Pynchan games was a cheap, polythene model that came out of a Christmas cracker years ago.

15mm figures

Built/painted 4, bought new 0, net progress +4

15mm really isn't my scale. I have a few figures left over from long ago but I've no plans to add any more. I did however, rebase (yet again) my 15mm Samurai this year.  This time it was for The Pikeman's Lament. A few unpainted figures got done in the progress.

20mm figures

Built/painted 20, bought new 0, net progress +20

This is a real surprise. In previous years 20mm scale has been a real focus for me. I blame the Too Fat Lardies community for showing me so many really nice 28m figures this last couple of years.  My minor production of 20mm figures this year was to finish off some Eighth Army Indian troops that had been sitting in storage for years.

20mm guns/vehicles

Built/painted 2, bought new 1, net progress +1

Hardly worth talking about. I finished an Eighth Army 3.7" Howitzer to go with the Indians and bought and painted a Zvezda Russian 76mm infantry gun.

20mm aircraft

Built/painted 2, bought new 1, net progress +1

I dug out of storage and built a DFS-230 glider for the Incident at Fearnley Whittingstall game at Christmas last year. 

I also bought a De Havilland Vampire kit, which I'm counting here though to be honest it was just bought to while away the hours while my Mum was in hospital and I was stuck on my own at here house. I'll probably finish it one day.

28mm guns/vehicles

Built/painted 4, bought new 2, net progress +2

A couple of vehicles for the Woebetides and a pair of pulp-era vehicles got finished this year. I was particularly pleased with my home-made artillery limber.

28mm figures

Built/painted 213, bought new 200, net progress +13

And finally 28mm figures. Oh this is what I've been doing with my time all year!  I haven't reduced the unpainted figure pile by much but 213 figures completed is no small matter. 

Plastic figures and the smaller forces required for large-skirmish games like Sharp Practice and Lion Rampant have played a huge role in making 28mm an affordable scale for me in recent years. The smaller number of figures needed and a willingness to accept "wargaming standard" painting have also helped make getting a force "finished" in a reasonable time a realistic prospect.

In terms of productivity, I had rather slowed down in the last month or so but in the last few days I've suddenly had a craving to paint late WW2 Germans in 20mm scale. Look out for pictures soon.