New Year's Recap

For the last couple of years I've taped to my shelves, in view of where I paint, James' painting line up for the coming year, so I can keep track of projects and commissions and get a small sense of accomplishment when I cross something off.

I guess it's a plan, sort of.

This year I haven't managed to cross off a lot of things. I didn't get any progress on my 28mm ancient Romans. No new 28mm Colonial units figures painted either. No Medievals except for finishing the three witches (who weren't on my list). I did get some paint on some 28mm Russians, but then got distracted. And the less said about my piles of 15mm ancients, the better.

But I think the things I did cross off are pretty significant. Plus my focus on terrain has paid some dividends.

My Medieval village is looking pretty good now:

And finally getting a Pathan hill fort built after many years dreaming about it, was gratifying:

This even featured in some games as I start trying to learn Sharp Practice and apply it to the North West Frontier.

The blown bridge for my WW2 games was simple but dramatic and gave a nice focal point for a fun game:

The singly based orchard trees were time consuming to produce, but have filled an important gap in my terrain (seen here in a game):

The only major things left on my terrain list are getting some white fleece for winter terrain, some teddy bear fur to make wheat fields and churches; 15mm Italian, plus Norman and central European churches for WW2 and the SYW. A 28mm parish church for my Medieval figures would be nice too.

Figure wise I did make some good strides on my 15mm Fallschirmjaeger with a second rifle platoon, Company HQ platoon and some supports.

Totally unplanned was the expansion and upgrading of my 15mm WW2 Canadian armour from 2 troops to a full squadron:

Building up my SYW baggage trains was also fun:

Now I just need to get my Sherman squadron and SYW baggage into some games. I suppose getting some more Austrians painted up will help with that. But the Fallschirmjaeger have been played with and I did get a good game of Hail Caesar in during the summer with Dan.

 

Hotlead was pleasantly successful and I see it's time to start planning for Hotlead 2013.

 

Starting up J&M Miniatures was serendipitous and not part of any plan. It has taken up time but it has been a fun learning experience, and getting some toys wholesale has been nice too.

 

I was feeling rather down about this year, mainly because the past few months have been a bust gaming wise, but I see looking back over last year's blog posts that I did do a lot, even if it wasn't to a plan.

 

So I'm just going to change the date on James' Painting Line-Up and carry on trying to paint and play more. I'll keep pushing forward on the WW2 and SYW. I've got loads of SYW Austrians, plus a few more platoons of WW2 Germans and Canadians in the box. I'll try and get some Napoleonics and War of the Roses figures done as well and maybe build myself some churches.

 

I think that's enough ambition for one year.