Look back on 2023

In an effort to boost my enthusiasm for the hobby I did a bit of a look back over this year. Overall on the painting front, it is the best year I have had since keeping records and by some margin. 2,581 against a previous best of 1,454 in 2013. Those 80 figure Epic battalions have certainly helped as can be seen in the breakdown, with 15mm the standout and a welcome return to probably my favourite scale.

6mm foot - 20

6mm vehicles - 12

10mm scenic/building - 12

15mm artillery - 9

15mm foot - 1947

15mm vehicles - 20

15mm mounted - 253

15mm scenic/building - 30

28mm artillery - 3

28mm foot - 216

28mm monster - 8

28mm mounted - 9

28mm scenic/building - 33

28mm vehicles - 9

So what did I paint? well it can be easily broken down into 3 distinct periods. At the start of the year I was well into my 28mm Back of Beyond and Russian Civil war collections, with a couple of big games at the club. I also interspersed these with the first 15mm in a Trojan War collection inspired by the figures from Museum miniatures. Then in July I switched over to 15mm 40k figures, courtesy of Dave and his 3d printer.

From August though my attention moved onto the English Civil War and Warlords epic scale figures. I've spent the last 4 months of the year exclusively painting up this collection. I also then had the idea of a display game at my local show for next year, The Marston Moor project was born and I'm about 75% of the way through the required figures.

So what are the plans for 2024, well more English Civil war, in particular the Scots Covenanters to Complete Marston Moor. I also have a hankering on some smaller scale WW2, Mitch has the O Group rules, they look a decent set and I have ideas for battles in North Africa. After that I have no plans, nothing new has grabbed my attention, I'll probably concentrate on expanding existing collections such as the Trojan War. No doubt attendance at one of the shows will inspire me to do something new. In the meantime I just need to get Simon's figures off the painting table and get back to stuff for me.

No doubt this will be the last post of the year, so wishing you all a Happy New Year and all the best for 2024.

Merry Christmas

 

Project Update

It has been a slow month trying to get anything done for the Marston Moor Project. Things have not been helped by a new job, which requires extra travel, the dark nights and trying to get Simon's figures done. Speaking of Simon's figures, I did get 2 more infantry regiments done and another is nearing completion. So only another 5 to do after this.

For my own project I did manage to complete the last 2 resin officers, so I can at least scratch them off the list.

Luckily I managed to pick up a bundle of painted figures from EBAy for a very reasonable price. They are from a seller I've bought from before, they match in well and just needed their bases done to match. So far I've done 4 regiments of horse, 3 officers and some commanded shotte. The first 2 regiments will actually complete Rupert's cavalry. While the commanded shotte, leaves just one more unit to do.

The other 2 regiments will be used for the Eastern Association to help Mitch replace the 2 regiments that he had damaged. That leaves him just 3 more to do.

There were also 3 officers which all had red sashes, I did think to re-paint them orange but decided to leave them as is for the Royalists.

So how is the project going so far? well here is a bit of a breakdown

Royalists

                                                        Required    Completed

Horse and Dragoons                        18                    18

Pike/Shotte + Cmd. Shotte               21                    14       

Artllery                                               5                       5

Officers                                              13                     13   

Parlaimenterians

                                                        Required    Completed

Horse and Dragoons                        17                    14

Pike/Shotte + Cmd. Shotte              13                    11       

Artllery                                              0                      0

Officers                                             9                       9           

 Scots Covenanters

                                                        Required    Completed

Horse and Dragoons                        7                     2

Pike/Shotte + Cmd. Shotte              12                   1       

Artllery                                              2                     2

Officers                                             6                      1           

So as can be seen the Royalist are just about done, just need the last 6 Pike and Shotte regiments and a commanded shotte to be done. Likewise the Parlaimentarians just need 3 horse regiments and a couple of units of commanded shotte. The bulk of the progress that's required is on the Covenanters. At least I now have all the figures that I need to complete them. I also have a few more buildings from Battlescene to complete the 2 villages and then a lot more hedges will be required, probably double what I have currently done. It's not an insurmountable challenge, but my enthusiasm is waning, I may take a little break in January before coming back to this project as I have until September to get everything done.