Friday, December 31, 2010

2010 Retrospective

2010 comes to a close, and it's time to take stock of what I've accomplished. Over the past year, I've painted the following figures:

15mm ACW, 435 foot, 15 mounted, 17 guns, 17 limbers with teams
28mm ACW, 617 foot 70 mounted, 18 guns

15mm Napoleonic Austrians, 36 foot
15mm Napoleonic British, 24 foot
15mm Napoleonic French, 36 foot
28mm Napoleonic Austrians, 6 foot
28mm Napoleonic French, 24 foot
28mm Napoleonic Prussians, 16 foot

15mm Macedonians, 45 foot, 16 horse
15mm Gauls, 32 foot
15mm Thracians, 18 foot

28mm Carthaginians, 94 foot, 35 horse
28mm Republican Romans, 80 foot

15mm WWII Soviets, 24 foot
28mm WWII British, 6 foot, 5 vehicles

In 15mm then, I painted 650 foot, 31 horse, 17 guns, and 17 limbers with teams. In 28mm I painted 843 foot, 105 mounted, 18 guns, and 5 vehicles. That's a total of 1881 figures this year, or about five figures a day all year long.

Despite that output, I don't feel like I accomplished very much this year. I did complete three large commissions and one enormous one, which funded my hobby for years to come, but I only finished one army for myself this year, my 28mm Field of Glory Carthaginians.

So in 2011 I'm going to focus on completing some armies that have been languishing away in the half-complete bins.

1. I'll start with my Republican Romans, which I've been planning and painting since Field of Glory came out. I have only another 18 foot and 16 horse left to finish it off, so I should finish by the end of January.

2. My gaming group started an American Revolution project a year ago, but we haven't been able to play a game because of a lack of British figures. I'll be buying and painting enough lobsters to play through the Bunker Hill scenario, about 150 figures. With Jon's Hessians long completed, we should be able to play quite a few 1776 scenarios as well.

3. My buddies enjoyed last month's General de Brigade game well enough to try it again, so I'll be filling out my Peninsular War armies enough to play a few 1811 scenarios on their 200th anniversary. Figure I'll be painting 400-500 figures, focusing on the British, Spanish, and Portuguese.

4. After a solid start, my 28mm ACW project has been collecting dust. I'll be painting up guns, gunners, and cavalry enough to play some Guns at Gettysburg scenarios, figure another 200 figures here. As I finish the basics, I'll be adding more infantry as well.

5. When I need a break from these projects, I'll continue adding to my 15mm ACW armies for Regimental Fire and Fury. I have 250 infantry all primed and ready.


That may seem like a lot of different projects to undertake, but I'm pretty certain that I can finish them in a year. It's only a few hundred figures, after all.

FOG Republican Romans: Triarii

With my commission complete, I can return to painting for myself. Last night I put the finishing touches on the triarii for my Field of Glory Roman army. The figures are all Crusader, shield transfers are from Little Big Men Studios, spears are from North Star, the eagle standard is from Old Glory, and bases are from Litko.


The Roman army is nearly complete. I still have 16 skirmishers, 12 cavalry, and two stands of generals to paint. I should be able to finish by the end of January without breaking a sweat.

Thursday, December 30, 2010

ACW Commission: Infantry Complete

Five weeks later, the latest commission is complete. Here are the finished units for your enjoyment.










Wednesday, December 29, 2010

ACW Commission: Union Casualties

Here are the companion casualties. Again, all the figures are from Sash and Saber.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

ACW Commission: Confederate Casualties

After some holiday related interruptions, I finished painting Glenn's Confederate casualties last night. All the miniatures are from Sash and Saber. I have quite a few of these figures myself, although mine are still bare lead, and I'm glad to see they painted up so well!


I'm planning to use the Guns at Gettysburg rules for my figures, and the rules call for individual figure casualties. I was planning on using square bases with numbers on each side to denote casualties, just as I did for my British Grenadier! Continental army, but I like the look of these round bases so well, I'm thinking of using round bases and stacking blank discs underneath to denote more casualties.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

USA WIP II

My wife took the boy out shopping this morning, and I was able to polish off the 14th Brooklyn. Figures are from Foundry's Franco-Prussian War line. Some of the uniform details were not quite right, but they look like the 14th Brooklyn to me.