2011 Retrospective

This was a rough year for my hobby. I had a lot of other things going on.

In November 2010 my wife and I bought a 90 year old house and began an extensive remodel, stripping the entire interior to the framing, re-plumbing, rewiring, changing some of the layout, adding a bathroom, laying down new flooring, and replacing most of the roof. We hired a contractor, but I made daily inspections of the site until work was done in May, and of course I spent a lot of time visiting suppliers, picking out materials and finishes.

Then we took two weeks to move across town and get settled in our new place. I gave up a lot of square footage in the move, but we do live in a beautiful part of town. I spent June getting our old place ready for sale, and we were lucky enough to sell in September.

Along the way, I broke my ankle badly in February (still healing, still very painful). We also welcomed a new daughter in July.

So the point is this: I did not have nearly enough time to paint everything I wanted.

My gaming time suffered too. We lost one of our group's core when Austin moved to Arizona. Besides being a companionable guy, Austin was also centrally located, and we usually ended up meeting at his house.

The result of all this was a pretty disappointing year for my hobby. We played maybe three or four miniatures games this year, which is much lower than usual, and my painting production . . . well, it took a nose dive. Here is what I finished this year.

28mm AWI, 104 foot, 4 guns

28mm Republican Romans, 19 foot, 16 mounted

28mm ACW, 102 foot, 5 guns

15mm ACW, 111 foot

15mm Napoleonics, 122 foot

28mm Napoleonics, 92 foot

28mm Huns (for Austin), 16 mounted

28mm Carthaginians (for Glenn), 160 foot, 32 mounted

That was a total of 847 figures this year, way down from 2010 (1881 figures), 2009 (1864 figures), and 2008 (1910 figures). So I finished less than half my usual output.

For 2012 I hope to get my painting mojo back. I have a commission that should take me through to late Spring or early Summer, and another project for Austin that should take me another month or so. Once those are done, the rest of the time is all mine. My 2012 goals look like this:

1. Finish Glenn's 2nd Punic War Commission

I am just over a quarter of the way through, and I started with the toughest troops, all the irregularly clothed Carthaginian allies. Once I get into the professional core of the armies, things should pick up. Glenn will be driving to Coeur d'Alene to pick up the finished armies and play a few games with his version of the Commands and Colors rules.

2. Finish Austin's 4th century German army

I agreed to put a basic wargames paint job on Austin's Field of Glory Germans. I'll be block painting, with the only shading provided by the black primer, so this should be a quick project.

3. Finish AWI British for Bunker Hill

I got about halfway through this project in 2011, and I should be able to push through to completion by the Fall. Once the Bunker Hill army is done, I plan on adding more units using Fife and Drum figures.

4. Continue 15mm Peninsular War

I did finish some 15mm Napoleonics last year. I will continue to add British, French, Portuguese, and Spanish troops to my armies.

5. Work toward playing some 1797-1800 scenarios in 28mm

I love Eureka's Wars of the French Revolution range, and I will continue to add troops to my armies. I doubt I finish enough figures to play any scenarios during 2012, but I should make some good progress.

6. Add more figures to 15mm ACW armies

Regimental Fire and Fury may be the perfect rules set for my gaming group, and I will continue to paint Blue Moon figures to fill out my armies.

I hope you all had a good 2011, and I wish you happy gaming for 2012!