Monday 3 January 2022

2021 in review

As is tradition, now is the time to reflect on the year that we just left, and look forward to the next one. Last year was a burning trash pile for a lot of people, so any happiness we managed to achieve can only be a good thing and should be celebrated.


Tally:

Thanks to a last minute Hail Mary at the end of the year, I managed to up my numbers at the last moment to get a final total of:

52 vs 36 = +16

Which will also knock a couple of things off of the Challenge, ending up in the positive as well despite my family gifting me miniatures for Christmas, as we’ll see later!

Adding to last year’s decade worth of stats, we have this updated graph:

(I know, I couldn’t for the life of me remember where I’d managed to make the graph last year so that’s why this one looks so different).

I feel like I’ve hit my rhythm in recent years, generally wheezing and flailing over the finish line with around 50 minis finished. Alas, this isn’t my only hobby, so I’m not as productive as some of the amazing painters out there (many of whom have commented in their end of year roundups how unproductive they were last year, only finishing 300+ miniatures), but in 30 years or so I might have a finished mass battle army…


Posts:

40 posts last year, so one of my more prolific posting years! Breaking the Rangers of Shadow Deep project into little chunks might have had something to do with that, as does Zomtober participation.


Last Year's Challenge:

  • Finish something old
  • Finish a piece of terrain
  • Finish some scatter terrain (3/3)
  • Prep all of the monkeys in the monkey box
  • Paint all of the miniatures in a boxed game
  • Play a game with fully painted miniatures
  • Finish a complete skirmish force for a project (at least 16 miniatures, unless it's for a much smaller scale game like Frostgrave)
  • Repaint something (either a miniature that I have previously painted, or one that was received painted
  • Convert a miniature and show WIP pics
  • Finish the last member of the Nextwave team
  • Complete the classes project (and when I do that, start a project to have painted miniatures to represent all of the Races in the Players Handbook)
  • Add at least 3 entries to the Monstrous Alphabet Project (3/3)
  • Average at least a miniature a week by the end of the year (so, paint 52 miniatures)
  • End the year with the Tally in the positive!

Again, one of my more successful years! Even though the Challenge isn’t something I beat myself up over not completing, it’s still nice to tick some things off every now and again. There were a couple of other things that I was planning on knocking off too, but life got in the way - I stripped an old mini to repaint, and managed to put a single layer of paint on the last member of Nextwave…

Projects (according to the last end of year post):

Rangers of Shadow Deep

I played an actual game, for the first time in ages! This was the project that while it took about a year longer than originally planned, I stuck with, presumably due to my love of a checklist. 


Frostgrave

I’ve made a start on my warband, and painted the horrible monster needed for the first solo scenario I plan to play.


Stargrave

I painted a robot! Not much else though, this project is a bit further down the priority list than Frostgrave and Rangers.


Blackstone Fortress

I painted a Jokaero that is technically for this, since I wanted to paint it rather than for this project, if that makes sense. Dead project for the foreseeable I think…


Mordheim

Nothing this year. Which is odd, as I find myself thinking about it a bunch, yet that never seems to translate into actual painting…


A Song of Ice and Fire

Nothing this year. There are various bits under coated, but they never seemed to find their way to the front of the queue.


Japanese Fantasy

Again, multiple things undercoated. The first three figures for this project have been sat on my painting tile for the majority of the year, but I think I’m a bit paralysed by not wanting to mess them up! 


The Witcher

As is becoming a recurring theme, some miniatures got prepped and undercoated, but didn’t get any further.


Zombies

I did Zomtober, as I had pledged, and will hopefully continue to do so forever


Star Wars

May the Fourth got an outing, but nothing since…


Dungeons & Dragons

I suddenly realised while writing this post, my eleventh hour painting of some Wraiths actually completes another entry on the Monstrous Alphabet!

A is for
B is for
C is for Carrion Crawler
D is for
E is for Elemental (More than one)
F is for Flameskull
G is for Goblin
H is for
I is for
J is for
K is for
L is for Lich
M is for Mind FlayerMyconidMummy
N is for
O is for Owlbear
P is for Purple Worm
Q is for
R is for
S is for Shambling MoundScarecrowSkeleton
T is for
U is for
V is for
W is for Wraith
X is for
Y is for
Z is for Zombie

This is the project that I’m constantly pulling minis out of the basement for, at the risk of collapsing my painting tile under the weight of things joining the queue!


Back burner:

40k - the aforementioned Jokaero. One day I’ll have an Inquisitorial warband, one day…

Cyberpunk - nope

Zona Alfa - nada

Mass Effect - I didn’t get the remastered video game (and who am I kidding, it’s not that I’d have had time to play it anyway) so my 

Rise of the Planet of the Apes - Despite this largely being a long-running joke at this point, I did actually do some more prep on the contents of the monkey box…


2022 Projects:

Someone pointed out that my list of projects was somewhat unwieldy, which is not untrue. On the other hand, I like having a bunch of different options to suit whatever mood I’m in when the urge to paint hits, rather than trying to force myself to focus on just one thing regardless of how my motivation lands. Bearing that in mind, I’m going to set out a somewhat reduced suite of projects for 2022, with the disclaimer that I may well still just paint whatever I fancy.


Rangers of Shadow Deep


I need to make some nest trees (the parts for which are currently scrubbed and waiting to be assembled) and some webbed victims, then I’m good to go to play the second scenario!


Frostgrave


Just the rest of the warband to paint, and maybe some more generic fantasy ruins to make and I’m good to go for some solo play. I probably don’t even need to paint the whole warband, as you only take a couple of members in Dark Alchemy, but I’d probably want to have them all finished so that I can have my pick of the whole warband. I’ve also got a mini picked out for my Captain, that I kind of want to paint now despite not actually needing her yet…


Silver Bayonet


So, a new project that I have no minis or terrain for? Well, some generic terrain will cross over, as will some monsters. My wife got me some Perry Rifle Command, and I’ve got some odds and ends that I should be able to wrestle into a usable unit. In other news, I’m now having to resist the urge to buy an entire Napoleonic army, knowing full well that I’d never finish painting it, but they just look so good…


Japanese Fantasy


Not at the top of the priority pile this year, but I would like to paint something for it… I’ve also been very good and not just treated myself to a bunch of new models for this project, despite how many cool minis exist (looking at you Yuurei from Rising Sun), just in case my wife is reading this.


Star Wars



I’ll do May the Fourth, at the very least. 


Zombies


Zombies, the one time a year where I am able to maintain a consistent posting schedule, long may it reign!


Warhammer



I know, I know, I’m sworn off GW currently, but I’d also like to work on my Skaven army having challenged some chums to a painting challenge in preparation for the release of Warhammer The Old World. The challenge is to paint 500 points of square based Warhammer, and currently I am winning, having painted 2 points worth of Skaven.


Next Year’s Challenge:

  • Finish something years old
  • Finish some terrain (0/3)
  • Prep all of the monkeys in the monkey box (I mean it wouldn’t be a Challenge without this eternal listing)
  • Play a game with fully painted miniatures
  • Finish a complete skirmish force for a project (at least 16 miniatures, unless it's for a much smaller scale game like Frostgrave)
  • Repaint something (either a miniature that I have previously painted, or one that was received painted
  • Convert a miniature and show WIP pics
  • Finish the last member of the Nextwave team
  • Complete the project to have painted miniatures to represent all of the Races in the 5e D&D Players Handbook
  • Add at least 3 entries to the Monstrous Alphabet Project
  • Average at least a miniature a week by the end of the year (so, paint 52 miniatures)
  • End the year with the Tally in the positive!

And we’ll see how well I did in a year’s time!


1 comment:

  1. Very good output for the year, if it's an increase on previous years you've done well.
    Hope you achieve your goals for the year.

    ReplyDelete