Race to the finish

It is often good to have something to work towards and I've been thinking of setting myself some hobby objectives for 2016. After last year's record breaking (for me) painted pile I would like to break the 300 barrier once again as I've proved I can do it already. Of course painting more than 300 would be a bonus but we will have to see how things go.

I've stated elsewhere that I don't want to start any new projects this year and I am going to try and stick with that. It is always tempting to get carried away with enthusiasm when something new comes along but I am going to try and work hard to resist it this year.

As a nice balance to the previous point I would like to try and make 2016 the year of completing(*) things. I have had a bit of a rummage through the lead pile and I think that it is entirely possible that I might be able to complete some of my army projects this year if I apply myself. My Elves, Goblins and Orcs all have a dwindling presence in my lead pile and combined check in at fewer than 300 miniatures, looks doable.

Of course past experience tells me that my attention span can be a little short and my mind can wander like a butterfly but I can at least give it a try.

(*) Of course every gamer knows that an army is never actually "complete" or "finished". All you can really do is paint up what you own and wait for the next unit to arrive.

What a shambles!

2016 continues to go well on the painting front but we all need that extra injection of enthusiasm and urgency now and again. From a painting perspective I usually get that from signing up for tournaments and deciding to take a new army build - and that is exactly what I have just done. Daniel and I discussed signing up for the Winter Crown KoW tournament over in Doncaster coming up this Sunday so I started playing around with lists. I picked an Elf army which included the Forest Shamblers which have been starring at me from the workbench for a few months which meant it was time to get busy once again.

The forest shamblers are metal miniatures from Mantic funded during their second KoW Kickstarter campaign. They are lovely castings with the slight reservation that there are one or two million vent holes which need trimming off. As usual I missed several during assembly and priming and ended up sorting them out during the painting process. Ooops. They paint up really quickly and I more or less bashed these out over the course of three of four days.

And whilst I was painting forest colours I decided to tackle The Green Lady - a KoW Living Legend also produced by Mantic. This one has been sitting around since the first KoW Kickstarter so it was about time so got a coat of paint.

And for some context here are some shots of the new miniatures amongst the other woodland gribblies I have painted up for my KoW elves. Most of these will be coming with me to Doncaster on Sunday if I stick with my original list choice.

Elsewhere on my workbench are a few more characters for my elf army as well as other assorted elf bits, including one with wings. If things carry on at this pace then the elves will have had a significant upgrade by the end of the month.

2016 is go

Over the last few days I've been plugging away at some more palace guard when my health has allowed and my persistence has borne fruit. I've now finished every last one of them.

Here's the new unit of halberdiers all together.

And again along with the ones I had complete prior to the start of the year.

And that's not all I managed to finish off this morning. Here's a new elf chariot made from the Mantic Basilean Panther Chariot kit.

And again with the GW ones I painted ages ago to make up a chariot regiment.

So the scores are now 31 painted and 0 bought. Next up should be some Mantic Forest Shamblers which will further expand the elf army.

The Scale of the Problem (2016 edition)

As is tradition, here is a glimpse of what still remains in the lead pile

28mm Scale Projects

Orcs
System: KoW
Status: Lots of figures painted, many more in the lead pile
Comments: No progress during 2015 and only one minor addition in the shape of a war drum.

Goblins
System: KoW
Status: Lots of figures painted, the lead pile is now considerably diminished
Comments: 2015 saw a decent expansion to my goblin army with various bits being finished or refurbished. The lead pile is now only about 60 miniatures strong
 
Kingdoms of Men/Basileans
System: KoW
Status: 18 knights started, about 100 more models unpainted.
Comments: No progress during 2015.

Dwarfs
System: KoW
Status: 80% unpainted, about 150-250 models in total.
Comments: No progress during 2015, 40 or so miniatures added. (oops)

High Elves
System: KoW
Status: Mostly painted
Comments: Late 2015 push added some units to the army.

Undead
System: KoW
Status: Mostly painted
Comments: No progress during 2015 but not much left to do.

Ogres
System: KoW
Status: 40% done
Comments: Loads painted during 2015 but still more to do.


Blood Angels
System: Warhammer 40K
Status: Mostly finished.
Comments: Over 2500 points + options available for use. Gathering dust.

DreadBall Teams
System: DreadBall
Status: 8 teams painted out of 12
Comments: Two more teams completed during 2015.

Dead Zone
System: Dead Zone
Status: 1 faction starter done
Comments: No progress during 2015.

SWAT teams and Criminals
System: Officer Down!
Status: Completed (well almost).
Comments: 1 miniature bought during 2015 remains unpainted.

RPG miniatures
System: D&D etc
Status: Lots painted - lots still to do.
Comments: I've been chipping away at these over the course of 2015 - the year's additions have been outweighed by the ones I have painted..


10/15mm Scale Projects


High Elves, Undead, Dark Elves, Mongols, Later Muslim Indian, Later Achmeneid Persian
Systems: DBA, HOTT etc
Status: No progress during 2015.

The final lap

As 2015 drew to a close things were not looking so good. At the beginning of the year I had set myself the target of painting over 300 miniatures (28mmEQ) during the course of the year. Unfortunately for me going into the last week of December I was stuck on 272 and hadn't been able to pick up a paint brush for weeks as my PNKD had been really bad.

So it looked like it was time for some heroics. I had a few things part painted on my workbench which I hadn't been able to complete so I got stuck in.

First up some Mantic elf spear men I bought these ages ago in the Hobbycraft sale and with the new version of KoW out I decided to bolster my army a bit. I also wanted to try and simplify my original paint scheme for these chaps and use only one wash instead of two. I think the end result looks pretty much the same and it takes a lot less time so that works for me.



Next up some Reaper Bones miniatures painted to bolster the bad guys contingent in my D&D collection.



And after a frantic day with the brushes I tallied up and realised that I was now on 296 - just four agonising miniatures short of the total.

So on New Year's Eve I picked up my brushes again and carried on.

HF's Sir Olwyn has been sitting on my workbench for a so was reasonably quick to finish off.



A couple more bones to bolster the bad guys.



And that left me on 299 and running out of things to finish quickly. Instead I grabbed some Mantic Palace Guard and threw some paint on them.



So with the year almost over I crossed the line in style bringing the total to 304. Awesome!

So how did I do on the pledge?

Total Painted 304
Total Bought  193
Balance  111


Meaning that 2015 was a WIN for the wargamers pledge for the second year in a row.


And if anyone is interested the actual number of miniatures painted this year ignoring the weighting system (e.g. 2 for cavalry, 6 for a chariot etc) was 207 which is still pretty decent. Now to catch my breath and make some plans for 2016.