2015 is go

And 2015's painting effort is off to a good start. My first completed unit of the year is a regiment of Ogre Warriors.



I've been working on a regiment of ogre chariots as well. The chariots themselves are done but the gores which pull them have slowed things down a little. I had hoped to get away with filling the gaps between the parts of the gore models but after applying a first coat of paint I realised that they were a little too prominent and had to crack out the green stuff. I'm also holding off building the chariot riders until the chariots and gores are completed and based.

As well as painting I did a fair bit of assembling too this weekend. With my goal of painting up my dreadball teams on my mind I decided to assemble all the miniatures to see what the task ahead looks like.



Oh my! Here they are straightened out and arranged by team:-



That's going to take a lot of time to work through. Fortunately some of the colour schemes on my existing teams are pretty simple so painting up the boosters shouldn't be too bad. Now I just need some decent weather so I can prime them all.

Painting by numbers

Out of curiosity I went back and checked on how 2014's performance matched up to previous years and here are the results:-

2008 Pass (86p vs 44b)
2009 Pass (114p vs 112b)
2010 Fail (126p)
2011 Fail (156p)
2012 Fail (118p vs 144b)
2013 Fail (286p)
2014 Pass (292p)

2014 Has the highest painting total since records began - over three times the total I managed in 2008 when I started my blog. I also spotted a comment about learning to speed paint in 2013 which would appear to be true from the way I managed to paint almost double my previous highest total in that year.

I wonder if I will be able to beat 292 this year and maybe pass the 300 mark?

And I'm also astounded to realise that I have painted almost 1200 miniatures in the past 6 years, wow!

2015 - Objective Acquired

With the success of 2014 still providing me with a warm glow to drive away the winter chill it is time to start looking forward and deciding which projects to progress in 2015.

Total - last year's 292 minis was a pretty respectable total all things considered. If I can manage to get close to this in 2015 I will be happy.

Dreadball
By the end of the year I would like to have painted up all my Dreadball miniatures. I currently own 12 teams and have 6 painted and playable teams. Of course being and enthusiast I heavily backed the kickstarter so I ended up with a load more minis for my painted teams as well (alternate poses and prones) so this goal doesn't just cover painting up 6 teams but also includes the extra minis for the 6 existing teams, MVPs and giants so there is a fail bit to do here. If I succeed I will have seasons 1-3 all done and as yet I have no plans to buy anything from season 4 onwards (yet).

Deadzone
I have a stack of unpainted Deadzone and a load mroe sue to be dropped off by the postman any time soon. Despite this I will set a modest target of getting 1 more faction painted up over the course of the year. Hopefully I will get a lot more done than just that but I'm not going to push things.

Ogres
I would like to have my KoW Ogre army ready to use in a fairly short time scale. Ideally Q1 but no later than Q2.

Dwarves
It would be nice to finally get my Dwarf army playable but I'm not holding out much hope really.

Paint-a-longs
I am aiming to join in as many of the paint-a-longs on the Random Platypus forum as I can although I probably won't be buying miniatures specifically to do this.
http://randomplatypus.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1222

Purchases
I am aiming to keep the number of purchases down for 2015 and only but things to plug gaps in existing armies rather than starting new projects. The KoW2 Kickstarter will be delivering me a whole lot of metal but outside that I will be trying not to buy much.

Well that's a lot to be getting on with but considering I managed to paint all those minis in 2014 and a city's worth of terrain it might be possible - we will have to see how things go.

The scale of the problem (2015 edition)

As is tradition, here is a glimpse of what still remains in the lead pile. 2014 saw some major successes with no fewer that 4 projects reaching that elusive completed status.

28mm Scale Projects

Orcs and Goblins
System: KoW
Status: Several hundred figures painted, some more in the lead pile
Comments: No progress during 2014.

Kingdoms of Men/Basileans
System: KoW
Status: 18 knights started, about 100 more models unpainted.
Comments: No progress during 2014.

Dwarfs
System: KoW
Status: 80% unpainted, about 150-200 models in total.
Comments: A handful of models painted during 2014 - still waiting for the big breakthrough.

High Elves
System: KoW
Status: Mostly painted
Comments: No progress during 2014.

Undead
System: KoW
Status: Completed
Comments: Project completed - I painted up the last few units at the beginning of the year - there are a few stragglers but that's about it.

Ogres
System: KoW
Status: New for 2014
Comments: At the beginning of the year I had a few ogres in the unpainted pile from the first Kings of War Kickstarter campaign. I won an army set in October which turned this into a fully fledged army project. Currently about a third of my initial goal are painted but the army might end up growing further.


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

DreadBall Teams
System: DreadBall
Status: 6 teams painted out of 12
Comments: No painting progress but I picked up a couple more teams.

Dead Zone
System: Dead Zone
Status: 1 faction starter done
Comments: First miniatures painted right at the end of 2014. I need to put some effort in here so I can actually play the game.

SWAT teams and Criminals
System: Officer Down!
Status: Completed.
Comments: This year's big success story - not only have I painted all the miniatures (including the ones I bought to expand the factions) but I now also have an entire city's worth of painted terrain.



Modern Zombies
System: And Stay Down!
Status: Completed (66 miniatures).
Comments: Another success story - started and completed in time for the Halloween special.

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 2014 - the year's additions have been outweighed by the ones I have painted..


10/15mm Scale Projects

Aliens and Marines,
System: Xenomorph
Status: Completed
Comments: Another project completed during 2014.

High Elves, Undead, Dark Elves, Mongols, Later Muslim Indian, Later Achmeneid Persian
Systems: DBA, HOTT etc
Status: No progress during 2014.

Well that was 2014, how was it for you?

And as the new year dawns is it time to show off the last few miniatures painted up during 2014. Firstly some old Marauder Miniatures ogres and some really old Chronicle Miniatures ogres which I recently re-discovered after they were shipped off into storage about 10 years ago. After a quick bath in biostrip I have put fresh paint jobs on old lead.



I'm quite happy with how these turned out.

Next up some more modern Mantic ogres. This leaved me on just under a third of the initial ogre army project completed.



And lastly my Deadzone Plague starter which I painted up in a flash of inspiration. Now I need to do another faction starter so I can get some games in.



So what was 2014's total? With that last batch of miniatures painted up I achieved a grand total of 292 miniature equivalents painted up (ogre sized minis count as 2, smaller miniatures count as less than 1). For me that is a lot of miniatures and I am very happy with it.

So what about purchases? Even with the last minute purchase of a couple more season 3 Dreadball teams I am still in surplus! I'm not exactly sure how much by as I have not opened all the Deadzone packages from the second shipment yet but I'm sure there are fewer than surplus of 111 miniatures I have at the moment which means ...

2014 was a WIN for the wargamer's pledge! (cue fireworks)

As one door closes another opens

Well after basking in the warm afterglow of a completed project it didn't take too long for me to find another windmill to tilt at.

Back in October I went to the Clash of Kings Kings of War tournament having hardly played KoW all year. I didn't expect to do well and was very surprised to come 2nd. As a prize I got a Mantic ogre army set which means I will now be painting up an ogre army for KoW.

I had some ogres from the first Kings of War Kickstarter and I bought a few more models (more warriors, some chariots and some command models) to round out the army and off I set.

After working out a colour scheme I had a complete tidy of my workbench and kept only the paints and paint brushes required for this project. This has speeded things up can cut down the amount of time I usually spend hunting for the right paint and remembering which colours to use.



And here are the first fruits of the project - a units of ogre warriors:-



And a unit of ogre shooters:-



Next up some more warriors and shooters hopefully followed by some more interesting stuff.

Another milestone

And with another flourish of the brush I have completed another four miniatures. Here we have three Britannia Miniatures Somalis and a Russian officer from TAG. The TAG miniature was a freebie when I placed an order with them earlier in the year (they are nice like that). The Somalis date back to the origins of the project in 2004(ish) - I bought them to add some more assault rifles to the criminal gangs but they don't really fit. I'm not sure what I'll do with them but they are painted at least.



These represent a milestone as I have now painted up every last miniature I have purchased for my Officer Down project. That means the project is complete at last ... until I succumb to temptation and buy some more miniatures.

Now to clear a few more things off my work bench and then who knows, Deadzone maybe?