Saturday 31 December 2016

The Year in Review


So another year has ticked by and what hectic year it has been too. Work has been a constant round of travel, three major work projects completed, restructures and the some serious stress. I am so pleased to have this wonderful hobby to allow myself to drift away at times to preserve some sanity. 

Before I get on with the wrap up for the year, below are a few images of the final unit in the British Auxiliary Legion, the lancers. 






With the completion of this unit, the First Carlist War project is closed out. I have completed everything I set out to finish: the Carlists, the Isabelinos, the French Foreign Legion and the British Auxiliary Legion. The entire project, 630 Foot Figures,105 Mounted Figures and 13 Guns or Equipment, has been completed in just seven months.

That makes two significant gaming projects completed this year: The First Carlist War and the Crimean War armies.

By mid-year it was obvious that this shaping up to be my busiest hobby year for some time. It wasn’t intentional. I actually expected it to be quieter than 2015 because I had no big new projects planned.
 
However, I underestimated just how many Crimean War figures I needed to complete for the great game that was planned for, and played, in October.
 
Then I decided to start the Russian Napoleonic army, punching through five packets of Perry Miniatures plastics in a short space of time.
 
At the same I decided to have a bit of a dabble with the First Carlist War, originally envisaging just a few units built up over the second half of the year. And then Brexit came along and the pound lost 30 percent against the NZ dollar and I decided to accelerate the my plan, so much so that it is completed as detailed above.
 
And then there were a few buildings.

Finally I added a few Retreat from Moscow figures from the Perry Miniatures range.
 
So onto the final count.
 
Crimean War Project
  773 Foot Figures
  97 Mounted Figures
  19 Guns
  5025 Total Painting Points
 
Franco-Prussian War Additions
  22 Foot Figures
  7 Mounted Figures
  180 Total Painting Points
 
Napoleonic Russian Project
  132 Foot Figures
  3 Mounted Figures
  690 Total Painting Points
 
Carlist War Project
  630 Foot Figures
  105 Mounted Figures
  13 Guns or Equipment
  4330 Total Painting Points
 
Retreat from Moscow
  54 Foot Figures
  20 Mounted Figures
  5 Pieces of Equipment
  Total Painting Points
 
Scenic Items
  6 Pieces
  1360 Painting Points
 
Grand Total 
  1611 Foot Figures
  232 Mounted Figures  
  39 Guns or Equipment
  6 Pieces of Scenery
  12125 Total Painting Points

To illustrate the breakdown a few graphs. 




When I look back this level probably is lower than that of the late 1980’s – early 1990’s. Back in those days, when I was involved in Military Miniatures and we ran those wargames weekends in our wargames room, I had a huge output. I can recall at one point pumping out 36 battalions each of 24 figures of 25mm French line infantry in two months. At my most productive, when I was working on the Franco-Prussian armies, I can recall consistently completing a Prussian infantry battalion of 28 figures in a day. But those were very different times.

I know I said the same this time last year, but next year WILL be a smaller year. The projects will be limited to:

* War of 1812 (new project)
* WWI in East Africa (completion of an existing project)
* Russian Napoleonics (completion of an existing project)
* Spanish buildings for the First Carlist War and Spanish Civil War (new project)
* Some Retreat from Moscow figures (completion of an existing project)

On the games front, twenty-three games were played across twelve distinct periods that included; Dark Ages, Wars of the Roses, English Civil War, Seven Years War, American War of Independence, Napoleonic, Crimean War, Colonial, Ironclads, WWI, WWII and Modern.

I want to play more games in 2017.

8 comments:

  1. This cavalry is amazing! Happy New Year Mark...

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  2. A great post Mark.
    Always interesting to see how others have got on - This was quite a year for you.
    I look forward to see what 2017 brings.
    All the best.
    Stu

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    1. Thanks Stu. This year really must be less...storage space is becoming an issue.

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  3. Amazing effort and something to aim for! ;) Thanks Mark.

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    1. I freely admit that I got a bit obsessive last year about completeing projects before year's end. This year will not be as productive, maybe around the 800 level - I am running out of storage space!

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  4. What an absolute machine ! Wish I lived across the ditch, I would love to play games with your wonderful collection!

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    1. Thanks. Oddly I am managing to keep a pace with last year, although the lead pile is almost exhausted and replenishment will be slow.

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