2015 in Review

I have been inspired by a number of other blogs to review the year that was.  I particularly like the ideas as it will be a nice reminder for me of what I did during the year to look back on.

So how did the Lead Mountain survive the year.......

This post will be about what I got up to during the year from a hobby perspective.  I will follow it with another one in a few days on the plans for the coming year.

Games

While I get great enjoyment from painting and modelling, at the end of the day it is when we put the armies out on the table that it all comes to life.

I have been very lucky over the past few years to meet a great group of gentlemen (well almost all are) through the Goulburn Valiant Stormers.  This has led me into many new fields - I knew nothing of ancients until two years ago as an example.  It has also led me to the wonderful Impetus rules when I was first introduced to them by Richard and Ralph.

So gaming this year has largely centred around the club where we have played a number of Impetus games - I am particularly taken by this photo that was taken so wonderfully by David H.  It shows various units from my Italian Wars collection on the attack.

We also competed in three Impetus comps - Cancon, Wintercon and MOAB.  Each of these run over a weekend and the fun of the table is almost exceeded by the laughs over lunch and dinner.

I was also lucky enough to play with Ralph's large and wonderful collection of 15mm Thirty Years War as a playtest for the new Baroque rule set that is coming early this year.  We are really looking forward to it.

There have also been a few games of 20mm WWII using RapidFire - especially the Golden Monty weekend organised by Chris K.

Inventory

During the year I have walked down a path that some would say can only lead to madness. 

I spent a considerable amount of time creating an inventory of all my unpainted lead, plastic and resin. 

Many of you will say I am mad and what a waste of time - but it has already saved my a few hundred dollars where I was about to pounce on a sale but chose to check the inventory first to discover that I already had the items about to be purchased.

So what follows are two graphs showing the percentages of my unpainted pile by period - one based on actual figures regardless of scale and one based on an adjusted count of 'painting points'.  For this purpose I am using the point system from the Analogue Hobbies Paint site.

 

 

The WWII will probably always be the core of my collections and effort.  But the Ancients, Renaissance and SYW are collections that I have started over the past three years.

When I said that I had inventoried all of my unpainted stock I meant almost all of it - noticeable absences are my 6mm and 28mm Napoleonic projects and some 1/1200 and 1/2400th scale naval projects.

I'm sure the more astute among you will have noticed that I have shown percentages and not actual numbers of figures - let's just say there are lots.

Painting

In addition to the inventory, I have started to record what I have painted by year.  My inspiration for this came directly from the six monthly reviews that I look forward to reading on Jonathan's wonderful Palouse Wargaming Journal.  I have to say that in this regard I have unashamedly copied the style / content of his graphs.

I have been painting figures since 1980 in a serious fashion - not counting the various Airfix ones done prior to that.  My first projects were Modern and WWII 1/300 micro armour which moved onto the wonderful 6mm / 8mm Adler Napoleonics.  While I have all these painted units and occasionally get them out - I have no record of when I painted what. 

As a consequence, my records largely follow this blog and the records that were kept through my participation in the regular painting challenges on The Guild forum - but unfortunately they only start in 2010.

The first graph shows painting by year by period based on an actual figure count. 

 

While the next graph shows the actual figures adjusted using the Analogue points.

You can see the predominance of 20mm WWII in the first few years with some more variety coming through in later years.

But perhaps the biggest shock was the variation in output across the years.  2013 was the year that I stripped out my painting room and proceeded to renovate / remodel it and build my stylish bookcases to hold my large collection of military history books.  This consumed much time and the room was not usable for 3-4 months as I was doing it all around work and family time.  This year reflects a number of things - work and life in general, time taken to prepare the inventory and a general painting malaise that set in around the middle of the year.

The next set of graphs show the same but by figure scale - again in raw figure count as well as adjusted for painting points.

 

Perhaps the most noticeable aspect of these two graphs is the low bang for my bucks that comes through in the 6mm Napoleonics in 2012 - 400 or so painted for a small number of points/ 

So that was the year that was.  I have enjoyed the gaming and friendships that come with it - but have not had a very successful year on the actual painting front.  Always next year as they say.

Finally finished something - Spanish Knights

It has taken me a long time - but they have finally been completed.  These knights were started in July and left as I did not get them completed in time to use at Wintercon with the new Spanish Impetus army.

They are TAG figures and based as a CP unit for Impetus.

 

State of the painting desk

Nothing finished to show - but the fact that I have been able to take a photo of painting underway is a significant breakthrough for me and a reason to post.

 

I think I have picked up a paintbrush on only 3 or 4 occasions since early July - each time lasting less than 30 minutes.  I've really struggled with motivation to paint anything.  Part of the issue has been a struggle to decide what I wanted to focus on among the many projects that I've got on the go.

 

So a few days ago I just decided to paint whatever was buried somewhere on the desk or in started piles around the room. 

 

Over the weekend I have finished two battalions of Prussian LW in 6mm (not based yet and not on the desk as they are now done). 

 

I'm also half way through a 6mm LW cavalry regiment with two more prepared and horses painted.  Also two battalions of 6mm Prussian Musketeers are prepared and undercoated.  

 

In the back right is the finishing touches to a unit of CP Spanish Cavalry for my Renaissance Spanish.  Horses were finished and based in July and the cavalry have hung around since them. 

 

Finally on the left is a unit of Cheveauxleger for the SYW Saxons.

 

So a pretty good weekend and hopefully start of a productive period (around family, friends and work commitments over the next 2 months).

 

 

Remodelling the game room

I am making some changes to the games room to fix two issues.  Firstly I do not have enough storage for stuff so need some more cupboards.  Secondly being below the house there is little air movement and so it gets a bit stuffy, so I have spoken to a builder about getting a smallish window at one end above the table.  I am lucky as the room sits about 4 feet below the driveway and so a window would open out onto the driveway and faces east which is where most of the (good) breezes come from (NE or SE).

While I am at it - I decided to widen the table to make it 6 feet wide and add the ability to have an extension of 2 feet which, when added, will make it 10 feet long.

So it has meant taking off the table top and frame, dismantling the terrain storage rack that I built and getting a few new cupboards.

So now need to engage an engineer and someone to amend the drawings so I can submit it to the council to get the window approved.  It is supposed to be easier under the new process - ha ha.

TYW Battle of Brettenfield

We had a wonderful days' gaming yesterday at Ralph's house.  He had put on a refight of the Battle of Brettenfield in the Thirty Years War.

We were using his wonderful 15mm collection of miniatures on purpose built terrain for the battle. Special mention must also go to Rosie for keeping us well provisioned during the long struggle all day.

On one side we had me with Gustavus and his Swedes with Ralph taking the Saxons.  Facing us was Richard and Alan with Tilly's Catholic - Imperial army.

Pappeneheim's cavalry that I was facing

Tilly's tercios arranged for battle

My victorious cavalry - see last photo below :)

More glory for Gustavus' cavalry

On come Tilly's mighty tercios - some a bit softened up from fire on the way in

Hard fighting in the centre with the Tercios up against Swedish foot

The Swedes have broken through Tilly's powerful tercios

I know I should not gloat - but here are Pappenheim's casualties

Italians v Burguandians

We had a great casual game recently with my Italians up against Richard's very nice looking Burgundians using 500 points with Impetus.

The photos are not too good as they were taken with an iphone into the light - but they're all I have got.