Goodbye 2015 and hello 2016!

With the year ended it is time for a review.

 

A total of 23 games were played across 11 different historical periods: Ironclads in the Austro-Prussian War, Dark Ages, Napoleonic, WW1, American Civil War, French and Indian War, Franco-Prussian War (x2), Austro-Prussian War(x2), WW2 (x3), Medieval (x4) and War of Spanish Succession (x5).

 

From a painting perspective it has been the most productive year for many years. The Bavarian War of Spanish Succession army was required for a game in October. I managed to complete it between January and September, with a three week overseas holiday in between, with two weeks to spare. In fact the goal stretched, almost doubling, as the project progressed and now counts every Bavarian unit present at Blenhiem.

 

The infantry

The cavalry

The entire army

 

I have had an interest in in the Wars of the Roses for quite some time and the intention was to build up a small retinue of half a dozen units.  But that was it, just an intention. Then when in France in May I made an impulse purchase of two boxes of the Perry plastics and seven months later the project ended - the original half dozen units had stretched to 23!

Talbot's Retinue

The entire army

 

I started the Crimean War project late last year, intending to complete it this year, but it was delayed because of the desire to complete the two projects above and the hiatus that resulted from our Alaskan trip in August. All the same I have started the Russians, French and Sardinians.

 

The first Russian infantry regiment

The Russian High Command

The French Chasseurs à Pied

The Zouaves

The first of the Sardinian infantry

The Brigade of Guards

The British First Division, Guards on the left, Highlanders on the right

 

Other items added to various collections this year include Franco-Prussian War artillery, some imperial guard, some dismounted hussars and uhlans, a few Russo-Japanese War Russians to finish an incomplete infantry regiment. I painted up some NZ Wars figures that I had designed years ago to be given to a friend. I made a number of scenic items, both for myself and for others, the most notable was the Roman villa. Finally, I reworked a significant volume of figures (rebasing a couple of units and re-varnishing more than 2,800 figures that had an unsatisfactory semi-gloss finish on them). I also got around to basing up the Perry Miniatures Russian Napoleonic command set that I bought a few years ago.

The villa 

The Russian Napoleonic command set

 

Breaking it all down by projects the count is:

 

Wars of the Roses:

324 foot

24 mounted

 

War of Spanish Succession

265 foot

75 mounted

2 guns

 

Russo-Japanese War

22 foot

1 mounted (actually one ammunition mule and its attendant)

 

Franco-Prussian War

47 foot

6 mounted

5 guns

 

Crimean War

127 foot

2 mounted

2 guns

NZ Wars

16 Maori Warriors

 

Scenery Items

1 x statue

1 x vineyard

1 x Roman Villa

2 x haystacks

4 x small fields

2 x RJW gun emplacements

1 x RJW fortified hilltop

14 pieces of rail fencing

 

Reworked items

36 figures rebased

2,818 figures re-varnished (including RJW, FPW, APW, WSS, ECW, WotR and WWI collections)

 

All up the count was:

 

801 foot figures

108 mounted figures

9 guns

26 scenic items

2,854 reworked items

 

Purely as an exercise I rated these against the painting scoring system set down in the Analogue Painting Challenge: 5 points per foot and 10 per mounted figure or gun. I calculated the value of scenery items by equating them to the time it took to construct, paint and base against the time it takes me to paint and base a foot figure (I can complete 5 foot figures a night so the Roman Villa that took 14 nights was worth 70 points).  Then I looked at the varnishing of the armies, which took me about eight weeks, and equated that in a similar way.

 

The points count was:

 

Foot ​​4,005 points

Mounted ​1,080 points

Guns ​​90 points

Scenic items ​388 points

Reworks ​280 points

 

Grand total 5,843 points.

 

I doubt that next year will be anywhere near as productive. While I intend to complete the Crimean War project in time for our weekend away in the second half of the year, I don’t have a clear view of any new projects. There are many possibilities, including (in no order of preference):

 

• Russian Napoleonic

• Great Northern Wars

• Saxons for 1866

• Carlist Wars