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.