In preparation for the traditional end-of-year taking stock post, I've just been looking over the lead pile and thinking about everything that's gone on over the last year.
Looking back, I started January with high hopes. I had just completed the mother of all trades, finally put together a respectable Soviet Strelkovy force for FoW, was ogling my newly acquired Blazing Sun fleet for Dystopian wars, and was well on the way to finishing the 1000 points of Bretonnians I had committed to on Warseer. Around this time last year, I looked like this:
Life has a way of surprising you. Things have been a bit intense around here, with a custody battle, a new child, a move, and some fairly significant ramping up at work. At this point, I've traded or sold off a good portion of the mother of all trades, along with my Strelkovy, to help pay some early legal fees. I've made little more progress on the Bretonnians (still about 100 points shy of my goal), and still haven't painted more than one Blazing Sun destroyer. On the other hand, I've begun several new projects, and while the last half of the year's been a bit barren of opportunities to both paint and play, did get in some progress.
As things stand, here are the projects I'm hoping to work on over the next year.
1. Seven Years War French in 6mm
This is a project I started several years back, was more than a tad keen on, and ended up having to abandon. I can't begin to express how excited I am to see some of the guys at the THMG get going on this project. We'll likely begin with Sam Mustafa's Might and Reason ruleset, but there's also been discussion of trying Black Powder and the to-be-released SYW rules from Polemos / Baccus.
2. FoW Cossacks
This will be my first mid-War project for FoW, as to date, all my Soviet armies (3, not counting the cossacks) have been for the later part of the conflict. While the release of Red Bear, the late war compilation, has me excited, I'm keen to try mid-war, and there are mid-war players at THMG, so I'm hoping to take advantage.
3. Bretonnians (with a possible twist)
I started these as a project for WFB, but there's been a growing interest in Impetus at the local club, and it's not too much of a stretch to use these for a free company or late medieval french force. The Bretonnians are sort of Hollywood French, and while I suspect it may raise a few grognard hackles, many of the models, especially the older Perry sculpts, are entirely viable, as they were based off HYW French anyway. To do this, I'd like need some dismounted gens d'arms types, but I have searches running on ebay, and we'll see what comes.
While Impetus uses dioramic basing, and my Brets are based for WFB, it's less of an issue than it seems. The plan is to make dioramic sabots for the models I have. I'm fairly keen to paint some of this stuff, especially more bow, mounted yeomen, and perhaps some questing knights (the least historical, but far and away some of the more characterful models in the Bret range).
4. Pyrrhic / Successors, Guys with Pikes in 15mm for Impetus.
Oh, how I want to work on these. If only I didn't have so many things demanding time. As things stand, these guys have been on the back burner for a while, I think because the list I'm building (Pyrrhic) was a bit of a compromise. I'm putting them together from a grab-bag of stuff I got in an online trade. I suspect if I got to use them it would spur me to greater effort, but as things stand, no one at the club is playing Impetus in 15mm, so . . . These guys will get some love eventually. In fact, as I write this, I'm thinking about priming some up . . .
5. 1/72 Napoleonics, for Lasalle . . . or something.
Realistically, these guys are an excuse to paint some of the droolingly good newer 1/72 sculpts that have been coming out of late. I'm nominally basing them for Lasalle, but that's as much a pretext as anything. The reality is I'm never going to be able to use these until I have a house, with a dedicated geek room, and two painted armies, and who knows when that will happen. But in the meantime, I'm going to keep doing a base of these whenever the fancy strikes me, as they're too damn pretty not to paint.
6. Everything else.
Dystopian Wars attracts me as much as ever, I have a tonne of unpainted lead in 15mm, I'm likely sitting on around 4000 points of orks, including some very old-school stuff, plus I have a viable Khador force for Warmachine (got a cool idea for a quartered colour scheme on these guys), and even some Beastmen.
If this last year has taught me anything about my hobby, it's to give myself some room. This year didn't see a lot of things completed, but what I did paint or play I enjoyed. Time to play is more restricted with a new baby in the house, and for all that work has been occupying more of my time, there have been rewards there as well. I think the goal, if any, for the coming year is to take things as they come, and make sure that the time I do have to spend on the hobby be relaxing and enjoyable, rather than feel like yet another thing I have to get done.
For those of you out there that follow my ramblings here, I hope the upcoming year is full of joy and fortune, and I hope you all get as much out of our pastime as I have.
TMtW
