Stock, and the taking thereof.

Hi,

There seems to have been a rash of "how'm I doin'" posts cropping up of late, so with life busying up, and painting time at a premium, I thought I'd spend a post seeing how my meandering thoughts of December and January are translating into action.

At the time, there seemed to be three dominant themes to my rambling.  First was to set some limited completion goals for the year, and meet them.  Second was a growing urge to paint some 28mm figures.  Third was to wage a fighting withdrawal against the Magpie.


Theme the First: Painting Progress

In terms of goal setting, I'm doing reasonably well.  First goal was to bring the Impetus Antigonids to 400 points, bring my Bolt Action Soviets to 500 points (or higher), paint 400 points for Muskets and Tomahawks, paint a basic Impetus force for Ayyubids, bring my  painted Skorne to 35 points, and start my Rohirrim for Impetus fantasy.

I've added a base to each of the Antigonids and Ayyubids, but progress there is limited.  The Basic Impetus day that was the inspiration for the latter has fallen by the wayside, but the former are still a current priority.  To get to 400 points, I need to produce two more pike bases, one of light foot, and a command base.  This is entirely doable in the next 6 months, and I aim to have them at 400 by Christmas.

The Soviets are fully painted, and are about an evening away from finished.  BA has been bumped a little in the play schedule for me of late, but all it'll take is a scheduled game to get them to 500 points and pretty.  I'm half-way to my Muskets and Tomahawks goal, and am enjoying the game enough to have the momentum to finish.  Skorne progress has been limited, though I couldn't say why.  Too many new projects coming in.  Rohirrim are off the radar, though I do bring them out for a fondle occasionally, and may have a line on some other figures to flesh out the force.

A few new projects have cropped up as well.  Vonplutz' interest in Impetus has prompted some pretty decent production for an Impetus Spartan list.  Dystopian Wars has had a new lease on life, and I've got a small painted fleet for that rather smashing game as well.

I'm reasonably pleased with my painting progress so far this year.  I've learned to not rush projects for the sake of finishing, and while it means I'm not pumping out product as quickly as I might, I enjoy the process a hell of a lot more, which, at the end of the day, is kind of the point.

Theme the Second:  To 28mm, or not to 28mm?



So far, I've kept a lid on 28mm historical.  Impetus in 15mm works for me, and I've neither the space, the time, or the money to dive into 28mm big battle just now.  Muskets and Tomahawks seems to be scratching my Black Powder itch, and despite some rather fetching opportunities, I like the 15mm Blue Moon figures enough that jumping to 28mm doesn't seem necessary.

I've also had a chance to scratch the 28mm itch via my recent, unexpected, and savage love affair with Blood Bowl.  I've found myself eyeing my WFB figures, and considering selling off the lot to fundraise for the game.  So far, I've not pulled the trigger (primarily because of the time involved in producing them, plus Theme 3, below), but between BB and the incoming Reaper Huge Box 'o Figs, (not to mention Skorne and poor old Rohan), I should be able to scratch the 28mm itch at will.

Theme the Third: Fending off the Magpie

While the prospect of completely resisting the Magpie seemed unlikely, I did set out to resist it's worst excesses, and have been doing pretty well.  The main pledge for this was to not pick up anything new for a game, for which I still had unpainted figures.  I've violated this once, when I picked up a blister of escort ships for my Blazing Sun, but got back on the wagon pretty quickly.

I've also managed to resist a number of temptations, including the new Sam Mustafa ACW game, Longstreet, and some really evil Kickstarters (Fire and Sword, Raging Heroes).  I dipped a toe into Firestorm Armada when a local-ish retailer had a massive sale, and I suspect Bloodbowl will be a money pit, but so far, have kept the money-cannon plugged.

Summary:

Tough to predict how the bottom of the year will work out.  The club scene is likely to be dominated by Longstreet and F&S, which might be a source of temptation, but also might mean I have a little wiggle room (since I'm not, not, not, jumping in on those).  If Vonplutz maintains his interest in Impetus, there's no reason I can't finished both the Antigonid goal, and bring the Spartans to 300 points.  There's plans for successive short-term Bloodbowl leagues, which will likely consume some of my playing time, but impact on painting will likely depend on whether I stick with humans or decide to give orks a whirl.  I imagine I'll get the 400 points of French and Natives completed for M&T, but beyond that, can't say.  The arrival of the Reaper box makes me think at least some non-game-specific painting might occur, maybe for Song of Blades and Heroes, Mordheim, HoTT or something similar.

My recent Bloodbowl kick (ha!) has also had me looking over the Drawers of Shame to see what I might unload in a bid to fund new purchases, and I'm finding myself at a point where there's nothing of which  I want to rid myself.  The closest example might be some of the piles of Battlefront Soviets I've got, but part of me thinks I might actually get back into FoW some day.  If there's one thing that's consistent between now and January, it's that I seem be spoiled for choice when it comes to both gaming and painting.  Good times.



FMB