Happy New Year!

 Hi all,

It's been a busy year in Monkeyland,  In addition to a range of life events (back to work in-person, promptly getting Covid, the birth of my nephew, the addition of a kitten to the household), it seems like it was also a pretty busy year in terms of hobby.  Rough totals for the year include:

Minis Painted:  286 28mm (foot, horse and assorted "large" models), 5 6mm units, 12 15mm "units" (mostly vehicles).

Minis Sold or Traded away:  @240 28mm

Minis Bought or Traded in: 401 28mm, @50 15mm infantry, @15 15mm vehicles

Some of the sales were painted minis, so there was a net growth in the lead pile, but I'm pretty happy with the level of productivity this year.  I'm averaging better than a couple dozen 28mm figures a month, which is pretty good for me.

Playing around with basing 15mm ww2 stuff.  PSC T-34, Battlefront infantry.

I'd like to dip a toe into larger scale WW2 actions, probably using Rommel, so this style of dioramic basing becomes an opportunity.

Numbers this year were thrown off slightly by me jumping on a deal for close to 300 Warlord Pike and Shotte infantry.  I'm basically set for the period (for infantry) for the foreseeable future.  Another factor impacting numbers involved me dipping a toe into 3d printing for the first time.  I bought into the Turner Miniatures 7YW kickstarter, and now have pretty much all the .stls I'm going to need for the conflict.  Prussians might be a project for the new year, as they're the one remaining army out of the "core" nations for which I lack figs.  

One project that saw some headway this year was the Lion Rampant 100YW.  English now have a core of three units to face off against the French.

All figs for the HYW so far are the Perry plastics.

There's a fair amount of cross-compatibility between kits.  Archers on the left made with French bodies, to give a little more animation.

I need to add a banner on the front stand.  

While I've been tempted by any number of new and shiny things, I think the pattern for this year will be to continue to consolidate projects, and focus on painting stuff I have.  Likely contenders for 2023 project include:

1) 28mm Successors.  I've made a good start on these, and picked up some elephants before Christmas, which I've been puttering away at.  This is definitely a long-term project, and something I dip into from time to time, but it's not unreasonable to think I'd at least clear the minis I have by end of year.

2) 28mm ECW.  I am closing in on about three "batallia" between my Covenant and Royalist forces.  The Scots have the edge in numbers, but I'm working towards bringing the Royalists up to par.  As a local gaming buddy has some reasonable numbers of ECW figs as well, I think a bigger game of this (Pike and Shotte) is a reasonable goal by summer.

3) 28mm Hundred Years War.   Very close to small but playable (Lion Rampant?) 28mm forces for the HYW, with 3 units of French, and 2.5 of English (and the other .5 being assembled).  That's enough to get some games of Lion Rampant in (or Dragon Rampant with the kids), and room to grow both at a more leisurely pace once they're playable.

Ze French.  Also Perry plastics.

Heavy spear.  As I noted, the French infantry tends to be a little more animated.

Genoese crossbowmen.  The pavises don't help when you're ridden down by your own side from behind.

Ready to ride down some Genoese.

4) 28mm WWW2 Desert.  I have a "core" force of these for the British (force minimum for Bolt Action) along with about half the equivalent of DAK.  The goal will be to get the latter into playable shape, and then mess about with some smaller scale WW2 rules.  BA is an obvious choice, but I'd also like to mess about with some of the 2 Fat Lardies options, and know a couple people I can rubber-arm into games.  The absence of an opposing force kind of stalled my 28mm Soviets, but I'm hoping the ability to offer both sides will make organizing games easier.

Core of a Brit desert force.  2 infantry squads, HQ, and the forward observer.

Painting up from black definitely gave these a grittier look.

They're also "finer" sculpts than some of the alternatives.  Perry minis here as well.

Having watched Rogue Heroes, I think these boys need some SAS support ;)

And a Start to the opposing Germans.  Also Perry, and in need of some trucks, and possibly an Ark.

5) GW games.  Gaming at the local shop has resumed, and I've been going semi-regularly for a few months now.  AoS and Lord of the Rings are likely to be my main focus (Ogors just got a new book, Beasts of Chaos are supposed to get one soon), and LotR SBG remains one of my favorite games to play.  40k will likely feature as well, but mostly with the Cub, with the occasional casual game in shop.  I have stuff to paint for all the factions I play, and so activity here will mostly involve chipping at the lead (plastic) pile, and getting in regular casual games with friends and the Cub.

6) WW2 15mm.  I've recently been messing around with based vehicles for my 15mm WW2 stuff.  I got in a game or two of early east front in 2022, and would like to do more of this over 2023.  I'd particularly like to try out a higher-scale game like Rommel, and may end up rebasing some of my stuff to accommodate a more dioramic set-up (see pics above).

I've also been nosing around the idea of a couple of other "big" projects, particularly doing Russians in 28mm, either for the 7YW or the Renaissance (I've considered Napoleonics, but that's a rabbit hole of epic proportions). While I did dive in pretty hard into my Successor list early in the year, that project has stalled a bit for me.  Turns out, there's only so much linen armor I can paint before getting a tad bored.  I don't think that project is shelved, by any means (I'm painting up my first elephant now), but I'm not sure it's going to be the "last big hurrah" project I'd imagined.  What I'm really looking for, I guess, is something that would serve primarily as a painting project, something with plenty of character, both in the ranges available, and in the conflict itself.  Time will tell.

Until then, stay safe, be well, and happy New Year!