2016 review

Not to be outdone by all the other bloggers spread over the interwebs and because all the cool kids do it.... my 2016 painting totals...

First up a look at the total points for the year (the points are based on the AHPC table found here):

The red line indicates all points added to my collections and the blue those points painted by me. So, a satisfying year all round. 2016 saw more added to the collections than the previous two years combined (although 2015 was interrupted by a house move, thus the low numbers).

The relation of the two sets of numbers in the chart above translate into this...

Here we see that my personal output in 2016 made up 76% of the total. Although I took advantage of some excellent painting from others (thanks to Captain Dan, Ohio Bob, and Monsieur LeBlanque), I was happy to find my painting mojo fairly strong all year (note: the DH1 acronym is used to differentiate my painting from Captain Dan, who shares the same initials ... go figure).

The average painting output per month (just from my own hands) was a quite respectable 179, although comparing to the first month of 2017 it doesn't seem that good. But it must be pointed out that a good number of the initial 2017 points are hold-overs from 2016 when the painting was completed but not the final basing (the figures/vehicles must be completely based to be inputted into the matrix).

And the 2016 list of additions:

Q3 2016 Painting Point - update

Although this post is a bit late, I've totted up my Q3 2016 painting totals and I'm quite pleased with the progress so far this year (see Q2 post here). My goal is to get to 3000 points for the year. This is quite achievable, assuming no painting malaise rears its ugly head. Planned additions are some cavalry for the US War of 1812 force, more winter '44 Germans, a few winter '44 US additions (to allow me to field a standard GI platoon or an armoured infantry platoon), and possibly a return to the Boxer Rebellion project (no, really).

Total Points by year: red line represents total points additions and blue my personal output.

Q3 saw 530 points added to the yearly total, somewhat down from the previous two quarters but I'll blame that on summer and travelling. This year's output still soars above the previous two years.

Percentage of the totals of my personal output by year .

And my personal output continues to grow, up from 66% at the end of Q2 to 70% at the end of Q3.

And the total list of additions:

collection	unit	type	# figs	total points
ImagiNations	Musketiere Marzen	foot	28	140
ImagiNations	Fulisiere Wiesbier	foot	28	140
ImagiNations	KaiserReich command	mounted	7	70
ImagiNations	Hussars Grand Duc	mounted	8	80
English Civil War	foot regiment	foot	28	140
World War II	US infantry	foot	62	310
World War II	US infantry	artillery	1	10
Carlist Wars	Aragon infantry	foot	12	60
World War II	1944 Wermacht	foot	11	55
World War II	1944 Wermacht	artillery	1	10
ImagiNations	KaiserReich civilians	foot	4	20
ImagiNations	KaiserReich commanders	mounted	2	20
ImagiNations	KR carriage	mounted	n/a	55
World War II	German MMG & FOO	foot	6	30
World War II	US 3" AT gun	foot	4	30
World War II	US vehicles	vehicle	4	80
World War II	panther	vehicle	1	20
World War II	PzIV, Stug III, hetzer	vehicle	3	60
Carlist Wars	Tortosa infantry	foot	15	75
ImagiNations	Fusiliere Schwarzbier	foot	28	140
ImagiNations	Dragons Grande-Duchesse	mounted	8	80
Carlist Wars	Isabellino artillery	foot	12	60
Carlist Wars	Isabellino artillery	artillery	3	30
War of 1812	US militia	foot	36	180
War of 1812	US mounted commanders	mounted	3	30
War of 1812	US regulars	foot	26	130
War of 1812	US artillery	foot	6	30
War of 1812	US artillery	artillery	1	10
War of 1812	US artillery	horse	8	40
War of 1812	US artillery	wagon	2	20
War of 1812	US militia rifles	foot	13	65
World War II	1944 Wermacht	foot	12	60

Q2 2016 Points Total

Following on from a previous post this year, I have totted up my points total for Q1 & Q2 of 2016 (according to the points assessments on Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge). I'm quite pleased with my progress so far this year, as I've exceeded both of the individual point totals from the last two years in the first of half of 2016 alone! In fact, my personal output (as opposed to commission work added to the collections) exceeds the total personal additions for the last two years combined. Thus, my nerd pleasure at seeing the stats and graphs increasing steadily.

Total Points by year: red line represents total points additions and blue my personal output.

Percentage of the totals of my personal output by year .

2016 additions to the collections:

collection	unit	type	# figs	total points
ImagiNations	Musketiere Marzen	foot	28	140
ImagiNations	Fulisiere Wiesbier	foot	28	140
ImagiNations	KaiserReich command	mounted	7	70
ImagiNations	Hussars Grand Duc	mounted	8	80
English Civil War	foot regiment	foot	28	140
World War II	US infantry	foot	62	310
World War II	US infantry	artillery	1	10
Carlist Wars	Aragon infantry	foot	12	60
World War II	1944 Wermacht	foot	11	55
World War II	1944 Wermacht	artillery	1	10
ImagiNations	KaiserReich civilians	foot	4	20
ImagiNations	KaiserReich commanders	mounted	2	20
ImagiNations	KR carriage	mounted	n/a	55
World War II	German MMG & FOO	foot	6	30
World War II	US 3" AT gun	foot	4	30
World War II	US vehicles	vehicle	4	80
World War II	panther	vehicle	1	20
World War II	PzIV, Stug III, hetzer	vehicle	3	60
Carlist Wars	Tortosa infantry	foot	15	75
ImagiNations	Fusiliere Schwarzbier	foot	24	120
ImagiNations	Dragons Grande-Duchesse	mounted	8	80
Carlist Wars	Isabellino artillery	foot	12	60
Carlist Wars	Isabellino artillery	artillery	3	30
War of 1812	US militia	foot	11	55

Q1 2016 points total

I discovered the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge too late to join (maybe next year). But I decided to assess my painting/collecting output over the last couple of years and into Q1 of 2016, according to the point schedule from AHPC.

28mm foot figure = 5 pts

28mm mounted figure, artillery piece or crew served weapon = 10 pts

28mm vehicle = 20 pts (for my purposes, I've changed this to 20 pts from 15pts... vehicles deserve more, in my opnion)

I'm happy to report that my Q1 painting output has already exceed all of last year's. 

The red line represents the total points value of all additions to my collections, from my own hand and others via commissions. The blue line represents my own personal output.

(these metrics do not include the many vehicles added to the 28mm WWII collection)

Because a good portion of my job involves working with excel spreadsheets, I thought I'd take my professional knowledge and apply it to my hobby. Thus, I've put together a sheet that auto-tracks my painting output by genre and army/force. It's quite satisfying, when I've finished a new unit, to go to sheet and see the numbers increase. But that's just me... I'm a bit of a metrics nerd :) 

So far, the sheet covers only the three largest collections.

And a screenshot from one of the individual worksheets that tracks planned v. painted figures (amongst various other stats).

June Painting Points

Well, my June painting points are a paltry 10. Yes, that's a ten! All I was able to get finished were five mounted Austrian commanders for my 28mm Napoleonic army. You can see them here. It's at this point that I could just ream off a list of excuses but I have a more cogently constructed argument in store. I've been mulling over the entire painting points scheme. While it's useful to keep track of my painting output, these numbers certainly don't reflect any of the other accomplishments in my hobby on a monthly basis. For instance, June saw me adding what I think is a fair bit to my gaming empire (insert wry grin here!). I added four new units to my Austrian army in the form of Hussars, Dragoons, Uhlans and Grenzers. Granted, I didn't paint these figures so they don't contribute to my painting output. But I did have to do some considerable work in re-basing them to match the rest of my collection. Anyone who has re-based figures knows the toil of which I speak!

I also spent a lot of time working on our new Napoleonic campaign. This is typically where my borderline OCD nature takes over. I don't provide to the players just a map and some quickly put together army lists. I tend to go a bit overboard. This time the maps were provided, order spreadsheets, orders of battle, preliminary briefings etc. At least I didn't produce period newspapers for distribution this time! I've tried to consolidate all the relevant documents into excel spreadsheets (with multiple tabs) so that they can be transferred back and forth without too much muss and fuss. You can see my first post about this new campaign here. I should have some new posts about this campaign as soon as I can prod the players to submit their Turn #1 orders (actually, only one is being lethargic...you know who you are!).

Unfortunately, all these other things are much more difficult (if not impossible) to quantify with a points system.

So, having said all that, I'm not really concerned about a small painting output for June (no, really, I'm not!). My plans for July? Well, besides a visit to Historicon in a couple of weeks to help my friend Ken at the All The King's Men Toy Soldiers booth, here are my painting plans:

6 x 28mm Carlist Wars Isabellino cavalry
14 x 54mm AWI Continental Infantry
30 x 15mm WWII Soviet infantry

Of course, this assumes I don't get side-tracked by Ken's new 54mm British grenadiers that I plan to pick up at Historicon. You can see a sample of them here to the left. Gotta' love those bearskins! If I can get this list finished, plus continue to run the Napoleonic Campaign, I'll be a happy camper!

May 09 Painting Output

I was a little disappointed by my lack of painting production for May. The disappointment is tempered somewhat, however, by the other hobby things I accomplished that probably contributed to my lower painting output. Finishing bases and various little terrain projects or touch-ups take up a fair amount of time each month but aren't reflected in the painting points. So, for May I was able to finish one Napoleonic 28mm Spanish cavalry unit and two Austrian artillery batteries (photos of these hopefully soon). These gave me a total of only 28 points for May. This is compared to my projected 59 points (not a good investment, if you had put money on my estimate). For June, I think I'll be a little more realistic, especially given that it's now summer and much of my hobby time has been reserved for outdoor house projects and weekend get-aways. My current plan is to have finished five 28mm Austrian Napoleonic mounted command figures and a 14-figure Continental line unit for my 54mm AWI collection (note to self: I really should get some pictures of this slowly growing project on the blog). These two projects will give me 31 points for June. I was looking at some other bloggers' efforts and their painting point outputs and mine seem rather meager in comparison but I try and remember to keep it in context. Gamers paint at different speeds, with differing qualities, and for different reasons.

Carlist Wars Navarrese skirmishers from the collection of Vidal Bairos.

My Carlist Wars confederate, Vidal, sent me the picture above of his first unit painted for our mutual project. These are Navarrese skirmishers from the Carlist army. Once again, these are from the superb Perry Miniatures range. I can't say enough about these figures. They are wonderfully sculpted and quite easy to paint! As my part of the project, my initial force will look something like this:

Isabellinos (or Cristinos)

12 x line infantry (center companies)
12 x line infantry (center companies)
12 x line infantry (elite companies)
6 x line cavalry (lancers)
1 x artillery piece (w/4 artillerists)
3 x mounted command

While this may seem like a small force, it is intended for Sharpe Practice, a pseudo-skirmish horse & musket rule set. Vidal is building a similarly-sized force for the Carlists. We hope to be able have games that can be challenging and fun and small enough to be completed in an evening of gaming (while still imbibing good wine...and cookies baked by my ever-patient wife). Also on the horizon are some Spanish/Mediterranean style buildings, some of which I believe Vidal already has in his collection.

Painting Points

While tracking one's painting progress by assigning points to figures completed is nothing new, it was something that I've been contemplating for a while. I used to have a large white board hanging beside my painting desk with lists of units in the painting queue. I would cross out each as it was finished. This would give me a quick visual incentive for continuing work on different projects. Recently, I noticed a couple of threads on The Miniatures Page that referred to the point system. Thus was born my own tracking system.

Pre-Khaki

28mm foot - 1 point
28mm horse/rider - 2 points
28mm artillery piece - 1 point
54mm foot - 1.5 points
54mm horse/rider - 3 points

Khaki

15mm foot - 0.5 points
15mm vehicle - 3 points

These categories reflect only my own collections and ongoing projects but any other category is easily extrapolated. So for April 2009 (the first month I started to keep track), I managed 45 points. This included 8 x 28mm Napoleonic Spanish cavalry and 29 Carlist Wars foot figures. I think this is a fairly good start. For May, I originally predicted 59 points made up of a mixture of 28mm Napoleonics and 54mm AWI. Unfortunately, it looks as though that goal will have to be revised. Not through lack of time spent at my painting desk, I've been stuck on an 8 figure Napoleonic Spanish cavalry unit that was only finished two days ago. Not sure why because there's nothing particularly challenging about this unit and its uniforms. Oh well...maybe my estimate was too high to begin with. Updates to follow....