2018 roundup!

Hi folks,

I wanted to do a little review of the years work, as much because I've felt that I wasn't as productive this year as I have been previously. I had two lengthy breaks from painting, both following holidays away from home. I also struggled a little with my motivation at times, and as such I thought getting they full years finished pictures all together in one place would help.

I started the year pretty strongly, between the start of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge in late December 2017 and March 2018, I managed to exceed my target for the challenge and get a lot done artillery and FlaK wise for my Germans, as well as getting some 3mm stuff finished:

I carried on with the German theme following the challenge, trying to get a chunk of my 12th SS and supporting German armour painted by July. I overshot this target by a few months (mainly due to being sick of painting Germans... it was November before it was all done), but in that time also managed to build and paint an LCT...

I also finished off my 10mm ACW collection:

And managed to paint some 3mm Sci-Fi, 6mm Modern and 15mm Terrain stuff:

3mm Prototype Skinners

Quantity wise, I don't think I did too badly and I'm pretty happy with the quality of the German armour. I'm pretty proud of the LCT as well. The 6mm stuff was definitely given less time and effort, and could do with revisiting at some point, although for the size of it, it's very much 'good enough'.

From a productivity standpoint, I think there are about 30 individual 'groups' of mini's that I would have taken between one and two weeks with, plus a few small add ons. I guess I can be pleased with that - my logic is generally that I should be finishing a platoon every two weeks (which is an internal measure of how likely I am to ever finish what's in the lead pile).

I also spent time building plastic kits when I was not painting, organising and planning as well as  taking stock of what I have to paint - all of which is productive time even if it didn't end up with models being painted.

I've also one last unit I am working on currently I hope to get done in December, but it is looking like it might be the start of the year before it's finally done.

Show wise, I managed to get to quite a few, including some new ones thanks to Dave D and Martin. Museum wise, I got back to the Tank Museum and spent the day in the archives, as well as getting to quite a few air museums all over the country. The collection continues to grow both in painted and unpainted models, and I've branched out into D-Day. I've not played as many games with the collection as I would have liked, but am trying to rectify that in 2019 by hiring a local hall regularly to get some big games in with the lads (for both mine and their collections). Blog post's have been slightly down this year on previous years for some reason, but I think that is because I've cut down on WiP posts (using Facebook instead for this), and only posted to the Blog when I have finished things to show.

In 2019 I am planning to step things up a notch and try to learn how to use my airbrush. I've too many vehicles in the painting queue (and an ungodly number of them are halftracks) and I need to speed up how I do these. Other than that, play more, paint more...!

As ever, Cheers to the guys on the Miniature Modelling Mayhem Paint and Chats for helping me stay motivated and chatting while painting. I have been doing these for a few years now, and while they are not for everyone they really are a good way of getting stuff done while exchanging small talk, talking about the hobby and really just being a good bunch of people to talk to. Thanks also to those people who comment on the blog, which also helps me stay motivated! And to Dave D and Martin, who's enthusiasm and participation in my 15mm madness has really helped me stay on track, and who have been willing guinea pigs as we continue to develop an interesting style of play!