Well, 2021, what can we say about it? A friend called it „the year in which nothing happened, again.“
I’ve been busy hobby-wise, holding back waves of depression and anxiety with paint brush and dice. And shopping. Bought more books and miniatures this year than ever before I think. But otherwise it was very much the same, except more focused on the Napoleonic Wars than last year, 2020 seemed to have been more diverse.
But, I knocked a bunch of stuff off the leadpile, some of which had been maturing for years, having sat in boxes for over a decade or even 15 years.
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| 15mm |
I painted something for every period except 15mm Seven Years War, Samurai and Colonials this year I think.
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| 15mm with repurpose plastic toy |
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| 15mm Forged in Battle for O Group |
3D printed figures have been a new thing this year too. Cars for the gangsters, Orcs for Mordor, and a 15mm AFV.
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| 28mm Knucklebones 3d printed Orcs |
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| 3d printed cars |
The huge, totally unexpected effort this year turned out to be Napoleonics. It is where I started so many long years ago, and I’ve returned to it with some maturity as a player and painter, and a deeper wallet than when I was a callow youth with only Airfix figures! The results have been pleasing.
This knocked a big whack of very old stuff off the leadpile. Of course, I also seemed to add a bunch too. Fortunately, I’ve gotten most of it painted, so the leadpile has still seen a net decrease. I think.
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| Warlord Prussians |
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| Old leadpile |
New period/project always prompts new terrain too.
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| Perry Prussians with Warbases houses |
Discovering Front Rank figures has been a joy, I must say. I’m glad I went out of my comfort zone to order some before the company got sold.
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| Front Rank Russian command base |
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| Perry Prussians |
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| Front Rank civilians |
I always liked the Prussians, and am finally building that force that I’ve always wanted, but the Bavarians were a completely unplanned and happy accident when I determined that I would get more play value out of the Russians and Prussians if I built an in-house opponent for them. I’ve always wanted a Bavarian army too because of the Ruppenhelms. An ancestral connection to Bavaria made them even more special.
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| Boom! Not bad for 6 months work. |
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| First Bavarian unit. Hat figures |
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| Perry Chevauxleger. Really happy with the officer |
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| Front Rank schutzen |
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| Front Rank command group |
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| Perry limber. It’s nice being able to afford limbers, caissons and wagons too! |
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| Super economical MDF wagons with metal horses from Warbases |
I thought games had dropped off this year, but a late flurry in the fall with an easing of Covid Restrictions really boosted the numbers back up. This year I had 20 games, which was the same as last year.
- 5 virtual (Coastal Command, What a Tanker, Packing Heat, CoC x2)
- 9 face to face (GdA, O Group, Infamy, SP, BtH, DR, IABSM, TCW, Zombies)
- 6 solo (BtH x3 SP x2, DR)
I naturally thought the focus was Napoleonic, but the games were different form the painting output obviously:
- 9x WW2 (including 4x Bag the Hun)
- 4x Napoleonic
- 3x fantasy
- 2x Gangster
- 1x ancient
- 1x WW1
Looking back at last year’s retrospective produced a fine list of Things I Planned, But Didn’t Do This Year:
There’s some nice 15mm WW2 and SF pieces in the stash I should build. Also a platoon of German paratroopers started. And Goths, Prussians Swiss and Samurai to paint.
For terrain I still want to build some urban ruins and clear the collected crap out of the way. Same with my 15mm science fiction. Corridors and room modules for a colony are on the list.
Game wise, more of last year plus I want to take a look at adapting Contact Front to my Firefly in the Expanse games. Adding a ship component with scratch built ships is in the back of my mind too.
So for 2022, I’d like to
- Play more Napoleonics, or air, or Middle Earth, or WW2 or anything really
- Build a castle for Middle Earth and Medieval
- Build urban ruins for 15mm WW2
- Build SF corridors and Off-world Colony terrain
- Sort out my ideas for a SF/Contact Front hybrid
- finish the Bavarians and Prussians
- keep smashing the leadpile down
- buy less, but keep painting output up
New projects? Who knows? Maybe this year will be the year I add a proper Dwarf army to Middle Earth? But I’ve also just discovered 3D printed proxies for Epic 40K, which is a game I regret getting rid of.
My gaming projects always seem to be a series of happy accidents. I hadn’t planned on Napoleonic Bavarians this year either.
Watch this space.
