2018 Round Up and then 2019...

I quite like these round-ups that bloggers are doing. It is nice to mark the hobby successes and then make plans for the next year. It will be fun to look back and see what plans I have, and just like work appraisal objectives - see how much I was completely off the mark!  I'm currently sat here with the biggest fireworks going off outside feeling somewhat like Von Paulus at Stalingrad but far better fed and considerably warmer.

So...

Highlights

For me 2018 was a big year of  'To the The Strongest', Simon Miller's excellent ancient rules.  My 10mm armies are now very playable and I look forward to playing more and painting more for it in 2019. I quite fancy a Gallic or gladiator army to take on my late Roman republican armies.

I made some significant progress with my WW2 British Normandy collection in 15mm but didn't actually play a game with them this year.

Another 28mm English Civil War Regiment was added to my army of Parliament and a good collection of artillery pieces now take their place too.

Much of the year was given over to re-basing and re-finding my old interest in 15mm figure - something which surprised me, but I am so glad I did. I have re-based literally thousands of figures in the latter half of this year and used new and improved (and quicker!) basing methods. More on this in another post to come.

I did also manage 4 x 28mm Norman command stands which was very pleasing to do.  This makes the collection 'playable'.  From now on anything else added is just really nice.



...and 12 Blood Red Skies planes - a lot of effort for planes with bendy wings.


Games played this year:
2018

Jan - Panzergrenadier - 1940 France (15mm)

Feb - Hail Caesar - Wars of the Roses - Battle of Barnet (28mm)

March - Black Powder - American War of Independence (28mm)

April - None

May - To The Strongest - Roman Civil War (10mm)

May - To the Strongest - Roman Civil War - Philippi (10mm)

June -  To The Strongest - Roman Civil War - Thapsus (10mm)

July - None

August - Pike and Shotte - English Civil War - Battle of Monkton Farleigh (28mm)

'Baaaa Waaatch ouut - The Welsh Royalists are on their wayyyyy!'

Sept - Black Powder - French and Indian War (28mm)

Sept - Black Powder - Napoleonic (15mm)

Oct - Blood Red Skies - Battle of Britain (and Warhammer 40k Skirmish)

Nov - None

Dec - Warhammer 40K skirmish & Black Powder - ACW (15mm)

Actually that was an interesting read through for me at least - I made the assumption that I had played mostly 28mm but that was far from being the case.

Painting plans for 2019

It will probably be very random as usual! However I would like to make progress with:

• 15mm Normandy WW2 for  Panzergrenadier rules
• Add a few more units to my now playable 28mm Hastings armies
• Paint up more British command stands for my 28mm AWI collection and maybe a unit or two
• Add command stands to my 28mm Franco-Prussian collection to make it properly playable
• Make progress on my WW1 skirmish armies for Chain of Command
• Add lots of command figures for my 15mm ACW collections and some more units too (currently on my painting desk!)
• Build a 15mm early Russian WW2 collection
• Add a few more Blood Red Skies Aircraft for my bastardised rules
• Add a few more 28mm Samurai and make my armies playable
• Add to my 28mm ECW collection
• Double the size of my 28mm FIW collection as the units are all 12 man stands currently

I think that is enough!  It looks more like a 5-year plan!  In addition there are a three projects which I would love to start but it would be at the expense of not doing some of the above

• Little Big Horn - yep the whole thing - ideally in 10mm but maybe 6mm - I want to see how the command choices play out and to get more understanding of the battle
• 15mm Desert War - I have started and stopped in so many scales for this. I think 15mm is the way forward but I am prepared to go 1/285.  Rules would be Panzergrenadier
• I have great desire to do the Jacobite Wars and I think it would be in 15mm having really enjoyed the sight of my 15mm ACW all re-based and looking great
• Boer War in 15mm would be really interesting too but I think that might be a project too far for this year

Enough now! There are thousands of hours of painting time shown there! It will be really interesting to see what actually happens and what progress is made. It's an interesting observation for me that I don't feel like doing new 28mm projects.  But... I am a wargamer and at the end of the day - I will be tempted by 'The Shiney' (or the plasticcy) as is the modern thing.

I wish you all a happy 2019!