2014 Goals

Three posts without new figs in a row!  I have some coming, bear with me.  I think most of us can agree that our blogs are more painting Diaries than honest efforts at fan service.

After my cynical review of my goal achievement in 2013, I wanted to ensure that I had some manageable and achievable goals.  As my employer has been very emphatic on our need to establish SMART goals for ourselves and teach SMART goal setting to our students, perhaps I will apply it to my hobby.  What is SMART?

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant 
• Time Bound 

Applying some lessons learned from both my military career and the hobby-analysis works of Jon over at the Palouse Wargaming Journal, I looked at my on painting trends including seasonal era interests and established the following goals for this year.

Goal 1 - Complete unfinished projects. (I already own the figs)

Priority Projects

• 6mm French Cavalry (New sculpts) Complete by May 30th
• 6mm French Imperial Guard -Complete by April 30th.
• 6mm Italian Guard and Infantry Corps - Complete by April 30th. 
• 6mm Austrian Landwehr - Complete by March 30
• 6mm Fatamid Egyptians - Complete Cavalry Formations by Oct 31st.
• 28mm Abayyid/Saracen Force - Complete Infantry-Cavalry formations for basic Impetus Army February 28th.
• 28mm Crusader Force - Complete two additional Cavalry units and four foot by February 28th. 
• 28mm Lansknecht - Paint three units of Swordsman for Impetus Jan 30th.
• 15mm Buildings - All building complete by July.  Those not finished...sell.
• 6mm Buildings - Complete Japanese and Middle Eastern buildings by July.
• 15mm Ikko Ikki - Complete 6 additional units for Samurai Battles - October 15th.

Secondary Projects

• 15mm Fantasy -Complete unpainted Dwarf and Orc Minis.  June 30th.
• 1/6000 WWII Naval -Complete Japanese and US Cruisers to get them off of the paint sticks.  August 31st.
• 1/285 WWII -Complete British North Africa minis still on Sticks.  September 15th.
• 1/285 Modern - Complete Modern Chinese Brigade (Figures airbrushed, but not detailed)  March 15th.
• 15mm British War of 1812 -Rebase and complete units.  December 17th.
• Rebase/Rehabilitate 28mm Warhammer Cavalry.  February 15th 

By-the-way projects (If the fancy takes me, but not a focus)

• 15mm ACW - Finish Iron Brigade and old glory Union Zuaves 
• Rebase/Rehabilitate 28mm Bretonnian Army.  August 31st.

Goal 2 - Paint New army

I am just going to leave this open for now.  I am kicking around some ideas, and as the El Cid collection caught me off-guard, I will wait to see where the fancy takes me.  Does this meet the SMART goals ideal?  No, but this is a hobby so I will deal.

Goal 3 - Eliminate the Clutter

• Complete Display Cases- Storage Shelves.  I have enough glass for one more large display case, and a few smaller ones for my 6mm collection.  I need to wait for the temperature to come up, so we will shoot for Spring Break.
• Doors for new cabinetry.  I built a shelving unit/counter top for The Den this summer, the next goal is to build doors for the cabinets to hide the unsightly piles of basing materials, terrain pieces and projects awaiting completion.  It will make the room look more tidy, and hide most of the nerdity from my 'normal' house guests.  Learning to make doors is my next woodworking goal, so this will be my practical exercise for the summer
• Reduce unpainted project storage from 3 bins to 1 bin.  - I currently have my unprepared/packaged/abandoned minis in three plastic drawer chests in the garage.  This includes most of the stuff I keep meaning to sell/trade.  -End of summer
• Reduce myself to no more than 2 scales/era!  I have Medieval figures in 4 scales!  I tend to focus on large scale battles in 6mm/15mm and skirmish scale in 20mm/28mm (Impetus notwithstanding.)  As such I want to eliminate the following
• 15mm HYW and Early Renaissance unpainted figs.  (mostly Essex)
• 25mm English Civil War (Old Glory)
• 20mm Unpainted Viet Nam era.
• 20mm WWII Japanese and USMC
• 15mm ACW Artillery (I found a single bin with 100+ guns!)
• 15mm Samurai that are no Monks/Ikko-Ikki
• 15mm French Colonials
• Unpainted 15mm Fantasy
• 1/285 Battlemechs
• Unpainted Babylon 5 ships of all scales.
• 20mm WWII Plastic Vehicles
• 20mm Modern Plastic Vehicles

Now to see if I can actually pull it off!