End of summer review....

Hobby or Sisyphean ordeal... you be the judge! 

With  8 months behind us and the discovery that I never hit "publish" on my six months review, it looks like as good a time as ever for a brief retrospective.  The recent spate of posts on project planning and objectives makes this update a little more timely.  I suppose I shall jump on the band wagon and talk about long terms objectives as well.

  This year I have opted to change my metrics somewhat from raw points to actual unit/project completion measurements as I think it gives me better focus.

Here is my current status:

Here is where I wanted to be based on clearing out the backlog:

Overall, it is looking better than anticipated.  I have managed to avoid picking up a lot of new models (so far) and I am making a serious dent in the 2016 backlog.  My overall goal is to keep 2017 models to less than 25% of my productivity and I am currently over at about 30% (Not bad considering both the new Kushite Egyptians and upgrading my 3mm Modern Armor collection).  Still, I have a lot of Korean and Japanese infantry to finish, so that may help to drive down the percentages.

As for scales:

28mm is continuing to dominate, but my "6mm every month" goal is helping to maintain the levels where I want them.  My sudden burst of 3mm inspiration, however, has completely blown the curve.

I have completed 147 of the initial 154 units I projected for this year, but changes in emphasis, and a re-evaluation of the lead pile has increased the number remaining to 98.  That said, I should still be able to complete the initial objective as it does contain the "low-hanging fruit" of several partially completed 3mm and 6mm projects.

Finally, where am I on project specific goals?

In terms of existing projects here are my 2017 goals:

• 1/6000 Naval - Complete the US Carriers and Capitol Ships 
• 6mm Moderns - Complete INF BDE for PLA and cold war USSR.  I am modifying this one some-what as I intend to simply purge my partial collection of PLA units and wrap up the USSR force with some Infantry Stands.  I have a sufficient collection to play any size scenario I want, and frankly the larger ones are better served with 3mm now.  
• 6mm Fantasy - Complete remaining figures (6 units)  I have all the major units done now, with only the odd command figure or specialty stand left to do.  I will continue to knock these out "as the mood takes me" as it were...

• 6mm Renaissance - Complete 4 Pike squares, units of Halberds, Cross-bows, and Handguns.
• Done, all of the on-hand figures are complete.  Long term I am planning to expand into some cavalry with this group, but I have far too much at 28mm waiting in the wings.  

• 6mm Napoleonics - Paint the %$&! Saxons. 
• Done, complete, the first outing is now entered into the historical record!

• 10mm ACW - Complete 2 Brigades of CSA Infantry and round out my last three Brigades of US Infantry.  Complete the Limbers necessary to provide status markers for 10 field pieces per side.
• Only a few regiments remain for each side.  Most of the figures are currently on-hand.  

• 15mm Halo - Paint the rest of the box set, and enough additional figures to get the game on the table this year.  
• The nephews cancelled their planned visit last spring, and have yet to make their way to the Palouse.  With the recent folding of Spartan Games, I suspect this will fall into the pile of orphaned projects.  
• 15mm Samurai Battles  - 2 units of cavalry, 2 units of Peasants and the Command tents.
• 28mm Imjin War - Complete 2 units each of Korean Cavalry, Heavy Infantry and Armored Archers
• Several units are now complete with another contingent of Korean Infantry awaiting highlights and final basing.  I plan on finishing a least two more Cavalry units and the last of the heavy infantry by years end. 

soon...

• 28mm Samurai - Paint four generals including Kato Kiymasa, Uesegi Kenshin and Takeda Shingen; Complete teppo for the Kato's division, complete teppo for Sohei; complete Pallisades for two sides.
• Not much action here in the last few months, but I managed to get another unit of Samurai near to completion as well as the last of the Palisades.  
• 28mm Renaissance - Complete another unit of Gendarmes, 2 units of Jinettes,  and another Imperial Pike Square.
• Five units completed including Jinettes, Pikes, and Handguns.  

New projects

• Jon's journey into Ancient Assyria prompted to genesis of a token force of Egyptians that promise to explode out of control in the near future.  
• A renewed interest in modern armored combat resulted in a significant expansion of my 3mm "Test Armies" to a full-fledged game ready collection
• I am currently considering expanding into 10mm Seven Years War.  If the feeling doesn't pass by November, I may just have to succumb.

This brings us back around to the "Project List" question currently bouncing around our little corner of the blogosphere.  I am a complete dilettante when it comes to painting and collection as my interests are wide spread and seem to change month to month.  When I first returned to historical wargaming, I set myself the long term goal of building representative collections from throughout the history of the United States Army.  I began with Modern and WWII microarmor and then expanded into 15mm ACW.  Since then I have tried other eras and have a few "orphan projects" to show for it.  I have also expanded my areas of interest greatly as I intersected with other hobbyists over the years.  The departure of a good friend and fellow ACW enthusiast in the late 90's also taught me the dangers of only collecting one side of a conflict, as I found myself in the possession of a sizable Union contingent  standing alone on the game table.

Linked with the above problem is the one of scale.  I find that I am historically out of touch with the direction the hobby is going in this regards.  When 15mm and 28mm exploded for WWII, I found little interest in my 6mm and 20mm collections.  I also continue to search for balance with the two types of games I like to run:  Mass Battles and Skirmish.  I have now settled on 6mm/10mm for my mass battle goals in the future and 28mm for my Skirmish gaming (as well as Impetus style games.)  I also continue to purge my entire collection of all of the painted figures done by others I collected in the early stages of my hobby.  (With the notable exception of those done by friends and compatriots which have their own sentimental value.)  

I suppose I need to break down the entire collection at some point, but just starting the process resulted in a spread sheet that looked like this:

And breaking this down could really cut into my painting time....

and preparing more figures for the purge

so many figures...