2011 in review

I know its 29 days since the beginning of 2012, but it is high time that I sat down and looked at what I have actually done over the last 365 days.

1. Started an ImagiNation army: This was the major project for the year. As it stands right now, I have painted up 23 infantry and 10 cavalry. Not that much I know, but considering I only began the project in ernest six months ago and four of those six were spent in a funk, its not toooooo terrible in terms of production..

Goal for 2012: I have ether on hand or ordered 95% of the models I need to complete this project. I hope to finish 100% the whole army and once it suits my needs, add on new units here and there.

2. Custom space fleet: It took me about 3 weeks to sculpt and paint 53 ships. Production tapered off rather quickly after that surprising outburst of painting, but it still stands now that I have a rather large fleet in which to play with. I still have to sit down and actually design the load outs for each ship class, but since I have had a bit of a personal lul in space ship gaming, its not high on my priority list.

Goal for 2012: I have the material to produce another dozen of ships, so once my attention inevitably shifts back to painting spaceships, I will have some more models to build. Also as a goal is to design each ship class and play at least half a dozen games with them by years end.

3. 15mm Continuation War: Almost like my spaceships, I had a huge outburst of creative power and painted up a huge number of figures. Then again, its not all that difficult considering the scale in which the models are. After some wheeling and dealing with other members of my wargaming group, I have traded for 15mm Finns and Germans to face my hoard as well as some terrain on which to play.

Goal for 2012: Paint the German complement to my project, build some more terrain and get at least a few games in. Secondary goal is to look into a new ruleset to use as the current one is only alright at best.

Looking back on previous posts, my readers might be wondering what happened to all the other projects I had ongoing during 2011. Well to be honest, as I'm graduating soon enough and will have to make the move west to British Columbia, I went through a period of wholesale consolidation. In order to further higher priority projects, I traded away many of my projects.

The unwashed horde

I had a chance to take a few snaps of my 15mm Russian Continuation War project. All I have left to paint is 1 76mm Regimental Gun, 4 T-26 tanks and a company command stand. Even without the support of additional tanks, my Russians have been able to absolutely crush their Finnish opponents every single time. I doubt this is due to my incredible ability to command my unwashed horde (yet I seem always to have the worst of luck when playing historical games... T_T ), but more to the fact that the Finns (owned by Dan Hoyt) do not have any sort of support weapons. The 15mm collection is low on his priority list, with 150 plus Great War models left to paint.

15mm Russian horde

I originally set out to paint up a platoon of Russians for a fire-team scale skirmish game, but like other projects I start, it was hard to stop painting more figures. I still have enough models stripped and cleaned to make another rifle platoon, but I think I will put that on the back-burner as I want to move onto another project. All in all, over the last the last four months I have painted 200 infantry, 28 vehicles and 5 artillery pieces. Not bad considering I'm a full time student (oh and officer =/ ).

Breakdown of the "platoon":

-2 Platoon commands with 1 spotter team each
-1 Politruk / Commissar
-1 SMG section of 16 men
-3 Rifle sections of 16 men
-1 NKDV SMG section of 16 men with attached HMG team
-3 50mm mortar teams
-2 82mm mortar teams
-2 HMG teams
-4 AT rifle teams
-2 Recce teams of 6 men on 2 motorcycles each
-2 76mm Regimental / Infantry guns
-1 47mm AT gun
-1 76mm AT gun
-1 122mm howitzer
-3 T-34 / 76mm tanks
-2 SU-76 SPG
-2 T-26 tanks
-1 KV-2 tank
-4 Stalinet tractors
-4 Jeeps
-4 Trucks
-1 BA-10 Armored Car
-3 BA-64 Armored Cars

I would have to say that is is more of a understrength company then actual platoon. I've devised this force to be modular and have a great deal of variety in equipment as to create many types of scenarios.

A few things still need to be done before I can call it a completed project. It stands right now at about 98%. I have to paint up the two T-26 models and have a couple more vehicles on their way. The vehicles need bases (I've decided to base everything, just looks better on the table) and I have to order magnetic sheeting for all the bases.