2010 in Review, Plans for 2011, Therapy for the Irishserb

No, no, I'm not starting treatment as a result of my hobby failures. This is the stuff that keeps me from getting goofier.


2010 was my least active year since getting involved in the hobby in the late 1970s. I played a total of only three games, bought fewer figs (actually only purchased around 30, probably about 700 less than the average year), and painted fewer figs than any year since 1979, and just generally got very little accomplished.


At the start of the year, I had high hopes, and figured I'd focus mostly on completing projects that had been on the back burner for some time. I did a little of that, but not nearly as much as I had hoped. My list of accomplishments and failures is as follows:



20mm Vietnam


Riverine Terrain - Completed a modular section of river with a canal, a significant accomplishment, but failed to build the old church, bunkers, or village inspired mostly by the book "Riverine". Of a targeted 78 square feet of modular foam terrain, I realized that I needed more like 40 square feet and completed 27 of it. Enough to get the game on the table, but also discovered that I need to make a range of smaller palm trees to better suit by 20mm stuff (as opposed to my 28mm colonials).


Village - Have two Britannia hooches primed and ready for paint.


PBRs - Completed Britannia PBRs and sampans. These took a lot more work than anticipated, as the PBRs were not accurately sculpted, and required a lot of modification.


Complete M113 and M48 kits - Completed the kits of 4x M113 and 1x M48, but need to re-weather four of the models as they got "frosted" during spray sealing.


Vietnam Civilians - Haven't even started on them yet.




15mm World War Two


US vehicles - Finally made castings of US vehicles that I mastered in the early 1990's. Around 70 vehicles are partially painted and awaiting decals and weathering.




15mm Modern Africa


Airport - Still need to Build airport/airbase for scenarios in my fictional campaign. Completed a design sketch, but got no further.


Presidential Palace - Build a presidential palace for the Mugabian (one of my fictional African countries) president. Designed.


Houses - Add at least 7 more houses and small shops to my collection of African buildings. Researched and designed.


T34/85 - Complete master and cast a company for the Mugabian army. Have plans.


BTR152 - Completed a company of BTR152s for my fictional African Army of Mugabia.


M2A2 - Completed and in the process of casting.


Uwanda Helicopters - Procured models for the Uwandan commandos (fictional Africa country again). Awaiting assembly.


Barricades - Make a bunch of "Mog" type barricades. Researched and designed.




15mm Afghanistan


Gaz66 - Complete master and cast a bunch of trucks for Soviet convoys and various duties in Afghanistan and Africa. Barely started.




28mm Science Fiction


Ayers' Farm - House still awaiting paint, farm buildings on the drawing board, the alien intruders will just have to be patient.


Ayers Family - Still need to pick up and paint figs for the rest of the family defending the farm.


Post Apocalypse Terrain - This project is well under way, but only maybe 20 percent complete. Below is a pic of all three of the dumpsters that hope to cast as bits of the debris in my PA world.





"Out West Town" - Complete the buildings that I have had half done in the basement for the last two years. Think route 66. Essentially no progress.


"The Hood" - Based on part of my childhood stomping-grounds, will provide the core of an inner city for contemporary/near future/ post apoc games. Involves completing several buildings already started and adding a few more. No progress.


Birdman Museum - Complete the birdman museum for the "Out West Town". The museum is inspired by those many roadside tourist trap museums that I saw as a child and will feature artifacts of the ancient "birdmen". Much to the surprise of the towns people, the birdmen will be coming for their holy relics. No progress. The pic below is of the "Birdman fossil" hopefully resembling a GW Kroot, who will serve as the collectors of the holy relics. This will serve as the center-piece item in the museum.






Scavenger Village Expansion - Additions to my post apocalypse scavenger village will include a couple ruined buildings/hovels, debris/junk heaps, and other various detail items for the village. No progress.


Contemporary Police Station - Build a police station for "The Hood". It may or may not double as a station for the "Out West" town. No progress.


Near Future Police station - Build either a new structure or more probably a futuristic addition to the contemporary police station for various near future scenarios. No progress.


Zombies - Buy and paint the Cold War Zombies. No progress.


Wasp CS Aircraft - Build the "Wasp" close support craft that I designed a couple of years back. It was literally inspired by watching a couple of wasps that were hanging around the back porch a couple of years ago. No progress.


Beetle Utility Transport - Build the "Beetle" transport aircraft , a companion to the Wasp, for my Imperial troops. Sort of a sci-fi "Huey". No progress other than tweaking the design a little.


Imperial APCs - Still need to scratch-build APCs for my "Imperials".


I had a couple of accomplishments that weren't on the list, which included completion of a couple of HAL-3 Seawolves UH-1 gunships to support my PBRs. Only had the kits setting on the shelf for 4 years, though they originally weren't going to be Seawolves. As it turned out, it was destiny, as the kits came with the proper decals.


Completed additional Mujahadeen to round out figs for the Soviet-Afghan War, a mix of Old Glory and QRF figs to add to my previous OG and Dragon's Hoard figs.




Summarizing 2010, I completed or made significant progress on 6 of 28 planned projects. Also, I completed 2 additional projects.




And now for the new projects for 2011:


20mm Vietnam


GunTruck, Troop Trucks, and Jeeps - Add about 7-8 vehicles of the various types to my Vietnam collection.




15mm Fictional Africa


US Marines - Paint the Peter Pig figs that I got for X-mas.


AAV7 Master - Complete and cast rides for my Marines.


ERC90 Master - Complete and cast so that my FFL have some firepower.

 As every sports fan must have said at some point; "Just wait 'till next year." 2011 fields 29 hobby projects for me, some silly, some nostalgic, some artistic, every one a passionate adventure in some way. It's going to be a great year, I can't wait to get started.