2011 was sort of a rebirth in the hobby for me. I bought about ten times as many figs as in 2010, painted a couple hundred more than I bought, and played twice as many games (6, as opposed to 3 in 2010). Still, when compared to years past, it was just not like the old days.
Some projects saw a lot of progress, like my 15mm moderns, others like Vietnam, and much of my sci-fi interests were stuck in stasis. I've also considered that I may need to further streamline some of my interests to ever have hope of completing anything ( I purged 12 other periods a few years back). I'm going to drop a few things to start this year, see how things progress by mid-year, and make some bigger changes if need be.
20mm Vietnam
Riverine terrain- Added palm trees and some foliage pieces.
Village- completed the two Britannia hoochs that I have.
Riverside Bunkers- Completed some research, and might have enough to build from, but no model work completed.
No progress was made on the following, so all of the following are on the slate for 2012:
The Old Church
M113 and M48- Completed, but need re-weathered due to painting mishap
Civilians
Gun truck
Troop Trucks- Purchased
Jeeps
Also for 2012, I'll add to the list:
OV-10 Bronco- Purchased
15mm World War Two
Add decals and weather about 70 US vehicles- No progress in 2011, other than Decals have been purchased.
For 2012:
US infantry- Fill in a few voids for my armored infantry company, and motorised infantry company.
57mm AT guns- Again to complete the armored infantry company.
15mm Modern Africa (and elsewhere)
15mm Modern Africa and 15mm modern in general is where I made my biggest gains.
T34/85- Completed master and cast and painted a company plus for modern Africa.
BTR152K- Completed last of a company of these early in the year.
M2A2- Completed casting and painted a platoon, with the rest of the company still awaiting paint.
AAV7A1- Completed master, cast and painted enough for my Marines
ERC-90- Completed master and painted a platoon with the rest of the company awaiting paint.
Also completed:
Added around 50 15mm militia troops.
Mugabia Air defense- Completed SA8, SA9s, and a variety of towed AA guns (57mm, 23mm, 14.5mm)
T-55- Completed a company plus of T-55
PT-76- Completed a platoon of light tanks.
US Marines- Painted a company of Marines
Cuban Advisers- Painted a platoon of "advisers"
VBLs- Painted enough VBLs for a recon company
M1114 Humvees- Finally assembled and painted my own Humvees, around 25 of the various models.
Presidential Guard- Painted the Mugabian Presidential Guard, about 30 figs.
Aircraft Stands- Built my first aircraft stands.
Aircraft- Completed 2x Strikemaster, 2xG91, 2x Mig21, and a C-47.
Uwanda Air Defense- Completed two M42 Dusters to give Uwanda some defense against against Mugabian aircraft.
For 2012:
Uwanda Helicopters- Are setting on the bench right now to be built.
Airport
Presidential palace
Houses
Barricades
Panhard M3
VLRA
15mm Afghanistan (Soviet-Afgan War)
DRA Infantry- Completed a platoon of Afghan troops to fight along side the Soviets.
For 2012 (still):
Gaz66 - Complete master and cast a bunch of trucks for Soviet convoys and various duties in Afghanistan and Africa. Slightly more than barely started.
28mm Science Fiction
With the exception of my post-apoc terrain, my sci-fi projects were completely ignored in 2011
Post Apocalypse Terrain - I've made great progress on this, but had to put it aside in February, and haven't been able to make any significant progress since. I'm planning for it to be a winter project, so hopefully, I will make some headway soon.
For 2012:
"Out West Town" - Complete the buildings that I have had half done in the basement for the last two years. Think route 66.
"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.
Some of the buildings that I started some time ago for "The Hood".
All made of sheet styrene.
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 town's people, the birdmen will be coming for their holy relics.
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.
Contemporary Police Station - Build a police station for "The Hood". It may or may not double as a station for the "Out West" town.
A game set-up using some of the "scavenger village" pieces.
A close-up of one of the modular bunkers/towers.
The whole thing comes apart allowing the bunkers and towers to
be use separately as well
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.
Zombies - Buy and paint the Cold War Zombies.
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.
Beetle Utility Transport - Build the "Beetle" transport aircraft , a companion to the Wasp, for my Imperial troops. Sort of a sci-fi "Huey".
Imperial APCs - Still need to scratch-build APCs for my "Imperials".
New for 2012 (Because I don't have enough on my plate already):
The Cold War gets Hot:1977-1982
I'm a child of the Cold War, and I guess in a weird way, I miss the stability of the constant threat of nuclear incineration. As a kid, I was aware of the threat from a fairly young age ( heck, I was 5 years old, when I began considering whether I was going to go to Vietnam or Canada, when I got drafted), but never seriously believed that the adults of the world would do something so stupid as World War III. Silly me. Anyway, now that it is all a memory, I want to play out some the battles that never were. Despite being behind on everything that I wanted to do in 2011, I got a jump start on my Cold War project. The advantage of this project is that many of my Afghan war and African items can be used in the Cold War era games (Soviet armor and infantry, older US equipment, etc) So here is were it stands and the plans for 2012.
Completed in 2011
M113A1- Master completed, company cast, platoon painted.
US Infantry- Infantry Platoon and some support units painted, missing a few figs, but basically done.
For 2012 (Vehicles involve either making a master and casting them or buying the miniatures):
T62
T72
BMP1
BMP2
M163
M125
M150
M901
M1
M60A1
M60A2
Soviet MR infantry- Round out 2 Soviet MR companies
Soviet Airborne- Round out one Soviet Para company
28mm Colonial Adventure
Some years ago, I had put together a colonial era adventure game (that I simply called "Ponape") set in the Pacific, largely inspired by the movie "Nate and Hayes", greatly expanded, and with a touch of Victorian sci-fi added in. I ran the game several times at local HMGS conventions and at Origins once, but got put-off a bit after run-ins with the "not historical enough" crowd. Some outside circumstances impacted my convention going opportunities about the same time, and the game has been stacked in the corner of my garage for the last 7-8 years. I almost sold off the stuff a couple of years back. Anyway, I think I'm going to start sorting through the stuff, give some of it a face lift, and move it from my "never played" games to my rotation of "hardly ever played" games.
An early version of "Ponape" from the native side of the island. showing the
native village, jungle, and town, and Spanish fortress in the background.
A better view of the fortress, with one of the the 28mm scratch-built ships in
the foreground.
Research Project: Kursk.
I've recently taken a particular interest in gaming Kursk in 1/285, and after poking around on TMP and elsewhere, have put together a reading list and list of other resources to go through. I already have a large portion of the miniatures that I'd need, so this will primarily be a terrain project if it comes to anything.
France 1940 Terrain Project 1/285:
If Kursk does not materialize, I may go back to one of my long time interests, and build one of the 1940 battlefields that I've wanted to do for so long. Stonne is a possible target, as are six other locations. The research is done, as are the majority of miniatures. I actually started this a few years back, ordering a bunch of micro-scale buildings, but they had so many air bubbles, that it was faster to scratch-build my own, than fix the purchased models. I ended up getting burnt-out on the buildings, and benched the project.
Some of the 1/285 buildings that I made during my first go at a 1940 battlefield.
Though, they weren't all on my list at the start of the year, I managed to complete 22 "projects" of varying scope during 2011. A tremendous increase over the 6 completed in 2010. Hopefully I can improve further on the trend for 2012.
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Sounded and looked good to me....keep it going and coming.
ReplyDeleteSuperb! An inspiration for their own deeds!
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