2023 Retrospective

On the last day of 2023, time for some introspection.

The main reason I started this blog was to monitor progress; it's useful to be able to look back at what has been achieved or hasn't made it off the slipway (or even drawing board).

Soldier King project

Has felt like slow going this year. Did manage to finish the Electoral army, but failed to make progress with the remainder. Stumbling block has been mostly work and lethargy and apathy when off, but also hit a block with Banst. They got converted, primed and started - two units of infantry - then nothing. There were plans to crack on with them last week, but after taking the box down, I put it away again! 

Started pulling together notes from various places into a gazeteer, so at least it's all in one place. This has however identified more characters that need personalities and made me wonder if another planned army needs expanding as it's likely to be the first flashpoint from the relationships I've diced for between states.

Also toyed with producing army standards for the main protagonists with Fimo standard bearers. Got as far as making up some Atlantic plastic horses.

One achievement (?) has been to corrupt my friend Eric into buying a copy of the game for his own Imagi-Nations campaign after seeing my armies. He has even started a blog:

https://brownspreadandyellowfruit.blogspot.com/

Arab-Israeli project

This has slowly ground along in the background. Have worked on various vehicle conversions off and on throughout the year. It doesn't help that everytime I look at pictures of the real vehicles I notice some small details I've missed. Lifting hooks on Sherman turrets for goodness sake! I think it's just an avoidance mechanism to put off painting them....

There have been developments on the Arab side with the acquisition of 1:87 scale BTR-152s. I had planned to use Roskopf models, but these are closer to 1:100. I had told myself they were OK, but had not really believed it.....

I've also got more Gaz jeeps and trucks....

Other butterfly distractions

Got very distracted by restarting FIW, which led into digging out the old 25-30mm armies (including SYW) and inevitably buying yet more second hand figures; in fact it was the discovery of some Rafm Flint & Feather range figures that started this! Then found some RSM with enough to finish off the French and cover the British.....

Got as far as priming some British and Indians for Contrast paints.....

Keep getting distracted by old or planned projects; SCW (old), Flodden and Italian wars (new), WotR (old) and it doesn't help when other bloggers tempt you! 

Martin Rapier has been producing 15mm WW2 Desert war stuff: (https://tgamesweplay.blogspot.com/search/label/Desert)

I have tons to paint in both this scale and 20mm (don't ask!)

And David in Suffolk played DBA ancients, which led to digging out some 15mm armies before sanity prevailed:

https://russetcoatcpt.blogspot.com/2023/12/dba-first-try-at-first-edition.html

I suspect I'm looking for some "quick wins" - stuff that can be painted quickly using Contrast paint and washes. The ECW experiments were not encouraging. Unfortunately, it means lots of cleaning up before further attempts.

I did go to two wargames shows this year and probably more significantly was persuaded by fellow SSM enthusiast Willz to join the Virtual Wargames Club (VWC). While I was initially hesitant, it has been hugely enjoyable to make new friends and finally "meet" old ones such as Eric (known many years on the Society of Daisy group) or other bloggers.

So, onwards to 2024 with the hope of achieving more by way of painting and perhaps, even gaming.