2022 Wrap up

Over all a total failure. I played hardly any games. I missed a bunch of Cons. There was a ton of 15mm RF&F added tot he collection. A butt ton of pirates were painted.

Paint, Sell, and stop buying collections or armies.

        **** No buying terrain. 
        **** No buy armies or collections.
        **** Sell off the dust collecting items

        **** Develop new players

        **** TO and GM games at Cons 

    This was a total failure. I bought both terrain and armies. I bought collections. I did zip with new players, and GMing. I did get to TO but that was because Dave dropped out and I setpped in!

Year's Plans

         Everything is purchased, minis and terrain. There are current 8 minis in the works. All only a day's or so work away. There terrain is in various states. I will be traveling with these and hopefully finishing everything in the first 6 months of the year.

            1st will be a female dominated group. Then a traditional group. Once over 50% of the way in, I will start to teach VV. Once one group is done. There is a local group of players.

          Well this exploded. I bought a collect and a board. I bought a shit ton of minis. I did play a few times with VV. Over a hundred pirates have been painted. I can field the female sailors and colonial Spanish.

            This was the best experience of the year. I grow to enjoy painting 28s. My skill set has improved. This whole bit got my read about an era in history I never cared too much about.

RF&F

          The Cavalry has to get done. 90% of the Union is complete. I have the first 30 CSA guys half way blocked in. Their horses are finished and waiting.

           At Little Wars I will run Stones River again, and another scenario.

           I think I will try to run Culpeper Courthouse at the LBHA convention. This will need more Cavalry done.

                     This turned out better than expected. I bought a massive Cavalry collection. The whole thing was touched up, dipped, rebased and flocked. None of the original Cavalry I had got touched. Zero.

                I was again able to buy another massive collection at Cold Wars. This will get the same treatment as the last next year. The one exception is I will sell half of it off after Cherry Picking. 

                        In the end I will have enough to do any battle in any theater with only the table and play time limiting the scale of the scenario.

By Fire and Sword

Zero was done. Nothing!

Muskets and Tomahawks

Zero was done. Nothing!

Warmaster Ancients

Zero was done. Nothing!

Epic

The sallies will get finished. Some how?

            The Sallies never got touch. Some World Eaters got love. The Tau got some repairs. The Imperial Fists started to see some action. 

Mountain

2022

Bought = 1289 + a collection + 3 Armies

Sold = 76, 14 Buildings, 22 detachments + 3 Armies + a game

Painted = 763

28mm = 88

20mm = 45

15mm = 342

10mm = 0

Epic = 36

Terrain bought = 82
Terrain painted = 248

Printed Terrain = 16

Games

Games played = 40

Games hosted = 15

2021

Bought = 366 + an army

Sold = 0

Painted = 841

Books

Bought = 19
Read = 10

Dark Realms Buccaneer Bay Warehouse

        This is another beast. The footprint is as big as the City of Corsairs watch tower. It took 2.5 rolls and 3 weeks to print. Due to the size everything but the doors were printed on the ender.\

        The building would contain an entire game of 1666 or the POI in any other game. This guy will get painted next year as part of the New England hobby challenge.

    

        Way back on black Friday Filament was 9 bucks a roll. I ordered 15. They showed up last week.

        

        The Flashforge is printing the City of Corsairs building 1. The 1st floor and ground floor will have to be printed on the Ender.

Mountain

2022

Bought = 1289 + a collection + 3 Armies

Sold = 76, 14 Buildings, 22 detachments + 3 Armies + a game

Painted = 763

28mm = 88

20mm = 45

15mm = 342

10mm = 0

Epic = 36

Terrain bought = 82
Terrain painted = 248

Printed Terrain = 16

Games

Games played = 40

Games hosted = 15

2021

Bought = 366 + an army

Sold = 0

Painted = 841

Books

Bought = 19
Read = 10

 

Blood and Plunder Last for the year

        These are the last minis to be painted this year. 28mm mini painting does not give you that high volume of painted dudes in a year. It was a rewarding year painting 28s. 

Musketeer from the 1666 pin ups and a Black Scorpion mini.

Mountain

2022

Bought = 1289 + a collection + 3 Armies

Sold = 76, 14 Buildings, 22 detachments + 3 Armies + a game

Painted = 763

28mm = 88

20mm = 45

15mm = 342

10mm = 0

Epic = 36

Terrain bought = 82
Terrain painted = 248

Printed Terrain = 13

Games

Games played = 40

Games hosted = 15

2021

Bought = 366 + an army

Sold = 0

Painted = 841

Books

Bought = 19
Read = 10

Epic 30K Imperial Fists

            Ever since seeing the Spanish player's 30k Imperial Fists. I have been printing away, what I never got in Forumware. There I go starting another side project.The Sallies are 30K also. The Sallies still need to be finished. They are not even half way done.  Then the World Eaters are 30k and I have a lot for them in the mountain!

            It is not exactly another project. I am short a few detachments for the Cold Wars army. Yes this year I am back to planing and play testing the army I will take. I am not taking IFs, a tactical heavy SM list. The IFs are my largest and most kitted SM painted army.

            In getting those detachments done I learned that using Epic scale to start at the hotel got me to paint more 28s. Epic doesn't have that challenge 28mm creates in my head. In that way I find myself sitting down to paint sooner. A few Epic dudes later and I am smashing out 28s.

        Metal or plastic, original or printed or forumware everything gets primed flat white. Then soaked in P3 and followed be an AP soft wash. That was the original way the army was done years ago, straight out of the note notebook. The bottle of P3 is about gone. The new P3 is not the same. Sooooo

        I want try out the Xpress yellow. The Nuclear Yellow looks to be both the P3 and the AP soft wash in one. Anything that will cut down the number of steps. And the new P3 sucks!

    One more tactical detachment. Maybe the last one done the old way.

Mountain

2022

Bought = 1289 + a collection + 3 Armies

Sold = 76, 14 Buildings, 22 detachments + 3 Armies + a game

Painted = 761

28mm = 86

20mm = 45

15mm = 342

10mm = 0

Epic = 36

Terrain bought = 82
Terrain painted = 248

Printed Terrain = 13

Games

Games played = 40

Games hosted = 15

2021

Bought = 366 + an army

Sold = 0

Painted = 841

Books

Bought = 19
Read = 10

More resin crack

 

         There are only so many dudes for common elements in production. 4 of the same dude is boring and sucks to paint the same guy over and over. Once again I am after pirates and 1666 minis to make armies/collection more interesting.

                                         

        Check out this one. Look at the packaging it came in. How many minis has this one ship that were broken during shipping? You would have to be out of your mind just to get to this point.

        This poor bastard buys special boxes. Prints a special holder. Prints a special base. I can't image the busted minis this guy has had in shipping to get to this point!

        For the Eastern Theater.

        Got to have the Prince and monkey. The kid is a Disney fan. 1666 rules should do excellent representing this.

Mountain

2022

Bought = 1289 + a collection + 3 Armies

Sold = 76, 14 Buildings, 22 detachments + 3 Armies + a game

Painted = 752

28mm = 86

20mm = 45

15mm = 342

10mm = 0

Epic = 27

Terrain bought = 82
Terrain painted = 248

Printed Terrain = 13

Games

Games played = 40

Games hosted = 15

2021

Bought = 366 + an army

Sold = 0

Painted = 841

Books

Bought = 19
Read = 10

Etsy circus

 

        There are a ton of excellent one off minis all over Etsy. 6-8 bucks a mini with shipping. Not GW prices but not cheap. And you know they are printed for about 30 cents. The problem is the print farmers. They don't understand scale. They have no quality control in scale. 

        Examples being mini can be listed at 28mm and will come 25 to 32mm. Those at 32 will come up to 48 or 54mm. When questioned and reprints requested they push back stating the listing. Yeah its says 32 and the mini came at 44 or 37 or 50.  

        Then how a mini's scale is determined is unknown. Minis are measured from foot to eye. 80% of them measure from foot to the top of the head. 19% include the printed/attached base in the measurement. 1% actually know what they are doing. 

        Even if you tell them wargaming 28mm scale. They will be 25-32mm. They cannot get it right.

                I think all of this could be solved by the designers of these stls. If they could keep it together enough to scale everything the same, the farmers life would be easy. An example here is the Warmaster minis out there. They are all scaled properly. And then there are those printing Epic. That will come from 6 to 12mm with no reason.

        Now getting them reprinted it another battle. The farmers have to be backed into a corner to reprint the shit they fucked up. It take formal complaints to the host to get any traction.

        You can get very interesting minis to break up the limited number produced in the available lines. You need to understand it will be a FUBARed circus. You may never get what you wanted in the end.

        In the end. Life will be easier if you buy or trade for the stls and print the minis yourself!

Back Out on the Road Year end

 

        This has been a year on the road. Normally I sit for weeks. Not this time. A Lot was done and many more opportunities wasted. In the first few months the HVAC systems were poisoning me. Too many times I skipped painting and the gym watching Archer. 

        The rest of my schedule is clear. I am on vacation the last two weeks of the year. I do not believe I will be sent out again. 

        I have collected 876k points this year. I think I could have gotten a million in a half if I focused on two chains.

        Lessons Learned;

                The Holiday Inns are great for points. 6 or 700k points a year is easy! The lighting sucks and some brands of hotels within IHG do not have a nice place to paint.

                The Marroit chains have good lighting with the Courtyard having the best area to paint at. Points are hit or miss. If there is a good promotion and extras points at booking, you can collect a free night a week. 300k points are about all you can get. This is also where HistoriCon and Little Wars are held.

                The Hilton chains are the wildest. Some crazy people stay there. Points are the worst to collect. The lighting is never the same. The desk area is good.

                    I will focus on Courtyards, Plazas, and Full service Holiday Inns next year. I will be the highest status for both next year. Hilton are out. Best Westerns are out. 

                My kit has been fully sorted. I can fly with it without having to change anything now. Before I would pull item for size and weight restrictions. I have doubles for all those primary paints. That way flying only mess with those. Flying does weird shit to paint. I have vortex mixer that remains in my flight bag.

                Lighting still needs to be sorted. I had a lamp. It sucked sort of and then broken. I have a rechargeable headlamp job that hangs around your neck. Thats is pretty good. The beam focus distance is terrible. I will be searching for a new lamp in the 2023. 

Holiday Week painting

            One of the three 4 day weeks that happen every year. I am a traveling guy with no local work site. No one wants to pay for 2 days travel for one day's work. So I sit. I have sat since Fall In. This normally happens serval times a year. Not this year. This is the first. I have been gone every week since February. 

            I have been home long enough to restart the Photon printer. My doc wanted an item printed. My old files would print. New ones would not. I had to reteach myself supports. I was not tilting the object correctly and too few supports. It runs finally, 6 days later.

I am out of 25mm, 3mm ply circles. They come 100 to a bag. It was hard to believe there were none left. I searched and searched. None, nothing, no nada. Meaning I have painted 90 plus pirates already?

        These were the two dudes I got at Fall In. This dude had a bunch of pirates from who knows where. He wanted 20 for the box. These were the only two interesting minis in the lot. I offered a 5er for the 2.

        She is a 3D titty girl. A very skinny one. The last few had been all brightly colored. A darker colored depressed religious English bird.

        The vinnies came from Marauder Industries. They are twice as big as the originals. I will keep them for now. There is 3, because my wifi touched my stuff.

        The yellow also came out too dark. It is a question of touch them up or print some in the correct size.

        The Fists are getting the love. Mostly due to a list I want to play and I am short detachments. I fought with and got the Photon up. I have most everything in metal. I want additional characters and sergs on the bases. all of which pitched me down the rabbit hole of 30K goodness.

        Printed Razorbacks and Destroyers. Aussie Tacticals in MKII

        Old school Rhinos and a Hunter. A printed Dorn. As I get a better look at him, his sword and other details did not come out. I will have to print him again. Different angle and exposure, maybe 10% larger.

        Touch ups to the chipped minis and a new Fellblade coming a long.

Mountain

2022

Bought = 1273 + a collection + 3 Armies

Sold = 76, 14 Buildings, 22 detachments + 3 Armies + a game

Painted = 752

28mm = 86

20mm = 45

15mm = 342

10mm = 0

Epic = 27

Terrain bought = 82
Terrain painted = 248

Printed Terrain = 13

Games

Games played = 40

Games hosted = 15

2021

Bought = 366 + an army

Sold = 0

Painted = 841

Books

Bought = 19
Read = 9