Well, it's been A Year, hasn't it? It all got a bit fraught at times. Still, I've gotten some stuff done, which I'll take. Getting anything done is plenty.
The first goal I set myself for the year was to paint more than I bought.
While my commission painters did well here, painting 49 for the 33 I bought, I did less well. I got 78 models done, but purchased a staggering 651. Whoops.
One of my big problems here was that the moment I went "over" I kind of gave up and everything became terrible forever. So, how can I get that more under control?
I'm going to review how it goes, but my plan for January to March is to try and assemble anything I bought in the previous month. (Metal stuff is still going to someone else due to allergies in the flat.) If that doesn't happen in a month, it's time to lay off the purchases. The idea here is that I stress less about picking up something limited edition or short run, as I immediately turn the excitement of buying it into productivity of getting it assembled and ready to paint.
The next goal was to paint 60 models. All good here. I counted a few little jobs that didn't involve painting, including some pre-painted scenery and some prep for the EIC, but even without those, I still got 60 Actual Figures painted.
However, in terms of "projects" - armies and games - I got very little done indeed. Almost all my time ended up going on the small pieces I paint in between those bigger jobs.
Is that a bad thing? Kind of. I'm keen to get more progress on "projects" this year. This isn't going to be a hard and fast rule, though. More something to consider when I'm picking what to paint.
I need to avoid any "quick wins" that are in fact hellish time consuming things that take forever and put me off painting. I'm looking at you, beautiful but fiddly Aenor Trolls. The job of the "quick wins" is to get me things finished quickly so I feel motivated and accomplished.
First up, I need to finish what I've got "in progress" at the moment. On the paint station, that's the Aenor Trolls and one of the Malifaux Viktorias. In assembly land, that's the Skaven Gnawholes. Oh, and my contribution to the club's Battlemasters project is a must do!
I think I've also got my Shasvastii painting scheme down pat now, so I may grab one or two of those as my "relaxing miniature" when my project piece is something that's different to them.
In terms of volume, I'm going to step up from this year's total and try and build on it. Can I get a hundred miniatures painted this year? It's a fun goal to set myself.
For January to March, I'm going to focus on three projects. Firstly, Finishing The Existing Stuff, that I mentioned above. Secondly, a new and exciting project: Some Warhammer Underworlds. And finally, getting some solid progress on my Shasvastii.
I'm also going to try and pay closer attention to my "Work in Progress" limits. I've separated stuff out now into "Projects" and "Fun Paints". As before, there shouldn't be more than a year's worth of stuff assembled and ready to paint, and there shouldn't be more than a year's worth of stuff piled up untouched.
The Project Situation is not going to get fixed this year, so we can stop that getting worse by getting stuff assembled as soon as it gets in. With almost nothing done project wise last year, if I get some solid progress this year I can take a good hard look at how many outstanding projects I have at the end of the year. I've already sent my Sisters of Battle off to a commission painter to reduce the number of unstarted projects.
The idea will be to have a rolling set of three projects, ideally over three months. So I get some project progress in a month, then park that and move onto something new that I'm enthused about. Twelve significant project progresses in a year would be great.
Meanwhile, on the "Fun things" front - I want both the "Ready to Paint" and "To Do" piles comfortably under a year's worth of paints. This is kind of super easy. I've got 99 things in these two columns at the moment, so if over the next year I paint 33 things and buy nothing, all would be peaceful and well.
Obviously, I have a few bits and pieces here and there already ordered that will Not Help on this front. But three of these a month Plus Whatever I Buy is still pretty achievable.
No comments:
Post a Comment