2023 Review - I've painted a bit more than previously shown

 Hi everyone!

Each end of the year, I say to myself that I should/will write a review and announce projects for the future... and never do it. Why not ? I see several good, or bad, reasons:

- so many people write a review, why another ?

- it's not something to write in February or March

- it sounds too much like office work

- it's boring to read, I prefer to look at painted minis

- it will only reveal that all my projects are late!!!

Does it sound familiar to some of you ? Nevertheless, it would be great to write such a report at least once, and insert pictures of never displayed-so-far figures, and prove that this year, I've upgraded my painter status from SLOW to REASONABLY SLOW. Oh yes, that would be great, so let's go.

2023 Review - a year of painting minis

 

For the first time since I've been in the hobby, I've been painting more than 200 minis and scenery elements in a year - compared with less than 100 in 2022, and an average number around 120 during the five previous years.

Figures	199
Scenery Elements	4
Total	203

Most of the scenery elements are on display in this post: Pigs at Risk!!.

 But what about the minis ? What period, what size, for what purpose?

 

1. Size

Let's start with the size. The title of this blog claims that it is mostly dedicated to 1/72 figures, but the last posts were all related to 28mm - maybe a new direction for the future ? Let's count what was painted and take time to analyze.

1/72 figures	152
28mm figures	47
Total	199

75% of the painted minis are in 1/72 scale, so I can still say that the One True Scale remains my first area of interest. The ratio between the two scales was the same last year, but 2022 and 2023 have seen a change compared to the previous years when 1/72 figures represented up to 90% of the painted minis. The main reason is that, last year, I could convince my son to give Kings of War a try, and so reuse his old Warhammer Undead figures against my much older Orcs that you have seen in the previous posts. These Orcs represent almost 75% of the 28mm paintjob in 2023.

2. Historical vs Fantasy vs SF

Historical	Fantasy	SF
118	78	3
59 %	39 %	2 %

 Still more historical than Fantasy figures - SF is more casual, only a few Star Wars figures for Empire Assault, and you can see them here:

The Empire and its Associates wish you a Happy New Year!

 

A very representative year actually, since you'll find the very same proportions if you count the posts of this blog by period (on the left panel of this blog, web version):

I would have thought that the time dedicated to painting 28mm Orcs would increase the Fantasy digits, but no. On the other hand, painting a 28mm mini is longer than a 1/72 one :)

 

3. Historical periods

All historical figures I paint are exclusively 1/72, we now count them by period:

Ancients	25	21 %
Medieval	15	13 %
Napoleonics	76	32 %
Others	2	2 %
Total	118	100 %

That's very unusual: I've painted way more Napoleonics than the previous year, and displayed none on
the blog so far. Actually, I didn't show any of the historical figures painted this year, except for the 2 medieval pigs in Pigs at Risk!! :D

That's something I want to make up right now, here you are some of them:

Enguerrand, Templar Knight, wishes you a Heavenly New Year

The Dragoons of the 12th regiment wish you another Sun of Austerlitz

Aymé, simple soldier in the Régiment du Lyonnais, wishes everybody a pair of dry socks

 

4. And the projects... ?

Some good news, and some not so good. The good news:

- My DBA Early German and Imperial Roman armies are based and ready for action

- the first step of restoration of my old 28mm Orcs army is done - still enough figures for the next two years. I don't want, and I can't be faster, I won't paint green monsters every day.

- the pile of WIP figures has clearly diminished, since I forced myself to finish some minis that were on my desk for years. Reduction from 50 to 10, including many Celts that I should show you one of these days.

The not so good news:

- My Mythologic armies are in the same condition as at the start of the year - except for the Mythologic Greeks who count now 5 minotaurs and 3 more Amazons

- nothing new concerning Ostland since the beginning of the year, idem for Conan

- 4 more archers for my DBA HYW English are not enough

5. Conclusion

As you all know already, I am not a mono-project guy. I don't like to paint several times the same uniform, and even less the same mini (Napoleonic battalions are a real pain), but I like the result, so I keep on painting for several parallel projects, and switching from the one to the other according to my mood. And of course, dear readers, your own projects are always a temptation to copy!

But a hobby is not a job: I paint what I want, when I want to, and fortunately I'm most of the time happy with the result. 

Hope you didn't find all this too boring. We're at the end of this post, and it is time to wish you all a happy new year !!