I got 144 miniatures painted in 2014. It is a pretty decent total.

#???: nine refurbished Horrorclix miniatures. These could arguably be counted as part of the tally, but I am not going to.

#???: Very, very many jungle terrain bases. Im not going to count these in the tally, but they took ages.

#???: Carnivorous Sand Clams. Again, I could arguably include these in the total I think, but Im not going to.

#??? – Battle Systems card terrain. Im not including this in the tally, but considering how much time it took to get it to it modular state, I felt the need to document it. It definitely ate into my painting schedule, although I think that it was worth it considering the gaming opportunities that it provides.
Some of the items in the tally are small, quickly painted affairs while others are far more significant in terms of their size and the corresponding resources that they demanded. I figure that those differing subjects balance out in general, so each counts as “one thing” in my total, whether its a tiny cat miniature or a big shuttlecraft.
Although the work that went into preparing the Deathworld jungle was very significant and a number of items from that project feature, I didnt count anything that essentially amounts to an unpainted/prepainted item that was glued to a base and subsequently textured. The jungle was a lot of work and required all my free time for a couple of weeks, but most of the elements do not really constitute painted miniatures. It is a fine line though.
Similarly, the Battle Systems card terrain took ages to punch out and assemble into a modular state. That time was all hobby time that I could have spent painting (and frankly I would have preferred to spend painting) but it doesnt show up here. Work on terrain is definitely worth it of course, but getting the balance right is tricky.
The total output is down ~25% a bit on last year, but I knew that 2013 was exceptional in terms of turnover. I had a slow down, not quite a total slump in output from around August until late November due to a variety of mainly good real life things taking up my time.
Paradoxically some of the extra time that I spent gaming with these and other models ate into time that I could have spent painting, which is a weird conflict of interests. The gaming side of things was busier for me than usual this year, which is great. A few different factors contributed to that (Pulp Alley, getting together with the O’Hammerers, extra enthusiasm from my oldest gaming buddy PB, the trip to BOYL and the games that I played with the guys at that, the Sector Six Crossover project, a few other things). Best of all is that many of those games played had literally been on my to-do list since 1988, so the year was one of the very best in terms of gaming really.
Finally, posts containing my painting tallies for previous years can be seen via the links below. They show changes in painting style and subjects and a slight improvement in photography (I think) in addition to experimentation that didnt always work out, but its all there if any of you fancy taking a look.
Thanks to anyone who has taken the time to comment on my toy soldier-y corner of of the internet over 2014. I have a whole load of other projects in various stages of production that should start to materialise very soon, so hopefully I will get to chat with some of you again in 2015.
Happy New Year!
Filed under: Editorial, Miniatures, Terrain | Tagged: 2014, Year in Review | 32 Comments »