My review of what I completed in 2023

Of course, at the start of the year I had many good intentions, so, how did I do? The picture below is something I didn't plan, but it came up quite early on as something I wanted to paint.

They were two North Star figures that were the subject of a painting challenge set by Nick Eyre, the North Star supremo. I think they turned out pretty well although I didn't win. The standard was really high and I never expected to win. It was fun painting them, though

Here were my actual plans;

15mm WW2 British Airborne support options for Chain of Command (these will be my January priority).

15mm WW2 German support options for Chain of Command

Stargrave plastic box sets for Xenos Rampant armies

Various other plastic sets that will work for Xenos Rampant with head and weapons swaps.

28mm Spanish for Sharp Practice 

28mm Bloody Miniatures 17th century troopers

28mm 17th century Bicorne Miniatures Pikemen and Musketeers (these will augment my existing Bloody Miniatures figures to make up useful forces for various sets of rules)

15mm extra units for my SYW Honours Of War army, infantry and artillery mostly

28mm Wild West figures for Dead Man's Hand and anything else.

15mm Renaissance army for Sword and Spear Fantasy (with a Warhammer Fantasy Empire theme)

15mm Northwest Frontier Imperial and Afghan forces and buildings (this is a new project)

Continuing building up my scenic collection in 15mm and 28mm, including lots of 28mm Sci Fi scenics

1/285 scale 8th Army and DAK for O Group

Crossfire 15mm US infantry company

15mm WW2 1943-45 British/Commonwealth infantry for the Far East.

28mm Pulp figures for all sorts of things (I have too many of these in my leadpile)

Additions to my 28mm Perry plastic Renaissance collection

Silver Bayonet - I completed a Spanish band

28mm Soviet Women, also for Chain of Command (from the Bad Squiddo Kickstarter)

28mm Late Roman skirmishing and armoured cavalry, and cataphracts too.

15mm Romano-British "Arthurian" army for Sword and Spear Fantasy

If the above is highlighted in green, I achieved it as planned. If it is in yellow, I started it but have plenty left to do and if it is in blue, it is an ongoing project. Scenics will always come under that heading.

 Anything not highlighted hasn't been started and will probably get dropped for 2024, although I now have the North-west Frontier figures and they might get looked at during the year. In the case of the 15mm SYW extra units, that isn't going to happen at all.

The Bicorne Miniatures stuff is almost completed. I did all the Musketeers and the Pikemen are almost finished, so they will get done quite soon, hopefully. They were victims of the dose of Painter's Block I had during the last couple of months of 2023.

Overall, I am reasonably happy with what I actually achieved but it was a case of Could Try Harder.

I'll do a separate post covering my 2024 plans soon. I have fewer firm objectives for the coming year, and a few ideas for side projects to stop me getting bored. What I want to avoid is getting dragged off down rabbit holes and buying stuff because I suddenly get a burning desire to start something that looks interesting. I expect it'll happen, though.