Painting Challenge VI - EIR medium auxiliary cavalry

Another batch of models sent off to Curt, and displayed for the requisite time.  These are the first of my medium cavalry for the EIR.  This Auxiliary, the Alae I Thracum, will support the Legio II Augusta along with the Numidian light horse I finished earlier this year.

Alae I Thracum.  Half of them at any rate.

My 2012 Ouptut - For posterity's sake

These are my Assembled/Painted numbers for 2012.  I'll be keeping them here, just so I can compare, year on year.  Using Curt's point system for the Analogue Painting Challenge this is 934 points painted.  That's for a whole year, mind you.  Some of his contestants are closing on that after a couple of weeks.  I guess I'll need to try a lot harder this year.

Painted models just look so much better, I'm not sure why it's so hard to get motivated to paint them.

2012 In Review and 2013 Plans

How's that for an inspiring title.  I love seeing what everyone else plans for the year, and how last year's plans panned out (or more often did not).  Since a large part of my keeping this blog is to keep track of my hobby, I also look forward to seeing what the last year held for me.

This was the biggest accomplishment of the year.

Monthly Retrospective 4

Another month is done.  I'm still having a hard time keeping up with how quickly this year is going.  It's time for my obsessive compulsive side to kick in and take stock of May.  Considering I was on vacation for two weeks, with no internet or hobby access, I'm pleased with how it went.

Monthly Retrospective 3

Month four of 2012 is over.  This year is going blindingly fast, to me at least.  This was a productive month in some respects and not so much in others.

I started 15mm for Sci/Fi this month.  That's a big step.  I prefer 28mm models, and I'll still game in that scale.  The reasons I finally succumbed to the dark side of gaming are probably pretty familiar to all those that have already made the leap.  There is a huge, and ever expanding range of models.  They are dirt cheap.  They paint up quickly.  The terrain is much cheaper than 28mm.  There is freedom to build whatever force you want. (Technically this exists with 40k as well, but GW would have you believe that is not the case).  There are a ton of different rule sets out there.  I bought some test models, ARC fleet from CMG.  I liked them, even the infantry.  So I ordered a bunch of Sahadeen and two Vipers from Rebel Minis.  Those arrived yesterday and look very nice as well.  I'll be doing a review on them as I assemble them.  I'll need to put in another order to CMG to flesh out the first order, but that will give me two armies to game with.

Painted CMG ARC Fleet

Painted Romans

I have painted my first box of Romans.  I still need to put the decals on the shields and attach them, but I'm counting these as painted for April.

Command

Monthly Retrospective 2

Another month down and not as much to show for it as I would have liked.  Still, I like to take a look back to catalog the progress; it helps me to keep motivated.

I only got twelve models painted.  That's way below my, frankly tiny, goal of twenty.  Even if I add in the models from last month it doesn't average out to 40 in two months.  So, a bit of a failure there and it makes me somewhat sad.  On the other hand, I finished my Haradrim army for Lord of the Rings, so that is something to celebrate.  I'll hit them with some matte varnish this afternoon and be done with it.  This actually slowed me down because I didn't have another project queued up to work on.  I'm still doing conversion work on my Elves and I'm still assembling the Celts.  So, lesson learned.  Have projects ready to go on the paint table.  Second lesson:  paint consistently during the month.  Not exactly ground breaking, I know, but there you have it.

Monthly Retrospective 1

What did I accomplish this month?  A big part of the reason I keep this blog is to motivate myself to get things done.  I'm always happy to play; it's harder to get myself motivated to build terrain and, especially, to paint.

I painted twenty six models.  That beats my goal of twenty a month.  That's a success and having the month end deadline definitely helped.  I'm a "beat the deadline" kind of guy.  Tournaments, challenges, those work to motivate me.  Those twenty six are completely done, to table top standard, except for grass on the bases.  I plan, eventually, to come back and hit all of them with some more paint to spiffy them up before the Mayhem in the Mountains tournament in September.

I also played quite a bit this month.  I got in seven games, which is almost two a week.  I can't really complain about that.  One of them was a teaching game, which is always a good thing.  More opponents are always good.  I hope to be doing a lot more of those this year, leading up to and following the Hobbit, since we have a two or three year window where GW cares about the game.