2023 in Review

Looking back on 2023 there were a number of aspects which were quite satisfying. 

On the figure painting front the final tally was 1261 figures, all 15/18mm comprised of 1241 foot and 20 horses. On top of this I also managed to complete 294 GHQ WWII ships vessels (to give a total of 319) across six different navies such as the Japanese and Italian fleets below:

This was particularly satisfying on two counts. Firstly, I finally managed to paint my entire GHQ collection, some of which had been languishing in the pile for ten years, and secondly because the German, Japanese and Royal Navy ships actually saw some game time using my gaming friend Dale's Mediterranean sea mat (as opposed to my much darker deep sea mat for which the bases were intended):

Gaming with Dale every second Tuesday since around June introduced a bit more variety into my gaming regimen, and we also played several very enjoyable games of Black Sails and are aiming for our first game of For King and Parliament, hopefully by the end of February. To this end I have made a return to my ECW project and have now completed eight regiments each of Royalist and Parliamentarian foot, with six regiments of Scottish Covenanters completed over the Christmas/New Year break currently being based:

Aside from the above, I also managed to complete a 15mm Medieval German army which I had started in 2022, and which also saw table time with my fortnightly Saturday DBMM gaming group:

Most of 2023 with my Ancients gaming group was however spent engaged in an enjoyable biblical campaign as we worked our way through DBMM Army List Book 1, with me deploying Early Carthaginians on at least four occasions and playing in at least twenty games.

As far as blog posts go, I note that I am fifteen posts lighter than 2022. This was mainly because I found myself getting so carried away with, for example, painting the USN fleet or four regiments of ECW foot, that I usually opted to just keep going and assemble them en masse. In retrospect this has been a mistake as I end up not liking the photos as there are too many long shots which I have had to angle in order to keep the towering boxes either side out of picture.

Which raises two uncomfortable realisations. 

Purchases for 2023 were much reduced, especially as I swore at the beginning of the year not to engage in any new projects. That however did not stop me from purchasing complete Kallistra 12mm ACW Union and Confederate armies, mainly because I have never done 12mm and this stuff looked and is good, and also some Perry 28mm AWI figures because my mind had then turned to North America and I enjoy any excuse to use a GMB flag.

Fair enough I can imagine some might say, but I have also made the mistake of cataloguing over the Christmas/New Year break where my projects currently stand:

• 15mm Ancients - Xyston Alexandrian Macedonian; Peter Pig Parthian; Khurasan Korean, French, and English (more medieval and renaissance than ancient); Miniature Figurines Trajanic Roman, Successor Greek and Carthaginian (with Khurasan Tibetan, medieval Spanish, German and Teutonic, and Xyston Gallic, Spanish, Carthaginian, Numidian and Republican Roman armies completed).

• 28mm Ancients - Gripping Beast Republican Roman; Miniature Figurines Ancient British (with Renegade/Amazon Carthaginian, Gallic and Numidian armies completed).

• 1/600th Ancient Naval - Xyston Greek, Roman and Carthaginian fleets of around 50 ships each.

• 15mm Renaissance - Miniature Figurines ECW Parliamentarian, Royalist, Montrose Scot and Ottoman Turks, Essex Polish and Ottoman Turks, Mirliton Condottierre Italian, Eureka Parliamentarian, Royalist and Scottish Covenanters (with Eureka Samurai completed), Khurasan Spanish, French and German.

• 28mm Renaissance - Perry and Empress Miniatures Parliamentarian and Royalist; Perry Scottish, TAG Poles, Muscovites, Cossacks and Tartars (with TAG Ottoman Turks completed).

•  28mm American War of Independence – Perry British and Continentals.

• 15mm Napoleonic - AB Miniatures Russian and Austrians; Miniature Figurines Swedish, Essex Miniatures British, French, Prussian, Dutch/Belgian (with Essex Spanish and Portuguese completed).

• 28mm Napoleonic - Murawski Poles; Black Hussar/Calpe/Eureka Saxons; Perry Miniatures Brunswick and a few regiments of Confederation of the Rhine; Foundry and Perry Miniatures French (nearly half completed); Calpe Prussian; Miniature Figurines Russian (mostly complete); Hinchliffe British (nearly complete); Front Rank Russian, Austrian, British, Dutch Belgian, Bavarian, Wurttemburg (with Front Rank Spanish and Portuguese completed).

• 1/1200th Napoleonic Naval - Langton and Navwar British, French, Spanish and American fleets.

• 10mm ACW – Kallistra Union and Confederates.

• 15mm WWII - Flames of War British, German and Russian

• 20mm WWII - Britannia British, German, Russian and US

• 28mm WWII - Foundry and Warlord British and German for an operation Sealion campaign.

• 1/2400th WWII Naval - GHQ British, German, French, Italian, US and Japanese fleets completed.

• 1/300th WWII Naval - Cruel Seas MTBs

This is aside from a stack of unpainted terrain etc. In my defence, I purchased some of the above while living in the UK so did not have to concern myself with exchange rates and expensive shipping apart from when it all got put into a container with the rest of our belongings upon our return to Australia.

The main problem with this approach however is that there has been a noticeable rise in figuire quality which, for example, has already caused me to replace some of my old Minifigs collection with Xyston figures before the former had even seen any paint.

I have also resolved not to purchase any more figures in 2024, unless Lucas Huber brings out something exceptional (which no doubt he will).

Either way, I have reached the realisation that I have gone beyond the tipping point of what is now achievable in the remainder of my lifetime.

The other uncomfortable realisation is that my wife has recently informed that what I implicitly assumed would be my wargaming room once the last of the children had mived out is now going to be kept as a rumpus room for our grandchildren. When I say rumpus room. I mean a fully-tiled airconditioned forty by twenty foot room which also includes a separate break-out area. In other words, the perfect wargaming room.

On the plus side, I have been given clearance to put a granny flat in the top right-hand corner of our property. Something else to aim at for 2024.

A belated Happy New Year to all, and especially anyone who has managed to read this far.