Good bye 2014 here's 2015!

It's a nice habit throughout the world to use the arrival of a new year to cast a doleful eye over the goals and achievements of the last year and make new goals for the year ahead.

Plans and achievements in 2014:

What was I planning to do in 2014?

• First and foremost I want to get all the stuff painted I prepared for Curt's Annual Analogue Hobby Challenge. This includes some Fallschirmjäger, British Paras for Bolt Action (500 pts. worth of), some more early Saxons, some republican Romans and some odds and ends. Well, I got quite some stuff prepped but only a little done so FAIL!

• After the challenge I want to add to my Late Romans and the Early Saxons in order to have two well sized forces for Dux Bellorum and later on Impetus. Actually I think I could already field a 32 pts. Roman force for Dux with 5 or 6 points of allied Saxons. Though there are so much nice figures out there... Epic FAIL! I only got a unit of 10 foot and 2 mounted as well as some rebasing done but that's about it.

•  And as my second big goal I'm aiming at completing a Great War Russian Army to fight my Germans. As an aside I want to use the Russians as Whites to attend to Partisan-Con in 2014. That's a small RCW/BoB Con in Mannheim Germany. You can find some nice pictures from the 2013 Con *here* (text in German). Well, this one  wasn't a complete fail as I got some command figures and 10 foot done but it's faaaaar from ready.

So what did I do in 2014 you may ask. Well, there were some things I previously haven't had on my radar. But let us have a look on the numbers first:

Over the year I painted:
28mm:
188 foot figures
5 mounted figures
7 Vehicles

15mm:
32 foot figures

Compared to a years total of 179 figures (all together) for 2013 I can feel quite satisfied I think. Especially considering a big amount of the figures was painted in the last three months of the year. All in all I painted and sold off far more figures than I managed to buy leading to my lead mountain melting like the arctic ice shelves in the summer. We'll see if the same is true for the new year.

But now let us have a quick look at what I really did in 2014 I haven't had on my radar before (only a selected few):

28mm Blitzkrieg Germans:

These really hit me without warning. I always enjoyed the later period of the war but didn't give much thought to the early years. But when I stumbled over the great plastic Pioneers set by Warlord Games I had to get them. And you won't believe it but I really painted up the whole box till sylvester.

28mm U.S. Army:

I came across a nicely painted and fairly priced U.S. Army for sale while browsing and so I made an old dream of mine come true. Of course I had to add to this force as soon as it arrived on my doorstep. This very force also helped me to overcome a lack of enthusiasm which plagued me for several months.

First Indochina in Greyscale:

Maybe the acquisition in 2014 that surprised myself most. I was pondering over the possibility to do something in Greyscale for quite some time but when inspiration finally struck I knew I had to do it.

15mm World War 2:

A topic I was interested in for quite some time but never really started before 2014. The Battlefront plastic U.S. Paras proofed to be a real treat to paint but at the moment their metal counterparts are sitting in my drawer as they're not even half as nice.

So now it's enough of 2014 and on to the plans for the year ahead!

Plans for 2015:

• 'Completing' my early war German force for Bolt Action. This should be pretty straight forward as there are just a few things left to get to a point where I can call this force ready for battle i.e. the Leutnant and his aide, an Artillery or Air Observer, a PaK 36, a HMG and a 50mm Mortar as well as some bits and bobs. Of course a wargamers army is never really completed so I might maybe even add a second box of infantry as well as the odd vehicle, artillery piece to it-

• Starting a British Expeditionary Force to oppose my Germans. In fact the first metal box from Warlord Games is already sitting on my desk right know awaiting the arrival of their missing heads.... why can't I ever get a complete set of figures from Warlord Games?

• Enlarge my U.S. Force. Well no definite plans but I'd like to add a fourth squad and maybe even a second BAR to each squad.

• Something in 15mm. Here I'm not totally certain about what to do. Maybe the Desert campaign?

• Continue with my First Indochina in Greyscale project. Getting all the figures done I already have and maybe some more, depending on the releases from Red Star Miniatures. And maaaaaybe even do some terrain in Greyscale. The Sarissa Precision 'Far East' line of MDF buildings does look pretty decent and using my airbrush they should be quite easy to do.

So with these plans in my head and the firm knowledge that no battle plan survives the first contact with reality, I'm looking forward to the months ahead!