A Review of 2011

2011 will stand as a banner year in the history of this blog, should such a boring work ever be compiled.  This is due to its refocusing on a slightly broader hobby in the area of roleplaying, and my participation in the A-Z challenge, which increased my posting from occasional to regular, and really brought in blog followers and hits.

In this post last year, I discussed goals for 2011, based on the failed goals of 2010.

Here they are, with a few thoughts about their completion (or lack there of)
1. Get in a Game or two: Failure with regards to miniatures games, success for board games.
2. Paint More Figures: Success! 
3. Figure out Figure Storage: Partial success, thanks to my wife buying the Diebold Safe-T-Stack
4. Get Hobby Room Finished and Set Up: Failure, although I expect something basic to be done this year, as the in-laws are finally out of our house.
5. Use airbrush again: Failure.  Waiting on completion of the Baneblade, which is actually not that far off, although I have been caught in the trap of detailing for a while now.

2012 has already started off better in the gaming, since I have already played Settlers (and won), Clue [Cluedo for UK readers] twice (won once), Cathedral, as well as ran my very first D&D game over two sessions (much more on that later).

Anyway, for goals this year, I want to accomplish all of the above, plus start following blogs that I already read anyway. I will have more on this later, but intend to highlight and review the blogs as I add them.  I also intend to paint my new box of Dreadfleet, and run a couple more D&D games.  We will see how it goes! 

Welcome to new blog follower Simon Forester, who has a very interesting blog called "... and the sky full of dust".

A Review of 2010

First off, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and yours. Sort of late, but there you have it.

As you might recall, way back in mid January of last year, I made five resolutions for 2010.

Here they are, with a few thoughts about their completion (or lack there of)
1. Get in a Game or two: Complete failure if you count only miniatures games.
2. Paint More Figures: Complete failure. I have painted a mere two figures, and put a few layers of paint on some others. Nearly made it a whole year without painting a single figure.
3. Figure out Figure Storage: Partial failure. Have spent way too much time looking at plastic boxes, trying to find the "perfect" one. Decided that a 4" high box would be ideal.
4. Get Hobby Room Finished and Set Up: Pass. Room is still full of in-laws, therefore can not be set up. Hopefully will be empty in 2011.
5. Use airbrush again: Complete Failure. Did not finish building the Baneblade, and therefore did not use the airbrush to paint it.

Well, that is somewhat depressing. In my defense, we did have an addition to our family, which has absorbed 90% of formerly free time. I think that for 2011, I will just try to accomplish the 2010 resolutions. I have started painting again, so hopefully at least #2 will be accomplished.

In other gaming related news, we gave some Friends of ours Puerto Rico as a Christmas gift, and were able to get a couple of games in. Pretty fun, although it is component heavy. I did not win either game, but I did come in second the second time we played, and as usual with new games, acted as rules reader and arbitrator. I asked my wife if we should get the game for ourselves, and she was quick to say no, not that she did not enjoy the game, but due to the number of pieces, and the likelihood of the offspring consuming them.

Resolutions

Some of the fine blogs I follow have been featuring 2010 resolutions. In fact, nearly all of them have had such things.

Never being one to buck a useful trend, here are five of mine.

1. Get in a game or two. In 2009 I played no games, and that is silly when one has 10 armies for several game systems. I need to at least play some solo games.
2. Paint more figures. In 2009 I painted very little, mostly due to moving and so on. 2010 needs to be more productive. Idealy I would be painting at least 10 Olly points per month, which would be 120 figures per year.
3. Figure out figure storage. I already have more "finished" figures than storage, so this is already pressing. Some sort of dust proof plastic boxes with steel sheet bottoms would be ideal.
4. Get hobby room finished and set up. Once the in-laws move out of it, the room needs some work to make it hobby friendly. Fortunately, it will be able to exist in that state for several years.
5. Use the airbrush again. Having used my airbush a single time is a great waste. With several tanks to paint, this seems like an ideal way to proceed, and having the hobby room set up will aid as well.

We will see how I did with them as the year progresses.

In other news, the baneblade has arrived, and over a couple of episodes of Star Trek the Next Generation, I managed to get 90% of it clipped out, and spent some time examining the fit of peices and so on. Very impressed with the kit, but is it worth $99 retail? Doubtful. A 1/35 large tank sells for much less, and has far superior detailing, as well as being a more technicaly proficent kit. On the plus side, I was impressed by the slide molding of the gun barrels. Having to fit together, glue, sand, and then drill out guns is a pain.