Review of 2012

1) Progress against plan
In line with plan most of my painting, etc. was desert themed, with two major projects

• WW2 desert forces - I've done a lot of work on my that has both increased the size of my armies and improved their appearance, trouble is I've still got quite a few bits still to complete. But in general the target was achieved. The Alamein big game was a splendid weekend.
• A Dervish army was built mainly using the Hat Dervishes and subsequently I've had quite a few enjoyable games in the Sudan. The Thud and Blunder scenarios came in quite handy for pick up games. My second target achieved, though an army can never be considered complete.

Minor projects

• British to fight the French in Egypt – very much a last minute push here as the figures weren’t released until late in the year, but I’ve almost finished the force. Another tick!
• Sort out the assorted Saracens so I can use Hail Caesar for Crusades games. – not done at all
• Other projects:
• Work on the British Airborne brigade (carried over from 2011) – big push early in the year, but had to leave off till all the big game work was completed, so I’ve only recently got back to it and now all that remains is a few vehicles.
• Clear out the rest of my medievals to make a Burgundian/German force – not done at all
• Upgrade more terrain, especially walls and hedges (carried over from 2011) – still not done, but I did work on some fences and barbed wire, pathetic excuse I know.
• SOTCW game at Gauntlet turned out to be Vietnam, so nothing specifically needed to be created; I just added a few civilians and sorted out the barbed wire I had already planned for desert games.
• and finally “keep the stash to fewer than 5,000 taking into account Christmas presents” – abysmal failure, so many goodies out there and then the bargain bundle of figures I picked up on a B&B totally wrecked this target – final figure 7,500.

Conclusion, a reasonably credible performance

2) Painting Progress
A first glance progress seemed much as usual with 1,550 items completed compared to 1,547 last year, but the breakdown shows some surprising shifts, like:

• Hardly any cavalry or terrain
• Quite a bit of touching up/rebasing was included in the list, but as I observed with the 8th Army at times it can take as long or longer as painting new figures from scratch.
• I have no ACW figures at all in the stash – so one minor piece of progress there

In detail:

• WW2 – 938 items of which 152 were tanks, vehicles and guns. The split by nationality demonstrates this year’s emphasis: British desert 270; German DAK 236; British Paratroops 229 Italian desert 55; US/Russian 123 mainly tank riders.
• Colonial – 286 items, mainly the Dervishes with just a few British to balance up the numbers
• French Revolution – 128 items all from my British army for the 1801 campaign in Egypt, with the exception of a few gunners for my Frundsbergers
• ACW – 94 items, only 30 were actually new painting, the rest were rebased to give a consistent feel to the figures and this was not quick rebasing.
• WW1 – only 41 items, concentrating on artillery and crews with the new Hat hard plastic guns.
• Terrain – a quiet year only 32 items, the barbed wire, C18 tents/camp and the desert fortified positions. I was pleased that the later sold for a good price in the big game charity auction.
• Early C18 – just sorted out the limbers, etc – 24 items
• Modern – 7 Vietnamese civilians