Normality resumes

Just been in the hospital, had an X-ray and seen the consultant. My fractured collar bone has now fixed itself enough for me to discard the sling and gradually restore the full use of my right arm/shoulder. No heavy lifting or cycling for at least 2 weeks, and I've got a lot of physio to do. Found a nice bag of books waiting for me on my return

A strong hint of work to be done on the early 18th century. Now to start painting.

On the workbench - January 2021

I'm unable to paint for at least the first three weeks of the year, so I'll just finish off the last of December's work this month, which was:.

• 28mm Colonial militia (already started)
• Another WW2 German winter limber as I found some wheels to fit an existing limber (started)
• Then loads of the new Vietnam figures from Redbox
• Maybe finishing off any of the oddments that I have half started in 2020 so I have a clean start for Feb 2021

Plans for 2021

I’ve decided to concentrate on five main painting/modelling themes this year, quite a bit is based on new and forthcoming releases:

• Complete rework of my Vietnam War collection by integrating the new figures from Orion
• War of Spanish Succession - French infantry and cavalry plus British cavalry, plus more as Strelets release them
• WW2 Japanese for Battlegroup Pacific
• Rebase my Early Imperial Romans - these are the last ancients that I haven't upgraded
• Napoleonics, Prussian cavalry, reworking old artillery limbers, Russian peasants for skirmish scenarios, more Spanish cavalry, potentially upgrade British infantry?

Then a host of minor themes in order of preference rather than importance:

• WW2 SAS & LRDG.
• More "Three Musketeers", especially once the new Redbox mounted figures are available.
• Colonials - Boer Artillery and French Foreign Legion in camp and 37mm.
• TYW Imperial Croatians/Polish Pancerni/Cossack horse archers/Russian hussars.
• More British and Jacobite for the 45, WAS and SYW, when Redbox release more figures.
• Medievals - Scottish shiltron, Revolting Peasants (Zvezda), other odd units for Montgisard.
• SYW Austrian infantry (Roth - Wurtzberg)
• Revolution Cisialpine Infantry - three or four 12 figure units.
• The terrain I have failed to make for the last two years.

Then if time permits:

• More WW2 German cold weather infantry - 2 platoons.
• Rework/Rebase Zulu War forces.

I’m not making any plans for gaming, but once the show circuit starts I’ll try to get to as many as possible. Plus Crisis Point in April and a possible 2021 Big Game. Crisis in Antwerp would be a big attraction if it goes ahead

Review of 2020 - Part 2

Painting output was 2,213 items, which is similar to the 2,330 last year.

Period		Notes
Ancient	842	Complete Persian Army, rework/rebasing of Greek Army and a few Romans
Medieval	367	Extra figures for Tannenburg, then more Crusaders and Saracens, plus a few more War of the Roses Archers & Billmen
Napoleonic	267	Dutch fleet for Black Seas.  Austrian cavalry and landwehr.  New Wurttemberg Artillery and reworking Bavarian Artillery
Renaissance	252	Russian Soldatski and Town Cossacks.  A pair of 1/72 galleys and European and Ottoman crews for each
WW1	241	New French Infantry and Artillery.  Rebased and Reorganised Germans
WW2	101	Cruel Seas, Esci hard plastic DAK, Orion British tank crews and a collection of oddments
SYW	62	Various left over cavalry and British artillery.  Typically once I finished them Redbox announced that they would produce some in 2021
Terrain	31	Still finishing off lots of bits, still more to do
Modern	19	Some more second hand SAS and some new cheap 4D vehicles
Revolution	16	Austrian Cuirassiers
Colonial	14	French Foreign Legion Artillery
WSS	1	A single 28mm pirate the only 28mm this year
Grand Total	2,213

Type		Notes
Infantry	945	Persians, Crusaders and Renaissance galley crews dominate plus WW1, WW2 and Austrian Landwehr
Rebase/Rework	748	Greek Army and WW1 Germans, plus Teutonics for Tannenburg and various limbers
Cavalry	213	Austrian Napoleonic, various SYW, Scottish medieval and Turcopoles
Gunners	84	SYW British, Napoleonic Wurttemberg, French WW1, FFL and Galley gunners
Other figures	38	Galley crews and British tank crews
Ships	32	Black and Cruel Seas
Buildings/Terrain	31	Airfield buildings, winter river bridge, cactus patches, etc.
Artillery/Guns	22	As per gunners
Commanders	22	Mainly Persian, but also Teutonic, Saracen and Greek
Riders	25	Revolution Austrian Cuirassiers, various odd riders and limber riders to make up numbers in units.
Horses	15	Extras needed to go with riders
Engineers/Pioneers	12	Austrian Pioneers
Limbers	9	Napoleonic Bavarian and Wurttemberg, SYW British and one odd WW2 Winter German one (another one should have been finished)
Tanks/AFVs	6	Trio of BTR-80 couple of T26 and a Panzer IV
Vehicles	5	Three M-35 trucks and a couple of sdkfz 7s
Wagons	4	Persian chariots
Equipment	2	A couple of old MMGs reutilised for WW1 French
Grand Total	2,213

Stash reduction
Due to some late year purchases the stash stands at 6,679 compared to 6,447 last year so a slight deterioration.

Finally a big thanks you to all those who commented on my blog through the year

Review of 2020 - part 1

Well what a year it has been, not at all as any of us planned. Lucky, I managed to get in two shows before lockdown, Vapnartak and WMMS. Had a great time at each presenting Tannenberg with the Lance & Longbow and a WW2 what-if raid on Andrevia with the SOTCW. From then on gaming came to a complete stop as I was "shielding" and then I finished it all off by breaking my collar bone. Overall painting output was good with 2,213 items completed

Progress against plan

• An Achaemenid Persian army, I've about 200 items already purchased - Bought the extras needed at Vapnartak - Completed.
• Cruel Seas - British/German/US flotillas of 6 boats each, plus some merchant ships- Completed, except for the merchant ships, which I still haven't purchased.
• Black Seas - a small Dutch fleet (something a bit different from the norm)- Completed, although I'm tempted to add some 3rd rates.
• Medieval – More WOTR longbow/bill units, mounted archers, cavalry, Scottish cavalry and extra Crusader foot- completed the WOTR bill/bow units and extra bits for Tannenberg including the Scottish cavalry pretending to be Lithuanians In Q3 more foot for the Crusades were added. I could say complete but there are still plenty of medievals in the stash.
• Renaissance – Russian Stoldatski, etc. using up the Strelets bonus figures plus Galleys and crews- Completed
• WW2 – bits and pieces (I'll try to avoid buying more)- Generally managed to keep to plan, but I did buy some more particularly at the end of the year
• SYW – More (French?) Cavalry, British guns- Completed.
• WW1 – increase/rebase Germans for 1917 and add some French - Completed
• 28mm – “skirmishing” WSS figures to provide more opposition for my pirates and Spanish- started but not finished due to accident
• Terrain – more buildings, fences, balkas/wadis, vines, etc.- Only a few bits completed - going to have to get this done in 2021
• Organise the forces for the Lance and Longbow games at York, which will be Tannenberg 1410 and possibly Montgisard 1177 at Recon- successfully ran Tannenberg and we had agreed to run it at Phalanx in June, but this never took place. Montgisard is still work in progress
• Q2 addition - I have decided to rebase my Ancient Greeks to match the Persians, so they can either provide mercenary units for them or fight against them.- Completed

Last of the old year - Turcopoles

It was a lot of effort but in the three weeks since breaking my collarbone, I just about managed to paint and drybrush the bases on these four units of Crusader Turcopoles