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Some 3D resin printed additions to my coastal forces, a assortment of various merchant ships, a trio of R-Boats and a single Fairmile MGB

The detail on the R-boats was a bit soft as I suspect they were printed just before the FEP failed.

The fairmile was a really lovely sharp model and I'll have to print some more.

Jacobite cavalry

January seems to be the month for low output and I'm no exception, I lost my painting Mojo sometime after New Year and its only just begun to recover, I don't think all the tartan helped

But at least I have now painted the new Redbox Jacobite cavalry, plus Bonnie Prince Charlie and Lord Pitsligo.
The whole contingent

Bagot's Hussars

Pitsligo's Horse

The Prince's Lifeguard

Fitzjame's Regiment

In wargaming terms compared to the size of my army most of the units are oversized, but for what-if and skirmish games more might be needed

I have already painted FitzJames cavalry and the Lifeguard using the old Revell figures so I now have to becide what to do with them?

On the workbench - January 2022

The first month of a new year and here's a taster

I'll be working on

• British and Jacobite cavalry for the '45 and SYW
• More French & British cavakry for the WSS
• WSS French Dragoons I haven't decided which regiments to do yet
• 1/300 3D printed ships
• 28mm gunfighters for "Dead Man's Hand"

Plan for 2022

First and foremost my plan is to meet with as many friends as possible, assuming that retrictions come to an end, other than that I'll be working on three themes.

Game specific projects

• Pegasus bridge and Horsa glider for a D-Day game
• Continuing to build my War of Spanish Succession forces, as quickly as Strelets release them
• Rebase/upgrade the whole of my Anglo-Zulu War armies including the Boers
• Attempt to rationalise my terrain

Reducing the existing stash, I'd like to make at least a 10% reduction

• Paint the already printed WW2 French vehicles
• Extra Afrika Corps and Italian figures to convert my Rapid Fire troops to use Batttlegroup.
• French Goumier Platoon
• An Australian Platoon plus supports for the desert/Crete, etc.
• WW2 German Gebirgsjaeger and remaining Two platoons of winter infantry
• Cavalry for the Seven Years War/Jacobite Rebellion
• Napoleonic Spanish artillery and more cavalry
• 1800 French in Egypt - double up the unit size from 12 to 24
• French Revolution - Cisapline legion troops
• More Crusader baggage and Saracen cavalry
• Imperial Croat cavalry and Polish pancerni
• WW1 odd bits and pieces

Exploiting the 3D resin printer

• Completing my Japanese forces for Pacific/Burma, by printing a selection of suitable vehicles to hopefully cover various 1941-1945 campaigns.
• Gradually replacing poorly cast or moulded models with new resin prints
• LVTs and any other extra vehicles so I can carry out Pacific beach landing games
• Test printing of 20mm figures
• Components for buildings, doors, windows, shutters etc.
• Try some 1/100 moderns for NorthAG
• More vehicles for "Setting the East Ablaze"

Review of 2021 - part 2

Painting output was 2,236 items, which is similar to the 2,213 last year, but a lower proportion of rework.

Period		Notes
WW2	660	The dominant items were the new Japanese Army and lots of new Resin vehicles but there was a lot of odd bits painted to fill gaps in various armies
WSS	607	Completed the bulk of my British and French armies for the period
Ancient	344	Rebasing and reworking my Roman army
Modern	236	ARVN, NVA and VC for Vietnam
Napoleonic	115	All the new Strelets cavalry for Prussia, Russia and Austria
Renaissance	72	Kings Musketeers and Cardinals Guards
Colonial	64	Boer artillery and bits for the French Foreign Legion
Terrain	62	Russian fencing and vineyards
SYW	48	Wurtzberg infantry
AWI	26	28mm American Militia for Crisis Point
WW1	2	A pair of Austin armoured cars
Grand Total	2,236

Type		Notes
Infantry	945	War of Spanish Succession, French and British, WW2 Japanese, Vietnam and SYW
Rebase/Rework	433	Roman Army Plus some WW2 Russian Cavalry and asmall number of old VC.
Cavalry	132	WSS British & French, Napoleonic and mounted Musketeers and Cardinals Guards
Gunners	106	WW2 Japanese, WSS British & French and a few Boers and FFL
Riders	93	Lots of WW2 vehicle crews
Other Items	90	Napoleonic civilians, FFL camp figures and WW2 tank crews
Tanks/AFVs	73	About 20 were plastic kits assembled in the beginning of the year, then the rest were new 3D printed.
Terrain	62	Russian fencing and vineyards
Vehicles	37	PSC Gaz trucks and Steyrs to start then 3D printed
Commanders	29	All War of Spanish Succession
Artillery	25	As for Guuners
Equipment	12	Japanese Mortars, US Recoiless Rifles and a few MMGs (Note the ones moulded with figures are only counted as the figure
Limbers	7	War of Spanish Succession and and one odd WW2 Winter German one
Aircraft	1	WW2 Desert Stuka
Grand Total	2,236

Stash reduction
Due to some late year purchases the stash stands at 6,630 compared to 6,679 last year so a slight deterioration.  This wasn't helped by the arrival of a lot of new sets just before Christmas.  Volumetrically there has been a substantial reduction as I sold off quite a number of plastic kits.

Finally a big thanks you to all those who commented on my blog through the year, your comments help to keep me motivated.

Review of 2021 - part1 - progress against plan

All plans need to be flexible, but I hit the big one this year with the impulse purchase of a 3D printer. It adsorbed an enormous amount of time learing how to use it and the software and I'm sure this will continue into 2022 and of course the ability to print long sought after items also added to the stash.

The year has been mixed, with gaming only getting started mid year and unfortunately finding the replacement to the Airbus club less than adequate, the club coalesced around two new locations at Mold and Elton. Shows were very limited and I regretted not making the effort to get to Partizan, but I did get an outing to Recon and a chance to catch up with a number of old friends. Hopefully I'll see more at Vapa this year.

Looking at my original plan 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 - Completed the newly released figures from Orion, but I've still not decided about whether or not to repaint my older NVA to match. I'll wait a while to see what Orion produce next before deciding
• War of Spanish Succession - French infantry and cavalry plus British cavalry, plus more as Strelets release them - All Completed, and the brand new releases from Strelets have already been purchased and added to the 2022 plan
• WW2 Japanese for Battlegroup Pacific - Completed everything I have, but I need to print some armour, etc. to support my infantry.
• Rebase my Early Imperial Romans - these are the last ancients that I haven't upgraded - Completed, but I've been now donated some extra Roapaks, thanks Alan
• Napoleonics, Prussian cavalry, reworking old artillery limbers, Russian peasants for skirmish scenarios, more Spanish cavalry, potentially upgrade British infantry? - completed the Prussian cavalry and Russian peasants in Q1 nothing done since and the remainder will slip into 2022, however I have painted the Prussian Uhlans, Russian Hussars, and civilians from the August Strelets release.

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

• WW2 SAS & LRDG. - Completed
• More "Three Musketeers", especially once the new Redbox mounted figures are available. - Completed
• Colonials - Boer Artillery and French Foreign Legion in camp and 37mm. - Completed
• TYW Imperial Croatians/Polish Pancerni/Cossack horse archers/Russian hussars. - not started
• More British and Jacobite for the 45, WAS and SYW, when Redbox release more figures. - Now arrived and hopefully they will be painted in Jamuary
• Medievals - Scottish shiltron, Revolting Peasants (Zvezda), other odd units for Montgisard. - not started - another for 2022
• SYW Austrian infantry (Roth - Wurtzberg) - Completed both Red and Blue Regiments
• Revolution Cisialpine Infantry - three or four 12 figure units. - not started - another for 2022
• The terrain I have failed to make for the last two years. - Vines and Russian fences completed, still need wadi sides, etc.

Then if time permits:

• More WW2 German cold weather infantry - 2 platoons. - not started - 2022
• Rework/Rebase Zulu War forces. - not started - 2022

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 - Shows have started but I only managed to get to two warboot sales in Penkridge and Recon plus Crisis Point in September. The Airbus club has folded so my club gaming is now concentrated on the Beacon Gaming Club in Elton.

Last post for 2021 - Napoleonic civilians

At the fron all the bonus civilian figures that came with the recent cavalry sets from Strelets, behind are a number of "townswomen" that I printed out, I think they could do with being a bit taller, but I think I have enough.

That's it I've had enough of 2021.

WSS Commanders

Thee more commanders for my War of Spanish Succession, two French and one British

One more post to go

SAS Jeeps for NW Europe

These Jeeps were printed off earlier in the year and waited till I sorted out some crew, luckily Dave W from the club gifted me an Italeri Horsa, which included a set of the old Esci hard plastic paratroops. Suitable figures were used for the crews along some HaT tank commanders. The remainder were painted and based alongside at the same time

Two more posts to go from 2021

WW2 Japanese Heavy Weapons

Finished the last of my Japanese troops yesterday, so here they are, MMGs and flamethrowers at the front, Command and OP teams at the rear right.

70mm Infantry Guns from Waterloo 1815

75mm Type 35 guns with loader teams from Strelets. I'm not at all sure why they didn't include the gun shield

150mm Mortars

81mm Mortars

Three more post to go to finish off the old year