The Plan for 2009

So when do we get painted, eh?

It is fairly hopeless for someone with my attention span to try to plan for the year but I did have a go last year so it is worth reviewing how I did and try to do something similar for 2009.

For 2008 my top priorities were:

Sudan
Great Northern War
Early Saxons
Greeks and Spartans
Punic War

With subsidiary categories:

Pulp
Back of Beyond
Lord of the Rings
WW1 East Africa
Napoleonic Quatre Bras
3rd century Romans and Palmyrans
Caesarian Romans
Wars of the Roses.

So what did I actually paint? Looking at the priority categories first:

SUDAN
Sudan British 18
Sudan Mahdist 17
Sudan Egyptian 14

Not a bad total but I ground to a halt as soon as I got to the Gordon Highlanders!

GREAT NORTHERN WAR

Swedes 17

I could have done better on this but I was frustrated by the lack of Russians to oppose them. At least I have seeen greens of the Musketeer Miniatures Russian pikeman now and they are supposed to be being cast right now.

EARLY SAXONS

Early Saxons 11

Not too bad considering they aren't uniformed.

GREEKS AND SPARTANS

Spartans 10

These are exactly the sorts of figures where you can have a couple on the table and just do a bit on them when you feel like. At least I finished my main unit of Knights for Thermopylae this year.

PUNIC WAR

Nothing on this!

Of my subsidiary targets I did the following:

Pulp 2
Back of Beyond 2
Lord of the Rings 6
WW1 East Africa 0
Napoleonic Quatre Bras 2
3rd century Romans and Palmyrans 0
Caesarian Romans 0
Wars of the Roses. 0

Well, that shows that I chose the wrong periods there, largely!

What I did do which weren't part of the plan but which I already had figures for were:

Darkest Africa 32 A lot of Ruga Ruga and Ngoni
Byzantine 8
Gladiators 12 And played a game at the club (shock!)
ECW 7 (Finished my 48 man Tower Hamlets Trained band)
Swashbucklers 2

WW1 Germans 16

What were new purchases for 2008 were:

Zulus 16
Normans 14 I find these very quick to do.

Giving a total of 206 figures altogether.

So, going forward I am going to work on these priority periods in 2009:

Sudan

I want to get some more Highlanders done, an artillery piece, finish my second Rub of 60 figures and finish my two Beja Camel units.

Great Northern War

I've already got some more of these on the go so I would like to finish the first full regiment and start some Russians.

Dark Ages

Early Saxons, Normans and maybe some Anglo Saxons. I've already finished some this year and would like to finish my second unit of Early Saxons.

Greeks and Spartans

I will continue to do the odd figure here and there but want to get some Thracians done for a change.

Punic War

I'm not planning to do this other than some Celts.

The Great War

This is promoted to a new priority. I'm working on Early War Germans, then I'd like to do some Early War British. I am doing some Late War Highlanders and a tank and have started some Late War Germans. I would like to do some more East Africa too. Looming over this horribly is the Arab Revolt from Artizan. If they do Arabs on camels I am doomed!

Zulu War

I need to get my first British finished and do a couple of full units of Zulus. I have already started some more Zulus and am inspired as I have acquired a Zulu War assegai.

Napoleonic

I plan to get my first unit of French done and have about half a dozen figures in an advanced state.

That's it. The new technique this year is to paint bigger batches of figures, 10-12, rather than my usual 4-6. This means I won't necessarily get my six figures done a week but maybe get more done over a month. Secondly, I am only going to have priority period figures on my workbench. If I fancy doing something else it will be pulled out worked on or it will have to go back into the boxes.

So, big sort out this week so I can have two full days at the weekend which will make a change as I have had to give a lot of time to my little boy to help him revise for his school entrance exam this week. We are planning to have another Lord of the Rings battle companies game this weekend to celebrate the end of his revision!