For Auld Lang Syne

Welcome 2011! I can't believe it's 2011 already. We violated a few local ordnances this evening with a screeching round of fireworks. For my own references as much as anything, Magic Crystals are a lot of fun for the price. These things shriek LOUDLY and actually fly. On the downside, one came back down on my new car! No damage that I could see. It rained pretty hard most of the night, but fortunately around midnight it lightened up quite a bit. Our midnight finale' was Sky Quake, which I was a bit underwhelmed by. It was still a 500g power bundle though, and as it started going off, I thought, "Wow, I wonder which neighbors went to bed early tonight..." For a big piece like that, my favorite is still Loud and Rowdy.

Anyway, everybody is doing reflective posts on 2010 and planning for 2011. I have to say, I don't really find myself the self-reflective type. Nor do I especially take to long range planning. Especially in my hobby, I just kind of take it all in stride.

I'm coming out of 2010 feeling like I accomplished something, which is good. My WW2 Flames of War figures were started in late 2009, but the great majority of them were painted across 2010. They've hit the table a few times in some pretty good games. Frankly, that's head and shoulders above what I typically have done in any year. In fact, the argument could probably be made that this was my "most productive year ever." I'm not sure I've painted more of anything else, and, sadly, helping put on two large multiplayer Flames of War games is probably a record for any system as well.

What does 2011 hold?

More 15mm WW2. Yes, amazingly, despite spending the majority of 2010 painting WW2 figures, I haven't really gotten over it. I've got my first assault section of the 29th ID primed on my painting table, and am just waiting for a painting reference to show up next week before I get going on them. It turns out another group member already has some 29th ID and LCVPs painted up, so once mine are painted up, we ought to be able to run a pretty good-size game of the D-Day landings. I'll also look at running some Piquet and Field of Battle games now that I have good sized forces painted up. I'll soon be putting in an order for some 2x3 infantry bases for FoB-- I have some 3x4 bases which hold 3-4 FoW infantry stands on them and look nice, but with 1 stand on a base, I can use a FoW company and run almost an entire division in FoB. So, it might be nice to have both, using the smaller bases for larger games. I'll also be working on terrain-- of immediate need would be D-Day bunkers and beach obstacles, and a sea wall.

Beyond 15mm WW2, I've been itching for some Napoleonics. I have some 40mm Sash and Saber 40mm Peninsular War figures I'd really like to paint, but I don't have any terrain for them. Seems like a long term project, but I will probably start painting some to take the occasional break from 15mm WW2. I'd also like to get back on my 15mm 1809 Napoleonics at some point. I grew dissatisfied with my basing, and really needed to paint cavalry which I wasn't enjoying, so my interest in that waned. I can feel it returning, though.

Tusk! I almost forgot that-- my Number One Son and I painted up most of what we needed for Tusk in 2010. That was fun, and I plan to continue into 2011 with that. I need to get another mammoth to have enough for a two player game of Tusk, and I need a few specialty Neatherthal figures and fire markers. Once that is done, Number One Son has expressed interest in "proper" big game hunt miniature games like Tooth and Claw or Adventures in the Lost Land, so I suppose we'll branch out into that. I have a fair amount of really nice Darkest Africa figures sitting around gathering dust that would make for some smashing Victorian dinosaur hinting games.

Other than that? Really nothing else that is strongly attracting my attention. I'll probably paint up the occasional fantasy or sci-fi figure for the fun of it, but this, I think, will be my focus in 2011.