Year in Review: Figures Painted

I really did not set out a goal for the number of figures I wanted to get painted at the beginning of 2025.  What I did make as a recurring goal was to paint more figures than purchased.  Even without a goal on the number of figures painted, 879 figures crossed over from unpainted to painting in 2025.  Not bad.  On the painting more than I buy front, I still came out with a reduction in The Lead Pile of 481 figures.  Not as substantial as the 2024 result of -945 figures but respectable.  Had I not succumbed to some late year purchases, totals would have been more in line with 2024.  I plan to keep up the effort of reducing The Lead Pile in 2026.  Wish me luck.

Looking back through the Painting Log over the last 32 years, the last two years have shown a gradual decrease from the 1,000 figures or more painting output.  Still, a good variety of projects saw some activity to explore a bit later.  For figures painted, one foot, one gun, and one cavalry figure each count as one.  No increased counts for horse and rider.   

Let's examine the 2025 figure counts in more detail.

Monthly Totals
As the chart below shows, much of 2025 averaged a monthly output of about 60 figures.  Not helped out by the big drops in May and October.  As is typical of my seasonal painting output, production began to pick up as the year closed out.  January and September saw big spikes up in production.  As seen in the September/October bars, a big increase in one month is often followed by a drop in the next.  A big push in one month is likely followed by exhaustion, I suppose.  

Totals by Era and Scale
Switching from the monthly bar chart to a pie chart, the total effort given to the SYW project continued into 2025.  Nearly 30% (259) of all figures painted were in this period.  While the FPW project popped into second place in 2024, 2025 saw FPW take top honors with 288 figures painted.  Biblicals rounded out the top 3 with 119 figures painted.  After several games featuring the Reconquista project hitting the table in 2025, 49 additional figures were added into the collection as my motivation was high to push out just a few more units.  I managed to almost deplete The Lead Pile of these figures.  Well, not quite as successful as first thought.  I recently uncovered about a dozen packs of Artizan and Crusader figures for the Reconquista.

Translating actual figure counts to Painting Points, the 25/28mm projects see some gains in their capture of the overall percentages.  Good to see the Great Italian Wars project climb out of obscurity from the "Other" category.

When the counts are broken out by figure size (scale), it is no surprise that the emphasis on painting 15/18mm SYW and FPW figures pushed the weight to that figure size.  As in 2024, more than 60% of all production was in the 15/18mm figures sizes.  The chart below illustrates that nearly 64% of all figures painted fall into the 15/18mm classification.

When these actual figure counts are translated to Painting Points, 25/28mm figures shift the emphasis and effort to their side of the painting ledger.  Now, almost 57% of effort is concentrated into the 25/28mm projects.

In summary, 2025 was a solid year at the painting desk.  2025 saw a slight reduction in figures painted from 2024 but not much change, really, especially since 2025 saw more 25/28mm figures painted than in 2024.  What about goals for 2025?  Well, that is something to ponder another time.

Saturnine Orogeny

I must credit Andreas Johansson with the title for this post.  Andreas sometimes pops in to leave a comment and his thread of the same name on the SoA forum inspired me to take on his terminology in my painting wrap up for the first half of 2025.  I know there is still part of the 30th remaining but I have essentially closed out the Painting Log for June.

What is Saturnine Orogeny?  Andreas defines it as a combination of "saturine" which alchemists associated lead to the planet Saturn, so an old meaning of "saturnine" is "of or relating to lead or lead poisoning."  "Orogeny" means "mountain-building."

Since my goal is to reduce the size of The Lead Pile, I really ought to focus on mountain erosion than building but I will stick with Andreas' terminology. 

In the first half of 2025, I managed to see 429 figures muster out from the painting desk while only purchasing 101 figures.  Without checking, I reckon almost all of the new figures brought in were to supply the 15mm FPW project with cavalry and commanders from 19th Century Miniatures.  Even given the figures purchased, the size of The Lead Pile fell by over 300 figures in the first half of 2025.  Good start to the year!

The leading pie chart illustrates that SYW dominated production, but Biblicals slotted into second place.  These two periods accounted for nearly 60% of all painting efforts. Still, at least eight different periods saw some additions so variety was quite balanced.

As for a breakdown by figure size (scale), painting efforts were evenly split between 15/18mm and 25/28mm figure sizes.  Size distribution in 2024 was lopsided with 15/18mm figures taking the largest percentage (63%) of effort.  With a more even split between the two figure sizes, a shift to the larger figures will help bump up the counts when adjusted for Painting Points are considered at year end.

How did your painting output fare during the first half of 2025?

Year in Review: Figures Painted

When I look back to the beginning of 2023 (see 2022 Year in Review: Figures Painted), my main painting goals were,

• Continue expansion of the 18mm SYW/WAS project to include more armies. In addition to Spanish and Piedmontese, field a British/Hanoverian army.
• Build a 15mm Prussian Army to allow expansion of the Franco-Austrian War collection to the Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian Wars.
• Continue work to expand the 25mm Biblical armies including Sumerians, Hittites, Egyptians, Assyrians, and Babylonians.

I did not specify a particular target figure count to attain but my goal is often to shoot for 1,000 in a year.  It is a nice round number and a good goal.

As you will see, the expansion of the SYW/WAS project sped ahead on track.  Unfortunately, the 15mm FPW Prussian Army never left the starting blocks and Biblicals only saw a few additions.  I mentioned the possibility of beginning a Trojan War project in 2023.  That, likewise, never made it out of the starting gate.

So, what did I manage to accomplish on the painting front in 2023?

Well, I managed (but just barely!) to cross the 1,000 figure threshold in 2023.  As they say, it was a near-run thing.  Final tally showed 1,015 figures painted.

Monthly Totals

As the chart below shows, 2023 started off with a bang with more than 100 figures painted in three of the first four months.  After that, productivity plunged.  I never regained the 100 figures/month mark again.  As seen from the red bars, the 15/18mm SYW project saw most of the action at the painting desk.

Figures painted by month

Totals by Era and Scale

Switching from the monthly bar chart to a pie chart, the total effort given to the SYW project is clear. Nearly 76% of all figures painted (767) were in this period.  Few other periods saw much attention besides the 136 ACW figures mustered out. 

Total figures painted by era - actual

When the number of figures is translated into painting points (where larger figures and different troop types are assigned more weight), the picture does not change much.  The exception is that the 25mm Biblicals show up as their own category from the "Other" grouping.  Still, even with this translation, SYW comprises about 75% of all painting effort.

Total figures painted by era - painting points

When the counts are broken out by figures size (scale), it is no surprise that the emphasis on painting 15/18mm SYW figures tips the scale to that figure size.  The chart below illustrates that 82% of all figures painted fall into this classification.

Total figures painted by scale- actual

As noted, one of the 2023 goals was to focus on fielding more armies for the SYW project.  The plan was to field armies for Piedmont, Spain, and Hanover.  

Did I stick to that plan?  Yes!

The graphic below shows that all three of the nations saw action at the painting desk.  Piedmont fielded 261 figures, Spain saw 204 figures added, and Hanover saw 262 figures march out.  A handful of figures for other nationalities marched out too. 

Total SYW figures painted by nation

So, on the first count of bringing more SYW/WAS figures to the table, I call this a success.  For the other goals, I missed the mark but there is always another year to make up lost ground.

Looking Ahead

What do I foresee for the painting desk in 2024?

While 2023 focused on mustering out troops for the SYW/WAS project, 2024 will likely see more of the same.  With a large stock of lead for this project remaining, I could easily carry on as in 2023 especially fielding more French, Hanoverians, Piedmontese, and Spanish.  Perhaps, British and Jacobite contingents will work their way into the painting queue in 2024?  I could foresee expanding this project to include yet another theater of operations.

2023 was clearly the year of painting SYW in 15/18mm.  2024 ought to show a little more diversification by returning to some work in 25/28mm.  There are lots of Biblicals to field including a possible start to a Trojan War project.  Besides, Trojans could give my Hittites someone else to fight.  What about the long delayed FPW Prussians?  Perhaps this is the year for them?  

The path forward requires some more thought.

Dialing back the painting effort seems reasonable for 2024.  I set the target at 750 painted figures.

Lastly, the graphic below shows that 2024 marks the 30th year that I have been tracking my painting production.  While I began tracking in 1994, 1995 was the first full year of results.  I have been at this for a very long time!        

What are your painting plans for 2024?

Painting Tally - First Half 2023

With the Painting Log closed out for the first half of 2023, time to take stock on what progress was made in the battle against The Lead Pile.  Despite lamenting the lack of painting output for May and June (see lead graphic above), I recall starting the New Year with vigor.  The Actual Painting Counts by month show this to, indeed, be the case.  

For the first six months of the year, 648 figures crossed from the Unpainted side of the ledger to the Painted side of the ledger.  Even considering most of the figures were 15mm and under, exceeding 600 figures painted is a respectable total.  Most years, I set an annual target of painting between 900-1,000 figures.  Based on the totals through the first six months, I may be ahead of schedule.

Sticking to a view of figure counts with respect to figure size (see Figure 1), 15/18mm dominates painting output with 535 figures painted.  Only 9 25/28mm figures crossed the painting desk during the first six months.  Surprising.

Figure 1

What periods or projects saw the attention with my brush?

Figure 2 illustrates exactly where my efforts have focused.  Clearly, Seven Years War (and now War of Austrian Succession expansions) cornered most of my attention.  In the 15/18mm size, even the Samurai project saw a few additions.

Figure 2

What do I expect to see crossing my painting desk in the second half of the year?  More of the same, really.  Lots more work to do on the SYW/WAS projects as I expand to Hanover, Piedmont, and Spain.  I continue working my way through a HUGE box of lead I picked up from 19th Century Miniatures' (Old Glory 15s) annual Christmas Sale.  Actually, 19th Century Miniatures is offering Christmas in July sale now.  I may pick up a few more bags now unless I think The Lead Pile can hold out until December.

Besides the seasonal tendency to see painting productivity drop in late spring/early summer, gaming has been eating away time often spent at the painting desk.  Looking back at 2022 total games played, that count came in at 89 games.  Through the first six months of 2023, I count 53 games played.  If this pace can be maintained, I ought to crash through last year's totals.  When I tallied the games played, the total of 53 games was a surprise.  Given that some of my routine weekly and bi-weekly gaming commitments have decreased, I still seem to be gaming a lot.

Let's see what the second half of the year holds on both the painting and gaming front.

Year in Review: Figures Painted

The counts are in for the 2022 Painting Campaign.  While the total figures painted were fewer than in 2021, the totals were not much less.  2022 total figures painted clocked in at 1,055 while 2021 saw 1,103.  Seeing consistency is good. 

While I did not proclaim a figure count goal for 2022 (I avoided the same pitfall in 2021 too), I expected a total of near 900 figures would be a reasonable objective.  Given an expectation for a continued stream of remote gaming to keep my hobby time occupied, an average of 75 figures painted per month seemed attainable.

In the 2021 Painting Log recap see: Painting Log 2021), I set out for myself the following goals:

• Finish enough Sumerians to field two armies.
• Build a SYW French army in 18mm to complement my Prussian and Austrian armies.
• Expand the Biblical armies with additions to Hittites, Egyptians, and Babylonians.
• Expand the Samurai armies to include foot and mounted Samurai bowmen.
• Given the figure size mix from 2021, try to paint more 15/18mm figures than 25/28mm figures. 

Let's see how I did!

Figure 1

When looking at painting production by era, Figure 1 illustrates that SYW and Biblicals did see most of the attention at the painting desk.  The SYW project did see the mustering of a new French Army.  I even got this army into battle more than once.  The Biblicals were concentrated in the Sumerian project.  On the 2021 goals, WotR and Feudal Japan projects also saw gains.  No additions to the Hittites, Egyptians, or Babylonians, though.  Good additions to the 30mm ECW project too.  That was a surprise.

Figure 2

Breaking painting totals down by scale, Figure 2 shows that 15/18mm projects dominated my efforts.  One of the 2022 goals listed above highlighted changing the figure mix from 25mm/28mm to 15mm/18mm.  In this regard, I stuck to plan having 70% of all figures painted falling into the 15/18mm bucket.  Another success!

Figure 3

One goal of time spent at the painting desk is to even out the fluctuations in monthly output.  Figure 3 illustrates that my monthly painting production maintains a seasonal tendency or pattern.  Notice that SYW painting dominates most months' painting output.  I have examined this before (see Seasonality in Painting Production 2020).  Perhaps, I should update this analysis to include the most recent two years of data? 

What can I expect on the painting front in 2023?  Where should I spend these efforts?  Below are a few of my thoughts for the New Year:

• Continue expansion of the 18mm SYW/WAS project to include more armies.  In addition to Spanish and Piedmontese, field a British/Hanoverian army.
• Build a 15mm Prussian Army to allow expansion of the Franco-Austrian War collection to the Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian Wars.
• Continue work to expand the 25mm Biblical armies including Sumerians, Hittites, Egyptians, Assyrians, and Babylonians. 

While there are other projects contending for my time at the painting desk, the list above will help to provide some focus.  This exercise seemed to work well for 2022.  I ticked off a number of the 2022 goals.  2023 looks set to be another year of concentrating on 15mm/18mm projects.  A potential 25mm Trojan War project still lays in wait ready for me to begin.  Maybe 2023 will see the start of this project?

What are your painting plans for 2023?

Painting Log 2021

The counts are in for the 2021 Painting Campaign.  

While I did not proclaim a figure count goal for 2021, I expected a total of near 900 figures would be a reasonable objective.  With an expectation for a steady diet of remote games (right!) and no new projects on the horizon (wrong!), I set my sights on a slightly lower total than the previous years.

What I did not expect was an explosion of remote gaming and two new projects.  Of the two new projects begun in 2021, the War of the Roses project wrapped up by year-end and the Sumerian project is making good progress.  As seen from the following charts, both War of The Roses and Sumerians made up a big chunk of 2021 output.

On to the numbers. 

The totals for 2021 were 1,103 painted figures amassing 4,297 Painting Points.  Much better than expected and certainly a nice sum.  Now, if I could only restrict new projects and new purchases so that I can make dent in The Lead Pile. 

Figure 1

When looking at painting production by era, Figure 1 confirms that WotR and Sumerian projects did, indeed, represent most of my painting output.  There were some Hittites in the Biblical grouping as well.  ACW was up there in figure count too but at 10mm, the figures do not count much in either time spent or painting points.  

Figure 2

Breaking painting totals down by scale, Figure 2 illustrates that 25/28mm projects dominated my efforts.  Surprisingly, 15/18mm figures saw very little activity in 2021.  Something I need to correct for 2022 to bring about more balance.  

Figure 3

On a Painting Point basis, Figure 3 demonstrates the usefulness of translating actual figures counts to Painting Points.  Both the WotR and Sumerian projects see their weight expand at the expense of the smaller (in size) projects.  With a translation from Actual to Painting Points, the WotR project's effort increases from about 28% of total effort up to 37% of total effort.

Figure 4

Converting the figure counts from Actuals to Painting Points (see Figure 4), the 25/28mm projects expand their percentage of effort (84.2%) while the 10mm ACW projects gets squeezed due to the heavier weighting of 25/28mm figures over 10mm figures.

With no new projects planned for 2022, what can I expect on the painting front? I have many projects that may contend for my time at the painting desk but laying down a few priorities may help maintain some focus.  Many of these projects already are in a gameable state with the exception of the Sumerian project which needs more units to field two playable armies.  Getting close but not quite yet on that one.  Where should I spend my painting efforts in 2022?

• Finish enough Sumerians to field two armies.
• Build a SYW French army in 18mm to complement my Prussian and Austrian armies.
• Expand the Biblical armies with additions to Hittites, Egyptians, and Babylonians.
• Expand the Samurai armies to include foot and mounted Samurai bowmen.
• Given the figure size mix from 2021, try to paint more 15/18mm figures than 25/28mm figures. 

If all goes well with the above list, perhaps 2022 is the year I begin a Trojan War project or expand the Franco-Austrian War project into the Franco-Prussian War by beginning a Prussian army?  Time will tell.  Since figures for both the Trojans and Prussians are already languishing in The Lead Pile, try to resist starting a new project requiring new figures.  We will see how that goes.

What are your painting plans for 2022?

Painting Log 2020: A Year in Review

Figure 1

Time once again for the annual Painting Log review.

While the year limped out with only 67 figures crossing the painting desk in December, November overcompensated with an output of over 200 painted figures (see Figure 1 for monthly totals).  Unless I step it up, January will look much more like December than November.

As always, there was a unit or two nearing completion at the end of the year that just could not quite make it across the finish line.  These laggards will muster out later in the year.   Still, 2020 witnessed a very productive year at the painting desk.  While 2020 did not produce the largest productivity with respect to actual figure count, the year did produce my largest total in Painting Points as adjusted for figure size.   In summary, 2020 saw,

Total Number of figures painted: 1,412 figures and 44 pieces of equipment.

Total Number of Adjusted Painting Points: 6,076.

While figure count was down from 2019 (1,456 vs 1,630), Adjusted Painting Points actually increased by about 34% (6,076 vs 4,530) over 2019. That painting point count placed 2020 in the top spot of the largest annual total since I began tracking such things more than twenty-five years ago.  I've been tracking this for 25 years?  I know, some will think this madness. 

What do 25 years of painting log summaries look like graphically?  Well, Figure 2 provides a good indication of total figure counts by year.  Thrown into the mix in Figure 2 is the breakdown of yearly totals by gaming era.  While 2020 saw a large variety of figures cross over to the completed side of the ledger, Biblicals, with a concentration of fielding a Hittite Army, and the 1799 project saw better than their fair share of activity. 

Figure 2

When viewed from a Painting Points perspective, these 25 years look like Figure 3.  Now, the all-time high in painting points can clearly be seen for 2020.

Figure 3

With the variety of projects seeing work at the painting desk in 2020, which projects saw the most attention?  Figure 4 details that result.

Figure 4

As noted earlier, Biblicals and 1799 garnered the largest slices but a lot of variety is present.  This is a nice mix of projects and a blend that prevents me from becoming bored or unmotivated at the workbench. 

With respect to figure size, my 2020 painting effort was well balanced with about an even 45% split between 15/18mm and 25/28mm.  That is nice.  See Figure 5.

Figure 5

As I mentioned in last year's 2019 wrap-up, I did not believe this level of productivity sustainable.  Therefore, I set my 2020 goal to about 900 figures.  I estimated too low once again for 2020.  Given that the last two months have seen a huge increase in remote gaming, I expect painting time to decrease.  For 2021, I lower the bar to a goal of 1,000 figures.  

Having hit the Hittite goal of a new, 20-unit army in 2020, I plan to tackle a similar, new army project for 2021.  Of course, more Hittites and other Biblicals will make their way across the painting desk but I think another new Biblical army for 2021 is in order. 

Painting Log: 2019

With year-end, time to take stock of the progress made in getting figures painted and onto the table.  Well, painted anyway since getting figures onto the gaming table is sometimes a challenge.  Less of a challenge this year than in years past, though.  I managed at least 26 games not counting a number of solo games and several multi-game sessions which I counted as one.  In that respect, 2019 was a leap forward in gaming activity.  Let's see if I can keep the momentum rolling in 2020.

On the painting front, 2019 exceeded my expectations on the number of figures passing across the painting desk.  Back in January, I posted a goal of 900 figures for the year.  I ended 2019 at a count of 1,630 figures painted.  As my grandfather was oft to say when playing bridge with him, "you have grossly underbid, kid."  That perhaps is the case but this year's totals are a bit of an anomaly, I think.  I don't expect such output in 2020.

Before focusing in on the 2019 painting activity, let me bring up a historical perspective of my painting output.  The chart below illustrates painting production for the years 1995 to 2019 by era.  Looking at the number of tightly-packed bars, each containing a number of eras in a kaleidoscope of colors, it is hard to believe that I have been tracking these data for 25 years.  It is a colorful picture.

Looking at the stacked bars, some years show more diversity in eras worked than others.  2019 was certainly a year of project diversity.  2019 saw thirteen eras receiving attention with some eras experiencing work in more than one scale.  It is fun to look back through the years and witness the ebb and flow of projects as chronicled within the Painting Log.   

When viewed from a Painting Point basis, output has been relatively consistent since 2008 hovering around 4,000 painting points per year.  The graphic certainly leads one to infer that productivity experienced a regime switch between 2007 and 2008. 

From the perspective of painting and scale, effort continues to focus on either 15/18mm or 25/28mm.  2019 saw a bit more diversity in that six different scales crossed the painting desk.  Diversity is good, right?

When digging into the details of 2019, are there trends to be discovered or simply a random parade of figures across the painting table?

First, it looks like I really dug in and got busy in October and November.  Those two blips are driven primarily on getting some 10mm ACW troops into the painting queue.  Second, a mix of projects tends to see action each month without a clear focus on any one.  I suppose that helps keep interest and painting motivation high.

So, a bit random with some focus...

Looking at 2019 as a whole, the Franco-Austrian War and the American Civil War projects take top honors with about 340 figures each completed.  The Seven Years War, Punic Wars, and Suvorov's 1799 projects round out the Top 5 in figure counts.  The Punic Wars project is no surprise since 2019 was spent fielding Celts for a potential Telamon refight.  I averaged one unit per month of Celts coming off the painting desk.  Good to see the mainstays of my 15/18mm projects, 1799, 1859, and SYW consistently in the mix.  I never seem to run out of these figures in The Lead Pile!   

When examined by scale, it is no surprise that 15/18mm takes top honors at just over 50% of total activity given the focus on the three 15/18mm projects highlighted above.

Well, that puts another year into the books with respect to painting effort.  2019 was a productive year at the painting desk with more figures completed than imagined at the start of the year.  What will 2020 hold on the painting front?  More of the same with a mix of projects and scales working through the painting queue.  Very little chance of duplicating the 2019 effort but a target of 1,000 figures seems doable in 2020. 

Happy New Year and May Your Brushes be Sharp in 2020! 

2018 Painting Log in Review

Sharpen the pencil and slide the visor down over my head to shade the glare from the lamp.  Time to reconcile the parade of painted troops passing over my painting desk in 2018.

Before we move on to the Bring Out the Charts section, what were my painting goals set out at the beginning of 2018? To recap from January 2018:

With all projects in sufficient quantities to field armies for games, there is little pressure to concentrate on any one project to reach that critical, gameable mass. No new project(s) planned for 2018 either. Without either of these incentives, the 2018 painting goal ought to be something more pragmatic. As a step towards pragmatism, the 2018 goal is to make a dent in The Lead Pile by buying less than I paint. A painted figure goal of 900 seems reasonable.

To reduce The Lead Pile, effort should lean towards the 15/18mm category since 2017 saw most painting activity in the 25/28mm size. To aim towards that objective, the 1799, 1859, SYW, and Feudal Japan projects should see renewed activity. With moderate effort, the inventory of the Peter Pig Samurai figures in inventory could be brought down to near zero. If enough progress is made on the 1859 project to field French, perhaps, a start on a small Prussian army for either 1866 or 1870 could be contemplated? Does starting a new Prussian army for either the 1866 or 1870 conflicts count as a new project or an expansion of the existing 1859 project?

The outlook for 2018 provided just enough details to give direction to the painting year yet allow plenty of wiggle room to veer off course.  Let us see how I did.

• Painting Goal:  In 2018, I painted 1,268 figures and 31 pieces of equipment.  That equates to about a 41% increase over expectations.  That is a good start! 
• Paint More Than Buy: While I have not taken account of figure purchases, it is most likely that I painted more than bought in 2018.
• Concentrate on 15/18mm: Yep.  About 77% (1,004) of the total painted figures were in this class.   

While figure count was up from 2017 (1,268 vs 911), Adjusted Painting Points actually decreased slightly (3,896 vs 4,334) over 2017 due to the concentration on 15/18mm.

As with past years' analytics, painting totals are presented in unadjusted (raw) figure counts as well as adjusted figure counts.  Adjusted counts consider figure size as a component while unadjusted simply tallies the number of painted figures produced.  Adjustments are made based on Analog Hobbies' Painting Challenge points system.

Bring Out the Charts!
On an unadjusted basis of painted figures by era (Figure 1), the major effort (39.52% of total) was in the 18mm 1799 project (Suvorov in Italy/Switz.).  Next, coming in at 228 figures (17.57% of total), the 18mm 1859 project took second billing followed by the 18mm SYW project (189 figures; about 15% of total).  The Feudal Japan project saw activity too, coming in with 74 figures completed.  My sense is that few figures remain in The Lead Pile for this project. 

Figure 1

On an adjusted figure count basis (Figure 2), the percentages by project are transformed slightly due to the weighting scheme but the 1799 project still comes out on top at 30% of total output.

Figure 2

Turning to disaggregating counts by scale (Figure 3), more than 77% of all painting production was logged in the 15/18mm classification.  I stuck to a goal!

Figure 3

On an adjusted basis, the 15/18mm classification loses some of its dominance with almost 31% of production booked into the 25/28mm classification. 

Figure 4

How does 2018 fit into the historical trends and tendencies over the life of my figure tracking?

On an unadjusted basis, painting trends show 2018 experienced a slight bump up in total figure count over the previous four years.  This increase is almost certainly due to the concentration on 15/18mm figures (Figure 5).  I expect that if 2018 painting output been more balanced between 25/28mm and 15/18mm then 2018 would have seen very similar raw figure counts as 2014-2017.

Figure 5

Converting these counts to an adjusted basis by Year and Scale (Figure 6) shows that painting output in 2018 managed to creep into the Top 10 years since painting statistics have been tracked.  Again, by painting a little most days, consistency remains in place and good gains can be realized.

Figure 6

Project diversity continued in 2018 as shown by the variety of differently colored bars in Figure 7.  Even given the 2018 focus on 15/18mm in general and the 1799/1859 projects in particular, twelve different projects saw figures muster off from the painting desk.

Figure 7

On an adjusted basis, Figure 8 reconfirms that 2018 was a good year at the painting desk.  The graph also confirms that my painting production has found a very sustainable level of consistency since 2008.  Consistency over time is key to building large armies.

Figure 8

That is a wrap for the 2018 Painting Review.  2018 was a good year at the painting desk and many a fine recruit mustered to the colors.   For those whose eyes have not yet glazed over from the charts, 

Happy New Year!

2017 Painting Log in Review

2017 ended with a whimper on the hobby front.  Rather than enjoying the week between Christmas and New Years' Day with a chance for a bit of R&R with friends and family, I was stricken by a nasty flu.  Still battling the effects of that terrible holiday bug as I write.  Planned games cancelled and painting sessions cut short as fatigue comes quickly.  Just enough energy to file away the 2017 Painting Log Review.  

A few completed units lay in wait at the workbench patiently awaiting their turn at the photo booth but in summary 2017 saw, 

• Total Number of figures painted: 911 figures and 8 pieces of equipment
• Total Number of Adjusted Painting Points: 4,334

While figure count was down from 2016 (1,105 vs 911), Adjusted Painting Points actually increased slightly (4,317 vs 4,334) over 2016.  That painting point count placed 2017 in the slot of fourth largest annual total since I began tracking such things more than twenty years ago.

Having ultimately made no formal declaration for project plans for 2017 at the beginning of the year, the following was mentioned in the 2016 Painting Log Review:

While neither the 1799 nor 1859 projects saw action on the gaming table in 2016 as planned, games in these two periods are very close to seeing fruition.  The 1800 and 1859 battles of Montebello are almost ready for playtesting.  The map for Montebello has been transferred onto the gaming table and OB and scenario details for the 1859 action are in the final stages.  Playtesting should begin by the end of January.

What lays ahead for 2017?  Well, in general, more gaming would be most welcome and a new project (Neo-Assyrians) will likely take center stage.  Those thoughts are for another post.  Until next time. 

Very handy when I failed to set a benchmark for accountability at year end. Given that these two paragraphs were all I mentioned as goals at the beginning of 2017, still, they provide insights into my thoughts on a few goals.  First, the two battles of Montebello saw a lot of action on the gaming table in 2017.  Actually, a lot of gaming activity took place in 2017 and easily exceeded two dozen games.  Likely the most gaming I have done in one year in a very, very long time.  Second, the Neo-Assyrian project mentioned as a start-up in last year's post, exploded in 2017 as will be confirmed in the following graphs.  Checking the Painting Log, 46 BMUs for the Assyrian Wars project crossed over the painting desk in 2017.  A tidy sum, that! 

As with past years' analytics, painting totals are presented in unadjusted (raw) figure counts as well as adjusted figure counts.  Adjusted counts consider figure size as a component while unadjusted simply tallies the number of painted figures produced.  Adjustments are made based on Analog Hobbies' Painting Challenge points system.

On an unadjusted basis of painted figures by era (Figure 1), the major effort (34% of total) was in the 25mm Assyrian Wars project.  With 46 BMUs finished, no surprise there.  The count of 308 painting figures does not include the work done to refurbish and base the nine Assyrian chariots.  Next, coming in at 127 figures (14% of total), the 25mm Great Italian Wars project took second billing followed by the 18mm 1799 project (90 figures; about 10%) and 25mm Reconquista (86 figures; 9.5%)

Figure 1

On an adjusted figure count basis (Figure 2), the percentages by project are transformed as the weighting of the 25/28mm projects (Assyrian Wars, Italian Wars, Reconquista) dampen the effects of the 18mm 1799 project.

Figure 2

Turning to disaggregating counts by scale (Figure 3), fully 75% of all painting production was recognized in the 25/28mm classification.  2017 was the year of 25/28mm figure for me.  Perhaps a better balance is needed in 2018?

Figure 3

On an adjusted basis, the 25/28mm classification dominance is even more pronounced.  Fully 85% of all production found itself in the larger scale projects.  

Figure 4

How does 2017 fit into the historical trends and tendencies over the life of my figure tracking?

On an unadjusted basis, painting trends show consistency in 2014 - 2017 periods with each hovering around 1,000 figures annually (Figure 5).  Had 2017 painting output been more balanced between 25/28mm and 15/18mm then 2017 would have seen very similar raw figure counts as 2014-2016.

Figure 5

Converting these counts to an adjusted basis by Year and Scale (Figure 6) shows that painting output in 2017 reached the fourth highest output since painting statistics have been tracked just edging out 2016.  Again, by painting a little most days, consistency remains in place and good gains can be realized.

Figure 6

Project diversity continued in 2017 as shown by the variety of differently colored bars in Figure 7.  Even given the 2017 focus on the Assyrian Wars project, fifteen different projects saw figures muster off from the painting desk.

Figure 7

On an adjusted basis, Figure 8 reconfirms that 2017 was a good year at the painting desk.  The graph also confirms that my painting production has found a very sustainable level of consistency over the last ten years. 

Figure 8

While my totals are not as monumental as some, the balance of about 900-1000 figures painted annually seems about right.  Given that no new projects are on the drawing board for 2018 and that I am slowly shifting towards an emphasis of more gaming, my 2018 goals on the painting front may be lowered.  That, however, is for another post when project planning for 2018 is considered.