Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Happy New Year and Painting Summary 2013

Happy New Year!

The Painting Log closes out 2013 and begins 2014 on a fresh page.  Well, I have one more set of figures to share that was completed in the final day of 2013.  For some, an annual recap of their production is a ritual.  For others, tracking figures painted is akin to bean counting and summarily dismissed as a waste of time.  These two alignments are not much different from our other debates: Process vs Result; Journey vs Destination, Simulation vs Game, etc..

Under the old adage that you can't manage what you don't measure, I track my painting output.  Besides, these data provide an occasional interesting insight.  For painting output in 2013, the Painting Log shows 1,472 figures completed.  While not my largest annual output, that total number of figures places 2013 production in the number four slot.

A review of the time series on painting production by figure size (I'll call it "scale") on a raw or unadjusted basis shows 590 28mm figures crossed the painting desk in 2013.  A quick glance at the Figure 1 graphic suggests this to be my largest 28mm productivity to date.  
Figure 1

When categorized by era, a number of projects saw action with the paint brush.  Figure 2 graphic illustrates that the Punic Wars projects took top honors at 335 figures.  Of course, that total includes both 28mm and 6mm projects.  The new Reconquista project, begun in July, came in second place with 227 painted figures.  That result was a bit surprising.  Seemed to me that I spent more time painting Moors.  Maybe in the latter half of the year I did but 6mm ancients can pile on the numbers quite quickly.  
Examining 2013 in isolation shows that projects Punic Wars, Reconquista, and Samurai Battles ranked 1,2 and 3.
For 2013 by scale, these figure totals are broken out in the pie chart below and confirm that 28mm dominated the painting output.

Raw output can be skewed by scale so I took the scoring from Analog Hobbies Painting Challenge and applied these criteria to my own painting output.

After adjusting for scale-points, the Punic Wars projects fall from first to second with the Reconquista project taking top place.  Adding in the 6mm Ancients did bump the Reconquista project down in the rankings.  

To provide a better understanding of painting effort over time, Curt's figure scoring mechanism is brought into the analysis mix.  Since I have maintained a painting log for a number of years, I extended my annual painting totals to produce the charts below.  Again, these charts show adjusted painting totals by ERA and SCALE from 1995 through 2013.  With these adjustments, 2013 was my best year ever! 


Notice how a focus on painting 28mm figures affected adjusted output.  I guess if one wants to maximize painting points, paint 28s!  By producing both of these graphics, I can tell at a glance where my efforts have been focused over the years.  Each project tends to have a unique life cycle ebbing and flowing as either interest increases or wains and as projects are finished or left to languish.  For example, the SYW project finished as the leading project in years 2008 - 2011 only to fall to no higher than fourth in ranking in 2012.  In 2013, the 28mm Reconquista project dominated with 1,345 points while the 28mm Punic Wars project came in with 959.  The 28mm AWI project also did well (830 points) given my early push to field figures for a planned game.

Did I stick to my 2013 project plans?  What is in store for 2014?  Stay tuned.

13 comments:

  1. Now that's a serious analysis of ones painting output! It seems your a darn painting machine!

    Christopher

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    1. Well, it helps me monitor where the heck I spend my time and money.

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  2. Jon, I always enjoy your fun with numbers.

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    1. Fun with numbers! True. What would you expect otherwise?

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  3. Impressive stuff, both the output and the records keeping.

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  4. I had a hunch that 2013 was your best year ever (adjusted for inflation, er, era and scale) and I see it's true. I once was detailed to a Research unit and I must say it looks like you do this full time, or for fun and profit. ;-)

    Your production and variety were tops. It was great following along and I look forward to your adventures in the new year!

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    1. Having spent many a day analyzing data and producing ways to visualize those data, those tendencies seep into everything.

      Adventures in the New Year; I look forward to those too!

      Thanks for following along and frequently commenting.

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  5. Wow! Where to begin? You must have been reading my friend Brent's blog re: his dismissal of this sort of thing. I am a numbers guy myself, so I like this sort of stuff, although I don't see myself ever going to quite this extreme, LOL! BTW, Physicians are well know for obsessive-compulsive personality traits,so I think you might have at least a bit of a problem in that regard, my friend! :-)

    It certainly backs up the impression that I've had that you, sir, are a painting machine! Truly awesome productivity. I figure that maximum possible productivity for me is 600 25/28mm figures per year, a figure I seldom reach. I do keep it simpler by ONLY doing 25/28mm scale, and (so far) nothing later than Napoleonics.

    Regardless, Bravo for the output and graphic analysis.

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    1. Thanks, Peter. You have a good eye! Yes, it was Brent's blog posting to which I was primarily referring.

      2013 may have been a little over the top with respect to painting due primarily to the new Reconquista project. I wouldn't expect the same for 2014.

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  6. Thanks, Andrew. Quite right. Capturing the correct data is key.

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  7. Outstanding achievement for the year. I am envious of the degree of granularity you achieve in your tracking.

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    1. Your performance was equally outstanding. If you capture the data the rest is trivial. Really, I only capture about a half dozen variables.

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