Painting Analytics - First Half 2014

With the first half of 2014 receding in the rear-view mirror, time to take stock of my painting output.  My sense going into this exercise was that production was down in the first six months compared to recent years.  For me, dialing back on painting throughput a bit was positive in that I had time for more activities.  Well, some of the decrease in painting time was involuntary so I cannot really take much credit for having the foresight to scale back.  Having fewer painted figures mustering off the painting desk has allowed more time to blog, read others' blogs, and in general, ponder gaming ideas.

No new painting project blitzes surfaced in the the first half of the year so that accounts for some of the reduction too.  With no deadlines, the paint brush lay idle.  I can't use increased group gaming as an excuse either although solo play has increased.  One group game per month is about all I can schedule.

Enough excuses!  Let's see what I did manage to get off the painting desk thus far.

In terms of raw numbers, it looks like about 500 figures crossed the painting table with about 43% of those being 15mm.  Yes, I know that aggregating by full year prior to 2014 distorts the picture somewhat but we can extrapolate and imagine full year output, can't we?  If I can manage to duplicate first half output by finishing with 1,000 painted figures for 2014, I would be pleased.

When examined by era, 15mm Italian War of Independence (1859 Project) saw the most action having about 20% of the output.

 As seen in the pie chart below, a large variety of different periods hit the painting desk.  Tough to get bored or burned out when there is such variety.

Of course, raw totals weight all figure sizes equally and we know that a 28mm Roman takes longer to paint than a 6mm Roman, right?  To account for this variation, Adjusted Counts have been computed.  For Adjustments, I use the Analog Hobbies Painting Challenge points system.

After that adjustment, 28mm takes the lead by figure size (scale) at over 43% while 15mm falls back to 28% of total output.

   

Considering a perspective by era, the Reconquista project takes top honors at about 21% followed by the Italian War of Independence project at nearly 13% of totals.

So, what would I like to see cross the painting desk in the second half of the year?  I have such varied interests and collections that almost anything is possible to surface upon the paint table at any time.  Maybe I will try to maintain the variety seen in the first half by employing a shotgun approach to painting targets?  That is, every project will be in my sights for possible work.

I have a few 28mm Napoleonic foot and horse units that could use a smack with the brush.  Painting three foot battalions and six horse squadrons would just about exhaust my stock pile of lead.  In 28mm, I still have a large supply of Reconquista and Punic Wars lead.  Perhaps, knocking a few Impetvs sized units will be in order.  I bet SAW Americans cross the desk to give my Spanish some opposition too.

On the 15/18mm front, I enjoy working on the 1859 project and I have not hit the critical mass required to field a game for the Napoleonic 1799 project.  Both could see work in the second half.

Of course, plans rarely survive contact and in the end, I paint what moves me.  Don't we all?