Closing the Book on 2015

The Painting Log for 2015 received its last entry for the year yesterday.  While three units painted in 2015 await their turn for a photo, the 2015 Painting Log has been closed.  What does that signify?  For one, log closure suggests the annual painting wrap-up cannot be far behind. 

If eyes glaze over at the sight of a handful of charts, the 2015 painting summary might best be described as,

• 2015 - Year of 25/28mm and the 28mm Peninsular War Project
• Total Number of figures painted: 1,145
• Total Number of Adjusted Painting Points: 4,454

For those having the fortitude to continue, following are the battery of graphs.  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 figures processed.  Adjustments are made based on Analog Hobbies' Painting Challenge points system.

Looking at the distribution of painting output on an unadjusted basis by Era (Figure 1), a couple of details to note.  The 28mm Napoleonics project reached the goal set last January of completing 200 figures.  At the time, I classified that goal as a stretch.  Without a late November/December focus, that goal would have remained just out of reach.  Nevertheless, the Stretch Goal was reached.

Figure 1

One surprise from this graphic is the 178 figures painted for a "small" side project.  Meant only as a means for getting in a small force for a 19th Century Great Game project, this project quickly took on a determination of its own.  The number of figures painted for this project snuck up on me.  In shear volume, however, the 15/18mm Italian War of Independence project took top honors with 306 figures painted.

On an adjusted figure count basis (Figure 2), the percentages of the pie chart transform a bit.  Now, the Napoleonics and 19th Century projects garner nearly 50% of yearly output.  In the world of adjusting painting productivity, size does matter.

Figure 2

Turning to disaggregating counts by Scale, 25/28mm figures dominate the output.  Note that new for 2015 analytics, 15mm and 18mm have been combined into one classification (15/18mm) as have 25mm and 28mm (25/28mm).

Figure 3

When considering Scale on an adjusted basis, the 25/28mm classification dominates all others.  At over 78% of total output, that is domination.  The 25/28mm wedge in Figure 4 reminds me of Pacman ready to gobble all others.   

Figure 4

On an unadjusted basis, painting trends show 2015 counts are quite close to 2014 levels (Figure 5). 2015 continues the trend seen in 2014 of 15/18mm and 25/28mm dominating Scale.

Figure 5

Examination from an adjusted basis by Year and Scale (Figure 6) shows that painting output in 2015 reached the third highest output since painting statistics have been tracked.

Figure 6

Project diversity continued in 2015 as had been the situation over the last three years.  A multitude of different projects from different Eras crossed the painting desk.  Project diversity is likely a strong factor in the prevention of painting burn-out or loss of painting motivation; a malady I rarely experience. 

Figure 7

On an adjusted basis, Figure 8 reconfirms that 2015 was a good year at the painting desk.  This output is surprising.  Again, the heavy weight of 25/28mm figures likely skews the effort exerted.  

Figure 8

How did I succeed in sticking to 2015 goals and objectives set back in January 2015?  Reaching the 28mm Peninsular War Stretch Goal of 200 painted figures was a success but what about failures?  Of course, I experienced misses as well.  All of these goals will be scrutinized when project plans for 2016 are addressed.

One final note:  tracking painting output provides a useful project management tool to help juggle a variety of projects and keep them on the rails.  Since the painting aspect of the hobby is prone to derailment, frequent measurement and reconciliation keeps the fingers and mind focused on the task at hand.  Well, it works for me!