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.