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Saturday, January 9, 2021

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. 

38 comments:

  1. It looks like you have painted many hundreds of figures each year. How do you deal with storage?

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    1. Hi Peter. I have a large house...

      Seriously, I ought to photograph the sight of my stacks of boxes.

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  2. A lot of painting Jonathan and tremendously consistent. For good or bad I don’t keep a tally. Of course more gaming means less painting which I think is a good thing. Grenadiers nearly done 😀

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    1. Thanks, Matt. If I didn't track this stuff, I would never know exactly what I had or "needed."

      The last quarter of 2020 may have seen a seismic shift from painting to gaming for me. I can thank you for that!

      Good to see that the grenadiers are coming long!

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  3. I'm always impressed not only by your output Jonathan, but also your consistently high quality across various periods. As mentioned before, these days I'm more interested in the games than the painting, but that may yet change.

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    1. You are very kind, Steve!

      Starting a new period will prompt more painting...

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  4. Think how much you'd have got done if we hadn't kept interrupting you with all that pesky wargaming.

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    1. Painting may have slipped a bit in December due to your pesky wargaming distractions but I would not change a thing! Remote gaming and getting to know your group was one of the highlights of 2020.

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    2. You are too kind. We have enjoyed your company.

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  5. Always great to see these posts Jonathan. A quite amazing year for throughput - congratulations.

    Richard

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    1. Glad you always enjoy these year-end painting recaps, Richard! Thank you.

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  6. Prolific! I think the biggest reward of the year has been your Hittites, which at the end of the year were matched by a surprise and kind gift of an opposing army, a definite moment of everything coming together.

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    1. Norm, you are quite right about the joy of mustering out my newly raised Hittites and seeing the defection of the Egyptians. Two triumphs to remember in the dismal mess of 2020.

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  7. I can only admire your dedication to the hobby Jonathan.

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  8. Staggering output Jon. And quality too. Not just quantity.

    Hat tip too for keeping the stats going for 25 years.

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    1. Thank you very much! As for 25 years of collecting data, I am surprised I have not had a computer or database failure destroying it all. Also surprising since I have gone through numerous computers and a number of DBs and upgrades.

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  9. Excellent painting totals. A very productive year

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  10. A very impressive year Jonathan but oh dear, all those graphs and pie charts - I have to go back to work tomorrow and looking at these stats is not helping my mental health! My wife and I are off out for another walk - its 9am and already 21 deg C - whatever that is in your antiquated 18th century Fahrenheit scale! (70 apparently :))

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    1. Keith, my goal is not to make your head hurt! Be thankful that you didn't have to crunch the numbers and present the graphs. My software changed since last time I presented these totals and I had to reinvent the wheel.

      70F sounds wonderful! I look forward to your post-walk photos.

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  11. A lot of variety in there Jonathan as you say, and a great overall result in terms of total output.

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  12. A very impressive year, Jon. CONGRATULATIONS!

    Another Biblical Army, eh? Well, you have Assyrians, Hittites, Egyptians. That would leave Hebrews and Sea Peoples as the most likely candidates, although there are always Canaanites, Nubians, Hyskos, Elamites, Medes, Uartu, and others. I will be adding more Sea Peoples and Libyans myself (oops, there's another army candidate).

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    1. Thank you!

      For another Bibilical army, I am heading west with thoughts of fielding a Trojan Army to oppose the Hittites. After Trojans, it is not much of a leap to build an Achaian Army to face the Trojans.

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  13. Way to blow your goal out of the water! Along with the rest of us mere mortals! 😀. The painting totals are simply spectacular to me. One day I will paint enough to warrant using a spreadsheet.

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    1. Thanks, Stew! If you are going to paint this much and track it, I suggest a database...

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  14. Goodness that is an awful lot of painting...congratulations for years of pretty spectacular achievements!!

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  15. The term conspicuous consumption comes to mind :), good for the economy though, not to mention mental health.

    I think I'm happier not knowing how many I've painted in the last 50 years. I think the residue may be less than 10% by figure count but much higher than that by weight!

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    1. Consumption, yes, but conspicuous? No one sees the toys lining the walls of my game room besides thee and me...

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  16. Another productive year! My blog is the only records I have of my figures ,I keep no notes of what unpainted figures I have ,so that I can have the mental exercise of remembering them all! If I can't sleep, I'll go through all the unpainted collections figure by figure!
    Best Iain

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    1. You are one up on me with respect to counting unpainted figures. I only track the ones painted. Counting the number of unpainted figures in The Lead Pile may lead to despair.

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  17. Another impressive year, Jonathan! Here's to 2021!

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  18. Your output is impressive. It must be a great pleasure for you to analyze your collection. I never count my figures except if I'm looking in my cupboard if there are enough for a future unit.

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    1. Tracking the growth of the collections does provide satisfaction and it helps to reduce purchasing stuff of which I already have too much.

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