Wizard Kraft Kickstarter Rivers

After having jumped into Wizard Kraft's Kickstarter last fall on the recommendation of several friends, I waited anxiously to see the product.  Although promised for a November delivery date, the package finally arrived around the first of January.

When I opened the slender box, I found the contents of my Kickstarter Backer Reward.  I selected the  one inch Temperate Muddy configuration package containing the following pieces:

• 1 x Lake
• 1 x Swamp
• 1 x 12" straight ford
• Left & Right fork
• 2 x 12" straight sections
• 1 x 8" & 1 x 4" straight section
• 1 medium 45º bend set (2 x 6" long pcs)
• 1 x small 45º bend set (3 x 4" long pcs)

Note that "one inch" river section denotes the width of the water feature, itself and does not include the width of bank on either side.  The final width of a one inch river is about two inches.  Upon first review, the pieces are much thinner than expected.  The profile on these pieces is quite slim.  No built up embankments and the pieces lay flat with ease. 

The joins between each piece match up very well and are practically invisible from a distance.  The craftsmanship on the flocking and hand-painting is brilliantly executed.  The couple behind Wizard Kraft seem to take great pride in the work they produce.  High quality rivers.  

Having backed the kickstarter beyond my initial $75 pledge, I took advantage of the free shipping to spend the remainder of my pledge for several other river packages.  All additional rivers packages were of the one inch, temperate muddy river variety to match this batch.

Great stuff!  

2016 Painting Log In Review

While a handful of units still need their shot at a photo session, The Painting Log for 2016 received its last entries on 29DEC2016 before I departed for Mexico.  In summary, 

• Total Number of figures painted: 1,105 figures and 25 pieces of equipment
• Total Number of Adjusted Painting Points: 4,317

Given my Top 5 goals put forward at the beginning of the year,

• Reduce The Lead Pile for Second Italian War of Independence (1859) project in 15mm
• Reduce The Lead Pile for 1799 Suvorov in Italy and Switzerland project in 18mm
• Add to Great Italian Wars project in 28mm
• More gaming including first game using the 1799 collection
• Reduce The Lead Pile for 18mm SYW and 15mm Samurai Battles projects (100 figures each)

How did I do working towards these goals in 2016?

1. Reduce The Lead Pile for Second Italian War of Independence (1859) project in 15mm - 373 figures.
2. Reduce The Lead Pile for 1799 Suvorov in Italy and Switzerland project in 18mm - 376 figures.
3. Add to Great Italian Wars project in 28mm - 108 figures
4. More gaming including first game using the 1799 collection - No increase in gaming seen in 2016 and no 1799 game.
5. Reduce The Lead Pile for 18mm SYW and 15mm Samurai Battles projects (100 figures each) - Not much work here.  No SYW figures crossed the painting desk and only one unit of Japanese mustered off the painting desk.

Even though I noticed Goals 4 and 5 were slipping away at mid-year, no corrective action occurred.  Plenty of time to adjust the course but I failed to make changes.  I suppose other tasks took higher priority.  One example is work on the 19th Century Great Game project where 101 figures crossed over to the painted side of the tally slate.

Having made good progress on fielding figures for both the 1859 (373 figures) and 1799 (376 figures) projects, The Lead Pile did not experience much reduction since I restocked both projects throughout 2016.  Tough to reduce The Lead Pile when it keeps getting replenished!

Enough of that.  Time to move on to the 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.

On an unadjusted basis of painted figures by era (Figure 1), the major efforts were in the 1859 and 1799 projects garnering about 33% of total production each.  Next, The Great Italian Wars project and Great Game project come in with about 9% each.  Work on The Great Game project was motivated by expectations to put the Russians and Sikhs onto the field of battle in their first taste of combat.  Alas, we never could get schedules coordinated to put on such a game.  Perhaps in 2017?

Figure 1

On an adjusted figure count basis (Figure 2), the percentages by project transform as the weighting of the 25/28mm projects (Italian Wars, Great Game) dampen the effects of the 18mm projects (1859, 1799).  As in many classifications, size does matter.

Figure 2

Turning to disaggregating counts by scale (Figure 3), 15/18mm production dominates the output by more than two-to-one over 25/28mm painting. 

Figure 3

On an adjusted basis, the 25/28mm classification not only closes the gap with 15/18mm production but actually dominated it with a 55% to 45% margin.   

Figure 4

On an unadjusted basis, painting trends show consistency in 2014, 2015, and 2016 with each producing about 1,100 figures (Figure 5). My painting goals for the last three years have targeted about 1,000 figures annually.  I can hit some goals!  The 2016 stacked bar confirms that my focus on the 1799 and 1859 projects paid dividends.  Now to get these projects onto the gaming table.

Figure 5

Converting these counts to an adjusted basis by Year and Scale (Figure 6) shows that painting output in 2016 reached the fourth highest output since painting statistics have been tracked.  2015 was the third highest.  Again, I am showing some consistency.

Figure 6

Project diversity continued in 2016 as seen from the variety of differently colored bars in Figure 7.  Even given the 2016 focus, many projects crossed the painting desk.  For me, project diversity is key to preventing burn-out or loss of painting mojo. 

Figure 7

On an adjusted basis, Figure 8 reconfirms that 2016 was a good year at the painting desk registering my fourth highest annual points' total to date.  

Figure 8

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. 

Mexican Riviera for the Holidays

With snow piling up on the Home Front and temperatures forecasted for the single digits, we loaded up the two girls and their families and headed south to begin the New Year with a week in sunny Mexico.  

Rather than fly to one destination for a week's stay, we chose to book everyone onto a seven day cruise out of Los Angeles aboard the Norwegian Jewel.  With five adults and two grandkids, this should be a week to remember.

We sailed from San Pedro on DEC 30 with the first two days of the cruise to be spent at sea.   On this particular cruise, there are three ports of call: Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas.  After three nights on open water, the Jewel arrived to dock in Puerto Vallarta.

While I was interested in taking a taxi into Old Town, the rest of the family opted for a leisurely day on the beach.  Ensuring that they made it to a suitable beach, I left for the Malecon for a long stroll.

All along the Malecon or Promenade are displayed numerous sculptures; a few of which are captured in the following photos.

After strolling along the Malecon and trying my best to avoid contact with aggressive vendors, I headed back in the general direction of the ship.  First, I visited the Mercado for look around and then to a pharmacy for sunscreen.  Now, the ship was docked about three miles from Old Town so I was faced with a long hike.  Temperatures were hovering in the upper 70s F so the walk would be warm.

Having returned to the beach where I deposited the family, I searched for them but found no one.  Figuring they must have returned to the ship, I followed suit.  Of course, I stopped for a nice cold drink before boarding.  Back on board, I surveyed the pool deck from above.  

Returning to the room, I found a message stating everyone had found a nearby resort in which to spend the day and that I could join if I returned in time.  Since the ship would be underway in less than two hours, I opted to find a snack on board and await their return.

With everyone back on board, in late afternoon, the Jewel set off for our next stop, Mazatlan.

When the ship docked in Mazatlan the next morning, we negotiated a van to drive into the Zona Dorada for a day of shopping and sunning.  After shopping and a snack consisting of huge plates of guacamole and chips, we went out onto the jetty before hailing a taxi to return us to the ship. 

As the NCL Jewel left Mazatlan harbor, another cruise ship from Holland America line followed us out into the open sea.

Next stop:  Cabo San Lucas and the famous Lands End.

Arriving at 0700 in the harbor and a short day onshore, we had a quick breakfast and made plans for the day.  The plan was to tender to the port, negotiate a boat for a tour of Lands End, and then have the boat deposit our group at a resort for a mid-morning lay about on the beach. With no port facilities large enough to handle a cruise ship, we are forced to reach land by ship's tender.

Up close, the rock formations of Lands End are fabulous.  With more time, snorkeling in among the rocks and fish would be great fun.  Maybe next time?

Passageway leads from Sea of Cortez to Pacific Ocean

Having completed the 45 minute tour and being deposited back on shore, the group settled in for play time on the beach.  At this time, our group split up to explore different areas of Cabo with the two grand kids remaining on the beach with their mother and Grandma.  While my youngest duagther and her husband struck out up beach to try paddle boarding, I headed back into town to find Sammy Hagar's Cabo Wabo Cantina.  We agreed to meet back on ship (hopefully!) before sailing.  

After meandering through the streets, I found the object of my search; Cabo Wabo.  Being a fan of Van Halen and especially Hagar's stint as frontman for the band, I enjoy paying a visit when in Cabo.

Since it was very early in the day, no band was performing but the stage was set and lit so that I could snap a photo.  The place reminds me of a dungeon.  Not too dissimilar from some of the bars in which I performed in my younger days.

Back on ship, I could get a general survey of the harbor and town.  Seems to have been much development since my last visit for my 50th birthday in DEC 2008.

As we set sail from Cabo, there would be one more sea day and then back to Los Angeles to get our flights home.

When we returned home, we were welcomed by more snow and 30 degrees of frost.  Quite a contrast from where we spent the last week.  

Nancy could be found thumbing through real estate ads for condos in Cabo this morning!

Austrian Hussar Regiment #12 in 1859

After a steady stream of units for the 18mm 1799 project, attention is diverted to return to the 15mm 1859 project.  Today's focus is four squadrons of Austrian hussars from Regiment #12.  Figures are Mirliton from Italy. 

Mirliton makes my favorite cavalry sculpts for this period and size.  While Old Glory and Lancashire make very good cavalry, to my eye, Mirliton exceeds both.  Unfortunately, only figures for Austrian and Sardinian contingents are present in Mirliton's 1859 range.

These dozen troopers muster out as squadrons 5 through 8 of Haller Hussar Regiment #12.  Squadrons 1 through 4 mustered out for duty long ago and only now do the remaining four squadrons get called up for service.  With light blue uniform topped by a white shako, Haller Hussars are a handsome unit.

AB 5th Warasdin-Kreutz Grenz Battalion 1799

The third and final Austrian Grenz battalion to march off from the painting desk for Montebello 1800 is from the 5th Warasdin-Kreutz Grenz Regiment.  Like its brethren before, the 5th Grenz is composed of AB Miniatures' figures.

If more Grenz are needed for the 1799 campaigns in Switzerland or Italy, procurement orders will have to be written.  The Lead Pile is depleted of AB Grenz from the early years.  A check with references is needed but no time for that now!  One more Austrian battalion is nearing readiness to debouch from its camp.   

Assyrian Chariot #7 Rehab

With chariot #7 out of the refurbishing workshop, only two more chariots remain.  I am near the end of this portion of the project and look forward to beginning foot and cavalry figure in 2017.

Like all chariots having a yoke, Chariot #7 required removing the yoke, flipping it, and reattaching to the tongue.  One wheel required reaffixing as did two of the crew.  One crewman's arm had come unglued too.  After some paint touch-ups, a stain, and dullcote, this chariot is based and ready for service.  Chariot is from Wargames Foundry.

Seven down; two to go.