New Year's Resolutions: 2018 Edition

[Primarch]

The New Year is here and with it a handful of rapidly broken promises and easily dismissible life-changing decisions.

Righty-ho then, time to make my pledges, so that in 6 months I can say that I am vaguely on target and in 12 months I can make suitable excuses for not achieving them.

First off, I want to post more hobby content on NagoyaHammer. I have been a little lax in posting over the past year or so, (except for minor rants, whinges and so forth). I'd like to see people getting more out of the site, so it's incumbent upon me to put more into it I guess.

Secondly, I want to be more organised about my hobby this year. I often have a wild notion pop into my noggin and away I go buying stuff, only to see it linger on a shelf for several years without being touched. I want to try and get stuff done when I buy it. My Tamiya shelf is nearing critical mass and I have boxes of minis still on the sprues that are old enough to draw a pension.

Thirdly, I want to try to avoid new personal projects this year (again). Something where several other people are involved is fine, but I already have enough to do without getting distracted by the new 'shiny' that only I have any interest in.

Fourthly, I want to do more work on existing projects and start getting stuff finished off. Are armies ever truly finished? I don't know, but I want to get the models I have, finished. I have too many projects on the go and I need to clear some of them away.

Finally, and this is my only goal with a quantifiable target, I want to paint an average of 30 minis a month. It's a target I know I should be able to reach, but putting it here gives me motivation to do so.

So how about the rest of my fellow forumites? Any goals, aims, objectives or pledges you'd like to declare?

[The Other Dave]

Mine are, in broad strokes, pretty similar to Prim's, and are focused around, well, focusing.

Basically:

1. Nagoya games days are for 40K, Malifaux, and Shadespire. That doesn't mean I'm giving up on Epic, Advanced Space Crusade, and various Hawk games, but it does mean I want to relegate them to separately-organized off days. (For those of you - both of you - who took the plunge on these games with me, I do realize that this may be sort of leaving you in the lurch, and I do feel kind of bad about it, but... that feeling is not bad enough to outweigh the hobby positives I'm already seeing from this decision. )

1a. As a corollary of that, I really don't want to pick up any new games this year, or put much time or effort into collecting and painting any games besides the three above. Shadespire is kind of a special case, in that it's a new game I'm picking up, but its strong support in the Japanese community means I'm comfortable I'll be getting games of it in.

1b. THAT SAID, I also want to be better, and more proactive, about organizing extra game days. I definitely want to put together my nearly-annual Epic day again this year, and organize an Advanced Space Crusade day before Yellowstreak leaves us for the wilds of Texas. My work schedule means that this sort of thing isn't always easy (sorry MtP about last month!) but that's what resolutions are for.

2. As for collecting and painting, I think I got a pretty dang good painting pace set in 2017 (about a mini every 2 days), and I actually did a very good job this year of finishing painting everything I bought - my total backlog amounts to about 4 genestealer hybrids, which is pretty good considering how much I got painted. So on the painting front, I want to stick with what I did this year.

And that's that! Basically I'm pretty pleased with what I've been doing hobby-wise in the second half or so of 2017, so I want to stick with it. Knock on wood!

[me_in_japan]

Bit late in the month, I realise, but I reckon I should probably write something here for posterity.

Goals for 2018:

1. Maintain a neutral hobby balance. i.e. make my hobby(ies) pay for themselves, and not spend any household money on hobby stuff. Money given as a gift is exempt from this, and goes into the hobby pot. This will mean selling minis I know I won't ever paint/use, as well as painting for profit as the opportunity presents itself. I'm including MTG in my expenditure, too, so I'd best get painting.

2. Paint the following, as I am commited to getting these done to one degree or another: Mortarion, Revenant Titan (gulp), a whole passel of plague marines/hq/poxies for 40k.

3. Complete my MTG SoI and EM collection. I'm over halfway to this already, and tbh am very much enjoying it. Should be an easy one. Doing this while adhering to point (1), on the other hand...

4. Get out to games as much as I can. Once a month is the target. Should, probably, hopefully be doable.

5. As with Prim, I think I should post more hobby stuff on naghammer. I've been pretty lax recently with regular posting, and since I am actually doing painty stuff, I should probably at least drop by with updates. Pics, too.

6. Paint 50 minis. I managed 43 in 2017, which for me is not bad, actually. Interestingly, 27 of them were for Kbear.

Bonus goals: buy something with the express goal of painting and selling it for profit, and successfully do so. Paint a gang/squad/whatever for a game other than 40k. Alter the artwork on a Magic card.

That should keep me busy, I'd say. We'll see how it goes...

[Primarch]

Since we're about halfway through the year, give or take a few hours, it seems like this would be a good chance to look back at my New Year's Resolutions and see how I'm getting on.
...Or this is a terrible mistake and I'll just feel depressed and disappointed with myself by the end of it. Who knows? Onwards!

1. Post more content on this site.
Um... not really. I don't think I have posted much recently and I don't think I've done a lot of extra stuff over the past few months either.

2. Be more organised about buying>building>painting.
Ha!

3. Avoid any new projects.
Define 'new'. I haven't started any new games or systems, but I have bought some minis that are only vaguely related to existing armies/games.

4. Finish off some existing projects.
Yeah, that hasn't happened so far.

5. Paint an average of 30 minis per month.
Jan - 20 minis
Feb - 29 minis
Mar - 43 minis
Apr - 16 minis
May - 16 minis
June - 35 minis
Average - 26.5 minis

So, out of 5 resolutions I have achieved.... ZERO.
My painting average is close, but I'm away for two weeks in July, which will prevent me from making any progress. My 'volunteer' work for the town kumiai group has eaten up a lot of my free time that would otherwise have been spent hobbying. Fallout 4 has likewise been gobbling up the hours.
On the plus side, I have done some more terrain, counters and the like that aren't included in the above totals. Yay?

So how is everyone else doing?

[The Other Dave]

I'm doing OK so far!

My painting pace isn't quite what it was last year (about a mini every 3 days on average so far, compared to 2 days last year) but on the other hand there's less pressure as I'm at the "adding things on" stage for collecting 40K rather than the "collecting from scratch" stage I was at when 8th edition launched - really I'm comfortable with how much I've been painting, as I have more than enough to play and limited storage space to expand into anyway. I now have a backlog of (gasp!) 17 models, though, so I have to step that up. I did also finish up a nice-looking, fairly dense table's worth of terrain for 40K (although a big line of sight blocker for the middle would still be welcome) so that counts for something!

I've been pretty happy with my "focus on a couple games" decision (and I haven't really gotten any games of Malifaux in this year either, so it's been 40K at Nagoya and Shadespire at Ichinomiya almost exclusively), although it looks like that's going to crack as I dip the old toes into Age of Sigmar - and who knows how long my willpower will hold in the face of Adeptus Titanicus.

Not much (read: no) hobby organizing has gone on on my end - work and my writing has been pretty all-consuming - although thanks to YellowStreak we did get together an Advanced Space Crusade participation game which was a lot of fun. Maybe later on in the year.

I'm going to add a mid-year goal though, not entirely limited to hobbying but certainly related to it and how I interact with people face to face and online - be less negative! I've caught myself / been politely caught being quite the bitter pill a few times recently, and I want to cut that out. Wish me luck!

[Primarch]

Ok, time for the final scores:

Goal 1 - Post More Content.
Yeah, I'm not sure that I did that. I try to post stuff when I think it's of interest, but compared to a few years ago when I would link to every GW/FW reveal, I'm certainly posting less.

Goal 2 - Be More Organized.
No, not really. My painting has been all over the place. I find it hard to focus on just one thing at the best of times. As things stand, I have enough painted minis to play most of the games that interest me, so there is even less incentive to concentrate on just one thing at a time.

Goal 3 - No More Projects.
I did achieve this target, so long as you totally ignore the Gaslands and Fistful of Kung Fu minis I picked up. I am hopeless.

Goal 4 - Finish Existing Projects.
Whoops. Moving along.

Goal 5 - Paint 30 Minis/Month.
I'm not sure, but I think I missed this one. I'll have to wait till I'm home and can access my album on my PC to do a definite count, but I feel that I didn't paint that much for the second half of the year.

[me_in_japan]

1. Maintain a neutral hobby balance.
A triumphant YES! I ended the year with a whole 1000en in the hobby-bank. Yay me! (That said, keeping detailed tabs on every yen spent on hobby stuff is...terrifying, actually. I spend waaaaaaaay more than I thought I do).

2. Paint the following, as I am commited to getting these done to one degree or another:
Mortarion (FAIL)
Revenant Titan (gulp) (STARTED, at least)
a whole passel of plague marines/hq/poxies for 40k (SOME. Probably not a whole passel, though.)

3. Complete my MTG SoI and EM collection.
DONE, with bells on. I also finished up my Lorwyn/Shadowmoor collection, and made a schnazzy box for the Lorwyn ones.

4. Get out to games as much as I can. Once a month is the target. Should, probably, hopefully be doable.
A hard NOPE on this one. Apologies to all

5. As with Prim, I think I should post more hobby stuff on naghammer. I've been pretty lax recently with regular posting, and since I am actually doing painty stuff, I should probably at least drop by with updates. Pics, too.
Definitely nope. FWIW, I didnt post much on facebook, either.

6. Paint 50 minis. I managed 43 in 2017, which for me is not bad, actually. Interestingly, 27 of them were for Kbear.
Not sure, but I doubt it. I'll need to do a head count, but I suspect it may end up as less than last year.

Bonus goals:
buy something with the express goal of painting and selling it for profit, and successfully do so.
Kinda? I painted the mega dread specifically to sell. Then sold it.

Paint a gang/squad/whatever for a game other than 40k.
Aha! Almost. Managed 2 out of 3 Stormcast for Shadespire. *edit* hang on, actually I did paint some eldar for Kill Team. Does that count?

Alter the artwork on a Magic card.
Nope. But I saved a whole bunch of inspirational pictures on my phone. Does that count?

[The Other Dave]

Ehh, kinda?

I did play a bunch of 40K at game days, and that was cool. I did, however, pick up an Age of Sigmar army*, and pivot towards Kill Team late in the year, *and* buy Blackstone Fortress, which kind of defeats my "no new systems" thing. I also didn't organize any gaming outside of Nagoya games days (I think?) although I did go to things other people set up once or twice.

I also actually started to pick up a backlog this year. Currently I have in the bullpen: 8 Stormcast for AoS and Shadespire (they should be done this week, knock on wood), 5 skaven and 7 ghosts for Shadespire, 3 more griffon riders for AoS, and 3 tyranid warriors for Kill Team, plus of course the big hunk of models from Blackstone. I did get a bunch of painting done, including four Shadespire warbands, a complete AdMech / Knight army for 40K and an (almost) complete Stormcast army for AoS, so that probably goes in the plus column.

*In my defense, getting into AoS does hit one of my continuing resolutions from 2017, to engage more heavily with other groups and Japanese hobbyists - AoS is pretty big at the Ichinomiya group, so my main aim collecting it is to open up avenues to play with them.

So, to summarize Dave's Year in Gaming:

Plus:
-Played a bunch of 40K
-Collected and painted two new armies and a bunch of stuff for Shadespire (about 120 models altogether as I take stock - I seem to have lost count in my sig)
-Continued to engage with Japanese gamers

Minus:
-Branched out into more games than I'd planned to
-Ended up with a bigger painting backlog than I started with
-Did very little gaming outside the organized game days (although this was as much to do with my work situation in 2018 as anything - 2019 should, knock on wood, be easier in this department)

[Primarch]

And a quick tally of my painted minis now that I can easily access my photo albums and do a count.

Jan - 20 minis
Feb - 29 minis
Mar - 43 minis
Apr - 16 minis
May - 16 minis
June - 35 minis
July - 28 minis
August - 5 minis!!!
September - 17 minis
October - 57 minis!!!
November - 53 minis
December - 14 minis

For a total of: 333 Minis in 2018
Which makes a monthly average of: 27.75.