New Years Resolutions

With the new year coming at midnight tonight, it is always traditional to make a resolution of what one wishes to change or accomplish in the new year. Traditionally this usually had to do with weight loss, or other mundane ambitions.

As a modeler and minis painter, have bigger ambitions. While losing a few pounds might be a prudent thing to do, I've got lead to paint! Thus, here are my "new years resolutions." Let's see how well I keep to them!

1). Finish building and painting my Normans from Gripping Beast. I have an ambition to finally go to Historicon for the first time this upcoming year. Part of that is because Historicon will, for the first time, be in Valley Forge, which is around an hour from me. This means no need to arrange a flight, get a hotel, and the like. Plus I can simply drive home and sleep in my own bed while the Con is on. To that end, I need an army to play in the WAB tournament, and the Normans were one I had been working on previously. Due date for this is a bit earlier, by necessity the beginning of July 2010.

2). Finish building and painting my High Elves from Games Workshop. Well, technically the building phase is done, and has been for some time. But definitely not the painting phase. There are rumors of a new edition of Fantasy Battle coming out this summer, and that would be a perfect time to wrap up this army. Now I haven't played WHFB since maybe 4th edition, and there has been some changes, but I've managed to keep up with the High Elves specifically, collecting army books as they come out, and buying figures here and there. Although I have a lot of classics (including some 40 classic plastic spearmen), I've also bought some new stuff for this army as well. Much of the army is already either started or done, so this should be a relatively easy goal to achieve, just like the Normans. Due date again is July 2010, the rumored release date of WHFB 8th Edition.

3). Build and Paint a Dark Elf Army from Games Workshop. One of the frustrations I often run into is that none of my friends collect minis for gaming, or at least for the games I want to play. In historical circles, often gamers will build two parallel armies that conceivably would have fought (i.e. Early Imperial Romans and Britons). Dark Elves and High Elves are a classic match up, and who knows, maybe I'll convince someone in my game group to actually get a game in. Due date end of the year 2010.

4). Finish Eldar Army from Games Workshop. Eldar were the first army I started collecting for Warhammer 40K, but for various reasons not the one I ever really finished. I already have a lot of stuff for them, much of which is not finished: 12 Jetbikes (including 3 Shriekers), a bunch of Fire Dragons, and a load of Guardians. Although I can supplement the collection by additional purchases (some of the Aspects I need to "max out" as I only have 5 for some), with what I have I should be able to form a pretty rounded army. And maybe I can convice someone to have a game with me too. Due date end of the year 2010.

5). Collect remaining figures for a Sisters of Battle army from Games Workshop. I really wasn't expecting this to make the list, but there are rumors that they might get redone by Games Workshop. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, one of the negative aspects to this is that if the core figures go plastic, there is a chance they won't mix well with the current metal figures I already have (which amount to a command squad and a single combat squad). That being said, the closer to release date we get, the more information we should get. Part of the rumors I've seen so far have to do with vehicles, and a vehicle update might be worth waiting for. Due date end of yea 2010.

6). Start and Finish a Late Roman army for Fall in. Late Romans have always been a fascination for me. Still retaining their classical trappings to a certain extent, the Roman Empire by this time was also very troubled, from succession crises, Sassanian Persians, and German Wanderlust, to economic failures and a decline in authority. This combines to make a compelling story. Part of this will depend on where Fall In will be this year, but considering that the 3 largest conventions on the East Coast US are in eastern Pennsylvania, I really don't have a lot of excuses.

7). Finish a few models from my "stash." Model Building was my "first" real hobby, and the one that gives the most satisfaction. Over the years I've built a massive collection of kits I haven't finished yet. In my defense I always start a model, but finishing has been a challenge. Because of that, I plan on focusing my efforts on finishing a few kits in my collection. I also plan on having a "moratorium" on kit buying, with only the M-41(G) Walker Bulldog in German colors and the German Jagdpanzer Kanone as my only purchases. Special concentration will be focused on my two most expensive projects: the Chieftain Mk.11 and the T-64B (expect to see some updates in the near future). Unless something comes out that completely wows me of course. Due date end of year 2010.

That's it for the list, and it breaks down fairly well into 2-month projects, so it should also be do-able. I'm sure that I'll pick up other projects along the way, and interests will wane and grow as go along. But I think it's a do-able list, and we'll see how well I can stick to it...