"The Pledge through the years" Topic

My pledge in 2008 fell apart in the last couple of months, although I was on track through the first ten months of the year. I keep the running tally of stuff acquired and painted for the year on a spreadsheet, so I looked at the last five years to see how it was going. On the whole, my lead pile seems to be growing.

2004-Doing okay for the year, until a horde of orcs knocked me into the red at the end of the year. Finished -78 figs.
2005-Massive Old Glory purchases, the pledge was effective ignored once I hit -600 in October and the tally was still dropping.
2006-A zulu impi descended on me in the fall, pushing my healthy positive totals slightly negative, -28 for the year.
2007-Ahead by 50 figures for the year!
2008-I was right on until November, when a massive order from OG15's arrived, and I dropped down to -450. (Exchange rate is 4 15mm infantry figs equals one 25mm fig, I track everything in 25mm figures). I painted like crazy, and finished the year at -196, but still down.

We'll see what 2009 brings. I'm usually good until the last quarter, when the pledge is conveniently forgotten in the midst of some sale. I've decided that in addition to tracking figures painted vs figures purchased as usual, I will also try to finish a project a month. This could be as simple as a Blood Bowl team or as large as a 200 figure army, but it will help clear my table and may drive the pledge tally positive for the year for only the second time.

January's project: Finish my FoG Republican Roman army off. I've got about 130 infantry and 27 horse to go, all in some stage of painting.

I am impressed. I count myself fortunate to be able to finish 100 figures in a year, let alone try 100+ figures per month as you're attempting in January.

My hat is off to you sir.

"a massive order from OG 15's arrived"
Can I get on the same mailing lists as you? I never receive surprise parcels of figures :(

Things fell apart for me in the last quarter, too.

2008 was a disaster for my pledge, due to lingering sickness and job weirdness. I'm hoping 2009 will be much improved.

I always start the year with good intentions of only painting what I already have, but this tends to get derailed after the first quarter of the year.

I had never thought of using a "you paint one, you get to buy a new one" model. Interesting idea.

As I like to finish as quickly as possible, I worked out speed as the priority -- well, after nice looking figures, of course. I developed "the sand people" method: where you prime everything white, paint flesh, metal and wood (and a horsy color if cavalry), then give a copious sepia ink wash, finish the base, done! enough for gaming. I once did a Norman army of c. 150 figures in under a week this way, and had so much energy left after it was "done" that I went ahead and added the details, like shield designs, tunic colors, horsy highlights (like "socks" and blazes), belts, etc. "The sand people" method beats anything for speed I have ever come across….

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