"The Pledge - January Report" Topic

Last month I took a public “Pledge” here on TMP to paint two miniatures for every one I bought, and I set out a specific list of figures I was going to try and paint by the end of the month.

TMP link

Here’s how I did:

49 figures to complete the Ogre army* (a few had been done in Dec.)

7 additional Yeti (Copplestone and West Wind)

2 Hasslefree figure (Sebastian, the old knight; and the dwarf bar patron)

1 Spyglass figure (Inge)

1 Warcrow figure (Fujiko de Silva)

6 Reaper figures (an elf, a dwarf, a carrion crawler, a cave worm, a dragon, and a bear)

1 scratchbuild memur (a floating skull, he took a long time, as you can imagine)

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67 figures

*The tyrant, the hunter and the 2 sabretooth cats, 6 ogre bulls, 4 ogre ironguts, 24 gnoblers, 8 gnobler hunters, and 3 yeti,

67 figures is the most I have ever painted in a month, I’m pretty sure.

Purchases were limited, although it was a close thing. I bought 3 Thunderbolt mountain figures (the foot and mounted female elf noble, and the human female foot figure), and a Darksword/Larry Elmore dragon (“Mountain Conflict Dragon”).

So, 67 figures = 33.5 figs in credit; deduct the four I bought, and I have 29.5 figures incredit going into Feb. There is a problem looming, though. A colleague who has just joined the Department used to own, with her husband, a gaming store, and they are moving a lot of their old stock down to sell on eBay. Among the stuff they have is the old Khemri boxed army from a year or so back, which I admired, but didn’t buy. They are going to let me have it at their cost, which I can’t resist, so… I may end Feb. in the hole, even if I do paint a lot of figs!

My Target for February:

12 SciFi Imperial Guard-types, various manufacturers (partially painted, so I am giving myself a shove)

14 Imperial/Miragleans – a new ten-man Mordheim warband, with spare guys in case things go very well. Or very poorly, for that matter.

16 Skaven – another new Mordheim warband (twelve rats + replacements/reinforcements)

12 Skaven Stormvermin

Looks like February is going to be the Month of the Rat.

Good luck mate - a nice plan which I may copy from you - well, they do say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery ;-)

let us know how next month goes

Way to go! Do you have pics somewhere on the web?

I started doing this about three years ago, as I go on a painting binge every December (that tends to fade in March). It has been a great way to get stuff done. This year I have been working on mirco-armor with 480 pieces painted in Dec-Jan and 134 new purchased (and almost completely painted). I should finish the last 75-80 pieces this week. Most of February will be focussed on finishing the GW goblin rock lobber and 15mm modern Soviets. I'm hoping to get to some 28mm sci-fi near future stuff from Coplestone and Foundry by the end of the month. The only planned purchases are 6 sci-fi figs from BTD. I don't carry the "allowed to buy" credit over from one month to the next, but allow myself to always maintain 100 unpainted figs so that I can live forever. I'm down to about 450 unpainted figs from 3000 three years ago.

Nice job! I have taken a similar vow, but you are doing much better than me, as I have *zero credit for February right now.

However...one point for a scratchbuilt figure? Not nearly enough-I think greater effort calls for greater reward!

Good work,

Jason

No pictures anywhere yet, Rotovator. We don't have a web page. We should probably do something about that this year.

Way to go Irishserb - 480 painted to 134 purchased is a good ratio! You are wise to keep the 100 figures around to insure immortality.

I figure it is a good idea to "carry over" surpluses and deficits, since some of my purchases are going to be big "army" boxes (Khemri probably this month, and I think the Starship Troopers box comes out next month).

Jason, if the Khemri box had made it to campus a little quicker, I would have ended Jan. in a huuuuge hole.

The memur is some floating school thingie that our current DM has following Neotacha's cleric/mage around, annoying her. So the "scratchbuilt" figure is a plastic GW skull stuck on a wire... not the most challenging of conversions!

Well, you should still give yourself some initiative points anyway, methinks. : )

Hi all

Following Mweavers lead I too have set myself targets.....So far I am ahead of schedule by 1 month (1st show of the year on sunday so that wont last....)..

I have painted the following....

190 10mm Zulus and Brits
169 15mm ACW figures
Rebased 400+ ACW bases (about 1200 figs) for fire and fury...

So far so good....

Feb update to follow at the end of the month

MH

You gave me a heart attack for a moment there, Monkey Hanger - I initially missed that they were 10mm figures! That still seems like a lot of figures - good work. Now you can go to the show and buy lots of stuff with minimal guilt!

The progress report for my copycat effort:

I started January with the purchase of a GW plastic zombie regiment box just before first reading mweaver's original post, so I decided that purchases planned before taking my pledge are allowed, but I have to "work them off" before going on to any new purchases. So I started off the month with a deficit of 20 figures times 2, or -40 figures in 28mm.

My output for the month in 28mm was 12 of the zombies, 1 reaper liche, 1 old grenadier demon, 1 old partha golem, and 6 IWM wardogs, for a total of 21 figures. That leaves me at a deficit of 19 figures in 28mm. That would be depressing except that I've got quite a few near-done figures that will help very soon, and that 28mm is only part of the story.

In 10mm, I finished 12 bases of warmaster undead and sold off 15 bases of warmaster via Bartertown. I'm counting the traded figures toward my total, since the point (for me at least) is to reduce the lead backlog and motivation to unload some stuff I've been meaning to get rid of for a long time will be as good a thing as motivation to paint. So for 10mm I'm at +27 bases. I'm going to keep my tallies separate for the different scales for the moment, but on the whole I feel better knowing the overall total is positive.

Thanks, mweaver, for proposing the whole thing and getting me back to productivity after a bit of a stale period!

JJW-T.C.H.

You're welcome JJW. I found last month that knowing I was going to publically disclose my progress at the end of the month was nice extra incentive to pick up the brush.

Starting in a hole - that's rough. Sounds like you're shrugging off the handicap, though.

We're all starting off in a hole. Otherwise, how could we even do 2-for-1? ;)

Given your success (and given that AoA should be arriving as an incentive to paint up some unpainted stuff we have laying around), Jishin and I have decided to pick up the standard, as well.

Only, I get to start February with 9 nearly-finished figs. }:D

I also set goals for the new year. I didn't pledge to buy according to a formula, but have pledged to paint more than I buy.

I painted 106 15mm figures, completing three DBA armies in the process:

The Suevi

The Cumans

Eastern Forest Americans

I also constructed 13 pieces of terrain for DBA

Finally, I finished 36 25/28mm Hundred Years War figures. Altogether, as I calculate my painting journal, a total of 155 figures.

On the negative side, I bought more than I should have.

1. Viking longship and dugout canoes from Museum Miniatures for DBA camps.

2. 1 bag o' Revolting Peasants from Old Glory, and some Jr. Miniatures for DBA camps. A total of 33 miniatures.

3. I couldn't help myself. Fozzbozz has the Frothers-UK Alice in Wonderland minis - I bought set one - and tacked on the Alice with Cheshire Cat figure from Hasslefree. 5 figures.

4. I rationalized that since I had finished three DBA armies, I could buy one new one. 60 new figs in infantry equivalents (my painting measure.)

A total of 99 figures. I should be able to do better on the purchase side, but still a net plus on the painting side.

To all of my painting soul mates out there, hang in, February is a short month.

Kevin

Good luck, Meiczyslaw. And you're right - if we weren't already in the hole...

K, sounds like you had a pretty good month to me.

Off to drybrush some rats.

Yes, mweaver, it was a good month, and will be hard to match.

Kevin

@mweaver: didn't you find the Copplestone Yetis to be shockingly small (esp. considering the cost)? I'd been wanting some since they were first released and finally bought four, intending to use them with my old Grenadier Copplestone Fantasy Warriors Barbarians - they're about the same height as the Barbarians!!

I'm thinking they might look good as giants in some 15mm army, but still rather much...

Thanks for letting me vent,

David