Goodbye 2016, Hello 2017

It is a beautiful morning here in Southern California. A couple of winter storms have cleaned up the environment for a very good start to the year.

2016 was a good year for me wargaming wise. I was able to paint a lot of soldiers. My commissions for the year exceeded any year prior by a large amount. That allowed me to purchase some more figures for my own collections, particularly in 28mm.

I started the year with a commission of Old Glory ACW. There about 200 of these.

That was followed by a large commission of early Napoleonic Prussian, all from Front Rank.

I then had the pleasure of doing two commissions for a new patron. The first was of about 290 plastic Napoleonics. It was a big task as it included assembling and basing, but I was very pleased with the final result.

That was followed by a second commission of English Civil War figures. This was a new period for me, so I had some research to do, but it was quite an enjoyable experience.

For myself, I ventured into scratch building some 28mm Spanish buildings. For a very small investment for white glue and spackling plus a little paint, I put together a nice collection of structures.

Among my purchases were some 28mm plastics for my grandsons. The Perry ACW Battle in a Box was given this year and was a tremendous success. The rules are simple enough that my grandson and I were able to play a few games during my visit with him for Christmas.

I also purchased the La Haye Saint set and added some figures to beef it up a bit. That will be a gift for the future. There is a video of that on Youtube.

Finally, I bought the Warlord Games Liberty or Death set to paint up units for Sharp Practice 2. It was a great value and I am having fun putting this together. I like the Sharp Practice rules and look forward to doing games with my junior highers during my summer class this year.

For 2017 I hope to do more commission work. I want to finish up the AWI project and possibly explore doing Bolt Action in 15mm. I have a ton of figures based for Flames of War, but I haven't really enjoyed that system. I like the small action feel of Bolt Action and want to try it.

I also hope to sell off some of my collection. I have a large number of colonials that I love, but just don't see myself playing with much in the future. That is probably true of my ancients collection as well. I need to make some space for these newer project.