Year in Review
As with 2021 and 2020, I spent pretty much all year hermiting.
I won’t belabor this too much but: I know gaming’s really picked back up in stores, and conventions are happening, and I think that’s nuts. COVID-19 lethality is thankfully extremely low, but with a 1/5 chance of Long COVID symptoms and a new case rate that’s remained pretty high (it can only look low compared to last year’s Delta wave)… it feels pretty reckless to be pretty reckless about COVID-19.
But – I did game a little: everybody masked in my basement works just fine. I need to actively try to make more of that happen in 2023; it’s really good to socialize and it’s a struggle against inertia to do it.
I’ve been feeling sufficiently isolated that I’ve been considering firing up some online D&D; that says a lot as I spend my days on WebEx/Teams/conference calls professionally and the thought of doing it recreationally is a tough pill to swallow… and yet. Now I just need to determine if I have the energy for it.
In 2022, I was done with Twitter for the same reason everyone else who was done with Twitter was done with Twitter… I’d only gone back to it as a kind of Facebook methadone anyway, so this wasn’t any sort of great loss.
I’ve started up on Mastodon, and I’ve been very pleased with it. It’s a little harder to get into (you need to find the right server and get into it), but it’s got a great vibe there. I’m on warhammer.social, which means I’ve got my feed, I’ve got the local feed for painted minis, and if I need to doomscroll I can check the federated feed. Discourse is much, much less snarky / shitty / screaming, as the fediverse seems to be doing a great job of just flipping the switch on folks who want to make things awful. Recommended.
Finished Projects
- Aeronautica Imperialis Crimson Fists – I painted these guys up and I’m pretty satisfied with them. They’re not as slapdash as my other AI stuff, either.
- Genestealer Enforcers – I’m extremely proud of this project. I think they conversions look really good as do the paintjobs.
- Masters of the Universe Battlegrounds – I haven’t gotten to the expansions yet, but the base game is fully painted and looks really, really good!
- Fellowship of the Ring – While not the largest possible MESBG army, it was a fun little project that I think looks great.
- Warcry Battleborn – Yes, it’s basically just two Underworlds Warbands, but they’re great looking warbands.
- Kill Team Table – Between MOTU:BG and Kill Team, I painted more terrain this year than I have in a while.
- Stormcast – A third AoS army in three years? What the heck? These guys are probably the best looking (and smallest) of the three.
Hobby Charts
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.warpstonepile.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Models-Painted-by-Year.png?resize=581%2C360&ssl=1)
Held pretty steady with last year: 243 models painted. Not quite one a day, which would have been nice.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.warpstonepile.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Points-Per-Month-By-Year.png?resize=569%2C358&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.warpstonepile.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Cumulative-Points-Per-Year.png?resize=571%2C353&ssl=1)
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.warpstonepile.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/CY-Hobby-Points-by-Month.png?resize=581%2C292&ssl=1)
That December number had everything to do with the longest leave I’ve taken in 18 years of my professional life.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.warpstonepile.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/CY-Hobby-Activity-by-Systems.png?resize=470%2C283&ssl=1)
This one is all of the place, and I’m OK with that: I painted what I felt like painting, absent any real push to “be painted” for any particular game.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.warpstonepile.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/CY-Painted-vs.-Purchased-by-Spend.png?resize=470%2C217&ssl=1)
This ain’t great. I definitely had a shitty ratio for painting vs buying stuff. If I factor in stuff I sold, I end up breaking about even, but I’d like to see less red and more green here.
Goals
2022 Goals:
- Finish – Success – I painted a bunch of stuff, including a pretty big Kill Team project and a third AoS army to completion. High fives all around.
- Paint – Success – No complaints here! I’ve slowed down a bit in what I’ve painted but I’ve also cranked up the quality on it. Early pandemic I was just churning stuff out and that’s less in effect here.
- Declutter – Partial Success – I think I was technically successful here: I sold off a bunch of Flames of War and Bushido models, which is great ($900 worth of stuff, guys) but fuck, my hobby space is still cluttered as heck.
2023 Goals:
I see folks rattling off specific projects they want to finish in 2023, and that’s not my speed. Nowadays, more so than ever, I want to follow my bliss and paint what I want to paint when I want to paint it. I can see myself planning a month or two out but not much more than that.
- Finish
- Paint
- Declutter – Like I said, my space is still cluttered as heck. My wife’s been watching Hoarders, so I’ve got some good motivation to Just Get Rid Of Stuff. I think in the next month or so I’m just going to start pushing stuff out the door as fast as I can.