2023 Targets Clarified. . .

 

Yes indeed.  The planning and painting muse is flitting about Stollen Centrale once again!  So, I must strike while the iron is hot.  

Taking stock of things and inspired by a number of my fellows across Bloglandia, here is what I aim to paint -- and I've never been one to do this -- during the next 12 months:

60+ Wied Infantry (Austria) -- Almost Done 

------------

15 Generic Jaegers (Minden)

15 Generic Frei-Infantrie "Double Blues" (Minden)

30 Saxon Cuirassiers (Eureka) 

14 Russian Dragoons for The Young Master (Minden)

60+ Reichsarmee Infantry -- Specific Unit TBD -- (Minden)

+____________

134 figures in total, not including the 60+ Wied Infantry

Ambitious, yes.  Especially in light of my usual plodding output.  But as Phil Olley once wrote, and I am perhaps paraphrasing badly here, "Man with no target hit nothing."  Time for targets then.  

In years past, I used to keep and revise a painting progress and completion chart as things were finished when working toward my first rather large goal, which was recreating two Sittangbad-sized armies in homage to the 2005 Sittangbad refight by The War Gamers that so captured hearts and imaginations around the world via the now defunct Yahoo Old School Wargaming forum and another early issue of Battlegames.

Since then, I've bounded across the field rather more aimlessly like roundshot at about 900 yards, painting things that captured my interest rather than holding myself to a specific plan.  That's fine.  Sometimes, a bit of bouncing around provides a needed break from a more regimented approach.  We are talking about a hobby after all.

And over the years I've managed to add to the collection along the way, perhaps most famously -- Or is that notoriously? -- painting a large transport train and a pontoon train, back in about 2013-2014, many gun limbers and teams in abut 2016, plus a monster regiment of Austrian dragoons in 2021-2022 (I think) with various civilians and camp followers/sutlers and the odd combat unit along the way.

More recently, though, I have begun to feel like its time to renew my focus and single-mindedness to make more discernible headway once again with the sharp end of things.  You know.  To stop rowing in circles with just one oar and get things back on track.  Or, as my Welsh emeritus professor step-father used to say, much to my late mother's wry amusement, to "Get fit and back on track," no doubt thinking back to his days as a Rugby-playing university student in the late 1960s and very early 70s. 

Or, to put it another way, and taking another page from dear ol' Stepdad's book, I must "Tidy up my office before leaving for that X conference."  Usually, that meant very late at night before an early morning departure the next day, usually across the globe and somewhere hot.  Only there was never a discernible "Before and After" difference following his fraught tidying up and departure.  

Stepdad's office at the top of the stairs on the upper floor of their Pittsburgh home was, to put it politely, always in some disarray.  My mother simply requested that he keep the door closed.

Then there is the amusing story of Mom and Stepdad's attempt to return to the United States from Indonesia, which took three or four days just to board the British Airways 747 at the airport due to linguistic challenges, incorrect reservations, misplaced passports, misplaced tickets, and the like.  They arrived at the departure area of the airport outside Yogyakarta -- and then had to return to and re-check into their hotel downtown -- so many times that week, that the skycaps laughed out loud the final time my parents turned up red-faced and sweaty in the hotel limousine full of their luggage and at last  managed to check in successfully, go through airport security, and eventually board their plane home.

My mother later laughed that she was never so glad leave an air-conditioned hotel in her life. As the old Eagles tune from the 1970s goes, you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.  By her account, travel to foreign climes with Stepdad was, while full of interesting opportunities and experiences, usually also a wild ride in one way or another.  Mom was always ready to go somewhere new and visit places well off the beaten track, but she was equally happy to return home a few weeks or even several months later to relative calm.

Family travel stories and related kidding aside, getting my hobby back on track, organizing, and painting with renewed routine and purpose for 2023 (and hopefully beyond) is my aim.  No tidying up late the night before a departure for faraway shores necessary.

I should point out that no new purchases are required.  The necessary miniatures already reside in the lead pile, which also contains  enough figures for several more large regiments of infantry and a few of cavalry, plus the usual odds and ends, spares, etc.  A German friend offered me a cutrate deal on a load of Minden Prussians and Austrians back in about 2016 or '17 and I leapt at it.  

And while I do not regret the purchase for a moment, it's high time to get all of those planned units underway and painted. I have also quietly resolved to limit any additional future purchases or gift requests, having finally reached a comfortable mental space hobby-wise. 

Why keep adding stuff to the pile when hobby and painting time are already scarce after all?  There is enough here to keep me going happily as we move forward.

On a related note, the Grand Duchess and I giggle, and alternately despair, about a close family member with true hording issues, who unwittingly provides a good object lesson here.  At some point, you must find satisfaction in what you have already rather than continue to chase after some imagined ideal past, or present.  Certainly when it comes to hobby pursuits.   

In short, there is enough raw material already in the deep drawer to my left, to achieve my larger, goal of two eventual armies of 7-10 regiments of infantry with supporting cavalry, artillery, light units, and so forth.  That should allow me to tackle most Tabletop Teaser and similar Grantian scenarios easily without bathtubbing things too much. The trick of course is simply to keep plugging away on the painting front to get all of the remaining figures necessary painted in the next several years.

Does this realization risk turning me into a Johnny One Note?  Possibly so.  And I am fine with that.

But I've managed to remain interested in the mid-18th century, and at the same time swat away any nagging butterflies, since beginning the Grand Duchy of Stollen project in earnest during Summer 2006.  Long-time readers of this blog might recall that I took 60 or so plastic Revell Prussian SYW infantry and a hobby knife (to clean mold lines) on our honeymoon as we camped our way across the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.  

My wife still teases and chides me about that particular decision.  Should have thought it through a bit more carefully before loading up the car the morning after our late June wedding.  Seemed like a good idea at that time.  

I would advise younger newlyweds, however, not to make the same mistake.

-- Stokes