As is tradition on this block at New Year, although its getting later and later in January, I have a look back at what I achieved hobby wise over the last year. I find making Hobby New Year Resolutions to be pointless, and possibly depressing, when you look back as see what I did compared to what I hoped. That said it can also be good to take a look and see what you completed.

So what did I manage to actually finish in 2022?

Well, a picture speaks a thousand words:

The Crimson Fists didn’t take much finishing in 2023, I really think I just added some transfers and mat varnished them. In fact they might have featured in last year’s look back post lol. Two Dark Angels Legion HH tactical squads and a proxy Rhino, these were cool, but I have yet to play the game. I need more minis finished to make a playable force. Lastly I have a Dark Angel Legion Aeronautica Imperialis Fleet, made up of 3 Xiphon Interceptors, 2 Storm Eagles, and 2 Fire Raptors. The aircraft are painted, alas I still have the bases to finish, and as such haven’t played a game with them either, but I’m claiming the models are technically finished. So altogether that is 38 models total. Now I have to admit this is a lot more than I actually expected, and I feel quite good about it. I know there are many many people who probably painted 38 models in a week…every week…for a year. However everyone is different. We all build at different rates, paint at different speeds, and possibly most importantly have different amount a spare time for hobbying.

Now I also like to try and post at least one article on the blog a month. The hope here is that updating the blog keeps me motivated on whatever project I’m working on. Trying to keep motivated is why I started the blog in the first place. However time is a precious commodity and sometimes a month goes by with no hobbying, or worse a lack of motivation to hobby, and so there is a lack of anything to post about. Looking over last year’s posts it looks technically like I made 12 blog posts. That averages out at one per month 🙂 . Admittedly one of them is last year’s look back at 2021 post, another is about painting my wife’s nails, and a third is about decorating my son’s birthday cake. But the latter two were using my hobby skills – honest 🙂

What do I want to achieve in 2023?

I have a load of projects that have stalled, a lot of models sat around in various states of not started/finished. It would be nice to clear a backlog of unfinished projects or just finish something I start in the first place. I am guilty of buying the new shiny before finishing or sometimes starting the previous shiny. It would be nice not to buy the new shiny before finishing the slightly less new shiny for a change. <start the drum roll folks> My goals in 2023 are:

• Finish a project I started.
• Play some games with my newly painted models.
• Paint at least one model to a high standard – it’d be nice to focus on something to the best of my abilities.
• Paint more models to a reasonable gaming standard – my curse is that I always try and paint to the best of my ability and hence never finish anything.
• Post once a month on here.
• Not buy something new unto something old has been painted….lol.

Six objectives for 2023, I think they are fairly specific, have some form of measure to see if they are complete, if I put my mind to it they should be achievable, all but the last one is realistic, and the time I have to complete these is one year ! Anyone would think its PDR (Personal Development Review) time at work or something….SMART.

To my loyal & regular reader(s), hope you had a good Christmas and New Year, and all the best for 2023! And if you have similar hobby goals I hope you do better than me in the coming 12 months 🙂

Thanks for reading, Dave

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