Goodbye 2017!

This time last year I had just packed in my job and was about to take a leap into the dark with a new job, with no guarantee that it would work out. In the end. it's gone pretty well (fingers crossed) and I have had four pay rises and my contract extended to July next year, so a big sigh of relief all round. On the other hand, my wife was made redundant and is now looking to start a new job, which means that things still aren't quite sorted. Enough of the real life stuff, what about the wargaming?

This year things have definitely picked up for me on the wargaming front, even though my output is now far below that of a few years ago when life was a bit more predictable. I set out in 2017 to do 1/600th scale air wargaming, 1/600th scale WW2 coastal warfare, 15mm modern / sci-fi skirmish and 1/2400th scale steam and sail wargames projects and, to a greater or lesser extent, I've had a good go at all of them.

As far as output is concerned, I have added some 1/285th scale P47D's, Gloster Meteor III's and FW-190A8's to my Bag the Hun squadrons, with some B17G's not quite making it across the finishing line. I also completed most of the 1/600th scale Flashpoint Taiwan aircraft for both the ROCAF and PLAAF, which was a good start in this scale and led onto the Korean War stuff that's now on the workbench. I'll be taking this further in 2018, as it has loads of potential.

I also almost finished painting a platoon sized force of 15mm Sci Fi figures, AFV's and mechs for Gruntz, although the summer holidays truncated that project and I didn't pick it up in the autumn. It's 90% done but I'm still deciding on the camouflage and basing, with an arctic warfare theme rather than a desert one being the most likely approach to take. I'll get this lot finished in 2018. I also added some more desert soft cover to my Old West collection with some really nice cactus scatter terrain bases.

As far as games go, I've been able to get up to the club to run three WW1 Knights of the Sky aerial games, a couple of Back of Beyond games and three very enjoyable Bag the Hun games as well. I enjoy writing the scenarios for these and umpiring them as well. The scenarios included a North Africa bombing mission, a May 1945 dogfight over Berlin and a  November 1944 fighter bash as well, all of which were good fun but need a bit of tweaking before I can send them off to the Too Fat Lardies for publication in a Special.

As far as naval games are concerned, I  played some more coastal warfare games using Schnell rules for Schnellboote and a single Victory at Sea naval game at the club. However, I am a bit disappointed that I didn't do more naval gaming in 2017, and didn't paint up any of the 1/2400th scale Steam and Sail ironclads I have prepared for 1864. I want to get more naval gaming underway in 2018, as it requires minimal terrain and a handful of models to be feasible, using my nice new sea cloth for starters.

To top it off, I  even had a small bit published in Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy, although it was very insignificant! I'm hoping to get some more stuff published in 2018, although I'm not sure what, given my fairly limited expertise and gaming interests. I'm sure I can think of something related to aerial wargaming? I'll set out my plans for next year tomorrow, but it is looking like more of the same, which has been a fairly successful if not overly productive approach this year!

Thanks for tuning into the blog in 2017 and I hope you have a very, very Happy New Year!