Happy holidays!

It's christmas time again. Wow - where the heck has the year gone?
I really wonder about the speed in which time has passed this year. Maybe it's because there was that much to do. Many things happened, some good, some bad - but now it's time to lay this year to rest and have some nice and stress-free days with family and friends.

Which will, of course, include some hours of painting. Hopefully. ;-D
I haven't taken a new photo yet, just because I don't have finished anything in the last weeks. I'm not very good in painting the same sort of soldiers in large numbers and so I have, again, the feeling that nothing will ever get finished. You know - one day you paint muskets and shako plates for hours, but that doesn't finish a single figure. The only thing to prevent frustration is to remind myself that one day, I'll finish 40 in a row.

That brings me to the question: was this a successful year in painting? Did I reach the goals I set up for myself back at the beginning of this year?

- all not yet painted Swiss regiments (3 are left, of which I have one on 75%)
- soldiers for the regiments Isle de Ré and Walcheren (currently at 50%)
- Baden foot guards (one at 90%)
- Wurzburg light infantry and regimental artillery
- 1st provisional Croatian infantry
- King Joseph Napleons' Spanish guard grenadiers
- Italian light infantry

Well okay – those were the plans that I set up at the beginning of this year.

What of that has been completed?

Let's just see – due to my records, the list above represents around 48 figures.

Plus two single figures for competition reasons, the goal was 50 figures (net).

And here's what I've finished from that list:

• two Swiss regiments and one figure from the remaining regiment (leaving four)
• Isle de Ré and Walcheren soldiers
• One Baden foot guard (leaving three)
• Wurzburg light infantry (leaving one for the regimental artillery)
• 1^st provisional Croatian infantry
• Both competition figures

With the Spanish and the Italians, I haven't even started. Total in comparizon to goal: 25 of 50 (the Italian light infantry represents (in full order) 14 figures alone, on three bases).

As always, I got too distracted again. It started in January, when I was distracted by painting something for my visitors and went through the whole year when I painted this and that and got finally involved in two new projects, after a long election campaign which drew me away from painting for several weeks. So – objectively – what did I manage two complete?

Apart from the things mentioned above:

• two Russian hussars
• two Belgian line infantrymen
• three soldiers to complete the 1^st etranger regiment display
• three early Italian light infantry carabiniers
• one figure of early Naples foot velites
• one figure to complete the Hanoverian legion display
• two figures to represent the Dutch grenadier guards of 1808/9
• five figures for the 63^rd French infantry regiment of the line
• three figures for the Tirailleurs du Po regiment display
• five figures for the 33^rd French infantry rgt. in white uniforms
• eight figures for the early Kingdom of Holland grenadiers display
• one French soldier for the deserter project
• one mounted Cleve-Berg national guardsman
• four figures of the Andeas Hofers' band set
• ten Westphalian guard grenadiers (conversions of Franznap Naples guard velites)
• one Westphalian mounted ADC (paint-conversion of a French ADC from ARTminiatures)
• one Westphalian NCO of line fusiliers (paint-conversion of French fusiliers from Schilling)
• two competition single figures

In addition, this is what I recently started:

• two elite Hussars of the French 4^th regiment
• one Naples sapper
• a farmers' wife
• 26 Westphalian line fusiliers
• 11 Westphalian guard hunters
• 2 Westphalian generals (mounted)
• 2 Westphalian ADCs (mounted)
• 1 Westphalian hussar (mounting)
• 5 Westphalian artillerymen and a 8pd gun

Okay. This sums up to 80 completed figures. Plus 51 in different stages of process.

In relation to my output of the years before, I'm pretty happy with that, taken into account the few time I had for painting. I even guess it wasn't too bad to miss the intended specific goals. ;-)

I'm happily looking forward for the next year. I will not set up another to-do-list for 2014, because it doesn't make much sense. Let's just paint whatever we like and have lots of fun with it!