2023 was a banner year for me regarding number of models painted and projects done. Going into the year I had no intention of painting a Black Orc Blood Bowl team, but I already had 10 models for one previously painted (six goblins and a troll from the Goblin BzB team and three black orcs from the Black Orc BzB team). Painting three Black Orcs was low hanging fruit to get another full BB team option in my locker-room. What else did I knock out this year? Read on for the numbers.

For the first time, I posted a project wish list of sorts in its own page. The list has the Goal section, but also Stretch Goals…those little projects that I hoped to get too, but was ok if I didn’t. At the beginning of the year, I think the Stretch Goal section was just something vague like “A Blood Bowl Team”. At the beginning of the year I wasn’t sure if I’d get through everything on my list so didn’t think I’d hit anything beyond it, but being in an active BB league and frequently participating in BB tournaments, I figured a new BB team would be something I’d address if I had time.

No way did I expect I’d complete four Blood Bowl teams.

I guess it’s kind of cheating because several of them already had 6-7 models painted through Blitz Bowl. It was just a matter of painting up another sprue to complete a team. Either way, a complete team is a complete team.

Additionally, other projects such as Battletech ended up expanding far beyond their goal. My intention was to just paint up one Clan Star (five models), two Inner Sphere Lances (four models each) and one Comstar Level (six models). I think I ended up doing like 12 mechs for each.

A few projects, Ronin Sohei Buntai and two sets of models for my Roswell ’98 setting, I knew were going to be delayed to 2024 and I was ok with that adjustment about mid-year. Bumping those back made it possible to get several BB teams done. This was a fair trade. I figure BB gets played far more than anything else I own, so it makes sense to bump some projects for BB related minis. Theres simply more bang for the paint hour for me with BB at this time.

So, how many models did I end up painting? Lemme see if I can get a count next to each project. I’m only going to list the number of newly painted models as some of these had a few related models painted from previous projects.

• Ronin Bandit Buntai (12 bandits)
• Ronin Creatures and Swords-For-Hire (10 models)
• Ronin Terrain (buildings, flora, pond, bridge, other village dressing)
• Gunfighter’s Ball Posse (5 outlaws)
• Dracula’s America Posse (7 undead outlaws)
• Battletech Clan Star (11 mechs)
• Battletech Comstar Level (7 mechs)
• Battletech Inner Sphere Lance 1 (12 mechs)
• Battletech Inner Sphere Lance 2 (12 mechs)
• Blitz Bowl Lizardmen (6 players)
• Blitz Bowl Skaven (6 players)
• Blitz Bowl Imperial Nobility (6 players)
• Blitz Bowl Necromantic (7 players)
• Blitz Bowl Spiked Obstacles (4 terrain pieces)
• DungeonBowl College of Metal (4 players)
• DungeonBowl College of Shadow (4 players)
• DungeonBowl Wizards (4 wizards)
• DungeonBowl Terrain (gates, statue, dragon, squig, other dungeon dressing)
• Gaslands Punk Vehicles (3 vehicles)
• Xenos Rampant Ex-miltary on Foot (12 vets)

Stretch goals:

• Human Blood Bowl Team (18 players)
• Black Orc Blood Bowl Team (3 players)
• Necromantic Undead Blood Bowl Team (5 players)
• Shambling Undead Blood Bowl Team (7 players)
• College of Death DungeonBowl Team (- combination of the above two Undead teams)
• Blitz Bowl Obstacles (8 pillars)
• Blood Bowl Star Players (3 players)
• XR Machine Detachment (1 large bot)
• XR Dead Detachment (1 eldritch horror)
• XR Wyrm Detachment (6 chitin wyrms)
• XR Martian Detachment (1 alien overlord and 5 grey warriors)

So, it looks like the overall total as 178 models and several terrain sets… buildings and flora for Ronin…gates, pillars, creatures, for Dungeonbowl and Blitz Bowl. Not sure how to count the items in that category. A lot of game dressing though.

This has been my most productive year, by far. If I can have an as productive 2024, I have a good shot of killing the paint queue and have all my current hobby projects complete. Here’s hoping!