The end of another long strange year.
So, where to start?
On a personal note? Changed jobs again, which was almost as much a surprise to me as it probably is to you. A definite "it's not you, it's me" moment as I got a contract offer from CricViz I couldn't refuse, which also allowed me (as it is only a 3 days a week contract) to take on a second contract for a project I was in at the beginning of that I'd been trying to squeeze into my non-existent free time. Result? Hopefully both more money and more free time, helped by having more trained minions for church tech stuff.
The club, back from a fresh start at a new venue in 2021, grows from strength to strength: we have lots of new members, and consistently over 20 people showing up each Monday. Show wise, we took a big 54mm WW2 game to Hammerhead, our mad 1:1 garden gnome patio skirmish to Partizan, the equally mad Dead's Army (everything is better with zombies!) to Campaign:MK, and our 6mm IABSM game set on D-Day in Chef-du-Pont to the Other Partizan.
Additionally, we ran a club open day (at which our Bloody Omaha game saw another outing) and Posh Lard, at which the Chef-du-Pont game actually got its first outing.
We restarted our Wednesday night 'paint and natter' sessions late in 2021, which have basically seen a small group of club members variously doing work on club projects and personal ones. Principal club project at present is detailing the Chef-du-Pont boards, but we will have to revisit and tart up our Dambusters game for the Salute 50th (and Operation: Chastise's 80th) anniversary next year.
As for my personal hobby stuff?
Definitely New Year, new start.
- Just sent the most up-to-date set of Dux rules corrections off to my partners in crime. Now I genuinely have some free time, I'm aiming to crack on and finish the Compendium before the end of Feb. I know - you've heard that before: this time, hopefully is the charm.
- Slowly working on some fresh buildings and vehicles for a narrative Bulge campaign using IABSM - this was supposed to start this year but didn't :D
- I bought two Warlord Epic Battles ACW Starter sets off a club member in February: they are probably the 'second half of 2023' project - there's a heck of a lot of figures there, so it's going to need a good batch painting strategy, probably using Army Painter Speedpaints.
- I'm also aiming to set aside an hour a week to blog, initially, in 2023. Once the Compendium is out of the way, that time will go towards restarting the podcast. I wound up listing to a couple of Meeples episodes recently and realising how much I missed it.
The hobby room (studio) just acquired an Ikea Kallax to store all the boardgames, and is looking pretty fine. I have to get some shelves up above the workbench in the end room (workshop) and then I'm aiming to set up the spray booth, hot wire cutter, Cricut machine, 3D printer (or printers if I get a resin one) and maybe an MDF cutter along its length along with a Mac to run them all.
Studio, including WIP Chef-du-Pont board.
Garden detailing work started on the three houses
near the camera.
