Happy Birthday Blog, and a recap of 2012

Yes, the Dreadnought is almost finished, more shots in the next post.

Well, as f today, this blog has reached the grand old age of FOUR! I can scarcely believe it. It has certainly been a fun ride, and I'm sure she has many more years left in her. I figured I'd do another two-part post about what I did in 2012 (part 1), and what I have planned for 2013 (part 2), so just bear with me a bit.

First things first, thank you to all the folks who read this blog on a regular basis, especially those who have clicked on the Follow button, this year the blog cracked 1,600 followers (currently 1,623 at the time of posting). The blog currently averages around 30,000 page views a month, which helped to push it over the 1,000,000 page views mark since I started the analytics thing back in May 2009.

2012 was a little bit quieter on the hobby front, but not by too much. My two wonderful daughters continue to grow and develop and explore and I'm happy to give them more of my time : ) Still, I managed to paint up 441 models in 2012. Pretty good really, not 10 a week, but more than one a day. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to keep that pace rolling on through 2013, with all the many projects I'm currently lining up.

I also managed to cut back pretty dramatically on the number of models I purchased, which meant that when I felt a strong pull to convert something up (like the Adeptus Mechanicus plasma cannon servitors) I didn't feel guilty in picking them up. The vast bulk of the 325 models I did buy where purchased in three transactions: 180 Early Napoleonic French to help out my friend Alex, 44 Napoleonic Polish sculpted by Paul Hicks (because I wanted them), and 56 models in Dark Vengeance  (well, that's what I ended up with after I traded the DAs for CSMs). Amusingly enough I haven't painted a single model from those 280. The rest of the models (45 of them) purchased fit into some other project or other along the way and were certainly assembled and primed (if not painted).

So here's what I worked on each month:

January - Work continued on my Napoleonic British army for the Guns of April Adepticon event, as well as getting a decent number of models under my belt for my Army of Morr.

February - More Army of Morr, as well as quite a bit of Napoleonic stuff (including some Russians that really have gone no further).

March - Much more Napoleonic stuff, as by this stage I was helping paint units for the other side (inspiring in me a desire to build my own French army). There was also a sneak peek at the heads I sculpted for my Army of Morr.

April - Knights of Morr and some talk about competition painting was the order of the day on this blog, and I'm sure I was posting quite a bit on the Guns of April blog too, as we successfully ran our Salamanca game at Adepticon 2012!

May - This month was ALL about the Army of Morr (with plenty of repetitive puns). You got to see a little of the madness that goes into making a unique army like that (custom heads, arms, shields, and spears)!

June - Talk about paints, my new FLGS (Dropzone Games in Glen Burnie, MD), and an extensive look at the display board for my Army of Morr.

July - The in-store results for Armies on Parade, the scramble to finish off a few additions, and my entry in the diorama category for Golden Demon.

August - A review of what I took to Games Day, a plug for Infamy Miniatures, and a glimpse of my latest 40K project - the Lamenters.

September - More Lamenters, a few tales of my early games of 6th Edition 40K, and a look at the coolness in plastic from Dream Forge and Wyrd Miniatures (some of their Malifaux fun).

October - Puppet Wars in plastic, a few thoughts on building a horde of daemon engines, and more Lamenters yellowy goodness.

November - This month was all about two things - more yellow Lamenters (including my tutorial for yellow), and Movember. I was very pleased that our team was able to raise over $3,000 to go towards men's health initiatives around the globe. Oh, and a little converting for my AM army.

December - A real mixed bag here: you got to see more Lamenters, a good chunk of Flames Of War Germans, my ACW units so far, and even some ice blue Malifaux models.

So, quite a lot of stuff. Nowhere near the same number of posts as 2011 (75 posts vs 110 posts), but still pretty healthy, averaging just over six posts a month.

Anyway, next posts we'll see where things are going in the new year...

Cheers
Dave