Close but No Absolution - 2010 in Review

"I cant believe another year has gone by

And still nothing, as if we dont even try

And theres nothing to be proud of

And nothing you can truly stand by

Its time to believe!" - Chain of Strength

I started off 2010 with some ambitious goals (though less ambitious than year's past) and I fell short. My most important goal was to get the Angels of Absolution to 2000 points of fully painted models. I started the year out at around 1500 points. I launched out of the gate early on, completing a couple of key models like a Devastator Veteran Sergeant and a Dreadnought, but the rest of this year's completions for the Angels were 4 counters, my first Scout, and one Tactical Marine for a brand new squad. It was a strong start to 2010 but a weak finish.

Other goals I intended to complete were:

- Get my Tomb Kings to 2000 points fully painted. This army was completely untouched throughout 2010.

- Complete the Ork Trukk I've been working on since 2008. I tried really hard in the last week of 2010 to at least accomplish this goal. I still failed. I also wasn't supposed to work on any other Ork projects in 2010, and instead I completed 3 models for the army - 2 Trukk Boyz and a Scavvie Slave (counts as a Grot).

- Complete my Humboldt Park/Chicago themed board. I didn't get this done but I made some solid progress. In October I posted some close ups of little details. I really want to go crazy on the detail and flexibility of this game table so I'm okay with the fact that this was left incomplete.

- Not listed last January but I was supposed to paint a bunch of models for my buddy Mike. The Blood Angels Dreadnought in the above photo was one of those models. I had like 4 character models I needed to paint as well. Fail. Fail. Fail. And fail.

My final failing was that Scott and I had a painting competition to see who could get the most models done despite our demanding schedules and snail like painting pace. I felt like I was setting the pace for the first several months but as my dad always told me, "Those who run fast don't run long." Sure enough, I got busy and lost all my steam. With the final model I am posting today, I completed 18 painting points worth of models - 2 Dreadnoughts, 6 infantry models, and 4 counters -compared to his 37 painting points.

Strangely, despite being doubled I sort of consider it a success. I feel like I accomplished more in 2010 than I did in 2009, and that's really what it's all about. Conversely, Scott only tied his previous year's output. In my eyes, this made the competition a success and I'm practically begging him to do it again this year!

So lets talk about my goals for 2011! This year rather than setting point totals I'm going to do something a little more suited to my own sense of accomplishment which comes from my display case and how full it is with completed models. In that spirit here are my goals. (Please note that for purposes of these goals a vehicle counts as 4 models.)

- Shelf I & II. Angels of Absolution (DA): I intend to complete 5 models of any type.

- Shelf III. Redemptors of Golinar (IG): I intend to complete 10 models of any type.

- Shelf IV. Bloody Fist Orks (Ork): I intend to complete the Ork Trukk plus 5 models of any type.

- Shelf V. Tomb Kings of Khemri (TK): I intend to complete 5 models of any type.

- Shelf VI. Marienburger Mercenaries (Emp): I intend to complete no less than 25 models.

Some people can complete this many models in their sleep. For me it is very ambitious. The most important things I have on my side are the visual driver that makes me want to fill the display cases I own, the small targets for each army that allow me to jump around with my project ADD, and (hopefully) a little bit of competitive spirit between Scott and I.

Also, it isn't reflected in my goals above, but Scott and I are both striving to have 1000 points painted of our respective Empire (me) and Skaven (Scott). With my hodge podge approach to getting armies on the table, 25 models could still end up being 1000 points with characters and war machines.

Fiinally, I noticed that our blog output dropped from 2009 to 2010. I'd like to put forth a challenge to the rest of the 2nd City Warzone crew - let's strive to have 50 posts this year - just under one a week on average. We can do it. Who's with me?