I have completed my painting challenge! It wasn't easy, it was frustrating but I got it done. I now have 288 combat-ready miniatures in eight battalions.

I did misunderstand something. I have been saying "Regimental Combat Teams," but after posting the below picture on social media, it was pointed out that I don't have two RCT's, I have two Reinforced Regiments. I stand corrected.

As soon as I get done editing the pictures I have of each battalion, those will get posted in the "My forces" tab at the top of the page.

All I can say is W-O-W.

Like I said earlier, I was waiting for when the detail painted step had over 100 miniatures before I would start dipping so I could make a lot of progress all at once.

Then I got furloughed from my day job. Suddenly I had a lot of time to work on my miniatures! My last miniatures also arrived from Ironwind Metals. So officially I have two complete RCT’s.

So over about 3 days, I managed to dip 87 miniatures (34 were Team Banzai, which are black as a base color, no reason to dip them). Then came a nice sunny day and I got them sealed in Matte Varnish (which has a story all by itself. I might tell it someday). A couple days after that, I “garnished” them (applied static grass) and just like that I went from 122 at a ready state to 229! With my repairs also completed, I now have 236 miniatures ready, 81.9%.

I have knocked my tasks down to 208, which is just 52 Detail Painted. I am actually “almost” (in those dreaded “scare quotes”) done. One mass dipping session, one mass sealing session and one mass garnishing session and I’ll be done! I will be seriously surprised if I’m still doing this in March. If I push myself I can report the challenge is complete by Valentine’s Day. I say “push myself” because on top of painting, I’m job hunting and doing a lot of semi-big “Honey-Do’s” around the house as well. My Par is currently +408, so I could take twelve weeks off if I wanted to complete “on-schedula.” Let me think about it, no.

I will be dipping them this week, then all I need is a sunny day with low humidity to seal them. Ooh, I need more static grass...

So, here's the numbers:

Okay, a lot of changes since my last report.

First, I started the painting challenge because I wanted to be able to field two painted Regimental Combat Teams and a loaner battalion, which works out to be nine battalions. The object of this exercise was so I could field “pure” forces (one Command) of almost any size. I have many battle reports where usually it was a combination of Krushers and Group W units to “get the job done.”

The week before Christmas, I was looking at the mix of forces I have (and will have) and realized my #8 battalion (it didn't even have a name) wasn’t going to contribute anything meaningful to my force structure, just to my workload. Right now I have 3 combined arms Commands (a ‘Mech battalion and an infantry/vehicle/aerospace battalion), one ‘Mech only battalion and my newest battalion is mostly ‘Mechs with a small aerospace/vehicle presence. So, I dropped that unnamed battalion off the task list. That alone saved me 25% of the work I had set out before myself. My total step count dropped from 1,315 to 991.

I also revised my weekly task par from 23 to 25 just because it’s a “round number.” I did the math and I’ve actually been averaging 30 steps/week, but I don’t want this to be a race. It is a method of accountability to ensure steady progress to get the job completed in a timely manner and no more.

By a combination of these two factors, I have revised my finish date from NYE 2021 to July 25th, 2021, a full twenty-six weeks (six months) sooner. I will probably finish a week or two before that, but I’m aiming for a specific date to make sure I don’t slack off and get this done. Finishing early is just bragging rights.
Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s get to the details.

First, I managed to fill out the entire TO&E (Table of Organization & Equipment) for all battalions. I ordered the last miniatures I need from IWM yesterday morning. I got everyone detail painted except for 23 units of the 101st (and the ten units that I need to purchase). I also finally detail painted all of the battle armor, which was a chore I’ve been avoiding for months. I also discovered I "lied to myself" and backstepped about a dozen miniatures from Ready to Detail painted becaise I screwed up on the tracking spreadsheet. It's all good now. I'm still above par.

My plan (Custer had a plan...) involves dipping about 10-20 miniatures a day for the upcoming week. If the weather is good over the weekend, I'll start sealing them. Then it's a garnish of grass and done! With them at least.

Here's the numbers:

Here's (most of) the queue of miniatures waiting "to take the dip."

.

Since my last update, I've advanced only 25 steps. I didn't get anything done this past week for a variety of reasons, including a LOT of work on the new web page, house maintenance, a pet died and a few more things.

Hopefully I'll be able to get some BIHPOM time this coming week. I'm not comfortable with only a +32 par. See you in 2021!

I think I am putting too big of a resposibility load on myself by trying to report weekly. Every time I head home from work during the week I tell myself, "You need to put in the painting time!" Yet I am mentally exhausted by the time I get home and only the looming weekly deadline time makes me panic even more. I've also been catching up on several major house issues, so my BIHPOM time (pronounced BISH-POM and means "Brush In Hand, Paint On Miniature", go read See Mark Paint) has been difficult to say the least.

I have managed to get the current Team Banzai inventory of 25 miniatures all up to Detail Painted, and even started applying paint to the dozen 1st Davion Guards to move them to the same milestoone. I also got a repair in as well. Once I figure out what I want to get for the last eleven 'Mechs for Team Banzai, plus the last eight vehicle miniatures for the 101st Irregulars, that will give me an easy boost.

I am also shifting the reporting here to monthly. I have 57 weeks left to go, I don't want to flood my feed (and you) with that many posts on the same subject. So, until I get this done, the first Monday of every month will be "report day."

Here's the numbers. My current Par is +53:

I get four days off this week due to Thanksgiving, I hope I can get a lot done then.

What did I get done this week? Not a damn thing. But then again, I had to prepare for, hold and recover from a tournament Saturday. I did update a couple of articles here, so there's that too.

I did get a bit of painting in this afternoon, but not enough to advance anybody and steps officially. I plan on finishing up what Team Banzai I have left and detail painting my 1st Davion Guards.

Work continues apace. I made my quota, however I am disconcerned that I am only getting basically just eight hours total over Friday, Saturday and Sunday to paint. Granted, I have to spend time with my family, house maintenance, eat, sleep, work and other things on top of those (Including a great game aid to premere soon!). I guess this is a roundabout way of telling myself I'm lucky to have painting time at all. I could be stuck in a low-paying job where I have to work a second (or third) job, 80-100 hours a week to have a roof and food for my family.

I am very blessed. With what I've been through, I am honestly surprised I'm still here. I sincerely you, dear reader, are blessed as well. No matter what, when the son comes up in the morning we can open our eyes, sit up and take nourishment. Be humble, greatful and thankful for those things, every day. I sure am.

Enough of the weepy shit. Here's the numbers:

.

I am amazed. I actually gained ground, despite that I only worked on stuff Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I even kitbashed the Goliath, he was missing a part on his right side, I found a loose Rotary Autocannon and attached it then filled in the gaps with green stuff.

So I managed to repair the frosting on the aircraft, bringing them to "ready" status. I detail painted thirteen units, printed/assembled four units and brought them to "base painted."

Here's the numbers. By the time December rolls around, I will have enough data to understand what my actual production levels are and I'll be able to revise my estimated completion date:

.

Week 1 down, I got the easy stuff out of the way.

Printed 1 Mech, assembled two vehicles I printed, then primered all of them and painted the bases of 63 'Mechs and 12 Battle Armor. The next week or three will be detail painting all of these. Then comes more to print and prime. When I get to about 150 Detail Painted, then comes the massive dipping.

See you next week, same Mech time, same Mech channel!

Well, I’ve successfully completed this iteration. I have been working on both See Mark Paint 4^th edition and Roster Builder 3.0 with every spare second I have had since April, when I released Roster Builder v2.0 at the start of the pandemic.

Now I am going to take a break from coding and writing. I am locking myself in my painting room, telling my boss I quit, telling my wife to leave me for another woman, and telling my son to feed me by sliding a pizza under the door every day until he sees me come out with all of my miniatures painted.

I’m exaggerating. Slightly.

But I am taking a step back from generating content and concentrating on bringing a total of 324 miniatures to a table-ready state. This means I can field two complete Regimental Combat Teams (eight battalions) and my Demo/Loaner battalion for a total of 9 by New Years’ Day 2022. That’s bringing 141 unfinished miniatures from various states to tabletop ready and another 64 miniatures I don’t even have yet.

To help me achieve this goal, I will be posting my accountability tracker here every Monday to keep me motivated.

Each line is a separate waypoint, from purchasing/printing the miniature, assembly, basecoating, etc., to ready. As you can see from purchasing to ready (don’t include repair, that’s an otherwise “Ready” miniature) it takes nine steps. The number of “steps left” will be a reasonable progress tracker, as I have 1,315 steps to perform and that’s going to work out to an average of 21-22 steps a week. Think of that like taking 3 miniatures from unassembled to ready every week.

I will post the numbers below every Monday so you can see if I’m making progress or not. The goal is for the “Ready” line to be 100% by 12/31/21.

Here are the starting numbers. Wish me luck!