2021 Hobby Goals Retrospective!

As December is officially wrapping up. It is the time of year to look back on all the things that you’ve done, aimed to achieve, and reminiscence over the last year. If you were not aware at the beginning of the year I set out to accomplish more than i’ve ever done in a year regarding my miniature gaming and hobby universe. I believe the direct quote was…

This is definitely a list which will take time to focus on but I think it is absolutely accomplishable.

2021 Hobby Goals

This list of hobby goals was so long I broke it up into several categories. So the main question is. Did I accomplish what I set out to do? In short, no I did not, however I am immensely proud of what I have achieved. Follow me as I go back through the list and break it down into levels of success.

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Painting

Success:

• Paint to completion at least 24 models (regardless of size)

Moderate Success:

• Paint an average of 4 days a week
• Have greater than 183 hobby days (more days than not)

Did not Achieve:

• 4 deep dives to paint techniques or methods/recipes of painting
• Create 12 different bases for miniatures

Of my painting goals the only goal I can definitely mark as successful this year I did hit that goal of 24 models by painting:

Total (30):

• 2 Scatter terrain
• 2 Buildings
• 26 miniatures

While this does not sound like much for others, for me this marks a major accomplishment. I have not been the most confident of painters. My lack of confidence has lead to painting paralysis making it more difficult to finish things. The largest thing that changed that was a surprise painting commission which was wrapped up just in time for the new year. This commission was my very first commission and i’m honored to be asked to paint models for others. Also this was my very first year where models that I now have painted models exist in other peoples homes.

Feel Free to Read more about some of these painting projects!

Two categories that I do not quite know if I was successful or not was my total number of hobby days. Which I believe I did do successfully but lost track of how many days. One great thing I did do was track specifically what aspect of the hobby I did on what day in a fun and creative way that I wish to continue into the new year. I also did not paint on average 4 days a week but am happy that I did spend the majority of the days of the year on aspects of the hobby. Doing something in this hobby is now officially a requirement in my daily routine which feels fantastic.

Also I did not succeed at doing 4 deep dives for the year but did a few. The largest one I’m most proud of is my wood painting deep dive.

I also started a dive into a long quest of painting skintones with my first real effort with the Hill Giant.

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3D Printing

Success:

• In-depth study of supports for FDM
• Learn how to support resin

Moderate Success:

• Develop a deeper understanding of print settings

Did not Achieve:

• 6 mega projects completed
• Inventory 3D printing/tabletop collection

This category is one where I ended up spending a large amount of time and much of it unexpected. The largest area of success by far was in learning how to support resin models. I started printing in resin late 2020 and was super new in that aspect of the hobby (Happy Anniversary a Year in Review). I desired to work on mastery of supporting resin models to print with confidence. Not only did I succeed but have joined up with TableFlip Foundry to become a professional presupport artist which does the presupport work for modelers and artists. I can’t wait to share more of what we have done and share my growth of knowledge with you in the upcoming year along with showcasing artists and projects i’ve worked with.

I also got a lot of compliments on my FDM test printing for the Uncharted Lands Kickstarter for miniature printing and released a guide on how I do supports for FDM models.

I learned al lot in this year about printing and feel better and more knowledge than ever and excited to share that with others. However much like I anticipated, documentation and photographing my work and prints has caused a serious backlog to add to the site. I am intending to play some serious catch up.

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Blog

Success:

• Get 25 Followers to Blog

Did not Achieve:

• Weekly update write ups (Mondays)
• Weekly Page addition to site (Fridays)
• Complete Digital Catalog of what I have made
• Complete Beginners write ups to 3D printing

My personal goals for the site is above and beyond my most disappointing mostly due to the shear amount of content I wish to create for the site. I did not take into account how much of the behind the scenes work I would spend on the site. But as a positive spin I have come up with some pretty great statistics.

Posts Written in 2021: 49 (4 average a month)
Pages Created in 2021: 191 (15.9 average a month)
Total WordPress Followers: 39
Total Unique Visitors in 2021: 2,291
Top 5 Most visited Countries: United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Canada

Top Most Visted Pages:

1. Homemade Wash Recipe
2. FDM Miniature Printing – Support Settings
3. Frostgrave Beginnings
4. Fishers Hut CastnPlay
5. Contrast Paints: Understanding Their Usage

Overall even though I am not writing content to match my personal expectation I am still growing faster than I anticipated with my average views a day four times greater than at the beginning of the year. I am also writing an average of three times more words per post in 2021 than in 2020. Therefore I feel that I am writing more and producing more quality content.

So again I am going to take the Blog 2021 Hobby Goal category as a win. Areas I would love to grow in is community engagement, I want to find more bloggers like me to enjoy their content and have more members of the community engage to help me make something that could be valuable to them. If you have a blog, create content, or have suggestions please comment down below.

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Other

Success:

• Improve photographing of projects/miniatures
• Read/Listen to 5 books

Moderate Success:

• Try 2 new tabletop top games

Did not Achieve:

• Monster Cards for each monster in collection
• Play a video game to completion

In my catch all category for 2021 I have mixed success. I am definitely improving in aspects directly related to the above three categories. I improved my miniature photography and am now even bringing out the DSLR camera and improving my camera settings and scene I am sure this will be a continuation in the new year.

I also tried Frostgrave for the first time and although didn’t beat a game did play a little bit of video games but am still happy more time went into tabletop gaming.

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Conclusion

2021 was an incredible year. I not only have grown a tremendous amount but have gained a significant amount of confidence in both my painting and printing. I have been working towards having the hobby completely pay for itself which I started to do in the 4th quarter of this year.

I am inspired and motivated to continue on into the new year and am working on a new list of goals. Although I did not hit every achievement I am really happy with myself. I have learned more of what works and what doesn’t work for me along with a ton of self discovery.

Did you have any hobby goals for the last year? How did you do?

See you next time and as always.
Happy Hobbying,
Carrie aka crazmadsci

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