Yes as we all know its time for that annual breakdown and preview of what is to come with our hobby goals. People have set New Years Resolutions and of course always end up broken and I am absolutely no different. For 2022 I set upon myself a list of lofty goals and have accomplished very few if you are curious on my track record check out my past write ups 2022 Hobby Goals & 2021 Hobby Goal Retrospective.
“Yes I know what you are thinking, hobby goals, showcases these yearly posts are cliche and exhaustively overused.”
2022 Crazmadsci
But I inevitably find it incredibly useful in seeing my personal mentality from year to year. So bear with me as I gauge how my mentality and goals in the hobby have shifted.
What did I accomplish last year?
My universal motto and approach will be, “Improve my skill, output and performance over the previous year.” So I am planning on using last year as a benchmark of comparison so I can more definitely see how I match up. I’d argue that my performance is ehh comparable to the year before because so much of my free time shifted to actually playing games rather than just preparing for them.
Of my entire list of 2022 hobby goals I only succeeded in two hobby goals.
Success!: Paint more models than 2021 Success! Play two new tabletop games.
For the past year I have painted 42 models to 100% completion this is greater than the number in 2021 which was 26! Yes I know it still does not feel like enough but for me building a routine and navigating my perfectionism in models it is harder to accomplish. I do have easily do have easily double this number with only a few hours of paint time left. This list includes a Snotling Bloodbowl team (20), my 2021 benchmark model, my 2022 benchmark model and 2 units of hobgrots from the Kruelboyz army in Age of Sigmar (20 models).
I have spent a very long time assembling, gathering, priming, basing and painting a Kruelboyz army for Age of Sigmar in 2022 but tended to jump around quite a bit and didn’t finish as much as I would have hoped. As you can see a lot of progress has been made it just requires a bit of focus to knock it out.
As for playing two new tabletop games I actually count playing 3 games. The first two are Age of Sigmar which has been my primary go to game for the year, Gloomhaven online (which still counts in my book), and Dungeon Bowl.
New Goals for 2023?
While I have a lofty list of goals for the upcoming year I have decided to boil it down to five “simple” items
Finish more projects than I start
Finish more models than I buy/print
Limit the amount I print for others and focus on my own hobby
Paint more models in 2023 than I did in 2022 (42 in 2022)
Focus on improving the skills of my painting
Some of these definitely sound easier said then done especially the reduce the backlog goal of painting more than I buy. With the new Cities of Sigmar book coming later this year I need to do a ton of painting to reduce the model count. But overall I think its more doable than past years while also tackling the backlog of projects.
Conclusion
What do you think? Do you set annual goals for yourself? How did you do last year, let me know in the comments below.
It is that time again to welcome in the new calendar year, we are now older and hopefully a little bit wiser. Much like many many people, last year I wrote down a pretty humble list of hobby goals for2021 and although I didn’t complete all of my goals I am still incredibly happy with what I did accomplish in the past year. Feel free to read more about my review of last year here: 2021 Hobby Goal Retrospective.
Yes I know what you are thinking, hobby goals, showcases these yearly posts are cliche and exhaustively overused. However last year I discovered that having a thought out list of goals was actually immensely helpful for me to see what I really wanted to achieve but also gain perspective on how much I accomplished over the course of the year. This allows me to have an improved understanding of my time management and really prioritize the upcoming year.
So for my own sanity and organization here I am…
What is different this year?
For this year’s goals I have decided to do something a little bit different. I am setting overview goals out of a long bucket list of aspirations that are on my mental list of some of the things I desire to do. Why? I tend to be a really big dreamer with more goals than I can reasonably do. So I am going to attempt to do a specific number of goals per category which will allow me to still have a dreamer list while also still being reasonable as to what I can accomplish. This will provide flexibility to move with changing interests or adapt to things I don’t yet know will happen.
My universal motto and approach will be, “Improve my skill, output and performance over the previous year.” So I am planning on using last year as a benchmark of comparison so I can more definitely see how I match up.
I also hope to solve one massive issue in my retrospective of last year, I don’t know specifically how many goals I achieved in the last year because many of them were not objectively pass/fail. This should be more straight forward.
Painting:
Paint more models than 2021:
Scatter Terrain: 2
Buildings: 2
Miniatures: 26
Try or start learning 5 New Techniques and Skills
Begin 3 New Deep Dives
Overall all of these things are pretty straight however if you are new to the site you may be asking what is a deep dive?
From an analytical standpoint a deep dive is an “intense, in depth analysis of a certain problem or subject.” What does that mean for the tabletop hobby? Well for one I want to research, explore and experiment with all the different ways myself or my fellow hobbyists tackle a subject in the tabletop space. Either painting, printing, playing or something perhaps something else entirely. A deep dive will document my entire journey, the successes, failures, and methods.
I started a project several years ago in attempt to recreate a Printable Scenery marketing image of a ruined castle using their rampage castle digital files. To this day I’m determined to finish it and paint it for my collection.
I also have had an idea to really dig into the conversation of “3D printing is Cheaper than buying Physical Models”. There is the perfect set of files for this conversation and I fully plan to really give my highly researched spin on the topic.
Blog:
Average of 5 or more posts a month (4 was average for 2021)
Maintain writeups of 2022 printing & painting. Aka If I print or paint itthe models end up on the site
Add 10 3D printing tutorials
Other:
Put 250 miniatures on the website from Current Physical Collection (approximately 25%)
Aim for 500 Instagram followers and use to track hobby days (323 as of today): Follow Here
Play two new tabletop games
Conclusion
Much Easier to achieve, right? Also so much more easily explainable. I definitely think this list is doable and flexible to account for the changes I don’t see coming. I also very intentionally shifted my priority to be writing and painting related. I have always put printing first as it has been a primary hobby, and source of hobby income. However, I have immensely begun to enjoy painting more than ever before and am going to embrace it this year and see where it takes me.
I am also extremely disappointed with the lack of writing I’ve been doing lately and found it therapeutic during the year. Specifically the “State of the Crazy” of my weekly updates of what I’ve been up to kept me honest and on track of the happenings in my hobby universe.
What about you? Do you have goals and aspirations with the new year? I’d love to hear from you.
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.
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
2021 Commission PiecesFrostgrave Warbands and ZombiesHill GiantThamarya KidFishers HutBlacksmithCatfolk FisherSiege Equipment2021 Benchmark Model
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.
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.
FDM Printed Kobold Scavenger
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.
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
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.
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.
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
