Introduction to the Painting Unit System

This is the chart that I came up with at the beginning of the year and have been using to keep track of my painting progress. Itt allows me to assign a single value to any number of models I paint.

It is a weighted system, more or less based on the size and complexity of the object. I assign points to time spent on unfinished (painted, primed or assembled) models as well. Each of these sub-phases have a specific Painting Unit, or PU (read as the 'pooh' from Winnie-the-Pooh') value assigned to them, which is multiplied by the number of items falling in that category, and the sum of these yields my monthly PU output, which I track in a diary.

Scores are not carried over or subtracted, so a project primed in one month and completed in the next carries full value in both time periods.

Generally a completed model receives the most value, while for large scale models (which are painted in subassemblies) assembly weighs more than painting.

I have been meticulously administering the number of painted figures and other hobby-related things throughout the year, and by the end of December I can come up with a yearly review.

This overview will mostly be the test to see how well the system works and whether I can gain anything by it, e.g. does it help on focusing certain projects or scheduling my hobby time.

6mm Scenery

I'm in an odd situation where I actually managed to paint a lot of things, it's just that I either lack the motivation to take photos of them, or there isn't enough natural light to do so. This post was not made under natural lighting circumstances, but I thought it was time to do photos again.

Anyway, here's a small review of the 6mm terrain pieces I have been working on for my Schultze-Böhnstadt project. All of them are handmade on the cheap and are based on 2mm plasticard.

Airfix HMS Prince WIP

Wow, an actual hobby post you say? With pictures?

Let me start by saying I'm not a sucker for vintage plastic model kits. I know some people like to torment themselves specialize in such things, but I'm not one of them.

However, Baroque warship kits in general have always been very appealing to me. I like their looks - and history - better than the later periods. So once I learned of this Airfix produce, I was constantly on the lookout for it.

If you are familiar with the Airfix HMS Prince kit (said variously to be 1/138, 1/150 and 1/180 scale), you might know that the secondary market price for it is, as can be deducted from the name, princely. So I was rather surprised one day when I found it on a local Facebook buy&sell group for about the tenth of the price it goes on ebay. Needless to say, I struck like a hawk and grabbed it. 

Painting Tally, November 2025

I was able to spend more time on the hobby in November. I was on sick leave for three days but I could get up and paint stuff.

The monthly goals were the following:

- play a game of Pikeman's Lament - succeeded

- work on The Pile - well advanced

- Christmas purchase - also done

Here's the list of all the things I did:

Painting Tally, October 2025 - Passing the Bar Edition

Readers might have noticed that I was not as active on the blog lately as usual. Well that is because I was preparing for my first bar exam out of three, so painting figures took small priority.

Good news is that I completed the examination so now I'm hopefully going to have more spare time, at least until I start preparing for the second one in earnest, which I plan to take at the end of January.

Anyways, I still managed to squeeze in some painting and modelling time, the results of which are:

28mm

Painted (requires varnish and basing)

8x Warlord Landsknecht pike

Assembled

26x Perry Mercenaries (2 command, 19 pike, 5 shot)

I do not count this towards my painting goals, but I'm well into the process of rebasing my Italian Wars collection (as mentioned on my miscellaneous blog). 

1/2000

Painted (requires varnish and basing)

4x Iron Duke class battleship

This brings the month's Painting Unit output to 188, the poorest number of the year.

Purchases

I bought a bunch of grey paints for my ship models (along with a rust and linoleum brown colour).

Further, I purchased two boxes' worth of Perry Mercenaries, which will become my Italian Wars Swiss pike, and Italian/French missile troops.

I know the pikemen's garment would be a bit early for the period, but I can do a lot of head swaps with remaining Warlord Landsknecht heads to make them look better, and I can bolster them later with some Artizan, TAG and Foundry figures.

I contemplated the new Warlord Games metal Swiss but they are not very convincing in my eyes.

Painting Tally, September 2025

Despite the lack of posts, this month has also been rather productive, mainly because I could get a major chunk of my 6mm figures done again.

28mm

Completed

    8x Warlord Winged Hussars (featured in the previous post)

6mm

Completed - the light troops for my Austrian/Flossian SYW project

    4x terrain pieces (a town, a village, a swamp and a forest

    60x SYW regular cavalry

    34x SYW light cavalry

    64x SYW light infantry

    4x SYW artillery and crews

Painted (requires basing) - this is the regular Russian/Medvetland contingent

    4x SYW command

    34x SYW regular cavalry

    192x SYW infantry

1/1200

Completed

    4x Ark Royal metal ships, wrapping up the project for a while now

1/2000

Assembled

    4x Iron Duke class dreadnoughts

This brings the month's Painting Unit value to 1524, a respectable quantity.

As to purchases, I ordered a Napoleonic lot from Commission Figurines (about a thousand figures), bases to go along with them, a pair of primers and a Tamiya 1/700 scale IJN Hibiki destroyer.

Going back to the naval project, I have to replenish my grays and probably buy new Kolinsky brushes (have been using the previous ones for two years now and their age shows), but this slipped over to October.

Then the >>you know who<< arrived...

I managed to complete the full Warlord Games winged hussar box, eight metal figures in total. Most of the time was spent waiting for the paint and then the first layer of varnish to dry - I always do a double matt varnish on metal figures.

I think they are quite splendid, maybe a bit more for the 1683 and onwards campaigns, but I'll just use them for the earlier 17th century anyway. I'm not sure I could do the same with the TAG or Foundry hussars wearing chainmail (that is use them for the later periods).

The rank and file comrades are in two groups, one in yellow/buff and one in red garbs. I used the pennons sparingly, because the long lances should be broken to pieces on the target, so what's the point throwing those expensive cloths away?

Painting Tally, August 2025

I try to post at least once a week on the blog, but sometimes life overrides that, just as in this case as I'm preparing for my bar exam.

Still I could take a few days off and get done with painting.

My rather limited goals for August were:

- play a game related to International Naval Wargaming Day - succeeded, although a few days late

- paint 28mm 17th c. Eastern European figures - success

- paint 6mm figures - success

The secret of success lies in setting reasonable benchmarks I guess.

On to the actual numbers:

28mm

Completed

8x Cossack rabble infantry (Frostgrave conversions)

2x Cossack gunners and a small gun (same as above)

9x homecast Cossack spears and a sergeant

Painted

8x Winged Hussars (metal figures so they shall take another two weeks to varnish and base, but the painting work was the most tedious part)

1x wolf dog for the winged hussar commander

Primed

9x Cossack infantry

12x Polish cavalry (Warlord conversions)

6mm

Completed

192x SYW / Flossian infantry

This brings my Painting Unit value for this month to 1008, a respectable number given the circumstances. Painting 6mm figures is easy and fun and this sort of saved me from getting boggled down with the 28mm project.

Purchases:

Now this list is a lot longer.

I bought a larger batch of figures from Warlord Games, the winged hussars, a 12-figure cavalry regiment and a 18-figure firelock storming party set. The plastics are in the process of being converted for my Polish army.

Then I got a bunch of tools, including a glue gun, a cordless rotary tool, silicone sculpting brushes and burnishers (which I mainly needed to sculpt chainmail). I also replenished my stock of green stuff.

Further I bought a few more organizers, a large cabinet with drawers and a tall plastic container for my Italian Wars figs. I also bought a small Ikea wooden drawer cabinet but it hadn't arrived yet.

TYW Imperialist Infantry - Warlord plastics complet'd

Great news everyone! A long time ago I got a bunch of Warlord plastic Pike &Shotte infantry sprues on one of their regular sprue sales. Well I'm proud to announce that I painted all of them. That's three sprues so 39 infantry, plus I added one from an earlier batch.