2017 Hobby Audit (Goals Achieved) Part 1/4

So before I get to sorting out my hobby goals for the New Year, I always like to take a look at my hobby "performance" for the year just ending.  You can find the original post of my 2017 hobby goals here.  As the name of the post implies, I'm starting with the goals achieved:

Specific Goals:

• "Weeks having painted/assembled/hobby'd > 30"
• I do not have an exact count, because it has become so frequent/normal that it does not register that often.  I can only imagine a couple of weeks were I did not do any hobbying whatsoever.  So I am going to unilateral say it was about 45 weeks that I "hobby'd", so goal achieved.
• "Paint something for Adepticon"
• While I intended to convert and paint more than one Hot Wheels model for a vehicular combat game, technically I only needed one for my planned events at Adepticon.  You can see it here.
• "Start my Super Secret Modelling/Painting project"
• Oh boy, I cheated because this project was my vehicular combat project.  There is an over arching theme to the project, the car above being one of the first.  Yeah, I should have done more than one by now but I'm throwing myself a bone.  Funny though, it may have been another project that I have not shown off on the blog, yet.  I can't remember but I have started that one too, so either way it is a win!
• "Stay within budget"
• The early reporting from the account says I was only 5% over budget.  He was beaten until he promised to re-crunch the numbers, but needless to say I am going to count this as a win because 5% is not bad.  At least its not bad for me...  You should see the numbers for 2013/2014.  Oh my...

General Goals:

• "Reign in spending"  
• This spans a little beyond just budget in that it covers "what" exactly I am buying and why.  See the original 2017 Goals post for more details.  Overall I did a bit better in this regard, with only a few lapses, and I am happy with how it turned out.  I went a little off the rails at Adepticon and I may have gone off the rails with the Fallout Minis Game pre-order, but that would be it.  I'm giving myself a thumbs up on this.
• "Less kickstarters"
• Oh hell, I knocked this one out of the park!  I only backed one kickstarter this entire year!  Granted, I backed it because I really wanted to support the person's effort and not so much with the intent to play the game.  But still...
• "Paint more, including finishing some of my incomplete but started painting projects"
• Ok, I did paint more this year.  Approximately 36 models (yes, it is sad that is more but it is still more!).  Oddly though, I never worked on my incomplete but started projects.  Hmmm.
• "Find my painting 'center'"
• I think I have actually come close to this.  I'm starting to approach a speed with a corresponding result, that I think I am happy with for a tabletop quality.  Yes, there are still things I need to do better, or learn how to do period, but I think by the end of the year I was achieving a pretty good rate.

Overall, I am really happy with the 2017 goals I achieved.  A little less so with the goals that, I now realize, I failed (next post).  Ugh, some of them make me feel a bit embarrassed...  We will cover that next time.