The plan

Now that I am nearing the completion of stage one - working towards a first battle - I have to plan out my painting schedule for the rest of the project. I have 20 months to paint and base about 1600 figures.

At the end of stage 1 I will have painted figures for: The Battle of Trebia at half scale. Note that not all of the figures get used - I paint in quite big batches for speed.

Romans:
4 units of velites (48 figs).
4 units of hastati (96 figs).
4 units of princepes (96 figs).
4 units of triarii (48 figs).
4 units of cavalry (32 figs).

Carthaginians:
2 units of Libyan spearmen (48 figs).
2 units of Spanish scutarii (48 figs).
4 units of Libyan skirmishers (32 figs) I'll use 2 units.
4 units of Balearic slingers (32 figs) I'll use 1 unit.
4 units of Spanish caetrati (48 figs) I'll use 3 units.
4 units of Gallic warband (88 figs) I'll use 3 for Carthage and 1 for the Rome according to Livy.
4 units of Spanish cavalry (32 figs).
4 units of Gallic cavalry (32 figs).
4 units of Numidian cavalry (32 figs) I'll use 3 units.
2 elephants.

Stage 2: The Battle of Lake Trasimene at half scale will be my target. This will require me to double the Carthaginian force used for Trebia (except elephants) with the extra addition of:
4 units of Gallic warband for 12 units total.
2 units of Gallic cavalry for 10 units total.
Stage 2 will require me to paint 436 figures.

Stage 3: The Battle of Telemon. This is where the end will be coming into sight and whole nations will be finished, in this case Gaul and Rome:
6 units of Gallic warband (for 18 units total).
12 Gallic chariots.
20 units of Romans (double those already painted for 4 legions total).
Stage 3 will require me to paint 464 figures (chariots counting as 1 each).

Stage 4: Spain. Finish the remaining Spanish troops.
11 units of Scutarii
2 units of Caetrati
2 units of Spanish cavalry
Stage 4 will require me to paint 304 figures.

Stage 5: Africa / Spain. Finish the remaining Carthaginians.
4 units of Libyan spearmen.
2 units of Libyan skirmishers.
6 units of Numidian skirmishers.
6 elephants
2 units of Carthaginian cavalry.
2 units of Numidian cavalry.
Stage 5 will require me to paint a mere 198 figures (elephants counting as 1 each).

So that's the plan. I've broken the remaining figures into four 5 month chunks, with the amount of work in each chunk getting less towards the end. I'm bang on schedule so far so I can't foresee any problems. 2200ish figures in just over 2 years.

My next project, The Peninsular War, is already in motion. I'm buying books and doing the reading and research. My library for this project is still quite small (36 books) but it is getting there. I should have read most of them by November 2011. My plan is to make this project, the painting being rather more complex, much less aggressive (I can chew the Punic War project but it is hard to swallow). I plan on only doing 36 - 48 figures a month for this one.