From: TomL, AHPC 16 final call

Time for the AHPC 16 final roll call.  Had a lot of fun as always painting and looking at everyone else's work.  Managed to get quite a jump on the Battletech plastic mountain:

 

The only mech's I didn't paint were my lone Gothic battletech box.  Maybe this summer or next challenge.  Hopefully this eliminates much of the grey from our club's battle fields.

Completed only few units from my ACW Warlord Epic boxes. I actually managed to partially paint 4 CSA sprues on vacation and was thinking I would crush my objective. Alas getting time to complete the details after vacation proved difficult. Luckily the theme rounds made up for that. 

 

Thanks again to Curt, Sarah, Sylvain and the entire Minion Team for their time in running this.  I shall miss looking at all the painted miniatures everyday.   Hope to see you all again next year.

Tom 

 

from Kerry - AHPC Sweet Sixteen Roundup

 Morning, afternoon & evening all

It seems very strange to put up a round up post so soon after the end of the challenge but I'm doing it because I want to put everything away!

I can't believe that 3 months has gone so quickly, the last few weeks in particular have flown by. I'm lucky though that being a member of the down under crew, I will still have regular contact with my mates at least once, if not twice per week during our regular Tuesday & Thursday night paint n' chats. Its a great group and we'll chat about anything really and throughout the challenge have leaned on and supported each other, its after all what the challenge is about.

I want to say an huge thank you to Curt and Sarah for once again allowing me to take part in this wonderful event. Mate, the amount of work you put into this is phenomenal, the AHPC is such a fantastic thing and long may it continue and be a source of pride to you. Thank you so much

I'm sorry, I  rushed my last post yesterday and had no time to say thank you to another wonderful group, the minions. How would we fare without them? Just brilliant guys, thank you for taking valuable hours out of your hobby time to meet the needs of the rest of us and make the challenge the success that it is. Huge thank you and especially to you Millsy, not only for the practical work you do for the down under or Friday group but for just the way you are. Cheers mate

The challenge is over for another year but already I'm looking forward to next Tuesday's paint n' chat with the regulars Kent, Millsy,  John, Paul and Richard. ( Richard I reckon with those names you should now change yours to Ringo :-) )

I think I went a bit mad this year

I was really pleased to see the return of terrain into this year's challenge, not least because I had a fair bit of 3d printed terrain I wanted to finish, Thank you Byron for minioning this.

This I think is my 5th challenge and it has really given me a focus after retiring last March (though I still work 1 day//week). I think I might have struggled to adjust without it. There are only so many days in a week that you can play golf. 

It was never my intention to try and finish at the top of the points roster, it just happened as I got so carried  away, particularly with the bonus rounds and this along with my tendency to try and produce figures in units and try and post every week meant it just happened. I really do struggle with the discipline of regular basing though. My timing is never great and I think I submitted all 3 bonus rounds with under 10 minutes to spare. That that was also the case yesterday and subsequently meant no time to preview it before posting. I have to address that because I know it stresses me a bit and is not that sensible, in fact its daft! Next year I think I might try and tone down my expectation a level and try not to get so much done every week. To be honest the challenge can take over and become all encompassing, like it obviously has this year!

I'm in a bit of trouble with a couple of blokes because I didn't give them their moment of fame as they had warned me to do in yesterday's "Knight's Tale" because I was so rushed. Most people seem to regard them as some sort of natural born killers so I'm going to play it safe and show them in the next picture. They are Lord Lucan's bodyguards, Lennie the Lion and Idris.

That's Lennie the Lion on the left with the flag, many people think he's named because he must be a handful in a scrap and fight like a lion.  The honest truth is that its not the true story, he got his name because he spends so much time in the Red Lion. Idris is on the right in the picture and again he has a reputation for being really mean - he really is though, but not in a tough killer way, more of in a sort of frugal way, as he never spends any money and would never buy you a pint!

With those two off my back I'll just put up a few pictures of what I managed to get paint over past 3 months.

That leaves only one thank you to make, and that is to my fellow participants. Thank you all for your kindness, encouragement and support. I've had a blast looking at what you've been posting and tried to comment as much as possible. The amount of skill and talent on here is as astounding as is the variety of interests which includes weird shit! Not only has it been great fun but the reality is that you've managed to tempt me into a couple of new projects, yeah, thanks! 

Thank you all

On a final note, I hope to see as many of you as I can at Partizan this year, I've already chosen my clothing so you'll find me easily.  

Thank you all, best wishes

Valleyboy

MattW - Sweet Sixteen is a wrap!

 Sweet Sixteen is a wrap! 

Another painting challenge complete, a big thank you to Curt and Sarah for hosting a fine event this year, the last rapid fire event felt like a blur, with posts every 15 mins or so on Friday night. A big thanks to the minions, as I was in two time zones several times I missed the cut off by a day either side…..

Bryon Bay bit of the holiday 

I set a very modest goal this year of 600 points as I knew I would be on holidays skipping the European winter. This winter we were Australia for two months laying around a pool relaxing over the challenge. I did not reach my goal for points this year as the holiday homes and hotels had no where really suitable to paint….. well that’s my excuse. On the home front I finally moved into my painting room and I think in six weeks the chateau renovation on the third floor will be finally complete (painting, fabric wall insulation, then decor happening for the coming five weeks) which will mean my library will finally be back in place and my hobbit hole will get a rebuild. 

We are taking bookings for 2026  at Wargames holidays/ L’Hotel de Hercé . If you and your partner or a couple of mates are looking for a personal Normandy battlefield guide, a wargames or historical cultural holiday in west France, Normandy, Brittany or Pays de Loire please consider us. We have 21 tours and 60 Battlefeild sites locally from Caesar to ww2. 

On the painting front, my desk looks like a bomb zone when I commenced cleanup yesterday about 4 projects did not make it to the Final Cut, 4 hours packing stuff away into project drawers and I will compete a few pieces this week …. For the 16th challenge really happy with my 20 odd Judge Dredd additions including some early figures from the Citadel 80s collection, LOTR, Napoleonic, ACW and ww2 pieces. 

My favourite piece I completed, Treebeard Merry and Pippin

Half of the Hurley gang

Me raging about construction dust in the painting room

After two weeks on the Gold Coast eating Banana’s and mangoes 

The oldest thing I painted circa 1983 a Paranoia/citadel blue trooper

Perry dragoons, fifteen years in the project drawer at least 

A gift of figures whilst in Oz by my mate Greg, actually received love early

My Christmas gift was a Halfling Bloodbowl team, as yet unnamed any ideas? 

Somehow I think this is what I would look like in a gridiron outfit

I had big plans of completing my 9th SS 20mm…. Not to be

Cheers everyone I am looking forward to next year

Cheers

Matt

FROM JohnB: Whats that coming over the hill is it a monster?

Nope its an AHPC wrap! Mind you "The Automatic" (welsh indie rock band) hit was a cracker Well I have had my best year at AHPC and its my third year on the trot signing up. With a photo splurge what have I learnt? I have again learnt a lot from the other 70 odd entrants plus their figure and basing ideas as well as some of their figure/painting combinations all inspiring me to buy and paint yet more figures but actually paint more! woohoo 700 plus points worth or 13 micro projects if you like. plus I started to do stand up painting! yep stood at a bar style bench set up and doing sprints - short paint sessions of 15 minutes - 45 minutes, which led to my mini paint palette method as I tended to use one colour.

ok this paint is 4 days old but the method does work on small amounts of paint used over say 24 hours oh and the tissue is meant to be kept wet!!!!! On with the results - I am particularly pleased that I painted the ECW Tumbling Dice unit, maybe that project will get a kick start now.

Finishing the 1848 Hungarian Steam Engine having scratch built it for AHPC15 was very satisfying. You need two airfix rockets.........and a lot of cursing.

The Irish Brigade unit using Strelets Louis XIVth range was also a hit - I have admired their range for a long time - too long and never painted any. Now that has been fixed maybe more will follow.

I hope you all have seen the error of your ways and realise that injection moulded plastics in 1/72 is the way to go - queue woops of laughter about this madness of mine. Seriously I hope you have all enjoyed painting what you like and love.

That said I am glad I painted my 40mm Vikings to celebrate Ian Kay's retirement at Irregular Miniatures - I am happy for him yet sad to see such a vast traditional figure range sail off into the sunset.

And I painted my first printed figures - Italian support weapons in 20mm from MarDav.

Plus ca Change! And I sorry for my Minion Peter who was hoping to see my French Dragoons completed - I am off to the allotment for the year so this is as far as I got! Lets hope those red monsters don't get me.

So a big thank you to everyone who took part and of course especially to Curt and all the minions and duel runners and anyone I have missed. Hope to be back in the 17th challenge later this year.

from Paul O'G: Season 16 Wrap up

Aloha everyone!
Another AHPC Season comes to an end - this was my 11th but the first I've entered while living overseas (which was quite challenging!). World events and work travel cut into my time but that made my brush time all the more enjoyable for its restorative effects.

Somehow, it always feels like more while I'm painting it! :-)

This year saw me tackle some different projects: Dystopian Wars, Astronauts and Cosmonauts on the moon, a new Crimean War army, and some Retro- SciFi figures. Naturally, the broad shift away from GW figures meant my skull count was well down this year!

I tried something different with a YouTube video of my output. Click to play!

I really enjoyed the return of the Bonus Rounds this year and entered all three. I was thrilled to pick up a shared second place in the "Toy Story" theme with my Moon Walkers.

Overall I posted 828 points, exceeding my 500 point target and surpassing a 'career tally" of 9,000. Perhaps next season I can attempt to crack the 10,000 point milestone!

The struggle is real: well done Alan!

Thank you fellow challengers for making it such fun, particularly our ANZAC paint and chat crew for the banter (and having Curt dial in for the start was especially cool!). I hope we can continue these sessions post challenge. 

Some statistical analysis to keep Miles happy!

Accolades as always to Curt, Sarah and the fabulous minions who enable the entire enterprise. I deeply appreciate the time, effort and focus you deliver with a wonderful sense of humour.  

Aloha & Mahalo! Until next time everyone :-)

LeeH: My Winter War Soviets are ready for the offensive!

So, how do I wrap up this year’s Challenge? If I’m being totally honest, I didn't get quite as much painted as I originally hoped. My "to-do" list was definitely more ambitious than my "done" list! But you know what? I got the essentials finished, and in this hobby, that’s a win in my book.

Despite the slower pace, I managed to hit two major milestones: My personal 600-point target was officially crossed, and I'm happy with that. Of course, no competition compared to the top of the leaderboard, but I'm happy with what I got done.  Second, I completed everything I wanted to get done, meaning my Winter War Soviets: These guys are complete and will give me plenty of options when list-building for games of Bolt Action or Chain of Command. They were the missing piece for my collaboration project with RayR, and I’m thrilled to have them ready for the table.

The dream now is to get my Soviets and Ray’s Finns into a proper scrap. However, we’ve got a bit of a "one in, one out" policy happening right now. We have a few urgent projects that need to be cleared off the workbench before we can play with these guys. Our big focus for the immediate future? Two 1812 Retreat from Moscow games. We're working on a skirmish ruleset with a friend, and alongside this, Ray and I want to run a big battle with our collection for a demo game at Broadside in June. Once we have these playtested and polished, the second half of the year is looking very clear, and very wintery!