From ByronM - Challenge 15 sign off post

 Well, I made it to the end of yet another Painting Challenge, even if I didn't meet my target points.  This year was a lot of fun, and I finally felt good about my painting again now that I got some better glasses and light in my paint area, so that is a win.  Also, I could have hit my points goal, but made the concious choice to go work on some other projects that I really needed to for my company (NorthernLightsTerrain.com), which I will show off later in the post.

First up, the obligatory group shot of myself and all the models I painted, and even though I missed my goal by a little, I am really happy with how much I got done and the quality of most of it.

Next up is a shot of my still in disaster mode painting table...  I still have a ton of odds and ends kicking around that I never got to.

I also realized I never got back to post a group shot of all of my Burrows & Badgers stuff (which I did not get everything done, so there will be a lot more next challenge).  I love how these came out, as the sculpts are awesome with lots of detail, but not too much that you are left painting little bits forever.

And lastly, for the last few weeks of the challenge, I got sidetracked on getting a set of trenches and bunkers ready for sale on NorthernLightsTerrain.com for use with Trench Crusade, which we have been playing a lot of around here.  While I know you can make trenches easily out of foam and stir sticks, foam tends to break down over time, and is harder to pack as it is always the one size.  So, learning from my stacking basic Infinity buildings I made a bunch of stacking boxes with wood texture sides and flat tops that pack up easily for storage.  I sell them like that, but recommend people use whatever modelling compound they want for the tops to give more character, plus glue some random bits and bobs all over and it looks pretty sweet.

Textured and base painted trenches

20 Trench boxes stacked for storage

Unpainted and no top texture added

I also did two style of bunkers to go with them, which gives a complete set for Trench Crusade or any other WW1 style setting.  Are they perfect, no, as it's hard to create angled sections with MDF and a laser, but they work pretty well!

Well, that's it for this year!  

Thanks again to Curt and all the Minions for all the hard work, see you all again next year!

From TeemuL: Final Thursday Things of Interest

Ok, the AHPC XV is gone. Of course there are some byrocratical issues still left, some statistics and so on, but the main work is done. It doesn't prevent me to use my Minion powers to post one more post. I was requested to present a bit of The Parola Armour Museum and I couldn't resist.

Armour Museum is located in Hämeenlinna, southern part of Finland and about an hour north-west of Helsinki, quite close to the highway and railroad, so rather easy to get to. It is open round the year (couple of exceptions) and has both indoor and outdoor exhibitions. The main focus is naturally armoured vehicles, but anti-tank equipment is presented, too. And an armoured train.

Some of the vehicles are unique and most are very rare outside of Russia. BT-42 Assault Gun is the only in the world, BA-10 armoured car most likely, too, and T-50 light tank is one of two survivors. Of course there's lots of small items, uniforms, ammunitions, pieces of newspapers etc. In addition there is a WW2 anti-tank gun which can used in simulated battle to destroy Soviets tanks.

There are some events, too. For example "Kevätsawutus" on April 26th is an annual event, when some of vehicles are started up and they are driven in a reserved area. Expect to see pancakes. hotdog vendors, old cars and other activieties/presenters, too. Another annual event takes place during summer "Harrastepäivät", which includes scale model painting competion, miniature game demoes, pancakes and hot dog vendors etc. The first one translates as "Spring Smokes" and the second as "Hobby Days."

All photos on this post are taken by me, but the museum pages are in English and have quite a nice gallery.

---In other News---

Here's my Challenge output. I had a high target and after missing most of the first week because of illness I knew I couldn't reach it so I focused on Circles and nice projects instead of focusing on point mongering. The last couple of weeks were quite nice, lots of points and Circles. Thank you Curt and Sarah, my fellow Minions and all the Participants - AHPC has became my favourite part of the Hobby Year. I painted over one mini in a day, something I won't reach during outside the Challenge.

Scifi models

WW2 in 15mm

Warmaster

Fantasy

Delmonteland imaginations

Napoleonics

Lord of Rings characters

A Song of Ice and Fire minis

Old West including Bertha the Bear

All of them, over 100 of them

See you in December!

From RaulM - AHPC XV Wrap up

I had a blast joining the challenge for the first time, it was a great source of motivation! I've loved posting and getting great comments from everyone, and I've spent hours just browsing through and admiring everyone's amazing work. I knocked out a ton of 1/700 scale sailing ships from the Black Seas range, and here they all are together for the first time. 

While that photo is great and all, it was a great time to squeeze in some glamor shots. So here we go, for each nation: 

The United States Navy

The Royal Navy

The Spanish

The French

Constellation vs a Barbay Xebec

Again, this was an amazing time. Big thanks to Paul for reviewing all of my posts and for all of the generous extra points. It helped me reach the goal I set out the beginning of 200 points, and I was even able to get a few points more and ended up with 235. I'll see all of you in next year's challenge, but in the meantime, I do post all of work to my blog, The Space Dinosaur Miniatures, if anyone wants to continue seeing my Black Seas and other games work. 

See everyone then! 

From AdamW - Oh, just one more thing......

As a newb here I didn't realise that a 'wrap up' post was the done thing, but it seems nice to look back at all that was achieved and the fun that was had.  

As it was my first challenge I had no idea what target to set. I had hoped to get lots done but knew that life may get in the way, so I went for 600, double the suggested 300 points. In the end I did over 2000 so clearly underestimated. At least I have a better idea for next year.

I did manage to get a couple of reasonable sized projects done and some odd bits, and managed to get all the circles/spheres of the Dante side challenge done.

So here is a round up (all 15mm).

Limbo - Lots of limbers

Lust - Viking Pillagers

Gluttony - Hungry Tiger, crawling soldier.

 

Greed - Viking collectors

Wrath - woman scorned

Heresy - privates on parade

Violence - Boers

Fraud - HMS Firefly and friend (China gunboats on the Tigris)

 

HMS Espiegle, tagged onto the Firefly job.

Treachery - Captured armour fighting for the enemy

The Inconstant - Chinese rocker battery...where they stop nobody knows.

The Ambitious - Stick and stones unit

The Lovers - music loving medieval band, 'The Fool Fighters'

The Wise - ACW generals coming up with a cunning plan.

Warriors of Faith - monks ready to crack some heads.

The Just Rulers - Samurai command enclosures

The contemplatives - The error of his ways

Faith, hope and love - Master, servant and hound

The Angels - Nuns on the run

As well as all 18 of the circles/spheres I squeezed in a couple of other bits and bobs.

A few Russian armoured cars

A couple of small gunboats

A unit of Chinese pirates

A handful of junks

Well, that was the winter that was.  Hope you all had fun, and hope to see you all again next year. 

As a passing shot, here is a link to our groups Facebook page, where we post pics of some of the games we play. Very Bad Wargamers Group