From MilesR - 28mm British Siege Mortars (30 Points)

My next submission is a set of 3 British Napoleonic Siege Mortars from Front Rank Miniatures in 28mm scale.

These are the first of many Front Rank mini's I'll be painting up during this year's contest.  Along with the mortars is a 36 figure British Infantry battalion and 2 32 figures Portuguese infantry units.

These mortars will be used in my upcoming Historicon 2016 game which will be set during the War of 1812 but with some adjustments for a bit of fun.

I was amazed at how cleanly cast the Front Figures are - prep was really very simple.

And what wonderful, brutish little beasts they are Miles. Is this for an upcoming convention game? If so, what is the scenario?  

I look forward to seeing your upcoming Portuguese. I did a battalion several years ago using then-Victrix metals (now Brigade?) which are very nice castings to work with (which reminds me that I need to do another two battalions to finish the brigade...ugh.)

Great work Miles! 

From JuanM - First Entry: The Loser & the Gambler (10 Points)

Hello everyone!!!

Here is my first entry to this year´s Challenge, really fast painting for me! This is my first picture about The Challenge, yesterday in the morning, when I selected the first two models to paint (basically, because both of them were going to wear white trousers...):

As you can see, I have some figures waiting for their turn in the background.

Well, the first model is a 28mm Draugr from Red Box Games, a really nice miniature and a poor tortured soul. He is The Loser in this entry, of course:

The figures from Red Box Games are really wonderful, fantastic and full of (small) details. I expect to paint many more of them during The Challenge despite the fact they need a lot of time to being painted. I have used some drops of "Realistic Water" from Secret Weapon Scenics in the base.

My idea is to use these figures with "Frostgrave" or "Open Combat".

The Gambler is my other figure in this entry. He is a 28mm Perry Miniatures AWI Rebel Officer, wounded but ready to continue the game.

This is a lonely painting commission for a friend.

And this is my small first entry worth of 10 points, I think. Great and very busy first two days of The Challenge.

Cheers!

Ah, lovely to see you with us Juan and with two characterful miniatures. That first fellow looks like me Monday mornings when I head off to work... Seriously, great work on depicting the decrepit undead flesh tones, clothes and metalwork. I've been to the Red Box website many times admiring their miniatures but can never decide what to order as they are so many cool castings.

From IanW - 15mm Late Achaemenian Persian Command Stand (12 Points)

I thought I would start off the Challenge with a much needed fourth command stand for my Achaemenian Persian army. The figures are supplied by Magister Militum who produce the rather fine Chariot Miniatures range.

These are a fairly quick and easy paint, just perfect to get me onto the score board. These figures are reasonably free of flash and as such easy to prep. 

I have based up the figures for use with both Fields of Glory and Hail Caesar and should get some use in the near future. These should net me 12 points to get me started, more Persians to follow.

Welcome aboard Ian! It's great to have you among us again this year. 

What a nice, bright and colourful command stand to start things off - wonderful. As you say, these are very crisp castings. I like your arid basework and the tone of the bronze helmets are spot on. Well done.

From MilesR - BT-42 and a bit of a goof! (25 Points)

 My first submission for the AHPC VI is a 28mm  BT-42 tank.  The model comes from a new company, Trenchworx and is superb.  In fact, I think Trenchworx makes the best quality vehicle models in 28mm scale at the moment.

 Unfortunately, there is a glaring, almost shocking error in my rendition.  While the BT-42 is based on the Soviet BT-7 chassis they were created by the Finns and not the Soviets so the red star on the turret is a bit out of place.  The Finns captured 56 BT-7's during the winter war and converted 18 of them in BT-42's.

 The BT-42 mounted a British 4.5 inch gun and really weren't all that successful.  I always thought of them as a discounted version of a KV-2.  Still its a cool looking tank.

So I guess this version depicts a re-captured BT-42 pressed into Soviet service somewhere on the Eastern Front or it's just those crafty Finns trying to trick the Soviets......

Ok, I just screwed up

Maybe I should stick to office furniture submissions....

My apologies for the cluttered background in the pictures - I need to clean up my workspace and just haven't found time to do so

Welcome to the madness Miles! 

Confused branding aside, this is a great looking vehicle. I really like the aggressive weathering on the lower hull and I always love a turret design that tries to fit a monstrous gun onto a too-small chassis. I bet whenever the gunner wanted to rotate that heavy turret to fix a new target the rest of the crew were chewing their nails in frustration. 

I have a few of the Trenchworx vehicles myself and can attest to their quality.

Nice work Miles! 

From ByronM - 15mm Sherman Tanks (30 Points)

I only had about 3 hours to paint today, so picked something FAST!  A platoon of Sherman tanks to add to my Canadian contingent for Chain of Command.  They are Plastic Soldier company and I built three as normal Sherman's and 2 as Fireflies.

Knowing I only had a few hours, enter the airbrush fast paint method! I had these primed black, then hit them with edge highlights in a light grey / tan mix. Then sprayed a few thin olive glaze coats, then edge hit them with a lighter tan in a glaze to just bring the edges out a bit lighter still.

That sat to dry for a while, then I touched up the tracks to dark grey, dry brushed them, then inked them.  Onto the few small details on the tank that that would not be the same colour as the main body, then a thin wash over the whole tanks.  Let dry again, then add weathering powder for dirt, and we are done.

I would love to add some decals, but need to find some and had only American ones here.  Maybe someday I will find some Canadian or British decals and add them in.

Quick and fast, but still OK to put on the table and not be embarrassed, and am on the board!

Great job Byron! I've never really learned to use an airbrush properly and whenever I have to do some vehicles I really wish I did. These really look fabulous for 3 hours of work - amazing really. I quite like the use of the airbrush to do glazes as it gives a very subtle effect. Nice!

 30 points for your place on the roster - well done.

From BillA - 28mm Deep Sea Divers (10 points)

I decided to go for a leisurely start for the Challenge - no point in burning myself out prematurely, so I took my time and completed a pair of 28mm Deep Sea Divers/Treasure Hunters from Brigade Games.  They came in a pack of five, and I'm reserving the other three figures (one man suiting up and the other two assisting him) for my "Nautical" bonus entry.

The bases looked a little plain with just grit on them, so I snipped a few leaves off some plastic aquarium plants I had lying around, gave them a quick and heavy drybrush of citron green and superglued them to the bases.

"What you said about my wife Frank...those're fighting words."

Haha! I love these guys Bill, wonderful work. I particularly like the basework you've done for them - simple but very effective. Now we just need a shadow of a very, very large fish on the ground between them to set the mood.

10 Points - Well Done!

From TamsinP - Frankly My Dears (5 points)

I thought that I'd do my level best to get a figure submitted on the first day of the Challenge. But then I promptly spent several hours this morning and afternoon faffing around doing some prep work and slopping grey basecoats onto my 6mm Confederate infantry, meaning that it wasn't until this evening that I got to start work on painting my first-day entry.

Now, over the past few months I've been watching Christy Beall's videos on the WS&S YouTube channel and wanted to try out her technique of highlighting with multiple very thin layers of each colour. Ohmygoodgawd it's time-consuming and frustrating, but the end result is well worth it. Sadly my photography doesn't really do it justice (a combination of not-brilliant camera, new setup and my lack of camera skills). the worst part for me with the paint-job was having to do some dirtying-up at the end.

Anyway, Frank has something to say to all those people who accuse me of being a painting robot/demon and suggesting that my target of 1000 points is some ploy to lull everyone into a false sense of security:

Yes, my first submission is Frank Gallagher from the original (ie UK version, starring David Threlfall) of Shameless.

For those who are unaware of this gem of British television, here is one of the series trailers:

A few more pics of the figure, which is from Hasslefree:

And as it is only a few days away from that special day when we stuff our faces with too much food, sloshed down with too much alcohol, here is Frank's alternative Christmas message (which was banned and never shown on TV):

Just the one 28mm figure, so only 5 points today, but at least I've made a start!

A beautiful Christmas message - I'm getting a little verklempt here (sniff)... ;)

Nice one Tamsin! You've done a brilliant job on Frank - I especially like how you did up the jeans and jacket, excellent work. I've not checked out the WS&S YouTube channel but I'm going to do so tonight (if I don't fall down unconscious first...).

5 Points! You're officially on the roster now, Ms P! (BTW, I still think you're blowing wind up our trousers with this '1000 Points' line. Yeah, right, what a bunch of malarky.) ;P

From MartinC - 28mm Zulus (120 Points)

Seats have been taken at the card tables and it's time to put your money on the table. I'll start with these 24 Zulus for 120 points. These are part of the Cetshwayo Challenge and explains my 4:1 handicap

For those how have seen my first attempt at these on my blog you will know I have a large number of terrible Zulu figures that I need to paint and base. The Foundry figures are boring, the Warrior Miniatures are dynamic but poor quality and the unknown manufacturer ones are boring and poor quality. The plan is to put them on bases of 12 and then add the remains of a hanging basket as long grass to hide the offending figures. The painting is basic and I plan to use the shields to identify them. These are the iNdlu-yengwe. Think I will tweak the bases in the future with more dry brushing to show up more clearly.

Fantastic stuff Martin! I quite like like the effect of the elephant grass - very evocative (and a good use of camouflage).

120 Points - A great opening gambit for your Chetswayo Challenge.

From AlexS - Venetian Pikemen (100 Points)

Magnificent miniatures from the Perry brothers, which will be included in my Venetian army for the Condottieri period. 

Easy to paint: I did base layers, then filled in places and lightened. The colors a little dull, but the army will be just that - the tired fighters who fought not one battle.

Wow! Our first paint bomb and we're just in the first day - Terrific stuff. Hmm, PeterD and I are dueling to see who can paint the most Renaissance period models and I think we're going to have to pick up our socks!

Great work Alex, and incredibly fast production as well. The muted grey tones you've used here reminds me of some of the scenes from 'The Lord of the Rings'. I also like how you've posed the figures to show them as world-weary campaigners. Well done.

20 figures will give you 100 points - great job!

From SamuliS - Citadel Chaos Santa (5 points)

In a bid to once again grab the lead for a fleeting few hours I have prepared a quick entry that should see me open my point tally and be the first one to post! (Sorry Samuli, I bumped you on that one. ed) So what I needed was a simple mini which would only require a few different shades to make it a speedy entry.

Going through my lead pile I came upon a box with an assortment of old school Citadel miniatures and remembered I had once bought the Chaos Santa (who is totally not a chaos warrior in disguise) sculpted by the Perry twins sometime in the mid 80s. With me coming from the land of Santa Claus and the miniatures being pretty much the same age as I am, I figured it would be the perfect first entry. I had originally planned on painting this and putting it inside a see through Christmas tree ornament, but that never really worked out as I had planned.

A fairly simple paintjob with only a couple of shades that were washed and then highlighted twice before slopping on some snow flock. The PVA is still drying, but I declare this a finished mini now! The better half wasn't too happy about the early morning alarm clock episode followed by borrowing her hairdryer to speed up painting. But hopefully all will be sorted as I'm free to make breakfast after posting this :)

Ah, wonderful work Samuli! I think I've seen this (or something like it) over at the Wargames Foundry site and was sorely tempted to pick it up. I love his saw beard and this boney shoulderblades coming through the Santa costume. He looks like he should be in a snow-globe with black ash!

A well-earned 5 points. Well done and welcome back Samuli!

'Alea Iacta Est - The Die is Cast' - The 6th Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge Begins

Whoa, am I ever beat!

This working through the night is a young man's business. It serves me right though - doing a mounted command stand for the opening entry was definitely a little too ambitious, but, what can I say, I simply couldn't resist. :)

Welcome everyone, to the sixth edition of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge! 

We have 88 participants this year from all over the globe, and with that we're going to treat our visitors with a wonderful display of our hobby all the while having a great time doing it. I'm really looking forward to the next three months!

For my first entry I thought I'd follow this year's theme of 'Gambler/Risk-Taker', by creating a command stand depicting Julius Caesar as he is about to cross the Rubicon River, thereby inciting civil war within Rome. These 28mm models are from 1st Corps. A bit lumpy and somewhat rough around the edges, but they have great character and get the primary elements right.

I also managed to scare up a rather grotty replica of a Roman die and created a socket on the base to accommodate it - this way we can count down to when Ceasar gets stabbed in the back, poor lad.
 

The Aquilifer is supposed to have a shield on his left arm, but at 5am I couldn't face either a decal or hand painting the design. So here we see him sporting a brand new Apple Watch on his wrist (as we all know, those Romans were trend-setters).

'Lucius, what time is it?'  

'Umm, it's 6am, sir, ...your stocks are bullish and Reuters would like an interview with you later today.'

With this opening entry I'm also delighted to announce that Simon Miller (aka BigRedBat), creator of the excellent ancients-to-medieval ruleset 'To the Strongest', has kindly offered prize sponsorship for the Challenge. Thank you so much Simon for your generosity!

Okay, now for points (pulls off mittens and socks). Hmm, two mounted figures with a minion carrying firewood... 25 points for me - WooHoo! 

Now, just 975 points to go... 

...And...We're Off!

Alright brush-jockeys, let the madness begin!

I have a strong suspicion we will have our first entries within the day. :)

Now, back to the paint desk. The leg irons only stretch so far...

The Countdown Begins!

Okay folks! We're now less than 12 hours away from the start of the Painting Challenge. 

I have several bags of espresso in reserve along with a shed-load of primed models ready to go under the brush. So I suggest you sort-out your paints, brushes and figures, and get ready to enjoy the next three months of hobby madness. 

See you at the startline!

Curt