From StefanK: Vospers and eels (72 points)

Ahoi Jack Tars and Landlubbers,

Finally my first entry for this year's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge:

Vospers and eels

Shortly before Christmas Warlord released their new WWII naval skirmish game Cruel Seas. Frankly for a long time their wasn't a release that I was so much looking forward to. Anyway my pre-order didn't arrive in time and more than two weeks of desperate waiting overshadowed my December. Anyway shortly before Christmas the starter set arrived and I couldn't resist painting enough boats for the first couple of scenarios. So here we go with the Vospers first.

Actually the basic games comes with six Vospers but until now I've painted only four of them. They are all in 1/300 (6mm) scale but very detailed. Due to the thick plastic they appear a bit bulky but nevertheless really nice models.

As usual I used Vallejo Model Colors to paint the ships. Mostly different shades of grey for obvious reasons. Afterwards I used a combination of washes from Citadel and AK to apply some weathering and give the boats slightly different shadings.

On one of the boats I mounted a couple of crew. They are 1/300 metal figures which Warlord delivers with the British resin boats from the fleet box. They fit on the plastic boats very nicely too and are a simple conversion. Only the paint to the small gap in the breastwork of the bridge. I'd use some green stuff to conceal that on the next batch of boats.

The flags are from the starter box as well. Really nice pieces though too small to call it a pleasure to assemble them. To conceal the white line of paper I painted the outlines to have Saint George's cross run around the whole flag.

Since Cruel Seas is all about torpedo boats it makes some sense to have a couple of torpedoes ready. With the starter set and the Royal Navy fleet box came two sprues with 16 torpedo markers each. Thus I took some time to paint them all in one process of piecework.

That's for now. Shortly there'll appear some German E-boats as well as an armed trawler for the Brits. My entry for the water bonus round is ready as well but let's keep this under the water surface for now.  ;-)

Cheers

Stefan



Ahoy Stefan and welcome back!

Some absolutely smashing nautical modelling you have here my friend. It's becoming harder and harder for me to resist Cruel Seas and it's just this kind of entry that is causing me grief.

I am really impressed with your paintwork and weathering efforts on these. They have a really grimy and weather beaten look to them and you've brought the details out superbly. Painting the torpedoes must have been a bit tiresome but it't attention to detail and keeping the small stuff up to the same level of quality that really makes a table sing to my mind.

4 x 1/300 vehicles
4 x flags
32 x torpedoes
plus flags

I've paid a point each for the torpedoes so that makes a total of 72 points for these including flags and crew, though I am happy for Curt to revise that (which has duly happened thanks Paul). Well done mate!

Cheers,
Millsy

Dave X - 20mm Taliban - 20 Points

This is my second Painting Challenge and I had my debut last year. I aimed for 750 points last year and smashed it coming in with over 800 points. This year I am aiming for 1000 points and am off to a very slow start but this is the busiest time of the year for me and once things get to normal I will push for my goal.

Kicking off this years AHPC I quickly painted up 5 x 20mm Taliban Infantry. These are from Elhiem Figures and I am a big fan of their 20mm Modern Range. I have already painted up a full platoon of Australians so it was fitting that they have an opposition. I have already painted a few Taliban but they are not eligible for submission in the challenge.

Taliban is such an interesting subject to paint (politics aside). After all someone needs to be the bad guy! I kind of went for some minor uniformity in the models. I am not a gun person and I believe they are armed with AK-47s.

5 x 20mm figures should net me 20 points.

I will be painting much more 20mm Modern for the challenge.

Thanks
Dave

Hi Dave!

Great to have you back for your second Challenge and to have you off and running too.

I'm not familiar with the Elhiem Figures range but they are clearly a real winner. Wonderfully dynamic poses and great proportions.

These are really well executed Dave. I like the muted palette which is suitably drab and workmanlike but at the same time your shading and highlighting really sets them off well. The basing is also top notch and really evocative of the harsh climate.

20 points to start you off this year. Well done!

Cheers,
Millsy

From AlanD - Medieval Russians (52 points)

My second main project for the challenge is painting 13th century Russians. I spent ages in November assembling figures made from bits and pieces of Fireforge Russians, Scandinavians and Foot Sergeants, and these are the first results.

I just love the look of medieval Russians, with the mix of eastern and western influences and lots of colour.

These are based so that I can use them in skirmish games like Burn and Loot, but also so I can sabot base them for bigger games like Deus Vult and Impetus.

All shields, as always, are hand painted. I have extreme and uncharitable views about shield decals. I even saw some decals the other day that were for entirely blank shields. I mean, what is the point??

Anyways, expect to see more Russians as the challenge continues!

Holiday Minion Millsy Reporting!
Seeing as it is Lady Sarah's birthday (which really *should* be a Canadian National Holiday IMHO) I thought I would step in and give Curt a few extra minutes for foot massage, tea making and general slavish adoration.

And what a first entry I get to review! Absolutely gorgeous colours, great character and some very atmospheric basing to finish off.

Having just assembled a metric ton of Fireforge plastics in November myself I can attest to how much fun it can be mixing and matching their kits. You've done a great job of just that here mate and coupled with the poses you've chosen you have created a really attractive and dynamic unit.

I particularly like the decoration you've added to the tunic edges and the shields are superb.

These ten stalwarts will earn you a solid 52 points including two for the tunics and shields. More please!

Cheers,
Millsy

Sarah's Choice

Lady Sarah braving the elements.

Wow, the AHPC IX Edition has fully started and I haven’t as much as glanced at the blog until today. 

This is shameful, as I do try to be benignly supportive of Curt's hobby, so I will endeavour to catch up.

Also, I want to extend a warm Hello and welcome to the usual suspects and of course to all the new challengers - the 9th Edition promises to be stellar.

It is has become my tradition to award a prize for my favourite Female Figure. The winning entrant is totally based on my fickle whims and are not at all scientific. Although, anyone who paints a figure of Josephine in her Rose Garden at Malmaison is sure to get extra consideration! (BTW I’ve been waiting through eight challenges for this gauntlet to be picked up...)

I only ask for Curt and/or the minions to tag prospective entries as 'Sarah’s Choice'.

I will spend some time over the next few days catching up and commenting on the entrants since the wondrous madness began.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Sarah 

Postscript from Curt: Today is Lady Sarah's birthday! Hooray!! So as a heads up, I may be a bit delayed in getting everyone's posts up on the blog as I'll be doting, scraping and bowing to her benign magnificence all day today.

From PaulSS: Agincourt French Men at Arms (36 Points)

I had big plans to get six more French Men at Arms done before the challenge started, but alas that was not to be so although six were completed this week three of them were painted under the auspices of the challenge.

These are all from the Perry Miniatures Agincourt to Orleans range and I really hope over the next three months to make a big impact on this project. I managed to paint 72 English foot between Agincourt day and the 25th November and although unlikely to keep up that pace hope to have two good sized gaming forces done by the end of the challenge.

The are based on a standard Renedra 20mm x 45mm and then mounted in custom movement trays that I ordered from Warbases that fit three of these bases into a 80mm x 60mm, I had similar bases made to hold six infantry on Renedra 20mm rounds and you'll hopefully see some of those over the coming days and weeks.

Here are some close-ups of the individuals:

This chap is in a transitional armour on a light bay horse, blue and white livery with three small crosses.

This chap is in 'white armour' on a chestnut horse. I think I made a bit of a mess of his lance, the spacing on the banding is completely wrong.

The last chap is in the older style of armour on a black horse. The red and green livery has three small white fleu-de-lys on the red.

Here are the six figures completed this week, three of them were base-coated before the 21st, so I can only count these three towards my challenge total.

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Oooh, these are beautiful, Paul. 

It seems throughout history heavy cavalry were very hit and miss, but one can't deny the majesty and level of intimidation they must have commanded on the field of battle (and on our own tabletops for that matter).  With that in mind these certainly certainly fit the bill. I'm very impressed with the hand painted livery and heraldry - impressive brushwork that. I also like the horses, especially that lovely light bay with the dark socks. The basework is excellent as well, with the clever sabot basing to allow them to be used individually. 

A great project, Paul, and one I look forward to seeing develop over the coming months.

As to points, I'm going to add a couple more per model for the hand painted work heraldry and ornamentation. Well done!

From TamsinP: 28mm Fenrisians (145 points)

I've got my eye on you...

For my third entry, I present to you a complete (for now) Dragon Rampant army - The Children of Fenrir:

Whilst others at the Central London club have decided to go with the boring old options of Elves, Dwarves, Goblins, Orcs and Skellies, I inevitably decided to go with an army that is probably quite daft but will be fun to play - wolves. And who better to have as their leader than that famous child of Loki, Fenrisulfr:

He definitely looks grumpy

...probably because he's got a bit of itchy grass on his muzzle

Fenrisulfr will be fielded as a greater warbeast-wizardling (well, as the son of a god he should have some magical powers).

Just in case Fenrisulfr himself is tied up*, I have another leader group "The Skalds of Fenrir":

We wish you a bloody Ragnarok,

We wish you a bloody Ragnarok,

We wish you a bloody Ragnarok,

And an end of days...

These will be fielded as a lesser warbeast unit, which will free up some points to add another unit or add abilities.

And of course, the Children themselves:

The Children will be fielded as lesser warbeasts.

Looking at the Skalds and the Children, I think I will go back and add dark pupils to their eyes, Some of them look as though they will need a slight touch up around the eyes as well.

Of course, most people would have opted for the quick and easy approach to painting wolves - mid-tone grey base coat, add some darker and lighter patches, black wash, light grey dry-brush, paint eyes, noses and mouths. Me? Oh, no, not me - several different base coat colours, several stages of dry-brushing, washing, adding darker/lighter patches, washing, dry-brushing, washing, add details...the end result? Probably not much different to if I'd gone for the quick and easy method! I also went a bit nuts on the basing, although the results do at least show there.

All the figures are 28mm. Fenrisulfr is from Bad Squiddo Games; the rest are from Foundry (2), North Star (10) and Warbases (16). Fenrisulfr and the Skalds are mounted on 50mm bases, the Children on 50x75mm bases.

As for the Dragon Rampant army:

Fenrisulfr - leader/greater warbeast (6 points) plus wizardling (2 points) = 8 points
Skalds of Fenrir - leader/lesser warbeasts (4 points)
Children of Fenrir - 4 units of lesser warbeasts (4 x 4 points) = 16 points

I do feel a bit bad about completing this army so quickly, given that I'm in the side-duel. With my rate of painting, that wasn't really fair, so I'll let whoever completes their army next claim the bragging rights.

I might pick up a pack of Blue Moon's European Timber Wolves at some point - I imagine that they will be bigger than the North star and Warbases ones, so should do nicely for a couple of greater warbeast units.


* Bet you thought I'd forgotten about this bit, didn't you? "...in case Fenrisulfr himself is tied up..." is, of course, a reference to Norse mythology and how Tyr (or Tew, for whom the day preceding that of the big man himself, Odin, is named) became one-handed.


For scoring:

29 x 28mm foot figures @ 5 points = 145 points

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THAT is a very, very cool 'army', Tamsin (though I'm a bit biased as I've always liked wolves).

Fenrisulfr is excellent (great eyes) and suitably ferocious, but I have to say that the Scalds are my favourite of the bunch, with their heads back, howling the praise of their leige lord - awesome stuff. 

I also really like the thought that went into your basework. The base layer, grass and rocks looks very natural and I like the dice slots in the rear corners. A very handy mod to help gameplay I'm sure.

A very tidy 145 points for your efforts, Tamsin. Wonderful work!

From StuartL - WW2 Armour or Resin, How I Loathe Thee (41 Points)

For my second entry for the challenge, I have been working on some late war British armour. These two models are both 1/48 scale resin kits from Blitzkrieg Miniatures. Sadly to say, I am not that happy with either of them as both of these models had some faults, though the Sexton is better than the Churchill. The tracks on the Churchill have large miscasts on the inner sides, there are large blobs of resin between the wheels and other things like that. To top it off, the Churchill is covered in lots of thin parallel lines, which show up fairly clearly when you paint it. I'm guessing that it was 3D printed, because I can't think of any other way the sculptor would have achieved it. I'm not a big fan of resin in general, it's more awkward to work with the plastic or metal in my opinion, and unfortunately these models haven't changed my mind.

Anyway, enough moaning from me, you came here to see models, right?

The above is a Sexton self propelled gun of the 153rd Leicestershire Yeomanry Field Regiment R.A. The 153rd were assigned to the Guards Armoured Division and took part in Operation Market Garden among other actions. The insignia on the vehicle mark it out as the second gun in A troop, call sign 'Accident'. The decals come from a variety of Tamiya kits, though the A2 on the upper left is hand painted as Tamiya don't currently offer any artillery insignia for SPG's.

The mud splatter is from Vallejo, I used Russian Mud Diorama Effect for the first layer. The Vallejo Diorama series is textured, which I find helps to build up a thick layer of churned up dirt. On top of this I put Brown Mud Weathering Effect, which is the richer brown you can see. It's a bit too over the top for display painting, but I find it works well on the tabletop where you are looking at the model from a fair distance away.

The Churchill follows the same weathering pattern as the Sexton. The markings on the hull show (or would if the mud wasn't in the way) that this tank belongs to C Squadron, 9th Battalion Royal Tank Regiment, 31 Tank Brigade. One of the things I enjoy when painting is to try and learn more about the subject under my brush. Regimental histories can make for interesting reading and you can often get a real feel for what you are trying to recreate with paint and brush.

So, if I hate resin, why buy resin vehicles? All of my vehicles for Bolt Action are 1/48 scale. When I began playing, Warlord only offered resin vehicles, whereas my preference was for plastic. At that time Tamiya had a small range of plastic kits, so I went with them to avoid resin. (Plus Tamiya was about half the price of Warlord for me). However, while Warlord's ranges have increased dramatically and now include plastic, Tamiya only release a few kits a year. When Blitzkrieg started to do 1/48 resin kits I bit the bullet and picked up a few to fill in the gaps in my forces. Shortly after my purchase of the Churchill, Tamiya released one in plastic themselves. D'oh! Still, it gives me an excuse to have a squadron of them now. :)

Anyway, those should net me 40 points I believe as well as counting as 1 entry for the Squirrel Challenge and for What a Tanker. 

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While these vehicles may have been a struggle for you they do look terrific. I think you and GregB would have great fun spending hours raging about resin models as he is much of the same opinion as yourself regarding the high level of cleanup required for some of these models. Both of us also really prefer the 1/48 scale as well we find that they look better in relation to today's 28mm figures.

I really enjoyed the short unit histories you provided. As you say, they help place your mind (and brushes) into a frame of reference when working on these models. Great work on the weathering and I like the time and effort you spent with the decals and hand-painting the unit designations. 

Maybe there will be some Challengers who can suggest other manufacturers of 1/48 scale kits to help you fill the gaps in your collection. From my part, you might want to check out Track 48 to see if they have anything that may be of interest to you.

These two tanks will give you a base of 40 points with a bit extra added for the hand painted unit markings. Well done Stuart!

From EvanH: The Jarl of Yule and A Nice Troll (16 points)

Well, better late than never, I suppose...

Yep, Ev finally shifts into high gear and takes his first shambling steps on to the points table with two (count them, Ladies and Gentlemen, TWO!) 28mm figures.

The first, as is my wont, is a seasonal offering, viz; Wargames Foundry's Grunnar the Giant, aka Nordic Santa.

I got this fig ages ago as a freebie with another order from this excellent company, and I'm glad to have finally painted him up. He looks suitably grumpy, as befits a man who has to deliver all the world's presents in one night. He really should look at joining a union, those conditions are diabolical!

The shield slung over his back was originally going to be a simple red-and-white quartered design, but I decided to try something a little more Christmas-y, and added a design in green. I can tell you now, I am rubbish at painting holly leaves on a shield. On the bright side, I'm actually not too bad at rescuing the original crap design and turning it into a pine tree motif.

Next up is a Reaper Bones fig, A Nice Troll an Ice Troll. he stands 54mm tall in his stocking feet, or would if he wore stockings (he's hard on shoes, that one).

I like Reaper's big figs, and the Bones range is an excellent way to get big impressive monsters onto the table for a decent price. The detail can be a little soft at times, but at this price, I'm not complaining.

The horny armour across his back makes drybrushing the textures a breeze. This guy took about three hours, on and off.

The musculature is a bit Liefeld-esque, but on a fantasy monster, that's not such a problem.

And here are the two chaps together for reference purposes. Snow for both figures was the trusty PVA-Bicarb mix I've been using for years now. Still the best home-made snow effect for my money!

"Put it down, or you're getting a lump of coal."

So yes, I'm still here, and I hope to be able to paint a few more figs while taking up the mantle of Wednesday's minion (which is a daunting prospect, given I have trouble walking and chewing gum at the same time...).

Will Ev be able to multitask? Stay tuned...

Ev

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Ta-Da! Ev strides onto the stage.  We can all exhale a collective breath knowing that our  Wednesday's entertainment is in the bag for the next few months. (Miles, if you thought Ray was a hard on your precious spreadsheet, just wait. I think you have a real treat in the making here.)

Brilliant work Ev. The Jarl of Coal looks understandably irascible, somewhat reindeer-lagged, but stolid, having done his duty for another year. I think the shield motif is excellent and very festive (some eggnog rings around it's perimeter would not have gone amiss though). The ice troll is wonderful as well and reminds me of the masterful Snow Lord you did for me last year.

Except for the ridiculous crown it's pretty much a spot-on rendering.

That ice troll looks to be about 54mm so let's go with 16 points which included a pip for the