Welcome to the Painting Challenge. Here you will find the fabulous, fevered work of miniature painters from around the world. While participants come from every ethnicity, gender, age and nationality, they have three things in common: they love miniatures, they enjoy a supportive community, and they want to set themselves against the Challenge.
This site features the current year's event along with the archives of past Painting Challenges.
Enjoy your visit and remember to come back soon.
Another year, another Challenge ends. This is my ninth time in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge and it has become not only an annual event but a great source of inspiration and motivator for myself and many others. Hats off to Curt, Sarah and all minions and participants for making this such a great experience. This year saw my points total exceeded for my highest score in all the Challenges I have participated in. Whilst this isn't a target that many would struggle to achieve, I have always been a slow but steady painter. So here are the painted offerings from this year's Challenge all together.
The 28mm submission
The 20mm submissions
The 15mm submissions
Selfie
One of the strange parts of our hobby is that we invest considerable amounts of money and time in collecting, assembling and painting our chosen miniatures. Some, my wife for one, would say too much of all. Then we put them all in boxes only to be seen every once in a while.
The entire submission for AHPC X 2019-20
Thanks again to eveyone involved in this hobby extravaganza and see you all in the QC2020.
Well, the brushes have been cleaned and the painting desk reorganized, temporarily of course, the Quarantine Challenge has thrown my post challenge plans into a bit of a spin.
So, time to recap what went on during Challenge X eh? Well, my own feeling at the end of the whole thing was one of mild disappointment. Not with the challenge itself, the Snow Lord set things up and ran the whole show magnificently. No, this was one of disappointment in myself. Last year I managed a finish in the Top 10, painted nearly 270 minis and was thoroughly exhausted by the end of it. This year, I placed 25th, painted just over 100 minis and felt as fresh as a daisy. While I didn't want to burn myself out like I did last time, I know I could have done much better if I had put the effort in. In unrelated news, I did finish two PC games off over the course of the challenge. Could that be connected to my painting output somehow? Hmm.
On the other hand, I painted up a force for Rebels and Patriots in time to play a game with my friend before he left the area. I also got around to painting a vignette I had had in mind for a long time. So that's good. I'm happy with all of the minis I did, but the table below looks a little sparse compared to last year.
During the challenge I visited 14 of the 19 locations on my little tour and had a lot of fun trying to figure out how to tie them all together. Thank you to everyone who took the time to read my entries and comment on them.
And that leads me to my second reason why I am disappointed in myself. As with last year, I intended to comment on every entry that I read, but I quickly reached a point where I was missing entries and then entire days. Sadly real life gets in the way from time to time, but I also found that my phone (my principle method for viewing the challenge) was really struggling with the challenge website. I guess it is the format for the site where several entries and the background are loaded up at once. The Quarantine Challenge page seems to have a different layout for mobile and for desktop which makes it much easier to view. I can't promise I will comment on everything, but the intention is there.
As with last year, I have painted a fairly broad mix of stuff. The island tasks were certainly an interesting take on things, though at times I had a hard time finding stuff for them. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. My hat is off to Noel for going across the island not once, but twice. A truly stunning feat of painting and effort.
So that's about it from me for this challenge. I'd like to thank Curt, Lady Sarah and all of the Minions for their hard work and diligence throughout the challenge. I'd also like to say thank you to all of the other entrants for their inspiring posts, fabulous minis and supportive comments. The sense of community here is astounding and I hope that it continues for many, many years to come.
Thanks for a great Challenge all. Fourth year running for me and as enjoyable as ever and exceeded my points target with a final 591. Also glad that I entered the Challenge Island and although did not make it to the Peak really enjoyed being part of this. My only regret is that I could not get a couple of foot figures done in the last week to break 600 points ......
An overview of my finished figures are:
Mostly I play Basic Impetus and pleased I got an extra couple of Persian light infantry bases done. Already played a game pre virus so a win for them! Also for Basic Impetus did some cavalry so I can field a new army Justinian Byzantine with the required Roman cavalry armed with lance and bow. Again this army was straight into action and another win under its belt. Also finished some more figures for AVBCW with the extra vehicles, machine gun support, plus the armed schoolboys. Should be a mad Geisha tucked in there as well.
Final thumbs up to everyone ..........see you in the Quarantine Challenge! Cheers Jez
I feel like I reached my emotional denouement in the final paragraphs of my last post. I was probably surfing a wave of post challenge exhaustion as I squeezed more yellow onto a Banana Knight (do doo do do do) that refused to stop showing the undercoat.
Without further ado:
The two versions of Atticus (the 3D printed techslinger) isn't in the above picture as he's currently in lockdown at my GMs house.
Once again, the high bonus points strategy pays off for the canny lazy hobbyist! My contribution may be modest, but I've come to see the challenge as a valuable tool for putting pressure on myself to power through one of the aspects of wargaming I find most painful.
I'm really looking forwards to whatever lockdown challenge pops up here, as every part of my social life that cant be digitised has been cancelled, I can see my painting output ramping up significantly.
To everyones health, and to the next challenge! Cheers!
Welcome to the final output shot for Challenge X and as promised it's a bit of a tank fest, not as big a tank fest as I had planned but a tank fest all the same.
There are some 28mm German Tanks for 1941 desert action and a big load of 15mm Kursk Russians and Germans which didn't get touched due to the production delay of flakegate, but now I can bore you all to death with them in the Quarantine Challenge 😂
I only managed one non-tank unit and the Challenge entry fee figure (off in the post to it's new owner soon).
The Italian Job
The Caunter odds and sods
The clean cut Crusaders
A Regiment of Stuart's. Thanks again to Curt for another wonderful challenge, thanks to everyone who took time to leave kind comments and encouragement during the last three months. As for Blitzkrieg Miniatures well hmmm....... nuff said.
Greetings Challengers and Challenge Fans! Well, one Challenge is over, and another one looks like it might be just around the corner... Lurking well below all the Stakhanovites topping the table, I played things a little more sedately. Pity I didn't manage to meet my 400 points, but what the hey, if I was doing it like it was a job, it wouldn't be fun anymore! I can only stand amazed at the quality and quantity of work produced by my fellow Challengers; all of you have shown superb dedication under what can only be described as highly unusual and stressful circumstances. So here is my output for Challenge X; as usual, it's small enough to fit on a tea tray.
That's most of it anyway - there was one more figure who missed out on the group shot because he's now at his new home; it's Millsy's Birthday Giant!
This was one of the three giants I painted for this year's Challenge, and while it doesn't qualify me as a member of the League of Painting Giants, it should at least qualify me as a member of the League of... Giant Painters? Is there such a thing? Maybe there is now...! On a side note, it was a huge thrill to see my Frost Giant mini from two years ago getting another outing as the personification of the Snowlord; the big blue guy is still one of my faves! My own high points for this Challenge? The Fertility Goddess and her worshippers were definitely up there;
And the Orc Boss for Sander's Sand Dunes; he was a lot of fun!
The vignette for Awdry's Atoll, The Riddle of the Sphinx, was another one I'm especially happy with.
A bit of conversion, some serious thought given to composition, and it all paid off quite nicely. Things I would have liked to have completed include a bunch of Thracian peltasts, more of the Foundry Bronze Age figures, and another detachment of Sun Dome pikemen for Gloranthan gaming. These were all completed to undercoat stage, but missed the final bell. So we'll leave it there, for now at least. It's been a great few months, and a real antidote to the twists and turns of the wider world. The Quarantine Challenge promises to help us through what is frankly shaping up to be a pretty awful few months. Thanks to Curt for organising this wonderful opportunity for us to support one another and stay sane! So everyone, be safe, and I'll see you all again in the not-too-distant future. Stay tuned...! Ev _____________________________________________________________
Sadly the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge has come to an end for another year. But what a great few months its been, I find it such a motivational experience, I'm sure we all do really? Usually it wipes out my painting for the rest of the year, but with this horrid Corona Virus keeping nearly everyone in lockdown, what else is there to do but paint more. In Challenge X I planned on painting up 1600 worth of figures, which I just managed to pass in the last week.
I painted up
162 x 25mm figures
10 x various terrain/vehicle pieces
90 x 15mm figures
96 x 10mm figures
I always plan (ok hope?) for a top 20 finish, if I make the top 10 its a great bonus, this year I finished 11th, which I'm extremely pleased with. Somehow I forget to post 3 25mm figures I painted up, I bought 9 painted figures at a show and needed another 3 to make up the unit to 12. They'll now appear later on my blog, Anyhow........
Here's my performance so far in all the Challenges
Challenge II 4940 points 1st
Challenge III 2586 points 4th
Challenge IV 1227 points 17th
Challenge V 691 points 37th
Challenge VI 681 points 36th
Challenge VII 1093 points 24th
Challenge VIII 662 points 40th
Challenge IX 2274 points 8th
Challenge X 1687 points 11th
So finally a massive thank you has to go to Curt, Sarah and all the Minions for all their hard work and thanks to all the other Challengers who pushed me forward with their competition and all the great comments!
Last year I started this post with Big Chris saying: "It has been emotional!" Well this year kinda felt more relaxed. At the start I had all these plans and goals set for myself:
- visit all Island locations.
- finish my Indian Mutiny forces
- Paint some Napoleonics in 1:72 as a tribute to Curt
- Paint most of my prepared Dark Angel forces
And so on, and so ad nauseam...
None of this all actually worked out as it never does, but I wasn't bothered by that... so what happened?! I honestly do not know but I do realise that our beloved Challenge isn't about getting the most points cost what it may cost (No Noel it isn't!) it's about the comradeship that Curt so eloquently described in his Red Lancers post.
I think it was Miles who pointed out that we have been missing Millsy this Challenge and that his absence is sorely felt. He is of course entirely correct in this but personally I have really missed my usual partner in crime: Lord Awdry, Michael I do hope to see you during the next Challenge!
Before taking a look at all the painted stuff, I would like to take the chance of thanking everyone involved in this Challenge for making it the paint-fest it always is: you my fello Challengers for all your brilliant work, inspiration and encouragement, the Minions for their sterling efforts in keeping the train on it's track (even Peter and Badger-boy!) although I do think Tamsin deserves a special mention because she kept track of everything pointswise behind the scenes and I think she has managed yet again to reply to ALL entries posted, the Lady Sarah for putting up with us and letting us use her balloon and of course the Great Blue One, The Lord of Snowdrifts and Avalanches of White Metal, Curt!
So what did I paint? well this:
Of course some stuff is missing: the Gloomhaven figures are with Mark by now and I forgot to add the Awdry's Atol contribution...
Arthur's stuff is mostly to the right of the pile:
Now what are my conclusions regarding this Challenge? Okay so I have painted quite a few things that have been clogging the painting desk for a long time. The GI Joe helicopter, the Death Watch Marines and the Viking Characters foremost amongst them.
Another conclusion is that Challenge Island is really cool and perhaps even better than the previous theme-rounds, but I feel a bit of a fraud getting 30 points when entering just 1 figure. So in future I will try to prevent this.
I have learned a lot of new skills during this Challenge mainly putting together my Ender 3 pro (my newest bestest friend) and painting all those Star Wars Legion figures really gave me an opportunity to get to grips with all kinds of different sandy colours and weathering.
As is tradition I forgot to take a picture that includes both me and Arthur with the painted pile but I'll rectify that like this:
Me preparing to start the Challenge Island Tour.
The lad and myself at Hamley's in London with Optimus Prime and look I am wearing the same shirt as in the other picture!
So what now? Well I foolishly submitted to be allowed to join the Quarantine Challenge and that will be fun! I fully intend to use it to continue my travels on Challenge Island because I do believe all the people who have submitted ideas for the locations deserve me visiting, or is that cruel and unusual punishment?
Anyway lot's of stuff is going on over here at the paint desk so I will keep going for sure. That said the lock-down/ quarantine is really upsetting my schedule since as a teacher I am supposed to teach via Google Meets and am now giving video-lessons quite a lot: I hate that! But oh well let's just wait and see.
See you guys at the other Challenge or else next year, keep safe, healthy and painting!
My aim going into this year's challenge was to paint a number of forces for Dux Bellorum, I've painted 160 x 28mm figures for Dux so that's a success in my book!
I also got past my (admittedly relatively low!) total which is also good, started a new army which is always a good thing (Early Imperial Roman), isn't it? Started a planned new army, Irish/ Flodden Highlanders
Painted some GW figures for the first time in decades ( and actually really enjoyed doing it!)
Challenge island didn't figure prominently in my planning so I came to it late but it got me working on figures I probably wouldn't have got to otherwise and seemed to work better than the weekend bonus rounds ( I've still got figures prepped for lost bonus rounds of the past!)
Please excuse painting hoodie (outside decorating now the good weather is here ). Toby is back, we're both a bit greyer around the muzzle!
So I've had a really good challenge and enjoyed commenting on all the posts, there has been a super range of posts, scales, periods and interesting stories! Thanks to Curt, Sarah and all the minions it's been great!
Well
it was another Highly successful challenge. I mentioned going in that I hadn’t
felt motivation to paint well the Challenge took care of that as I racked up
1,107 points 147% of my target goal of 750. I decided to group my shots
rather than do one single shot of everything.
First
up some terrain desert two buttes, a tell/berried ruin and a ruined house all should
be most useful pieces.
My
for Joshua contribution which was not available for the final group shot as its
already in the UK.
Here
we gave the rest of the figures I painted. Twenty-Five 25mm figures and
thirty-two 15mm figures. I've got a lot of Jacobites to paint up as well
as some ACW figures but those will be for isolation painting I guess.
This
was the year of Black Seas for me. This project was the one I was most
passionate about and the one that people seemed most engaged in. I have quite
the little fleet now. Five Frigates, 8 Brigs, a Corvette, a Sloop of war,
a Schooner, a Cutter, a costal ship, 3-gun boats, and two scratch builds the
Turtle and a Brigantine. I also build two forts and decided my five victory
ships belonged in this ship.
I
forgot to photo graph the camels but they should really go here too.
Obligatory
Selfie with the fleet to bad there was no Navy duel this year I would have done
well. This was great fun please take care of yourselves I hope to see
you all again in December of 2020.
So the Challenge X has ended. From the beginning I knew, that my time would be limited, since the Challenge overlapped our home improvement project. I set a modest target of 500 points and hoped to paint something here and there. I managed to get over the target, and quite much actually. I was only 30 points away from being the best Finnish participant and the same amount of points kept me on the lower half on the scoreboard. When I was collecting all the miniatures for the group shot, I realized I had painted quite a lot. I thought I hadn't, but that was mainly because I wasn't painting what I had planned to paint (anyone else had the same?). I was supposed to grind through lots of LotR minis (4 in total) and Age of Sigmar as well (26 in total, though only 1 is actually AoS, other are WHFB on round bases). But yeah, I have my Chaos Space Marine Kill Team now, for example, so something went according to the plan.
Challenge Island was a nice idea and I thought I would be traveling here and there without much problems. Unfortunately I didn't plan it very well and chose Awdry's Atoll as my first site, which was very difficult to get away from. In the end it was just a balloon ride, but at that time I was busy painting models I "needed". I made it slowly to the Peak and after that run quickly through couple of locations hoping for to get 750 points, but I fell a bit short. Even if we would calculate my Prussian cavalry according to their correct scale instead of 15mm.
I was also hoping to create a piece of scenery for all the locations, that I visited, but time run out and only Awdry's Atoll, Mudry's Mesa and Sarah's Balloon got something (Sander's Sand Dunes as well, if we are thinking outside the box). The Mighty Empires map tiles might be used to represent the whole map, if needed, or only some locations.
Here's me on my painting desk. I have had a haircut, but I still seem to wear the same t-shirt as in previous Challenges...
I'm looking forward the Challenge XI (it surely must mean something football related (or soccer) or may be some amplifier technology). I'm also interested in the Pandemic Challenge, waiting to hear more from that.
I made most of my reading through phone this time and I was not able to make any comments with that (I was able to write new posts, though), so I made my rare comment when working on my laptop. I was hoping to make more comments, especially on the comments on my posts. Sorry for that.
Thank you Curt, minions, other participants and Lady Sarah! It was a nice Challenge during the dark winter (we had very little snow here in Finland).
Challenge X was super fun – a Big Thank You is due to Curt and his multiple
minions.You are all wonderful people
and running this thing contributes a lot to at least one mini painter’s wellbeing,
especially in what have become more, er, interesting times. I suspect I am not
alone.
Aerial View of 3 months' of joy
Thanks to having a
bit of extra time on my hands I was able to visit every Challenge Island
location and paint more minis than ever this winter. I worked on several projects:
Finished the Blitzkreig Germans for Bolt
Action/Chain of Command, including the first vehicles painted since my teens.
Kings of War – finished a Forces of Nature Army,
painted most of a Nightstalkers horror movie themed army and a snow troll
SAGA – added to Viking shieldmaidens, painted
some dark age cavalry and started the Mutatawia faction for SAGA Age of
Crusades
Nearly finished a Ghar army for Beyond The Gates
of Antares
Finished 28mm Napoleonic Russians – at least for
now
A couple of stands of Pictish javelinmen for a
wargaming friend
Progressed the Napoleonic 25mm Minifigs Hundred
Days campaign armies – so I’m ¾ of the way to Quatres Bras
25mm: One scale to rule them all
Included LEDs in a couple of things
These shelves were packed with things to paint back in December - mostly empty now
The great thing
about Challenge Island was that it encouraged me to try some new things, making
me a better painter and hobbyist in the process – although I’ve obviously got a
long way to go. I wish I could say
that I made a significant dent in the Shelf of Shame. Suffice it to say, I
would have done so had it not been for EBay, Facebook marketplace and a lack of
self discipline. I was doing very well until a local ad popped into my Facebook
feed for about 200 late war WW2 Brits, Americans and Germans. Plus vehicles and
paints. Then a giant box of fun showed up on EBay -Sixty bucks including
shipping got me 400 little soldiers (all 28mm)– ACW, Napoleonic, AWI and
Romans. Enough two or three Painting Challenges!
One regret: Didn't get around to painting the giant for Challenge X
It’s nice to see
everything arrayed on the dining room table – now, sadly, it’s time to put it
all away. Hope to see you all here next year.
