Challenge XII Round up MattW

 Round Up Matt W

Another end of a challenge, thank you again to Curt and the minions for conducting a fabulous event once again.

 I set a big lofty goal this year of 1200 points and come running out of the gate opening with Napoleonics as my main focus, followed by some medieval, ancients. and entered the blog challenge quadrant for the first time.

I then ended up with a little hiccup part way through.............. In early January we travelled back to Australia to settle my Father in Laws estate, this become a but of a saga that I will not go into, but I am still in Australia as I type this. So no more progress was made except for my first 218 points.

I am returning to France in mid April to l'hotel de Hercé, getting prepared for a successful year at French Wargame Holidays after two years of Covid (with bookings now full for late April and June, for the first time since 2018). I hope to get some of my projects done during the year and you will find my updates on my projects on my blog at Storm and Conquest. 

I enjoyed the chats with everyone online, facebook and video link up chats. I am looking forward to the next challenge and hopefully Curtis will be insane enough to keep this up!

My 28mm Napoleonic Mamelukes from Foundry, really loved doing these

12 Mamelukes of the Imperial Guard

 28mm Front Rank Austrian Command, both these are divisional commanders, one Infantry division commander and one Hussar Cavalry division general stand.  

Austrian Hussar General

 Gaulois Chieftain Virdovix, chief of the Uenelli tribe

The plastic kit is Revell 1/285th scale Sith Infiltrator

 

cheers

Matt

From ForestP: Thanks for allowing me to participate in a wonderful Challenge

So with this last post I want to say how thankful I have been to be able to participate in the Challenge this year. Given the stressors of my work I really needed the accountability that this Challenge provided to ensure that I could actually do some self-care. In fact things have been so busy (I have been traveling the past few weeks for both vacation and then work), I haven't even gotten around to this end-of-challenge post until now.

I set myself a modest goal of 500 points, and somehow more than doubled that, ending up with 1177 points, and was even in the top 25! I think next year I will have to up my game. 

Without further ado, there's "The Whole Shebang." Sorry for how small everything looks, but when the Alamo covers nearly my entire game table you can kind of get the full scale of it.

Lastly, here's me, saying "hello" and "thanks." Until next year my friends. Also, I intend to occasionally host Zoom meetings so people can collegially say hello and paint together throughout the year. I will post up notifications on the Challenge facebook group.

Happy painting!

Forest

From GaryA: the final muster - not much to show, but at least I remembered this year.

 

So that's it for another year. Well, it's only my second, but you know what I mean. Despite a few real world trials and tribulations, everyone seems to have done splendidly although there were times when I'd bet my grannie's false teeth I would drop short.

Blogger has been a pain. Occasionally it'd let me comment, but, more often than not, it kept throwing me out. I'll have to look into that.

I really enjoyed reading the posts on the blog and the figures which were submitted and there was such a lot to admire – and not just from the master painters. I've rediscovered the satisfaction of painting figures and for that I thank you. I'd also like to thank the people who set up and managed the  Challenge. How you coped with all that and still managed to make your own submissions is a credit to you (or maybe you just haven't got enough to do . . .  .).

I've uploaded my challenge stuff (which I forgot to do last year), but only a recent photograph of my alter ego. Tested positive for Covid yesterday and I've got eyes like Dracula, the Inca Quickstep and I'm even less of a pretty sight than usual. 

Anyway, on with the (fashionably out of focus) piccies:

 

 

 

From BenitoM: Challenge Wrap Up - Not "adios" but "hasta luego"

Another Challenge gone! I don't know you, but every year passed I feel time accelerates.  

My performace in the XII Challenge has been subpar to say the least and probably recording the lowest points scoring of all my past editions. I haven't  been able to achieve even a 50% of my 700 points target. 

The reason for this has been an unexpected peak of work through December (including Christmas) and well into Februray: I'm a partner in a startup and we had the opportunity to close a relevant and advantageous financial deal; unfortunately it demanded a lot of my attention and time, overlapping with the Challenge timeframe. Good for the business, bad for my hobby time.

In any case, I'm relatively satisfied with the final turnout of this year's Challenge. As some of you know, every year I like to focus on a core project and have some complementary mini projects on the side. The project this year was a WW2 Canadian platoon for Chain of Command.  I managed to conclude all the paltoon squads and leaders, and even some support units in the period. 

Left on the shelf are some previous years projects remnants that I hope to leisurely go through during the rest of 2022. Here a photo of my dual work/hobby table, where I spent a lot of hours daily.

To conclude, the usual round of "thank-yous": to Curt and Sarah for bothering to organize another spectacular Challenge; to the minons (and particularly to Dave); to Tamsin for her very funny weekly postings; and to the rest of participants for stopping by and taking the time to leave your comments. Apologies too to the other participants for not levaing enough comments in so many superb contributions this year.

So amigos, and as we say in Spain, not adios (goodbye) but hasta luego (see you later). In less than nine months now we'll hopefully be gathering together again.
 

   

 

   

From BruceR, All Good Things Come to an End, AHPC XII in the Books

In my second year of the Challenge I had another superb time.  I thoroughly enjoy paging through the numerous posts and "attempting" to comment on as many as I can.   I want to thank everybody for comments on my posts and to apologize to those I did not get to in commenting.  The feedback is a boost when read and keeps the juices flowing.  

Spring is here and time to move outside.  Though, right now it is snowing here in ND once again.  So I can write this.    

I've done it already, yet I want to thank Curt and Sarah once again for the opportunity to engage with so many like-minded hobbyists.  A big salute to the minions for their hard work and contribution to the hobby.  

I'm shrugging off  my trip to Adepticon, where I played games with multiple great folk and had a marvelous time.  I reloaded the paint pile.  

Proof of Adepticon.  Here is me............ with some bloke I met in Chicago.

Here is the fruits of my AHPC XII labor.

Some action shots from a themed Sharp Practice event at ACon with 4 of us bringing our forces and playing away all day Saturday.  A blast.  The new wee men did as usual and won some, lost some.  Fabulous time.

Rocking some SAGA.

A rear shot of my AHPC Warlord moving up on a band of Irish, who needs bodyguards....

Again, be well, be safe, and be happy.  

Cheers all.

Bruce

From DaveD - the wrap up - or want wrong post!

 Well that’s another challenge completed - that’s my 11th altogether. It really did feel hard work this year as I was hit with a few health issues in January and March that really took the wind out of my sails . In terms of painting I physically could not do any for  at least half the challenge so I guess getting to 650 points is not too bad . At least it gives me some “stash” for next year - when hopefully the injury I am carrying has improved enough for more sustained painting .

I enjoyed my minion time as ever - always happy to help out . We also had some great Paint and Chat sessions with a number of the new joiners this year participating . We still be doing these through the year.

Unfortunately I have had to pack the painted stash away as we are embarking on some home improvements and my den is being used for storage at the moment. 

My favourite entry was the mahoosive 1/48th Chinhook - I really enjoy doing that one . I was pleased to get the VC forces and Anzacs completed too .

Then a revisit to Normandy as well with terrain and soft skins .

Both of these projects still have legs .there is also a new one in the wings too with JamesM .

Anyway that’s it for this year .

from RayR - Challenge Wrap up

First of all, I do apologise for the dodgy picture, this was the best of a very bad bunch! I think my wife was waiting for me to blink or pull an even more stoopid face than this one, and that's me being normal too!!!

Anyway enough with me, this post is about what I managed to get painted after all.

When I put all the figures out on the table they looked a lot, but not so in the photo?

Challenge XII was a first for me, it was the first challenge were I painted exclusively 25-28mm figures. Not s 15mm figure in sight this year?

I did participate in the bonus rounds in the Challenge Quadrant and even finished at the centre. It always helps knock your points total up. Luckily most of the bonus round figures can fit into my onging projects. There were only 9 figures that don't, they will live in the box of doom, never to be seen again, or maybe I'll give them away??

I concentrated on 2 projects this year, the Haitian Revolution above, were I painted up a Spanish unit, a Spanish Militia unit and some more dastardly rebels, as well as some Spanish commanders and Haitian Voodoo priests.

Last year it was the Ottomans, this year it was some of their foe for my Vienna 1683 project.

I painted up some Polish Winged Hussars, Pancerni, Polish Cossacks, three Haiduk regts and some commanders. Also for the Imperialists I painted up a unit of Militia, Cuirassiers and artillery.

The Ottomans did get in on the act receiving some extra commanders and their long awaited artillery.

My main aim like most challengers is to get as much painted as humanly possible, I set myself a goal of 1200 points and hoped for a top 20 finish. The 1200 mark was soon passed and changed up to 2000 points, thinking I might be able to get a top 10 finish this year round? 

I did manage to pass the 2k mark late on, but ran out of time and steam and reached a total of 2168, I did late on try to beat my total last year of 2260, but it wasn't to be. But I did get my highest placing of 7th, since Challenge III in 2012/13 where I finished 4th. So I was well chuffed with that.

So all in all I painted up

227 x 25mm foot figures

57 x 25mm Cavalry figures

Total of 344 figures last year it was (231)

Various terrain pieces and buildings

5 Boxes

Torture Cage

5 Artillery pieces

a BBQ!

a Forge

a Table

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

Challenge XI       2260 points 8th

Challenge XII      2168 points 7th

I've said it before and everyone's already said it, a massive thanks to Curt, Sarah, all the Minions and all the rest of you Challengers, for all their hard work it running the challenge,  putting it all together and for pulling me along in 3 months of madness! Its been a blast and I'm already looking forward to it all starting again in 9 months!

Cheers

Ray

From StuartL - Ready For Challenge XIII - Challenge XII Wrap Up

Hello all,

So that's the challenge all over and done with then? Right, best get started prepping for the next one. Three months sounds like a long time, but I am always surprised at how quickly the challenge is finished. Similarly, I never think that I have painted as much as I have, but when I put everything onto my table, I am shocked by the sheer number of minis. 

So, how was this year's challenge for me? Well, my initial target was 1500 points, but after milking every point I could from the Challenge Quadrant and then some, (I think I scored about 600+ points from the map) I was able to adjust my target up to 2000 points, which I bypassed by a margin of 10%. When the challenge began, my wife asked me how many models I was going to paint. With my 1500 point target, I guesstimated 300 minis, assuming a 28mm scale infantry figure on average. Since I don't really paint smaller scales very much, this turned out to be quite accurate with my final figure total coming to 298 minis. This wasn't my most productive year, but as my non-challenge painting speed is about 30 figures a month, it was still a phenomenal output. I finished in 5th place overall, but still over 1000 points behind FrederickC in 4th place. I don't know how others break the 3000 point barrier. Even if I had more time available, I don't think I could spend it painting. This year I also served as the Squirrelfinder General, adjudicating the Squirrel side duel after withdrawing my entry to that contest. It was actually a fair amount of work as the variety of posts, schedules and challengers meant that tracking down who had painted what was way more complicated than it at first appeared. In a couple of cases entries had been posted in the wrong order, so people's Squirrel counts appeared to be going down, not up! Even though I didn't enter myself, I did a quick count as I was taking the photos below. I think I managed 15 Squirrels for myself. 

Thank you to everybody who commented on my posts and a huge thank you to all of the challengers for making the challenge what it is. A glorious celebration of our hobby covering everything from the dawn of man to the far future and the most impossibly tiny miniatures to massive mountain fortresses. There is such a huge diversity here that I am always inspired and awed by the output of all the challengers. Special thanks go to our supreme Snowlord, Curt and the Lady Sarah for running this challenge, the Minions for all of their hard work, and PeterD in particular for managing my posts.

So, on to the pictures.

Despite not playing any GW systems, I have a lot of Warhammer 40,000 and Warhammer 30,000 armies on the go. I actually expected to paint more figures for them than I did, but my attention seemed to have wandered a bit. There are also two Battletech minis included in this shot.

I painted up a large number of dwarves from North Star/Oathmark for this challenge. At the time I said that I had finished all of the models I had, but it turns out that I had missed a few. At some point prior to the challenge I had set 5 minis aside as a potential Squirrel and then forgot to put them back in with the rest of the figures. Also included are a few Malifaux and Post Apocalyptic minis.

Locally there aren't many historical players, but that doesn't stop me from trying. I really enjoy Saga and Bolt Action, so naturally have multiple armies for each system. I also have a large and steadily growing collection of minis for the Anglo-Zulu war. All of these got some reinforcements during this challenge.

If you kept up with my posts, you will probably have seen that I really like the models from the Reaper Bones kickstarters (having backed all 5 so far). I still have 1000s of these to do, but I made a dent in my pile this year, painting some of the larger models in my collection. There is another kickstarter beginning very soon, so no doubt the pile will be increasing again.

Finally we have some Warhammer Fantasy minis. Again, I don't play any GW games, but own far too many figures for them. Say what you will about GW's prices (ludicrous) and rules writing (average at best), but they do make some wonderful figures.

And (nearly) finally, the obligatory picture of everything I accomplished, complete with a mug shot. 

And before I forget. I entered into the Skullz side duel again this year, though I didn't really focus on it all that much. As the winner of the duel, Curt is entitled to use the skull of the previous year's winner as a drinking vessel of some kind. To help give Curt some idea of the volume of my noggin, I have provided measurements below.

See you all in the next challenge!