Hi folks,
Having had a chance to tidy my workspace a little this week, I had space to lay out my completed models from this years challenge efforts.
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.
Hi folks,
Having had a chance to tidy my workspace a little this week, I had space to lay out my completed models from this years challenge efforts.
Hoi,
So there we have it; the end of the Challenge and the final Wrap-up post are here... Both Arthur and myself are honoured to have been allowed to participate in this august undertaking yet again this year.
Arthur has asked me to tell you all he really enjoyed taking part and getting such nice and constructive comments to his posts which are truly inspiring. He also says the Holliwood theme was really nice, even though he didn't actually enter any posts for it. He feels that in painting mainly Star Wars Legion figures he did contribute in a small way to the overall theme. The figure he is most proud of must be General Grievous
Another highlight for him is gaining the set amount of points of 100 this Challenge, he hopes to be allowed to enter again next year.
As for me things are a bit less optimistic. Just like last year my Challenge was cut short due to our home renovation. Where last year I had to stop painting for a week or two due to the placing of new windows, this year the entire groundfloor of our home had to be cleared out and into storage due to massive structural works. This not only led to me missing my fixed target of 1000 points, something that hasn't happened in quite some time. Apart from the passing of my Dad and the renovation, work and life in general just went on and it all really worked on my nerves, I tried to keep up with the Challenge but have to conclude I did fail in that too I would have liked to comment to all your excellent posts a lot more but the energy lacked and I have promised myself I will try to make up for all this next year. Yesterday concrete floors were placed into the house and from now on the building crew can start building up the home again and I will be getting an even better man-cave when all is done.
This is how it looked before the rebuilding:
This was the state of affairs yesterday:
The figures I loved painting the most this Challenge were my Dark Angel Characters (the Lion is comming back!)
and the Masters of the Universe figures.
As a final parting I would like to say that we both have loads of new ideas and projects for next year (yes they will involve the Lion, he's back and I have only waited 27 years for his return!) and if Lady Sarah and our Snowlord will be gracious enough to organise the Challenge again next year, we would love to take part again. Thanks to everybody involved, we loved watching all the excellent posts and ideas everybody posted this year a lot. A special thanks goes to our minions Tamsin and Phil, we are much indebted to you both.
Cheers Sander and Arthur
Well, that's another amazing Challenge done! My third Challenge has been the most satisfying one so far as far as my own participation is concerned, I must say. I had raised my target again compared to last year, but I still quite easily reached it. And what a great theme again this year! I painted quite some useful pieces, and some that only served to enable me to travel around AHPC Studios, GmbH. Those distractions, however, allowed me to reach the final destination on the map, for the first time ever. Although I painted no ships this year, and no 15mm, I am very happy to have painted a lot of 28mm figures, my very first 2mm army, and quite some terrain pieces too. In sum, my personal Challenge XIII was a great success!
Last year, I didn't manage to comment on as many posts as I would have liked, and I promised to do better; well, I have at least tried to comment on each contribution this year. Should I have perchance missed any, please accept my apologies. Looking at your posts and commenting was definitely no punishment his year. Once again I was blown away by the skill, creativity, originality, and variety of the contributions. I have seen amazing figures, mind blowing terrain pieces, fantastic ships, and even some quite fascinating turnips. And also once again it was a pleasure and a privilege to be part of such a friendly, welcoming and generous a group as you Challengers are.
Many and most heartfelt thanks to Curt and Sarah, for organizing and managing the Challenge, to the Minions, in particular to Stuart for streamlining the Saturday Squad, and to Tamsin for generally keeping an eye on pretty much everything. To Millsy for the tracking of the side duels. To Sydney, for producing that great AHPC Studios theme and map. And finally, to all of you who made Challenge XIII such a warm bath again, in particular those of you who commented so nicely on my posts; those comments are very motivating and encouraging, and much, much appreciated. Thank you all for a great experience!
Oh well, at your own risk then, you can have a picture of me with my haul of this year:
I hope to see you all again in December for Challenge XIV!
:meanwhileinfinland:
The feeling when all temperatures around +0 °C feel warm.
Everything is relative. After a long, cold Finnish winter, even a chilly spring day feels warm.
---End of a Finn talking about Finland---
Challenge XIII done and in the books! WooHoo!!
As much as I love the hectic flurry of the Challenge, I have to say one of my favourite aspects of the event is the exhausted aftermath, when we get to see each other's collective work and read opinions of how things unfolded after three months of hobbying like mad.
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Sarah and I, in the hobby studio, presiding over our Challenge largess . (Sarah looks quite smug, doesn't she?) |
From Curt:
Lovely work Lady Sarah! I've always admired your use of vibrant colours.
Now, from the sublime to the ridiculous.
For just getting lots done, this was probably my best Challenge to-date. I managed to keep reasonably on-task with my primary goal of getting two baseline forces done up for Turnip28. Hooray!
I'm just two rooty units shy of my quest, but still, I'm happy with they turned out (and have to smile at the heads that were scratched by this wonderfully odd setting).
I also had good fun working on a few cars for 'Mad Maximillian'.
Again, I came up a little short for a race-ready roster, but hey, I'm definitely closer along than I was in November. Maybe this summer I'll get a few more jalopies finished to allow a proper dust up.
Of course, it wouldn't be a Challenge without a few distractions along the way, right? I enjoyed working on a film crew for 'Top Billing', some fantasy figures for 'Mork Borg', a command stand depicting Jean de Vallette at the Siege of Malta, and a smattering of avant-garde looking Kushites for, um, no reason in particular, just 'cause they looked badass.
I'm glad I managed to get most of my Turnip stuff done early, because the later half of the Challenge saw me down a rabbit hole, working on 10mm fantasy from Warhammer's 'Old World'.
This was brought on by me coming across several old storage boxes of unopened Warmaster figures that, you know, just HAD to get painted. The origins of this veritable Eldorado of lead entailed a friend who was a GW store manager, who did some, um, creative accounting during an inventory purge - yes, the less said the better... Anyway, I have enough 10mm fantasy stuff for another Challenge or two.
All in all it was a very productive winter for me. Nevertheless, the best aspect of the Challenge was the opportunity to get together with old friends, make some new ones, and enjoy this funny little hobby of ours. Thank you all for making it happen.
__________________________________
I'd like all our participants to email me their top three nominations for Challengers' Choice. On April 2nd I'll provide a voting poll listing all the nominations. The announcement of the Challengers' Choice winner, along with the SnowLord's Choice and Sarah's Choice will be on April 9th.
I look forward to catching up with you then!
Warm Regards,
- Curt