From AledC: An End and a Beginning (40 points)

"All good things must come to an end"

I have really enjoyed participating in this year's Painting Challenge, for what I hope to be the first of many times. I'll admit to being VERY slack and not finding myself the time to respond to the wonderful comments made by everyone on my posts, as well as not making many comments of my own on all the other posts. Please be aware though that I did at least read them and the words of encouragement were a great help in keeping me motivated.

Prior to signing up at the last moment, after considerable insistence from friends, I would not have dreamed of painting as much as I did which is why my goal was fairly low. What joining this challenge has done is get me painting after a good 5+ year slump wherein I couldn't have painted more than a dozen or two models. For that, I will be forever grateful as it doesn't seem as though I'll be putting down the brush again anytime soon!

Now on to my final submission..... not much.

I wanted to get a bit more done, and seeing everyone's final pushes is really inspiring, but work reared its festering head and bills need a-paying.

However the silver lining is that these are a new beginning, something we can all appreciate when it comes to our model collections, both in that it is a new force for Sharpe Practice, but also a new period for me! I haven't ever done anything for the American Civil war before but the love Phill K has for it gave pause to earlier dismissals. I still don't think I'll do a force for any 'mass battle' stuff in the war but who knows.

These eight guys I actually started back before the 'West' theme round as I thought I would do them for that, but minds change and distraction appear. It feels good to finally get them off the paint table. I painted them super simple without going in for the 'ragged rebel' look as I found enough articles telling me it wasn't entirely true and that was good enough for me to be more uniform.

The models themselves are from the Perry Brothers confederate infantry plastic box set. Whilst the bits are all nicely detailed and you get a large variety to customise with, I found that too often would bits not fit where you want them because of satchels or ammo boxes on the hip that just get in the way. Solid kit apart from that frustration. (maybe it was just me unless others have had this problem)

Marching off and away!

8 x 28mm = 40 points

That'll take me over 750 which will be a good milestone to aim for next time.

So that's that, and this marks the end of my last post for the Challenge.

I hope very much to join you all next time, it's been a blast!

May your brushes never wilt and your paint pots never dry.

And despite that, may your lead piles grow ever larger!

Cheers,

Aled.


Tamsin: We've been very glad to have you with us Aled and if we've got you out of a painting slump then that's even better. You've had some great entries and we certainly hope to see you again for the next one.

These eight Rebs will net you another 40 points.