From Curt: Spanish Civil War Falangist Infantry (52 Points)

As a nod to the upcoming inauguration of the new POTUS, here are ten fascists, er Falangists from the Spanish Civil War, wearing their distinctive blue shirts, tasseled gorrillo side caps and khaki jodhpurs all fighting hard to 'Make Spain Great Again'. 

The Falange was a Spanish right-wing political movement that rose to prominence during the Spanish Civil War. They were fervent supporters of General Francisco Franco in his bid to wrest control of Spain from it's Republican government.

The Falange was an organization built around strict authoritarian ideals, believing the nation state should have close control over all aspects of Spanish society. They were patriarchal monarchists who were anti-communist, anti-liberal, anti-intellectual and ant-capitalist (though they smartened up with this last one, quickly seeing the reality of competing in a world market). Yeah, these guys were real forward thinkers, but hey, they had sharp uniforms and won the war, so they couldn't have been all that bad, right? Riiight.

After the Civil War the Falange became a significant political force during the 1940s, extending later into the postwar period. Nonetheless, they  began to steadily loose influence as Spain had to adapt in order to relate to a increasingly secular, technological world. Upon Franco's death in 1975, the Falange broke up into a number of splinter groups, politically negligible, each bickering with the others to (get this) claim the name of 'Falange'.  The descendants of these d-bags can sometimes be seen giving Nazi salutes at their pathetic rallies and generally being useless wastes of skin. But I digress.

These 28mm figures are from the comprehensive Empress Miniatures range. Wonderful sculpts from the very talented Paul Hicks. The flag is (I think) from Flags of War.

These 10 figures should give me 50 points to add to both my general tally and to my Spanish Civil War side duel with Christopher, Nick and Phil. 

Alright boys, back to you!

MilesR: Just when I thought my Monday labors were over, Curt saunters in like he owns the place and drops this steaming pile of painting goodness on my virtual desk.  Sure the figures are wonderfully painted and based - really more like works of art than gaming pieces, but it is kind of last minute.  What to do, what to do?  The Angel on my right shoulders whispers that I should take the high road and forgive Curt his punctuality transgression and base upon the standard of 5 per fig plus an extra 2 for the superb flag, netting him a well deserved 52 points?  However the Devil on my left shoulder is bellowing that Mr C must be punished and pay some arbitrary points fine just like when I was in the Credit Card business.  Oh the pressure we minions undergo....

Wait a minute, I've got an clever, almost Canadian clever whimpyness- I can raise the points allowance for the flag to 5 but then viscously charge Curt 3 points for being late (as I define it).  Yes that will work and nobody will be the wiser - wait is this thing on?.....

Mr Campbell - a superb entry again that will net you a well deserved 52 points, let forget about the whole Angel/Devil thing shall we....

:)

From DaveD - Time for camels..Screw Gun Camel Caravan - 45 points

Well Miles tells us we are two weeks into this years challenge- however the stats do not show that there has been a distinct lack of camels. Of course being a veteran challenger I know the importance of camels to our audience. So here we have the first camels this year - and by no means the last.

These fine ones were gifted to me by my Secret Santa , kindly organised by the good lady Cath from IanW's Blog with No Name. It was a fine choice! I have one set already and was looking for some more of these. They are good quality castings and really simple to clean and paint.

 

 These are 28mm figures by Redoubt Enterprises 

 

They represent a train of camels carrying a screw gun.  

 

They will do just nicely to add to the ever expanding baggage train. - its up to 40 camels now with the additon of these 4.

MilesR: Great job Dave - one can never have enough Camels in a miniature painting competition!  These fine beasts will net you a cool 45 points (10 for each Camel) and one for the walking figure.

From MilesR: Week 2 Stats Round Up

Back by popular demand is the single most exciting thing EVER about the Painting Challenge* - Yes your dreams have come true - it's the bi-weekly AHPC Statistical Update - version VII -Style.

* According to Actuarial Today Magazine.

Buckle up your seat belts friends as we are about to embark on a magical mathematical thrill ride of of exponential vectors and irrational numbers.  Prepare to have your minds Blown to 5 decimal places.

But first we need to have a musical interlude to properly set the stage.  I can think of no better band to do so than the soothing sounds of Mettalica - perhaps their heartwarming rendition of "Enter the Sandman" performed with the Roots:

Well now, wasn't that nice?
"enter night, exit light..."

So onto the stats - some of you might remember this format from last year.  I'm re-using it not just because it got rave reviews from you crazy stats obsessed kids ** but more so from the fact I'm really lazy...

** perhaps the term "rave reviews" is a bit of an overstatement..

Below is a comparison of the first two weeks of AHPC VII vs VI.  There are some very interesting aspects to examine:

Compared to Last Year
KPI's:	VII	VI
Weeks Completed	2	2
Weeks Remaining	11	11
Participants w/ a Submission	47	41
Total Submissions	89	98
Total Points	7,711	6,392
Participation Rate	47%	47%
Average per Submitter	164	156
Avg per Submission	87	65
Submitter % of Target Completed	16%	16%
Projected Points
Submitters	50,122	38,352
Remaining Bouns Rounds	9,261	12,300
Non Submitters @ 50%	13,358	10,075
Projected Total Points	72,741	60,727
Figures Painted
28MM
Inf	1,100	927
Cav / Art	69	34
Vehicles	20	19
15MM
Inf	179	14
Cav / Art	28	3
Vehicles	16	20
6MM
Inf	479	208
Cav / Art	11	106
Vehicles	35	97
		97
Score Distribution
28MM	84%	82%
15MM	7%	3%
6MM	4%	6%
Bonus Round "Bonus Points"	0%	0%
Other Scales	4%	9%
Total	100%	100%

Things that make you hmmmm:
With just two weeks in the books we amassed a total of 7,711 points vs last years 6,392.  One would expect a slightly higher point total given the number of participants has increased by 12.  What surprised me is that while the participation rate (individuals submitting at least one submission) is the same, the average size of a submission has grown from 65 points to 87 - perhaps paint bombs are becoming the norm during the holidays?

We're right on track in terms of completion percent of total target at 15%

I dusted off the old "Point-o-Projector" algorithm to estimate this years output.  After making the appropriate calculations and sacrificing the neighbor's cat to the math gods, I've come up with a projected point total of just under 73K, which would be an all time high.  Don't scoff at my numerical alchemy - the projection at this point last year ended up having an error term of only 6%, which is pretty darn good considering the limited data and the fact that I'm an idiot.

In terms of the scale of choice, 28mm retains it's dominate position accounting for 84% of the points submitted to date.

The only other statistical point of order is to point out that what was thought once to be an unbeatable record, RayR's total points of 4,940 from Challenge II, may come under attack from the blistering pace that AlexS has be putting in.  Will the hallowed Halls of Vallejohalla witness the crowning of a new painting champion?- only time will tell....

For the record, the following is a list of the top ten painting scores and cumulative painting totals over the past 6 Challenges.

Highest Individual Scores	Rank	Challenge	Name	Score
	1	II	RayR	4,940
	2	II	KentG	4,724
	3	IV	AndrewS	4,180
	4	V	DaveD	4,138
	5	III	ChrisP	4,076
	6	V	MarkO	3,854
	7	III	JamesB	3,761
	8	II	TimB	3,385
	9	VI	MilesR	3,306
	10	VI	Martin C	3,292

The Top 10
Cumulative Challenge Points (over the past 6 Challenges)
	Total
DaveD	11,593
MilesR	10,934
RayR	10,125
TamsinP	8,238
Millsy	7,730
IanW	7,119
JohnM	6,374
GregB	5,704
Curt	4,497
Burkhard	3,690
MichaelA	3,732
PerterD	2,676
Scott	2,611
PhilH	2,369
JuanM	1,690
RossM	1,681
ChristopherS	1,944
Total	92,707
% total pts.	35%

Will we have any new members in the exclusive 10,000 club?

Well that's it for the week 2 statistical update - Lets see what the next two weeks bring us.  There are unconfirmed rumors that the next stats post will have a motivational speaker portion.

Sheep! (Clint B) 28mm Livestock MONDAY

A small flock of sheep. 2 Adults and 4 lambs. The breed is "Mouflon" and I will be using them as objectives in some border reivers games. yes there will be other live stock my troops are not all sheep bothereers! The figures are made by Warbases Link and have many uses including scene dressing. I will be painting some more in the challenge as well. It is just that these are finished today and today is my posting day. And to be brutally honest they were a nice distraction from painting little Zulus!

I probably could have taken a better picture but they kept wandering off!












This is a real one

MilesR: Clint these are some mighty fine sheep and probably about as far away from Zulus as you can get.  The Warbases website lists them as 28mm so why don't we go with that.  This small but attractive flock will net you a tidy 30 points - well done!

MONDAY From RayR 2 x Mounted Moors (20 Points)

My first entry into the 7th Challenge and I'm back in Tangiers already.

Both these figures were left overs from the last Challenge, so I

thought I may as well add these two to the collection.

They were originally going to be characters for Donnybrook

but I've enough already so these will be added to the ranks.

And of course they can also count when I use them for Moors

fighting El Cid!

2 x 28mm mounted figures.....I do believe that's 20 points??

MILESR: Great first entry Ray - nice to see you up on the tally board and your math is perfect!  Great looking figures.  I've read but not played the Donnybrook ruleset but they do look very fun

MONDAY From LeeH - Greek Pike Phalanxes (120 Points)

During last years Analogue Painting Challenge I was able to complete most of a Carthaginian army for my 6mm To The Strongest collection. I wanted to replicate that painting output again over the course of this years event and settled on painting a Pyrrhic Army. The allure of painting a Macedonian pike phalanx first attracted me and of course I can use them against my existing Republican Roman army. 

The pike or Sarissa was in affect a long spear about 4–6.2 meters (13–20 ft) in length with an iron head and a heavy weight at the other end which counterbalanced the length of the weapon. This meant that several rows of troops could overlap their weapons easily and present an impenetrable wall of spear tips to the enemy.

I have painted five units of these Pike units as the core of a Pyrrhic army that I will build around them. Two units are Macedonians and three are Epirot. I originally planned to paint Macadonian star designs on the shields but I made such a mess of them that in the end I opted for plain shields. If I had more time I would have ordered some decals instead but I wanted to get these done and move on to the next batch of figures. 

I elected to buy the 'open handed' version of these troops from Baccus meaning I could add my own pikes. I used 20mm dressmakers pins as the pikes and superglue them into position. However I wouldn't recommend this method to anyone considering modelling pikes. For a start fixing the pins in position was extremely fiddly, especially when you have fat fingers like I do. Worse still, I have more self inflicted stab wounds from these pins than anything I have done in the past and I can't see that changing when the finished units come out on the games table. These soldiers draw blood!

Five units each containing 48 Phalangites adds up to a grand total of 240 infantry figures, by far the largest single contingent I will be painting for the challenge. I wanted to get this big batch done and dusted early so that I could focus on cavalry and some of the smaller peripheral units over subsequent weeks. I had hoped to have them done earlier but illness stole at least four days from my planned schedule over the holiday period. Such are the plans of mice and wargamers.  

MilesR: Wow those are some great looking Phalangites - really impressive work.  I can see how the pins might be problematic unless your into to pain but perhaps the less said about that the better.  I'm very much looking forward to seeing the rest of your Pyrrhic army as it progresses during the Challenge.  At .5 points per figure that nets you 120 points - well done!

Monday: Hoppers from the 1st Royal Regiment of Hoppers 56 points

So once again I'm at it with more frogs.  This time I chose the colors of the Poison Dart Frog.  I was intending to go with some easier color choices than my first batch to speed things up a bit.  But, that ultimately failed because I ended up using 7 shades of blue to finally get the look I wanted for these Hoppers.  Anyway, I hope you enjoy the results!

Regular Hoppers with Spears.

Spears and shields.

Command.  That captain is quite the dashing fellow!

There are a total of 11 28mm figures from Eureka.

This is the last of my Eureka frogs from Pond Wars.  I have a few left to paint from Dark Sword Miniatures in a later batch and then I'll be moving on to something less amphibian.

Happy New Year!

MilesR: This second unit of Frog Warriors is even better than the first - I love the brushwork on the Turtle Shell Shields and this that deserves another point for effort - that puts you in at 56 total points

MONDAY - A Zulu Painters work is never done! (Clint B) FOR MONDAYS MINION ( 223 10mm figures)

Well I have had to show these today as I have simply run out of room on my painting table! Yeah I know that sounds like a boast. I was going to show the whole horde in one Paint Bomb, but I just ran out of space (and enthusiasm). The Enthusiasm is returning again though

Just for the record I have about 200 more still to paint! So you will be seeing these again! Well different ones, but the same sculpts and again painted by me. Before anyone gets carried away the unit on the left has been on the AHPC before and is just to show the HORDE as it is today. I do of course refer you to Here and Here which only show the Guys on the FAR left. (Brown and white shields).

The White shields will be unmarried and un-blooded and there are Currently 66 of those.  I need ! more base of 6 to complete the unit!

The Married (White headdress) with Black and white shields Number 72. And Are a complete unit! (Yippee!)

This unit  (black shield) is currently 3 figures (a single base) short. And weighs in at 63 Figures. (a few bases only have 5 figures on them when they should have 6, but sometimes You fail to notice the 3 lighter bases in figure counts). But I have run out of figure in headdress for now so this unit may have to wait until the next show I can get to!

The last unit (for today) are rifle armed skirmishers. A total of 22 figures with 2 figures to a base for 1 base short of finishing! I am sure I have at least 1 more rifle armed Zulu so they will get finished soon.

 A few gratuitous shots at the end, which do little to show how they are painted or the detail involved. Trust me on 10mm Zulus there is only so much Detail to paint. A lot of it is either skin or white feathers and Bases. Needless to say for now I am sick of painting Zulus so I will have a small break and paint larger scales for a while.

So the running total is (feel free to count them in the pictures). 223 Zulus painted since the start of the challenge.

The miniatures are mostly Newline Design and a sprinkling of Pendraken Miniatures. Both makes are 10mm tall (1/200th scale). I find the Pendraken to be better (and more expensive) and with a winder range of poses. If I was doing this project again I would stick to Pendraken.

• Black shield and Headdress= 63
• Solid Brown shields with rifles = 22
• Black and White shields and Headdress =72
• White shields Unmarried/un-blooded = 66

For a total of 223 Zulus painted and based and ready for war. (Gaming). If my Minion wants to check my Maths (that would be advised)make it either more or less that is OK with me I am just glad to be half way there for a planned game. Like I SAID DO NOT count the guys with white and Brown shields they are seen 2 years ago in the challenge! They are only shown because I know at least 1 Blogger who like to see the horde as complete as it is at any one moment in time! I will be starting the next part of the horde in a day or two!

So as I look at this I am now OVER half way (for now) So just because I can. The final Battle from the Film. Still a great film and thank goodness Hollywood have not tried to re make it!

MilesR: 223 Zulus!!!! That's more than they had in the film as extras.  Lets see 223 10mm infantry figures will net you a tidy 223 points (at one point per figure)

MONDAY AdamC- Pike and Shotte Blue Regiment (85 Points)

 Blue Regiment isn't terribly original name in fact I this is the second blue regiment to appear in this challenge.  These are war lor plastic sculpts and I have to say they are easy to work with.  I plan to use these for Pikeman's Lament when it comes out latter in the month.  Units are supposed to be of either 6 or 12 figures so I fixed this unit at 12 I many need to do some modification once I get the rules.

 The Pike men they have blue coats but they are largely covered by their buff coats I tried to find buff coats that had been painted or dyed but they all seem to be of the same "buff" color though the exact shade does seem to vary some

 One of the up right pike men has lost his helmet and wears a knitted scull cap of some sort.

 These are the core of the regiment, veterans all.

 The true hitting power of the regiment is in its Musketeers.  All dressed in Blue coats with red cuffs.

 Many other uniform details are unique.  I tried to vary head gear, pant color and some of the equipment colors

 I'm very happy with the way the piping on the cap on the left came out, French troops had such hats in to the Napoleonic wars but mostly they were used on work detail (from the 18th century on ward at least).

 I did my standard simple basing which many of you are familiar with by now.  I mount the figures on 1" washers so I can use magnetic sheets to hold them in storage or magnetic movement trays.

 Not much more to say about the 4 second rank musketeers.  Again I tried to strike a balance between uniformity and individuality.

 As you can see some of the musketeers have their own buff coats.

 I did an additional 4 man "Command Stand"  I don't know if a command stand is needed in Pikeman's Lament but having the figures it seemed silly not to use them.

 First up is the sargent a heavily armed combatant with sword, halberd and buckler.  The buckler is actually from the frostgrave Cultist set an excellent source for bitz.

 He's very ready for action in either Pikeman's Lament and will certainly see some action in En Garde! too.

 I cut down one of the pikes to make an ensigne to carry the regiment's colors

 he may well tag along with the regiment as an extra figure some.

 No flag has been selected yet.

 The music.  I love that the set lets you build a fifer a musician who is underrepresented in miniature.  Readers of my blog will recall my lamentations over not finding a suitable 18th century example to give the best man at my wedding as a groomsman gift.

 I liked the style of hat this fellow had I kept his livery simple

 The Man in charge.  The commander of the Blue regiment is a handsome soldier with ish stylish slashed sleeves, white collar and feathered hat.

 Despite being a bit of a dandy he is ready for action with both his sword and pistol.

 I'm very pleased with how the gold on the tassel of his sash came out and it took several photos to get a clear look at it.

 Finally we have the last clubman.  A farmer or herdsman with a matchlock.

 His sky blue coat and firearm speak of some wealth but both are simple and unadorned indicating he's of the middling sort.

He gives Bess and her friends some long rang hitting power.  All and all there are 17 figures here 12 Foot soldiers, 4 command and one armed civilian.  That should come to 85 points if my math is correct I think that will give me a total of 115 points, a respectable start on my 1500 goal.

MilesR: Wonderful job with these 17 stout fellows and your maths are, indeed, correct.  I really don't know much about the Pike and Shot period so will try not to show my ignorance.  I do like the commander with the pistol and saber - from some reason he makes me think of the 1970's Three Musketeer Movies directed by Richard Lester - those were really fun and I think I'll watch while painting today (they're available on Amazon video).  Nicely done.