Sylvain's Challenge - Time well wasted!

Everything went according to plan, although I painted only half of what I did last year. Then I painted about two and a half shelves worth of miniatures, but only one and a third this year. I blame it on the abrupt ending of my sabbatical.

In the picture below, I have a bunch of 15mm Soviets (1), the heavy core of the Hochseeflotte (2) and the same for the Grand Fleet (3). I will need about as many smaller units before I can organize a Jutland campaign, but in the meantime the Regina wargaming group will have the opportunity to practice maneuvering WW1 fleets.

This is a picture of me, from the perspective of the miniatures exposed in my glass cabinet. Now that they are painted, they are all eager to experience their first battle on the table top.

Before signing off, many thanks to all my fellow painters, who inspire me to finish a few projects every year, many thanks to the minions, for their indispensable work behind the scene, and finally to Curt, for another successful Challenge: Bravo! C'était formidable!

Cheers,

Sylvain

From TamsinP: The Figures Wot I Painted

Well, the Challenge is over and between us we've managed one heck of a lot of painting. Great effort one and all! I'm sure that in a few days Miles will be along with a statistical analysis to tell us exactly how well we've done.

It's now a tradition that we should each do a round-up post of everything that we painted up, so here's mine. I was actually drafting this when I noticed that Curt was drafting his. Great minds or something...

Front Row - 15mm ancient Nubians
Second Row - 15mm Choson Koreans
Third Row - 15mm SYW Russians
Back Row - 28mm WW2 Soviet women; 28mm sheep and lion; 15mm SciFi vehicles; 28mm Pulp


And this is the "Hall of Shame"

I actually did a count-up and there are 1601 points of figures prepped and (in most cases) primed figures in there. A slight case of over-prepping!


Which just leaves the votes of thanks:

Lady Sarah - for putting up with (and indeed, to some extent, encouraging) this annual bout of madness. Brava!

Curt - for starting the whole thing up, keeping it going, encouraging us all, herding the cats to such astonishing levels of production, looking after the bonus theme rounds, organising prize sponsors and generally just being a great chap. Bravo!

Miles - our resident mathemagician for keeping track of the stats and ensuring the proper sacrifices are conducted according to the prescribed rituals, setting up the scoring spreadsheet and for being a great Monday Minion. Bravo!

Millsy - for keeping track of entries and being a great Duels Wallah. Bravo!

The Minions - for doing a fantastic job of adjudicating all the posts submitted during the week. Bravo!

The Sponsors - for all the generous prizes. Bravo!

The Challengers - for all your wonderful entries, encouraging comments and general inspiration and camaraderie to keep each other going. Bravo!

So, time to clean the brushes, stash everything away and take a breather before returning to the fray.

Well done all!

From Curt: Challenge VII Achievement Photo!

Hi All!

I thought we'd continue the tradition of taking a pic of what we achieved during the Challenge, so I'll be first out of the gate.

My 'haul' is pretty paltry compared to most, but I'm quite happy with what I managed to get done over the three months (though, admittedly, a good bit of that 'happiness' comes from a few glassed of Rioja...).

So I challenge all our participants to take a picture of themselves along with their work so we can survey the fruits of your labour and put a happy face to a name.

Thanks again for participating - you all helped make my winter not only bearable, but great fun as well!

Warm Regards,

Curt

Caution... Wallah at Work!

Righto you lot. I know exactly what you're thinking... the Challenge is over and has been for a couple of hours and Millsy *still* hasn't got the Side Duels sorted! See? I can read minds!

Rest assured that the machinery has been set in motion, the mystical symbols are being consulted and most importantly I've put the kettle on. Stay tuned a couple of days people and once I've sifted through the mad rush that is the Last Days of the Challenge (with added important capitals no less) we'll have some Side Duels and Challenges results to report.

Cheers,
Millsy the Side Duels Wallah

The Last Post of Challenge VII: A Few Landsknechts for the Final Push to the Finish

Brushes down folks! It's over.

Whew! Another Challenge under the belt. I'm completely exhausted, but it feels absolutely awesome. I have to give a big thanks to Tamsin, Dave and Miles for stopping in to help me post some of the entries over the weekend - you guys were real troopers. By my tabulation we did around 8000 points over the last 48 hours alone! 

I always find the last day of the Challenge a little surreal as I slowly get back into the groove of doing the Challenge alone, which is how it was for the first five editions (it's absolutely crazy how I managed to do that). Saying farewells, giving thank yous, and hoping we can all get together to do it again next year. It makes me a little verklempt actually.

For the last post I return to add to my last entry of Challenge VI, my infuriating but beloved Landsknechts. 

Originally, I had two central bases to complete and was hoping to get enough Landsknechts done over the Challenge to fill them all in, but time caught up with me and so I can only present one base to you.

 These are a mix of Foundry and Pro Gloria (now Warlord) figures. Beautiful models to work with and an absolute joy to paint. I've placed them on the irregular bases I had the good folks at Warbases knock out for me. With it being the central base I wanted to add a bit of drama with the Hauptmann and his standard bearer breaking forward from the line to encourage the men to close with the enemy.

A work-in-progress shot of the Hauptmann

C'mon lads, let's get this sorted...

 The standard bearer is carrying the colours of the Fugger family. 

The Fuggers were a very interesting family as they arguably exercised the greatest amount of power during the Renaissance. We often hear of the Medicis, the Sforzas and and the Borgias, but they were small potatoes when compared to the Fugger family of Augsburg.

Jakob Fugger

Jakob Fugger essentially purchased the votes to ensure Maximilian I and Charles V's elevation as Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire. These 'purchases' thereby secured the dominance of the Hapsburg for almost a century (and you can just imagine the favours that old Jakob could call in). In personal wealth the Fuggers have not yet been eclipsed. Converted to today's currencies the Fuggers were worth over 400 billion dollars - more than either the Rockefellers or the Carnagies. At the height of their power during the Renaissance, the Fugger family in of itself accounted for 2% of the GDP of all of Europe. 

So purchasing a unit of Landsknecht would be but a rounding error in the Fugger account books. ;) 

Finally, here are a couple shots incorporating the newly finished base in with the rest of the unit.  Just one base left to go! (sigh)

 These 8 lads will give me 40 points to add to my final tally.

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Okay on to the administrative stuff.

The announcement on the various prizes will be in two weeks (Sunday, April 2nd).  These will be:

- The six Threshold prizes for 500, 750, 1000, 1500, 2000 and 2500 points.

- Judges Choice (chosen by me)

- Sarah's Choice (chosen by Lady Sarah)

- Challenger's Choice (chosen by you lot!)

- Awards for the top finishers in the points standings

For Challenger's choice we're going to do it similar to last year. I want all of the participants to send me their top three choices of the Challenge. The deadline is next Sunday (the 26th). It doesn't have to be in any order as I will then make a big gallery and we can all vote from the entire group of nominations. That way we'll all get reminded of all the excellent work that was produced during the Challenge. I'll give out prizes for the top three on April 2nd.

There it is. The Seventh Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge has concluded. 

Thank you for indulging me in my madness. And a HUGE thanks to this year's Minions (Miles, Alan, Paul, Byron, David, Sylvain, Phil and Millsy) - we could not have done this without you. 

You and all of the participants were terrific and I hope you had as good a time as I did.

Thanks again.

Curt

From IannickM : A touch of Epic, a touch of Pulp (the last post of the year) (12 Points)

It was not in my plans to paint anything else than the Curtgeld this week-end; I'm really burned out by the challenge! But Curt did last week challenge me to a last second sprint to the end, and I felt I had to give it my best!

So I managed to paint two more pieces, as my last stand in the 7th Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge!

How I react when Curt challenges me with one week left to the challenge...

So the first piece is a Legion Glaive Tank for my Emperor's Children force. The Glaive is a super-heavy tank pattern related to the Fellblade, but beyond the obvious surface similarities the two tanks are very different. The reason for this divergence lies with the Glaive's primary weapon system, the fearsome and arcane Volkite Carronade, a massive Volkite Weapon that is capable of destroying enemy vehicles in a single shot. Volkite Weapons produce a deflagrating attack, in which subsonic combustion caused by a beam of thermal energy is propagated through the target by thermodynamic heat transfer, so that hot burning material heats the next layer of cold material and ignites it. The Volkite Carronade used by the Glaive was able to make short work of all but the most heavily armoured enemy vehicles and structures.

In short, it's a massively dangerous metal beast! I followed of course the painting scheme of my Emperor's Children force, but gave the glaive white details on the turret instead of the gold I used on the Fellblades to make the model stand apart from my other super heavies. I'm not entirely happy with my work on the Volkite cannon, but it will do.

The second piece I painted is Destro, the well known founder of M.A.R.S. Industries, a weapons manufacturer and supplier for the Cobra Terrorist organization. The figure is obviously part of my GI Joe Pulp project, and is the first of a cadre of Cobra characters and officers which will be added to my Cobra force. Destro was a fan favourite of the 80s cartoon, usually seen as somewhat of a number two to Cobra Commander. 

Destro's key characteristics are his sense of honor, a calm demeanor, and love for Cobra's second-in-command, the Baroness. He wears a mask forged from beryllium steel, a tradition dating back to the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, when an ancestor of his was caught by Cromwell's men in the act of selling weapons to both sides. He respects the G.I. Joe Team for their combat skills, but detests them for wasting their skills to maintain peace. Destro and Cobra Commander despise each other but maintain an alliance of convenience. Although twice the tactician and three times the soldier of Cobra Commander, Destro's sense of honor works to his disadvantage in the face of Cobra Commander's ruthlessness.

Laird James McCullen Destro XXIV, usually referred to simply as Destro

The figure is once again a sculpt from the private range of a good friend. Painting a figure dressed in black is always a challenge; I gave him a base coat of black, then went with a second coat of a really dark grey mix, and highlighted with Foundry's Slate Grey A, also a dark grey. 

So that gives me a small 9 pts to add to my total. I believe I will either fall short of Curt number by merely two or three points or beat him by the same amount! And in my case, with my extremely slow painting speed, almost 700 pts is a massive number, and by very far my best score (my previous best was 510 I believe). 

Thanks to Curt for a great but exhausting challenge, you pushed me to the very end! And thanks to our Wednesday minion Byron. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a date with a nice cold drink.

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Oh, that Glaive is very nice Iannick. I dunno what you're saying, that energy effect you did on the cannon is excellent.  I also really like your use of white for the hatches and highlights.

Unfortunately, I missed out on the whole GI Joe period, so I'm not familiar with the heroes or villains. Nonetheless, this guy looks like he's bad news. I especially like his white skin and Studio 54 getup. If I looked like that I'd want to beat up handsome heroes too.

As this is your last post I'm going to kick you up to 12 points as I think those super heavy tanks should be worth a bit more (I know, a bit late for that, eh.) and hey, its rockin' the purple which has to be worth something.

I hope we can organize a Canadian Epic smackdown, but if that doesn't come to pass we'll always have Paris the Challenge. :)  Thanks for joining us Iannick - it was a blast. 

From TeemuL: Last Odds and Ends (61 points)

Ok, so the Blogger ate my entry. Quick rewrite, much shorter than the original.

German Shepherds?

Odds Ends has been my running theme this year, so let's continue with that. Here are 6 Lizard Nazis from Crooked Dice. With these 6 my Crooked Dice Nazi force is all painted - there were 3 Human Nazis painted earlier in the Challenge and 3 before.

3 Different sculpts, one with MP40, one with MP-40 and cigarette and one with Stub Gun.

I used the again the camo scheme on these, camo pants and white collar shirt with tie looks crazy enough for (Lizard) Nazis.

 

This is my 3rd Challenge and 3rd time I post Mouflon Sheep from Warbases. Good for objectives or giving some life to battle boards?

 

Then the rest of the Gorechosen, three other pieces of the game - the Slaughterpriest was the first one. I didn't feel like finishing these, because they were so detailed and large, but the final day of the Challenge finally inspired me to finish them. I happy now, they are finished.

Skullgrinder, Aspiring Deathbringer and Exalted Deathbringer - GW really knows how to give names? :)

Then some scary closeups...

I'm glad I just read an article about drybrushing the flames, it was really useful.

I like the cloths on all three, but couldn't get a good focus

Some fresh scars on the back, first highlighted with brown, then with reds.

8 times 25mm and 3 times 40mm should give me nice 61 points, which don't really matter, since I'm over my target anyway. 

Thanks Curt, minions and fellow painters, see you next year! P.S. It's time to start thinking about the theme of the next year, I was sure the VII would be about the 7 deadly sins, but it wasn't... :D

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You know Teemu, funny thing is I was THIIIIS close to doing the Seven Deadly Sin, but watching the news was enough to spoil my interest on that subject. The topic of camaraderie won out in the end, big time and I'm happy I stuck with it. :)

The animals and Chaos dudes are excellent (great scars btw) but the Lizard Nazis are the bomb! I love these guys, especially the one with the MP-40 and cigarette. (How the hell does a lizzard smoke a cigarette with no lips? Who cares! It's just cool.)

A great final entry Teemu. As you've tabulated, this lot will give 61points. 

Until next year then? :)

From JonathanO - Winter War Russian Infantry (244 Points)

Finally, here are the Russians.  Trudging through the freshly fallen snow.  These are Baker Company figures.  Unlike the Finns, I had not prepared them in advance of the challenge.  There was a lot of flash to remove on many of the figures.  However, I am quite pleased with how they turned out and that I (just) got them finished in time to make a final day contribution.

There are 50 figures, but 3 are prone so will be worth less points.

Spring is supposed to be arriving, but it seems appropriate that it has been snowing here today as I finished off the basing for these guys.

As happened last year, work and related travel really curtailed my progress for the second half of the challenge and I have many part painted figures that are going to miss the final tally.  I have an Assyrian infantry unit oh so close to being ready and lots more Assyrians well underway.  I did not get any of the Winter War vehicles completed and I did  not even make a start on my Sharp Practice Project.  Oh well.  Sadly, I will miss my points target too.  This post should boost my Early WWII side duel tally, though.

I have not really had chance to enjoy many of the posts over the last few weeks and I see lots more have been added this weekend.  At least there will be a wonderful gallery of painting to catch up on, even after the challenge ends.

Thank you to all the participants for sharing your amazing talents and great variety of miniatures.   Thank you Curt and all your marvelous minions and other helpers for running this most enjoyable event!

Jonathan

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A wonderful final entry Jonathan! I remember when looking at the Kickstarter not being too impressed with the Finnish sculpts, but these Russians look much better to my eye, but then again that may be them benefiting from a good paintjob. :) Either way, this force looks terrific. I particularly like seeing all the red stars on their funny-looking budenovka pointed hats.

244 points to add to your tally. Well done!

Though I can sympathize with your struggle having work commitments cut into hobby time, it was still great to have you with us this year, Jonathan. As you say, you did get a good chunk of your WWII project done, so that was a big success to mark down. I do hope you will join the crew the next time the HMS Challenge leaves port. 

 

From Byron: Opinions on a Bloodbowl Uniform

Byron needs Challenger input:

This is the first member of the Greenskin Packers, the QB Eye-gouger Rodgers.  Obviously I tried to copy the Greenbay Packers uniform style, and think it turned out ok, but a bit too white, maybe.  I just could not do the green jerseys as then it would be green on green.

Anyway that's what I did last night and early this evening after taking a nice walk out to Clear Lake with Kim and watching the deers play with toboggans out out back deck. 

Opinions?

From SteveM: ww2, Cold War, Modern, and camels... last post (564 Points)

We finish off challenge VII with a variety of miniatures.  I started each of these after the Polish horde was done and man, this was a lot of work even painting full time.

Summary:
15mm infantry qty: 163
15mm guns qty:  4
15mm vehicles qty: 35
15mm heli qty: 2

28mm camels qty: 3

These are Battlefront Miniatures 15mm M10 and a Tetrach. A couple of nice models.

The 15mm Hinds are from Battlefront Miniatures Soviet range for my East German Team Yankee force. There is an escalation league coming up and they will get some action. Note, yes, one piece is on backwards and I'll be fixing it.
 

I picked up these 15mm Khurasan Miniatures from one of the miniature trading sites last week and thought I'd give them a go. They will go well with a Force on Force game.  I really like this M1151 model.

 These are 15mm Battlefront Miniatures gbx90 plastic Tiger tanks. Interesting that once the tracks are put on for turret armor, there is no room for tank numbers.

These are 15mm Battlefront Miniatures Mot-Schutzen Kompanie for the escalation league. This is the first one, another one down below.  I noticed that the rpg figs bend quite easy so be careful handling them before they are based. 

 

These are 15mm Battlefront Miniatures metal and resin tanks. They are factory fresh and don't have unit numbers or weathering (yet). Very playable though at this stage. Once they get sent to the front and the unit determined, the markings will be painted on.

These are 15mm Battlefront Miniatures T-55AM2 East German tanks.  Metal and resin. There is another company making a lower cost version soon I hear out of plastic.

The second 15mm Mot-Schutzen Kompanie.

These are 15mm Battlefront Miniatures German Pak40 platoon.  They are shiny as I ran out of time to dull coat them and if one looks  closely they can see the shrubs are still drying. Or, looking at it another way, maybe it rained on the field and that is why they are still wet. 

 

And I end the post with three obligatory camels. They are from Wargames Foundry line and 28mm. It is nice to have three camels in my stable now...maybe next year the herd will grow.

And they walk away into the sunset carrying my painting tools with them. 

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Steve uses a WMD for his final entry. Have you been talking to Ray and Miles? 

Wow, this is an amazing entry. From the M10s, to the Hinds, to the Tigers, to the T-55s, to the... Well, you get the idea - its pretty gobsmacking stuff and my head feels like its going to explode trying to process it right now. Lets just say it's real Bigly.

I put this at 564 points. Jeez that is a lot of points, and as an extra bonus we have camels for the close of the Challenge! You've retrieved our honour, Steve. We couldn't have finished without some camels. :)

A BIG Well Done!