From AnthonyO: Twilight Kin Shadows (30 points)

It is good to be back for my second Challenge!

For my opening salvo I needed to get something done quick prior to a family holiday away from the safety of my paints. I picked a small troop of Shadows to complement my Kings of War (KoW) Twilight Kin army and have been really burning my spare time yesterday and today to get through them.

These guys are really old Games Workshop 28mm Dark Elves that I picked up in a trade and have brought to life. KoW uses multibases rather than individual ones which I think allows for a bit more of a dynamic feel to the unit.

The Shadows were the last unit I needed painted for a local event at the end of the month so I am starting the Challenge on a win with a completed army project!

Best of luck to everyone and I look forward to seeing magic happen as the Challenge goes on.

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What a spectacular looking unit Anthony! As you say, it's a great thing to utilize the Challenge to finish off an army - that's what this is all about.

Like you, I really enjoy seeing multiple figures arranged on a base as I think it encourages a sense of dynamism and a bit of storytelling. Also, your dark groundwork really sets a nice high-contrast background for the figures to pop, especially those warm metallics and the purples. Lovely stuff.

You have a wonderful looking force there Anthony, and I hope you have a great time with it at your upcoming event.

From DavidB: Waaaaaaaaargh! The Challenge is Finally Here! (5 points)

No, I didn't paint a gaggle of orks in the night. This is merely the ones who were not primed. A few were just repaints to tie them in and some were just repaired from storage( like the battle wagon)

I painted this fellow for the principal boss of my Comanche Ork Horde. The horde is all primed and staged, but the stalwarts  needed a bully boy to lead them while replacements come.

He has a pet to keep foes at a distance and underlings in line. I thought the purple accented the neutral toned warlord pretty well. (not that orks are worried about such)

I kept his armor plain to tie in to the Blood Axe theme of Confederate grey. The checkerboard and red ties in to the heavy presence of the Goff tribe with black, red, and checks too!

Snake bite orks will be enroute soon and some deathskull lootas. Both favor browns and neutral colors.

This is my all time favorite Ork model. He has teeth and gubbins all over and the details on him are superb. After tidying up unfinished projects and uniting the orks pictured, he was a welcome diversion and suitable first entry for the Challenge. The basing is still drying and he took 10 hours to layer up!

My collection is Rogue Trader to current. I've the gamut from first editions to gorkamorka and more. The battle wagon is still sporting the same paint job from the early 90s I added searchlights from imperial tanks for the big headlights.

My favorite unit is the Blood axe Kommandos and their lurid purple camouflage...very orky! ;)

Not a bomb...yet! Just a solitary warboss!

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That is a truly iconic Ork warboss, Dave. I remember this casting clearly when it was released back in the day, thinking, 'Wow, Orks aren't my thing, but that is one darn cool mini.' I really like his fearsome fuchsia pet and that horned helmet is the bomb (the blue gums and tongue really work well with these guys, btw). Well done Dave!

Now, with the ranging shot over, I sit back and await a true Bromley Paint Bomb... 

From SamuliS: The Wild Hunt (22 points)

Time to get myself on the roster again! Each year I've tried to quickly grab the top spot in the first few hours of the challenge so that I can bask in the glory of the #1 position for at least a small while. Sometimes I've had more success, sometimes less. This year around I came up with a cunning plan involving some simple animal miniatures, plenty of drybrushing and some washes.

My wild hunt has a small wild boar family trying to escape some hungry wolves. The models are from Wargames Foundry, if I remember correctly, and I bought them from Salute in 2016 for Frostgrave to use as some random monster encounters. Pretty nice sculpts and fit my need for some super fast paintjobs to get me the coveted first spot! Certainly not my best paintjobs, but then again it's probably the first time that I can pump out 5 28mm minis in less than an hour.

By my counts this should put me just before Miles with 22 points. The 4 adults giving me 20 points and the piglet being roughly the size of a 15mm miniature so 2 more points for him.

With these out of the way, I'm back to finishing some Napoleonics that I didn't get done before the challenge started. So some silence from me for the next week or so before I can get back to painting stuff for the challenge.

Have a great challenge everyone. I can't wait to see all the amazing minis that will get painted in the next three months!

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Blogger does not give a precise timestamp of the submission of the drafts, so I'm not sure if you were ahead of Greg or not in your entry. Nonetheless, you can console yourself that you are ahead of Miles, for at least for a few hours anyway. :) 

Though you state these were a quick drybrush job Samuli, I have to say they do look rather fine. I particularly like the little boar piglet scrambling over the scree, trying to keep up with its mum. I like to think he has a good chance of getting away from those rather lumbering, well-fed wolves. :)

A very worthy hour's work Samuli!

  

From GregB: An Opening Skirmish (35 Points)

28mm Franco-Prussian War French infantry from Eagles of Empire

Greetings to all Analogue Hobbies Painting Challengers! It's fun to be back at the brushes again this year, and I'm pretty excited to get going.  This year we have traveled to our cabin near Sault Ste Marie, Ontario for Christmas, and I was able to bring my paints and some primed figures along with me for the express purpose of getting an early start.  While I can't match Miles for "instant production" I was pleased to crank this opening submission out during a beautiful winter day at the cabin!

A lovely day at the cabin!

Not a great day for swimming, so bring on the painting! Lake Superior in the winter...

These are Imperial French soldiers from the War of 1870, the Franco-Prussian War. These are 28mm castings sold by "Eagles of Empire", a fairly new provider that has brought some lovely castings to a period and setting that is otherwise (compared to subjects such as WW2, Napoleonics and others) somewhat-niche-and-neglected by sculptors and figure companies.

Lots of nice detail on these tall castings

I became very interested in gaming the Franco-Prussian War this past summer, and spent the later summer months and fall looking for rules, books and looking into different figures and approaches to gaming the setting.  While I have a desire to play some "Black Powder" games in this period in 28mm, it will take a long time, likely at least a year, before I have enough figures gathered and painted before I can put on a game for our local group in Winnipeg.  While I hope this edition of the Painting Challenge will help me reach that goal, I still don't want to wait that long for a game, so I thought some 28mm skirmish gaming in the period would be a much quicker route to getting a game going on the tabletop.

I'm not so crazy about how narrow the "true scale" Chassepot rifles are...tricky to paint...

So while I am using the range from Wargames Foundry for my regimental/brigade/division gaming plans, I settled quickly on the range from Eagles of Empire for skirmish gaming purposes.  These castings are lovely - tricky, but lovely. 

The French sure seemed to carry a lot of cooking pans around in 1870...but of course!

What do I mean by "tricky"? Well, as hobby types we all have our own preferences, ticks and quirks - for me, sculpting styles is one of those things.  The figures from Foundry, sculpted by the Perry Brothers, have a sort of familiar and forgiving feel and shape to them. These sculpts, on the other hand, are from a very different sort of "school" of sculpting - these are tall, nearly 30mm tall, with slender builds and a more "realistic" proportion to them. The rifles are very narrow, the fingers very slender, etc. They would not, in my opinion, mix well at all with the figures from the Wargames Foundry range.

A first volley fired...hopefully more to come...

But they will do just fine for skirmish gaming! And I just LOVE the French uniforms from this setting. Red kepis! Baggy pants! And epaullettes everywhere!! These seven figures will give me 40 points - an opening "skirmish" in the Black Powder side duel and inspiration to keep going on this project through the Challenge!

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Beautiful work Greg. The colours are so rich and clearly defined, and I also really like the mixed tufts for the groundwork. I have fond memories of us visiting Les Invalides in Paris and taking in the Franco-Prussian war section of the museum. The uniforms, arms an armour on display were so impressive and I can see you've been clearly inspired it. Like you, I love the French uniform of this period with its kepis, blue pinned-back greatcoats and les pantalons rouges. It's so iconic and can sympathise with why the French kept the uniform pretty much unchanged right into the First World War.

I have some figures for this period on the roster as well, so I hope to be able to join you on this little project over the coming months Greg. In the meantime, have a great holiday break at your cabin!

From TomM: The Ecstasy of Debutation

So, I am part of this highly motivational painting challenge for the first time, and this is my very first entry ever, and hopefully the start of many more.

When I saw Curt kick it off this morning, I jumped to the painting table (well, shuffled actually) and began the brushstrokes on the very first entry.

One of the things I'd love to achieve during this Challenge, is painting up all the remaining 6mm figs I have for my "Slaaneshi" force for Future War Commander.  These 4 stands of infantry as such, including the heavy weapon upgrade option, are a small step for that plan.

But more importantly, this will also mean I`ll be sleeping well the coming week.  See, I`m a bit of a stresschick, and I opted to go for 6mm infantry as the first entry to make sure I got an entry ready in the first month as per the rules.

And put me on the scoreboard for starters... even though it's a measly 10 points, it gets rid of that horrible zero.  ;-)

I'm really looking forward to this, and hopefully will be able to get an entry in at least once every week... though that might be, and will be, probably totally unrealistic. 

But heck, that is why it's a motivational challenge after all... less sidetracking, more painting x-D

Cheerios!

Tomsche

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Great work, Tom! A nice clean entry and I particularly like the leader with the Slanneshi heraldry on his banner. 

There are many of us in the Challenge, myself included, who are big fans of Epic-scaled sci-fi, so we'll be eager to see this project develop. I've never tried 'Future War Commander', but have heard good things about it. Will there be any vehicles, or perhaps a Titan, coming up in the future?  This will be a fun one to watch.

From MilesR: 28mm KV-1 along with KV-2 - and so it begins.... (20 Points)

 My first challenge submission is a KV-1 / KV-2 tank - one of my "favorite" tanks from WW2.  Its a plastic model from Warlord that has a single chassis and two different turrets - one for a KV-1 and one a, wait for it..., a KV-2!

 The kit is so-so in terms of quality but a bargain price wise as you also get 8 28mm russian infantry figures.  They'll show up later in the Challenge.

 I dashed the paint and weathering job out this morning so it's pretty simple.  This tank is also the first thing to be painted since July so it felt good to knock the painting cobwebs off.

As you can see compared to the plastic 28mm FJ's this is a massive beast.  In fact, one could consider this tank to be a "monster".

:)

 Sorry for the picture quality but I need to rush out to work - last day before the holidays!

I suspect you'll see a lot of 28mm WW2 stuff from me over the course of the next 3 months.

Paint On, Dudes!

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Another tradition that has developed over the past half-dozen years is that Miles always has an entry ready within hours of the Challenge kick-off, and true to form, here he is with this heavy tank to open his race to his 2000 point target. 

This is a very imposing lump of armour, especially when compared to those awaiting fallshirmjagers and the light vehicles in the background. Truly an armoured monster. I like the rust and weathering of the tracks, though you may want to hit it with a bit of dullcote to kill the Fresh-from-the-People's-Tractor-Factory paintwork. Then again, maybe they gave it a polish to impress the invaders. ;)

Your 1% there Miles. 

Thus the machine turns over its engine...

Challenge 'Ate' Begins - The Unspeakable Thing Under the Bed

In keeping with tradition, I'll open the Painting Challenge with its first entry. Doing this allows me to 1) play the gracious host, 2) briefly stoke my ego by being first on the scoreboard. (A misplaced sense of moral superiority which is always cruelly squashed by the avalanche of follow-on painters who are far more industrious.)

For this, our eighth edition of the Challenge, the theme is 'Challenge Ate', and so celebrates all things scary, creepy and monstrous. I could easily go off on a tangent on how this could reflect the socio-political landscape of parts of our world today, but lets keep this civil and focus instead on kinder, gentler monsters, such as fire breathing dragons, rapacious werewolves and perhaps even dread Cthulhu.  

Mulling over what I would do for this entry, I thought back to my childhood, remembering what I believed to be particularly frightening and monstrous at the time. I clearly remember having a puppet that seemed quite scary at night, and the moon-shadows of the trees outside my window could be quite unsettling, but the thing that really made me bring the covers to my nose was the thought that something unspeakable could be lurking underneath my bed. 

What could be under there? Was it listening for me go to sleep before it would make its move? If I ran, would it catch me before I made it to my bedroom door? Should I peak under my bedframe to make sure I was safe? Thinking of all these things while peering over the top of the sheets was such wonderfully delicious torture. 

It's a wonder I got any sleep at all during those years.

Anyway, here is a little vignette I came up with as a wink to those macabre childhood imaginations. 

The bed and teddy bear are 3D prints from files I found on Thingiverse. The bedlinen is tissue, soaked in diluted white glue, while the lone slipper and tentacle were mocked-up from milliput sculpting putty.

As I was pressed for time, I decided to paint this in a fairly straightforward greyscale effect, with only the tentacle being in colour. I would have preferred to experiment with a few more ideas I had, but considering the time constraints I'm fairly content with how it turned out.

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So, with the opening entry out of the way I welcome you all to Challenge 'Ate'! 

I look forward to posting any entries that come in from now until New Years Day. Remember to leave your posts in draft form on the blog and send me a note when you have something ready to go 'live'. 

The gates are open - let's see your work! 

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