Tuesday 20 March 2018

From SamuliS: So close, yet so far (185 points)

With the night fast closing in here in Finland I've frantically tried to get my final entries finished. As I'm writing this the PVA glue is still drying on the bases and soon I'll have to resort to a hairdryer to speed things up so I can get to bed!

My rush to the finish got slightly sidetracked on the weekend with the aftermath of my little sisters wedding having a certain unplanned impact on my painting efforts. Alcohol may or may not have had something to do with it, but suffice to say not much painting got done, but at least I could watch plenty of NHL games from the previous night while lying on the sofa!

Still I did manage to add a few more units to my growing Saxon army. This time a normal line infantry regiment in the form of Regiment Niesemeuschel and then two artillery batteries from the second Saxon division. Same paint recipe as always with block painting, wash and reapplying colours. The flag is from GMB Designs. I've been using their flags for all my projects whenever they just have suitable ones. Really the best in the market in my opinion!





I also finally based two Skaven warriors that I had already painted up in late December. They were the paint test minis for my Skaven project and were waiting for their comrades. Just mainly wanted to see which would look better, skin or fur coloured body. I never got around to painting the 18 other Clanrats from their unit during the challenge so it was high time I put some groundwork on them and submitted the duo. As there will be over a hundred of these guys I want the basing scheme to be really simple. Hence I just threw on some Vallejo ground effects and pigments and covered most of the base with fallen leaves that I made with Green Stuff World leaf cutters that I got for christmas from the missus! Simple, but it works. On some rats I'll probably throw in some tufts as well, but these were really just quick and dirty versions to get them done.


This final entry consists of 19 AB infantry figures, 16 artillery crew and four 6pdr guns, which should give me 172 points and then the two clanrats for a further 10 points. This should put me at 950 points, which is just 50 points shy of my goal. Pretty good effort, but it was just too far!

Quite a few minis still left on the painting table in various states of readiness. I had two towns from Total Battle Miniatures almost complete as well as Chaos Terminator squad needing just about a days worth of work. A Dropfleet Commander civilian ship and some more Blood Bowl rats were also started at different points of the challenge, but never got too much paint on them. I should probably learn to finish a single project before picking up the next ;)


Finally thanks to Curt for organizing this wonderful event once again! And thanks to all the Minions who help alleviate our mighty Snowlords burden! This is my sixth time participating and I can tell you it's one of the high points of every hobby year! Wonderful fun seeing everyones entries and it really gets my painting mojo flowing. It's pretty amazing how much more you can get painted with some friendly competition going on!

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From SidneyR (stand-in Minion):  Fantastic work on your final submission in Challenge VIII, Samuli !!!  Another really great haul of finely painted figures to bring up your rear guard action with great style.  Painting this carefully in the last minute rush takes great skill - and I love Regiment Niesemeuschel, complete with their attendant casualty base, standard and wonderful uniforms.

It's great to see the Clanrats again.  I think they always look mean, menacing and unpleasant (even when well-painted) and these two are no exception.

And, its also reassuring that I'm not the only Challenger with a host of unfinished and part-started projects at the end of the Challenge!  It happens every year, and - like you, and I guess everyone - I try and stay relaxed about it.  A bit like fisherman talking about the 'one that got away'!  

Another well deserved points haul for you, Samuli.  I've added three points for the standard and the fine basing on the Regiment Niesemeuschel and battery, bringing the points up to 185 for the submission.  Terrific work, and a wonderful Challenge from the great country of Finland.  Bravo, Sir!


9 comments:

  1. Those are some lovely looking Saxons and ugly looking (in a good way) rats. Hope to see more of your painting next year.

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  2. I always love seeing your beautiful Saxons - such a gorgeous project. I hear that today was the UN's International Day of Happiness and I know that Finland is considered one of the happiest nations on the planet. So here's wishing you and all your countrymen the best. The rest of the world needs a good aspirational pace horse right now. :)

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    1. Funny thing is that here we just can't understand what sort of moron actually managed to rate us #1 in happiness. Shitty weather, constant complaining and fairly high suicide rates wouldn't seem to be a good basis for a high ranking. It just confirms my hypothesis that you never succeed by doing well, but rather by everyone else doing even worse. Seems to work in business, so why shouldn't it work elsewhere as well.

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    2. Haha! That's so so true. Nonetheless, here's to you Finns who are conspicuously less shitty than the rest of us. ;0P

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  3. Thank you Sidney! And those in the picture are only the ones that got something more than a basecoat on them... I did zenithal highlighting on 38 clanrats and actually 6 more 6mm German villages as well as some Flames of War. I really need to learn to focus on finishing one thing at a time! :D

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  4. A wonderful last entry Samuli. Especially considering your sunday spent ‚residing‘ on the sofa 😂

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