(Ready)From MikeD: What All I Painted

This was my second year participating in the challenge, and where last year I fell just short, this year I hit my mark. As much as I'm impressed with the quality of the work of all the challengers, I'm even more blown away by the sheer volume people are able to achieve. I have to admit that the thought that I'm painting for a goal, and that I'll be sharing what I worked on with the group does still make me work a little more slowly and carefully than I might do otherwise. This was especially true for me this year on the challenge pieces. But the flip-side of that is I'm happy to have turned out a number of one-off pieces that I otherwise would have let sit in favor of something that would be put on the table right away.

At the same time I was able to finish off enough Greeks and Thracians that (along with what I already had painted) I can put together a nice variety of ancient army lists for ADLG or DBA. Like a lot of folks in the hobby I've gotten more into the skirmish games in the past couple of years, and I'm really itching to get back to mass historical battles.

Finally, let me just acknowledge what a great community the challenge represents. The internet is an increasingly sad place in many ways, but everyone from Curt to his Minions to the all the other challengers really maintain such a wonderful sense of just wanting to share the joy that we get from this hobby. Thanks again to everyone.