Side Duels and Challenges Penultimate Points Update Posted

Hi All,

I've posted the penultimate points update for the Side Duels and Challenges.

This week we've seen Sidney pull further ahead in the Renaissance Duel and PeteF and BenitoM add to their scores in the Age of Black Powder Duel. We've also seen our first duel completed with DaveD being adjudged the narrowest of victors in the One Hump or Two Camel Challenge Duel.

There will be just ONE more update posted in the days following the end of the Challenge. This will include both final points adjustments and the results of all the remaining duels.

If you have any points not already submitted, or are have otherwise unresolved conditions for your duels please let me know ASAP!

As always, please check the points and make sure they're correct.

PS. I'm going to put the kettle on. Anyone for a cuppa?

Cheers,
Millsy The Duels Wallah

From LeeH: Looking Forward! (4 Points)

While everyone else is busy dropping points bombs on poor Curt I decided to go out quietly with a fun little vignette. So here is "Looking Forward" to the next Painting Challenge. For me this is the culmination of my most productive period of the year. I hit my target (and then some) and now I can relax into a summer of gaming with my newly painted figures. This is also the time when I begin collecting new models and books and looking ahead to 9 months of preparation and growing anticipation for the next Challenge. 

I have no idea where I got these two 15mm figures. I guess they were a freebie from somewhere but try as I might I can't recall where from. These two cheeky chaps are full of character and were good fun to paint.

Incidentally this last entry resisted all my efforts to photograph it. Until now I have used my high end compact camera to photograph my entries but I just couldn't focus close enough to get a good shot for this model. So next I retrieved my trusty DSLR with an assortment of different lenses. I tried a macro lens but couldn't get the colour balance right, then I tried a telephoto from a distance. All the pictures were rubbish so in the end, in desperation, I whipped out my phone and took some pictures on that...and they were the best of the lot and are the ones I have used! Seriously, thousands of pounds of camera equipment and I end up taking pictures on an £80 camera phone!!

I have to admit to being a bit worn out after the frenetic activity of the lest three months, and it will be good to take a break. The treble 0's will be packed away and Ill be moving on to 4" brushes because I have promised to do some home decorating! Now all that is left for me to do is take some Body of Work photo's to post early next week. This years Painting Challenge has been excellent and I'm constantly in awe of the quality and quantity of the entries. When I describe the Challenge to outsiders I never refer to it as a mere competition. Instead I always call it a Festival of Painting and this years event has once again raised the bar in terms of quality and variety. A huge thank you needs to go out to Curt (and the minions of course) for running such an excellent event and I for one am already looking forward to the next AHPC in just 9 months time! 

From DaveD - Its guest minion slot once more which is great. Its been a joy to watch your production through this challenge Lee and fine small last gasp entry it is. Isnt the typical with camera.. well they certainly look just fine!  I suspect you will need a very large stock up.coming up. Enjoy your gaming with new toys!

Great stuff Lee a grand total of 1307 - 30% up on your target - good lad - Huzzah!

From RichardC: The windmills of my mind (30 points)

Now I have to say, I do like a nice windmill. I can even go as far to say that the Long Suffering Briony and I have a house a few hundred yards from a Sussex post windmill.

I bought this model from Grand Manner a number of years ago – intending to populate it with the Foundry set of Napoleon and his staff. It has remained in a cupboard ever since. As Curt has decreed that terrain can be submitted, I decided to dust it off and finish it.

It is a really nice resin kit, apart from the sails. These are only detailed on one side, and needed to be fretted out (thankfully, this counted as preparation, and had been done a long time ago – a bum-numbingly boring task). I did consider using plastic card to create slats in the sails, but after a couple of test pieces, I realised I valued my temper and sanity more than a fully accurate model!!! I did have a mishap, and one of the sail arms broke – however a pin and glue job sufficed to fix it. 

The paint job was straightforward, with lots of washes and dry brushing. The basing is not complete, as I hope to revisit the mill in about 10 months time (Curt’s good offices willing), as part of the 9^th Painting Challenge.

I have added a figure of Gaspard Gourgaud the Emperor’s Officier d’Ordonnance as a scale reference (he was 90% already painted before the challenge, but it was nice to finally finish him). As an aside, I once met Baron Gourgaud – a direct descendant - at the Napoleonic Fair in London which my old friend Rod Gander helped organise.

The mill is 9” high + a further 3” for the sails, and is 4” by 4” – I shall leave it to my esteemed minion to work out a suitable points tally when he gets back from watching the rugby in our local pub!!!

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Michael A – my minion, and indeed all the other minions for their hard work and dedication throughout the Challenge. It is not as easy a task as all of them make it look.

Now for the final cavalry charge (well, rather slow amble to be more accurate) to the end of the Challenge and my Curtgeld.

28mm terrain, Grand Manner

__________________________________

Well I don't know, you wait an age for a post from Richard and then two come along at once!  How splendid is this Richard; what a great model.  Whilst I love my 4Ground windmill, this is rather lovely and you have done a splendid job with it.  Looking at the dimensions, I think that it would fill a terrain cube, but to be on the safe side, I have awarded a cube and a half.  Now I thought you had some bandsmen to paint? 

From TeemuL: Mixed bunch (57 points)

The Challenge ends like it started, me being a bit sick, thanks to flu. With this entry I should bypass my target, though, so everything is good. I'm not sure if I can finish something next week, we will see.

First here is a Battlesmith for my Fyreslayers army.

Then 10 Brimstone Horrors for my Chaos army, I don't have enough Tzeentch models yet to call it a Tzeentch army. :)

Finally the Participation fee.

That's 5 euros for the Finnish Nature Protection, to the protection of the Baltic Sea to be precise. Not quite sea, not quite lake, something in between and not in a very good shape, right next where I live.

Pointswise the Brimstone horrors have 5 points a base in this challenge, so with the dwarf some 55 points. To the next and final week!

_____________________________________

So sorry to hear that you are feeling well Teemu, get well soon.  Well done for getting a post up nonetheless and look at those little blighters!  I think the dwarf is magnificent so I am awarding a couple of extra bonus points for him.  Safely through your par score for the challenge, well done Sir! 

From RichardC: For two special ladies (15 points)

A very small entry, but one to keep me going until a somewhat larger effort in a couple of days.

The wife of my esteemed minion, together with my beloved other half (aka the Saintly Mrs Awdry and the Long Suffering Briony) share a love of animals, and one particular beastie is close to both of their hearts – the Highland Cow. For those of you who like looking at photos of "the real thing", here is a Facebook link to the genuine article - https://www.facebook.com/ChaterFold/

Here is my take on the long-haired hippie of the bovine world. A family of Highland Cattle. They are from Warbases, and I picked them up at last year's Salute. I decided to paint them in a winter setting as this time next week, we will be in the Highlands of Scotland, in a nice pub having a wee dram of something single and malty whilst the wind blows snow drifts against the back door.

I shall leave it to Michael to allocate the points.

3 x 28mm animals; Warbases.

________________________________________

Very nicely done Richard and I'm sure the ladies will be delighted with your rendition of these fine beasts.  I think a straight 15 points for these, but you must try and complete your other project before Tuesday!  Best of luck in the Highlands and looking forward to catching up when the thaw comes! 

From MikeD: Hoplites and Skellies (113 pts)

I'm gonna cut it close here but I see my goal in sight. First up are 5 residual skeletons from the Skull & Crown line. I didn't get these rank and file done in time for the Monstrous theme round, but better late than never.

I really like this line. I also have a set of those Eureka Chaos figures that I had primed hoping to paint  for this years challenge, but it doesn't look like I'll make it in time. Together I'm hoping to do a nice Bruegelian horror diorama.

I've also made a dent in my Greek bin with 17 Foundry hoplites:

The big slowdown with these is obviously the shield decals and the painting of the skirts on the shields. I have mixed feelings about shield decals. Or better said, I am frustrated with my ability to get them to look decent. For all my micro-setting and micro-solling and dulcoting I can never get them to look smooth and even. But at a certain point you just need to declare "table-top quality" and move on, I suppose.

So between the living and the dead, that's 22 28mm foot for a total of 110 pts.

________________________________________________

Smashing post Mike, I just love those skellies, I am instantly transported back to my youth and watching Ray Harryhausen's wonderful contribution to 'Jason and the Argonauts'.  I have not had much cause to work with shield transfers, but the times that I have I came away in utter frustration at my inability to apply them with any degree of skill and so I have to say yours look rather splendid to me and for your efforts I am awarding an additional 3 bonus points.  Now by my reckoning you are only 65 points short of your par score, perhaps one more push for Tuesday? 

From ByronM: Zombies, Zombies, and yet more Zombies (1130 Points)

When I started to paint things for the challenge this year, and started painting large numbers of Greeks and Mechanicum forces I got challenged by the wife about why there were no zombies on my painting table.  Zombicide is one of the only miniature games that my wife will play, and we have all of the expansions.

I started painting zombies in monochrome 2 challenges ago, and have a bunch done, however we always run out of zombies and I have never done anything other than the normal zombies in black and white monochrome scheme.  That meant we normally stuck to the basic games so we could use painted figures, but the wife made the logical complaint that with all the other painting, surely I could get some more zombies done for our games.

SO.... starting from week 1 I started to get at least 10-20 zombies done per week to add to our collection.  I also made the choice that posting 10-20 here and there would not have the same impact as posting them all at once.... SO....here is everything I have gotten done over the course of the challenge in all its monochromatic glory!

As you can see there are several different shades shown here to match up to different types of zombies in the game.  I have done them as follows:
- Normal zombies - grey scale
- Berserker zombies - red scale
- Toxic zombies - green scale
- Skinner zombies - yellow scale
- Dog zombies - grey scale

Nothing here is at all original though, I came across an excellent site years ago when looking for ways to quickly get through the mountians of plastic that came with the game and found Carmens site that has a number of guides on each of the colour schemes required.  You can find a lot of info on his blog here: Carmen's Miniature Painting Blog.

Also, nothing here is painted all that well, or neatly.  The nature of the game is that handfulls of zombies go on the table, and handfuls of zombies come off the table each turn.  The are there more for effect (and look good when there are mobs of them on the table) but each one individually looks pretty poor. These are not figures that you would show people to say "here is how I paint stuff", but when grouped up they look pretty cool, and the different colours let you quickly identify what zombies do what and to sort the threats visually very quickly.  The photos are worse than the figures are too, since I obviously could not put them in a light box with that may of them, so there are only a few pictures that show up any detail at all well (the green one shows the shades properly for some reason, and the rest don't).  They also look much much better than bare plastic, so there is that.

Lastly, as you can probably tell from the big first group shot, there are a LOT of zombies here.  This is in addition to the almost 100 grey scale zombies that I already had done!  The total numbers here are as follows: 
- Normal zombies - 64
- Berserker zombies - 36
- Toxic zombies - 36
- Skinner zombies - 80
- Dog zombies - 20

I think that this submission should appease the wife on the zombie front for at least a little while...  But then again, our copy of Zombicide: Green Horde showed up the day after finishing all these and she said "Come on, you havent painted Black Plague yet and now have Green Horde to do, quit slacking off!",  those will have to wait until next year though, as I am still madly trying to finish off the last of my greek units.

_____________________________________________

Ka-Boooooom!  Brilliant job Byron, what a bomb to drop on me at the last.  Like you I have long admired Carmen's grey scale zombies and have often thought of doing something similar myself, just need to pluck up the courage first.  These look awesome and I love the different colours to represent the different zombie types.  With regards to points, I have decided to give the dogs the full 5 points, thinking that any discrepancy in scale would be offset by the fatties and abominations so that is a whopping 1180 points to you Sir!  

From AlexS: Late Romans (200 pts)

Hello everybody! My name is Alex, I'm from Russia, and I'm an paint-holic. I have scored the necessary points and could continue to have a rest. But I'm an paint-holic! So I painted some more miniatures.

This time I painted part of the band of the Late Romans.

I made a detachment of eight nomad mercenaries, two detachments of archers, a small squad of infantrymen and miniatures for the command teams. I plan to increase this squad due to infantry, but it will be later.

This is the last Saturday of the event and I want to thank my curator, Michael, for his patience, attentiveness, and the subtle English humor that he demonstrated in his correspondence. Thank you, Michael, it was a great communication, you are a wonderful painter and a great creator of the terrain.

8 cav = 80 pts

24 inf = 120 pts

total 200 its

______________________________________________

Firstly Alex, it is I who should be thanking you!  Your enthusiasm and ingenious use of found objects have been an inspiration to many of us this winter.  I have thoroughly enjoyed our correspondence and look forward to following your progress through your blog.  A lovely finally submission and another 200 points to your already impressive tally.  Bravo Sir! 

From PeteF: Various Command Stands, ECW Shot and a Shapeways NCO (110 points)

For submission 18 - which may be my last of the challenge - I tied up some loose ends. 

First was a Napoleonic Russian General and drummer which I made into a command stand. I was hoping to get this submitted last week but my cat attacked the general's horse and broke its legs. I had to use greenstuff and do some drilling - hopefully it's not too visible.

Next is a 3D printed 30 years war NCO from Shapeways. This cost nearly 5 bucks excluding shipping but I wanted to see what the state of the art was as an experiment. The surface is quite bumpy - there is a resin that comes out smoother that wasn't available for this particular model and does cost a bit more. Verdict: Shapeways won't be displacing the existing manufacturers and artisans just yet - although the figure would work fine as a game piece.

By December this year I am hoping to have both sides painted up for Wetzel's Mill - a battle in the AWI southern campaign shortly after Cowpens. These are a few command figures and stands cobbled together from some Perry metals and Warlord sprues that I bought as a job lot online. The Banstre Tarleton figure is the Warlord mounted general that comes on the artillery sprue with a Washington's guard head from the Continental Infantry sprue.

Finally I completed some more mostly dressed in green shot for a Pikeman's Lament army that will be completed sometime in Challenge XV.  These are from Warlord's King & Country set. 

4 Mounted (3 Warlord Plastic 1 Warlord Metal)

14 Foot (1 Warlord Metal, 1 Shapeways Resin, 3 Perry Metal, 9 Warlord Plastic)

110 points

_______________________________________________

Thank you for this Pete, a lovely post and nothing to taxing for my addled brain, points wise.  I was interested to hear about the 3D printed miniature, clearly the way things are going, but somewhat heartened to hear that we are not there yet.  Another 110 points to the tally, but can you finish the last remnants that you have on the painting table by Tuesday?

So it's goodnight from me...

... and it's goodnight from him.

My final scheduled posting as a fully fledged minion and I just wanted to say a huge thank you to my allotted challengers who have kept me entertained with such wonderful work over the recent weeks.  I was so lucky to have such a diverse bunch of styles and periods to work with and have throughly enjoyed our, all too brief, correspondence - gentlemen it has been a pleasure!

So for one final time, this year at least, let's enjoy the Saturday Showcase!

From: SanderS - The Grand Finale Part I (127 points)

Hoi,

These being the last few days of Challenge VIII, I am desperately trying to gain my points target of 1000 points. To do so I have painted up two vehicles and some Indian Mutiny figures.

Let's start with the vehicles. First up is the last of my GI Joe Armadillo's.I had 3 of them printed and while I painted the first two of them in the clean canon pint scheme, I also wanted to have one in a more gritty and stowage endowed version. So therefore I painted one up as a desert vehicle. Sadly I am lacking decals for it so those have to wait, but it is otherwise finished.

The next vehicle is an 1:72 Reviresco WW1 vehicle, it is meant as a sort of proto LRDG vehicle for the Egyptian Expeditionary Force or the one functioning in Africa during the Great War. The load is left separate and I misplaced the driver figure so will have to source  a new one. I am very happy with this little piece.

Next up are 20 Mutineers from the Indian Mutiny era made by Mutineer Miniatures, how many times can one include the word Mutineer in one sentence eh? ;-)

These depict the Mutineers of the middle period of the conflict where most uniforms and equipment have been discarded but not everything yet. I have some units of early Mutiny rebels in uniforms in cue, but those will not be done during this Challenge. I have another project going for next week.

So that pretty much sums up my last regular Friday post, so let's look at the points.
- 1 vehicle in 1:72 scale is 12 points
- 1 vehicle in 28mm is 15 points
- 20 Indian Mutiny figures is 100 points thus totalling 127 points.

 
_____________________________________

Excellent work Sander! It's great to see another addition to your GI Joe force. The dessert colour actually works very nicely for these models. As cool as the Armadillo is I must say that the Reviresco jalopy takes the prize. I particularly like the stowage and arid groundwork. Finally, the Mutineers are terrific. Those sculpts are so characterful and your brushwork has really made them bloom. The officer in the looted jacket is especially eye-catching. A wonderful collection of miniatures!
_______________________________________