From JamesM: Challenge VIII lineup!

Hi folks,

My final round up for the challenge, which is a veritable array of 15mm artillery 'goodness' (with some 3mm sci fi thrown in):

I've not taken pictures of my terrain efforts, as that's all packed away. But Ray will no doubt attest that I completed a fair amount of terrain, which all went towards gracing this table (all my terrain) during the challenge, and which took a fair chunk of time out of my painting schedule to set up and run:

If you look closely you'll see trees that were based, rough ground/forest bases made, church walls painted, outbuildings painted and a couple of buildings and outbuildings converted and painted as well.

Final tally for the German guns (by calibre!) was:

4 x 15.5cm sFH 414(f) - French guns in German service
3 x 15cm Nebelwerfers (Heer)
3 x 15cm Nebelwerfers (SS)
4 x 10.5cm leFH 18 guns (Heer)
3 x Wespes (10.5cm guns)
4 x Luftwaffe 88's
2 x Heer 88's
2 x SS 88's
3 x 3.7cm AA guns
3 x Quad 2cm AA guns
4 x 2cm AA guns

For a total of 35 guns! Suffice to say I am now as sick of painting 15mm German artillery as you guys will be of seeing it! I think there must be close to 150 artillery crewmen with those guns as well. A lot of 'support slots' filled in, and a good start on my planned III Flak Corps force as well.

Thanks everyone for the positive comments throughout the challenge, and it's been a pleasure to see everyone else's work and to chat with people on the Painting Hangout - especially impressive to watch Kent motor through unit after unit in the time it took me to paint a couple of figures!

This was my second year in the challenge, and I set myself a higher target than last year and managed to significantly beat that, although I think entering every themed round helped that significantly. I had hoped to finish in the top 30, which I achieved. I was very very pleased to get an entry's for the themed rounds in the top 5 twice.

Cheers also to Ray, for getting all the stuff checked and posted, even when it was those annoying terrain entries! thanks to Curt, as ever, for running the show. No Curtgeld model from me this year, but I will be making a donation at the Hammerhead show to whichever veterans charity is in attendance.

From TomM: the rookie made it to the finish line

It is an time-honoured tradition... at the end of the Challenge, participants are asked to post a picture of themselves together with the figures they painted.

Okay... technical problem... I don`t have that large a table at the place where my figures are stored...

So I went to that other medium instead that I have at my disposal: the trusty videocamera and made a short movie, making sure my ugly mug is on it to get you through the summer months.

It was great venture to participate in, and while it did reduce lead mountain significantly (I guess I did around 300 figures, haven`t counted them exactly I`m afraid)... it also had an "unfortunate" side effect.  You see, as I rummaged thorugh my boxes to add variety to what was planned to be all pink and plastic dark ages as entries, I stumbled across figures long forgotten, like the Shang Chinese.  So of course I`ll need to build an army of them now, what else is a wargamer to do!

Oh well, at least that will give me plenty of figures to enter in the NEXT year (is it december already?) challenge, and some very "guided" shopping at out Crisis wargame show come november.  And that Mongol army still is eyeing me, begging for paint... they might have to wait just that bit longer then...

Well, that`s it for me then this year, this was great fun, and all I have to do now is split that 1.5 shelf of all sorts of figures through each other to their respective armies, orden the cabinets as such, and update the "The Armies" page on my blogsite to round it all out.

Until next year!

From AlexS: Mr. Number Six

Hello everyone, my name is Alex, I'm from Russia. The third time I participate in this magnificent event and the second time my number is six. I am the sixth in the alphabetical list and the sixth in the list by the number of points. And that's fine. Stability is fine. Here is my result:

I would like to thank Curt for this wonderful event, Michael for his work as curator, Greg for his wonderful works that inspired me, Tamsin for her comments and for being a very important person for all of us, Valeria, who instead of me participated from Russia in this event, as well as all the participants for their work and perseverance.

Thanks again to everyone and see you next time!

ВАШЕ ЗДОРОВЬЕ!

From KenR : Challenge End

To follow up Curt's post here is my haul from the Challenge, it looks rather a lot when it' set up on the table.

This year was my second go at the Challenge and my first attempt was good but I had a bit of a scattergun approach, this time however I had a plan. Alternating posts of WW1 Mesopotamia and WW2 Desert and apart from an "emergency" Spanish Civil War entry (needed for a game) I stuck to it.

Above is the Mesopotamia collection, I did everything I had prepped with the sole exception of some British Cavalry.

The WW2 collection is a lot smaller but I had a lot of fun with these, I tried out some new Caunter Camouflage Scheme paints as well as playing around with some weathering techniques for the first time. I am most pleased with the way the Germans turned out, they are the first Afrika Korps vehicles I have done. The A9s have come out nicely as well, useless on the battlefield but not bad looking.

And finally my collection from my brief "Spanish" period. Again this cleaned out my to do box. The railway station came out nice and the Hispano Suiza Armoured Car is a thing of beauty with those lines.

So there you have it, personally a great Challenge in which I got a lot of stuff done, including one ginormous gun ! It really spurs you on working alongside others and congratulations to all who took part.

I honestly don't think my output for the next 3 months will be as big ! Pop along to the Yarkshire Gamer website now and again to say hello and see if I manage to paint anything else this year.

Thanks again Curt for organising this year and I hope I get invited back next year.

From Barks: Slaying the monster

Another Challenge down! Always a great start to the hobby year. I had a few unplanned projects but was still able to slide over the line with a nice 1147 points. (I ran the Skullometer over this bunch and it reads 13).

My usual variety of scales and genres... There's a lot of plastic here (and some MDF), only four metal models. Hopefully they all get some table time!

Here I am with the usual suspects at CanCon on January:

A thorn between two roses... Kaptain Kobold, the Gimp, and me.

You've all been great company, looking forwards to Challenge IX!

From KentG: Challenge VIII Group Shot

 Well here it is or should i say most of it   when I entered the comp my plan was to try and paint 22 regiments of French infantry which i must admit i didn't think i could but as i started to really push myself i realised not only was i going to be possible but that i could crack on into some other areas.

I think what helped me was that for 5 months before the comp i had been painting figures every week for my YouTube channel and i think this prepared me for the step up. So my summer was spent inside a wee room with a wee paint brush, after being beaten twice on the last day of the comp i was determined to give this everything i had. I've enjoyed meeting some new friends the live painting sessions on google plus and most of all seeing all the amazing posts, so keep it up everyone and maybe just maybe you will see me again in the next challenge.

 I worked out that i painted around 930 different figures

From LeeH - AHPC VIII Body of Work

This was my fourth Painting Challenge and this time around I set myself what I thought was an ambitious target of 1000 points, especially when painting 6mm figures. Well I blew my target out of the water and achieved a personal best that I never would have thought possible just a few months ago. My final tally came to 1307 points which I am very VERY pleased with. And here's a picture of everything that I completed during the Challenge.

LeeH body of Work  - AHPC VIII

Smashing my target! 

What we have here are mostly Baccus 6mm figures and the beginnings of two armies for the Anglo Zulu War of 1879. I say beginning because I reckon I'm less then half way through my Zulu's and I still have a lot of British units still to paint, and that's just so I can recreate the Battle of Isandlwana. Talking of which here's a quick picture of the battle with the forces I have completed so far. 

Isandlewana, January 1979

And a more detailed look at the British Units I completed over the last three months.

24th Foot Marching

24th Foot in Line

24th Foot in Skirmish

Artillery and Gatling Guns

Imperial Mounted Infantry

Bell Tents

Cattle

Ox Waggons

All the British I have completed thus far

Not forgetting the Zulu Army... It looks like a lot but these represent just 14,000 warriors and there were somewhere in the region of 21,000 at the Battle of Isandlwana. I have a lot more Zulu's still to paint!

iNgobamakhosi Regiment

iMubbe and Isanqu

Nokenke

umCijo

umHlanga

Zulu Commanders

Riflemen / Skirmishers

And the whole Impi as it stands right now

I always enjoy the Bonus rounds, even if the categories sometimes give me a headache. This year I was able to take part in all the Bonus rounds and here's what I came up with.

Flight

BFG

Musician

Childhood

Monstrous

This just leaves the extra items I painted ans submitted as regular entries. Along with my bonus round entries these will go in my limited display space....I'm gonna need a proper display cabinet pretty soon.

Jingle Bells!

Bromhead

Looking Forward

I'm really happy with my output this year. My own target of 1000 points was a real challenge for me and one I thought I would struggle to achieve. I owe my success in no small part to a very understanding wife who has given me plenty of space to get on with my painting. Of course the payoff for her is that I have promised to get some home decorating done... so I'll be swapping my brushes for something a little larger in the next few weeks. The break from painting 6mm figures will no doubt give my eyesight a rest.

Once again a big thank you must go out to Curt for running this madness and to all the Minions who did a wonderful job keeping track of points and posts (yes, even you Ray). But I think the biggest thank you has to go out to all the other participants and the massive array of entries they have submitted. Its been inspirational and I'm humbled to be in such talented company. OK, time to start buying new stuff...see ya'll in 9 months!