From GregB: Another Wrap-Up

That's a wrap for AHPC IX! A pile of stuff, my Jets jersey and my little buddy Joey - all of the key ingredients needed to keep painting!

Another edition of the Painting Challenge has flown by. As many have observed, the time does pass quickly, and as so many others have experienced, I always thought I would be able to finish many more figures than I managed to...at the same time, I made some great progress in several areas of hobby interest, new and old.  My mountain of unpainted stuff has been chipped away, and the inspiration of others has been an excellent motivator! 

The finished pile...

Anyway, here is the obligatory wrap-up photo - my completed figures, sitting in the kitchen where I do my painting.  You can see all of the key things that support my painting obsession - my lamp, the jersey of my favourite hockey player, (Patrick Laine, #29 for the Winnipeg Jets) and my little buddy Joey (more on him below).  The only thing missing is my amazing and understanding wife Linda, who tolerates me setting up in the kitchen to paint for hours and hours - and who was kind enough to take this photo!

The Turcos are now prepared to defend France...

I think we all wished could have finished more stuff than we managed to - certainly I'm no exception there.  Like many of you, I had to deal with 1-to-1 scale matters in the background, particularly some demanding things with regard to work, and this slowed my painting production in this edition of the Challenge.  But I still managed to hit my target, which is what matters, right? Looking back on my paintbrush wanderings through the AHPC IX, I was very, very happy to get so many bits for my 28mm Franco-Prussian War collection finished - enough to finally host my first game of "Black Powder" using the figures, something that I am quite chuffed about.

10mm FPW in the foreground...after all, when you love a setting, do it in multiple scales!

I was also very happy to add another great big unit of 28mm Austrians to my Napoleonic collection.  Given the theme of this edition of the Challenge, I was very pleased to get it done - and to have been able to spend several hours working on the figures together with Curt while he and Sarah popped into Winnipeg for a visit. It is a fact that units and figures you paint with your friends perform better on the table.  I'm sure of it!

28mm Austrians tucked in front some units from the Iron Hands in GW's 30k setting...I bet they would love to have that dreadnought on hand to handle Napoleon's lackies...

On the sci-fi side of things, it's always fun to add to my collection of 30k bits - in particular, I finished a few of GW's new plastic Titans for the re-booted "Adeptus Titanicus", and now I have two complete maniples of the "god-engines" in my collection, a great basis for games with my friends, and a good basis on which to add more, naturally :)

Joey having a snooze one night while I was painting late in an evening during AHPC IX.

Now, back to the dog in the photo - that's Joey. Since the theme was "Fellowship", I thought it would only be right to include Joey in my wrap-up photo. He is my constant painting companion. When I'm painting at the kitchen table, Joey likes to stay close and keep an eye on things. So we got him a little doggie bed for the corner of the room. He can relax, snooze and ponder dog matters while I paint away into the wee hours of the morning. Painting is always fun, but its even more fun when you have a loyal little companion snoozing away beside you!

A few super heavy tanks for the 30k setting - and some Vostroyans in the background.

In the spirit of those who seem to think we need stats to interfere with painting, I thought I would provide a comprehensive analysis of my painting output in AHPC IX.

Scale breakdown of points total:
28mm: Most of it.
15mm: Some of it.
10mm: A bit of it.
6mm: A little bit.

Period/Setting breakdown of my points total:
Franco-Prussian War: Quite a bit of it.
Napoleonics: A notable amount.
Renaissance/Italian Wars: One figure...not sure what happened there?
Seven Years War: An amount to signify a fixation on Austrian things.
Lord of the Rings: Enough that it could have been more.
30k: A falling contribution indicating loss of focus.
40k: Some amount, pointing to the likelihood of what could have been more.
Arab-Isreali Wars: A token amount signalling a sudden diversion to something else. 

As you can see, careful statistical analysis really consumes a lot of my hobby time!

Thank you to all of the Challengers for your support and inspiration!  Every supportive comment helped keep the brushes moving, and I appreciate very much all who took time to share a thought or an acknowledgement, not always easy as there are so many submissions!

Tamsin, you never fail to support any of us, even as you paint enough to fill a museum, thanks so much for that. Alex, your tremendous output, and clever use of whatever material is on hand to create neat terrain features, is always inspiring.  It was great to see the tremendous efforts of Byron and MikeF, my friends here in Winnipeg.  Nick, your painting skills continue to blow everyone's minds! And a big "thank you" to JaimeM, I can't wait to see that dreadnought arrive here in Canada!

Thanks again to Curt for hosting the madness. It was so nice to see you and Sarah again this winter.  I hope you enjoy your pending trip abroad this spring, and I look forward to seeing you both again soon!

Congratulations and best wishes to all of the Challengers - I hope to be back with you again next winter.

Greg