The 'What a Tanker!' Prize

Hi All!

Curt here, reporting from the sunny south of France. 

Sorree, I didn't know you wanted that last pain au chocolat...

I reluctantly take a break from stuffing myself with pastries, drinking bad plonk and butchering the local dialect to dash off a post announcing the winner of the 'What a Tanker!' prize. 

Sid informed me that Lard HQ was seriously stymied in their attempts to narrow the field for their final selection, as there were so many excellent entries, but he cracked the whip and they managed to come to a consensus. Good man, Sidney!

First up, the list of Honourable Mentions:

Ken's A9 Cruiser Tanks in desert Caunter Scheme, North Africa

Tamsin's M3 Stuart in Australian service, Papau New Guinea

Jasper's camouflaged Puma in ambush pattern camouflage, France 1944

All beautifully executed entries, well done people!

The winner of the Too Fat Lardies 'What a Tanker!' prize goes to Nick's (MartinN) fabulous Panzerjaeger I (France, 1940). Stunning work Nick, well done!

Nick will receive a £25 gift certificate towards purchases of fabulous Lard Island products. Congratulations Nick!

Thanks again to Rich, Nick and Sidney for providing the prize. I know it helped generate a lot of armour over the three months of the Challenge. I hope we can do something similar for our next time out.

- Curt

From Mike D: My Grimdark Winter

The particular area of my unpainted horde I wanted to work on this challenge was all the GW stuff I had purchased for the past year or so. Overall, I wasn't optimistic. I almost missed the deadline for application to the challenge and wound up making it in at the last minute of the waiting list. And I never really got my act together with planning out the challenges, so I left a lot of points on the table there. I set my goal at a piddling 400, but still fell short.

Still, when I look at what I wound up with, I'm happy. Those figures I wanted to paint were very fiddly, and though I know part of the challenge is speed painting, I often find that I set out with best, simplest intentions only to get drawn in to some need to do a particular something that just takes me forever. I did wind up with enough gangs and cultists to actually play with in Necormunda or Kill Team, which these days feels like a big accomplishment to me . (I'm still only half-way through my ADLG 28mm Thracians, and I've been working on it for so many years, it started out as a Warhammer Ancients army.)

Once again, I want to thank everyone involved with the Challenge for their support and inspiration, especially my minion Evan and Curt. This year in lieu of the usual Curtgeld, I've sent a donation to International Rescue Committee. 

Already looking forward to next year!

From TeemuL: Things you do for love

The original idea for this Challenge was to paint vast armies for the re-released Lord of the Rings (or Middle-Earth) Strategy Battle Game. Then I decided to join the Squirrel side challenge. Then Urban Conquest was released for WH40K and I decided to really get back in to that game after 10+ year pause and start a new army...

I did manage to accomplish my personal goals, I hit the target of 900 points, I participated all Theme Rounds and I posted something each week. I managed to paint 11 Squirrels (but I didn't remember to report them in time to Duels Wallah). Above you can see all the painted minis (expect the forgotten ones) and below you can see the same minis and me.

It wasn't the hobbits this year, which I forgot, it was the Hoplites. I took a quick picture of them separately to get them to join this post.

All in all, again an excellent event, very well organized, lots of nice entries (too many to comment - or even read properly) and lots of progress on my armies. In fact, at the moment I own almost 100 unpainted miniatures less than I had 1st January!

From EvanH - The Challenge IX Wrap-Up, or "I Coulda Been A Contender!"

Well, Challengers and Challenge Fans, it was a roller-coaster of an event this year, and I didn't exactly cover myself with glory. I fell short of my target - proper preparation next time!

As in previous years, my output fits comfortably in the frame of a single photo. I'll be the first to admit, I'm no Stakhanovite. I'm more of an artisanal figlimner.

There were some standout entries from my own point of view. There were figures I'd kept unpainted for nearly 20 years;

The unquiet ghosts of bare metal figures have at last been put to rest!

Some decidedly odd detours;

And an actual ranked-up unit of troops;

And here is my body of work for Challenge IX, as well as the body of me, which is (for some reason) a requirement set down by Our Esteemed Host, Mr Curtis Campbell Esq, in the fine print.

Portrait of the Artist as an Overweight Middle-Aged Man

Next time round, I'm going to get organised, dammit! Because here's what I was working on when the final bell sounded. Missed it by that much!

I only painted one figure between Challenges VIII and IX, so here's hoping I can do a bit better than that this year.

It's been an honour and a privilege to have taken part in the Painting Challenge, and to have enjoyed my first outing as a Minion. Thanks to Curt for entrusting me with this very important duty; I hope I was able to repay your confidence in me! Thanks also go out to the Wednesday Warriors, for being all-round good blokes and extra patient with a newbie minion. It's been grand!

So, will I be able to get it together for next year? Stay tuned...

Ev

From DavidB: End of the Line

Another fantastic season of AHPC has come and passed. My output was diminished, but still pretty good considering all the training and family activities I had to do. Although I wish I had more time to devote to painting (and commenting), it was still quality time. A few cold dreary days were made much better by just viewing the content from my email.

A pretty good haul of painted minions was achieved which included finishing the contents of several GW games like First Strike and Execution Force. I made a substantial dent in Overkill too.

I still have lots of Imperial Assault to complete, but all Battle fleet Gothic ships are finished. I even have enough Scifi that is not Grimdark to venture into 5150

My daughter is mighty pleased with her colored fisherman guild and now has defeated me twice with them. I scored the farmers guild and decided I will keep that team for myself, perhaps with practise I'll be able to tally a win?!

With a freshly painted Huron force, I have plenty to play Flint and Feather. Warlord Games neglected to bring FIW forces to Adepticon, but I did get Blackpowder, Frostgrave, and Saga. I'll be reading those tomes for a bit, but it appears my ancestors will soon have lots of adventures!

I still have three traitor titans and three forces of marines to paint, but the Dark Angels turned out pretty good for an initial foray into Epic. The other loyalist chapter and traitor legions will wait for later.

I anticipated using the Deathwatch forces, but did not take them to Adepticon. I'll use them this summer to support the Cadian 7th in an apocalypse game....I really need some Knights and flyers!

I now have six WW1 figures, not enough for WW1 gaming, but when added to my modest pulp figures, I do have enough for some two fisted pulp gaming!

The Fenrisian wolves were probably my favorite unit painted in this period. They are massive, but will be used in several genres. I may actually use the 54mm Inquisitor figures for a game instead of decoration. The wolves do scale nicely with them.

So maybe not a massive amount of completed miniatures, but it is certainly enough to add to gaming options on wet summer days.

Adepticon also provided a nice haul of goodies to supplement my Christmas haul. Blackstone Fortress, ShadowSpear, Test of Honor, and I even got an incredible deal on Dreadball (two games 12 teams and more for $35!!!!) I even found a mint Eisenhorn which I promptly devalued by assembling!

Yup, getting older and no wiser! I still have a couple models to paint for a friend and Star Saga to complete, but it's nearly time to put the paints away for summer. A final thanks to all for this years challenge as well as Curt for shepherding us along and Sarah for allowing the indulgence. I hope you all have a wonderful summer, and I'll try to see you all again after the leaves fall! 

Tom Cochrain- life is a highway