From TomG'' - First Post from the wind swept Sander's Sand Dune. - 40 Points

Hey all, here is my first ever entry to The Painting Challenge, but, boy, what a rollercoaster it has been to get it to you! Having planned my painting recipes, packed all of the paints needed and set off to the in-laws house for Christmas week, I get there only to find I left all of my minis at home! THE HORROR! A whole week of the painting challenge being wasted... or was it? Being able to see all of thr amazing entries come flooding in was so inspiring, that as soon as I got home I dived in to the hobby office and let the Yuletide juices flow.

So here for your viewing pleasure is the Holiday Hellboy by Mantic Games. 

So in keeping with the Sanders Sand Dune I was wondering what I had that was red, and if course it had to be Big Red, but I wanted there to be a twist to the standard red coat Santa look. As such I checked out some old Christmas cards of St Nick, and found some that had very similar gifts in their sacks, minus the skulls of course. 

However when it came to the red I wanted to make sure the stone hand and arm stood out from the skin, so to achieve this it was painted with a less saturated palette, then given a wash with black oil paint. 

Unfortunately this image came out a bit blurred, but hopefully it shows off some of the effort that went in to the green fabric, and the textured effect that I was testing on the gift sack. 

Finally was was the base, and although I've not seen snow this festive season, I couldn't resist the urge for a white Christmas for Hellboy. It was surprisingly fun to bury the skulls in snow and to leave some settled on the grave stones. 

For 2 days work I'm pretty happy with how this one has turned out, and it has helped motivate me to get more sorted. Now I think that this it's classed as a 28mm mini, and with it being a challenge entry, I'm guessing it'll give me 35 points? If not a solid 5 and my first entry secured makes me happy. Next up will be something slithery from warmer climates.

Well your pent up creative juices have certainly worked here Tom.. Thats a fine entry to challenge island .I am going to top you up to 40 points for all the extra work on the skulls and basing - its a lovely job 

oh and for the stats nerds out there - yes Miles thats you - this is also the 4000th post on the challenge blog!