From StuartL: Under Construction (120 Points)

Hello all,

It is good to be back in the Challenge, and this year I am hitting the ground running. As this is my first year as a minion, I want to get as much done as possible before I have to start spending my brush time checking posts. For me, the challenge starts at 3pm and luckily I had the afternoon off, so I was able to jump straight in with the painting and get to work. I had also made sure that dinner was ready to go (just a quick zap in the microwave), so when my better half got home I didn't need to take an extended break from the workbench. 

I opted for the Under Construction part of the studios as all of the minis I painted up today seem to fit the bill quite nicely.

First up, ten Anglo-Saxons from Gripping Beast miniatures.

I bought a huge pile of GB plastics way back in 2017 as part of a group project to recreate the battles of 1066, starting with The Battle of Fulford. We managed to get that battle played, but due to the easily distracted nature of wargamers that was it. Members of the project then moved to other countries, or downsized their collections, leaving me the only person in my local club still interested. So I have been slowly plugging away at a vast stash of figures and the above are part of that ongoing war of attrition.

Which leads me to these five Vikings, also from Gripping Beast. Originally I was only going to paint up the Saxon force for 1066 (plus maybe a few dozen Normans), but the player doing the bulk of the Vikings sailed off for distant shores, rather fitting I suppose. So, nothing else for me to do but collect them too. 

Since most dark age/early medieval figures tend to look somewhat similar, I try to make my two forces easy to tell apart. The Saxons tend to be in very simple colours, with a cross or quartered pattern on their shields. For the Vikings, I go for brighter clothing and a half patterned shield. This should make gameplay a bit less confusing when models get swallowed up in a melee. Eventually I will have enough minis for the Battle of Stamford Bridge, and these five will help me reach that goal.

My final set of minis for this post are five Northstar/Oathmark Dwarves. In the last challenge I painted up what I thought was all of the minis for my Dwarf army. (HERE) However, as it transpired, I had actually missed a bunch. When AHPC 12 was announced, I considered joining the Squirrel duel and so set 5 minis to one side for that. When I came to paint up the bulk of my army, I forgot to include the Squirrel group. These guys have been sat waiting to join their brethren all year.

 

So, with those out of the way, my Dwarf army is finally complete. Until I buy more minis that is.

So, that should be 10 Anglo-Saxons, 5 Vikings and 5 dwarves for a total of 20x 28mm minis. That plus the location bonus should bring me to 120 points as my opening score. 

These 3 entries are all Squirrel points as well, giving me a nice hat-trick on my first post. Yay.

My Side Duels:

Squirrels - 3

Anglo-Saxons

Vikings

Dwarves

Skullz - 0

Turnips - 0

So, now to wait for a minion to come along and confirm things.

Wow, you call that an entry? Those shields look a bit rushed, and the rims on the dwarves' shields don't match the ones you did last year. You didn't even bother to paint the eyes. Go back and try again.

-Stuart

Wait, why am I being so mean?

You are your own worst critic. Be thankful you are getting any points at all.

Um.... I don't think I can actually minion myself.

Why not, Curt does it?

Yeah, but he's the Snow Lord and is all-powerful and all-knowing. Maybe I should wait for him or one of the more experienced minions to come along.

Oh, I see how it is. Fine, we'll wait for someone else then!

Fine!

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Stuart, buddy, you're talking to yourself. You need to stop drinking your paint water and take a bit of a break. Take if from the 'all-powerful, all-knowing Snow Lord' (who is both a bit manic, and has a great affinity for paint water). :)

Seriously, great work Stuart! As we're not even a full day into the Challenge I think this counts as our first Paint Bomb. Well done! Your Anglo Saxons and Vikings look right proper for a Dark Age dust-up, but I have to say my favourites here are your doughty Dwarves, especially their spiffing shields. Well done! 

- Curt

From MartinC: 02 Hundred Hours German Sentries Black and White (70 points)

And I'm off on another painting frenzy. Shoulder better, fingers covered in paint. 02hundred is a new game to be played under night conditions. We are playing on 28th and so I need to paint the figures today and tomorrow before I go away for Christmas. As it is entirely night time scenarios I was always going to paint them in grey scale. The figures are from Wargames Foundry's very small but excellent WW2 range

They have come out a little darker than I wanted. The only colour are cap badges and the torch

and the dog's tongue

Love the dog

Officers look good

Now I have to paint the commandos

Scores on the doors

10x28mm infantry = 50 points

Black and white bonus = 20points

total = 70pts

that will do for now. 

Have a good Christmas one and all

Martin

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That is a great take on greyscale, Martin, and, like you, I particularly like the dog. I agree, the Foundry WWII range (Perry sculpts) really is terrific, more than holding its own against newer ranges. I saw '02 Hundred Hours' when were in Arnhem this autumn, and I'm kicking myself for not picking it up as it looks like good fun. Maybe I'll snag the digital version to see what it's like. I look forward to seeing your upcoming commandos, but until then have a great Christmas Martin!

From ByronM: 1980's - Boba Fett (25 points)

Well, another challenge is underway, and as luck would have it I was off today due to working an extra day last week.  That gave me time to get several projects underway, but one key question bugged me, what to start with....

While looking at the map the last few days I realized that I pretty easily had something for pretty much every room without even hunting too hard.  One of the only rooms I was not sure what to do with was the 1980's room, not having anything that I would view as quintessential 80's, then I happened across some Star Wars Legion figures and Boba Fett and realized that the best Star Wars movie came out then, exactly 1980 in fact, The Empire Strikes back.  So this entry will count as my first foray into the AHPC Studios as well as my first of the challenge.

Time to get painting...

Painting Boba Fett also got a figure that was sitting here primed on a painting stick for the last 2 challenges done and out of the way.  He was simply primed black and left for the last 2 years so I started by applying a zenithal highlight to the base coat and then started blocking in the colours.

I tried to stick to the original colours as much as I could find and remember.  I am sure I got a few things wrong, but overall I am pretty happy with the look of this guy. He is a bit rough, but I tried to leave him a little rough to get the battle worn look he has in the movies.  Not sure if it worked, but he looks OK next to the rest of my Star Wars Legion figures, so that is good enough for me.

Kaiser however, does not look impressed....  Or maybe he is just curious about what all this painting is for.

Well, back to the painting table, I have many many 10mm figures that have had washes slapped onto them sitting drying and waiting to get some more paint on them....

Have fun everyone!

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Welcome back to the Challenge Byron! I agree with you, Empire is the best of the batch (with Rogue One coming a close second) and a perfect choice for the 80s theme.Your Bobba Fett looks brilliant! I really like the punchy colours, especially the yellow and green. A great mini!

Now, give Kaiser a good scratch behind the ears, have a sip of eggnog, and get on with your next mini! :)

- Curt

From LeeH - "HO-HO-HO" [5 pts]

Well, that nine months shot past in a blur and here we are again for Challenge XIII. As is my tradition I am kicking off my painting campaign with an alternative Santa...or in this case Hogfather. Terry Pratchett's Discworld is full of memorable characters but none made me laugh as much as Death. And when Death stepped in and donned the outfit of the Hogfather some of the best humor ensued. So when I saw this model I had to buy it and put it aside for the Painting Challenge. 

“IT'S THE EXPRESSION ON THEIR LITTLE FACES I LIKE." said the Hogfather.

"You mean sort of fear and awe and not knowing whether to laugh, cry or wet their pants?"

"YES. NOW THAT IS WHAT I CALL BELIEF.”

― Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

I have a few days off work before the holiday and that means lots of painting... Actually, it means multiple bursts of activity in the hobby room in between other seasonal-related chores. Keep the wife happy and everything else falls into place! I was up early today and got cracking on this model but I have also been making up the first set of flags for my 6mm Wars of the Roses project. With a bit of luck, a following wind, coordinated with the wife's afternoon nap, and I may get some paint on those as well before the day is out.

Best of luck to everyone taking part this year and thank you once again to Curt (and Lady Sarah of course) for hosting this madness for the thirteenth year. Now that's what I call having an understanding wife! 

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Welcome back to the Challenge Lee! I love your Death/Hogfather, especially the grim little gifts that he's toting. I think if I saw him I'd be in the latter group for 'joyous response'.  :)

Now that you're on the scoreboard you can rest easy and go back to keep the missus happy during this busy time of the season. Have a good one, mate!

- Curt

From Barks: Xmas-a-tron (5 points)

I like to start each Challenge with a seasonal miniature. Here is a free 3D sculpt from Imitation of Life. I used Contrast over a metallic undercoat- it came out darker than expected, and is far from my best work. The LED lighting is unforgiving. But I do like experimenting with new techniques, and it was quick- about an hour all up. I haven't done any snow so it can fit in with my post-apocalyptic wasteland scenery.

1x 28mm figure: 5 points

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Haha, good one Barks. Thus begins the host of whacky holiday season figures we'll see over the next few days. I wonder if he's taking or defending the Christmas presents? Perhaps the gun is one, and is really a TV remote. Anyway, I do like his fur-trimmed winter boots, scarf and antlers(?!). 

Welcome back to the Challenge Barks.

From Curt: Welcome to Challenge XIII - Film Crew from the Golden Age of Cinema (25 Points)

Hello and welcome to the 13th edition of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge!!

As tradition dictates, I kick off the Challenge with our first entry, and to break the ice I thought I'd try to hit two-birds-with-one-stone. To fulfil the 'Under Construction' location, I decided to dig up an old set of figures that have been sitting, half done, on my desk for the past several years. In addition, with them being a film crew, I thought they would be a nice fit for the movie magic theme of this year's Challenge.

Years ago I came up with a simple set of rules to (ahem) set the stage for madcap stunts and the off-the-cuff storytelling found behind the scenes of a movie set during the Golden Age of Cinema.

The rules challenge players to attain ‘Top Billing’ status by either having the most Fame Points by the end of shooting, or by simply being the last character to still be left standing on the movie set. The actors with the top Fame scores at the end of the shoot will have Top Billing on the movie playbill, and be able to bask in cinematic glory - perhaps having a shot at an Academy Award for their unscrupulous efforts.

A 'scene' from our Sword & Sandals game (note the 1.0 version of the film crew)

Previous victims, er, players of a 'Top Billing' game

...and their hard-earned Academy Awards!

The rub is that the actors are often forced to spend their Fame to gain the Director's attention, and so foil the plans of competing actors. With this, the actors have to strike a balance between protecting their accrued Fame while also spending it wisely it to seize the moment in order to burnish their reputations. 

For example, any player/actor can interrupt the action of another by demanding a 'screen re-write'. These re-writes can range from (but are not limited to) choreographing a complex stunt, constructing a scene where another actor looks the fool, or perhaps seizing the camera crew to get a closeup as they give a pithy line of dialogue. 

These 're-writes' are entirely up to the imaginations of the players and always create a huge amount of good-natured fun. In addition each screen re-write can be challenged by another star sparking 'Ego Trips' where the contesting stars bid-up their Fame points to try to convince the Director (GM) why their approach to the scene should be favoured. It's all good, silly fun.

Anyway, back to the task at hand. This film crew is offered by the talented folks over at Eureka Miniatures.  They are a wonderful set of minis, and a real joy to work with. Now I just need to get Byron to make me an acrylic 'field of view' template to fit the round base and I'll be set... 

Only the 'clapper' fella will be scored for this entry, as he was the final mini that needed to be done to finish the set.

So, we have 5 for the 'clapper', along with another 20 bonus points for the 'Under Construction' location = 25 points! I'm on the board and in first place no less. ;) We'll see how long that lasts...

Next, I think some pulpy fun is needed so I'm going to take the road south to check out the film set for Hight Adventure. Wish me luck!

Now, let's get this show on the road, folks! I look forward to the floodgates opening, with your entries rolling in sharp-quick. Remember that from now until January 1st is 'free-fire' submission, meaning you can submit entries whenever you want, so take advantage of the holiday season to kick-off your own Challenge.

Happy holidays everybody and Welcome to Challenge XIII!

- Curt