From Barks: AHPC XIII completed

I like looking back at the end of each Challenge to see what I have painted. It is often a surprise and a reminder of what I can achieve with your inspiration and encouragement. Even though my points target was a bit optimistic, I got a lot of projects out of my 'to-do' tray. I can't really pick a favourite.

I made it through the studio and should now be eligible for admission to the elitist 10 000 points club. Let me in!

Here's a pic of yours truly after an incident trying to get a glass marble into a 200mL bottle of Vallejo Grey Surface Primer.

Looking forwards to XIV!

From Skully McSkullface: The Champion of Skullz AHPC XIII

And the skully overlord is... StuartL!

• StuartL 1575
• DavidB 697
• TeemuL 512
• Sander 97
• ChrisW 86
• MikeW 29
• Barks 29
• PeteF 26
• GregB 18

DavidB painted a mighty 97 skullz in the last week, but we were all swamped in a skullslide from StuartL with his 40K scenery. As winner, Stuart gets to keep last year's winner's skull- which was CurtC! Hopefully Curt has looked after your trophy well.

StuartL's winning gambit

Skullicious detail

Some of DavidB's skullz

DavidB's peak 90's nostalgia

KyleC painted a fellow skull-collecting enthusiast

MattT's evil seven dwarves

ChrisW's distressed damsel

RichardH shares his bony collection

JamesM's Goliaths accessorise with skully motifs

StuartL also painted a rat skull banner!

Skull of the week:

SteveA's classic Warhammer Fantasy

Skully McSkullface has enjoyed counting your skullz and hopes you've enjoyed painting them. He will return!

S McSf, powering down.

From TamsinP: AHPC XIII RoundUp

 

Can you spot what's missing? Apart from me.

This year's Challenge for me was all about what became my final entry - the huge space carrot, and the extra bits I painted to go with it. I kept putting it off and only just got it finished in time, mostly because of the silly joke that I should paint it like a carrot which led to the name, which needed a story, which needed figures, which needed a backdrop, which needed home-made decals...

In putting it off, I found myself painting lots of little bits (some left over from AHPC XII, some purchased or 3D printed since), almost all of which were able to be neatly fitted into the different studios. In past years, I haven't done all of the map locations... actually, I didn't do the dungeon or Quadrant maps - just Treasure Island... but this year saw me visit all fifteen studios and take two limo rides; the only locations I didn't visit were the Gift Shop and the Yellow Brick Road.

Apart from the Spirit of Camberwell, the entries I'm most proud of are the two Judge Dredd busts. The black and white one was actually easier to do than the colour one, and not just because it was smaller - thinking how the colours should be shaded and highlighted (and deciding to go with non-metallic metal for the metal bits) on a larger model where there would be more natural shadow than you would get with a 28mm figure took some adjustment.

Despite my reduced final score compared to most years, I'm still very pleased with everything I've got done. 

From SylvainR: How do I Feel about the Wrap Up? Tray Bien!

I am quite happy with the outcome of this year's Challenge: the desert project is completed and I took a big bite out of Early WW2 armies. I love the fact that we are encouraging each other, although I could have certainly provided more comments to fellow painters. I promise to do better next year.

Many thanks to all the participants, the indispensable minions and, of course Lady Sarah and the Snowlord. And my thoughts are with Oscar whose big fluffy head I will miss petting.

Now that the Challenge is over, I will organize storage for my new units, start putting aside unpainted stuff  and prepare my trays for next year's Challenge.

Ce n'est qu'un au revoir!

Rob H - Wrap Up!

Thank you Curt for organizing the event and thanks to all the minions who help make it run smoothly, and finally to all the participants who made it through the winter.

I am afraid that AHPC XIII ended in late January for me.  I am happy to have succeed my goal by almost 50% . My best showing yet. Three weeks of antibiotics and a request to move after 25 years, put a damper on my grandiose plans. New housing has been secured and packing continues at a brisk speed. My miniature storage units have been dismantled and all the nicely organized boxes packed away in preparation of Der Tag. 

From SimonG: Wrapping Up Another Great Year

With some sadness I've come to the end of my third cycle around the AHPC quarter. It's been another great experience and a points total I'm sure I will never get any where close to again given an unexpected bonanza with my Jewish Revolt Temple Mount terrain!  

Once again I get to bless you with my ugly mug and the fruits of my labours, which included this time around ...

... The last vehicles for my 1980s Cold War Gone Hot project -- all that remains are the BAOR infantry figures (10mm camo, fiddly stuff) ...

... A smattering of vignettes to meet the needs of the AHPC XIII Studio Challenge -- luckily I have lots of shelf space to display these things ...

... More Descent and Black Rose Wars characters, always fun to try out different painting techniques ...

... And the Jews ...

... And Romans for my Jewish Revolt project along with the temple as a sample of the large terrain I worked on -- still plenty more to add for this one and I'm taking delivery of lots of other base figures to work up and add in!

It only remains to say thanks once again to my fellow Tuesday toreadors, to Tamsin for excellent minioning once again, to Lady Sarah for inspiring an exploration of the world of high fashion, to Curt for being the mastermind and ongoing inspiration for this whole shebang, and to all who participated in, commented on and overall made this another great experience -- see you all again in December!

Postscript- I forgot my Nogs, now that my Wife has them in the Kitchen, so here’s a hello from them too

From FrederickC - Painting Challenge XIII Rounds Complete

 Before I get into what I did, I want to thank Curt and his crew of minions for the hard work they did monitoring, adjudicating, tabulating, commenting, etc., and for the design of the Challenge Studio Lot. I also want to thank all those who left comments on my posts. They did a lot to keep me motivated. I tried to respond to all of them and reciprocate in kind. If I missed you, my apologies. In addition I send out my congratulations to all the other participants on the amazing levels of skill and production displayed in an amazing array of different genres and scales. 

 This was my second year of active participation in the Challenge. Although I didn't manage to get as much done as last year, or as much as I had set up in my queue, I am still pretty satisfied with what I did complete. In the three months of painting I was able to finish a total of 15 mounted and 90 foot 15mm figures, 31 mounted and 241½ foot 28mm figures, one 40mm figure, three 54mm figures, six 1/56 WW2 vehicles, and 1½ cubes of terrain before the clock ran out. In addition, I visited six Green studios, four Blue studios, and the Director's Chair. It was enough to hang on to 10th place in the final standings. Here are the pics of what got painted.

 

WW2 Poles, Germans and Brits

 

Studio Lot submissions (The Normans went to the wrong photo shoot)

 

Terrain 'Bits and Bobs'

Lord of the Rings Forces of Evil

Lord of the Rings Dwarves, Elves, a Wizard (and two Normans)

 

Lord of the Rings Rohan and Gondor

 

 The snow in my yard is slowing melting, and soon I will be heading off to other hobbies, but hopefully still doing a bit of painting and gaming between now and the Winter Solstice and the start of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge XIV. I hope to see you all next December. 

Tallyho!

FrederickC

 

In the cockpit of a Spitfire Mk IX

From LeeH - Wrap Up Post: The Battle of Bosworth Project

As always it has been an honor and a privilege to participate in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. It's a credit to everyone involved that it always seems so effortlessly and flawlessly executed. I have been busy painting almost exclusively for my Wars of the Roses/Bosworth project and although there is still work to be done, I have got a large chunk of it completed. It didn't help that a recent trip to Bosworth itself resulted in several more units being added to my initial order of battle. The wrap-up picture shows all the units that I got painted, with blank bases for those units still yet to be done. 

So I have 38 bases yet to be completed, which will keep me busy for a couple of months...especially now the gentle but relentless peer pressure of the Challenge is over! I can't complain, I have managed to hit my points target by a comfortable margin and turned out 123 bases of figures, so I'm well on my way to completing this project. Here's a closer look at the two armies as they stand at the end of the Challenge. 

The partially completed Yorkist army of Richard III

The completed Lancastrian army of Henry Tudor...
...with the Stanley's lagging behind. 

My revised and updated OOB with the unpainted units in yellow.

A Trio of Earls - Henry Tudor, Jasper Tudor, and
Sir John de Vere, Earl of Oxford

Poynings, Guildford, Talbot & Savage

Medieval Town using 2mm buildings

Henry Tudor's army...the French had yet to be completed

Norfolk, Howard, Talbot, and de la Zouch plus 
artillery & skirmishers

The French and Scottish contingent of Henry's army
under the command of de Chande

I even had time to take a weekend out from painting to 
visit the Battlefield of Bosworth in person. 

Henry Tudor and his mounted household

Richard  III and his Knights

I just wanted to end by congratulating everyone that has taken part in this year's Challenge. I have thoroughly enjoyed seeing the incredible quality of entries as they have been posted. The challenge blog has been something of a second home for me over the last 13 weeks, checking in every day to enjoy the dizzying array of incredible talent on display. Well done to everyone, and I look forward to crossing brushes with you all for Challenge XIV !!

From Curt: The Final Post of Challenge XIII - Méliès' 'A Trip to the Moon' (22 Points)

Well after 800 or so posts here we are at the end of Challenge XIII, and what a wonderful time it's been. This is the first year that I largely stepped back from taking part in the posting and scoring and I have to say that it allowed me to enjoy the event all the more. Of course, this meant that I had to rely on a full roster of helpers and, as I knew, I was not disappointed. So my cap is in hand when I say thank you to Peter, Tamsin, Miles, Teemu, Phil, Stuart and Martin. You folks were absolutely brilliant in maintaining your individual crews, while also promoting the Challenge's open and welcoming character. Also, a big thank you to Millsy for keeping track of the Duels, Barks for his ever-entertaining 'Skull Challenge', and to Miles for making sure the Spreadsheet of Doom did not blow apart into its constituent 1s and 0s. 

Arigato, Kiitos and Cheers to you all.

As is customary, I close out the Challenge with our final entry. I usually try to stretch out a bit and do something ambitious, but I have to admit that my spirit was just not there for it. This past week, Oscar, one of our two beloved dog companions, passed away, leaving Sarah, Felix and I completely heartbroken, dearly missing him, and his place in our lives. Nonetheless, I know spring is in the air, and time will heal - just not for awhile.

So, with this recent loss weighing heavy on my heart, I wanted to do something that was simple, but also still captured the spirit of our 'AHPC Studios' theme. 

As a little backstory, Sarah and I were fortunate enough to visit Lyon, France this past autumn, and as a part of our wanderings, we visited the Lumiere Museum, which showcases the art, craft and process of early film making and photography. Highly recommended.

One of the films referenced in the museum was George Méliès' 1902 adventure, 'A Trip to the Moon' - the first sci-fi film ever created. 

I loved 'A Trip to the Moon' as a kid as it seemed so whimsical and weird. As it was inspired by Jules Verne's 'From the Earth to the Moon', Méliès' work was the start of my love of pulp science fiction which moved on to 'War of the Worlds' and 'John Carter of Mars' and of course, 'Star Wars'. 

Anyway, on Cults3D I found this wonderful 3d design by Printorama3d of the iconic image of the Moon's face with the space bullet in its eye. I thought it would be a great excuse for me to drag out my monochrome paints to try to give it a greyscale treatment.

As with my old 'Great War in Greyscale' project, I tried to incorporate both warm and cool grey tones to differentiate the face, the surrounding moon, and the crashed spacecraft. Thankfully, I keep an old Moleskin notebook that has all my paint recipes in it, so I could reacquaint myself with how I did these things in the past. I'd be totally lost without it. 

Even though it's a small and relatively straightforward piece, I found it nice and comforting to return to this style of painting after all these years. Again, it's a modest piece, but I hope you like it.

I'll claim 22 points for this. Two for the model, and 20 for the Black & White Studio.  

________________________________________________________

I want to thank all our participants for their fevered industry and good natured humour. The Challenge is characterized not by me or the minions, but by all of you who participate in it. So again, thank you for the wonderful experience. I can't think of no better way to spend the winter months.

In a week or so I'll post a poll for 'Challenger's Choice', and a little after that we'll have an awards wrap up which will include the Challenger's Choice selection, the Minions' Choice, my SnowLord's Choice and Sarah's Choice. Stay tuned for those announcements.

In the meantime, if you will indulge me, I ask that everyone submit a post featuring a picture of themselves along with their Challenge efforts this season.

Thanks again, and I hope to see you all next winter for Challenge XIV!

- Curt