Wednesday, 20 November 2024

The 15th Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge

The leaves are off the trees, there's a cold bite in the air and I'm ready to pick up a brush and settle at the hobby desk.  

As a reflection to my outlook on this funny old thing called Life, this year's theme will be Dante's 'Divine Comedy'. Participants can join me in journeying with Dante to the various locations of Paradise and The Inferno. Hey, at least we'll be warm!


The Basics
The Painting Challenge will extend from the first day of Winter, 12:01 am December 21st, through to the first day of Spring, 12:01am March 20th, Central Standard Time (CST).
Miniatures (i.e. figures, vehicles, artillery, etc.) can be prepared, assembled and primed prior to the start date, but you cannot start painting until December 21st. In order to gain full points. The figures should be based (if appropriate) and any planned groundwork completed. The figures have to be painted by you. 
The Challenge follows the honour system in the completion and entry of figures. 
Miniatures can be in any scale and from any genre (pulp-adventure, science-fiction, fantasy, etc.).

The Challenge provides a simple (if imperfect) scoring system so participants can establish a benchmark to work towards. To be clear, the Challenge is NOT to judge the work, but to simply help inspire hobbyists to get stuff done.

For purposes of scoring, participants will create draft blog posts of their work on the  Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge blog. Up-to-date scoring (or as up-to-date as we can manage) will be handled by our intrepid team of Minions and displayed the blog's main page. 
I will send out an email to new participants a week or so prior to the event to provide additional details on submitting your entries to the Challenge blog.
Note: All participants must have at least one entry submitted within the first four weeks of the event (i.e. January 21st). Failure to do so will result in being dropped from the Challenge roster. Yep, remember, this is not called a Challenge for nothing. :)

 

The Scoring

Below is an outline of how we score entries: 
 
6mm foot figure = 0.5 point
6mm mounted figure, artillery piece or crew served weapon = 1 point
6mm vehicle = 2 points
10mm foot figure = 1 point
10mm mounted figure, artillery piece or crew served weapon = 3 points
10mm vehicle = 6 points 
15mm foot figure = 2 points
15mm mounted figure, artillery piece or large crew served weapon = 4 poin
ts
15mm vehicle = 8 points

20mm foot figure = 4 points
20mm mounted figure, artillery piece or crew served weapon = 8 points
20mm vehicle = 15 points

28mm foot figure = 5 points

28mm mounted figure, artillery piece or crew served weapon = 10 points
28mm vehicle = 20 points
40mm foot figure = 7 points
40mm mounted figure, artillery piece or crew served weapon = 15 points
40mm vehicle = 25 points
54mm foot figure = 10 points
54mm mounted figures, artillery piece or crew served weapon = 20 points
54mm vehicle, limber, etc. = 30 points 
Other scales, miscellaneous models/figures will be scored on a submission-by-submission basis. 


Terrain Submissions

Feel free to enter terrain with your submissions, but they will not be eligible to be scored for points.


Welcome to the 'Divine Comedy'!


Those doughty Challengers who wish to to gain bonus points can gird their loins to participate in Dante's journey through The Abyss and Paradise. Dante's path will feature various locations which participants can explore by completing a themed hobby task. Once you've completed the task at a location you will get bonus points and will be clear to travel on to the next location. 

Remember, participants do not need to engage with The Divine Comedy to enjoy the Challenge, it is a voluntary diversion for those wishing to try some theme-based challenges.

In a few weeks I'll follow up with another post laying out the specifics of Dante's travels, its layout, and the bonus themes. I promise it will be hellishly good fun. ;)


Our Marvelous Minions

Keeping to form, I will serve as the Head Daemon / Tormentor-in-Chief / High Dork Lord, etc., BUT I've also 'convinced' a happy group poor souls to serve as 'Minions' to help me keep this all chugging along. Here are the wonderful people (along with their assigned days) who have taken my Faustian pact to assist in this year's Challenge:
  • Monday: Millsy
  • Tuesday: PaulOG
  • Wednesday: GregB
  • Thursday: TeemuL
  • Friday: MartijnN
  • Saturday: SylvainR
  • Sunday: Lady Sarah
We also see the return of MilesR who will be our spreadsheet guru and PeterD who will keep on top of the Duels (see below). Thank you guys for stepping up to help for this year's edition!

Signup, Personal Targets and Duels

For those wishing to participate please send me an email, providing the following information: 
1) your full name (no, not your cool nerdish handle, your actual name),
2) your country of residence, and 
3) your points target for the three months of the event (see below).
My email address is:
curtcampbell at mac dot com 
I will post a comment below when the roster has been filled and will follow-up with an email in a couple weeks detailing the specifics of the event.

Points Target: Many participants have found the personal points targets to be a great incentive to maintain their pace over the three months of the Challenge. I encourage participants to pick a target that is just beyond your comfort zone, but still achievable. As a rough benchmark, 300 points is considered a manageable amount for someone who is new to the the event and/or has a busy work/life schedule. Also remember that a significant amount of points can be secured by tailoring submissions to this year's various themes (more on this later).

Duels: Also, related to the points targets, many people have a lot of fun issuing 'paint duels' to other participants. This could be racing to meet a declared target, painting the most figures for a specific period, etc. We have our indomitable Minion, PeterD, to keep track of the duels, but more on that in a later post.


The Cost of Entry

Last year we had great success with our donations to our local libraries. Thank you again to all those who supported that worthwhile cause. This year I ask participants to donate to either to Doctors Without Borders or The Glow Mission - both worthy charities in need of support. 

_______________________________________



Challenge XV begins at 12:01am December 21st!

Now, sign up for the Challenge and get you minis arranged for painting. We'll see you on the start line in a few weeks!



67 comments:

  1. Looking forward to another challenge.

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  2. Email sent. Happy to be back in The Game.

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  3. Can’t wait to get started. Email sent. Thank you all!

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  4. Entry submitted. Can’t wait to get into it again! Thanks once again to Curt and all the minions

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  5. And for those who want a rollicking and pacy intro to the Divine Comedy I heartily recommend Alasdair Gray’s translation - the first time ever I was able to finish Paradisio 😅

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    1. I was looking at the Clive James one- thoughts?

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    2. I was thinking Sid 'Dirty Laugh' James. Sort of a 'Carry On To Hell' :)

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    3. I have the Clive James -- but have yet to dive into it, my other go to recommendation is Allen Mandelbaum, very direct but still poetic. A direct comparison with James shows the latter is much more florid -- whether or not that's to your taste I don't know. I have the Mandelbaum in a beautiful parallel translation and I highly recommend you get a parallel translation to follow along with, Dante era Italian is far easier to read than Chaucerian English I find.

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  6. Ok, let’s do it again - 1000 pts please

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  7. Happy days are Here again! Of course I’m in, looking forward to descending into the Abyss. Great!

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  8. Good luck everyone, I'm afraid I can't join this year as I'm only home for less than two weeks during the whole challenge but I will be cheering from the sidelines and the Divine Comedy sounds like an excellent bonus round!
    Best Iain

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    1. That’s a shame, Iain! Our most consistent supporter absent… I hope you will be able to pop in once in a while!

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    2. Yes, you will be missed Iain. Please do drop in to say hello when you can!

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  9. This year's is an interesting topic indeed, Curt. I may also attempt to read the full book (we did the Inferno bit in my local book club a couple of years ago) Sending my registration as we speak

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  10. I'm in, no shock there. Now where did I put my painting mojo, I have a 28mm napoleonic bavarian division to build and paint

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  11. Count me in! Prepping the stash now!

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  12. I'm in but count me grumpy at the disrespect shown terrain - tis a sad world we live in now

    :)

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    1. I hear you- the skullz will still count for the skull tally!

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  13. I'm in! I got models, I got paints, I should have some time. But what should I use to try to entertain you on Thursdays...

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    1. Things about Finland as ever please !

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    2. I'm running out of emojis, so I need to figure out something new. :)

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  14. Email sent. Terrain not eligible? Hmm... All those buildings prepped for naught.

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  15. E-mail sent. As always lots of figures to paint which of course doesn't translate into lots of figures painted, but when hasn't that stopped me from deluding mys.. err... trying that is. I'm in!

    Christopher

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  16. Email sent, I hope I'm not too late.

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  17. I'm in. Me and BigLee have a knew joint project to start!

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  18. I'm ready to go again, count me in 👍

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  19. Count me in! And with brand new prescription glasses (as of last week) tuned just for painting distance, hopefully I will actually be able to paint again without getting frustrated about not being able to see details and painting like crap and get back to my old, younger eyed painting self.

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  20. Email sent,

    Thinking about my 20mm ww2 Americans or 28mm French guard this year as the central themes, with a few odd bits thrown in as usual.

    Cheers
    Matt

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  21. I'm still stuck with my painter's block (18 months! Aaarrrrggghhhh!), so won't be entering this year, but will volunteer my services as a "cover minion" in case any of the seven need to take a break.

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    1. Aaarrrrggghhh indeed! Pity, though I’m sure you stepping in will be much appreciated. Looking forward to meeting the High Demoness! Or am I?

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    2. It will be a pity not having you with us Tamsin, but I understand painter's block and how outside pressure sometimes doesn't help. Please follow us along and drop in for a comment when you can.

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  22. First time joining for me, looking forward to it!

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  23. Looking forward to painting with you all once again!

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  24. Sadly I must pass this year, but best wishes to everyone, have fun & good painting!

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  25. In for a penny!

    Email on it's way.

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  26. Rhys and I are very excited to participate again this year.

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  27. It looks like I will have to pass this year, mainly because I had planned to concentrate on terrain, which I have been busily prepping, and have no back-up plan lol. Having said that, I think not including terrain in scoring is a good idea: too difficult to point appropriately IMO.

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    1. No Bloody Miniatures or Pulp figures lurking on the shelves to finish? Bummer. :(

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    2. Lol I have tons but I have set this winter for working on terrain and already have a metric crapton all prepped and primed.

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    3. Hmm, maybe I'll have to reconsider my decision on terrain...

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    4. Curt, if you want to bring back the terrain, feel free to count the points for me. :)

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    5. I am OK with the decision; as I said, I think terrain is a funny one for working out an accurate points value. I'll be back next year with an appropriate plan!

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    6. We look forward to seeing you out with us next year Rob. Please drop in when you can to comment and cheer us on!

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  28. Hope to join again. Brushes up.

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  29. Morning/evening/afternoon all. Would love to be in this years roster and I'm so excited as its the highlight of my painting year - email sent

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  30. Hi Curt, Message sent - I'd love to take part and try to get to 500 points. It looks brilliant fun.

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    1. The camaraderie and encouragement you get from the other participants is very motivating . You’ll see the points add up pretty quickly. It is brilliant fun.

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  31. email sent! Minis are primed and paints are at the ready! Brushes at the.... hmmm.... only have a couple weeks to find those or I'll be finger painting minis this year!

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  32. I’m in if there’s still space - email on its way! Theme is awesome.

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  33. Yay! My favourite hobby activity of the year!

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  34. Email sent! Gah! Cannot believe how late to the party I am!

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  35. I think I will have to pass this year, I'll participate in spirit and might even keep score on my own blog but I don't want to take up a slot when I haven't had much painting time of late.

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    1. You will be missed Adam. I hope you pop in from time to time to say hello and cheer us on!

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  36. Okay! The entry period is now closed. We have our participant list for Challenge XV which will be up shortly. Thanks!

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