In Celebration of Challenge XIV

'We few, we happy few....' 

Here we are at the end of the fourteenth edition of the Painting Challenge. The library has turned off its lights, votes have been counted for both 'Minions' Choice' and 'Challengers' Choice', Sarah has made her selection for 'Sarah’s Choice' and I’ve done the same for 'SnowLord's Choice'. 

Now, I suggest you get your favourite tipple and settle in for the read.

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Minions' Choice

Our ever-industrious band of heroic Minions have put their heads together and decided upon their favourite entries from the three months of the Challenge.

In third place:

Kerry for his wonderfully sprawling, and just plain wonderful Norman Castle.

Second place we have:

SimonG for his imperious and very impressive Early Imperial Romans..

...and The Minions' Choice' goes to:

PaulSS for his brilliant Napoleonic Dutch-Belgians!

Paul, for your prize you have a $100 gift voucher from Byron's Norther Lights Terrain. Congratulations!

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Challengers' Choice

We had 22 nominations for this year's Challengers' Choice with a great voting response from our participants (45 votes cast). Its always fun to take in the gallery of nominees as it provides such a wonderful retrospective of the thee months of the Challenge. 

In third place is:

Bruce with his cracking collection of 12mm ACW troops.

Runner Up for Challengers' Choice is:

My Trojan Horse/Odysseus submission (doffs cap - Thank you very much!).

The Challengers' Choice' goes to: 

Alan for his fabulous Palmyrans - well done Dux, bravo!!

Alan, for your well-deserved prize you get a $100 gift voucher from JohnS and the crew at The War Library! Congratulations Alan and enjoy!

For those interested, here are the top 10 rankings for Challenger's Choice:

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Sarah’s Choice 

Hi Everybody!

Wow! Another Challenge completed!

It really doesn’t seem that long ago that we all began this journey, yet as I scrolled through all the Sarah’s Choice entries, I am reminded of the quantity, variety and caliber of minis submitted for the Library Cart.

Time may have passed, but it certainly was time well spent!

DaveB’s Ladies of Venice from Carnevale have caught my eye… I have long admired these figures and seeing DaveB’s choice of colour palette and great brush skills has me thinking of Challenge XV...

TomL‘s contribution of female figures from Bob Murch and Crooked Dice were fabulous. A few of my favourites were the May Queen Dancers, the Duchess and The Maharani .

And huge congrats to Rhys for his veiled Elf. Wow, she’s a complex figure to paint (I got nervous just looking at all the wavy bits). Well done on the problem solving, the end result is terrific.

And now to Sarah’s Choice for Challenge XIV

ChrisW - Vampire Hunter from Blue Moon.

A very cool figure, but what drew me was the very characterful colours used - the brown tunic/vest looks leather or an oiled cloth … (very practical in her line of work), the dress shade of arsenic green is dangerous and the jaunty red hat speaks of strong independence. I can see her leading an adventure party.

I find it interesting how colour choices impact the way in which we view and interact with the figures.

Chris, for your prize please enjoy a Moonstone starter box set from Goblin King Games.

Thanks for reading and joining in on the silliness that we love with the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge!

Have a happy summer!

Sarah

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Snowlord's Choice

Honourable Mentions go to:

Ken's 'final unit' for his Risorgimento collection. Well done on this wonderfully characterful and beautifully realized project Ken.

Alan's Gallic cavalry. All I have to say is, 'Look at all those lovely hand painted shields. Wow.'

SnowLord's Choice goes to:

Rhys' body of work. I really appreciate having you pitch in with us this year, Rhys, as I always like seeing new, young hobbyists join the Challenge. It reminds us what a great hobby this is and what a wonderful, supportive community we've built. 

Great work Rhys! For your prize I have for you a $100 gift voucher from Kawe and the good folks over at Westfalia Miniatures. I hope we see you again with us next time we roll out! 

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Congratulations to all the nominees and winners. Thank you for sharing your wonderful work with us. For those lucky prize winners, please email me to work out the details for getting your treats. 

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Before Challenge XIV formally concludes, I’d like to thank again our brilliant Minions for all their hard work herding entries, wrangling with the Spreadsheet of Doom and generally keeping everything rattling along. Thanks to Paul and Barks for the managing the Duels and keeping track of the skull-count. I also wish to thank our Challenge Sponsors for their generous support of the event.  If you have a free moment please visit their web stores via the banners on the left sidebar and see if something strikes your fancy.  As I often say, the Challenge doesn’t need prizes to be a success, but it adds a nice bit of chrome to the festivities.  Thanks again to all our wonderful sponsors! 

Finally, and I really can't say this enough, I want to thank all of our participants. This event would be nothing without all your industry, your humour and most of all, your open-hearted support for one another. All of these make the Painting Challenge what it is. You folks are wonderful, thank you.

So in closing, I bid you all a fond farewell. I hope you enjoy the next few months 'off', and until we get together again next December...

In Memory of Felix (a most excellent boy)

- Curt