FROM JohnB: Whats that coming over the hill is it a monster?

Nope its an AHPC wrap! Mind you "The Automatic" (welsh indie rock band) hit was a cracker Well I have had my best year at AHPC and its my third year on the trot signing up. With a photo splurge what have I learnt? I have again learnt a lot from the other 70 odd entrants plus their figure and basing ideas as well as some of their figure/painting combinations all inspiring me to buy and paint yet more figures but actually paint more! woohoo 700 plus points worth or 13 micro projects if you like. plus I started to do stand up painting! yep stood at a bar style bench set up and doing sprints - short paint sessions of 15 minutes - 45 minutes, which led to my mini paint palette method as I tended to use one colour.

ok this paint is 4 days old but the method does work on small amounts of paint used over say 24 hours oh and the tissue is meant to be kept wet!!!!! On with the results - I am particularly pleased that I painted the ECW Tumbling Dice unit, maybe that project will get a kick start now.

Finishing the 1848 Hungarian Steam Engine having scratch built it for AHPC15 was very satisfying. You need two airfix rockets.........and a lot of cursing.

The Irish Brigade unit using Strelets Louis XIVth range was also a hit - I have admired their range for a long time - too long and never painted any. Now that has been fixed maybe more will follow.

I hope you all have seen the error of your ways and realise that injection moulded plastics in 1/72 is the way to go - queue woops of laughter about this madness of mine. Seriously I hope you have all enjoyed painting what you like and love.

That said I am glad I painted my 40mm Vikings to celebrate Ian Kay's retirement at Irregular Miniatures - I am happy for him yet sad to see such a vast traditional figure range sail off into the sunset.

And I painted my first printed figures - Italian support weapons in 20mm from MarDav.

Plus ca Change! And I sorry for my Minion Peter who was hoping to see my French Dragoons completed - I am off to the allotment for the year so this is as far as I got! Lets hope those red monsters don't get me.

So a big thank you to everyone who took part and of course especially to Curt and all the minions and duel runners and anyone I have missed. Hope to be back in the 17th challenge later this year.

From MattW - last Post WW1, WW2, modern (45 points)

 Ww1, ww2 and modern 

Last post for the challenge, I have quite a few bits that did not make the last charge as I run out of enthusiasm after my airbrush decided to have a hissy fit so I had the afternoon off …. A big thanks to Curt, Sarah (for putting up with this craziness), all of the minions, and fellow challengers. 

So I finish with some 20th century wars armour. 

First up the venerable Ww1 1/76 male MkV from Airfix plastic, weathered and splattered with mud. This kit is a gift to a mate in Australia for his birthday later this year. 

Next up a 1/72 sdkfz 251/1 from plastic soldier company for my ww2 collection maker up for my 9th SS project. 

Finally a Swedish 1/72 resin kit armoured car from Gecko for my Cold War Swedes.

3 x 20mm vehicles @15 points 

 Total 45 points 

Squirrel 
Ww1
Ww2
Cold War 
Total 3 squirrel points 

Cheers
MattW  

From Millsy:

Cracking brushwork Matt. I particularly like the the camo on the 251/1 which has a really convincing depth to it. Even so my favourite would have to be the Gecko with is just wonderfully weird. It looks like someone liked the look of a T-34 and thought "I can do better. A LOT better".

45 more points closes out your Challenge nicely. Thanks for sharing your work with us this year.

Cheers,
Millsy

JohnB: Tuesday Terrors: Convoy protection - Morris tractor and 40mm Bofors anti aircraft gun by Airfix (30 points)

Funny how AHPC pops up in a pro cycle race!

Well Mr Tadaj Pogacar won Strada Bianche (three times in a row and four times overall - setting records).

The route is in Tuscany and the finish line is the famous city of Siena.

You could almost imagine a fifteenth century army marching through a wintry scene like the one above. The finish is in the Piazza del Campo home of the famous Palio di Siena horse race.

The race itself crisscrosses the tuscan hills on dusty white roads

It even runs near the battlesite of Montaperti which we all learnt about in AHPC15 - concerning Dantes Inferno...

Nothing like an Italian Medieval City to inspire some painting although in my case its more modern, yet possibly something like this may have been in the allied armies struggling up the spine of Italy in 1944. This week then its slightly less "sinews of war" and more "sharp end" equipment in the form of an anti aircraft gun.

The model is a kit from Airfix now sold under their "vintage" label. I bought it last year on a trip to the Monkbar Model Shop in York, UK. An Aladdins cave for modellers and brick built into the bargain.

I really like the Morris tractor which has an early war look about it.

The bofors 40mm anti aircraft gun was a very successful design. Swedish firm Bofors was according to the internet part owned by Krupp of Germany but the gun development was kept secret and became an international best seller certainly for allied armies as well as the axis forces.

I have modelled the gun in transport mode. The kit allows the gun to traverse and elevate easily.

Painting wise it was vallejo black prime then Vallejo Game Colour Extra Opaque heavy grey in two coats and then two coats of vallejo matt varnish. vallejo black model colour took care of the tyres. vallejo dark sand overcoated with citadel seraphim sepia wash dealt with the canvas elements. The driver got the sepia wash over his green uniform, black boots and hair and VJ flat flesh skintone for that campaign look!

2 vehicles - a tractor plus a gun in 1/76 = 2 x 15 points = 30 points. Not sure if this qualifies for another squirrel but I will give it a go.

Breaker, breaker one nine, we got a convoy here.  What a great bit of kit for convoy protection John, though I don't envy putting together all the fiddly bits that these kits must have included.  It looks really impressive on your table top - I've really been enjoying the buildings and backdrop that you use BTW.  I also really like the details and weathering on that fabric cowling.  I will leave squirrel adjudication to the Squirrelmaster, but can confirm the 30 points.

John B: Tuesday Terrors: 200 years of public railways: 1/72 Airfix Rocket conversion (30 points)

Squirreless again :( .........

During AHPC15 I decided to make a steam engine as 2025 would be the 200th anniversary of public railways. Last year I visited the Railway Museum at Stockton which is located on the famous route of the first railway open to the public back in 1825.

Also I had a nice link in an interesting book on the Hungarian Forces of 1848 revolutions.

The source of my model was the very ancient Airfix 1/72 Stephensons Rocket. Fortunate these are still made by Dapol in Wales UK, as no other model exists for the period to my knowledge. So off I went converting - it took me two rockets to get the look I wanted.

The early steam railways were a hotbed of invention and some amazing experimental engines ran.

I found this book in a charity bookshop and its a mine of information.It was tempting to embark on other model conversions but for a painting challenge even this one has proven time consuming despite part building the model during AHPC15.

Well its a case of steaming on having bagged TOY and REBEL theme entries and now put this engine to bed next up is a RESCUE figure.

Points calculation is 1/72 = 20mm so 15 points for the vehicle and 2 x 4 points for the two gentlemen.

That gets me 23 points - not quite a squirrel point again. ho hum.

What a wonderfully looking engine John, I really like that!  The blue-green is really striking and I like the animation of the two crew.  I wouldn't bet on them retaining their hats once they get up to any speed.  What does BETS stand for?  I also like the old time reference materials that you sources, plus of course the in person museum visit.  Given the conversion work involved I will round this post up to 30.

John B: FRIDAY CREW: The Final Reel - the whole lot

Its been a great winters painting again.

I managed to exceed my target. I reached the heady heights of 529 gainst my target of 400 - both I think were more than last year although I painted more units/pieces in AHPC14.

I also yet again got distracted by the theme and again started modelling homebuilds........

NOTE TO SELF: if you want to paint more stop making models!

I got plenty of variety in this year

I suppose the big red space ship was the most satisfying - my red dwarf!

Then again I have made progress on my Schleswig Holstein Wars figures. Unfortunately a load of artillery missed the cut Martijn as my holiday break was a case of bad timing.

Last but not least I created two backgrounds for displays - as you do! Heres to AHPC16 and the challenge that keeps surprising me. Go Forth and Paint. Till next time.