The Awards for Challenge XVI

 

Like so many prizes, it's the anticipation of the opening that's so exciting...

Ahem. Speaking of prizes, welcome to the wrap-up of the 16th edition of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge!

We're all dialed-in with the tabulation of the votes for Challengers' Choice, Sarah with her choice of a female figure, and myself for Snowlord's Choice. 

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We had an excellent turnout for the Challengers' Choice poll, with 28 nominees and 43 people casting their votes. Below are the top ten placings chosen by our participants (with several tied places). We used weighted scoring, where 3 points are given for 1st pick, 2 points for 2nd, and 1 point for 3rd pick.

1. KerryT 'Body of Work' 

2. DaveD 'Bolsheviks' 

3. AdamC ‘WWII Naval Project' 

4. ChristopherS 'Pyrric Epirote Phalangite'

4. BruceR 'Once More Into the Breach'

5. RayR 'Finnish Medics'

6. PaulOG 'Galactic Gals'

7. GregB 'Dogs of War' 

8. Curt 'Banksy' 

8. Martin 'Body of Work' 

8. Martin 'Sigurd Fafnir's Bane' 

8. LeeH 'Winter War Soviets' 

9. Curt '30K Kill Team' 

10. MartinN 'Fallshirmjaeger and Firefly' 

10. BruceR 'Warmaster 10mm Project'

10. BruceR 'Black Coach'  

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AHPC XVI Challengers's Choice

Third Place

AdamC with his excellent collection of WWII ships.

Adam, for your talented efforts I'm sure you will enjoy a gift certificate from your fellow Challenger ByronM at 'Northern Lights Terrain'!

Second Place

DaveD for his beautiful Bolsheviks. 

Dave, I'm happy to award you a gift certificate from 'The French Wargames Holiday Centre'!

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...and the Challengers' Choice for AHPC XVI goes to...

KerryT for his fantastic body of work over the course of the Challenge!

Congratulations for your well-deserved win, Kerry! Your prize is a gift certificate from Martin and Diane over at 'Warbases'! 

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AHPC XVI Sarah’s Choice

Hello Everyone!

It’s the time of year for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge wrap up and time to make the selection for Sarah’s Choice … an increasingly difficult task!

I’m always amazed at the cool figures presented and often the background stories included are soo interesting.


Honourable Mentions

Paul O’Grady: 'Galactic Gals'

Love the Power Ranger colours and the badass “grrrl power” vibe. I came upon this quote and it’s most apt for these ladies

“She wasn’t looking for a knight, she was looking for a sword”

ErikP: Farm Ladies from 'Horse & Musket Civilians in the Fields'

Anyone who includes a Pride & Prejudice quote about mud & petticoats gets my attention and fully deserves to be included in the Sarah’s Choice write up.

Well done Erik… the farm lass with the buckets is fabulous and her work worn clothes do indicate “an abominable sort of conceited independence, a most country - town indifference to decorum!”

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Sarah’s Choice for Challenge XVI

PeteB. 'The Little Lady and the Cat'

I love everyone about this entry… the realistic cobblestone and stonework, the lavender blue of the shutters, her green dress and her whimsical daydreaming pose at the window. Who or what is she waiting for for? I look forward to seeing the additions to the vignette next year.

Pete, I'm delighted to award you a gift certificate from Kawe over at Westfalia Miniatures. Enjoy!!

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Snowlord's Choice

For Snowlord's Choice, I often like to spotlight fresh faces coming into the Challenge as these people will become the torchbearers for our hobby in the years to come. So in this vein this year the Snowlord's Choice goes to QuinnM.

I very much enjoyed all your entries Quinn. From the White Scars to Turnip28, and then on to The Walking Dead, your work exhibited a bold grasp of colour and the use of lighting effects that I quite enjoyed.

I was particularly impressed with your Tree Lord. Such lovely brushwork on that imposing figure.

For your great work this year I'm delighted to award you with a gift certificate from Goblin King Games (makers of 'Moonstone'). I look forward to seeing what you do with their figures!

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My thanks to all the nominees for sharing your wonderful work with us. For those lucky prize winners, please email me to work out the details for getting your prizes. 

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As Challenge XVI formally concludes, I’d like to thank again our brilliant Minions for all their hard work in herding the hundreds of entries, wrangling with the Spreadsheet of Doom and generally keeping everything cruising along smoothly. Hats off to Barks for keeping track of our skull-count and Stuart with those distracting squirrels. I also wish to thank our Challenge Sponsors for their generous support of the event.  If you have a free moment please visit their sites via the banners on the left sidebar and see if something strikes your fancy.  

In closing, I bid you all a very fond farewell. Enjoy the next eight months until we get together again for the next run.

Cheers!

- Curt

From MikeF - Hobby Roundup

 I always seem to put off doing the roundup at the end of the challenge. Dragging the stuff off the shelf again seems so insurmountable! Anyway I finally told myself to stop being so lazy and just do it!

This was a pretty successful project for me. I think the straight forward nature of the Tyrant’s Legion color scheme and batch painting made a big difference. I also had some staycation this winter, which didn’t hurt either.

For the Tyrant’s Legion I included an earthshaker battery I painted before the challenge, as well as two chimera’s from my steel legion with the newly painted turrets.

To keep things interesting I periodically shifted to my Fallout project. I painted up a few 3d printed vehicles and did a fairly involved conversion. Of some MKII space marines. I also managed to compete a few other odds and ends for my 40k cadians.

Well that’s a wrap for Challenge 16! See you next winter!

Thanks for visiting!

From GavinB: Wrapping up the AHPC 16

I can not believe that the challenge is already over. unfortunately I hate that I had lost my painting mojo during these few months, and I really wish I could have painted a LOT more, but I guess life gets in the way sometimes. It was still great to see what everyone else was up too and I really hope I can find my mojo by December, when I'm in high school. So I can sign up for this wonderful challenge again!

The Collection Grows...

Thanks Curt, Sarah and all the minions for putting this event on. Can not wait to see what everyone does next year!

Happy Painting,
Gavin B

From BartekR: A short wrap up for a short season

Greeting (again) from Kyiv - a city glad to have gotten out of winter. 

So, challenge 16, and my fourth: two miniatures painted and barely one-tenth of my target hit, but its not all bad. So, borrowing from Signore Leone, a quick 'the Good, the Bad and the Ugly' wrap-up (albeit out of title order). 

The Bad: Well, not really bad just a bit short of target...see note on two posts and only 1/10th of the point target hit! :-) I should know by now that going in with a loose sketch of a plan and being completely sidetracked is also a bit of a me thing.

They're not lonely, just unique: Challenge 16 in a nutshell

The Ugly: February and March fell into painting hiatus as "other issues" took precedence (I didn't look at the posts through most of that time so am going to play catchup over the next few weeks). 

I did have a final spurt but missed the 21 March deadline , which is probably my greatest disappointment (managed to finish them over this last weekend). Okay - its an indulgence sneaking in new minis post deadline...in my defence its not for the points and breaks up the text.

They're figures from the 3rd edition of the boardgame Haunting of the House on the Hill, including a IT 2 movie-themed expansion, the draw being Pennywise (in creepy clown and a WTF creepier clown spider form). Like any sane person, I do not like creepy clowns but fun to do. 

The Good: Getting painting done while in Kyiv has been interesting - including finding the local miniatures shops (a lot of Games Workshop on the shelves). Between the local shops and mailing stuff in, I have managed to bug a pile of shame distinct from the one I have in Australia (okay, maybe that deserves filing under "ugly" but does give me another outlet for the rest of my time here). 

*But* the real achievement this time around was introducing someone completely new into the hobby by virtue of the fact I was doing the Challenge and they caught the slipstream. Getting someone started on their hobby journey (from their first space marine) has been extremely satisfying - and to see them find their own niche (historical scale model figures). I'm taking that as a win from AHPC 16!

Again, really looking forward to retrospectively browsing what everyone painted, and hope to see you all for the 17th edition for which I should be back in Oz for (with the expanded pile of shame!:-)

Stay safe and well all, till next time!   

The Close of Challenge XVI - Final Three for 30K Killteam

Brushes down and lift your paint water in a toast to the conclusion of Challenge XVI!

With 743 entries submitted over 13 weeks, we've managed to paint an insane amount of minis and terrain!

We also hit another landmark mid-Challenge with the submission odometer ticking past 10,000 entries since Challenge V (back in 2012). So, I'm pretty chuffed about that.

I was hoping for something a bit more in-theme for my last post, but time ran away from me and as a result I've circled back to one of my earlier entries to do a final flourish.

This is the final three figures for my 30K Killteam, built around the Shattered Legions storyline.

As I mentioned in my original post, this squad is meant to depict a group of survivors from the Dropsite Massacre. My crew is mostly made up of Raven Guard, but two of this trio are from the Iron Hands and Salamander Legions.

Similar to the first three figures, I've really dirtied these guys up, reflecting the desperate out-of-supply, out-of-support situation they are operating in. Each is sporting a jet pack as I wanted to depict a very mobile Assault cadre, conducting hit-and-run missions behind enemy lines.

The Raven Guard figure required it to be mounted on a flying base, which I sourced from my magnetised stocks.

Crossed fingers on his continued survivability, but I'm not entirely confident. Nevertheless, he's armed with power claw back-scratchers so at least he'll go down fighting.

Next is a Iron Hands 'Immortal'. These guys are breacher specialists meant to serve in the front ranks, soaking up fire with their enormous shields.

Accordingly, I heavily scarred up his shield and power armour to give him the look of a grizzled, shot-magnet, veteran.

Finally we have a Salamander 'Pyroclast' officer. These lunatics loooove heat-based weapons and huge honkin' hammers (you know, as one does).

Again, he's very grimy and sooty, ready to BBQ heretics with his flamer and then pound them into paste with his tenderizer. Funny thing is, in the 30K universe these guys are the most temperate and emotionally balanced of all the Legions. Yep, GrimDark indeed...

And a final shot of the Killteam as a whole, with Greg's wonderful Optae in centerstage.

These three fellas will provide me with a very modest 15 points, but I'll happily take them as, hey, the weren't done a few days ago and that's what the Challenge is all about, right?! Right.

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In closing, I wish to take cap in hand and give a deep bow to our marvellous Minions: (in alphabetical order): Byron, Dallas, Dave, Greg, Millsy, Peter, Sander and Sylvain. To all of you, thank you so much for keeping this silly event moving in one direction - It goes without saying (but I always will) that I could not have done it without you.

Finally my thanks to all our participants. This event would be nothing without your participation, talent and good nature. It was an absolute treat to spend the winter with you all painting figures and having a great time.

I ask all participants to email me your three nominations for Challengers' Choice (deadline end of day, March 29th). From that list I'll post a voting poll and on April 19th we'll make the announcements for Challenger's Choice, Sarah's Choice and my own Snowlord's Choice.

Finally, as per tradition, I invite our Challengers to post a final round-up shot of what they managed to achieve this year. Come now, don't be shy in showing your hard work and fabulousness! 

Best

- Curt

 

From MikeF - Vertibird from Fallout - 28mm Vehicle - 20 Points

 I painted a set of 10 Brotherhood of Steel miniatures  from the Fallout video game for the Toy Story Theme. The Brotherhood are the high tech force of the setting and have access to one of the few flying vehicles in the game - The Vertibird. It’s a rototilt aircraft which seems to just want to be a helicopter. There isn’t a commercially available model in 28mm so I had to grab the next best thing. The Hornet from Mantic Games is fairly close and I had one already in need of a repaint. In the original game, all the brotherhood equipment is left over US army gear which was still painted in the US army green. I painted it the same green as the brotherhood figures and added the appropriate decals. As the vehicles are meant to be old and worn, I went to town on the weathering. It’s far more than would be acceptable for an aircraft, but there’s no FAA in the wasteland to threaten decertification.

 28mm vehicle - 20 points.

This is definitely it for the challenge, so I’d like to thank Curt, the minions and all challengers for making the challenge happen.

See you later this year!

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This is awesome, Mike. I loved the vertibirds in the TV series (in fact, I love saying the word: 'vertibird', much to Sarah's annoyance). Great work on the painting and weathering. Your power-armoured knights will be able to travel (or crash) in style now! 

'Remember folks: It can only get worse!' 👍

- Curt 

From MikeF - Tyrant’s Legion Hellhound Tank (20 Points)

I promised one more vehicle for the Tyrant's Legion and I'm happy to be able to deliver. I was thinking of doing a rhino for the Retaliators I painted last week, but a recent Ebay purchase arrived in record time and I decided to paint it up. I managed to grab a hellhound tank from Ebay for a relatively decent price. The current hellhound tank is readily available from GW, but I wanted the model they produced in the mid 90's with the metal fuel tanks! I managed to find one being sold in Vancouver for what seemed like a decent price  It was already assembled and painted, but I could tell it wasn't assembled particularly well. That didn't matter as I planned to strip and repaint it anyway. 

After a soak in some isopropyl alcohol, the model came apart and I was able to strip the paint and fix up the shoddy assembly work. The one problem I noticed was that the turret was a real mess. The turret consists of a metal lower half that connects to the plastic upper portion of the chimera turret. The metal piece had several rectangular open spaces on each side that is normally covered by metal extra armor pieces which run along the bottom half of the turret. These pieces were missing and had been replaced with plastic tank tracks that were poorly fitted to the turret. In addition, whoever was wielding the hobby knife must have been a lumber jack because there were large cuts and gouges all around the plastic turret component. This was why I got it for a decent price I guess. I managed to use some plastic armor tiles from a Gaslands conversion sprue I had in my bits box and cut them to shape to fit around the turret. It turned out ok I think.  It has the look that the armor was applied in the field by a crew that wasn't quite confident in the standard armor of their rolling barbeque! Only the best for the Tyrant's Legion!

28mm vehicle for 20 points.

I'm not sure I'll be able to finish anything else before the end of the challenge, but in case I don't, I'd like to thank Curt and the minions for their hard work during the challenge. I'd also like to give a general congrats to all the challengers for all the great stuff they've completed. Well done everyone!

You know how much I love these restoration/reclamation projects Mike, and you've done an outstanding job with this one. Yes, isopropyl alcohol is a miracle liquid and I cannot believe how long it took me to discover that... plastic or metal, everything that gets stripped at Conscript Towers starts out in IPA. If necessary I use some Castrol Super Clean after, but it's often not even necessary. The Hellhound is suitably old-school (METAL!) and it looks great! The little hazard decal on the back is the finishing touch!

Twenty for you!

Dallas

Full Speed to the Finish!

Hi All!

Holy moly! It's hard to believe, but we are now entering the last week of the Challenge. Wowzers. With that in mind, I have a couple administrative reminders, and an update:

1) If you haven't done so already, please put aside some time to take-in the wonderful Theme Round entries for 'Resistance' and cast your votes for your top three choices. The deadline for voting is today (Saturday) midnight. I hope to announce the results of the voting late Sunday. 

2) Starting Monday we will be going into the final 'Free Fire' period for submissions. This means that you can submit at any time you like and our friendly minions will post and score your hard work.

3) Finally, due to a very busy work week, I'm going to extend the Challenge by 24hrs. So instead of concluding at 12:01am Friday, the wrap-up will be 12:01am Saturday. I'm sure there are a few of us that will welcome those few extra hours to get that last submission across the line (I know I will)!

Have a great weekend and I look forward to seeing your final entries over the coming week! Full speed ahead!

- Curt

From MikeF - Astral Claws Retaliator Squads - 10 x 28mm Miniatures (50 points)

 

The Tyrant's Legion wasn't only composed of normal humans. Space Marines from the Astral claws chapter were assigned to every detachment to ensure loyalty and take advantage of the "ablative" armour offered by the Legion Auxilia. It was also a way for the Tyrant of Badab to hide his ever expanding marines complement which was numbering well beyond the 1000 marine limit as dictated by the codex astartes. Some of these units would be formed into Retaliator Squads, which were primarily concerned for enforcing discipline within the Auxilia. They are close combat oriented and equipped with chainswords and combat shields. I painted up 2 units of 5. 

I hope to complete at least one more vehicle for the Tyrant's Legion, but we'll see how it goes.

The combat shields are from Kromlech

10 x 28mm miniatures for 50 points.

Thanks for visiting!

An Astral Claws Retaliator Squad sounds like something best avoiding, and looks that way too.  Those are some bruisers, and very nicely painted too.  I really like the blue with gold should guards.  50 point for you sire, and looking forward to their AFV.