From SamuliS: Flames of War Doughboys (118 points)

After a short hiatus from submitting anything here I've finally managed to get something painted. A combination of real life induced issues and being completely fed up with painting olive drab saw this final infantry platoon in my newest Flames of War army taking quite a long time to get painted up. Still here's 53 infantry and three guns ready for review adding 118 points to my tally! Maybe this will see me start getting back on track on reaching the 1000 points in the challenge.

Funny enough looking back at the last year or so I noticed I've only painted nine 28mm miniatures and over 500 of these 15mm buggers. Considering that I don't really like to paint smaller scales at all it's no wonder that I've sometimes gotten quite fed up with the painting side of the hobby nowadays. Too bad that my club has moved to 15mm minis in Napoleonics and my main game Flames of War is 15mm as well. At least after these guys I'll only have a few vehicles left to paint up for my army for this years European Team Championship. After they are done there's hopefully some more time to start painting smaller more enjoyable projects as well as the odd army every now and then. At least the Saxons have been quite nice to paint as the sculpts are superb, but I think I'll have to throw in some more Oldhammer and other fun little appetizers every now and then :)

These are the foot sloggers from an Armored Rifle Platoon in Flames of War and a small medium anti-tank gun platoon of two 37mm guns. This year the European Team Championships is played with Mid War armies which will be an interesting change. The yanks should do quite well with plenty of bazookas and some cheap AT guns that are still pretty decent with the lighter armor that they'll be facing.

All minis are from Battlefront with the infantry being the newer plastic models and the guns being metal. Personally I hated the new plastics, but as other minis weren't available I had to go with them. The new plastic American infantry sprues are bit of a missed opportunity in my opinion as there are multiple duplicates of certain poses in a single sprue so there isn't much of a choice between poses. Also the casting is quite awful on a few of them with very distorted details etc. These are some the first plastic infantry that they've done and it really shows. On the other hand their M3 half-tracks from the same box are actually very nice. Still all in all, not a very fun unit to paint and I very much prefer the metal minis even if they aren't that great sculpts either. At least I didn't hate painting the previous armored rifle platoon that I did.

So with that done I think it's time to get on with the Friday ceremonies. It's about -30 celsius and there's plenty of snow outside so I don't really have any other choice than to stay indoors, open a bottle of whisky and start drinking myself funny. Though this would be the first weekend in a long time that I'm home and would have a lot of time for painting. A hangover definitely would make that a bit tricky. Decisions decisions... Maybe if I'll just drink enough to forget that I had to paint these minis...

To finnish (ba dum tssshhh) off here's a very appropriate inspirational quote with a slightly more appropriate background.

Good to see another healthy blast of points for you Samuli - and if there is anything in the hobby that should drive a good man to drinking, it would be the plastic WW2 products from Battlefront.  I've had experience with them as well, and I have to agree their WW2 plastics are complete sh!t. I get a little mental at all the folks who are mindlessly exalting the arrival of plastics in 15mm...but that's a rant for another time. 

Reading through this Samuli, it almost seemed as though you were flogging yourself to complete a TPS report for a douchebag boss rather than finishing a project for a hobby you enjoy! And I can relate! We've all been there (or, at least, I have), when a project turns from a passion to feeling like a job - for me, usually, its anything with camouflage. Full marks for sticking with it, right to the bitter end.  To truly love this hobby, you have to hate it from time to time...hopefully relaxation and alcohol will let you reflect on a job well done, and a good sized force now taking shape!  In fact, I have never seen Wayne Gretzky's advice, pictured above, put in such a constructive context...

This is indeed another 118 points for your total! Enjoy your drink(s), your bracing winter weather and we look forward to more next week! Oh, one more thing - for what it's worth, I vote for more Oldhammer...

From AlexS - Pikes, Horses, General and the Army of Venice is Complete! (311 points)

Hello! My name is Alex and I'm an alcoholic paintholic. I have been painting my Venetian army for 31 days now, and I am happy to say that I have finished this project.

Today I'll tell you what I have finished in order to complete the overall project. For a start - a detachment of pikemen hired from Switzerland.

Next - again with mercenaries, however, this time from the Balkans (Stradioti). I have done models with bows, and crossbows, and spears so I can, if needed, declare the unit armed with whatever weapon. I have not settled on a flag, so for now they gather around a beautiful "stick"...

Then you see the general of the army - the glorious Condottiere. I wanted a Venetian lion on his barding, but when I saw my results I think I got a dead cat, so I took a decal from a set Brettonia.

Finally, the last unit in my army - mounted knights. This time I did not use the airbrush because it was beautiful at night. I'm not sure I like the results, and I see I forgot to cut the banner...

So, thanks to this wonderful event, I did what I have wanted to do for four years - I have collected and painted small Venetian army. Thank you to Curt, and my "minion" Greg, and to all of you in the Challenge who helped me with the encouragement.

Here are photos of the whole force - including a number of units painted during the Challenge!

Congratulations on completing this project Alex! Although as you will see, and I'm sure a few Challengers will comment, I don't know of any wargame project or force that is ever, truly, "finished".  These Venetians look wonderful, ready to cause havoc on battlefields in Italy and elsewhere in some medieval gaming.  There are a number of excellent figures here, but my favourites are always the heavy cavalry, ready to stomp their opponents into the turf. 

Great to see the photo of the whole group - and it must be nice to see the whole lot of them line up for action after so many days of "paint-o-holism".  

Your pace has really been something else, and this submission will add another significant amount of points to your total - that's 311 more!  Is there another project looming for you?

From GillesW - Painting in all directions! (182 Points)

Hi everyone. My submission this week is comprised of figures I started two weeks ago - I have finally finishes the varnish, the basing and the flocking.  These are 28mm Egyptian archers - the figures are from Wargames Foundry, and I painted them with the Foundry "triad" paints.  These figures are part of another project which is "never finished".

 Here are a few close-ups:

Then the kings of the steppes, this time in 15mm from Essex miniatures, although the drummer on horse that is from Donnington Miniatures.  These are from a sort of "50 shades of brown" project for Field of Glory Ancient-Medieval rules. These are the command bases:

Now a group of armoured cavalry:

I still need to finish another group like the one above, as well as three more battle groups of heavy cavalry. Stay tuned for more on those!

Très impressionant Gilles! An excellent variety of figures in this submission.  The Egyptian archers are excellent, in particular with those signature Egyptian head caps - creates a total "Old Testament" vibe. And the ancient cavalry is very well done - "50 shades of brown" indeed! I don't much care for painting horses, and you have done an excellent job on this lot.  Armoured cavalry and heavy cavalry are always some of the most fun units to use in any wargame, and these fellows look the business. 

That is 182 points for you this week - we look forward to your soumission de la semaine prochaine!

From SanderS - Ze Germans are coming! (84points)

Hoi - Next up in my Challenge painting schedule are some of my old Matchbox German WW2 soldiers. I believe there are miniatures from the Early war set (including an American Bazooka armed soldier) and a few DAK figures among them.

Now I know I might have said some ANZACS or Vikings were up next, but they will have to wait. I just didn't get into the mood of painting Khaki after finishing the CW Ruski's.

Now as far as historical accuracy goes, I am not altogether sure these are anything like accurate at all, both in sculpting details and my paint job but I will only be using them for the odd skirmish game now and then. So no biggie!
Cheers Sander

Another very cool submission Sander. Matchbox figures! Now that is interesting, and I suspect many of us had a bunch of figures like this lying around our collections at one point or another.  Super neat to see them painted up!  From what I can see, the colours all look just fine, but I think you have just the right approach painting WW2 - looks good for skirmishing, then they are good to go!

That will be 84 points for you, sir.  Well done, and we look forward to next week's submission!

Another Mind Blowing Friday...

via GIPHY

Salut encore, mes amis! Il est vendredi à noveau! Welcome to another fabulous Friday (TM) in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.  What awaits today?  Will our minds be blown? I am eager to see, and to post, but also dreading what kind of atomic points bombardment Sylvain will drop next in our sci fi side duel....or to see Jaime put another thirty friggin' awesome looking Marines up as I fall behind in our Horus Heresy duel....anyway, let's get cracking! 

From AlanD - More 6mm Covenanters (95 points)

I'm flip-flopping all over the place with this year's challenge - gladiators, French Indian Wars, ECW, Bug Hunts of the Future, and now back to ECW again. This week I have pretty much finished my 6mm Covenanter project with some command figures, artillery and dragoons.

This dour lot of little Calvinist Smurfs includes three bases of command figures, including the trademark Baccus general with massive nose...

The dragoons include both mounted figures and dismounted troops skirmishing, along with horse handlers. Inspired by Tamsin's lovely bases I tried to vary the appearance with some of the mounted troops advancing obliquely in twos. Tricky to pull off on such shallow bases, but I quite like the effect.

Finally, six bases of guns, including some teeny tiny frame guns.

As for the points, there are 46 mounted figures,79 on foot and 6 guns. If the 24 riderless horses are 0.5 points each, then the grand total should come to 93.5, and I think we can round it down to 93 in recognition of the less than challenging frame guns!

Ah... the heady feeling of a "completed" project. Who are you kidding mate? There is no "completed", only those who foolishly believe a project to be completed and those who do not. 

Regardless, a most impressive display of compressed Calvinists (hey, even Smurfs have feelings!). I especially like the frame guns which are recognisable even at this scale and really add a Scots flavour. 

93.5 points for the miniatures, another point for "completing" your wonderful army and what the hell, another 0.5 just cause I hate fractions. 95 points all up. Well done sir! Cheers, Millsy

From BrendonW - Git on ya Horses (161 points)

15 x 28mm Horse and Riders, 2 x 28mm foot (1 hand painted shield and all Plastic).

Still on leave but this week we have had the Grandkids visit so not as much time for painting and only one post for the slave to administrate. [SLAVE? Moi? Here's hoping you copped a dirty nappy!]

I did have a lot of horses without mounts ready so that helped a lot. The Arab Shields had also been mostly completed before this week so that was helpful as well.

First the 3 Perry Miniatures Light Horse riders. White and grey horses take me a little longer than brown or black so don't know why I chose this week to paint them.

Next is more Gripping Beast Arabs for the growing mostly mounted Army. I gave 2 of the riders shields that actually come in the infantry set. They are not in the mounted sets. All LBM decals except for the foot mounted horn blower.

Last Fireforge Plastic Mongols. There are some parts from the Arab Heavy Calvary set on these.

That's it until next week. Enjoy your painting everyone. Cheers

Another lovely entry and a great addition to a collection that must really be chewing up some shelf space now Brendon. Grey horses do take a little more effort depending on your technique but they always add something special I think. I've not seen the FFG Mongols assembled and painted til now and they're a most impressive sight.

This lot earns you another 161 points including 1 for the shield. It would have been more but I'm too busy slaving away to add them up. :-) Cheers, Millsy