The 6th Annual Analogue Hobbies Awards

Well, all the votes are in for 'Choice of the Challenge', Sarah has made her selection for 'Sarah’s Choice', I’ve done the same for the Judges selection and we’ve made the prize draws for the six points thresholds. Whew! As you will see below this was a very hectic week for us!

This year, for ease of administration, I've combined the previous Challenger's Choice and People's Choice awards into one called the 'Choice of the Challenge'. We had 25 nominations for this award with 72 people voting. I must say it was a real delight to populate the voting gallery with the images of the nominations as the collective whole provides an excellent retrospective of the three months of the Challenge. 

As the runners up and winners for the various categories are named I provide a sampling of their work. 

For those wishing to see the voting results they can be found here.

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Choice of the Challenge

Honourable Mentions go to MartinN (Nick) and Millsy for their excellent bodies of work.

 Nick's Late Romans Ballistae

 Nick's 'Shaeffer's Last Chancers'

 Millsy's 'The Luncheon'

Millsy's 'Motte & Bailey'

Third Place was tied between SidneyR and myself. Sidney will receive a 30 Euro gift certificate from Barrage Miniatures. Well done Mr. Roundwood!

Sidney's  The Artist Chance Card'

Sidney's 'The Flemish Cavalier'

Curt's 'Denizens of Edgar Rice Burrows' Barsoom'

Curt's 'Landsknecht Pike Block'

Second Place goes to MichaelA for his body of work. Michael will receive a subscription from 'Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy'. Congratulations Michael!

Michael's 'Clocktopus'

 Michael's 'The Great Escape'

First Place for 'Choice of the Challenge' goes to Anne and her excellent body of work. She will get a 20 GBP gift certificate from West Wind Productions. Wonderful job Anne and congratulations!

Anne's 'Clint' 

 Anne's 'Steampunk Annie'

Anne's 'Hasslefree Moderns'

Judge’s Choice

The Honourable Mentions go to MartinN's collective submissions, masterful work sir, and Anne’s collective work, especially impressive with her fabulous skin tones and colour blending. 

The Judge’s Choice goes to Michael’s for his 'The Great Escape' – Thank you Mr. Awdry for treating us to your fevered imagination, inspiring modeling and beautiful brushwork. Micheal will receive a painted figure of his choice from me.

Michael's 'The Great Escape' for the 'Nostalgia' Theme Round.

Sarah’s Choice 

With typical Canadian Prairie spring weather outside (yesterday brilliantly sunny and 21C, today dreary and overcast and 8C) I really have no excuses to not sit down with my iPad and scroll through all the terrific "Sarah's Choice" entrants.

Cup of coffee in hand, hounds by my feet and good tunes on the Hi Fi, and utilizing a highly scientific process I have determined the results.

3rd Runner Up
A tie between ClintB's 'Nurse Docherty' and Millsy's 'Margaret Graham'.
I attended a Girls School and Nurse Docherty has a strong resemblance to a certain headmistress ..... and maybe perhaps the infamous Mind Bleach has influenced my cognitive powers!

Clint's 'Nurse Docherty'

Margaret Graham appeals to me as I'm a manager of a busy retail store .... There are days when I do feel a wee bit cantankerous and Margaret Graham's method of stress relief, although extreme, definitely has its appeal:)

Millsy's 'Margaret Graham'

2nd Runner up
Anne's 1970's Female Action Hero
I've chosen this figure of Anne's due to the amazing yellow/gold of the lady's flared trousers and her skin tones. As has been said before, Anne's understanding of colour is amazing and this yellow is so rich and deep that there is a beautiful glowing tone. Just lovely!

 Anne's 1970's Female Action Hero

1st Runner Up
AlexS' 'Tamsin the Gladiator & Anne the Sorceress'
I love that Alex has painted his rendition of Tamsin's and Anne's personalities. Both these ladies have made such a strong contribution to AHPC and beyond. Alex's artistic impression of them is inspired and a wonderful honour of their contribution this hobby.

Alex's 'Tamsin & Anne'

And the winner of Sarah's Choice ....

KyleC Slanneshi Daemon Princess

I've spent the last hour scrolling thru all the Sarah's Choice entrants and this entry really resonated with me, because I love purple (and green; your Valhallian Commisars are quite splendid) and the figure itself has such a lovely sense of ethereal motion. Your choice of pale luminescent colour really highlights the idea of movement.

KyleC's Slanneshi Daemon Princess

Thank you to everyone who has painted female figures for this Challenge, it has been real pleasure to view them all once more. I look forward to what next Challenge will bring!

Sarah, aka Snowlady

Thank you m'dear and congratulations to Kyle on his Sarah's Choice! Kyle, you will receive a 30 Euro Gift Certificate from Barrage Miniatures.


Points Threshold Prizes

Next we have the Point Threshold prizes. These are a random draw awarded to participants who broke through the six points barriers over the course of the Challenge.

Threshold I / 500-749 points: ChristopherS

(Gift Certificate from BigRedBat Ventures)

Threshold II / 750-999 points: PeterD

(20 CDN Gift Certificate from Comic Readers)

Threshold III / 1000-1499 points: GregB

(30 CDN Gift Certificate from Dragon's Den)

Threshold IV / 1500-1999 points: DaveB

(3 x 3 Mat of Choice from Deep Cut Studios)

Threshold V / 2000-2499 points: AlexS

(30 GBP Gift Certificate from Orinoco Miniatures)

Threshold VI / 2500+ points: MartinC

(30 Euro Gift Certificate from Barrage Miniatures)

Also, I think it only proper to give some prizes to our Paint Monsters who dominated the points roster:

3^rd in the Points Standings: AlexS (Figure Voucher from Murawski Miniatures for a Baden battalion)

2^nd in the Points Standings: MartinC (75 GBP Gift Certificate from Westfalia Miniatures

1^st in the Points Standings MilesR ($100 Gift Certificate from Fife & Drum Miniatures)

Congratulations to all the prize winners and thank you for sharing your wonderful work with us. Please contact me to work out the details of your prizes.

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There you have it folks, another Painting Challenge, our sixth (!), now behind us.  I’d like to thank all our Challenge Sponsors for their generous support of the event. All of the sponsors are listed below and on the right sidebar, so if you have a free moment please visit their sites, see if something strikes your fancy and consider giving them some trade.  As I always say, the Challenge doesn’t need prizes for it to be a success, but it sure adds a nice bit of sparkle and glamour to the proceedings. Again, my great thanks to all our wonderful sponsors!

Finally, and I really can't say this enough, I want to humbly thank all our Challenge participants. This event would be nothing without you. It is your humour, your vigour and your good will that makes these three months such a joy. I doff my hat to you all.

I bid you all a fond farewell until the leaves fall next autumn.

Curt

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Barrage Miniatures

Barrage Miniatures specializes in very high quality, exquisitely detailed vehicles, buildings and warmats. I had the pleasure to visit Alf's workshop in Madrid last year and can attest to his near maniacal attention to detail and customer service. In addition to his generous prize offerings Alf is also giving a 10% discount to all Challengers who order from his store during the event (please contact me to get the discount code). Thank you very much Alf!


Comic Readers

Comic Readers is our local game store here in Regina. Dana and Chad are wonderful pair of guys who do a great job supporting the local gaming community.

Deep-Cut Studios

Deep-Cut Studio is an artisan studio specializing in manufacturing miniature and RPG games accessories. They mainly focus on miniature games mats for various wargames. Deep-Cut collaborates with companies looking to outsource their manufacturing and/or handling the distribution of their products. They provide a wide array of services: graphic design, drawings, manufacturing, packaging and shipping the goods to the customer's doorstep. I have several of their mats and can attest to their quality and excellent customer service.

Diplomatist Books

The stock at Edwin King's wonderful online bookshop Diplomatist Books is always worth a thoughtful perusal. You'll find titles on Military & Naval History, Archaeology, Early History and Exploration. Check out Edwin's Facebook page to keep up with his goings on.

Dragon's Den Games

Just 250km up the road from Regina is Saskatoon's Dragon's Den Games (it seems nuts but this is a relatively short distance in the Canadian prairies). Darren has been a long-time supporter of the Challenge and I'm delighted that he has once again offered to provide some lucky Challenger a gift certificate. Cheers Darren!

Fife & Drum / Minden Miniatures

Jim Purky's Fife & Drum Miniatures, whose wonderful 30mm figures focus on the American War of Independence, was awarded 'Best Historical Miniatures Range of 2011' by the Miniatures Page. Jim also has the excellent Minden Miniatures range, which focuses on the armies of the Seven Years War. Both ranges are sculpted by the very talented Richard Ansell.

Murawski Miniatures

Murawski Miniatures was created to fill a niche for Napoleonic figure collectors who wanted a comprehensive range that depicted troops from the Grand Duchy of Warsaw as they were dressed and equipped in the 1812-1814 period. The “look” of the figures is very much that of “in the field” rather than parade ground (ideal for the Peninsular, 1813 campaigns etc) . Their figures have been designed with Czapska chords, plumes etc.

Orinoco Miniatures

A labour of love from fellow Challenger Mark Griffin, Orinoco Miniatures features a wonderful range of 28mm castings depicting the South American Wars of Independence (1810-1830) and the Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay (1932-1935).

 

SG2 Creations

Byron's SG2 Creations is a Canadian-based studio specializing in MDF terrain, figure storage and acrylic game markers. He continues to develop ranges of buildings for 28mm Sci-Fi, 15mm Stalingrad  and another in 20mm for the WWII campaigns in Italy.


Warbases 

Martin and Diane Murray of 'Warbases' return this year to provide a gift certificate to some lucky individual from their excellent shop. 


Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy

Fellow Challenger Guy Bowers, editor of 'Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy', has kindly offered a 1 year subscription as a prize to some lucky winner. Thanks very much Guy, much appreciated!

Westfalia Miniatures

Kawe's Westfalia Miniatures combines the talents of Niels Rullkoetter, Paul Hicks, Ebob, Frank Germershaus and Bill Thornhill to build 28mm miniatures and 1/56 equipment that they always wanted for their own collections. Their research comes from Michael Bartling and many others.


Westwind Productions

The good folks over at Westwind Productions contacted me about being a prize sponsor after our own Challenger JonathanO gave us a shout-out. Thanks very much to both Westwind and Jonathan!

 

Tribute to Dave - Corporal Docherty, Sergeant Millsy & The Shovel of Doom

The last Tribute is for Dave Docherty who was our prized Wednesday Minion and our peerless Sultan of the Sudan. Dave has been a huge supporter of the Challenge, having been in the scrum since its second incarnation (the year of the Vikings, I believe), so I was delighted to have him assisting me with the circus. He's a great trooper, that Mr. D.

Originally I was going to do-up one figure, the fellow here leading with the pipe - but while I was preparing the figure an idea came along which made me modify my plan and have a bit more fun with the composition.

As many of you know, this year Dave created a funny story-line featuring himself, Millsy and, the friend of every infantryman, a shovel. In Dave's story the imperious 'Major Docherty' harangues a hapless 'Corporal Millsy', who's only expertise it seems to be in the digging of latrines.  As I was working on Dave's 'tribute', it dawned on me that it might be fun to embellish and expand on his story of the doughty Docherty, the maniacal Millsy and the Shovel of Doom. So I converted another figure to accompany the first and wrote a brief flight of fancy, a un conte, which mixes a Moorcock-esque premise with a dash of Black Adder magic-realism.

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'C'mon Corporal Docherty, keep up. We're late.'

'Remind me again, Sergeant Millsy, why do I have to lug around this bloody shovel?'

'Well, first I outrank you this time, and, if you'll remember dear heart, it was I who had to use that thing instead of a proper lance in our last outing, when we were in The Valley. Do you remember? I had a hell of a time whacking away at those Frenchies with that blasted thing. Granted, it does have a wicked edge on it and - '

'Russians!'

'What?'

'They were Russians, Millsy, you addled git. We were friends with the French that time, fighting the nasty Russians. Mind you, even Raglan, that ancient one-armed antique, couldn't keep it straight.'

'Oh, yes I remember now. You know, after that scrap in that frightful Belgian farmyard I can never get my head wrapped around the idea of the Frogs being on our side... Anyway, no matter, it's your bloody turn Corporal Docherty. You know the rules - one stripe, one shovel, one battle.'

'Right. You're quite right... So, where are we off to this time Sergeant Millsy? It's blasted hot and what in God's name is that infernal racket? It's giving me a headache. It sounds like a bloody train is about to take station over that ridge.
 

'I don't know what the sound is, but I can tell you that we're marching to fall in with the lads of the 24th. The poor sods have that idiot Chelmsford bossing them about so they need all the help they can get. They're all near that hill over yonder. Damn, what's it called again? It's a odd, foreign-sounding name... Ah yes, I remember, Isandwana. 

Now, hurry up...'

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Thank you very much for all your help Dave. I hope you like this little vignette and thanks for indulging me for my little departure on your original story. :)  Here's to seeing you at Partizan this year!

Curt

Tribute to Peter - 'Max' the Reislaufer - Standard Bearer for the Canton of Uri

This Tribute is for my good friend Peter, our very entertaining and hard working Monday Minion.

Peter is a die-hard regular in our local gaming group. He's an Easterner, a stats prof and a bit of a loon, but I quite like him.  Both of us share a keen interest in the pike and shotte period, with our most recent diversion being the Italian Wars. To help fuel the furnace of industry, Peter and I had a spirited 'Renaissance Men' duel over this past Challenge where we managed to get a load of units completed for future tabletop mayhem. So in light of all this, I've decided to present as my tribute to Peter this figure representing a Swiss standard bearer from the canton of Uri. 

This is a 28mm model from Wargames Foundry's venerable Renaissance Swiss range. The model was originally armed with a partizan, but I extended the staff, and added a Uribanner and a fancy finial to top it off. 

Much of the literature of the Uri Swiss have their ensigns wearing these whacky yellow-and-black bull getups. The uniform makes me laugh as it reminds me of the pajamas 'Max' wears in Maurice Sendak's 'Where the Wild Things Are'.  :)

'Let the Wild Rumpus Begin!!'

Whoops! ...and here's Max with the iconic Swiss white cross on his chest (I noticed its absence after the first batch of photos, so I'm glad I caught it.)  


Thank you very much for all your help during the Challenge Peter. I think I can speak for all of us in saying that you and your Monday mob always started of our work-weeks with a smile. I hope this chap finds a good home amongst the ranks of your troops. 

Thanks again.

Curt

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Administrative Note: I'll be posting up my final tribute figures today (this one for Peter and Dave's) and then I'll move onto announcing the Challenge awards/prizes later this evening. Thanks!

Paul'Ss Challenge - Closeout

Well, that is the end of another year's challenge, with some fantastic painting and great community from everyone... I'm just a bit sad it is over and that I never got to all the things that I wanted to finish. Sadly work and life got in the way again. Maybe next year I'll just book off all of December or January and lock myself away to only paint. I'm sure I said that last year...

Another thing I said last year was that I wanted to actually have one project to work on for this year's challenge.

The challenge-end collection looks pretty impressive when it is gathered together like this. Sadly we're in the middle of decorating, so taking more photos won't be happening any time soon. Anyhoo.

The projects that ended up being worked on were:

1) Dungeon Saga - This one was about 5 figures shy of finishing the core box. Unfortunately every time I started painting these 5 I lost all inspiration and had to move on to something else. On the plus side, I did also cross off lots of additional figures from the KS including the critters and demons. Must try and finish those last 5...

2) WW2 Germans - This little group of figures were prepped for last year's challenge and were never started. It was nice to get them done this year so I now have 3 little starter forces for Bolt Action. One day I may even get to play a game somewhere!

3) Shadows of Brimstone - Some more creatures were crossed off the Brimstone list. There are still some left, but we're getting there. I may even finish the core boxes before the rest of the KS arrives...

4) Zombicide - I had a pile of zombies (normal and Black Plague) all undercoated for this year as they should have been quick to blitz through in the B&W sheme... but I forgot. Thankfully I at least got the crows done

5) Wild West - This was a new project that I never really intended to start, but shortly before the challenge we got to play the Fistfull of Lead demo at a show and too many ideas for terrain clicked in my head. It helped that some ideas for the side challenges fitted with this theme.

6) Saga Vikings - These were one of my secret santa presents from last year and something I'd wanted to do for ages. I'm really pleased that this one got finished as I now have a playable force that should work reasonably well.

7) War of the Roses - I thought this project was dead in the water, but this year's kind secret santa reignited things and another unit appeared on the painting table.

8) Pulp - 7TV figures are always in the painting queue, so for a few to sneak in is no real surprise.

9) Frostgrave - With all the other fantasy bits in here, how could we forget the Frostgrave side challenge and the extra figures painted for that?

That "one project" thing didn't really pan out did it? Must try harder next year!

There has been an impressive collection of beards on show from most people involved. This me and my beard from my work profile photo...  Can't remember what was on the ipod, most likely Curve or PWEI. It is about the only one you'll ever see of me as I hatehatehate photos of me :)

Onwards and upwards to the next challenge!

Tribute for Byron - Napoleonic French Infantry Status Stand

I've known Byron from waaay back. Back to when I played (get this) the GW Fantasy tournament circuit (!) and he ran his own Rogue Trader series (the excellent 'WarCons'). Byron has been a Challenger since the fourth edition and, as many of you know, has exhibited some of the finest painting seen in the Challenge over the past three years.

This year I was a bit in the weeds with the administration of the duels, but Byron came to my rescue by offering to take them off my shoulders. I know it's been a bit of a struggle for him as he was not involved in the initial negotiations detailing the nuances of the various duels, but he's done a valiant job in maintaining the roster, keeping it updated, so participants could better focus on their targets. 

A few years ago Byron began to tip his toe into collecting and painting 28mm French Napoleonics. He's now at a point where he can field a small infantry brigade, so I invited him down this weekend to get them properly thrashed on the tabletop (really, what's a 500k drive for a wargame amongst friends?). With this in mind, I thought I'd make him a casualty/status stand to add to his collection of Grognards. 

Seen here is a French line officer haranguing a grenadier drummer to keep up the tempo.

Both are 28mm figures from the venerable, but excellent, Foundry range, sculpted by the Perry's. 

Similar to my other unit stands I've created three sockets on the base to fit small dice to track unit status and a fin that can fit a unit identification label. It's pretty rudimentary stuff, but it seems to work alright and I find looks nicer than 'bare' chits or dice cluttering the tabletop.

Here are some examples of previous unit stands with their ID labels and how one of them looks with a sample unit (the small greyscale marker is to track things like 'Fatigue' or 'Disruption, depending on the system).

Examples of unit stands from my collection.

Thanks very much for all your help Byron! I hope you like these lads - we'll get them on the table with your boys later tonight for a bit of mayhem!

Curt