Last Chance for Duels scores!

Challengers - I'm still missing inputs and updates from some of you.
I'll take them up to the end of Curt's Sunday and then I'm drawing a line under it.

Make sure you get the Glory and glittering prizes you've worked so hard for!

challengeixsideduels@gmail.com

KenR : Challenge XI "The Italian Job"

Another Challenge is over, my third and definitely my most successful in terms of productivity, I aimed for 1750 and ended up with 2796 and another solid top ten finish. I was helped greatly by an injury at work, a proper "Blighty" wound, enough to keep me at home but not enough to stop me painting, result !

I didn't waste that spare time and cracked on with my Italian Wars project. This was always going to be the mainstay of this challenge, I just didn't quite realise how much I would get done. I think the Renaissance Side Duel is safe 😁

My personal side goal of 6 Cavalry a week was a real driver and it was great to complete this, ticking over the scoreboard kept me going.

The top picture shows the Army as it stands post challenge (there are 3 Units in there done before the start butI have a game ongoing on the table now so haven't had chance to take another shot). My personal favourite unit is the red and white liveried Papal Pike Block shown above. I have done a full run down of the Army including a video at,

https://yarkshiregamer.blogspot.com/2019/03/troops-on-parade-italian-wars-papal-army.html

Now you know you have painted too much when you can't get it all in one photo so here are the rest of my Challenge entries (minus some Italian Pre Dreadnoughts) who are now at their new home of my friends house). In fact I had to look back through my posts and had forgotten the Crusades Cavalry had been done in this Challenge.

So thanks very much for another great challenge Curt, I will be donating a few pounds to a local charity German Shepherd Dog Rescue in your honour. They nurse neglected and unwanted GSD back to heath and find them new homes. As a GSD owner all my life I have seen some dogs treated dreadfully especially in the "Security" industry and support the work to give these fantastic working dogs a better life.

Hopefully I will be one of the lucky entrants again next year, pop by Yarkshire Gamer and say hello ! Until next year, all the best. Ken.

From JohnM: AHPC IX Wrap Up

A photograph taken just 2 weeks ago showing a somewhat perplexed me as it is just starting to dawn on me that we had just played the 2 initial scenarios from the CoC Von Luck campaign and had totally screwed them up. This frequently happens to me, especially when I have been working the night before and have had 4 hours of sleep. I believe I would be better off if I drank!

A photograph taken just 2 weeks ago showing a somewhat perplexed me as it is just starting to dawn on me that we had just played the 2 initial scenarios from the CoC Von Luck campaign and had totally screwed them up.

This frequently happens to me, especially when I have been working the night before and have had 4 hours of sleep. I believe I would be better off if I drank!

As requested here is a photo of myself, but unfortunately not posed in front of my collective contribution to the AHPC IX.

I will offer a long and complex explanation on why I have not done what I was supposed to have done (anyone who knows me though will appreciate that I have a long history of not doing what I am supposed to do).

First: I have a very specific post painting figure process. All figures once photographed are immediately covered in gloss polyurethane and left for a couple of months to harden and than have a matt polyurethane applied when it is nice outside.

Second: I can not photograph glossy figures as they look sort of sh___y.

Third: All the terrain and figures once polyurethaned get immediately packed away in specialised drawers and then placed in cabinets but unfortunately I am never really sure where they are as I have a lot of drawers and cabinets. I just can not find them again.

Fourth: I am going away for 3 weeks on Tuesday so my wife says I have to have everything packed away and tidy before we go away. So I am not allowed to retrieve what I have done even if I could find things.

Fifth: I hate photographing miniatures.

Sixth: I think the whole point of Curt's final request for this specific post is a cunning maneuver to reveal what we look like rather than to demonstrate our modelling or painting prowess.

Seventh: One, I suppose, could just conclude I am too lazy to do what is requested of me, but really if this was the case why would I spend so much time constructing such an elaborate series of reasons on why I have not done it...........................

From Barks: AHPC IX, targets down and patch out

Here we see a Barks in his natural habitat.

I had six goals for AHPC IX:

• 15mm WW1 French
• Mansions of Madness
• Imperial Assault
• Blackstone Fortress
• 28mm Robin Hood
• Enter all the bonus rounds

I'm glad to say that I got them all done, except the Robin Hood stuff. BlackPinkstone Fortress in particular took me much longer than expected, but was worth it. I had an unexpected last week reprieve with Red Alert finding its way from China to me before getting to the UK or US, which was a quick paintjob to polevault me beyond my target, yay!

Most, but not all, of my output

This was also my first Challenge as a Minion- there are terrifying things going on behind the scenes which we're not supposed to talk about, but apart from that it was great fun! Nine months to AHPC X!

From BenitoM: IX Challenge Wrap-up... and a late arrival

I can hardly believe the winter is over and also The Challenge again. It must be the age but time seems to pass faster and faster every year. In any case, time now to clean the brushes (in my case a couple will have to be retired) and to store my painting tray for a few weeks at least.


This is the full harvest of this year’s Challenge, almost completely focused in my British Airborne platoon for Chain of Command.

This are zooms to the British infantry rank and file models…

… support weapons…

… command models…

… and the motor section this year.

Finally the small Napoleonic contingent in this year’s challenge.

I came short of my 750 points target, but with 637 accumulated it’s been my best score of the last 5 years.  I want now to spend more time playing, especially with my British Airborne unit, which hopefully will be displayed in a gaming table in a not too distant future.

This year’s Challenge has been brilliant, I have enjoyed a lot indeed. The quality of the Challengers entries has been outstanding and I can argue that’s been the best Challenge of the 9 so far. That’s going to be a real challenge for the Tenth, no doubt.

 

I should remark and highlight the effort taken by Curt and Sarah to have this madness running every year: thank you very much, guys; I hope to see you sometime soon in Europe again and hopefully stopping by Madrid to share some wine and tapas as a couple(?) years ago. Also many-many thanks to all minions but especially to Iain, that have made such a terrific job herding the Thursday contenders.

Before I close this post, my selfie photo which as in previous years is one takien in a battlefield visit. In this case in a Nationalists Army artillery OP of the Spanish Civil War in the Guadarrama mountains outside Madrid.

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST a late arrival, that I finished painting just today and will conclude not only this post but also my British Airborne project.

Not terribly useful in a gaming table as it has no fighting value, but is such a beautiful model that I could not resist acquiring and painting. 

In the painting tray I also have the Curtgeld which I hope to have ready over the next two weekends. With Curt’s permission, I’ll post in the blog if he agrees.

So that’s all folks, I wish you a fruitful rest of the year and hope to see you all in nine moths from now. The countdown to 10^th Challenge starts NOW.

From AlexS: From Russia with Love

Hello to all! My name is Alex and I from Russia.

This is my fourth event in which I participate. Every year brings me an ocean of pleasure, a sea of new impressions and a lake of miniatures. I enjoy watching the work of other people, they inspire me a lot. I already wrote about how I love the work of Greg, Michael and Tamsin, but everyone else is just as important to me. Well, of course Сurt, who stands apart, as a monument in the central square of the city. This year I was lucky the same way as in the past - my curator was a man whose work and blog have always been an example for me. Thank you very much, Big Lee, in what I did at the event, there is your work.

As always, I am grateful to all the other participants, you were beautiful, you gave me a drive. I was particularly impressed that I was on the same day as Christopher, because I began to gather an army on AWI after reading his blog.

Well, here's the terrain and miniatures that I painted. I hope that some of my messages were interesting to you.

Well, the last. Five years ago I was about to leave the hobby. I sold almost all my painted miniatures and was going to sell those that had not yet been painted. But I found this event on the Internet, and I realized that I did not want to give up this hobby. Then I was late with registration, but a year later I took part in this great event. Here is a photo of what I did in four years. I think the events were not in vain.

Thanks again and see you all!

From MilesR: Challenge IX Wrap-Up

 Challenge IX's production represents a personal best for me with just over 5K points and barely fits on my 8x4 foot table.  It's also notable in that the points output isn't dominated by 28mm figures.  There were 3 areas of focus for Challenge nine - 15mm Napoleonics, 28mm Wild West and ACW and Terrain - lots of terrain.

 On the 28mm side I added some more to my Perry ACW collection which was required for my Cold Wars convention games which went rather well.  There was also a good bit of 28mm "heroic scaled" Wild West stuff including a ton of buildings.

 The main area of focus this year (and likely next year) was 15mm Napoleonics as you can see in this picture.  There's a good start to an Austrian Army and I've also finished all the odds and ends I need put on my Historicon game this summer (including the ships).  The game is titles "To Catch a King" and will depict a British attempt to spirit King George away from the clutches of Napoleon after a he has invaded Britain.  Of course with King George being THAT King George, his movements may be a little erratic at times.

I'm not sure why Curt insists on inflicting all of you with the lasting visual trauma of my visage but he does - perhaps you all have greatly wronged him in a past life.  So here goes.  I do like the way my glasses squish my head in - very stylish.

The distribution of this year's points is as follows (and yes there is a spreadsheet)

15mm Napoleonic:                  2,133
Terrain:                                    1,780
Wild West                                   640
28mm ACW                               335
"other"                                        163
  Total                                       5,051

Please note that out of respect to all of your intellects, I do not stoop to the tawdry use of flashy charts and graphs as some less discerning challengers may.  Let us keep our mathematical discourse out of the graphic gutter.

Next year's challenge will likely focus on 15mm nappys (one always needs a Russian army and some Prussians to) plus terrain.  I do like building terrain....

I may not have been active as much as I would have liked in comments during the course of the challenge due to intrusion of real world issues but I do greatly enjoy this event and the cherish the people who participate (yes, even you Ray).  This whole exercise is a very great stress reliever and is much appreciated - Thank You.

From LeeH - AHPC IX Body of Work

The Challenge is over and I have that empty feeling that follows the hectic activity of the last three months. There is a void in my life and the only thing that will fill it is to start planning for Challenge Ten! But first I need to cap off this year's festival of painting with a 'Body of Work' photo. Its been mixed bag from me this year, with additions to several existing armies rather than starting a new project. My original target of 600 points was smashed fairly early and everything on my original to-do list has been completed.

So, I think a breakdown is required although I am aware that I'm probably the only one that will be interested in this. I racked up a total score of 845 Points and reached 31st place. Neither of these figures is a personal best, but considering I was also the Tuesday Minion, I'm pretty happy with that tally. I even managed to take a week off for a family holiday in the middle of the Challenge (as I keep reminding the wife whenever she rolls her eyes at my latest project).

Period

Zulu War    12.1% (102 Points)

Fantasy      18.6% (157 Points)

Punic War   27.9% (236 Points)

WWI           7.3%  (62 Points)

WWII          34.1% (288 Points)

Scale

6mm          40%  (338 Points)

15mm        38%  (321 Points)

28mm        17.6%  (149 Points)

40mm        4.4%  (37 Points)

Stats aside, and on a personal level, this has been the best Challenge I have taken part in. I have managed to get a lot of 'lead' painted - far more than I would alone - and have added to several existing armies in my collection. There is always more that can be done, so don't be surprised if more AZW units turn up in Challenge Ten.

Slightly amazed at how much I have painted!

Aside from the obvious joy of getting stuff painted, I have also been able to participate (in a small way) to the competition itself and that has been enormous fun. Being a minion was both a rare privilege and a great responsibility and it has given me a whole new perspective on a competition I thought I knew well. I've said it before but I'd like to thank all of the Tuesday Terrors for being such a great team and for letting me adjudicate their incredible entries. And while I'm in 'Oscars' mode, I'd also like to thank Curt, the Great Snow Lord himself, for running this madness every year. It is the highlight of my hobby year and the other nine months are a pale shadow by comparison. 

From TamsinP: My Humble AHPC9 Efforts

Phew! Thank goodness it's all over! Rather than wait a few days so that I'd forget where I'd squirreled everything away, I decided to do my group pics a few hours after the Challenge finished. However, on reviewing the pics and my posts, I realise that I did forget six bases of Mongol cavalry!

I'll start you with a decent pic showing everything that got painted:

And then a not so good one with me in it:

The camera must have tilted a bit when I pressed the button before rushing to kneel down behind the table before the timer counted down. The trouble with living on your own is there is nobody to take pics of you with your glorious collection of recently painted minis.

And now some pics of individual groups:

Stronty Dogs, Waffen SS, Kra'Vak

Ming Chinese

Mongols (missing 6 cavalry bases)

SYW Russians

Pulp, Gladiators, Young Ones, the Lady Sarah

Santa Mondega's worst

Fenrisians and light snacks

28mm and 15mm WW2 Soviets

Early WW2 Aussies

I've also done a bit of maths to work out how my scoring splits up:

Bonus Rounds - 275
Curtgeld - 20
Other Bonuses* - 29**
28mm - 1452
15mm - 1650
Total -=3426

*Flags, random generosity from minions
** I've deducted the 37 bonus points Lee added for the Stronty Dog figures and included them in the 28mm total

Crikey! 3102 points of painted figures, vehicles and terrain in 3 months! That's a 22% increase over my previous best 2522 points from AHPC5 (which was 15 weeks rather than 13!). Taking my score with bonuses, it's a 36% increase; adjust that for the 13 vs 15 weeks and it's a whopping 57%.

It's also my highest placing (I was 5th in AHPC6 with my lowest total out of 6 Challenges).

Breaking things down further:

28mm
Foot - 258 + 3 small crewed weapons/bits scored as foot
mounted - 0
Crewed weapons - 1
Vehicles -1
Terrain - 4 cubes* (I've included the Lady Sarah as terrain although it was scored as 2 vehicles)

* for the Challenge  a terrain "cube" is 6" x 6" x 6"

15mm
Foot - 535 + 4 small crewed weapons scored as foot
Mounted - 114
Crewed weapons - 27
Vehicles - 1


This was, I believe, my closest ratio between 15mm and 28mm outputs. I could quite easily have skewed things very heavily to 28mm if I had focused on my Wars of the Roses project. But I didn't, largely because I kept being intimidated by the number of figures. I think they will be a project for April. I might have worked out how I will do their basing by then as well.


I think this may be the first time that I have had an entry in all five bonus rounds. That was mostly because I already had something in the paint queue which would fit each theme (OK, one was a bit of a stretch!).


Aside from my placing and output, I  am quite happy to say that this has been the best Challenge that I've taken part in. It's been great fun seeing everybody's entries over the three months and commenting on them. The AHPC does bring out the best in all of us, and this year's Fellowship theme was very fitting.


Once again, a huge thanks to Curt for organising this extravaganza and to Lady Sarah for allowing him to do so.

Curt's Challenge IX Group Shot

Me, Oscar (on my left, with one eye peeking out), and Felix overseeing my Challenge IX output.

While I was caught up with a lot of boring real-life stuff this Challenge, I did manage to get a surprising amount completed. Well, 'a surprising amount' to my workmanlike standards, but nothing compared to the titans of the points roster.

Not bad. I'm particularly proud of that 1:1 scale half-filled wine glass...

Nonetheless, I was delighted to (barely) achieve my 1200 point target and to have stuck to my guns in being completely all over the place in topics. I think my 'Squirrel Tally' indicates around 15 different periods/genres/scales over my 21 entries, which I found to be satisfyingly schizophrenic.

The funny byproduct to this whackadoodle approach is that I currently have about a dozen entries at some level of completion, which should give me something to work on over the coming months.  Bonus! :)

It was a terrific Challenge, and while I'm happy to have a few months break, I look forward to putting my shoulder to the wheel for Challenge X next winter.

In the meantime, I'll catch up with you all on March 31st for our glitzy award show.

See you then!

- Curt -

Stats, The Teaser

As if the words "Stats" needs something so mundane as a teaser marketing campaign.  I still get a little tingle every time I type the word stats.  I suspect each and everyone of you have the same reaction or greater when you read that word....

But, sadly, there are a few unenlightened souls who live in the intellectual wilderness of the non-mathemagical world (gads could there ever be a worse place - I suspect not),  For those bedraggled souls, I shall offer a few hints as to the statistical glory that awaits all of you when the Challenge Stats post is unveiled this weekend.  You may all rest assured that, as you slumber in your paint splattered painting warrens, my statistical minions are making the appropriate sacrifices, chanting the needed incantations and carrying the two to provide you with mathematical enlightenment, however unworthy you are to receive it.

No need to thank me, it's what I do.  You're Welcome.

One note - as this is a family oriented channel (despite the attempts of a certain participant to get us a "adult content warning" from Google) I've rounded off the numbers.  Sometimes too many decimal places is just to "suggestive".  I think you know what I mean. (wink)

So without further ado, said teasers are below:

101K

241

-471

WOW - It doesn't get any better than that, does it?

And, before you ask, there will be charts and graphs for those of you who still need training wheels when playing with numbers.  I can not tell you how it pains me to stoop to this level of numerological communication but it's sadly needed.  Oh how I dream of a day when we all communicate only in binary. What a glorious day that will be.

Your Friendly 'very stable genius" Stats Wizard
Miles

P.S.
For those of you with access to the glorious spreadsheet of divination - NO PEEKING!  I can track who looks at the spreadsheet and my wrath is as cruel as my memory is long......

Last Lament from the Duels Wallah

A last plea for Side Duel updates please - be it your Squirrels, Renaissance Men, Evil Empire or other
Final standings will be published on Sunday

many thanks!

Wallah 9 Actual - Out

The Final Post of Challenge IX 'Fellowship' - The Syrian White Helmets

Brushes down folks! It's curtains.

Jeez Louise! Our ninth Challenge under the belt, eh! Wow, I'm a bit wrecked, but it feels awesome to have hit the finish line with all of you. I have to give a HUGE thanks to many a minion and particularly Tamsin for stopping in to help me post many of the entries over the past few days - you folks were real troopers and helped me stay employed while keeping the show on the road. 

__________________________________________

As to my closing post, I wanted to return to our theme of 'Fellowship' and decided to do a small vignette honouring a group of people whose selfless work I've admired for several years now: the Syrian White Helmets.

As many of you know the White Helmets are a group of Syrian volunteers whose mandate is to provide medical assistance, urban search and rescue, civilian evacuation, and essential service delivery to areas caught within their nation's civil war. It is reported that since they were formed more than 5 years ago the White Helmets have saved over 100,000 lives, while losing over 200 of their own people in the process. In 2016 the group was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and have subsequently been awarded numerous international accolades for their humanitarian work.

Sadly, in this politically charged region of the world, there is an active smear campaign levelled at the White Helmets, trying to besmirch and belittle what they have done for their people. Personally I think this is reprehensible, but these are the times we live in and we all have to do our bit to rise above it and fight injustice when we can. 

I'm proud to say that this past summer the Canadian government was instrumental in organising the evacuation of over 400 White Helmets and their families from Syria before forces loyal to the present regime could arrest them for supposed crimes against the state. Many of these people have been resettled here in Canada, along with other participating countries. I know for many of them it has been a heart-wrenching experience, having to flee their homeland and loved ones to live in a far away, alien place. I am happy to have them here in a safe haven, but I hope there comes a day when these brave people can freely and safely choose to either return to Syria, or remain with us as new Canadians.

As you can imagine, there are no White Helmet figures on the market, so I took a shot of bodging my own. As they wear a distinctive cropped helmet which looks vaguely similar to a German fallshirmjaeger helmet I used that as a basis to run with. 

With this in mind, I found a trio of 20mm German paratroopers tucked away in my collection, repositioned their arms and heads and carefully cut and filed away their equipment to look more like civilian garb. 

I then mounted them on a piece of carved blue insulation and then added assorted rubble and debris. Admittedly, it's not perfect, but the overall silhouette seems to work to my eyes. I hope it does for you as well.

_____________________________

Okay, on to the administrative stuff.

Over the next few weeks I'd like everyone to submit a group shot of themselves and everything they got done over the past three months of the Challenge. I'll kick this off in a few days featuring my smiling mug with my (small) horde of toys PLUS I will be posting the my remaining Tribute figures for Lee and Robert, so stay tuned for those.

The announcement on the various prizes will be in two weeks time (Sunday, March 31st).  

These will be:

- The six Threshold prizes for 500, 750, 1000, 1500, 2000 and 2500+ points.

- Judges Choice (chosen by me)

- Sarah's Choice (chosen by Lady Sarah)

- Challenger's Choice (chosen by you lot!)

For Challenger's choice we're going to do it similar to previous years. I'd like all the participants to send me their top three favourite entries from this Challenge. The deadline is this Sunday (the 24th). It doesn't have to be in any particular order as I will make a big gallery of all the nominations from which we can vote. It will be a nice way of reminding ourselves of all the excellent work that was produced during the Challenge.

Again, thank you for indulging me in this mad little venture. And a HUGE thanks to both this year's Minions (Barks, Lee, Ev, Iain, Robert, Miles, and Paul) and the Old Sweats of previous editions, I could not have pulled this off without you folks.  I hope you all had as good a time as I did.

There it is: The Ninth Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge has concluded. 

Thanks again everyone!

Curt