AHPC XI: Statistical Review: Stat-A-Geddon Time

 

Ring the Church Bells, Bang the Drums and Blow the Trumpets!!!!!

It's that time of year again when your minds are well and truly blown from another blast of mathamagical wonderment.  Buckle up baby, things are about to get statistically significant.

Those of you with refined and more delicate constitutions may want to look away or skip to end of this post where some soothing charts are included to help everyone come down from the statistically induced state of euphoria this post is sure to induce.  Well, I'm pretty sure it will induce some type of reaction but that may vary by person.  Better put a bucket next to you, you know, just in case.

Challenge XI has been in the books a little over a week - and like a fine wine, it does take a few days to settle down and ripen before being reviewed.  I'm also sure you are aware that the arcane process we have to go through to review the data is both cumbersome and not for the squeamish - a lot of kittens gave their all for this review (literally - gears don't grease themselves) don't let their sacrifices be in vane by skipping to the end and looking at the EVA stats.

Challenge XI saw 84 intrepid pigment warriors embark upon the usual mission to paint away the winter months.  This challenge was even more important for all of us as it was a welcome distraction from some of the darkest days of the pandemic as December wore into January.  Hopefully all of our respective geographies are beginning to see the corner turned but I suspect COVID-19 has one or two more surprises in store for us.  Never-the-less we will persevere.  I'd like to thank all of you for creating a wonderful community that really was important to me during those difficult days.  Now back to battering you about the head with numbers.

We few, we happy few of 84 pigment warriors generated a total of 82,619 points which was just shy of the overall top Challenge total of 83,200 from Challenge VII (which had a whopping 96 participants).  That's a huge tally and one all of you should be proud of.  Even more spectacular and statistically improbable Challenge XI saw not just a tie but a threeway tie for total points from painting titans Martin C, Noel W and the village idiot.  Astounding, supremely improbable and TOTALLY COINCIDENTAL.  What are the odds such a breathtakingly remote event like that could occur - well the mathematical machines are still grinding away at the exact probability but I think we all can be sure that it's greater than zero.  You know it's legit because the final score is a prime number.

Lets take a look at How Challenge XI compares to Challenge X:

AHPC XI Stats Summary:
	XI	X
Total Points	82,619	68,878
% of Target	121.68%	109.00%
Participants	84	68
# of Submissions	1,261	956
# of Chamber / Island Submissions	518	437
Avg Submissions per Participant	15	14
Avg Pts per Submitter	984	1013
Avg Pts per Submission	66	72
Total Points per Week	6,355	5,298
Figures Painted
28MM
Inf	6,765	4,785
Cav / Art	798	454
Vehicles	97	122
15MM
Inf	2,519	2,083
Cav / Art	527	588
Vehicles	196	144
6MM
Inf	2,519	2,496
Cav / Art	695	471
Vehicles	30	235
Terrain "Cubes"	125	191
Points Distribution
28mm	52.95%	44.85%
15mm	10.55%	11.14%
6mm	2.44%	3.18%
Terrain	3.03%	5.54%
Chamber / Island Bonus Pts	22.94%	25.12%
Other Scales	8.10%	10.18%
Total	100.00%	100.00%

 First of all - we crushed our respective target points, exceeding it by a whopping 122%. Even more impressive is that fact that 65 out 84 participants exceeded their personal targets.  One of the Hallmarks of Challenge XI was the points generation and participation levels where shared much more broadly across the participants rather than concentrated in a handful of painting over achievers.  To me, that's one of the most heartening statistics about both the hobby and the Challenge itself - from a community perspective, I think it's very, very strong.

Challenge XI also saw a record breaking total number of submissions - we usually average plus or minus 1,000 entries but this year saw a whopping 1,261 - in part fueled by the very engaging room challenge.  Still when compared to last year (which had the similar "Challenge Island" aspect, the average number of submissions still increase from 14 in X to 15 over the course of XI.

Interestingly, while the absolute number of special challenge submissions increase from 437 to 518 from X to XI, the share of total submissions decreased and Island submission where 47% of all Challenge X entries while during Challenge 9, the challenge room submissions were just 41%.  Please note the data was adjusted to separate out those submissions that combined multiple rooms.

So what did we paint?  28mm reclaimed its majority control of the Democratic Republic of Miniatures at 52.95% of Challenge XI points were directly related to 29mm subjects.  We painted a total of 6,765 28mm Infantry figures, 798 Cavalry and Guns and 97 Vehicles.  Thats a lot!

Even though we painted more 15 and 6mm figures in absolute numbers during Challenge XI, their total share of points declined.  The biggest drop offs when compared to Challenge X where in 10mm scale and terrain.  (Editors note: I did my best to keep the terrain scores up).  One project I will undertake in the future is to re-sort the entries by topic/eras (WW2, Napoleonics, ACW, 40k , etc) and compare that to the data from the WSS surveys to see if there are any interesting trends - don't worry Jasper and Guy, you'll get first dibs on any findings).

Let's  dont we take a closer look at Challenge XI?  Sadly, for this review I will now need to resort to the use of graphs and charts.  I apologize for garish introduction of color and clarity in this statistical review.

The chart above shows points per day.  Like past challenges, Challenge XI had its mad dash of points in the end (I'm looking at you Guy "last day points avalanche" Bowers).  In all past challenges, the points progression was "U" shaped with a large  dip in productivity during the second month, which scholars refer to as the "AHPC February Doldrums".  That did not happen during Challenge XI, where production barely dropped from month 1 to month 2 as seen below:

 

Month1	476	26,434
Month2	362	25,314
Month3	423	30,871
	1,261	82,619

If we examine the distribution of daily points (why? because I can) the dominance of 28mm (the blue bar) becomes clear.  This group does like its 28mm figures

How do we compare to all the other Challenges?

Well, I'm glad you asked.  Sadly, more charts are required

Points per participant is a fascinating chart for me - while the population for challenge changes (about 25% turnover) we have settled into a pretty set pattern of around a 1K points per participant.

Economic Value Add

This section tends to be the most popular but does require a little explanation.  As an enterprise, the AHPC does represent a form of economic stimulus for the hobby as we purchase miniatures along with the supplies to paint and base them.  Moreover we will also likely replace those resources consumed in this enterprise with new ones.  Professionally, I live in a world of unit economic analysis and, as a financial services professional, you know you can trust me - when have we ever let you down?

The process used to calculate the Economic Value Add of the Challenge involves the determining the three pillars of miniature valuation:

Pillar 1: 28mm Equivalent Figures

Convert the total points into equivalent 28mm infantry figures.  This one is pretty easy divide the total score by 5 points per figure: 82,619 divided by 5 equals 16,524 figure equivalents

Pillar 2: Cost per Figure 

Estimate the unit cost of painting a figure.  This step is a bit more complicated and breaks down the total cost of a figure into three component:

Figure Cost: 

The cost the figure itself which includes postage, taxes and such.  The figure costs have have been increase this year from $3.00 to $3.25  to account for inflation Suez canal blockages, GW predatory pricing and other factors.

Consumables:

Paints, glues, basing materials, Xacto blades and other items that are consumed in making the figure.  Bear in mind its not just the cost of the paint on the figure - your paint wastage on your palette has been factored in.  Please note medical costs from xacto blade mishaps are factored into labor costs below.  Consumables are estimated at $2.75 a figure

Labor:

Painting a miniature takes time, your time in fact and time IS money so we need to factor in a Labor cost.  This has always been a hotly debated component as different people paint at different speeds and quality varies and some of you have rather high opinions of your own value - yeah, yeah, yeah - blah, blah, blah.  You all will get the average hourly rate and like it.  By the way that hourly rate is $12.75

Pillar 3: Economic Velocity

It just takes one glance at out respective lead mountains to realize we purchase more than we paint.  In fact theres an economic term for that called velocity - after many year of costly research and field experimentation, scientist have determined that for every figure painted, 5 are purchased, hence a base velocity of 5.  This value has been adjusted upward to 5.25 to reflect stress buying induced during the pandemic.

The formula for total EVA is just to simply multiply the three pillars together - easy, peasy right?

Without further ado - I present to you the EVA calculation for Challenge XI - drum roll please.....

Ecomonic Value Add (EVA)		CHALLENGE XI
			Previous
		Economic	Challenge
		Value Add	(AHPC X)
Total Points	82,619
Equivalent 28mm	16,524
Cost per Mini	$3.00	$49,571	$2.75
Paints etc	$2.75	$45,440	$2.50
Painting TIme	$12.75	$210,678	$12.50
Sub Total	$18.50	$305,690	$17.75
Velocity	5.25	$1,604,870	5

BOOM! Challenge XI has generated $1.6 Million buck-a-roos to the hobby.  A true economic titan in 28mm scale.  But the story doesn't end here (no matter how much you want it to right now).  If we look at the cumulative economic value of a 11 Challenges:

We just crossed $10,000,0000 in total value delivered to the hobby.  You can take that nm=umber to the bank - just don't use my name.

I suspect Curt is now wondering where his cut is.  I suspect he is now regretting my offer to negotiate a marketing agreement for him

Halls of Vallejohalla

Lets us now all journey to the fabled  Halls of Vallajohalla, where the great deeds of painting challenges past are forever remembered for the feats of bravery they are

Top 25 Individual Scores:

The first shrine we come upon is the Top 25 individual Scores.  Challenge XI sees 3 names added to the sacred band of 25:

Rank	Challenge	Challenger	Points
1	9	NoelW	6,268
2	8	KentG	5,343
3	9	MilesR	5,051
4	10	NoelW	5,011
5	2	RayR	4,940
6	8	NoelW	4,880
7	2	KentG	4,724
8	8	MilesR	4,550
9	9	MartinC	4,470
10	4	AndrewS	4,180
11	5	DaveD	4,138
12	7	MilesR	4,125
13	3	ChrisP	4,076
14	7	MartinC	4,051
15	8	ByronM	3,881
16	5	MarkO	3,854
17	8	MartinC	3,844
18	10	MartinC	3,789
10	3	JamesB	3,761
20	11	MilesR	3,643
21	11	Martin Cooke	3,643
22	11	Noel Williams	3,643
23	7	GrahameH	3,611
24	7	DaveD	3,586
25	10	MilesR	3,475

Finally, it's time to gaze upon the scroll of lifetime points, where the career exploits of Challenge participants are forever recorded so that no will forget these seasoned painting warriors and their feats of tiny brushes.

Rank	Name	Lieftime Points	# of Challenges	Pts/Challenge
1	MilesR	31,778	10	3,178
2	MartinC	22,094	6	3,682
3	DaveD	20,007	9	2,223
4	NoelW	19,802	4	4,950
5	RayR	15,841	9	1,760
6	TamsinP	15,631	7	2,233
7	AlexS	13,516	5	2,703
8	ByronM	13,173	7	1,882
9	KentG	12,518	3	4,173
10	Millsy	12,144	8	1,518
11	GregB	11,294	10	1,129
12	FranL	11,294	6	1,882
13	SanderS	10,884	7	1,555
14	DavidB	9,238	6	1,540
15	EricM	8,860	4	2,215
16	IanW	8,769	7	1,253
17	AlanD	8,691	7	1,242
18	JohnM	8,679	10	868
19	AdamC	8,347	6	1,391
20	Barks	8,122	6	1,354
21	Curt C	7,560	9	840
22	SamuliS	7,154	8	894
23	GrahameH	7,145	3	2,382
24	KenR	7,123	4	1,781
25	BrendonW	6,859	7	980
26	MikeW	6,474	4	1,619
27	ChrisP	6,105	3	2,035
28	PaulOG	6,039	7	863
29	MichaelA	5,951	7	850
30	KevH	5,861	2	2,931
31	LeeH	5,710	6	952
32	PeterD	5,610	8	701
33	TimB	5,573	2	2,787
34	StuartL	5,560	3	1,853
35	MarkO	5,507	2	2,754
36	AndrewS	5,454	2	2,727
37	JamieM	5,407	6	901
38	ClintB	5,347	4	1,337
39	SteveM	5,337	6	890
40	MartinN	5,069	7	724
41	PeteF	5,023	3	1,674
42	JamesB	5,012	3	1,671

This year we see two new entrants into the 20K club as both Martin and DaveD surpass 20,000 Lifetime points.  Noel is knocking on the door and at his bracing pace will surely enter next year.  All hail our painting hero's with 5,000 of more lifetime points.  They do have the "Right Stuff".

Well there you have it, the statistical review of Challenge XI is now done.  I'm not sure if I should say "you're welcome" or "I'm really sorry for subjecting you to this drivel" - maybe you can let me know in the comments.

Have a wonderful and healthy summer, get your vaccines and I look forward to seeing you all for Challenge 12.  

Miles

From JeremyM: Challenge Wrap

 Hi All,

I am very pleased to present my finished challenge projects for this year. I still have so much I want to do...but isn't that the point of all this anyway. Besides one must keep a few things in your back pocket for next year...as well as our continued extra hobby time while we quarantine. 

I have sporadically been in a few challenges before this one, but have never progressed anywhere near this far. I was rather skeptical I would come anywhere near the point total Curt assigned to me, but to surpass it was a great feeling. I still have more aliens figures I need to paint (that collection keeps growing and growing), but I'm pretty happy I have a great start to an Imperial guard army from all this. Sometimes you just get in a rhythm and its good to stick with it when that happens.  Previous challenges I was derailed when life came along to throw a monkey wrench at me. This happened to a degree this challenge, but thankfully it was near the end and didn't last long. I have a couple project finished up but thankfully that is what the vaccination challenge is for! Hope to see several of you in that one as well (but let's hope for not too long!). 

From EdwardG: Final group photo

 Hi all,

It is already a week since the end of the Challenge and yet it feels like only moments ago. I am so glad that I was able to take part in the XIth Challenge and I cannot wait to begin the XIIth! Thank you to Curt and all the minions for keeping the Challenge going, and thank you to everyone for the inspiring photos of your painted minis and kind comments on my entries.  

This afternoon I managed to clear the dinning table and persuade my wife to help me take the obligatory wrap up photo. 

I have to say, I am amazed at how much I have managed to paint. Well over double my original target!! If I was able to keep up this level of productivity I would have very little lead pile left! Luckily (ish), I seem to have already slowed down a bit, so no fear of running out of fresh minis any time soon. Although, I probably should buy some more just in case. One can never be too careful. 

My two main projects have been nicely boosted thanks to the Challenge, with the 100 days Allied Army, 1 and a half divisions closer to being complete. And my DBA Romano British army has landed only 9 figures short of its total number, which I think is pretty good going! In addition, I found jumping (or should that be crawling) through the Chambers a great distraction, and a fun stretch at times to see which minis I could possibly shoe horn in with some lateral thinking. My Curtgeld mini is already in a box on its way to Miles, but I am not saddened by it missing the photo call, I am just thrilled that it is on its way to such an inspirational fellow. 

Hope everyone stays safe and well over the next ~268 days, 6 hours, 9 minutes, and how ever many seconds until the start of the XIIth Challenge! (I don't know what you mean I am not really counting...)

In the mean time, see some of you over at the Vaccination Challenge (or VacCha as I call it...no?...just me?...Ok). Living in Germany means that I run a high risk of still posting on that board when the XIIth Challenge is going. Fingers crossed, thumbs pressed, and timber touched, that it isn't the case! 

All the best,

Ed :D 

From ArthurS and SanderS: The Challenge Wrap-Up!

 Hoi,

Dear Challengers, that was humongous fun thanks for that! Both Arthur and me had a great time viewing all the excellent admissions and reading all the posts and comments to our own posts. Sadly it's all over for now, even though there's now a Vac Challenge for those of us showing withdrawal sympthoms.

As always, the "wrap-up post" is where we thank everyone who made this Challenge possible; all the old and new Challengers, the redoubtable Minions, Dear Lady Sarah who puts up with all of us claiming her husband as self-appointed deity of Snow and Sillyness and of course Master Campbell himself, thank you all!

Special mention should go to those not attending this year, they are all sorely missed. I personally miss MichaelA, Iannick, Fran and AnneO a lot but I am sure we will be seeing them again in the future.

If I have counted correctly, I am taking part in the Challenge since 2014, making this my 8th event and Arthur's 4th one. As each year, when making the pictures I always forget to put some in. This time we asked my wife to make the picture below.

Afterwards I noticed my Deathwing terminators were missing so I made this picture.

 

Only to discover upon clearing away some of the figures that I had omitted to include the Heroquest Golems and magical creatures...DOH! 

 I will try to keep painting and posting stuff in the Vac Challenge so perhaps I will see you there. Take care, stay healthy and till next year!

Cheers Sander and Arthur

 

From BenitoM: Photo Finish and Farewell

This 11th edition of The Challenge has flown away at the speed of light. I guess that lockdown and restrictions are not good to our perception of how time pass by. In any case, as in previous years I have really enjoyed being part of the community and having contributed my small part to the fun of the project.

The idea of the Island dungeon was bright indeed and added another layer of "challenge" (and fun!) to this edition, especially for historical-oriented painters like me... I'm left wondering what evils must be expected for the 12th edition.

In terms of goals, I feel enough satisfied with my scoring (515 points vs a 500 points target) and also the output. I'm a slow painter and feel no shame about it. Most important, this year I decided to take models from unfinished projects of previous years and happily I finished my Early Imperial Roman army for Infamy! Infamy!, reinforced my WW2 German unit with some early war sections and put the foundations for a Germanic warband.

 

 

The selfie I post below has a great significance: it's a photo I took in my last trip abroad (to freezing Chicago) in the last week of February 2020... who could have guessed that only a few days later after landing in Madrid we were going to be locked at home for 4 months.

 

This photo looks like an image from some forgotten times... I wish (more than hope) that these times will return again in late 2021 or 2022, but the feeling of being wasting part of my life and having thrown through the sink a couple of my life's years will not easily be forgotten.

Thanks Curt, Sarah and the Minions for organizang and helping with the Challenge, your effort is really appreciated.

To conclude, farewell fellow Challengers. Take care of yourselves and your beloved ones, I want all of you to gather again in 9 months from now

 

From TomM: the wrap up video

 And so it came to pass, the 11th edition of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, and the 4th one I participated in.

How fast those three months have gone by...

For me personally, it was yet another succesfull edition, though like last year I regret not being able to frequently comment on the magnificent work of the other challengers, as free time was more then ever a utopia this edition.

But even then, I managed to get my two goals: break the 1.000 points barrier, and finish the whole Chambers of Challenge route to the Altar of the Snow Lord.  This resulted in me totalling 1112 points this year, far off from my personal best but never the less a hefty total.

To reach this, I finished 25 entries, and that placed me nicely in the first half of the table again, ending at a 27th spot.

Here the progress I made for the chambers map and the followed route:

And a small clip showcasing all my entries of this edition:

It was great fun once again, and next year I`ll be back with a personal challenge, namely to try and enter (any maps if they are present permitting) solely with anime styled models, which i can pull from various ranges and boardgames hopefully to reach my goals then as well.

Just a small personal impression, maybe a points score for 28mm+ "Monsters" might be in order, they are often bigger then their sci-fi equivalent vehicles....

from Paul O'G: Challenge Wrap-up

It was great to be back for my seventh Challenge and to help out as a minion for the fourth time. For me it was a Season of two halves: a highly productive first period (while working from home in COVID quarantine) and then steady but stalling progress.

Not bad, but it always seems more at the time I find...

I set myself a target of 750 points and completed 863 points with key projects being Caesarian Romans and Warhammer Fantasy Beastmen. I set myself a 1k stretch goal but fell short at the end as I was renovating my grungy garage into a new gaming studio. Timing could have been better but the outcome is great!

All new lights, wall panelling, insulation, carpet and cabinets!

Overall my Minobus was probably my best single unit but I am most pleased with the way I started and completed the core units of my Caesarian Roman Army.  My most surprising project was my unplanned  monochrome Ninja experiment. Side challenge wise I was well down on skullz this year but still posted 159 noggins, and it was fun to grab 5th in the GW duel.  Best of all it was wonderful to complete the Challenge alongside Reilly and to encourage eachother along the way.

Blood for the Blood God!

Ready to Fight for Caesar!

I've now amassed just over 6000 lifetime challenge points and I'll definitely be back to add to that tally! Thanks Curt, fellow minions and everybody who contributes to the wonderful AHPC community.

From DaveD - The Wrap up.

 Well thats a wrap for my 10th challenge . I had a deliberate steady target , and a list things that were to be completed - most of that survived - and my target was indeed met . The left field half way through was a diversion to Vietnam - thanks to MartinC - cheers mate. 

Due to the day job hassles I have only had time and the technical ability (blogger currently hates me)to comment on a small number of your wonderful posts  but there have been some great entries -,well done all 

Lots of 15mm WW2 completed , more fur the  Sudan , and the start of Vietnam

 

I have lots laid in for next year - in advance of my early escape from the daily grind this summer. 

So thanks Curt and Sarah , the various minions and Miles for the spreadsheet of doom ..

Until next time 

Huzzah!

From StuartL - For a Few Skulls More - Wrap Up Post

No plan survives contact with the enemy, and that certainly held true for me somewhat. Before the challenge details were announced I had resolved myself to not get carried away with painting up random things and instead focus on getting a few armies done.

And then Curt announced the Chambers of Challenge.

And then Curt announced the Squirrel Duel. 

Oh well, it was a nice plan while it lasted.

Instead, I dove into my stash of models and started pulling out old projects and potential new ones like a dervish, trying to find something for every chamber and as many Squirrels as I could along the way.

I was able to maintain some focus though. By setting up the GW Minis Duel and entering into the Skullz Duel, I could at least guarantee that I would be getting something done.

At the start of the challenge, I had set myself several goals. 

First a target score of 1750 points. Secondly, I had entered 3 Duels and wanted to do my best in each of them. Finally, I wanted to finish in the Top Ten this year.

Well, I finished with a total score of 2745 points, nearly 1000 more than my target. (I feel sad that I didn't paint 1 more mini for a nice round number). I won 2 of my 3 Duels, I'm guessing I came 2nd or 3rd in the Squirrel Duel, but the final tally for that duel hasn't been announced yet. And, my final position was 6th place, which I am very happy with.

Anyway, enough chin-wagging and chit-chat, on with the pretty pictures.

One of the areas I focussed on was my Warhammer 30,000 collection, painting up the core of an Ultramarines force, some World Eaters and a couple of characters for scenarios.

The other area I put a lot of time and effort into was Warhammer 40,000, painting up an Iron Warriors force, a bunch of Space Sharks, a few Necrons and a mass of Imperial Guard infantry. Plus some Skull-tastic ruins.

Some old GW Lizardmen and Skeletons added more of the bulk of my points, along with some specialist games figures for Blood Bowl, Necromunda and LotR.

My historical output mainly took the form of batches of 25 points (aka 1 Squirrel) for the various Chambers. Having done a lot of historicals last year, this year I've just been adding to various projects.

Some miscellaneous fantasy and SF minis also got dragged into the Chambers, and I am sure they'll all come in handy as NPCs and the like once I can get back to playing RPGs again.

And finally, the obligatory mugshot and a very crowded table. I painted 441 models during this challenge. In comparison, from December 2019 to November 2020, a period which includes Challenge X and the Quarantine Challenge, I painted 382 models. So in the last 3 months, I have painted more than I did in the previous year!

Honestly, that is far more than I thought and sadly/hopefully I will probably never achieve this much again. The effect of Covid on my job has not been that bad compared to some, I am still employed and still getting paid. However, my work time and salary have been cut by around 40-50% compared to previous years. Add in working from home a lot and my painting time has been greatly increased. Still, I would rather have a bit less painting time and a bit more money, after all I need to buy more models to replace the ones I have painted. Fingers crossed the effects of the Corona virus pass quickly and all of us can enjoy a booming economy and fewer health worries by the time the next challenge rolls around. 

For those of you entering the Vaccine Challenge, I will see you there (No Duels, I promise). I hope you all enjoyed Challenge XI as much as I did and I look forward to painting with you all again next year.

Napoleonic and Donnybrook Duels - The final scores on the doors!

Firstly apologies to all involved with my lack of updates on these two Duels, Time just ran away with me, as well as I was painting like a man possessed!

The Challenge is all over for another year, only another 9 months to go for Challenge 12!! I'd like to thank all who appeared in the Napoleonic and Donnybrook Challenges, I had a lot of fun in both.

We have a clear winner in the Napoleonics, Noel lept in at the death and squeezed Paul out of the top spot and 2 adventurers failed to post a Napoleonic figure. 

So here are the final tables

Napoleonic

1. Noel 1605 points
2. PaulSS 1389 points
3. PeteF 1095 points
4. RayR 457 points
5. Sander 320 points
6. IainW & MattW 0 points

Apologies if I've missed out any posts or points, it would have been easier for me if everyone had labelled their posts with the Napoleonic Duel, sigh......

Noel's French

Paul's Hanoverian's

Pete's French

Ray's Emigre British

Sander's British

Donnybrook

1. Ray 1020 points

2. Curt 75 points

There were only two entrants to the Donnybrook Challenge, I think Curt felt sorry for me? But he did get off to a flying start early on in the Challenge, but that was his one and only post! Where as, I painted a few figures more for my Donnybrook madness.

Hopefully in Challenge 12 others will join in??????

Ray's Ottomans

Curt's Spanish/Italian Mercenaries

Well done to one and all!!

Ray

ScottM - Challenge XI Wrap Up

And so ends another paint challenge. For me the paint challenge is motivation to get a crap load of figures painted in a realtively short time. Its a perfect chance to carve a nice hole in my unpainted figure pile. Its also a chance to get figures painted that I either wouldn't paint at all or would take an extraordinary amount of time as I slowly ground through them. So here's a brief tour of what I got painted.

The whole lot and the goofball behind the brush.

The first group is this large contingent of British Rangers/backwoods militia for the French and Indian War. Probably don't need any more.

I've probably got enough to build a sizable force for either Sharp Practice or Muskets and Tomahawks.

The next lot are World War 2 figs.

The bulk of these are Soviets with a smattering of Germans thrown in. I'm in the process of painting an early war Soviet army for a friend and this will render the to-be-painted pile into only a handful of figures.

Next up is my Samurai

This is a project I've been working on for 9 years now. Bloody hell, that's a ridiculous amount of time to spend on one project. I usually paint a handful of bases every year. This years contribution will go a long way to forming the core of my second army. I imagine you'll be seeing more of them in future paint challenges.

Next is a motley collection of sci-fi and fantasy figs.

Most of the fantasy figs will find use in either Frostgrave of Warlords of Erehwon. The two Star Wars Legion vehicles actually completed my Legion paint pile.

Next is this large group of 15mm Ancients.

A few years ago I did up armies for New Kingdom Egyptians and Hittites. Not sure why I picked this period. Both armies are pretty much complete but I had all these leftover bits. And to be honest, I really didn't enjoy painting them. I had originally set myself a New Years goal of painting 6 bases this year. Well, here's 15 bases. Mission accomplished!

Next up is a pair of standalone units.

The horse and cart are good for all sorts of settings. THe ECW gun and crew are for JonathanO to pad out one of his ECW armies.

And finally are the terrain pieces.

This is two separate sets of pieces. The watchtower has been sitting in my basement for a few years and the challenge was the perfect opportunity to get it painted. The 15mm buildings went along perfectly with the 15mm Ancients and will also see action in my future 15mm Arab army that I'll be working on.

So that wraps it up for another year. Thank you to Curt and the minions for running the paint challenge. For me its always the highlight of the winter months getting to see everyone's awesome work and the support the contributors show for one another. Cheers and see you all next challenge!

Scott

MichaelD - The Fruits of my Labors

 Once again I feel very grateful to Curt and everybody for maintaining this wonderful Challenge. So many fantastic painters and supportive friends. Thank you. This year I think I completed a personal best in terms of points, although I'm disappointed I wasn't able to get my act together to participate in the theme challenges. I bought a few miniautres for it, but then got so caught up in my main plan that I never really worked them in. Next time. Anyhow here are the group shots:

I had two big game-changing experiences over the past 3 months. The first is thanks to PaulSS, who suggested (on Facebook) using Trello for painting projects:

The other was painting 10mm. I always had middling success with 15mm, but really enjoyed speeding through my Union ACW figures. Not only am I looking forward to getting division-sized battles on a reasonable sized surface (soon!), but look at this:

I can probably fit a whole side in one cigar box!

Thanks again to everyone for all the support and inspiration!