From SanderS: Arthur and Sander's workplace!

 Hoi There,

My name is Sander and I have been taking part in the Challenge since the Fifth edition. Together with my 11 year old son Arthur we will be taking part this year as well and looking forward to it. Last few weeks everyone in the family has been suffering from a pretty nasty flu and so I haven't been able to upload anything here or comment on all the great posts allready up here. Sorry for this oversight!

Well here's part of my hobby-room at the moment, it's a mess due to Challenge preparations but also due to the fact that somewhere next spring we are continuing our big house renovation (people who have followed last year's Challenge will know we put new windows in the house back then) and I will have to completely clear it by then.

Arthur's workdesk is quite modest and he has also set himself a modest points target. He will be mainly focussing on Blood Bowl and Star Wars Legion figures.

My desk (sorry for the fuzzy picture but after taking several this is the best I could do with the present weather) is heaped in stuff mid-prep as well as tying up loose ends before the Challenge starts. 

My projects are whatever takes my fancy but I will try to focus on WW2 Germans and Russians, Heroquest, Old Hammer and some New Hammer (30k and 40k). I have a few film related miniatures so will venture into the studio too. 

Cheers and see you all in the Challenge, Arthur and Sander

FrederickC reporting in for AHPC XIII

Hello one and all. I am not sure if these work space and planning reports are de rigueur, but it's Painting Challenge Eve, so I thought if I was going to do this, now is the time.

FrederickC here for my second round of participation in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. I'm a long time member of the Fawcett Avenue Conscripts, a Winnipeg gaming group that was founded by the Snow Lord so many years ago, but I also dive into historical re-enacting, 17th-19th century folk music, and English and Scottish country dance. I had a great time last year with AHPC XII, and managed to surprise myself with a 4th place finish. 

While last year was my first year of participation in the challenge, I have been involved in miniature gaming and painting for over 60 years, ever since my father gave my brother and me a set of plastic soldiers for Christmas. Little did he know what he had wrought all those years ago.

My brother and me.

Since those early years, I have amassed quite a collection of figures and terrain for Ancients, Napoleonic, First World War, Second World War, Star Wars, Full Thrust, and Lord of the Rings, as well as minor forays into Seven Years War and more general Science Fiction.

Here's a view of my workspace where all the miniatures are assembled and the paint applied.

 

Miniatures at the assembly stage.

 

 

What's in the queue for AHPC XIII? I hope for whittle down my pile of unpainted Games Workshop Lord of the Rings collection, as well as dive into the North African campaign with figures to compliment fellow Conscript DallasE's 8th Army and DAK collection. There may also be some sidetracks depending on what I have that fits the AHPC Studios GmbH challenges. Here's a detailed, but not exhaustive, list of what I plan to complete.

Dwarf Command, Scouts and Warriors

Minas Tirith Command, Knights, and Citadel Guard

Galadhrim Knights and Warriors

Numenorean Command and Warriors

Uruk-Hai Scouts

Warg Riders

Easterling Command and Warriors

High Elf Command and Warriors

Rohan Command, Riders, and Warriors

Cave and Mordor Trolls

A Host of Lord of the Rings Characters, both Good and Evil

Early WW2 Polish Troops and Transport

North Africa Italian Troops, Transport, and Armour

North Africa Indian Troops and early British Armour.

A Collection of Terrain Bits and Bobs

 

Most of the pile I hope to paint

I have set my target at 1500 points, which is only half of last year's goal. Alas, all those other hobbies beckon. Hopefully lowering my points target will allow me more time to comment on other people's post, something I didn't do much last year. Good luck to all the participants, and we will see you in the trenches.

27th Battalion (City of Winnipeg) CEF 1914-1919

Side Duels are GO!

G'day All,

Millsy the Duels Wallah here with a Side Duels update you lucky challengers.

Things have quietened down on the handbags side of things apparently with no new challenges issued for a little while now. That being the case I'm setting the starting point for Challenge XIII Side Duels as follows at the bottom. If you'd like to be added to a Side Duel or start a new one by all means please leave a comment.

Submitting a Side Duel Update

We live in an amazing time, a time of constant digital evolution. Every day something new and exciting happens and today is no different! Despite what my kids think, the interwebs are good for things other than 2 minute videos, feline-themed subreddits and memes. To prove that I've created an online form to rival the complexity and power of Miles' Challenge Roster Spreadsheet o' Doom.

From today you can submit your Side Duel updates ONLINE! The form collects all the relevant data and ensures I can never miss a submission. Huzzah!

And now, the Side Duels...

A Squirrel a Day

Most painted points at Challenge end. 25+ points of models per sub, excluding bonus points. Each point must be unique in army, scale or period. Different uniforms from the same army don't count.

• AdamC
• PaulS
• ChrisW
• MartijnN
• KerryT
• StuartL
• RobertH
• KyleC
• PhilH
• JezT
• BenitoV
• BenF
• MikeW

Skullz for the Skull God!

Most painted skullz at Challenge end. Barks has kindly offered to manage this one.

• StuartL
• Barks
• DavidB
• TeemuL
• GregB
• MikeW

Turnip28

Most painted points in the style of Turnip28 at Challenge end.

• CurtC
• Barks
• StuartL
• PaulOG
• AlanD

Airbrushes at Dawn

Use an airbrush for more than priming on as many subs as possible.

• DavidB
• CurtC
• MattW
• KyleC
• BenF

Carausius Emperor of Britain

Most painted points of Late Roman/Sub Roman Britain at Challenge end.

• CurtC
• PeterD
• KyleC
• IainW

SPQR

Most painted points of Roman armies from Caesar to Late Imperial at Challenge end.

• MattW
• PeterD
• SimonG

Neverending Cold War

Most painted points from 1950 to today at Challenge end.

• MattW
• DavidB
• SimonG
• DaveD

Codpieces & Ostrich Feathers

Most painted points from Italian Wars and Renaissance at Challenge end.

• KerryT
• CurtC
• IainW
• PeterD
• ChrisW
• MikeW

TFL America 500

First to paint 500 points (ideally using only red, white and blue paint).

• PhilH
• JohnE
• CalebG

Terrain du jour

• MilesR
• Millsy

Best of luck people. Have at it!

Cheers,
Millsy the Duels Wallah

SebastianR Workstation and goals

Last year was a bit of wash. What with my new job ramping up, a dying cat, and a bout of covid, my output was less than impressive.

This year, however, things will be focused and uncluttered, unlike my work area.

Which is also in the center of my living room, slap bang in the middle of my only entertaining space, so it needs to stay mobile.

This year, happily, most of my goals fall within the themes of the extra challenges, so I'll grabbing as many of those sweet sweet bonus points as I can, particularly the Under Construction round with Curts ruling on the matter of partially started miniatures.

What this does mean, however, is that a lot of my submissions will have quite long dwell times, as I attempt to maximise output in a particular area.

I will be attempting to pump out, half a company of WW2 Finns, a grab bag assortment of half finished projects including 6mm cold war British and French, 28mm fox people and anvil industries pulse mechs playing the part of W40K Death Watch, a box of halflings for mordhiem and assorted other bits and pieces. So, ambitious, for me at least.

Have a great christmas and a happy new year everyone!

PhilH Hobby Space and Plans for AHPCXIII

All is quiet, all is still. It’s three days before painting challenge XIII opens and Phil is….ready? 

Well no, not entirely ready, but there's always more prep one can do. I never have an issue getting stuff prepped. It's more the painted-and-finished bit that's the problem. But I've been pretty productive for the autumn and am hopeful of a frenzied assault on the lead mountain over the winter. And I've enough prepped to last me two or three AHPCs.

Here’s my hobby setup at my current place, a small desk and bookshelves in the spare bedroom. It’s by no means optimised, but works well enough. I do assembly and any airbrushing downstairs in the basement, to keep all that gear out of the way. 

So what do we have? A decent articulated daylight lamp, the most important thing. Dropper bottle paint racks by Hobbyzone.pl. I like their stuff, with the white laminate it looks a bit more swish than similar mdf items. Brushes, waterpot, homemade wet palette. 'Painted stuff' cabinet on the right, where things wait for final basing and varnishing without getting too dusty.

The four white drawers are full of prepped minis, sometimes even sorted by project. Basing materials below that. Occasional use stuff above: effects paints, enamel washes, thinner, basing gunk and glues. Some more prepped minis up top: I’ve been busy this last few months. 

Soooo let's see what's in those drawers. 

Top left: mostly Star Wars, from both the official Legion range and 3D prints as well as some superheroes for Marvel Crisis Protocol.

Top right: Spanish Civil War Moors and loyalist militia, misc bits from skirmish games. 

Bottom left: a T-26 and truck for the SCW. SW scout bikers. A squad of fallschirmjager. The rest of the platoon is hunkered down somewhere else.

Bottom right: Our only coherent tray! All FIW/AWI: Canadien militia, French officer and drummers, Roger's Rangers, other related bits and bobs. 

Then up top...

Oh look, a whole French platoon for the fall of France. More FIW: an extra group of iroqouis for the force I did in winter 2021, some FIW colonial rangers and militia. Star Wars Endor commandos, and the saga’s lead and hero. So, plenty to be getting on with. 

A fair amount of this can be shoehorned into the Studio themes, if I stay focused. I'll probably get distracted though, as I tend to ignore the plan and 'follow the brush'.

Looking forward to getting stuck in and seeing everyone else's posts flood in, as well as minioning for the Friday Crew. See you on the other side of the start line!

PeterD Intro, Plans and Sorta Workspace

I’m PeterD and I am one of Curt’s regular gaming buddies.  Outside of Gaming I’m a University Instructor in Actuarial Science, which is a pretty sweet gig.  The Oldometer clocked 60 this year but my doctor tells me I’ve never been healthier and keep doing what I’m doing, which is good as my DC pension plan assets tell me not to retire anytime too soon!

Typical action shot, me reading rules while Stacy points.  Curt's man shed and table top with my toys.

The SSOD tells me that this is my 10th Challenge and I am once again a Minion this year.  I run a blog called the Single-Handed Admiral.  The name is a reference to Nelson and also to the fact that I was a solo gamer with interests in Naval Gaming when I set it up in 2011.  Since then, I have used the power of the internet to link up with gamers who live within 2 km of me and pretty much written off Naval Gaming as an epic fail on my part.

I’ve been gaming since about 1974, cutting my teeth on Featherstone rules and Airfix Waterloo sets before moving on to WRG ancients, scratch-built balsa wood pre-dreadnoughts  and 15mm Nappys.  I am pretty much a historical gamer with very occasional forays into Fantasy.  I don’t do much GW stuff as I don’t like their figures, setting, rules or prices.  But mostly historical research has always been the biggest draw for me so Spoon feeding from a Codex doesn’t hold much interest.

This year I am focusing on 28mm Ancients from Late Roman Britain, Romans and barbarians plus appropriate terrain bits. I also have some fantasy bits for my Beowulf DnD campaign and  some 10mm Nine Years War figures which I might get to.

As much as my downstairs workspace as I'm prepared to show.  Various bits and bobs in varrying states of completion or prep.

My tools of the trade in carrier

Mysterious MDFs projects set to be painted

I don’t have a permanent painting desk due a lack of space which isn’t taken up by too much stuff that we need to downsize.  I have some table space downstairs for figure prep and I set up for painting in the living room so as to spend time with family and watch TV etc.  

Posting Days and Minions-in-Chaaaarge!

Hi All!

I recently sent out a welcome email to all the participants, and in it was a PDF outlining the basics of the Challenge, along with posting days and minion assignments. Nonetheless, I thought I'd post the daily assignments here for easy reference.

Also, one additional thing I wish to add: From the start of the Challenge (December 21st) through to January 1st all participants can submit entries anytime they wish, I'll happily score and post them to the blog between sub-arctic dog walks and sipping eggnog. 

The Challenge starts in just a few days. Looking forward to it!

- Curt Actual, Out

_________________________________________

Steve K - AHPC XIII, my first go at the challenge!

 

With 5 days to go until I embark upon my first Analogue Hobby painting challenge I thought id introduce myself, Im steve (or Stig) and I run the little legions hobby blog and youtube channel.

I thought id jump in this year, as a few members of my club regularly take part and seem to get a load of stuff done every year. So thanks to Dave Docherty, Martin Cooke and James Macmillan.

I have a ton of stuff that needs painting, a lead and plastic mountain that just seems to grow bigger every year, despite my best efforts to keep it under control!

So the plan.. in no particular order....

15mm WW2, halftracks and crews from Forged in battle. Also there are a couple of late war MG42 teams.

Just sat behind them are 3 Shermans from Plastic soldier company that still need priming.

Next I have some 3d printed market stalls that I picked up at the excellent battleground show last month, to go with them are 6 perry miniatures arab civilians.

4 games workshop savage Orcs and a couple of goblin spider riders, to be added to my SAGA age of magic Warband.

24 GW rohan warriors and a 3d printed character from medbury miniatures.

7 Riders of Rohan from GW.

A great big Balrog, ive had this one for quite a while, should be a real challenge to paint up!

16 wolf riders from Oathmark, I use these as Warg riders in my LOTR games.

A bunch of Primaris Marines, ive had these for a couple of years now, very expensive miniatures... about time I actually painted them methinks.

Finally, I plan to use the challenge to kick start my new project, The 100 years War in 28mm. These are all Perry miniatures and are a mix of plastic and metal models.

The whole lot. That should keep me pretty busy over the next few months, although im sure more will be added !!

Thanks for having me along this year!

Steve.

MIke W - AHPC XIII - Hobby Desk and Painting Plans

Five Days to go and I have to say that despite all the best laid plans, I'm not sure that I have been able to prepare everything that I wanted to for the opening weeks of this year's Challenge! 

That said, I have undercoated and prepared bucket loads of figures, more of that later...

To join in this year's Challenge pre-amble here is a quick photo of my painting / work area.

A quick tour of the desk - on the left window sill can be seen my daylight bulb spotlight plus handy supply of paint brushes, pens etc. plus a ready supply of matt varnish, which is obscuring the hot weather fan (not needed in the current cold spell here in the UK, with outside temperatures of -5C).

On the right of the desk is a supply of paints & glues on three shelves, also an overspill onto the large shelf behind the laptop. The rest of that large shelf is taken with boxes of spare parts for plastic figures, basing materials and other sundry hobby items.

Behind the laptop rest bags of figures waiting to be painted plus many other spare parts and test figures that have not made it any further towards getting off the workbench!

Under the work desk are many, many, many boxes of figures waiting to be promoted to the work area, including all of the undercoated figures previewed below...

The observant amongst you will have noticed two computers, the laptop is my work machine with a monitor on the left, the right hand monitor is in fact an all in one computer used for non-work stuff. Beneath the left hand monitor is additional storage - which quite frankly - I have no real idea of when I last used. 😟

In terms of what I will be looking to work on this year it is hopefully going to be as varied and eclectic as ever, here is a list of what is currently undercoated and ready to go, although that does not necessarily mean I'll actually stick to the plans. think of it as more of a 'Pick List', I'm easily distracted The list includes:

28mm Renaissance Scots & English foot & Horse from Wargames Atlantic & 3D Prints

            Building Scots & English Marian Wars Armies

3D printed Cavalry

28mm Landskneckts from Warlord Games

            Who knew these guys fought in England & Scotland

Lots of Landskneckts

28mm Dark Age Normans, Vikings & Anglo Danes from various manufacturers

            One day I'll put on my planned 1066 Campaign!

One of a number of Dark Age Lots, these had to be rebased
on to round bases to sync with my existing collection 

28mm Warhammer 40k Orks

            Possibly enough to rival last year's Zombie hordes!

One of several Ork Lots to be painted properly

28mm Late 17th Century Cossack Infantry - 3D Prints

            Couldn't resist them!

Looking forward to doing these guys

28mm Cowboys from Wargames Foundry

            We all love a good Western Movie

28mm Zombie Apocalypse Survivors

            We all love a good Zombie Movie! 

 Don't Worry! Only 20-30 to do!

28mm Warhammer Fantasy Lizardmen Cavalry

            Slowly building that Lizardman Army

28mm Warhammer Fantasy Tomb Kings Chariots

            To add to my existing Tomb Kings Army

28mm Late 17th Century Infantry from North Star

            Just one more unit?!

15mm WW2 North African Commonwealth Infantry

            Rogue Heroes, Maybe?!

15mm WW2 North African Afrika Korps Half Tracks

            An old abandoned eBAY project that I may get resurrected

So the idea here was to also to show a lot of my pre-prepared figures, it'll save me putting these in the posts of finished figures each week. But as you can see I haven't yet gotten around to undercoating all of these!

Roll on next week when the coloured paint can be broken out! 

Good luck everyone, hope you all reach your personal tagets.

BartekR - Challenge XIII FNG deployment - “Hey Sarge, which end of the brush do I point at the enemy?”

G’day,

Next up at the crease/batting plate of introductions: I’m Bartek (or Bart, or BartekR in case there is another Bartek here), from Canberra, Australia. You can also call me 'The FNG'. Long time lurker, having followed the challenge (and Curt’s gaming shed build) from the shadows for some years, first-time participant. Excited but with no small degree of trepidation.

This pretty much sums it up

The hobby space – where it will all go down

My hobby room, library and study/office are all wrapped up in a compact 2.9 x 2.4m space, with a desk reserved for what I think is a decent hobby set up. All the essentials are there - paint and tool racks, and reference books - as good as it is, some of the other posts have prompted workstation envy. My PC table in the middle, the opposite wall is an ongoing battle for shelf space between more reference books, wargames rules, role-playing titles, magazines and boardgames. Given space constraints, this is not were my hoard lives, and the real challenge with the Challenge will be what I do with anything I paint – we (two cats, two humans) live in a small (by Canberra standards) 1950s ex-government cottage. But, that's tomorrow's problem...

Compact...and largely untested

Gaming pedigree – please allow me to introduce myself…

Being heavily hooked on to military history since childhood, I was an easy mark to get into gaming (I grew up in Poland – in the bad old days – and everyone in my grandparents generation and above were touched by war, so accounts of Poland’s historical conflicts were as ready as mother’s milk). I got into gaming in what I suspect is pretty much a well-worn path for others around my age. Gateways of scale models, plastic 1/7X figures, library loans (Ospreys, Featherstone’s Wargames Through the Ages and Quarrie’s Tank Battles in Miniature title on Russia  were repeat loans) and second-hand copies of Sven Hassel novels and Military Modelling. Early ‘wargaming’ was fairly hands on and kinetic – I like to think of it retrospectively as harking back to H.G. Wells: trench systems dug in the back yard were plastic soldiers would be exposed to fireworks, lighter-and-spray flamethrowers and sniper rocks or marbles. My first Citadel set (Dungeon Adventurers Starter Set) came courtesy of CANCON ’86.

Somewhere in all that along came Warhammer 40K Rogue Trader (Battletech came a poor second, on the back of memories of the Robotech tv series). Games were played on dining tables and floors with often reckless interpretation of the rules –and yes, we did use repurposed household items as vehicles (all fear the Imperial Army’s latest mark of tracked shampoo bottle armour, with its heavy converted Panzer IV turret!). Alongside this reading, a steady drip of reading (but not playing) RPGs (Warhammer Fantasy, Twilight 2000, and Call of Cthulhu).

Fast forwarding montage through the years – uni, time in crap campus bands, relationships/breakups, group houses, booze, jobs. All very much devoid of gaming bar PC games, easy empty calories and no storage impost. Then, in 2003, I found myself doing shiftwork with access to eBay on the work system (long blocked) and some extra pennies. Thus began the last two decades (minus) of the Golden Hoard(ing) - interspersed with more of the above real life distractions, deployments and postings overseas. Given I fall foul of the butterfly ‘oh look so shiny’ effect like a cat to an unsupervised steak, the end result is a somewhat overwhelming stash of historical, fantasy and scifi miniatures and models.   

The problem with all this accumulation (pile of shame, stash etc) is that embarrassingly little hobby has been done over the time). Insert here a touch of imposter syndrome – feeling like the MAMIL with a $10K bike which is only ridden down to the local café. [I’d echo ChrisW's intro post remarks about regret at not building up skills in the time given; for me, with often failing motivation despite best wishful thinking]. Lack of habit and headspace (mindfulness/focus...call it what you will) to hobby regularly has been a big issue. Doing something about this is a 2023 resolution, as is finding time to do the things I enjoy around other demands.

Cat companions Oscar and Satchel - counting down the days

Approach to the Challenge – eating an elephant

Reading about people’s prep has reminded me of that old saying, ‘prior preparation prevents p… poor performance’ – well…I’m definitely the recruit running down the road trying to work out how to wear webbing. To date, not a single figure has been undercoated so far. (In my defence I did get back a few months ago from 2+ years of FIFO work overseas so the past weeks have been spent getting back into normal life rhythms, doing work around the house including lining the (bloody) legacy metal shed before it become a sweat box in summer – I did at least set up the painting station set up. 

So, what’s my approach to the Challenge? The adage ‘slow is smooth, smooth is fast’ (if slow is baby steps stumbling all over the place) is a good one here: building habits and getting better is my aim here. Beyond its motivational boost, it’ll be very much an exercise in staking out painting/hobby time as a regular habit and (re)developing basic skills – a crash course in painting techniques across scales and themes. I’ll also using it as a vehicle to revive a very defunct (and currently utterly empty) blog (by all means, take the bait and click the link – it’s mostly an empty page with a fancy font title).

Given that aim, I’m not looking to progress projects per se rather spreading myself across scales and genres for the practice. And having read the AHPC Studios Challenge, I suspect know I will be sucked into that. The shortlist includes:

And so onto the elevator to hell…going down. YAAAHOOOOO...

 

ByronM - The madness is about to begin...

 "Well, it's almost that time of the year once more", I said merrily one morning over coffee a few weeks ago.  "Christmas vacation?" asked the wife.  "No, even better!" I replied quickly.

"What's better than that?", she inquired and then continued, "It's too cold for another motorcycle trip, and I am starting a new job soon so it's not a southern vacation".  If you were here, you could have heard that questioning worried tone in her voice that only a wife sensing impending financial disaster can have.

"Why it's time to prep for the painting challenge of course, and then to get more stuff painting as soon as holidays start!", I said cheerfully.

The reaction was immediate and terse....  "No more new projects this year!  You have more than enough that you started over the last several that are not done, and we are looking for a new house and need to keep minimalist so we can clean and move fast when we do." I am sure that there was more, as the next time I looked at my watch 30 minutes had past, but much like Charlie Brown sitting in his classroom (man, that dates me doesn't it) all I heard was wah, waah, wah.... 

(I expect to get smacked for this, but it's still funny and worth it)

So, with that warning in mind, what did I do?  Did I stop all plans of future expansion into new and exciting areas of miniature wargaming?  

Hell no!  

I immediately starting printing figures for Horus Heresy in 15mm that a few friends have started playing, saw that Malifaux had a 3rd edition out that I had not tried yet and had to get going on, starting printing a new 10mm Lizardman army for Kings of War, and printed some terrain to go with several games.

Then I went and visited Curt and got introduced to Turnip28...  That led to printing more models and terrain for the challenge.  

A unit of Fodder for Turnip28 printed and primed and ready to go!

 <I sense another smack incoming>

Now, in some far remote part of my brain, I know that Kim is correct (DON'T TELL HER THAT OR I WILL NEVER LIVE IT DOWN!!!!) that I have way too many unfinished projects kicking around and that I really do need to finish or get rid of some.  But, having a war gamer get rid of miniatures though as all of you know is as likely as Golem giving up the one ring willingly, NOT gonna happen even on a cold day in hell!!! 

So, with all of that in mind, and in an attempt to both appease the wife in some small way and to "Slay the Gray" I have made a list of just some of the projects I have on the go, and am going to endevour to get at least 3-4 of them finished this year, although I am going to try for more than that, but let's start out with reasonable expectations, unlike something like"No more new projects this year!" 

Byron's Projects of Shame and Impending Divorce if not Resolved

• Malifaux gremlins (assembled and primed last year but never touched)
  
• Malifaux ten thunders (started way back in challenge 8 or 9)
• Arena Rex Egyptians (started in challenge 10 )
• Arena Rex Collusium (planned in challenge 11 and never started)
• Kingdom Death (finish some survivors I assembled and based up for challenge 11)
• Western Commanche Indians ( started last year but only painted the mounted ones, not the infantry)
• Western Texas Rangers (primed and based last year but not touched)
• Ork Vehicles for chariot game (2 done, but 4 still sitting from challenge 10)
  
• Hagglethorn Hollow buildings for Frostgrave (printed and sitting for 2 years)
  
• Dwarf Frostgrave faction ( printed last year and not touched)
  
• Mierce vikings (primed last year then didn't touch)
• French 28mm Napoleonic unit (I assembled one last year and then didn't touch it, and I try to do one unit a year)
• Kings of War 10mm terrain (printed and primed last year)
• Gaslands terrain (printed but not even primed last year) 
• Gaslands Cars (want to finish at least 1 more faction)
  
• 6 or 8 Napoleonic tall ships to expand my fleet (way back from challenge 8 or 9)
• British WW2 army (started challenge 10 as part of the theme weeks and then left sitting)
• German WW1 unit (from my great war collection, I found 2 primed and ready to go units)
  
• MORE MORE MORE

Add to the above the new projects I have that include the following:

• Iron Warrios for Horus Heresy in 15mm
• 10mm Lizardman army for Kings of War
• At least 1 unit for Turnip28 with Curt 
• SEVERAL single models or units from various games that I just want to paint

As you can see I have a whole lot of crap to get at least started on this year....  The stuff in the image above is everything I have either primed or waiting to be primed that I could find quickly and dig out for a picture, I have WAY more stuffed away in boxes and cupboards.  

However, I am so far behind getting things done and even just getting things ready for this years challenge that I was not even going to write a starting blog post this year.  Curt however has shamed me into it, so I got to work the last few days cleaning up the painting area, priming a pile of figures, and (of course) printing more to add to the pile of grey.  Which led to this post.

Above is my painting area as it stands right now... Tidy, but still a mess as everything basically got stuffed randomly into drawers and cupboards, so there is much more to do! 

Part of the reason I am so behind this year (besides work being busy, and looking for a new house with shop) is the fact that we got a new puppy this year.  While he is so much fun, he is also a lot of time and effort (worth it, but still).  So, here is hoping that Kaiser will help with painting this year as he seems to like sleeping by my feet while I am painting, so that is a good thing so far!

Kaiser looking to see what I am doing

With all of that said, I hope everyone has everything all prepped and ready to go and that everyone has a blast this challenge!

Best of luck everyone,

Byron

SidneyR - Painting Table and Challenge XIII Painting Plans

 

According to my desk calendar, dear fellow Challengers, we are now just five days away from the annual chaos of modelling, gluing, sanding, painting and varnishing that we all know and love as the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.  Challenge number thirteen, in fact.  

To some a scary number, loaded with superstition and fear.  But not to any of us, I hope...

I think this is my tenth Painting Challenge - gosh, how many figures have I ended up painting in these Challenges?  A few, at least - though perhaps not as many as fellow-Challenger and all-round Statistics-God Miles might have (double-) counted!  

I've been looking forward to this Challenge in particular as last year's (Challenge XII) was blighted by a family bereavement, which made it very difficult to do any painting or stay motivated.

One year further on, and I'm hopeful that this Challenge will be a very enjoyable journey.  And as part of the pre-Challenge excitement, I have cleared my painting table a little and finished off a few projects in advance.

I always try hard to keep the painting table free from a lot of clutter, but over the years the paints, varnishes, inks and bottles of Acrylic Flow Improver, not to mention brushes and painting palettes, have encroached even further onto what should be the clean areas in which the magic (...coughs...) takes place.  I have a feeling that many of you have the same experience!

As for what I am hoping to paint in Challenge XIII, I'm expecting that my main theme will be painting Japanese (and Japanese-inspired) figures for use in the small skirmish game I've been working on for the past couple of years.  Here's a few of the next batch of figures being prepared, together with some eclectic terrain pieces.  

While we started the writing the "With Flashing Blades" skirmish rules for an Alexander Dumas-inspired "Three Musketeers" game, since those are just about finished we have moved the action to the same time-frame (the seventeenth century) but across the world to Japan.  I've loved that evolution, and I'm in the process of building some Japanese terrain pieces which will hopefully find a home in the Challenge at some point.

The details are, of course, a closely-guarded secret, concealed confidentially in one of my notebooks.  Which partly means I need to translate insane scribbles to sentences ... but you get the idea.

It'll be a great Challenge and looking forward to seeing all your entries very soon!

Very best regards.