AHPC VIII - Round Up

Well where did Challenge VIII go eh. This is my was 7th foray - and i enjoyed the usual whit and repartee plus following along some fine work by fellow challengers. Running the paint & chats was fun as ever - Kent you are such a paint machine...! lets see you on them through the year. Paul O 'G - I am just jealous...

As for me, it  was perhaps not as fruitful this year as I had initially hoped due to losing pretty much the first 5 weeks due to illness - I really don't want to see that flu strain again thank you very much! With too much gone it was just not going to be possible to play catch up on my initial target this year given the units i wanted to do . I decided to go off list and play with some side projects...

The projects - various!

the 6mm Modern Soviet force has been completed.

6mm moderns  and 15mm WW2

JamesM is to blame for the foray into 15mm WW2 - which has come from left field - I am really enjoying it - there has been a lot of stocking up of bits for it - so plenty to come.

Key units for the Sudan were completed - the Cameron Highlanders - a unit that was in all honesty bloody hard work, Plus the Egyptian Camel Corps.

The extras for the baggage - that has been added to Challenge 4-5-6 and 7 output - the "Biggest Ever Sudan Game" is planned for the summer.. a 24x12 table with the 3000 figures on it..

I enjoyed a madcap challenge with Sander and Arthur in relation to Camels... Arthur was the star! 

Private Millsy and Doc off into the Foreign Legion Sunset - Boxers Millsy?

I enjoyed the addition of terrain items which helped with the 6mm project big time. 

I will be working on various bit for the Normandy project , and Sudan bits and bobs. 

Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge

It is that time of year when our own corner of the blog-o-sphere is invited to particpate in Curts winter painting challenge. Well done Curt..

I have been involved since the second one , and its been a highlight of the year in terms of getting stuff done , and making new friends.

We are running some on line paint and chat sessions amongst the challengers via the Google+ and Facebook pages. So if you would like to meet up "virtually" with fellow particpants feel free to join either/both groups.

I intend to finish the Sudan project this winter - there i said it!

Curtgeld - "Indy"

So here is the Curtgeld for our very own Snowlord Curt, for this years paint challenge.

With this years theme being risk takers and gamblers I thought of something cinematic. One of my favourites is Indiana Jones. A figure for the big Snowball of Indy cracking the whip seemed to be just the thing. He may come in useful for controlling his "minions".

This figure is from the Copplestone Back of Beyond range - but i have "tweaked it".  As cast the right arm is more down its side with the whip cast from the hand to the ankle. I chopped away the whip and removed the arm completely. The arm was reshaped and soldered back into a higher position. The whip was remade from stranded copper wire twisted to a thinned point. It is then soldered along its length for strength, and soldered into the right hand. It was bent to shape give it some "life" . The left hand was then moved to have the gun pointing more forward than upwards.

The Fifth Annual Painting Challenge

Well with editorial duties on Wargames Bloggers Quarterly handed over to "PK" , it was opportune for Curt to release the Fifth incarnation of his painting challenge with a theme of  Anti-Heroes, Rogues and Ruffians. he must have forgot to keep taking the tablets...mad fool!!

V image by GChiny @Deviantart

It's not been a greatly productive summer and autumn season in terms of miniatures , the lead pile has been steadily growing - so its time to clear that out. Having scored 3000 points last year, I am going for 2250 for now , as the early start will throw things a little for me as December will still be busy

 There are some interesting bonus rounds which I enjoyed last year, and i can think of 4 of them I can do without going too off track .

• December 14: Cold - hmm... need to think
• December 28: Mount(s) & Rider(s) - yes , but want to do something "different"
• January 11: Victorian - sorted
• January 25: Myth ... hmm.. need to think
• February 8: Hot - sorted
• February 22: Comedic - sorted
• March 8: Anti-Hero  - sorted

Main themes for me this year will be Colonials for the Sudan, Gangsters, the odd cowboy,  and various bits of interest from the lead pile. If I need a ~"point bombe" I still have unpainted fuzzy wuzzies from last year..

With a chunk of preparation to do I have invested in a spray booth which I have been wanting for a while  , which has an electric fan and an extraction hose that will hang out of the window of the man cave.

The screens fold down , and it comes with a turntable ,spare packs of filters , and a 2m power chord which winds into the body when packing away.

 The project desk is starting to groan under the cleaned up lead - and I still have a box to open.. the Warbases order has arrived.. time to start full on prep work

The Challenge wind down.

The Analogue Hobbies Winter painting challenge has finally come to an end, so a little round up of how it went. But first off a big call all out to Captain Curt for keeping the ship on track (including coping with the fall out of Spidergate) and coping with running with it all. Second to the challengers for the fun and banter and votes of confidence and comments of encouragement as well as creating a huge library of eye-candy.

To Loki and Kev , who turned out a mountain of lead to a great standard to claim 1st and 2nd place - well done guys.

 My final entry was a present for Curt - "The Mountie" who will be making an appearance on the mean streets of "Serenity" along with Curt at our meet up in May at the Spring Blog Con. Will "Miss Lilly" turn him into "wet sauerkraut"? Will Stumpy be able to control himself with that shotgun?

I started the challenge with a fairly low target , going for 600 points , because I was in a bit of a painting funk, and not really sure that I would be able to deliver on. Over the last year I had moved away from painting large units to more single character figures. The lead pile was sitting taunting me.

The new man cave was set up and I started well as I knew I had until early January before work and other commitments really reduced painting time - I was able to complete some easy entries.

 The Mexican for the new town of  "Nueva Tranquilidad"- one of the upcoming summer terrain projects

A personal favourite of mine the "Wu" family - even more so as they appear to be out of production now

The U.S Cavalry

The Dalton gang

The bonus rounds were an interesting take on things for this year , I was able to get an entry into every one of them - although I felt some of my early entries were just to meet the criteria rather than any real extra effort.

Now I thought I was being cheeky submitting camels as "ships of the desert" in a "caravan" to the vehicle round - i got away with that nicely thanks to Spidergate!!

 

The arrival of Xmas brought some interesting 54mm cowboys which I really wanted to paint - I was enjoying painting again.

I really enjoyed doing these first 54mm - a step up in effort and skill required - a real challenge

 

Before I knew it my 600 point target was up - mind still beaten to it by Fran - I owe you a figure my friend!!

My mojo was well and truly back on track

Nearly two months to go and I had nothing else even remotely prepared. What to paint? well I thought what the hell lets go big! The best part of two years ago I had previously de-sprued 10 boxes of Perry Mahdists. There was a pile of Sudan lead to hand too. It was a mad week of assembly and glue fumes. Out with the airbrush, 236 figures to do.

I just stuck on some music and worked end to end - there were 7 colours used max.

 236 figures down in just over 3 weeks, now that propelled my towards to the top. Blimey i needed more figures! 

Ah hell lets do some more Mahdists 

 

 

 

A Mahdist army created in about 6 weeks! result.

 

I also continued with the 54mm goodness for bonus entries

 

I was particularly pleased to take top spot on the Favourite character round - trust "The Duke" to deliver the goods.

 

Butch and Sundance placed second in the " Last Stand" making Millsy sweat on his first place!

 

So overall I came in 3rd with just under 3000 points! almost 5 times my initial estimate.I have really enjoyed the winter painting season it has been really fruitful.

And it was great to end it with the first games of the year last weekend.

Time for some new projects!

Challenge Photography

Picking up Phyllions post (link)on challenge photography I thought i would share my current photo set up.

I have the luxury of the spare desk which I have set up for desert type shots at the moment. I have a backdrop against the wall and the room has good natural light.

 I am using my DSLR on a tri-pod. Using Aperture Priority setting usually at least f16 to get a decent depth of field around the subject. This can mean long exposure times so I am set up on a tri-pod and either use the self timer or remote control.

I also have a diffuser for the flash on the camera if I need to , with options for a warmer or cooler light depending on the colour diffuser used.

I did spend some time many years ago helping out Duncan Macfarlane taking photographs for Wargames Illustrated which involved really setting the scene.so I am trying to use this experience this time around.

So here we have the results!

Monument Valley in the man cave.

Just a little update , another part of the man cave is completed. I picked up a large picture of Monument Valley a classic part of old western films. It covers a large part of the back wall (its 6 foot x 4!) and will make a fine back drop to the games table. Its attached via velcro to the wall , which will even allow me to change it over for different scenes etc if i wish.

I had couple of questions re the Fort model shown a couple of posts ago, so here are a few with Gordon Pasha just to help scale it

So for those of you in Curts Challenge how is the prep work going on? I am ready to get to paint on stuff now i must say - just the last lot of Perry Sudan re-inforcements to tackle., Baggara Cavalry and metal Beja Foot reinforcements.