MattW - Sweet Sixteen is a wrap!

 Sweet Sixteen is a wrap! 

Another painting challenge complete, a big thank you to Curt and Sarah for hosting a fine event this year, the last rapid fire event felt like a blur, with posts every 15 mins or so on Friday night. A big thanks to the minions, as I was in two time zones several times I missed the cut off by a day either side…..

Bryon Bay bit of the holiday 

I set a very modest goal this year of 600 points as I knew I would be on holidays skipping the European winter. This winter we were Australia for two months laying around a pool relaxing over the challenge. I did not reach my goal for points this year as the holiday homes and hotels had no where really suitable to paint….. well that’s my excuse. On the home front I finally moved into my painting room and I think in six weeks the chateau renovation on the third floor will be finally complete (painting, fabric wall insulation, then decor happening for the coming five weeks) which will mean my library will finally be back in place and my hobbit hole will get a rebuild. 

We are taking bookings for 2026  at Wargames holidays/ L’Hotel de Hercé . If you and your partner or a couple of mates are looking for a personal Normandy battlefield guide, a wargames or historical cultural holiday in west France, Normandy, Brittany or Pays de Loire please consider us. We have 21 tours and 60 Battlefeild sites locally from Caesar to ww2. 

On the painting front, my desk looks like a bomb zone when I commenced cleanup yesterday about 4 projects did not make it to the Final Cut, 4 hours packing stuff away into project drawers and I will compete a few pieces this week …. For the 16th challenge really happy with my 20 odd Judge Dredd additions including some early figures from the Citadel 80s collection, LOTR, Napoleonic, ACW and ww2 pieces. 

My favourite piece I completed, Treebeard Merry and Pippin

Half of the Hurley gang

Me raging about construction dust in the painting room

After two weeks on the Gold Coast eating Banana’s and mangoes 

The oldest thing I painted circa 1983 a Paranoia/citadel blue trooper

Perry dragoons, fifteen years in the project drawer at least 

A gift of figures whilst in Oz by my mate Greg, actually received love early

My Christmas gift was a Halfling Bloodbowl team, as yet unnamed any ideas? 

Somehow I think this is what I would look like in a gridiron outfit

I had big plans of completing my 9th SS 20mm…. Not to be

Cheers everyone I am looking forward to next year

Cheers

Matt

From StuartL - Finishing at the Start - 75 Points

Hi all,

Despite a lot of real life stuff going on, I was able to finish off some minis just in time. Both of the batches below represent new projects for me, hence the title of the post.

Many years ago, I got into Napoleonics with some friends at my local gaming group. I bought a few brigades of Waterloo era British, while those around me collected French, Russians, Austrians and Prussians, though mainly for the slightly earlier period. Unfortunately, all of my opponents moved away or changed hobbies completely. This left me with a bit of a problem. Having only one force meant that they would never see the table. So, I figured that I would have to start collecting a second army. While I was tempted to get a Waterloo era French force, I decided to go for the earlier uniforms. I got a couple of boxes of Perrys 1807-14 French for Christmas, but I haven't had time to start building them yet. I did want to do something for the challenge, so I had a friend print me some artillery.

    These are some French Foot Artillery from Battlecat Miniatures on MyMiniFactory. They were fairly easy to paint up and the details were nice and sharp. The gun limbers have very deep grain on the wood, which doesn't look so realistic up close, but at tabletop level it should be fine.

    I did have some trouble getting all of the minis onto the bases I had, especially the guy adjusting the wheel position. Some parts of the figure are sticking out over the edge of the base.

    
    These are really nice minis and I am thinking to have my friend print a few more for me. I have a couple of French generals printed as well, but sadly time was not on my side. 

    The second new force is more Space Marines. I have way too many Space Marine armies, (cough, 14 different armies including this one), I think I may have a problem. My armies come in two types, Horus Heresy armies and Badab War armies. These are both primarily Marine Vs. Marine conflicts, which explains why I have so many. I have dabbled with the new Primaris figures, but sold them on as they weren't really my thing.

    These five minis represent half of an assault squad for the Star Phantoms Chapter for the Badab War. Painting this much white was not as much fun as you might expect. 

    The Star Phantoms' background hints that they are an offshoot of the Dark Angels Legion, from the Dreadwing formation, which uses the same iconography. Their preferred tactical doctrines are 'Scorched Earth' and 'War Crimes'. They lean heavily into the 40K skull motif too.

     I have a bunch more models for this force lined up, so hopefully there will be more to come in the next challenge.

    Well, that is about all from me for this year. So, this final group should score me:

2x artillery pieces = 20 Points

6x French gun crews = 30 Points

5x Space Marines = 25 Points

    That should add 75 Points to my tally, taking me well past my target number, though not as high as previous years. 

    This lot get me two last Squirrels and the Star Phantoms have 32 Skulls between them.

  My ongoing duels information:

Skulls - 271 (+32)
BSRoD - 17 (+0)
Squirrels - 20 (+2) - D&D Animals, 30K Militia, Plague Clowns, Afghans, Robots, Anglo-Saxons, Medieval Polish, Clan Smoke Jaguar, 81st West Africans, Undead, 10mm FPW French, Daemons of Khorne, Modern Vehicles, Turnip28, Space Wolves, Free French, Arabs, Snake Folks, French Napoleonics, Star Phantoms.

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I know you've been very busy as of late so it's nice to see you back for a final volley, Stuart. 

The Star Phantoms are very nice in their stark white livery and close combat weaponry. That being said, the stars of this post (at least for me) are the French artillery. I've seen several examples of Battle Cat figures during this year's Challenge and they look very nice (I think the deep woodgrain is a nice feature as it helps with painting). You've done a great job on this small battery and I look forward to seeing more from this project next Challenge! 

Until then have a great rest of the year!

- Curt

From DavidB: Part 2 The Wolf Spiders (195 points)

 

38 Van-saar gangers being the last big purchase of GW models. I am blaming them on both Hive secondus (space hulk like necromundia game) and my interest in some new cheap Sci-Fi skirmish games. They easily make a platoon so besides Necro, they will be great in 5150, Stargrave, and a score of other Sci-Fi games I have. they can easily be a cyberpunk spec ops team too.

My first try a few challenges ago was to make them a turquoise with bright orange optics, but the jade paints looked greener and suddenly I had the classic Van-saar look and lost a lot of my painting mojo working on them. Those models have done okay in the necromundia games, but not my favorite as I am not happy with the look of them. This time I decided since I wanted the weapons and lights to be the focus, I would aim for more neutral tones on the figures and decided a pale blue grey and black body suits would make the optics more noticeable. I really liked the look and with the pale blue-grey I now have the Wolf Spiders ready to rumble.

They came out rather well.

Van-saar are not known for close combat, but a plasma pistol and energy shield is their style.

I do not know my starting roster yet, but this one will be in the starting crew.

hand flamer weapons are a great weapon to give to the new fighters and level them up to ganger quick.

I really like their helmets and only used a few bare heads for flavor, but all have masks and helms on their person.

I have not decided on the leader yet, all four have nice weapon loadouts, but may change to get the troops in the roster.

I am leaning to the camo cloak leader with power knife and las as his cloak was purposefully painted purple for the look at me. either he will be targeted as a boss or left alone where I can use him to snipe targets. I figure him to be a vain leader using the cloak in a more flamboyant color shift than camouflage

The mainstays of the roster will be lasguns, las carbines, and the van-saar version of a shotgun being the suppression laser.

a multi melta, plasma cannon, and rad cannon being either an anchor for my gang or an anchor in depleting points better spent on something else.

I made sure to make at least one model for every special weapon available. I want choices for support weapons and will need something to take down high toughness and high wound targets.

The red target optics really pop with the blue lenses.

there were only nine skulls with this big gang, and all were on the knife sheaths or energy shields. they are more tech and less grim dark until we get to the medic from the hive Secundus set with the big honking servo arm needle and chainsaw bone saw.  The medic is accompanied by communication tech

A weaponsmith and sniper

a proper camo cloak for the sniper.

Two more hive secudus tech hunters and will be used in a game with my friends at Adepticon. I haven't played that particular game yet, but since necromundia and space hulk are favorite games, I will have fun.

some up armored heavy weapon gunners one with a rad gun and the other with something that is part flame weapon and part mancatcher...

Everything from the past few days off....

An ammo priest for trench crusade that somehow was with the Cawdor gangers, so I finished him up before typing this post and he is the last model for this challenge.

I was "Lucky" in I had a VA doc appointment and had a day off work since it was when I should've been sleeping for work. I will be off to work tonight so my brushes are now down for this winter. I will have a tally of the big stompy robots of death soon as I have vacation beginning on Monday. 

38 van-saar gangers and one trench crusade ammo monk for 195 points

squirrels- White Scars, Fantasy orcs, WW2 US, WW2 Germans, Battletech, wood elves, stormtoopers, Iron Snakes, Deathguard, Modern US inf, WW1 French, Trench Pilgrims, New Antioch, Carnevale Doctors, Van-Saar gangers.

skulls- 111 skulls adding the few not so grim dark gangers

stompy robots of death- 17 machines

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Wow, 38 Van-Saar gangers? In Necromunda terms this is not a 'gang', but a freakin' 'horde'! Lovely work David, and I really like your new re-dux colour scheme. They definitely look more hi-tek compared to the usual Necromunda offerings - quite patrician. As you say, the larger force will allow you to use them in a variety of rules systems. Very nice and a great conclusion to your Challenge this year. Bravo!

- Curt

From TeemuL: Resistance - The Missed Opportunity (0 points)

A little snack to keep one going during the last 24 hours of the Challenge. There were three bonus rounds this year, I had a clear and cunning plan for one of them (Resistance) from the beginning. The other two I managed to invent something during the course, but the one I planned never made it! I was too busy hunting squirrels and skulls, that once I realized the Resistance deadline was close, I already knew I couldn't make it. But here's something I planned for that round, finally somewhat finished.

These two are modular map pieces from the Mighty Empires campaign set Games Workshop released several years ago. I bought one second hand a few years ago and even painted some of them during the previous AHPC (curiously the previous AHPC was named AHPC X: Previously painted map tiles). I'm quite sure these would have seen much more action, if they were coloured cardboard hexes like Settlers of Catan, but sometimes everything is made from plastic. I used Contrast colours on these again, simple and bold colours, something you expect to see from a map for example. They are double sided and of course the one with the mountain range doesn't look too good when turned over (the ocean). One more reason for cardboard tiles, I guess.

And what do these have to do with resistance, then? Well, I'm taking this to the meta level and this entry resists the lack of map for theme rounds. There are pros and cons, but naturally there is some level of resistance and this entry keeps that voice alive. I might not be personally resisting the lack of map, but this entry does - in a same way as our armies on the tables don't always match our own ideologies or agendas. Another level of resistance of this entry is that both of these were partially started before the Challenge, the greens on the first picture were already painted years ago, but then I run out of the Green Contrast paint and forgot these. For couple of years there has been a bonus theme for finishing previously started minis during the Challenge, and this entry resists that, too - in a same way as it resists the lack of map. Scoring these would be difficult, but since they were already started, they count for zero points - simple!

P.S. I was planning to paint more of these for the Bonus round and use tiles which were not started, but then I got too deep in all the levels of Resistance, that I couldn't resist any longer. I hope this post has at least bought a grin on your face, if not laugh. :)

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When reading this I resisted not to laugh, but failed. I find your meta-level reasoning entertaining, Teemu AND I also really like these tiles, with their bold colours and contrasting hex-edge. I have something similar that I 3d printed, but I still really like the design of these Mighty Empire tiles. I hope you return to them for a future Challenge to show us an entire map!

The Map is Dead - Long Live the Map! ;)

- Curt

From TeemuL: The Last Ducks and Orcs (50 points)

My last post of the Challenge has elements of two of my favourite fantasy worlds, Glorantha and Middle-Earth. First Glorantha and heroic ducks. I recently painted first five of them here: Ducks from 2022. And now was the time to paint the rest and claim one more squirrel!

They being fantasy ducks and not real I was able to use varied colours - one of them is blue, another one is green, one yellow and light and dark grey pair to finish them off. I tried to again use a limited palette to tie them together, look unified, but not uniformed. So lots of greys, greens and browns, followed by wash and gentle drybrush. It is a miracle indeed how many colours you can shade with Reikland Fleshshade and drybrush with Caucasian Flesh and the end result is great! I give you hint, basically anything but blue and green on these ducks...

For those of you don't know, ducks from Glorantha are barbarians and live side by side with other barbarians following their Storm God called Orlanth. Ducks don't take criticism well, especially if it is targeted towards their height, size or skills with weapons. They are short tempered, I wonder if Donald Duck is related to them...

Times like these, Challenge coming to end, skull duel almost tied, every skull counting, it would be tempting to paint free hand skulls everywhere, for example on the shields of these ducks. But skull is not a symbol widely used in Glorantha, so one of them got a storm rune and other one got a luck rune. Whirling storm rune is also the mark of Orlanth. They are smallish minis, 20mm in height, but in 28mm scale and previously counted as 28mm so it would be 5 points per mini and total of 25 points and a "Glorantha Duck" squirrel.

<Enter some quack jokes here>

And lets move on. Here are five more Uruk-hais for my army. You might remember my earlier entry where I said these were surprisingly easy and fast to paint. So I primed five more and they were still easy and fast to paint. I need to remember that, because I have quite a lot of them waiting for paint.

The recipe is the same and since there are dozens of entries on the final hours, I'll save you from long rants. 5 minis for 25 points, no squirrels or skulls. 50 points total. Thank you and "See You In December!"

From Millsy:

One of my favourite aspects of Gloranthan lore is the quirkiness of it and the ducks are the epitome of that quirkiness. I would never have though to use such bright colours on them as you've done mate but it really works.

Lovely work Teemu and another 50 Lunars added to your tally.

PS. I tried to think of a duck joke that would quack you up but couldn't manage it.

Cheers,

Millsy