The Awards for Challenge XVI

 

Like so many prizes, it's the anticipation of the opening that's so exciting...

Ahem. Speaking of prizes, welcome to the wrap-up of the 16th edition of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge!

We're all dialed-in with the tabulation of the votes for Challengers' Choice, Sarah with her choice of a female figure, and myself for Snowlord's Choice. 

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We had an excellent turnout for the Challengers' Choice poll, with 28 nominees and 43 people casting their votes. Below are the top ten placings chosen by our participants (with several tied places). We used weighted scoring, where 3 points are given for 1st pick, 2 points for 2nd, and 1 point for 3rd pick.

1. KerryT 'Body of Work' 

2. DaveD 'Bolsheviks' 

3. AdamC ‘WWII Naval Project' 

4. ChristopherS 'Pyrric Epirote Phalangite'

4. BruceR 'Once More Into the Breach'

5. RayR 'Finnish Medics'

6. PaulOG 'Galactic Gals'

7. GregB 'Dogs of War' 

8. Curt 'Banksy' 

8. Martin 'Body of Work' 

8. Martin 'Sigurd Fafnir's Bane' 

8. LeeH 'Winter War Soviets' 

9. Curt '30K Kill Team' 

10. MartinN 'Fallshirmjaeger and Firefly' 

10. BruceR 'Warmaster 10mm Project'

10. BruceR 'Black Coach'  

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AHPC XVI Challengers's Choice

Third Place

AdamC with his excellent collection of WWII ships.

Adam, for your talented efforts I'm sure you will enjoy a gift certificate from your fellow Challenger ByronM at 'Northern Lights Terrain'!

Second Place

DaveD for his beautiful Bolsheviks. 

Dave, I'm happy to award you a gift certificate from 'The French Wargames Holiday Centre'!

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...and the Challengers' Choice for AHPC XVI goes to...

KerryT for his fantastic body of work over the course of the Challenge!

Congratulations for your well-deserved win, Kerry! Your prize is a gift certificate from Martin and Diane over at 'Warbases'! 

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AHPC XVI Sarah’s Choice

Hello Everyone!

It’s the time of year for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge wrap up and time to make the selection for Sarah’s Choice … an increasingly difficult task!

I’m always amazed at the cool figures presented and often the background stories included are soo interesting.


Honourable Mentions

Paul O’Grady: 'Galactic Gals'

Love the Power Ranger colours and the badass “grrrl power” vibe. I came upon this quote and it’s most apt for these ladies

“She wasn’t looking for a knight, she was looking for a sword”

ErikP: Farm Ladies from 'Horse & Musket Civilians in the Fields'

Anyone who includes a Pride & Prejudice quote about mud & petticoats gets my attention and fully deserves to be included in the Sarah’s Choice write up.

Well done Erik… the farm lass with the buckets is fabulous and her work worn clothes do indicate “an abominable sort of conceited independence, a most country - town indifference to decorum!”

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Sarah’s Choice for Challenge XVI

PeteB. 'The Little Lady and the Cat'

I love everyone about this entry… the realistic cobblestone and stonework, the lavender blue of the shutters, her green dress and her whimsical daydreaming pose at the window. Who or what is she waiting for for? I look forward to seeing the additions to the vignette next year.

Pete, I'm delighted to award you a gift certificate from Kawe over at Westfalia Miniatures. Enjoy!!

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Snowlord's Choice

For Snowlord's Choice, I often like to spotlight fresh faces coming into the Challenge as these people will become the torchbearers for our hobby in the years to come. So in this vein this year the Snowlord's Choice goes to QuinnM.

I very much enjoyed all your entries Quinn. From the White Scars to Turnip28, and then on to The Walking Dead, your work exhibited a bold grasp of colour and the use of lighting effects that I quite enjoyed.

I was particularly impressed with your Tree Lord. Such lovely brushwork on that imposing figure.

For your great work this year I'm delighted to award you with a gift certificate from Goblin King Games (makers of 'Moonstone'). I look forward to seeing what you do with their figures!

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My thanks to all the nominees for sharing your wonderful work with us. For those lucky prize winners, please email me to work out the details for getting your prizes. 

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As Challenge XVI formally concludes, I’d like to thank again our brilliant Minions for all their hard work in herding the hundreds of entries, wrangling with the Spreadsheet of Doom and generally keeping everything cruising along smoothly. Hats off to Barks for keeping track of our skull-count and Stuart with those distracting squirrels. I also wish to thank our Challenge Sponsors for their generous support of the event.  If you have a free moment please visit their sites via the banners on the left sidebar and see if something strikes your fancy.  

In closing, I bid you all a very fond farewell. Enjoy the next eight months until we get together again for the next run.

Cheers!

- Curt

From PeteB - Paulus Miniatures - The little lady and the cat - 10 Points

This is my last contribution for this years challenge. And as I wanted to paint at least one other female figure, after my Bonnie I decided to paint this nice little girl from Paulus Miniatures with her cat "Gaston"! The girl is a 3D printed figure and 54 mm high. On this little vignette will be added some more figures but not this challenge. I don't get them ready. But I hope you like this little lady that is dreaming and watching her cat.

The piece of scenery (7 x 4,5 cm) comes with the lady. The cat is part of a medieval soldier running around his legs. I choose the name of the cat "Gaston" because our first cat was a white one. He's been always in our minds and harts, and now he is visual in this little figure. The base (10 x 6 cm) is a print from miniatuurwereld.com.
I used a lot of grey and some earth colours for the base and the wall, and the window shutters in blue to get some more color on the vignette.

The not painted figures;

Base and scenery.

Thanks for watching!

Points: 1 x 54 mm Foot figure = 10 Points.

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I really like this vignette, Pete! How very whimsical and introspective. I like that you drew upon your family and your past pet for inspiration on this. I also appreciate how you did the stonework by introducing browns and tans and the shutters in blue to give the piece more warmth and colour. Really lovely work and I'm going to give a few bonus points for the terrain. I hope next year you can show us the completed piece. Well done!

- Curt

From Paul O'G: Galactic Gals! (70 points)

My final submission is my entry for Sarah's Choice: Retro Sci-Fi ladies.

In the vibe of pulp era fiction such as Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, these jetpack equipped Astro-Angels brook no argument!

The Astro-Angels

The Angels are a compact but highly capable squad deployed for boarding actions, sabotage missions, and planetary patrol operations. Their barracks is also the source of the Angel Martini; a cocktail with a reputation across Starbase Epsilon-4 for its remarkable strength and suspiciously high fuel-cell compatibility.

Team Leader: Sergeant Stacy – Tactical leader. Cool-headed and decisive, Stacy keeps the team focused when missions go sideways, which they frequently do. 

Team Members:

• Polly Plasma – Assault trooper with nerves of steel. Known to walk straight into alien nests with only a smile and a plasma rifle.

• Trixie Tachyon – Scout and reconnaissance expert. Fast, agile, and always the first through the hatch during boarding actions.

• Vera Vega – Veteran blaster specialist and the squad’s steadiest shot in close combat.

• Cassie Comet - Practical joker and a crack shot with a Rocketship Burst Laser.

• Molly “Deadeye” Dawn – When missions require heavier firepower, Molly's signature plasma grenade launcher gleefully turns entrenched enemy positions into expanding clouds of ionized debris.

  

Technical Specialist:

• Daisy “Dynamo” – Engineer and mechanic of the Angel's rocketship Calypso. Daisy keeps the patrol ship flying long past the limits recommended by Galacteer maintenance protocols. When accompanying the team in the field, she provides technical support, demolitions expertise, and a fathomless capacity of dry wit.

  

Captain Roxanne Rayburn - Callsign: “Starfire”

As one of the Galacteer’s most capable field leaders, Starfire commands the Astro-Angels. She is renowned amongst patrol crews as calm under pressure, lethal in combat, and impossibly photogenic in danger zones. A combination that has made her a favourite subject of Galacteer newsreels and recruitment posters across the frontier worlds.

And what team doesn't need a few Red Shirts to come along as a support act? Starfire and the girls often work with Rex “Skylark” Rourke, Ace pilot, and his plasma-cannon toting buddy Bruno “Bulkhead” Kessler.

Together they keep the Galaxy safe from savage aliens, barbaric Space Pirates and the merciless Robots Legion!

Miniatures by Hydra Miniatures and based old school with sand (that I collected from Waikiki Beach!). I tried some new colours and techniques (like lipstick!) that were challenging. These models are close to 40mm so I will claim 7 points apiece for a total of 70. 

That brings my Challenge to a close - thanks once again to Curt and the amazing Minion team who bring all of the goodness together!

From Millsy:

This post is every bit as epic as it sounded when we spoke about it earlier in the week Paul. That mind blowing green paired with the purple vinyl and the bright, super saturated reds, yellows, pinks and blues are marvellous. I feel just like I'm reading a Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon comic.

What a great way to wrap up. 70 retro-tastic points added to your tally mate. Love em!

Cheers,
Millsy

From BillaA - NEEEERRRRDDDDSSSSS (15 pts)

It's been really great to return to the AHPC, and my productivity has exceeded anything I anticipated accomplishing. Did I necessarily finish everything I'd set out to? Nnnnnno. I have, I guess, 14 more Mayans to paint (four of whom are very ornately dressed), plus quite a bit of terrain for them that hasn't even been started. But, more importantly, I painted a lot of figures and made a big dent in my leadpile, which is what really matters. So to conclude this year's AHPC, I have one last post. And it's a bunch of nerds.

Or rather, a bunch of geeks. This is Reaper Miniatures' "Townsfolk: Geeks" from their Chronoscope line of pulp, scifi, modern and miscellaneous non-fantasy miniatures, sculpted by Gene Van Horne. They're pretty simple and straight-forward sculpts in non-dramatic poses but they've got a lot of personality to them and were entertaining to paint.

My favorite is the big guy in the middle of the group photo. I think the sculpt was probably influenced by the Simpsons' "Comic Book Guy," with his bulk, shorts and ponytail. I opted for some different color choices, with khaki cargo shorts and a white T-shirt inspired by one the president of my college's anime club wore when I was a student. I've also painted the bottle in his hand as Mountain Dew. The figure's face was large and open enough for me to paint his eyes. 

It's like looking in a mirror.

Up next is a small man in glasses and a short-sleeved button down shirt; I'm realizing now he's supposed to have a beard to go with that mustache and I just didn't paint it. I'll fix that. He's got a pouch in his left hand that I've interpreted as a classic Crown Royal bag full of dice.

Finally, the female member of the trio; she was the hardest for me, actually. I'd painted her face first and then started filling in the hair around it, only for the base turquoise shade to go on really thin and flow, wash-like, on to her face. I had a few choice words for that bottle of paint! Once the hair was finished I went in and redid her face, but it resulted in some of the definition of the sculpt being lost. 

Three more 28mm figures on foot yields another 15 points. Thank you to the Snowlord for welcoming me back after too many years absent, and thank you everyone for the kind words and encouragement on every post! 

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Fabulous final post Bill! I love the little details that you put in, like the Mountain Dew bottle, Crown Royal dice bag and the fandom blue hair. A wonderfully geeky trio that we can all identify with. It was great to have you back this year and I hope we see you out for Challenge XVII!

- Curt