From SebastianR: Some kind of automaton (5 points)

It’s been a bit of a rough start to the year and that has really eaten into my painting time, so I'll keep this brief. With the deadline looming I offer up this lil’ guy to stake my claim and keep the window open for the hodgepodge of projects to come.

This was a super simple paintjob; metallics and a bit of red for the eye washed with seraphim sepia to bring out the detail. The main colour is Vallejo bronze but it looks pretty golden to me. Maybe I dont know what polished bronze looks like.

His base has no makers mark and I have no idea what he’s supposed to be. He’s a little bit Pathfinder Iron Gods, a little bit Eberron Warforged, a little bit World of Warcraft. 

What he is, is 1 28mm figure for 5pts.

Well you may just be squeezing in before the deadline, but really glad to see that you've made it.  I too have a lot of real life going on in 2026, which has affected my painting time considerably.

What a splendid little automaton, but I'll try to keep on its good side.  I particularly like the steampunk look that the bronze colour gives it.  Welcome aboard.

From SebastianR: Tanks! (88 points)

Part 2 of my, "look I did actually paint something" posts, a bunch of 6mm vehicles for Team Yankee.

10 Abrams

2 Carnations and a Carnation proxy

2 Shilkas

2 Gophers

2 Spartans for blowpipe teams

6 FV432s for a mech platoon

7 T72's and definitely T72's honest guv

6 T72's in what one blog calls MERDCski camo

8 BMP1s for a mech platoon

 As always flocking will be done once temperatures allow varnishing.

That's 44 6mm vehicles for a total of 88pts

That's all from me this year. I'm away for the rest of the challenge time. I wish I'd managed to get more done and stick to my plan, but best laid schemes and all. Hopefully see you all next year where I can be more productive.

***

Sebastian - On behalf of the Benevolent Snow Lord (tm), his Divine Lady (tm) and my gang of scurrilous Minions, thank you for being part of AHPC XV! We all wish we can paint more, and it is that wish that will keep us all going! 

This parting post of mechanized might is lovely - nothing like a bunch of tanks racing around and shooting each other on the gaming table, right? These are very nice, well done. 

88 points for you!

GregB

From SebastianR: Rats! (100pts)

Balls have well and truly been dropped. I was doing great for the first month of the year, but the final weeks of the challenge are upon us and I'm not going to get to the challenge filler pieces. So no bonus points for me. Only rats.

An attempt at weirdstone

I had to make a bunch of wooden floor bases out of greenstuff and milliput to match the ones I already had. Probably not worth the effort, but still happy with them.

These guys will be my gang for the long promised 3rd season of our ongoing Mordheim campaign.

That's 20 28mm figures for 100pts

***

Rats it shall be! The distractions from our hobby goals can, at times, be as challenging as our hobby distractions - if that makes any sense...? All this to say is that I expect many will relate to not quite meeting our Challenge goals - certainly I can! I had so much stuff I was going to get done...

But rats are one way to get a nice 100 point pop! And full marks - even now, you are taking a trickier road by messing around with milliput to make wood-plank bases. Well done!

100 points it is!

GregB

From SebastianR: Not ghosting this challenge (5 points)

Happy new year all!

Just a quick post to lock myself in for this challenge.

Due to my personal painting priorities being basically the opposite of the challenge bonus rounds, further entries will be delayed.

I could just ignore the bonus rounds of course, but where's the fun in that? 

Anyway, one Wraith, painted in the Gardens of Hecate style that I still haven't mastered, but still looks pretty good. See you all soon.

5pts

***

Welcome to AHPC XV Sebastian! This lovely (well, actually, very scary) Wraith keeps you in the boat, and that's what matters! You are on the board, and we look forward to more, and feel free to enjoy whether you align with the bonus themes or not!

GregB

From SebastianR: A little chicken for Chicken Little [Childrens Books] (10 points)

Wait, there's still time!

Enough time to deliver on this bonus challenge, unknowingly set for me by Dallas.

I manged to hookwink a friend into buying a pack of 6mm chickens, so that I could have one to claim the award for most lopsided points to bonus points ratio this challenge has ever seen.

So why Childrens Books? Well, I'm hooking this entry onto 2005's Chicken Little, a Walt Disney flick that I would never have heard of* without a throwaway line from the preamble to Axis of Awesome's only hit song. Apparently it's loosely based on the European folk tale of Henny Penny. Sure. Ok. Children's Media! And he's a little chicken... Geddit?

That being said, he is a bit of a chonker when compared to my GHQ infantry. Maybe he's been on some "premium" chicken feed, or perhaps the infantry skipped torso day.

I'm not sure how many photos you want of a 6mm chicken, but there's a mandatory minimum of 3, so here he is, the smallest thing I've ever painted, perched on the biggest thing I've ever painted.

I claim 0.25 points for this figure, half that of a 6mm foot figure, and 20 for the challenge and immortalisation in the challenge hall of fame for most lopsided points ratio!

*That being said, I have extremely vague memories of the marketing.

_________________________________

Queue eyeroll from GregB... :)

Yep, that's a little chicken for Chicken Little, no doubt about it. Nonetheless, as per the story you neglected to model the sky falling on Chicken Little, so I'm going to reduced the total to 10 points for the grievous oversight. 

Good one Sebastian.  :)

From SebastianR: Behold Kaladrax! [Oversize books] (80 Points)

I told you I'd be back.

I've had this one in the pile of shame opportunity for a long time, and after being thwarted in my last attempt to claim the oversized books location I decided there was no better time than the present.

I also did a lot of anxious procrastinating.

I've never painted a model this big, nor as... prestigious. I didn't buy the original reaper bones kickstarter; I got this figure from facebook I think, for around £50, almost a decade ago and lugged it around ever since.

I love skeleton dragons and was hoping that this bad boy could become the centerpiece for an undead army or be the end boss for a particularly messy Pathfinder campaign, but he's just too damn big. Impractically big. In fact, according to a couple of sources I stumbled across while searching for painting tips, due to a miscommunication with the manufacturer, he was molded larger than intended, maybe even three times as much.

Instead he'll spend his days perched on a shelf, waiting for people to ask, "That's a neat dragon; what the story there?" at which point I will regale them with the tale of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge that forced me to finally paint him.

And isn't that the purpose of the challenge? For us to ignore the projects we actually need to complete in order to chase internet points with fearfully ignored figures from the bottom of the lead reaper bones worryingly soft plastic pile?

It's still too humid to trust a varnish, thus the glossiness on parts of the base.

I have no idea what this is worth points wise. It's 20 for the challenge, and it's technically a 28mm monster, but given the mis-sizing and the sheer size of the model (14"*14"*9").

And that's me I think. Once again I get to within unlocking distance of the Snowlords challenge, but without the time to actually complete the challenge. See you all next year!

____________________________________

That is a fabulous undead beastie, Sebastian! I love his sickly green interior and wing membranes. Very cool. I'm delighted that the Challenge prompts some folk to do as yourself and unpack almost-forgotten treasures to submit to the event. That warms my heart! I also really like your 'Returned' library stamp. :)

Due to the shear size of this fella lets equate him to thee 28mm vehicles, so 60 points plus the Oversize bonus.

Until next year Sebastian!

- Curt

From SebastianR: Hello sir, welcome to the [Gift Shop] (24 Points)

Finally, I can post the first think I painted, way back in January.

These are a friend's sci-fi buildings that I offered to paint for him as he wasn't sure how to approach them, and I wanted to practice with my airbrush.

 

They're a bizarre bit of manufacturing though. As far as we can tell they were designed and 3D printed, then cast in resin, which I suppose might be indicative of an old school manufacturer trying to incorporate more modern techniques, but it means that they have the worst features of both techniques, being made of resin but still showing the 3D print lines.

While this is a fascinating piece of design for manufacturing in action, it does mean no washes for me, just a jump into the unknown with a series of airbrush blends to try and liven up flat surfaces. I'm pretty happy with the results.

The buildings have already seen battle, twice, in my friends definitely not 6 Days War IN SPACE hybrid wargame/RPG.

Points wise, I made impromptu notes on what they measured piled together but I appear to have thrown away the card on which I made said notes, and all I have is this photo suggesting that one axis was ~7".

Assuming it's roughly 7*3*2 that's about a fifth of a 6" cube, giving my 4 points, and with 20 points for the challenge I can rake in 24 points

All that remains if for me to clear up my little mistake with oversized books and the way is open to Rare Books, for only the second time in my time with the challenge!

These buildings look really cool - are they 15mm scale? Or even 6mm? In any case they do look really good and are a suitable entry for the Gift Shop.

24 points for you, and looking forward to seeing a BIG MODEL in the Oversized Books stack! 

Dallas

From SebastianR: Rats! [Nature] (104 Points)

And our ghostly cart ride takes us to the the nature part of the library where we are surrounded by one of nature's greatest adapters, the rat, flowing into houses and granaries and scurrying up from beneath in an unending tide, to harry desperate peasants, and unfortunate adventurers in an unending swarm.

These figures are one part citadel Mordheim dire rats, and one part alternative armies rats.

The single based minis will be used for this year's Mordheim skaven warband and probably Pathfinder at some point. The multi based miniatures? Who knows. I had excess rats and wanted to paint them all.

Getting the plank texture was something of a saga. Turns out Element Games is perfectly happy to sell you something that they do not have in stock, and don't know when they will have in stock either.

My experiments with texturing milliput have borne fruit, but I definitely could have done a better job. Firmer, more consistent texture is required. I'll know when I come to make bases for the actual skaven.

 

While these are 28mm rats, they're much closer to 15mm figures; cavalry specifically, so I'm going to cost them at 4pts each, Dallas permitting.

That's 21 rats at 4 pts each for 84pts and 1 location at 20 points for 104pts.

There's no such thing as too many rats, and I say this as a former player of a Skaven army in WHFB and a Skaven Blood Bowl team. These little rodents look superb and I really like the textured bases, they look great.

I'll allow your math and allocate 104 points.

Dallas

From SebastianR: Fleeing through the walls [Sarah's Library Cart] (25 Points)

After being cruelly bonus blocked by Dallas last Saturday (I kid), I find myself trapped in this section of the library, as, by my reading of the rules, while you can through completed sections, you can't leave a section you have only partially completed even to backtrack. (That's my reading, don't @ me) [Not true, you can certainly backtrack. See below - D.]

But with this one weird trick I can be free!

Yes, clamber aboard the Library Cart with me and flee to... well I know where, but I haven't completed my destinations project yet, and I suspect I wont have time to finish it this week, at least not at time of writing. So I guess it'll be a spooky mystery.

I'm using the same paint scheme as I did last year, a relaxing to paint spectral recipe from gardens of Hecate.

I'm pretty sure the figure is an old GW banshee, and that's what I'll be using her for. This time square based to fit in with the oldhammer project I'm trying to complete this year.

And don't worry, I'll be back for Oversized Books!

That's 20 points for the cart, 5 points for the figure, for 25 points total

Sebastian - you can backtrack at will through the Library and revisit any section you have already cleared, or go through those sections to new ones. For example you could go back to section 2 and from there to the east wing (Art, Gift Shop, etc.), to the Rotunda, or back to the first section even. 

Also, when travelling in Sarah's Library Cart you have to declare a destination. It can be any Library stack bar the Rare and Antique Books stack, but you have to say in this post where it's taking you. I'll let you skate this time but please be mindful that others need to use the Cart to get around the Library, and we can't have one Challenger just hogging it with nowhere to go and all week to get there!

Also - I always liked that GW banshee. Nice work :-)

Dallas