AHPC VIII - Ev's Challenge; The Final Roundup

The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is over for another year, and what a roller coaster it's been!

Here are the final figures, the rest of my output for this (northern) winter's event.

First up, the Bonus Theme Round, "Childhood"; some Reaper Bones Mouslings to entertain my grandchildren. These were a lot of fun to paint, and the emphasis is on bright, eye-catching colours.

The next Bonus Round was '"Monstrous", and I put together a tribute to the man behind the Challenge, Curt Campbell, aka The Snowlord. This figure will soon be winging his way to Canada as my price of admission, the Curtgeld.

He's a Reaper Bones Frost Giant Jarl, and he was a pretty big subject. Of course, his sword has been swapped out for a paintbrush. I hope he finds favour in his new home in the frozen tundras of Saskatchewan!

My production ramped up marginally in the last week of the Challenge, and I was able to get a couple more of those Reaper Bones monsters out there. Gotta say, if you want a big impressive beastie for a reasonable price, then the Bones range is the way to go. Some of the detail can be a little soft in parts, but a black basecoat followed by a drybrush of grey at the start really helps highlight areas that need attention and ensures you don't miss anything.

The Marsh Troll was a fun figure, part stegosaur and part crocodile with a killer underbite. I really went for it with the basing, finally getting some use out of a bottle of model railway water effects for the ponds of stagnant water. I like him a lot.

Next up, the iconic fantasy monster, the Dragon.

Reaper Bones AGAIN (and no, I don't have shares in the company). I tend to go a little crazy with the basing on these stand-alone figs, but in this case a little extra height was called for to allow the tail of the monster to follow a more natural curve rather than get pushed upwards by resting on a flat base.

Lastly, some of the women warriors of the Dwarven Kingdoms, courtesy of Scibor Miniatures (see disclaimer above re shareholding).

They're so damned characterful and packed with detail that I think I'll be giving this company my custom for a good many years yet.

So let's review; the theme of the Challenge was, broadly speaking, 'Monstrous', and I managed to get at least five monsters completed, while dwarves, ogres, orcs and goblins also got a look in. But this year, no humans at all, despite a late stab at getting an Imagi-Nations regiment started.

Better clean and prep those pulp adventure figs for next time, to say nothing of the assorted Bronze Age figs left over from the Challenge before last, and of course, there's a bunch of ECW stuff as well, oh, and a shedload of 40K Orks still to assemble...

This may take a while, so I'll say my goodbyes and see you all again soon!

Stay tuned...

Ev

AHPC VIII - Ev's Challenge, Day 57

Greetings friends and followers!

It's been a while since I've delivered a progress report on what has been a moderately productive Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge (at least by my admittedly leisurely standards), so here goes.

I had a bit of a rest following the Flight Theme Round, but resolved to get back into the game while on holidays from work.

First off the table was my entry in the Theme Round, 'BFG', 'Shooting the Messenger', an insight into how Ogres handle battlefield parleys.

A concerted push to get some more terrain into the mix saw the long-neglected contents of my garage get turned over in quest of something suitable, and I lighted on an old kit from GW, 'Dreadstone Blight', a ruined wizard's tower.

I'm very pleased with how it turned out, though the designers do love them some skullz...

I was also able to return to a previous subject, Chaos Dwarf Admiral Thadrak Krakenbane, seen here at the height of his powers. This Scibor sculpt was a delight to paint.

A Reaper Bones Ettin rounded out Day 41's entries. I decided to go with a yellowy skin tone, and the large expanses of flesh on the beastie rewarded the extra effort.

The 'Music' Theme Round was upon me shortly afterwards, and I was pleased to be able to submit some old skool minis in the form of these Goff Rockerz, an Ork rock band from the early WH40K universe. Extra bright goblin green skin and gaudy costumes, and the tribute to the days of Rogue Trader was complete!

Finally, I finished some more Scibor Dwarves, the Salvage Crew. The colour scheme is meant to recall blue denim overalls and convey a sense of no-nonsense workers and craftsmen.

A wealth of detail on these sculpts, especially given their small size, but they really repay the extra effort.

Another bonus theme awaits, 'Childhood', so I'd better get cracking.

Stay tuned...

Ev

AHPC VIII - Ev's Challenge, Day 22

The story so far;

I've gone into this year's Challenge with a target of 500 points, and have proceeded at my usual sedate (some might say 'sedated') pace.

First up was this chap, a strapping Orc Chieftain from Scibor's Monstrous Miniatures. Certainly in keeping with the 'monstrous' theme of the Challenge!

It's a terrifically dynamic figure, and as usual, Scibor's bases are little masterpieces in their own right. I loved painting that fallen statue head!

Next up was a terrain entry. This is the first year for terrain entries outside of a bonus theme round, so I thought I'd paint up a couple of Pictish Standing Stones by Scotia Grendel. I'd had these in the to-do pile for a while, so they were overdue for an outing.

These two lovely resin sculpts were not quite enough to get the entry across the line quantity-wise, so I rustled up a quick Celtic Oratory Chapel, scratch-built from a block of polystyrene coated in filler and carved to resemble rough stone. The door was made from some bamboo skewers with a loop of fuse wire for the handle.

Returning to the Challenge theme, I went with a monster for my next entry; the Reaper Bones Giant Worm, painted up as that old D&D favourite, the Purple Worm.

Very pleased with the final result on this one, suitably repulsive!

Last but far from least is the Goblin Doom Diver, 'Da Rite Stuf', my entry for the Themed Bonus Round, 'Flight'. I really like the goofiness of this model, and I hope I've done it justice.

So, 22 days in and I'm just under 25% of the way to my target; let's see if we can't get a few more points on the board before too long!

What's next? Stay tuned...


Ev

Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge VII - Day 49 (or is it 52?), or The Hot Zone

Day 49 (OK Tamsin, Day 52, thank you so very much) of the Challenge, and I'm sorry to say that I'm not exactly setting the world on fire. But that's OK, because the weather is doing a splendid job of that on its own here in Sydney. We've had a succession of heatwaves, and we're gearing up for another one this weekend.

So painting has been a slow grind. Productivity hasn't been all it might be, but I have managed to put a couple of pieces together to gradually build my points total.

First up was this chappie;

A Scibor Miniatures Orc Chieftain, a superb sculpt which repays the effort to paint it. I wanted to go for a colder colour scheme than the usual Goblin Green, as the figure is so imposing and really calls for a darker, less warm tone. Wet palette work came in handy for the blending of the skin hues up from the dark blue-green base through to the turquoise final highlights.

Next up was another figure for Frostgrave, a repurposed Plague Apothecary from Foundry's Casting Room Miniatures.

He's been given the sickly shades of an old bruise, with a mask the colour of bone. He strikes me as a creepy and morally ambiguous medical practitioner, as ready to kill as to cure.

Last of all was my entry in the terrain Bonus Round, 'Home', a scratch-built mausoleum for Frostgrave. And yes, it's 'Home' for assorted zombies and ghouls, so it counts!

I was very happy with how this one turned out, especially as I was trying out some marbled paint effects for the first time, and the decaying stucco exposing the brickwork beneath turned out pretty well too. It's colourful for a mausoleum, but if you've ever seen the exuberantly-painted Etruscan tombs, you'll understand the effect I was going for.

That's all for now - probably going to be a quiet weekend for the paint bench, since the weather is a great demotivator, but there's always more prep and assembly to do.

Stay tuned!

Ev