Today's AHPC update brings you the start of the "Defensive Terrain" Bonus Round and you can vote again. Now do not be offended by me blowing my own trumpet here, but I am really happy with my entry this time!
I did it up just for fun but it turned out really nice so if you are getting curious go HERE and have a peak.
Yesterday and today i noticed a decrease in my "follower-count". It is entirely possible people get fed up with my ramblings and decide to leave the blog, but a bit of googlin' resulted in this post:
In 2011, we announced the retirement of Google Friend Connect for all non-Blogger sites. We made an exception for Blogger to give readers an easy way to follow blogs using a variety of accounts. Yet over time, we’ve seen that most people sign into Friend Connect with a Google Account. So, in an effort to streamline, in the next few weeks we’ll be making some changes that will eventually require readers to have a Google Account to sign into Friend Connect and follow blogs.
As part of this plan, starting the week of January 11, we’ll remove the ability for people with Twitter, Yahoo, Orkut or other OpenId providers to sign in to Google Friend Connect and follow blogs. At the same time, we’ll remove non-Google Account profiles so you may see a decrease in your blog follower count.
We encourage you to tell affected readers (perhaps via a blog post), that if they use a non-Google Account to follow your blog, they need to sign up for a Google Account, and re-follow your blog. With a Google Account, they’ll get blogs added to their Reading List, making it easier for them to see the latest posts and activity of the blogs they follow.
We know how important followers are to all bloggers, but we believe this change will improve the experience for both you and your readers.
Well that's rubbish!
Cheers Sander
Alright here's another Challenge update. I finally managed to paint up what's left of my childhood Matchbox Germans, the link to the full post is HERE.
I still have some ANZACS and Commando's lying around, perhaps in some time I will paint them up as well.
Something else all together is that I got some money for my birthday which I spend on some Dark Age terrain from timeline miniatures. They produce really well priced terrain and so I have now embarked on a dead-teddybear-fur adventure of a Greathall, Church and some dwellings to get done...
When I get some finished I will take pictures of course.
Well my next Challenge instalment is up. I have finally completed my 15mm Russian Army for the Crimean War. You can find the post HERE.
Now I have changed my Challenge philosophy several times already but I guess it comes down to this:
I am doing 4 "projects" for the challenge first up is the Napoleonic Project, I have base-coated several Napoleonic units amongst which are two regiments of Cacadores (part of the Khaki basecoated stuff) a regiment of Portuguese Line infantry, some Württemberg light infantry, a battalion of Prussian Landwehr/ reserve infantry, Bavarian artillery and some command figures.
The second bigger project is my WW1 Project, all based in Khaki as well of course. These include AHL Late War artillery, some Early War ANZACS, a Mark IV and some Late War Highlanders.
Both these projects I am going to complete in total before posting any pics in the Challenge blog or here.
The remaining projects are my 28mm Vikings and some "miscellaneous" figures, these I will be posting as part of the Challenge on my regular posting day (Friday) when ready.
As we speak the votes for the AHPC's first Bonus Round: "Nostalgia" are counted. The results are published in this post: link.
While not among the first 3 entries I did get a Commendation which I think is the highest praise indeed. The old proverb of: "Winning doesn't matter, competing does" is so true here. This round was all about sharing great nostalgic hobby moments with like-minded people. The contributions were emotional, profound and very often hilarious and it almost seems as if we are becoming part of a global family of fellow-nutcases who really do understand each other.
So a great big thanks to all contributors for the brilliant times spend reading all the entries!
The next round is titled "Epic Fail" and already due on January 23rd. I think I will sit this one out. I have no inspiration whatsoever and really want to get cracking on the Vikings and ANZACS.
Many of our fellow bloggers take these days before the New Year to reflect upon 2015's hobby activities. I'd like to do the same. Two years ago I started to take notes on the amount of figures painted this year and so I will be able to supply at least a few numbers to support my statements.
Let's break this post up in two parts: events and games played on the one side and figures painted on the other.
Events and Games:
This year I managed to visit 2 of the 4 Ducosim conventions in Amersfoort. They are helt quarterly and have a major point of gravity towards board- and cardgames but a fair amount of wargamers attending as well. These mostly participate in tournaments organised by clubs and as such use the venue of the Ducosim to get together. Tournaments include X-wing, Warmachine/ Hordes, FoW and 40K. I myself have once played a, non-tournament, game of X-wing on the first and a Fistful of Kung-fu on the last occasion and enjoyed them both.
The biggest treat each year must be the Crisis Convention in Antwerp around November 7th. I usually attend accompanied by my brother and 2015 was no exception. This year I totally went overboard on spending compared to earlier years as I also resubscribed on WI at the convention. All in all a great visit to an even greater show.
Now I would have liked to attend more shows but that was just not in the books. For 2016 I have booked for the Poldercon and IMPACT conventions as well and hope to be able to attend those as well, even though Life has been know to throw a spanner in the works on occasion.
Anyway, my other gaming activities have been on a slow burner as far as wargaming is concerned. There are just about no wargamers locally here as far as I am aware and my regular gaming buddy Mark and I have been trying to get a regular gaming night off the ground (for the 7th year running) and while we managed to meet up far more often than last year we almost exclusively played card and boardgames like Homeland, Space trucker and Hanabi. We got in some games of X-wing and two testers of a Fistful of Kung-fu but that's it. So there's a New Year's resolution if ever I've seen one: get more games under my belt.
Figures Painted:
Ok so let me put the numbers down in no particular order here and let you judge by yourself whether the year was productive at all.
1) The big winner must be my Napoleonics with a wopping 172 figures painted
2) 7YW: 65
3) 28mm Victoriana: 27 (including 3 carriages)
4) Terrain pieces: 28
5) Great War: 16
6) WW2: 16
7) 28mm Historical figures: 12
8) Classic Battletech mini's: 8
9) 28mm Barsoom: 12
10) Fantasy: 15
11) Sci-Fi: 5
12) Star Wars vehicles: 30
13) Star Wars West End Games: 13
14) Colonial Figures: 14
15) 1:72 Samurai: 6
16) 15mm CW mini': 25
If I have counted correctly this brings me to a grand total of 464 painted miniatures and therein we find another resolution: paint 500 in 2016.
Currently I am pretty heavily engaged in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge (or AHPC for short from now on) and will probably crank up my starting figures-count for 2016 pretty much. That said I did suffer from a painters burn out after last years Challenge ended so I will have to take care this year. My second post for the Challenge is up showing some more 7YW miniatures and that has put me in 6th place at the time of writing so I aim to end up within the top 15 again this year. I have no idea if I will manage this but hey it's all for the fun of it!
