Annalogue Hobbies Painting Challenge Review or there and back again...

Hoi,

Yeah I know: I have been absent for a month or so....this has been due to several facts, not the least of which has been me suffering from a respiratory infection; not funny at all I can tell you.
Anyway I am back and will try to resume normal services on the blog. First up will be a short recap of the Challenge I have attended and enjoyed very much!

For those of you who have missed the event you find it through this link. As you can see, about 72 people signed up to compete and of all those I managed to come in the 14th place with 1476 points. Quite frankly I have no idea how I managed this, but I am mighty pleased all the same.

This year I entered in two side challenges, one with Ben from the excellent Rosbif blog. We decided that whoever managed to get 200points worth of 1:72 plastics painted would win, that turned out to be me. The other side challenge I crossed brushes with Anne from O'Leary's Miniatures in order to paint the deadliest Femme Fatale and she beat me fair and square. 

I managed to enter a contribution in each of the Theme Rounds and two of those managed to get in the "runner-up" places to the winners. 

Curt, the great organiser did a tremendous job in putting the show together and he deserves all the credit and applause. That said the Challenge also has brought me in contact with a lot of wonderful ladies and gents who paint beautiful miniatures and vignettes. There are too many to mention them all but I'd like to thanks each and everyone one of you for making my first Challenge an event worth while remembering fondly and if Curt, time and health permit it, I will certainly join again next time.  

Curt did ask us to sent in pictures of the stuff painted during the challenge and even though not all the miniatures were actually available to be photographed (quite a large portion of my collection is on display at the school where I work right now) here are the pictures of the stuff I have painted during the Challenge.

An overview:

 A close up of the 1:72 plastics I've painted and, in the back, a vignette of 28mm Warlord miniatures depicting the Charge of the Light Brigade.

Next up are quite a lot of 28mm figures I've done up as Theme Round entries as well as some Star Wars miniatures from West End. Also included are some of my Victoriana, which is a project I really like a lot.

The last picture shows my collection of Barsoom related figures (in the back) and some more West End Games Star Wars miniatures as well as some HäT Bengal lancers. 

So what are the plans for next year? The experiences of the last Challenge really got me thinking, so here are my conclusions, whether I will be able to fulfil them will depend and only time will tell.
- I'd like to set my aim at a points total of 1500, a number I have just missed by a small margin of points this year.
- I'd like to finish in the top 20 again, but this is a real long shot I do realise that.
- I will try and pick a project to finish during the Challenge. Kinda like Dave Docherty who stunned us all with his Sudan project. While you could say I have finished my Barsoomian project along the way, this was only a small one and I'd like to take on a larger project so as to clear a larger part of my unpainted-mini's pile. At the moment I am seriously considering my WW1 Allied armies for this. 
- I'd like to run the Femme Fatale Side Challenge again. Curt, Anne and myself have talked about making it a recurring item for the Challenge but we need to wait and see whether Curt is able and willing to host the Challenge again next year.

So how to go on from here? I did suffer from a paintersblock or loss of Mojo shortly after the Challenge. Some of the nice people on the Analogue Hobbies FB page suggested I would jump right back in with a new project. I did... more on that will follow on these pages in due time. This project got me back into painting and I managed to paint up another 1:72 Austrian Regiment for the 7YW and am in the process of finishing a Prussian regiment for the same conflict. The new project is on it's way nicely as well but I have a basing problem so am a bit at a loss as to how to go about that but will figure it out in the end I guess.

More Victoriana are also ready awaiting painting on the desk as are some more Star Wars mini's, so enough in the pipe-line to show you people in the coming months.

Honesty does prevail on me to mention that I really have a bit of a blogger's block as well since posting a blog will mean taking pictures and I really do s*ck at that. So it might take a while for me to post up another entry here for a while.

In the meantime take care!

Sander











 

New Arrivals!

Hoi,

Guess what? Time for another, not so frequent update. The Painting Challenge still pretty much takes up most of my hobby time and blogging as well. The short of it is that I have managed to reach my 1000pts goal and have upgraded it one more time to 1300. When I reach that count, I am done. I truly like participating in the challenge, but I cannot keep pace with Illustrous competitors like Millsy, Dave D. and Tamsin who keep stunning me with huge pointbombs of contributions. Where they get the time from I have no idea!

Well anyway, this week two parcels arrived over here. the first is another West End Games Star Wars miniatures box. It's a pristine condition Imperial Forces box with some very nice figures in it. Most of the figures I already own, but in less then a great state and I missed the Dart Vader fighting pose.

Here's the box, it came complete with foam and leaflet (not shown).

Today a parcel from the US brought in the newest HäT testshots: British Peninsular Light- and Heavy Dragoons and WW1 Belgians. All 4 items are high on my wish-list so I am very delighted to find them on my doorstep.

When I get them painted I will of course put up the pictures either here or on the Challenge Blog ;-)

Cheers Sander

Home sweet...

Hoi,

A quick update to keep you all in the know. I plan to do a bit of a bigger update any time soon so keep an eye on this space.

For now the theme is the "house"

Quite some time ago I bought two white plaster houses in 1:72 scale. Last week I finished them and painted them as well. I took some pictures but most were over exposed so here are two pictures of one of them and more of the paired buildings will be follow soon.

On the Analogue Painting Challenge blog, there 's a running topic of contenders showing off their working station so I have made some pictures of mine as well which I thought I'd show you here as well.

Cheers Sander

Listening to: "Cryptic Writings" by Megadeth

Intermezzo!

Hoi,

Today's post brings you a small update at what's going on in miniature-land here at the moment. The race for the best Femme Fatale is still going on and you can still vote HERE.

Below are some pictures of miniatures I have entered in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge and I am pleased to say I am in the top 20 of say 60 odd contestants; this I could never have imagined.

Also I upped my target from 500 points, a benchmark which I have already passed, to 1000 points. Some very enticing miniatures are still awaiting me on the painting desk and I am seriously chafing at the bit to get going; if only time permitted.

I have something special planned for the "Myth" Bonus round of the Challenge which is coming up soon.  You just wait and see!

So without further ado here's some eye candy.

Here's my Momma Cebada, which I entered as my Femme Fatale

Here's a collection of 28mm Victoriana I've entered.

This wagon is a West Wind Productions Black Mariah prison wagon.

Cheers Sander


Listening to: "Kerplunk" by Green Day

Femme Fatale

Dear Ladies and Gents,

As of today the poll for the side duel between Anne and myself regarding our take on the idea of the Femme Fatale is open! You can go and have a look HERE.

Perhaps you could even place a vote in the poll in the right side bar, please do vote for the model you like best even if it isn't mine ;-)

Cheers Sander

I am still alive!

Hoi,

It has been some time since I last posted here. A lot of time has gone in the Analogue Hobbies Annual Painting Challenge. Plenty of figures have been finished and put up for show at that site.

A lot has been going on in the world of miniature soldiers over here. First I have actually  won the side-duel I had with Ben from Mister Rosbiff and Johnny Frog due to painting 200 points worth of 1:72 plastics first.

Next up, today was exciting because a large part of my figure collection is on display at the school where I work. We regularly have expositions showing arty stuff made by employees of the school and from today my stuff will be on show for a month or 2. I've had very nice reactions, both from co-workers and pupils alike.

Yesterday I came home and found an envelope from the UK awaiting me. It contained a whopping 45 Wargames Foundry Victorians which I ordered some time ago. They came in one of their marvellous old school black miniature boxes, besides that the nice people at Foundry put in 2 free bonus figures as well.

Tomorrow will be mighty exhilarating  too! It will be the kick-off of the side duel Anne and myself have going: the Femme Fatal Duel. It will be posted op at the Challenge blog and will include a poll with which people can vote for the winner and boy, am I going to need some support!  Keep your eyes peeled!

That's all for now folks!

Cheers Sander

Listening to: "California Breed" by Glenn Hughes.

Trooping the Colours: a 2014 Review

Hoi,

Since it's December 31st over here I guess it's time to review 2014. In order to keep the rambling at a minimum, I'll limit myself to analysing the amount of figures I have painted this year and the projects started/ finished.

Let's started with the painted miniatures, so here's the count as it stands at this moment.

Napoleonics (1:72)                       141
SYW (1:72)                                   43
AWI (1:72)                                    13
Colonial (1:72)                               14
WW1 (1:72)                                  19
West End Games Star Wars           33 (+ 1 vehicle)
X-wing Miniatures                           6
Fantasy                                          10
Ancients (1:72)                               71
WW2 (1:72)                                   23
Vehicles (1:72)                                  6
CBT                                               22
Sci-Fi                                               6
Dystopian Wars (terrain)                 30
Scenery/ Terrain                              11
28mm Historics                               11

Which makes for a grand total of 460 miniatures I've painted this year. Not too shabby I'd say, yet by far not enough ;-)

So let's take a look at the projects I have going and their progress so far.

- The Salamanca 1812 project: ok let's agree that the less said here is the better choice. This project has not progressed any further than the basecoating of the tiles of the landscape and a few miniatures. The problem is I really would like at least one day in which I could work non stop on them but this has been hard to accomplish. Maybe 2015 will bring some change in this regard.

- Finished projects: well there's really only one project actually finished this year and that's my 1:72plastic Sumerian army. I painted it up and have sent it over to a friend who actually does Ancients. The amount of figures you see in the list above stated as Ancients are these Sumerians, so I have painted up some 71 of them.
Now there's one project only a hair away from being finished and that is my SYW Austrian army(1:72) I still have one regiment of foot and a Cuirassier regiment left to paint up and that's that for the Austrians. Thank God because I do not know how much white uniforms I can take.

- Half finished projects: I've got quite a lot of those. I am almost halfway through my Star Wars miniatures. I have painted up pretty much of the Tatooine based figures, which leaves the "space-based" mini's.
Another half finished project is my Bronze Age Miniatures John Carter project. Some 12 miniatures currently reside on my to-paint desk, awaiting to be finished  for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. With those painted I will call this project finished for the moment.

- New projects: Only one project deserves mentioning here. I have recently started a big "Victorian-(sci-fi) fancy" and have quite a lot of figures lying around for this or in transit over here. This project entails two separate sub-projects for me: first is the (biggest) Ripperstreet sub-theme. I am a big fan of this TV series and have decided I want to game some scenes from the series in miniature which means getting loads of mini's and even more terrain.
The second sub-theme is centred around the magnificent Space Captain Smith books written by Toby Frost, more on these later.

So there you have it. This is where I stand at this moment, with Old Year's Day usually being one of my most productive days I will probably get some more mini's painted before the day is over. Rest assured I wil keep you posted.

Cheers Sander

Watching: "The Knights of Bad Assdom"