The Challenge - 3 Months and what do I have to show for it.........

Well quite a lot it turns out, as the most interesting realisation for me was that I actually enjoy painting! That sounds a bit weird seeing as I've been doing it for about 17 years however I actually signed up to the challenge thinking that I'd use it as a sort of artificial project manager, constantly bugging me to deliver on my milestones and meet my deadlines, and at first thats exactly how it felt. However as the months passed I became more and more motivated to paint things that i enjoyed. Most of my painting over the years has been motivated with one singular goal - to get my armies on the table and roll dice. And yet my motivation has changed, maybe its my getting old (I hit the big 40 a couple of months before the challenge started) but i find that if I'm not enjoying painting then I don't want to do it, no matter how much I enjoy gaming with the figures.

So my plan going in to the challenge was to paint my Lord of the Rings figures, they were all based up and undercoated, and yet when I look back at what I've actually completed I find a whole of host of scales and genres - 15mm and 1/3000 WW2, Victorian Sci-fi, 15mm Sung Chinese, 28mm Dwarven Pirates and of course GW Lord of the Rings. My output was a total 82 models of which only 50% (41) were what I had planned to do.

Actually to be honest I never planned to paint the cave troll, it was more of a sanity check for myself as to whether I had the time and technique to paint 54mm (I was going to get involved in the Perry/Jackson ANZAC project but decide my sanity, employment or marriage wouldn't survive the pressure).

I think the most enjoyable models to paint were Smeagol (Gollum) who seemed to paint himself, the Victorian Sci-Fi (and especially the footie scarf!) and the Dwarven Pirates (Oooarrr).

Huge thanks to ScottB for talking me in to taking part, Mr C for hosting the crazy thing and most importantly my fellow challengers. It was great to see the range of genre's and scales on display, the varied interpretations of the bonus rounds and the quite terrifying volume that some of the challangers were able to put out!

Some of the challengers are putting up a bit of a retrospective on the challenge blog, head on over for a good nosy

Anyway here's the combined outputs of 3 months of initially frantic and then quite enjoyable painting!

Oh no, I entered the fifth analogue hobbies painting challenge!

Image courtesy of Curts Blog!

Well I did it, I decided to join in with one of the most challenging blog events of the year - the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. This is a yearly event hosted by Curt on his aforementioned blog and runs for roughly 4 months, commencing in December, with the only requirement for entry being submission of a painted miniature to Curt in the annual theme (this year being anti-heroes, rogues and ruffians). For every model completed Curt awards points, in addition there are themed bonus rounds, all of which contribute to your total, the winner being the participant with the most points (the only prize being bragging rights! After all you've painted a whole host of minis, what else do you need).

So “what will you be painting” I hear you cry. Well I’ve got a massive pile of LoTR mini’s to paint, the main one being my Isengard force so expect to see Uruk Hai, Orcs, Warg riders, Dunlendings (although I’ll be using some wargames factory Vikings and some spares from my bits box!) and other assorted nasties. Alongside this I’ve prepped my models for the first Bismarck encounter so they should appear pretty quickly (I’ve no idea how Curt will score them!). Also I have a renewed interest in 15mm WW2 and piles of Plastic Soldier kits so that should provide some variety. Then once I’ve exhausted all that I can move on to my Perry 28mm DAK and 8^th Army! So plenty to do in a short period of time. I’ve already picked a target of 700pts however that may be a little ambitious considering I’ve never taken part before however I keep saying that I work best to a deadline so hopefully I should make this self-imposed milestone with a minimal of stress!

In terms of the entry fee I’ve already decided on a suitable rogue/anti-hero model, the arch nemesis of Sherlock Holmes himself – Professor Moriarty! Maybe he’s more of a villain than a rogue/anti-hero however I think he’s kind of cool in a very villainous kind of way.

Anyway the point of the whole affair is to reduce your lead/plastic pile whilst engaging in good natured banter, the issuing of challenges and more importantly having fun. Many of the well-known names in hobby blogging are or have taken part at some point. If you're interested or would like to see the results if all this frenetic painting activity head on over to Curts blog:

http://analogue-hobbies.blogspot.co.nz/2014/11/remember-remember-fifth-annual-analogue.html?m=1

And to all my readers who are also taking part, good luck and I'll see you across the bragging table!

My Big Fat Greek Wedd.... err sorry I mean My Big Fat Blog Plug

Much like all you lovely folks out there in Blogland I follow a number of blogs on various different subjects. I find it interesting to read the activities of real people that choose to share their thoughts with the world without the interference of an Editor or Marketing Manager filtering what they can and can't say (such as magazines).

Therefore I'll begin by plugging fellow gamer and all round interesting bloke Mike and his blog Trouble at T'Mill.

His blog primarily covers wargaming in its many forms however he does occasional wax lyrical on a number of diverse subjects ranging from local history to mathematical probability and its probably the more esoteric posts that make his blog stand out above others.

Also much like a number of other blogs he is currently running a prize giveaway for hitting 100k hits on his blog. Obviously the giveaway is aimed at a) rewarding his loyal followers and iii) generating more followers however I'm feeling particularly mercenary today and also want some Lord of The Rings Figures which are the giveaway for day 2. So head on over to Mike's blog, check out the rules listed on the day 1 and try and bag some loot. Oh and say hi to Mike.