Another Year, Another Painting Challenge Done and Dusted

On 21 March, the first day of spring, Curt Campbell (aka The Snowlord) called Time on this year’s Painting Challenge.   I’ve taken part in these efforts off and on over the last decade.   The AHPC has become an international hobby community with painters of all different skill levels and interests.  It’s a fascinating snapshot of the miniature hobby landscape.

Here's the happy builder and painter with his total output for this year's Challenge.

This year I focused mostly on 6mm historicals, but thanks to the special theme rounds or mini-challenges I was inspired to paint this set, The Triumph of Frankenstein, sculpted by Bob Murch of Pulp Figures.

It was also an opportunity to play with my new 3D printer and try make some scenery for a mini diorama:

My post for the Challenge, with more pictures and some “How I Made This” details, is here.   

Taking a break to paint these figures was a welcome rest and an enjoyable diversion.  Sometimes I think we get too focused on our big projects in painting and wargaming, and we forget the pleasure of just doing something for fun.  

Cheers and blessings to your brushes,

MP+

 

Tak

February's Project: Victrix German Barbarians

Hello friends:

February’s almost done and I’ve neglected this poor blog terribly.   I’ve been focusing my spare time on projects for this year's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, and one of those projects has been sixty ancient Germanic barbarians from Victrix.  These guys have been featured in two lots on the AHPC, the first batch here, and the second here.  I won’t repeat all the details from those two posts, but will indulge myself in showing some of the better pics.  High praise for these Victrix models.  I’ve heard that some of their horse and musket models are fiddly but most of these models consisted of only 3-5 parts.   I ordered the bespoke Little Big Men Studios shield transfers for this Victrix set and for the cost of a small bit of work they add immeasurably to the visual impact of these figures.

Elites in amour (Roman auxiliary deserters?  captured kit?).

 Not everyone wants a fancy uniform.  Javelin troops. 

 Barbarians with assorted choppers.

Fellows with stabby sticks. 

 Roman soldier’s eye view.

 The horde’s all here.  

The whole point of getting these figures was to participate in the Clash of Spears games currently popular.  I’ve only played two games of CoS thus far, I’ll try to post again soon with some thoughts on those rules.

Cheers and blessings to your brushes!

MP+

Some 15mm SciFi Recon Troopers

After interviewing Curt Campbell for the podcast a while back, I decided that I’d like another go at his Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, partly for the community, and partly because it’s a great incentive to be productive.  I’ve set myself a modest goal for this year, but have gotten three entries on the board so far.

Here are five 15mm SciFi troopers from Darkest Star Games.  DSG is a small but ambitious mini maker, that was recommended to be by Ivan of Nordic Weasel Games (@weasalnordic) when I asked on Twitter for some advice on sourcing 15mm SciFi figures.    I placed a small order, some humans and their humanoid canine (!!) allies to fight what I call my Space Kitties.  Readers with long memories may recall that in 2019 I started a SciFi project that was loosely modelled on Larry Niven’s Man-Kzin wars.   I knocked off a satisfying number of space cats, and then decided to back burner it while I looked for human figures for solo games.

Here’s the first contingent.

I had the idea of painting them in desert colours, using Citadel Zambezi Desert and Tallarn Sand as the main colours, while retaining sections of the dark undercoat to suggest segmented armour.  Vallejo German grey was also used for their clothing visible under the armour.

I wouldn’t want to use these in a stand-up fight but I could see them being used as Special Recon, in some SOF or LRDG role, the first to be inserted on an enemy occupied planet to scout landing zones, work with friendly indigenous inhabitants, attack high value infrastructure, that sort of thing.  All very sneaky beaky.  I gave them blue/white identifier markings on their shoulder armour, which I think is a pauldron if I remember rightly?  Which makes these guys almost Space Marines?  :)

Everybody I ever served with liked their unit patches, even on camo uniforms, and I don’t imagine the future will be any different.  Hopefully I’ll have more SciFi figures to show soon.

Thanks for looking. Blessings to your brushes!

Cheers,  MP+

Some Pulp Heroes Willing to Dare (and Bare) All

Here are five 28mm figures painted for my ongoing Weird War Two project.  I posted them a few weeks ago on the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge site, and am only just posting them here.  The first four L to R are from Pulp Figures, sculpted by Canada’s two-fisted Bob Murch.  The one on the right is by Reaper.

Major Paul “Puncher” McPhail, Chief of Staff of Project Alice, a top-secret British counter-intelligence and dark ops organization tasked with monitoring and thwarting Nazi investigations into the occult

Murch absolutely nailed British mess kit. This is almost exactly what hangs in my closet, and which strangely gets tighter every year.   This was the first bald figure I’ve ever painted.

The Major’s niece, Fiona Harmer, sometime of St. Hilda’s College, Oxford, an ace researcher and crack shot.

I tried to add some colour and texture to the hair to offset the drab clothing.

Sandy McGonigle was Major McPhail’s batman, and now his gamekeeper and bodyguard.   Don’t send me emails about the tartan, I just made it up.   I spent way too much time working on this figure, but enjoyed every minute of it.

 

Mimi LaRocque of the Resistance, a ginger with an attitude.   I love her outfit, which seems almost military, but I decided on a civilian colour scheme, to suggest a student, perhaps.  Who can resist a girl with a gun in a hat and tie?

 

 

Reaper’s Naughty French Maid.  Code name Bijou, she will do inside work collecting intelligence from senior German leaders, especially those with a fondness for the flying helmet, the limp piece of celery, and the feather duster.  The sculpt is by Wener Klocke, and I certainly did not do it justice, though I am happy with the hand painted tile floor.

 

I’m kinda hoping my Bishop doesn’t follow this blog …..

 

These figures bring my 2017 totals to:15mm: Vehicles: 3, Foot Figures: 4, Scenic Pieces: 720mm: Foot figures: 1828mm:  Foot Figures: 36;  Mounted Figures: 2

Blessings to your brushes!

These figures bring my 2017 totals to:

15mm: Vehicles: 3, Foot Figures: 4, Scenic Pieces: 7

20mm: Foot figures: 18

28mm:  Foot Figures: 36;  Mounted Figures: 2

A Villain For Curt

While, like a Lannister, I try to always pay my debts, I don’t always pay them as promptly as I should.  Last winter I entered Curt Campbell’s Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, knowing that the cost for entering was a painted figure, which some of my fellow contestants started calling Curtgeld.  Curt’s entrance fee for this competition was a figure representing an “antihero, rogue or person of dubious character but undeniable charisma”.  For each figure received, Curt would donate $5 to his local branch of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Curt likes the world to think that his heart is as black as his kettle, but those of us fortunate to know him know better, and are not surprised that he would put his “Curtgeld” to such charitable use.

Well, Curt, I am sorry it took me so long,  I started painting this chap between after finishing my thesis last spring and moving in the summer, and then it went missing.  He just turned up and I was able to finish basing and painting him.  He is one of the figures from a fellow Canadian, two-fisted pulp miniature maker Bob Murch, from his “Stahl-Mask’s Doom Squad” pack.

 

I don’t know how charismatic he is under that metal mask ...

 … but with that Luger in his hand, would you dare tell him he isn’t charismatic?

He’ll be in the mail on Monday, Curt.   Thank you again for running the Painting Challenge.

Blessings to your brushes!

These figures bring my 2015 totals to:

28mm:  Foot Figures: 36; Mounted Figures: 10, Artillery: 2, Vehicles: 2, Scenic Pieces: 2

20mm:  Vehicles: 1; Artillery: 1, Foot Figures: 6

15mm: Armour/Vehicles: 5; 15mm Scenic Pieces: 5

6mm:  Scenic pieces:  7

Kitten On The Keys, A Weekend Scrap, And Some Dragoon Goodness

It’s been rather hard to get any blogging (or painting, or writing, or housework, or …) done lately, thanks to our newest family member, Luigi, who is the most alpha-kitten I’ve ever met.  No shrinking violet, he wants your attention NOW, whatever you’re doing.

Saturday evening I did manage to get over to my friend James’ place for an evening scrap.  His friend Patrick kindly put on a very interesting interwar game between rival Chinese warlords, the Zhilli and the Fantien as I recall.  Since the Zhilli were attacking and had lots of men, I volunteered to lead them to glory.  Patrick used Paul Eaglestone’s World Aflame inter war rules, published by Osprey (now Bloomsbury, I guess).  I found these rules quick to learn, simple and playable.  Patrick added some chrome in the form of random events at the start of each turn - I think the rules for keeping track of ammunition and ammo resupply may have been his as well.   The attacker’s objective was to capture an enemy aerodrome and its three precious aircraft and western round eyes pilots.  My plan was to throw as many men as possible against the least anchored end of the enemy line and get in with the bayonet before they could shred me.  The plan worked surprisingly well, and led me to wonder if the rules underestimate the lethality of infantry weapons, especially the two HMGs that James used to enfilade me?   Or maybe his die rolling just sucked.

Here my infantry swarm the enemy trenches and put them to the cold steel.  Figures are all painted by Patrick, a mix of 20mm plastics from various companies with some head swaps.  They looked quite convincing from the nothing I know about interwar Chinese warlord armies.  Some of the fellows lying down at the top end of the brown swarm are from my unfortunate “bullet magnet” platoon whose job was to soak up the fire and let the other lads get stuck in.  Hard duty, but they did their job.  The trenches are also scratch built by Patrick and look rather good.

My glorious infantry advance across the bodies of James’ two reserve platoons, which were caught in the open by my mortars and shredded rather badly.  I quite like the red fish tank ornament across the road.  In the foreground is half of my armour support, an armoured car whose crew went a bit wobbly on me at first but got their act together eventually.  My other tank, a Renault, was driven off by a field gun whose crew were subsequently bayonetted after they refused to turn their coats, despite my generous offer of a dental plan (you join us and we don’t pull out your teeth with rusty pliers).  In the background is a CFB Suffield coffee mug doubling as an aerodrome water tank.  At this point James conceded, and his western pilots at the aerodrome happily agreed to fly for the Zhilli Air Force … they didn’t bally care who they dropped bombs on, as long as they got gold, girls, and white silk scarves.  Woof!

 Changing the subject, here are the ten Front Rank SYW Russian dragoons I finished painting last week.  Participants in the Analogue Painting Challenge will already have seen them.  Here they are, borrowing their battlefield of MacGillicuddy’s Corners (still ongoing) for their class portrait.

I bought about five pounds (weight, not currency) of unpainted SYW Russian cavalry figures off a fellow just before Christmas, including these ten Front Rank dragoons.  Most of the figures, as far as I can tell, are Front Rank,  which is fortunate for me as most of my Russian infantry are Front Rank as well.   To my mind FR is the gold standard for the period - I love the Foundry 28mm SYW Russians and the Crusader range looks interesting, but FR are big, burly sculpts with just a touch of Old School about the poses.   The only problem is that the range hasn’t been added to since I started collecting these figures in the 1990s.

 Sadly the figures I purchased did not include any command figures so I will have to remedy that at some point.  They’ll do for now.   I shall probably go with FR for the command figures, just to give this unit a uniform look.   I would like to get some of the Foundry dismounted Russian dragoons (the madness never ends)for skirmish gaming using the TFL Sharpe Practice rules, but that’s a longer-term project.  The decision to sculpt these fellows hiding their muskets rather than swords is interesting, and suggests that they are about to dismount - riding around with a musket in your hand doesn’t make a lot of sense, unless you’re going to use it as a lance.  And why do the muskets have fixed bayonets?

In the absence of a command stand, Sgt. Kropotkin will lead them out on patrol.

There’s something almost Zen-like about painting the same figure in the same uniform over and over again.  I found I had to parcel it out over time - red turn backs one night, buff cross belts the next, and so forth.  To speed the process, since I am a slow painter, I decided on only three basic colour schemes for the horses, and gave them all black tails and manes.  I tried to compensate by washing the first coat with Army Painter Strong Tone and then wet blending two lighter shades, so I am pleased with the quality of the horses, even if they lack variety.

It helped my productivity too that the Russian Dragoon wears a simple uniform, no elaborate shabraques or lace and piping.  However, the cornflower blue coat with red trim gives a very bright and pleasing look.
 

Powdered wigs or not?  I decided that powder might be all well and good for those fops in the Horse Grenadiers and Gardes aux Chevaux, but not for these hard working troopers out on the fringes of Mother Russia.  They all got their own hair colour, but curiously I decided to paint the queues in black.  Not sure what I was thinking there.

These fellows give my SYW Russians some badly needed cavalry capability.  The same lot I purchased also includes Horse Grenadiers, so I may try to get them done before the Challenge is over.

Thanks for looking.  Blessings to your brushes and die rolls!

These figures bring my 2015 totals to:

28mm:  Foot Figures: 3; Mounted Figures: 10

20mm 

15mm: Armour/Vehicles: 5

6mm:

Kilometres Run: 66

Thesis Pages Written:  72

Eminently Victorian?

(With apologies to Lytton Strachey).  These three figures were my entry in the Victorian Bonus Round for the Analogue Painting Challenge, in which there were some cracking good entires.

The figures are Architects of War, from their “Blown By The Breeze” set, part of their whimsical 28mm American UnCivil War line.  Two cheers for these figures, I would say.  They are amusing, and unusual, but somewhat lacking in detail, particularly the faces.   I certainly wouldn’t put them in the top tier of ACW figures (e.g., Perry Bros) but they are interesting

 

 

I did a bit of priming on the Friday night, and then spent most of last Saturday painting them.  It’s quite unusual for me to paint figures this quickly.  Usually I take days or weeks to paint figures, but I wanted to get figures in at least one of the Bonus Rounds.   Not my best work, but not my worst, either.  With the officer’s outstretched hand, it seemed fitting to base him together with the winsome young lady, even if she is wearing a tad too much makeup.  The civilian gentleman, who has a certain Rhett Butler / Clark Gable vibe to him, got a garish plaid pair of trousers and a fancy yellow waistcoat.  The small pistol or derringer gives him a touch of menace and may make him useful in skirmish games.

 

 

“Frankly, Pink, I don’t give a darn, but I am going to shoot your clot of a boyfriend.”  Pity they don’t have a proper antebellum mansion to pose in front of.

 

On the Challenge Facebook page some longwinded clot (ok, it may have been me) was wondering what exactly qualifies as “Victorian” in hobby terms?  Is it between 1820-1901, the reign of Queen Victoria, or is it generically 19th century?   Does it have to be British (which would make sense, in that one doesn’t hear much talk about “Victorian Germany” or “Victorian France”) and if so, could one extend it to the Colonies and even to America?   Certainly America in the Civil War period was Victorian in some respects, such as culture (think of the influence of Sir Walter Scott and similar novels on Southern culture and the cult of chivalry), fashions and morality.  It also went the other way.  Queen Victoria wept when she read Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and some historians think that book helped keep England from intervening in the Civil War. 

At any rate, these figures weren’t chucked out of the Challenge by the black-hearted Curt, so I guess they are Victorian enough.

These figures bring my 2015 totals to:

28mm Foot Figures: 3

20mm 

15mm Armour/Vehicles: 5

6mm 

Kilometres Run: 41

Thesis Pages Written:  49

 

 

A Beautiful Mind In A Terrible Place: Weird War Two Character Alistair Kitchings

This fellow was an entry in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge V and I promised when I posted him there that I’d provide a bit of fluff for his backstory.   He’s an Artizan sculpt, and a very fine one, from their Cadd’s Commandos set, which makes him sound like a bit of a rotter.  He’s decidedly non-regulation, shockingly long hair, a rather civvie looking scarf, no cap or beret, and the Webley in one hand and the bottle of champagne in the other suggests either a looter or someone who’s a bit unstable and possibly dangerous.  The Artizan catalogue describes him as “Captain Withnail” which suggests the film that I’ve never seen.

I gave him an officer’s British Warm overcoat, somewhat muddied, and painted the scarf in the colours of Trinity College, Cambridge, since I had an idea that my the Allied Force for my Weird War Two campaign needed a resident scientist and Trinity is famous for its science faculty.  So he’s Alistair Kitchings, a brilliant young physicist who finds himself in a world his research never prepared him for.   Possibly tedious fluff follows.  If nothing else, these sorts of posts help me sort out plot points that I may write up later.

Some years before the war, Kitchings got into a conversation with some fellow dons over whether it was possible to prove the existence of the supernatural.  That led him to write a paper speculating on alternate realities and dimensions that might be connected in some way to earthly reality.   The paper was entirely hypothetical, and done as a bit of a lark, simply to prove an intellectual argument made in the common room.  As a sceptic and non-believer, he was just interested in the mathematics of it, and was satisfied when it was published in a small journal dedicated to arcane theoretical physics, providing a pleasing bump to his career.   When the war came along he was working on particle physics, and was in touch with a team of emigre scientists now working in American universities.   There were rumours of a new US research project, and when the War Office called, Kitchings was expecting to be sent to the US to join his colleagues.  Imagine his surprise when he was told that he was being “recruited” as an expert in the occult.  He tore up the letter in anger, suddenly remembering the article, and forgot about it until three days later, when two burly detectives arrived at Cambridge and told him he had half an hour to pack and come with them.

In the year since, Kitchings has found himself in the secretive world of Project Alice, and is confronted regularly with evidence of things he wants to refuse to believe in.  His job is to conduct analysis of supernatural phenomenon, and to try and determine whether science and reason can provide explanations, and perhaps weapons, to fight this new menace.  However, since there is clearly a theological part to all of those - the undead, pure evil, etc - he has to work with concepts and people that he despises.   This will make Kitchings an excellent foil for Major the Rev’d Tristram Mercer, Project Alice’s senior clergyman and religious adviser.   I expect the two to be thrown together in several situations with some excellent opportunities for banter and debate.   

Since Kitchings regards himself as a prisoner, sworn to secrecy, cut off from academia, and unable to leave Project Alice until the war’s over, he’s a bit of a rebel.  He often wears his Trinity College scarf to show what he considers his true identity and to annoy the military types in Project Alice.  To manage the strain of dealing with things he would rather refuse to believe in, he’s also a bit of a functional alcoholic, and will grab a drink whenever he can, hence the champagne bottle.   Fortunately, the head of Project Alice, Brigadier McAllister, recognizes Kitchings’ brilliance and tolerates his behaviour, provided he gets the job done, and has appointed Fr. Mercer as a minder for the rebellious don.

I hope that if you don’t care for the fluff, you like the mini.  Thanks for looking, and blessings to your brushes!

 

These figures bring my 2014 totals to:

28mm Mounted: 13, 28mm Foot: 85, 28mm Artillery: 2; 28mm terrain pieces: 10 (counting that woods base from a recent post).

20mm Foot: 33, 20mm Artillery: 2, 20mm Vehicles: 2, 20mm Terrain Pieces: 2

15mm Vehicles: 5, 15mm Foot: 26, 15mm Terrain Pieces: 3

6mm Foot:  120, 6mm vehicles: 4, 6mm Terrain Pieces: 2

Kilometres Run: 1,086

Thesis Pages Written:  24

Cracking On With Commandos

It’s been a busy few days at the painting table, where I don’t feel like I’m making much progress, but am slowly seeing the fruits of my labours, as my first entry towards the Analogue Painting Challenge V nears completion.  Besides a section of ten Artizan British commandos for my Weird War Two project, which will be the entry, I also took out some half finished Warlord plastic commandos that I gave up on in frustration over a year ago, and am trying to get them up to a level where I’m not ashamed of putting them on the table.  

But there’s no pleasing some people.  Here’s the OC S Commando, the Laird O’Kinch, berating me for deficiencies.  “Come on, Padre, these chaps aren’t based, they need eyes and hair, and their commando patch decals.  What have you been playing at?  You need to do better, old man.  Crack on!  You can sleep when you’re dead.  I NEED these lads NOW!”  

A demanding fellow indeed.  Hopefully they’ll be ready by Thursday, which is my appointed day.  This  Challenge business may be a bridge too far for me.   I’m amazed at how many entrants are already racking up large totals.  This was my face when I realized I had missed the deadline for the first Bonus Round.

 

Oh well, it’s all supposed to be fun, innit? Hopefully they’ll be some time to work on the Commandos tomorrow, though that is a busy day,  as I am planning on making a batch of Dresdener Stollen (Rabbit Man and his lovely wife apparently liked the test batch I made last Friday), and there is always thesis work to be done to make me feel that I’ve earned the time at the painting table.  Speaking of tables, I have an ACW battle ready to go on my gaming table, to test drive the Longstreet rules, if I can ever get to it.

I did make a run to the post office today to pick up this intriguing parcel from Germany, from the fellow who drew my name in Chris Stoesen’s Santa Clause project.  I’ve already written to my benefactor to assure him that it will go under the old Tannenbaum and will not be opened until Christmas day.  Thank you for arranging this, Chris.

Another envelope came through the mail slot yesterday, from all around good chap and plastic model wizard Paul Foster in NZ, and I know what’s in it, but again, it’s going under the Christmas tree.  I’ll thank you properly after Christmas, Paul!

May you enjoy these days of preparation for what I pray will be a joyous Christmas for you and yours.  Until then, blessings to your brushes1

Crossing the Start Line: Challenge Day 1

Here’s a rousing picture to show the start of the Fifth Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, courtesy of Ralphus’ Wars Of Louis Quatorze blog, which reminds us that today is the anniversary of Frederick the Great’s victory over the Austrians at Leuthen, of which more below.

I see one fellow here has tripped over his paintbrush, but the rest of the Challenge participate are marching forward with the stalwart bearing of Grenadiers.

To give inspiration to my fellow Challengers, here is Klaus the Organ Grinder, who I met this evening at Kitchener’s Christkindl festival.  Sadly, the monkey is only a puppet, but he was wielded with great panache and the tunes were quite lively.  It was a worthwhile trip.  I stocked up on sausage and stollen for Christmas day and resisted the allure of the cheese pretzels and gluwhein.

 

Unfortunately there are still fellows lounging about on my paint desk, shirkers and stragglers from pre-Challenge projects that need to be chased off   They include this lot of Foundry 28mm Union ACW cavalrymen, who are about 95% done.   Hopefully I can get them finished and out of the way this weekend.

 

As I try to get the Yanks finished, I’ve made a start on my first batch of figures for the Challenge, a section of Artizan British WW2 commandoes, who are destined to play a part in my Weird War Two adventures.   This is my first time painting Artizan figures, and I am liking them.

 

I hope I’ll make some progress on them this weekend, especially tomorrow, while Mrs. Padre is committed to the Anglican Church Women’s Christmas Bazaar (I’ve promised a brief appearance, and I’ll buy you all shortbread cookies if you behave).  

However, to give me a break from painting, I did take down my unpunched copy of the Frank Chadwick designed game, Leuthen, by one of my favourite little wargames companies, Victory Point, and I’ll try and have a report on it done for the next Tuesday Boardgame feature.

 

 

In the meantime, blessings to your brushes!

MP+