Reviewing the challenge - Spreadsheets and miniatures

It's two weeks now since Curt's 5th Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge ended and thus it's time for a short review. Once again it was a splendid quarter of a year which was packed with pure hobby goodness. It was great fun to be part of the 72 participants who submitted a bunch of awesome pieces of art. Finally we collected submission equivalent to 64.905 challenge points or 12.981 painted 28mm foot figures which are worth 5 points each. Miles calculated those data and I think that's an overwhelming result. Read his complete evaluation here.

Anyway for me it was a great time once again and although I had been below my desired points for a couple of weeks I reached my 750 point target finally. Honestly the last weeks were rather lucky with my Richard III. finishing on first place in the antihero bonus round. In the end that saved my bacon but see yourselves:

After all I had ten entries in the challenge. Seven of those for the bonus rounds and three regular submission. Here they are (below the pictures there are links to the actual blog posts with more pictures and details):

"Cold" bonus round: Retreat 1812 Duchy of Warsaw

Complete coverage here.

"Mounted" bonus round: Normans

Details here.

"Victorian" bonus round: Tea for two

Details here.

"Myth" bonus round: Thor

Details here.

"Hot" bonus round: British Infantry for Sudan / NWF

Details here.

"Comedic" bonus round: Napoleonic Snowmen

Details here.

"Antihero" bonus round: Richard III.

Details here.

War of the Roses Infantry

Details here.

Some Napoleonic French Old Guard Grenadiers

Details here.

"Curtgeld": Pirate Captain

Details here.

After all that's 46 figures which I painted during those three months. Since I know how lousely slow I paint that more or less satisfying for me. Especially Richard III., Thor and the pirate captain were very time-consuming and I've been working on some scenary simultaneously. Finally those entries were enough to collect 757 points and to fulfil my side challenge with honourable Michael Awdry. We challenged one another to not miss a single bonus round submission. The winner was able to receive a figure from the slacker but after all we both achieved the task so neither of us has to fulfil his artistic duty.

Many congrats, Michael.

Your submissions pleased the eye.

Most of you should know his blog where he presents his outcome. If not then take a cup of tea - or better a pot -, make yourself comfortable and head to Awdry Towers. If you have any other appointment today then set the alarm clock. Otherwise you'll get lost in his gallery. I highly recommend his pieces for the British Sudan and Zulu campaign.

Last but not least let me introduce Curt's people's choice voting. Here each and every visitor of the challenge has the chance to pick his or her top three entry from all the gorgeous figures that were submitted. Stroll around for a while and find your favourites within the bonus rounds or the regular entries.

Vote!

H E R E

Painting Challenge finished! - My last two entries.

All good thing come to an end and so does the 5th Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. At the beginning of the last week of the challenge and I was pretty close to my target of 750 points. The surprising victory in the antihero bonus round - thanks a lot again - gave me as well as my points account a real push. Thus I thought I should put all my efforts into scraping up some points and painted at least five Old Guard Grenadiers:

Those chaps are part of a larger unit which I started to paint last year. Actually I wanted to paint all the remaining figures during this painting challenge but real life was pretty exhausting lately and spiked my guns. Anyway for this reason the boys haven't been based yet until their command will be finished. Hopefully they'll see action during our recreation of Plancenoit 1815 later this year.

The figures are from Victrix's plastic box and have an excellent sculpting quality.Unfortunately the bayonets are very thin and delicate. Meanwhile I would prefer metal figures therefore.

As usual I painted them with Vallejo Model Colors and will base them as a foursome on 40mm x 40mm bases. Finally the unit will either consist of 24 figures as a standard unit for Black Powder.

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Finally I took my last entry to fulfil our host's justified claim for an entry fee:

Blackbeard the Scourge of the Seven Seas

I know he is no official or historically correct figure of Edward Thatch but when I first saw him at Crisis 2014 I knew that he'd represent this well-known pirate. With the long beard and the variety of pistols in his belt he should be a credible embodiment of this heinous rogue.

The figure is a resin miniature by Black Scorpion and it's slightly larger than 28mm and of course rather brawny as you see. The details are cast extremely clear and it was a joy to paint this fellow. As last year I added a small reminder of the occasion Curt received this miniature for:

Under Blackbeard's base I applied a small badge displaying this year's motto and logo. 

But besides presenting these figures let me thank all the participating fellows and especially hardworking Curt. It was once again a pleasure as much as an honour to me to join their exquisite company and queue my humble work between the unique pieces of art you submitted. Miles calculated the amount of painted miniatures and the econmic outcome of it. He worked out about $500.000 that we generated during the last three months (details here)! Kudos!

Gladly I'm able to announce that I mastered the side challenge I had with our gifted fellow the Honourable Mr Michael Awdry Esq. We both were lucky and persistent enough to submit an entry for each and every bonus round. My contender was even able to win two of the bonus rounds against all other submitters. Well done, Sir Michael, you well deserved winner. Kudos!

So actually that's it from me. I'll assemble a complete review of my part of the painting challenge during the next days with the latest version of my spreadsheet.

War of the Roses infantry and hay cart

Curt's painting challenge is near its end but finally I managed to create my first entry besides the bonus rounds. I'm very satisfied to have submitted all of them but besides other painting came off badly.

Anyway finally here are some miniatures I painted more or less simultaneously to Richard III. for the antihero bonus round. Partly as test figures for the armour:

These are six figures from the bills and bows box Perry miniatures made for the Wars of the Roses. Actually they shall serve as mercenaries during the Burgundian Wars especially during Charles the Bold's siege of Neuss in 1474. I painted them to get used to the new historic period and the experiment with colours for medieval clothing and armour. Altogether excellent plastic miniatures which are a pleasure to assemble and to paint.

In addition I assembled and painted a small piece of scenery: Warbases' hay cart.

It's a eight or nine piece MDF kit which comes perfectly cut. It doesn't need much cleaning and is easily glued with super glue or PVA glue. A very nice piece by Martin and Diane which I painted without priming it. Since the MDF soakes up the paint this worked rather well. The hay load is a nicely cast resin piece which fits onto the cargo area very well. I didn't glue it to have the chance to use the cart with or without hay.

A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse! - Last Bonus Round "Antihero"

Finally the last bonus round in Curt's 2015 painting challenge came and I decided to submit a miniature I'd been keen to paint for a long time but didn't find the right occasion. So this the staged entered...

King Richard III.

RichardPlantagenet the Duke of Gloucester was the younger brother of King Edward IV. When Edward died in 1483 his marriage with Queen Elizabeth (Woodville) was declared invalid and his sons turned illegitimate as heirs. So Richard took the throne and reigned until his death during the battle of Bosworth in 1485.

This is only the very climax of the awesomely interesting life of the last Plantagenet king of England. He witnessed the Wars of the Roses, fought against the Lancastrians and saw the victory of the house of York. But in the very end Richard III. stayed in people’s mind as an usurper of the throne, a murderer and a sinister intriguer. Although some of those aspects might appear probable our picture of Richard III. is highly influenced by the play by WilliamShakespeare in which he describes the later years of this interesting monarch. Soaked by Tudor propaganda he shows Richard as a power-obsessed, ruthless villain who meets his fair end by the sword of Henry Tudor who will be King Henry VII. Rather soon. Anyway for me it’s one of Shakespeare’s best plays and I love the character he gives Richard. To my a perfect antihero which made him my favourite choice for this bonus round.

The figure:

It’s made by Michael Perry as a special miniature on occasion of the discovery of Richard’s remains in Leicester in 2013. Since they were found under a car park the twin converted the figure in a way that he rides right out of the street. A very nice three piece vignette which I had been waiting to paint for a long time.

The colours:

As usual I employed Vallejo Model Colors to paint Richard. Only exception is the skin. For the first time I tried the Foundry Expert Flesh paint set. I'm very satisfied with the result and will probably keep using it. Many thanks to Mark Hargreaves for his hint!

The base:

The vignette is mounted on a 60mm circular base from ever excellent Warbases. Because I wanted to underline the figure itself and its border I painted the base black and coated it with high closs varnish. Additionally I made two banderoles that I attached on the left and on the right. One of them describes Richard’s dates of birth and death while the other one quotes Shakespeare’s well-known play: “A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!” (Act 5, Scene 4).

Please let me remind of the voting for this bonus round. Please turn to Curt's page and place your vote. There are a couple of extraordinary pieces which deserve attention and - of course - I would appreciate any vote for my humble work.

Back to business: "Comedic" Bonus Round in the Painting Challenge

The Tactica show is over and I returned save and sound from an awesome trip with my THS wargaming fellows. Unfortunately I carried a cold from Hamburg which put me out of commission yesterday. So I wasn't able to sort and re-size all the pictures yet but I hope to have at least a couple of them ready tomorrow.

Anyway painting business is going on and while I'm much behind with my 750 points target I'm at least fulfilling part one of my plan and tackle all the bonus rounds. Last Saturday was the deadline for "comedic" and I entered a scratch built turn counter our 1812 games:

Since I started with the 1812 retreat topic I was pondering about Napoleonic snowmen. After I considered several possibilities for the comedic bonus round I decided to try my luck with building a funny scene or at least a scene with a twinkle in the eye. Somehow the scene didn’t turn out as funny as I wanted it but fortunately Curt accepted it anyway.

Centerpiece of the scene is a 50mm round base with two snowmen, a road sign to Paris and two frames for dice. It’s hopefully obvious who the smaller snowman is meant to represent. Anyway the frames are to place dice in as turn counters. Usually a game of White Death our custom 1812 ruleset lasts six turns but sometime a scenario might exceed that so I prepared two frames to be able to count to 12 if necessary. In front of the two snowman the creator seemed to have relieved himself with doubtful success...

The snowmen are about 28mm high (well… one of them less) and I made them out of greenstuff, glue and headgear from the Perry miniatures French infantry. The large base is by Warbases while the two single snowmen are mounted on 21mm coins. As usual I painted the figures with Vallejo Model Colors and finished them with corundum sand as snow and some static grass tufts.

 

Please don't forget to have a look at Curt's page and vote for your favourite entries of this bonus round:

H E R E

Starting the march on Kandahar

The last two weeks were pretty quiet here. Actually too quiet which I really apologize. But somehow I didn't feel that there's too much worth be posted here. My workbench was still covered with stuff for the painting challenge but somehow I wasn't able to finish anything but the figures for the next bonus round.

After all here they are:

With these figures I'm starting my Victorian Middle-East project. The focus is the 2nd Anglo-Afghan war but I'll include some forces for a later Sudan campaign as well. More or less my idea to include as many miniatures from the stunning ranges by Perry, Artizan and Wargames Foundry without mustering three or four different armies.

Well, these figures are from the excellent Sudan range by Perry Miniatures. I chose a couple of British with Indian Service Dress which was worn in Afghanistan as well as in the Sudan. During the next months another bunch of those will follow as well as a couple of lancers as they all are on the Lead Mountain already.

As usual I used Vallejo Model Colors to paint these chaps. Many thanks to Mark Hargreaves for his priceless hints about the khaki uniforms. I are appropriate more or less.

This time the bases are really simple with some sand, some colour and a tuft of static grass here and there.

Please don't forget to head to Curt's page to vote for your favourite entries of this bonus round. I promise that there are a lot of pleasing entries which deserve your vote much more than my humble work.

Thor, the mighty God of thunder - Painting challenge bonus round "Myth"

For the next bonus theme during Curt's painting challenge I went into Nordic mythology and chose Odin’s mighty son to be my entry. Thor is one of the best known Nordic deities and has thunder and lightning at his disposal. I tried to catch a bit of his ferocity in this miniature.

The figure:

It’s a 40mm figure which was made by Wargames Foundry ages ago. Actually I wanted to have it for a Of Gods and Mortals warband but finally I mounted it on a large 60mm circular base which is probably too large to use it for playing. Anyway the figure is very well sculpted and excellently cast. There were a lot of fabulous details on it but on the other hand enough space to create freehands. I used my humble skills to try that on the cloake.

The colours:

As usual I employed Vallejo Model Coulors to paint Thor. For the choice of colours I drew my inspiration from pictures from old Marvel comics about the superhero Thor. I thought it might be a nice idea to connect the mythical figure with the modern superheroe. Anyway this time I didn’t use Armypainter Quickshade or something like that but built up every colour from three or more stages. For the coat I used five mixtures of different red tones to blend the folds smoothly. For the embroidery on the coat I used different shades of metal and non-metal colours to create an idea of ornament. Unfortunately I reached the limits of my skills there…

The base:

When I saw the figure with its blowing hair the idea of Thor standing on top of a mountain unleashing a mighty lightning storm came to my mind. Therefor I cut off the metal base just below his feet and mounted him on a pile of several pieces of slate. To accommodate all this stuff I chose a 60mm circular MDF base from the outstanding range of Warbases. After painting all the basing stuff I used a mixture of white paint and PVA glue to add corundum sand on the snowy spots. In addition I added some snowy static grass to complete the scene.

I dearly hope that you like my humble work because honestly it’s probably one of my best results so far.

Painting Challenge Round up - Week 5 - Victorian soldiers and another spreadsheet

Last saturday was deadline for the next bonus round of Curt's painting challenge:
Victorian

Although the Victorian era hasn't been my cup of tea so far I didn't want to wag this bonus round. Therefor I digged out some very special single miniatures which I bought from Northstar on Crisis last year:

 

Both are part of their Tea Time Miniatures range and depict British soldiers having a cup of tea. As chaps from the Crimean War they fit perfectly into the Victorean age so I chose to paint them for the challenge.

The paintjob is not too special actually. As usual I used Vallejo Model Colors and built up the coulours in three stages. I'm more or less satisfied with the result although this pictures are far from good... Anyway bonus round passed and still on target for passing all of them.

Thus I'm alredy preparing my entries for the Myth round and the Hot round. Thor is nearly finished so I counted him as finshed in week 7 for the spreadsheet.

Unfortunately the workload bedides the bonus round is standing back currently. My actual plan is to prepare the bonus entries as soon as possible and then use the remaining time to paint as many other figures as possible. Main topics there will be War of the Roses, 2nd Anglo-Afghan War or First World War. All three conflicts are sideshows for me which have wonderful figures which should be rather quick to paint. Perfect for painting under time pressure...

However until now I'm pretty confidant to pass all bonus rounds and achieve my 750 point target in the last furlong.

SAGA - Starting a Norman warband

For a couple of months I was pondering about painting some miniatures to start a Norman warband for SAGA. After I read Curt's bonus themes for this year's painting challenge I decided that the second round "Mount(s) and Rider(s)" is the perfect moment to do so.

These seven Normans are the start for my Norman warband for Saga. The guy on the large round base shall serve as my warlord while the other six knights will be his loyal hearthguard.

The miniatures:
There are a lot of nice miniatures for the dark ages in general and suitable Normans specifically. But since I’m a great fan of the Perrys’ style of sculpting and their slender figures I decided to use their early crusaders for my warband. The warlord on the rearing horse is from the character pack while the knights are from two of their mounted crusaders packs.
As for the quality of the figures I wasn’t disappointed at all. They are exelently sculpted and cast. There was little flash to clean away and the usual mold line. Especially the shields are very nice because Alan and Michael made three different shape so you can mix them a bit to avoid a too uniform look.

The colours:
As usual I employed Vallejo Model Colours to paint the tiny fellows. Most of them is covered with chainmail which was done rather easily and quickly. For the other parts I tried to use different not too bold colours. For the shields I used transfers from Stephen Hales’ awesome Little Big Men Studios range.

Basing:
Actually nothing special, only my usual mix of sand, gravel, static grass and modelling flowers. I chose the warlord’s base larger than the usual 25mm x 50mm because I wanted to have him stand out. Thus he is occupying a 50mm circular base.

Painting Challenge Roundup: Week 3

The last two weeks were dominated by Christmas preparations but nevertheless Curt's painting challenge went on. After a good start with 85 points from the "Cold" bonus round I planned to prepare a couple of Normans for the second bonus round "Mount(s) and Rider(s)". Arithmetically fell back behind my plan slightly because I didn't manage to finish anything during Christmas week but meanwhile I compensated that with two more Normans than I actually planned. Thus I reached my target for week 3 exactly:

Hopefully Curt will show the entries for the second bonus round today but here's a little preview for my Normans:

Yesterday I started with the figures for the next bonus round and since it's only three miniatures to paint this time I hope to start with my "Myth" entry rather soon. In case that I'm diligent enough I might have finished the next two or even three bonus entries rather soon... We'll see how my plan to prepare those for me mandatory entries soon...

Retreat 1812 - Duchy of Warsaw figures

Finally this weekend I was able to send Curt the first entries for his painting challenge. Since I didn't have time to paint anything else during the first week of the challenge my first entries were my contribution to the "cold" bonus round:

A band of Duchy of Warsaw soldiers for Napoleon's retreat from Moscow

The miniatures:

The miniatures are from Murawski Miniatures. This small company run by Roger Murrow publishes a nice range of 28mm Napoleonics for Polish troops especially for 1812 - 1814. Above all he has some excellent figures in campaign and full dress but likewise two sets of ragged soldiers for the retreat 1812 theme. The seven miniatures I’m presenting here are from one of these sets.

The miniatures are sculpted by extraordinarily gifted Paul Hicks and by themselves a feast for the eye. The details are crisp and clear, the casting quality is extremely good and each and every of the figures is full of character. To cut the long story short: It was pure joy to paint those fellows.

In case that you like the figures have a look at Roger's (Murawski's) homepage. He's offering free shipping until 31st December.

The colours:

As usual I used Vallejo Model Colors to paint the boys. Because of the chaotic background of the retreat I didn’t want to paint them too uniformily and so decided to use different shades of brown and grey for the overcoats. But nevertheless the band should contain an idea of cohesion. Therefore I tried to give all of them special items in dark green. Most of them wear scarves or gloves where I seized this colour. Only exception is the grenadier which unfortunately doesn’t wear anything else than the tabard which I painted brownish.

Most of the figures didn’t have gloves because they’re operating their muskets. Anyway for some of them I painted half-fingered gloves because I found it plausible that they might have protected themselves this way.

Basing:

Actually I used nothing too special. The usual mix of sand, filler, (white) paint, static grass and PVA glue. As snow I use “Korundsand” (engl. May be: corundum sand). It’s a fine-grained and pure white abrasive which dental technician use for sandblasting. It has some sparkling grain in it and keeps its colour very good. Besides it’s extremely durable so actually perfect for the hard missions on the wargaming tables.

I hope you like my humble work.

Although Curt didn't actualise the standings yet those chaps should have earned me 35 points in addition to 50 point for fulfilling the bonus round. A good start which pushes me slightly above my expectations.

My goal for this week is to get as far with the figures for the next bonus theme as possible. This time it's "Mount(s) and Rider(s)" and I'm painting a couple of Normans / Early Crusaders for it. Deadline is 28th December but I'm pretty confident to have them finished before Christmas.

Painting Challenge Week 1 - On target so far

Finally the first week of this year's painting challenge is over and luckily I'm on target so far:

For the first week my goal was to paint six Murawski Poles for Napoleon's Retreat in 1812. Fortunately I managed to finish seven instead so I'm slightly better off then I calculated. Only 5 points but better 5 points in front than 5 points behind.

Here's a small preview for the 1812 Poles which I'll cover more detailed tomorrow respecting Curt's request to publish the pictures 24 hours in advance of us condributers:

During the weekend I started to paint the horses and riders for the second bonus round on 28th December. That departs a bit from my initial plan but I decided that I should do the compulsory tasks first. We'll see how that'll come out on the spreadsheet but actually I hope that preparing the bonus rounds in advance should create some space during the later weeks of the challenge.

Unfortunately I wasted nearly the whole Saturday with searching Thor for the "Myth" bonus round and spent yesterday evening with my lovely wife and the second part of the Hobbit triology. On the one hand a good time to relax but on the other hand I feel a bit behind my schedule on the painting table.

So for this evening "Full steam ahead !" is the motto. My wife will leave me behind with our girls but I hope they'll fall asleep early and will mete some free time out to me.

Here we go again - 5th Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge started

Yesterday it was the 5th December, finally !

So after weeks of preparations, deflashing models, priming miniatures and sorting the things to paint during the next three months the great day came and Curt's 5th Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge started.

Of course this was an occasion to celebrate appropriately and thus I opened a bottle of Talisker single malt whisky which I bought this summer and kept it for a special day. So with a toast onto our noble organiser the Rt. Hon. Curtis Cambell Esq. I sorted my paintbrushes and paintpots for the initial brushstrokes.

Additionally there six Poles from Murawski Miniatures were of the party. Really a couple of excellent figures which incredibly gifted Paul Hicks created for Napoleon's retreat from Moscow in 1812. As you know this topic is one of my favourites so I fell for them as soon as I saw the greens. Anyway I chose them to start the challenge and tackle the first bonus task next week.

Luckily dear Mrs Monty and our heavenly daughters are out tomorrow so maybe I'll get some work done then.

Spreadsheet magic

Some of you might have guessed that I tend to be well organized. Some might even say over-organized. Thus Miles caught me with his spreadsheet idea and I tortured my computer a bit:

It was rather easy to include the bonus rounds which I'm targetting primarily. That granted me a total of 529 points. Since my goal are 750 points I split the remaining 220 points on the weeks without bonus rounds and done.

During the challenge I'll fill the blue line and then see how desired and achieved points diverge...

Less then a day until the challenge starts...

Ladies and gentlemen, prepare your brushes!

Secret preparation for the challenge...

Last week was very quiet on my workbench. Actually I didn't do much more than preparing miniatures for the Painting Challenge. A lot of lead and plastic has been deflahed, cleaned, undercoated in black or coloured... All in all there are more than 100 28mm figures on foot and two dozen mounted miniatures which I might paint during the next months. Actually that's a lot more than I'll be able to finish but anyway I feel well prepared.

Here's a look into my WIP drawers:

A lot of figures for Saga (Normans and Nomads), Napoleonics (French and Poles), the Northwest Frontier (British) and World War I (Tommies again) which are waiting to get painted. Of course the partly painted paratroopers (2nd drawer) will not be part of the challenge.

During the rest of the week I'll have to prepare the figures for the Victorian bonus round (11th January). Probably I'll change my initial plan and go for some of Northstar's characterful tea time miniatures. And Thor must be prepared for the 4th (Myth) bonus round two week later...

So there are some preparations to finish but all in all I feel well prepared for the painting challenge. We'll see whether I'll be able to reach my 750 points target...

Winter is coming - Taking Curt's challenge again..

Winter is coming and that doesn't only mean the festive season but Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge as well. 

"Official" picture by Curt

After my first participation last year I was lucky enough to get a slot this year again. This time the motto is "Anti-Heroes, Rogues and Ruffians". As usual the challenge lasts from early December (5th) 2014 until 20th March 2015 (spring) and the participants achieve points for painted figures they send pictures of to Curt. In addition he created a couple of bonus rounds which aren't mandatory but very gainful with 50 points for each fulfilled one. So my primary target is to complete each and every of the bonus rounds as I did last year:

1st Bonus Round: Cold (14th December):

There are some nice 1812 Poles by Paul Hicks (release by Murawski Miniatures) which are waiting for paint. Wonderful sculpts by this master of his business! At least a couple of them should be finished in time to achieve this bonus round.

Picture by Murawski Miniatures

2nd Bonus Round: Mounts and Riders (28th December):

Actually I wanted to start my Saga Normans earliert but probably they'll have to wait until December to become my entry for this round.

3rd Bonus Round: Victorian (11th January):

A unit of colonial British troops as a start for my North-West Frontier collection could be nice I presume. Or some of their 1860s British intervention force maybe...

Picture by Perry Miniatures

4th Bonus Round: Myth (25th January):

As mascot for my Vikings for the Of Gods and Mortal ruleset I bought a 40mm Thor from Wargames Foundry a couple of months ago. A good entry for this round I think.

 5th Bomus Round: Hot (8th February):

Not sure yet... Maybe another addition for the North-West Frontier project. Actually I have more than one unit ready to be painted...

Picture by Perry Miniatures

6th Bonus Round: Comedic (22nd February):

First I thought of some animals in uniform like Eureka's SYW Teddy Bears but more likely I'll go for a figure or two from Warlord Games' Dad's Army. Probably not the whole bunch since I'm not sure what to use them for afterwards... So maybe I'll turn to some of Artizan's Thrilling Tales figures. They make interesting sets and at least Big Joe and his mates should be comedic enough, shouldn't they?

7th Bonus Round: Anti-Hero (8th March):

Another difficult choice... Although I was first thinking of some great military leaders who finally failed tragically like Napoleon or Rommel but I'm not sure whether they really satisfy the term "Anti-Hero". So maybe I'll go for one of Batman's incarnations by Knight Models.

And besides this?

Actually I should paint a couple of French Napoleonics and a bunch of late WW1 Tommies during winter. We'll see how many of those chaps I'll be able to add to my Painting Challenge Account. Anyway my goal for this time is 750 points. That is slightly more than last year and would bring me into the midfield of the painters. With 350 points for the bonus rounds (7 x 50 points = 350 points) that would mean another 400 points to reach with painted miniatures. For example 80 28mm figures on foot or 40 mounted figures... Rather a lot for me but I'll take the challenge !

If anyone of you is interested in a little side challenge then let me know.

Last year Sir Michael from Awdry Towers and me decided to take all the bonus round together and in the end we suceeded. On the other hand I lost the 600 points race against Fran who got a pair of painted Scotsmen as price then. 

Although I don't fear to loose a bet I presume racing for points isn't my cup of tea. I'm simply too slow with painting...