Painting Challenge Review

Well... So it ended. Three months of winter painting madness ended last week and how challenging they were!

But first things first. It all started in November when Curt announced his 4th Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge and I was lucky enough to receive one of the sixty slots he offered. It was a completely new experience for me and I found it very difficult to calculate my point target. Finally I intended to pass all seven bonus rounds, added some units I wanted to finish definitely during the three months of the challenge and aimed at 600 points.

My first entry was kind of unspectacular. Just a sleeping monk as a quick finger exercise:

But afterwards the first bonus round "Non-Combatants" was to fulfill and I entered a vignette made of AWI Perry figures:

During Christmas and New Year wasn't that much time for painting but at least I managed to finished my entry for the second bonus round "Villain": A Warhammer 40K Broodlord:

Simultaneously I started with the preparations for our "Retreat 1812" game White Death which we presented at Tactica in Hamburg and so I painted some Frenchmen
 for this background. Funnily a theme which other painters went into as well...

Now the "Vehicle" bonus round came close and I decided to enter the largest 28mm model I've ever painted: A Horsa glider

While Tactica draw near and we were in need of some more miniatures for gaming. So I finished General Desvaux de Saint-Maurice for the "Heroes" bonus round and some more French retreaters and entered them to the challenge:

Afterwards I finished my -for the moment- last model for the 1812 retreat theme: a sledge with exchangeable load:

Then another bonus round was to tackel and Curt asked for "Casualties". I decided to realize a project I had in mind for some time and presented the death of Colonel Christian von Ompteda at Waterloo:

Then I turned my interest slightly towards Saga. The excellent news of the upcoming publication of the German rulebook gave me a real boost and I finished a unit of Berserkers, a unit of Hirdmen, my new warlord that fulfilled the "Last Stand" bonus round and a unit of Bondi to complete my 4 points warband:

 

But between those Viking raiders another bonus round conquered my workbench. A "Favourite Character" had to presented and I decided to paint good old Monty for it:

So the end of the challenge was approaching slowly and time was running out for me. But at least the British redcoats I promised to paint for "Bloggers for Charity" were finished:

Well then... That were my entries. Nearly!

Because besides all these entries I was able to chose myself there was one duty for our honorable host to accomplish. Curt asked the challengers to present him a miniatures related to the movies directed by Sam Peckinpah. While some fellows chose to paint WW2 miniatures representing characters from the Steiner movies I stayed obvious and painted a Wargames Foundry cowboy as delegate of Peckinpah's numerous western movies. And he is presented for the very first time on my blog:

The miniature is from Wargames Foundry and actually his name is "Lonesome Dexter" from the "This town ain't big enough". But this time he shall represent one of the countless cowboys immortalized in Sam Peckinpah's movies. Curt asked for such an act of appreciation and I hope my humble work bestows honour to his concern.
This fellow was the first Wild West figure I ever painted. And it was great fun. It is well detailed and sculpting as well as casting are of top-notch quality as usual for Wargames Foundry. Once again I employed Vallejo's Model Colour range to paint it but skipped Quickshade this time because I didn't have the time to let it dry long enough. To give the miniature a little special 'something' I didn't only decorate the top of the base but the bottom as well.

So these were my sober entries for this extraordinary challenge. Altogether they earned me earned me 701 points so I exceeded my target to a considerable degree. I'm really satisfied with that because actually I'm a rather slow player.
Besides the point target I had two side challenges running. Firstly honourable Michael Awdry and me agreed to pass all seven bonus rounds. We both stood the test so many congrats, Michael!
Additionally I joyned Ray's, Fran's, Lee's, Dave's and Clint's 600 points club. Fran was the first of us to complete his points so I owe him a painted miniature. Drop me a line via the contact form,  Google+ or montys[dot]caravan[at]googlemail[dot]com to discuss the details, mate! It'll be a pleasure to fulfil this debt of honour!

So my review ends and it's time to say THANK YOU VERY MUCH above all to our host Curt but to all other challengers which shared this winter - Scotty for you rather summer... - madness. It was great fun to participate and I enjoyed the company of you excellent painters and modellers a lot. Many congrats to Andrew "Loki" Saunders who won the challenge with unbelievable 4.180 points! Additionally those three months let me learn a lot about my very own way of painting and pushed my skills forward.
It was an honour to see my humble work presented alongside the pieces of art you fellows submitted. For next winter I'll definitely reserve a time slot for the next painting challenge hoping to snatch a slot again. I hope you like this little sign of appreciation.

If you didn't find the time to browse all the entries until now then have a look at Curt's blog. It's definitely worth it:
http://analogue-hobbies.blogspot.ca/

There you'll find a link to the fortnight bonus rounds as well as a huge number of entries for the usual entries.

Have fun !

A unit of Viking Warrios for Saga

There are two entries for the Painting Challenge which I haven't presented here by now. The first are eight Bondi for my Saga Vikings:

All eight figures are metal ones from Gripping Beast's nice SAGA range. Some of them look slightly old fascioned and stiff but altogether they are really good.

As all SAGA miniatures I know so far these Bondi have open hands to glue the weapons in. So most of them got spears. But I used steel wire spears rather then the leaden ones provided by Gripping Beast. Absolutely outstanding are their faces which make it easy to bring out some expression.

As usual I painted the figures with Vallejo Model Colours and shaded them with Armypainter Quickshade (Dark Tone). The fine artworks on the shield are decals from Stephen Hales' Little Big Men Studios. For the bases I used my habitual combination of sand, static grass and tufts.

The other entry missing here on the blog is the desperado I painted as "Curtgeld", the entry fee for the challenge. But I'll save this one for my review of the painting challenge I'll post during the next days.

Painting Table Saturday #20: Two shades of grey

Another week passed by and it's saturday again. So here is what was on my painting table today:

Pegasus Bridge

Actually this afternoon started very promising. Mrs Monty and our daughter took a trip to Düsseldorf to visit the puppet theatre there with a friend of Viktoria's and her father. So I thought it would be a good chance for a first airbrushing session with the Pegasus Bridge. Since I was sure to need more than one layer of paint to cover the bridge gapelessly so I chose not to undercoat it. Warlord Games recommend dark grey as base colour which I hadn't at hand unfortunately but I mixed a suitable colour with neutral grey and german grey and started in good spirits.

But I didn't imagine how much paint is needed to colourize such a huge terrain piece. After an hour of constant airbrushing I ran out of grey with just half of the parts covered. Vallejo doesn't sell their paints in litre bottles, do they?
Anyway a good part of the job is done and I'll proceed sometime during the week...

Have a nice sunday !

Bloggers for Charity: 44th Regiment of Foot

The 44th Regiment of Foot 

The regiment was raised in 1741 and firstly bore the name of its founder Colonel James Long and was originally the 55th regiment of foot. After first employments during the Jacobite Risings of 1745 and the Flandeers campaign in 1748 the regiment was renumbered as 44th Regiment of Foot, actually as part of a large reorganisation of the British army. A few years later the regiment was brought into action during the French and Indian War where it fought in important battles like the Battle of Carillon, the Braddock Expedition and the famous siege of Fort William Henry. Above all it served in the Battle at La Belle-Famille which the "Bloggers for Charity" want to restage this year at several events to collegt attention and rise funds for the charity projects "Help for Heroes" and "Men Matters".

For this excellent venture I agreed to paint a unit of redcoats which will represent this heroic regiment. It consists of twelve figures manufactured by AW Miniatures who is establishing a quickly growing 28mm range covering the FIW. Overall the miniatures are very nice. The casting quality is good at most parts although some thin details like the loading stick are damaged on several miniatures. The sculptings are crisp and clear and make it rather easy to distinguish the different parts and layers of the miniatures. Unfortunately a lot of the finer details (especially the lacing) are left out and must be painted on. The faces are quite good but don't have the excellence and expression the top-notch manufactorers (Perry, Wargames Foundry, Front Rank et al.) usually provide.

 As usual I used Vallejo Model Colours and Armypainter Quickshade to paint the figures. My main source for the uniforms was C. E. Franklin's "British Army Uniforms from 1751 to 1783". There I read that officers used to wear waistcoats in their regiment's facing colours. Therefore I decided to give them that individual blot of paint. This time I didn't base the figures because James and Andrew preferred to do that themselves.

"Last Stand" - Gudmund the Dauntless inspired by Cynwit

How time flies !

It seems that Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge just started but in fact that was nearly three months ago. Because all good things come to an end we're coming down the streth now. There's just one week left and last weekend the final forthnight bonus round took place. This time "Last Stand" was the theme.

Actually I wanted to enter some Napoleonic troops for this round. Either some more 1812 French or Old Guard for Plancenoit or some riflemen of the 2nd Light Battalion KGL definding La Haye Sainte. But during the last weeks the Vikings conquered my mind and I pored on Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Stories once again. In the first book The last Kingdom the author describes the Battle of Cynwit and has the main character, fictional Uthred of Bebbanburg, fight and kill Ubba Ragnarsson. So the idea of an epic fight between two Viking warlords caught me and I wasn't able to stand up to painting some SAGA figures to replay such epic quarrels.

So we have my new Viking warlord Gudmund the Dauntless accompanied by his last surviving followers, a group of eight Bondi warriors. They are surrounded by a huge force of Anlgo-Danish foes. These are lead by a gruesome warlord who raided Gudmund's settlement and slaughtered all other Vikings without mercy. At the height of the battle Gudmund and his last fellows drew back to a hill nearby and the two warlords meet in an epic fight.

They dance around each other exchanging blows while the warriors make way for their warlords. With the last of his strength Gudmund manages to overcome his enemy and turns the turns the tide of the battle. Discouraged by their warlord's death the Danish line crumble. Finally the Vikings win the day and banish the attackers...

I hope you like this little story for the last theme of this painting challenge. The figure is a metal one from Gripping Beast's nice SAGA range. Although some of the older figures look a bit stiff I like this warlord very much. He looks very dynamic and eager. There are two tiny conversions I made: I changed the hand to a more detailed plastic one and I added a shield with additional spears to have him look even more dangerous and daring. Absolutely outstandingly sculpted is his face which makes it easy to bring out some expression.

As usual I painted the figures with Vallejo Model Colours and shaded them with Armypainter Quickshade (Dark Tone). The fine artworks on the shield are decals from Stephen Hales' Little Big Men Studios, but for the first time I dared to paint some freehand embroidery on the cloak. I used brwonish and yellowish colours to create an idea of embroided Viking runes.
For the bases I used my habitual combination of sand, static grass and tufts.