The Sixth Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge begins!

It's that time of year again folks for what's become a tradition in the wargaming bloging world that being Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge here. I've been involved since season 2 which is when Curt officially opened it up for everyone to join in, because the first one was pretty much between him and some friends. I've consistently under performed in terms of points on all the other challenges as I paint slow and often get distracted with last year being the worst ever as I was unfortunately hit with a serious loss of mojo. This time I'm determined to reach my point goals and exceed them.....  actually my mojo is running particularly high so I hope to achieve the opposite of last year and put in a showing that I can hold my head up with. 

I've taken up two side duals which are little personal challenges to other participants in the challenge. The first one is with my friend Nick from Moiterei's bunte Welt here (lovely painting) to see who can acquire the most straight points(bonus round points don't count) at the end of the challenge. The second challenge is "The Bronze to Steel Challenge" with IanW here, JonathanO ?, MarkH here, MartinC here, SebG here to see who can get the most points painting Ancients/Medieval. I figure I have a fighting chance against Nick and best of all the winner of that has to paint a figure of the winners choosing(me):-). However in the ancients/medieval challenge I suspect I probably bit off more then I can chew, but I'm determined to put in a good performance and take a few down with me!>:-)


So what are my plans you may ask? Well of course some ancients and medieval will probably feature large on my painting table likely my Almoravids and maybe some Sassanids as well. I could even add some Late Romans/Germanics and Pyrric to the pile as well. I also suspect some black powder era things may creep their way in like ACW/SYW/AWI. You see I quit long ago trying to list exactly what I will do as I quite simply put the "B" in butterfly habits! This means I paint by mood and not by schedule so I never know exactly what I will do next as my mood changes faster then the weather in April! In my defence I rarely wholly quit projects and eventually get back to them even if it takes a few years until I do.

I don't have any plans to enter in the bonus rounds as I like to focus on army building rather then diorama's, but if a few of the rounds works with one of the projects I'm doing I may join in, but like I said army building is priority no. 1 with me. That said, I'll enjoy watching what everyone enters in the bonus rounds even if I'm not in.

It's going to be a tough climb, but I'm looking forward to the summit.:-)

So I'm off to my painting table!  Good luck to everyone who entered the challenge and Merry Christmas everyone!:-)

Almoravid Berbers

I've finally got around to starting my Impetus Almoravid army to of course provide opposition for my  El Cid army.  My Caballeros were tired of sitting around a table throwing dice waiting for somebody to fight.

This was my test regiment consisting of Berber spear supported by archers. The figures are a mix of Gripping Beast, Artizan and Musketeer(Footsore) miniatures. I wanted my Almoravids to have a fairly strong contrast to my slightly colourful Spanish so I went for a very sombre low key look to reflect the dour and strict mindset of the Almoravids. I did this by choosing very earthy natural colours of  creams with shades of brown and then adding some black and white in the mix. Lastly I choose a dark green as a both an army unifier and a contrasting colour that wasn't too strong. The shields I also kept very minimalistic in keeping with my theme. Like my El Cid army I used ap with highlights added. All shields and the banner were painted by myself.

So far things are going to plan which has motivated me to moving more units on to the painting table and getting prepared for painting later this month. I'm happy I finally started the project as it's been too long!

Thanks for viewing!:-)
Miniature Company- Gripping Beast, Artizan, Musketeer(Footsore)

  

Ashigaru w/ Nagae-yari

Doing this unit reminded me why I took such a long break from adding more units to my Shimazu clan project.......because they are extremely hard to paint!! Granted the finished effect is very satisfying because of the pay off which is if you put the effort in Samurai armies will rewarded you with spiffy looking units because of the detail they have. I suppose I look at it as the wargamers version of running a marathon.

I've made some changes to the Ashigaru in that I lightened up the armour a shade as I felt my previous ones were a little too dark. I'm very happy with the change and I'll need to go back over the other Ashigaru and update them to look the same as these ones. I also decided to go for a slight bamboo effect on the Nagae-yari which I rather like. I mean if ones already going to paint all the darn lace then why not go the extra mile on the yari....right?

Impetus bases (my favourite btw) are great fun so I took the opportunity to pose this unit as if preparing to receive or hoping to receive a cavalry charge. Not sure how many units I'll do like this as it's not very practical on the tabletop with the extended yari, but hey I like the effect and I'll either add a spare base in front when units meet or turn them around briefly in the melee.  

Not sure when I'll do my next unit as like I said it's a marathon, but I will for sure do some more.:-)

Thanks for viewing!:-)
Miniature Company- Perry Miniatures