Final few posts of AHPC 14

 

From post 14

From post 15

So, the challenge has come to an end. Once again I had fun participating in the challenge and I feel that I have had a much more successful winter painting time than I would have without the challenge. I certainly had a more laid back approach to the challenge and I did not get caught up in any self induced competition to get the most points, or to paint the most items. I did leverage the weekly posting schedule and the point target that I had selected to drive myself to paint stuff when I might just as easily have sloughed off doing any painting. In fact I found it interesting that near the end of the challenge I really thought to myself that I was done for the year and then with only a couple of days left I suddenly turned it around and managed to produce a 513 point entry, my largest post this year.

Post 14 HERE

Post 15 HERE

The good/bad thing about this years challenge for me was the slow start that I had and the fact that it took me so long to get into the groove fro producing stuff. The good thing about peaking so late is that the painting urge still remains even though the challenge is over. So far I have managed to pick up (and use) a paint brush every day since the start of spring! (with the exception of the weekend away at Hotlead) So the inspiration continues, I may even try to track my weekly or monthly output although right now I am working on some petty dull stuff, crates, always need cover.

The Analogue Paintng Challenge XIII

I am in again for another year!

I can hardly wait for it to begin as apparently, it is the only way that I can move through my mountain of stuff. I have set a low bar, in comparison to last years results, of 6000+ points as, this year, I hope to get 3000+ points. While I have an aspirational goal in mind of 4000 points I do not hold out much hope of  achieving that target. 

Several obstacles threaten to derail my painting this year.

First off, this year finds me mired in apathy and quite frankly a little down regarding the hobby. I am also fairly directionless as to what projects to work on (typical). The painting table is surrounded by WW2 20mm British and American vehicles. They all sit there with highlights applied, but no signs of ever being completed. They have too much paint on them to qualify for the challenge so could be an impediment if I do not clear them off, or if I should become inspired to work on them during the challenge. I also have a fair amount of 28mm pulp figures loitering nearby, again in various states beyond merely primed.

Next we are no longer in lock down, which means that social interaction may well intrude on my painting time. Last year I embraced the isolation, it granted me plenty of time to get stuck in to the hobby. This year online RPG and in person miniature gaming are likely to disrupt my efforts.

Vacation! For some inexplicable reason, I am going on a 1 week vacation at the end of February. This will certainly derail my production schedule.

Post 11 is now up on the Analogue Challenge site

 

 

Featuring Space 1889 goodness and evilness...

Click HERE to get transported to the challenge.

The challenge is winding down and will come to an end on March 20th at midnight. I will have mixed feelings about this, mostly sadness as it has been the most productive time that I have ever experienced. Disappointment too because of the things that I wanted to paint that just never made it to the hobby table. Relief, as the self inflicted pressure that I have been under will be over but concern over the all too likely return of my normal inert, drowning in procrastination self. 

I do look forward to cleaning up the mess that I have made of my room and shifting the items that have overflowed into the non gaming room back where it all belongs. It will be nice not to have that Tuesday deadline, but I will have to come up with some system to replace the challenge. I really am happy that I have been able to do so much in three months and I want to keep that going. The possible return to gaming would certainly help keep my motivation going. 

I also look forward to finishing off some projects that I had started before the challenge started and were thus not eligible for the challenge. Some of those projects just need a few touch ups to be done. So hopefully we will soon see all my Pulp cops and Japanese naval troops done in early April.

I think I will try to maintain the, more or less, nightly painting that I have become accustomed to. From roughly 10pm to midnight works out fine for painting. I also want to stop the analysis paralysis that seems to grip me when I try to tackle build projects or really any projects be they scenery or figures. I have been very successful when a deadline looms over me, when the pressure is beating down on me I can get things done. No thought just get it done before Tuesday! This works well on certain levels but can leave some details off the project. Maybe I can incorporate the just get it done model and combine it with a post project review for any detail work.  The key being to not think but to act.

 

We shall see.  

Post number 10 now up

 

Click HERE to go to post number 10, Return to the Planet of the Apes! The pictures in the previous post will give you a taste of what you will see!

This is killing me. As of the night before this post went up, the grass had not been laid, the bridge had not been painted nor had the big square building. I also had to do the sidewalks today, grass up the apes and check them over for any final touch ups and there were plenty of touch ups to be done!

Analogue painting challenge, post number 8 now available to view

 

 Click HERE for the latest post!

As I said over on the Analogue blog it was an off week. What saved me were a few items that I had started and a few items that just required a little paint to finish off. The Titans had been base coated the previous week, so it was the detail work that needed to be done. 

The problem was that I just did not have it in me until maybe Saturday, so a whole bunch of days were wasted. The buildings were supposed to be a quick job, but then I started to apply more paint, more colours and they became a much bigger task to complete.

The titans themselves were a challenge due to their detail, which I worked on for some and ignored on others. I did not go super fancy on them, there are no banners, no flames, just basic colours albeit with highlights on certain parts.

 

Cheap FX just like the old TV show!

Post number 7 now up at the Analogue hobbies painting challenge

 

 

 Click HERE to visit my 7th post to the challenge. 

Ever fine that sometimes when you open up a comic what is promised on the outside is not delivered on the inside? Well, 'Big Red' and "The Robot' did not make the cut this week, but fear not, next week we visit Altair IV which is also a planet of robots, so we will see if we can't add them into the mix there.

Next week, Eldar Titans, Robbie, those 13 robots I said I was painting at the start of the challenge (and that I did not) and maybe a trip to a second planet...

 

 

 

Painting challenge post number 6

 

Click  HERE for post number 6. I suspect it will be my last big post as even though I am retired it is rather taxing to paint up that much stuff in one week, every week. It is cool that I have had a steady increase in my output week over week, but enough is enough I fer what quality I have is being impacted by the speed. Also while I really do thrive under pressure it is having an impact on me. Too many late nights are running me down. Then again where I normally might just slough off a project, procrastinate and avoid it, with this challenge I just keep going, and in fact push past fatigue to reach a target.

Now technically this target is a self imposed target and all I should care about is getting done what I want to, but I cannot deny that trying to get as much done to get as many points a week is part of the motivation. Oddly enough, I am not trying to beat everyone, and I would be perfectly fine should someone end up with more points than me. That said my average output has been just under 460 points per week, but that average should drop as I plan to cut back a bit, I repeat, plan to, we shall see what the future will bring.

Up next will be a visit to the planet Cybertron:

• Dystopian War robots of all sizes
• Dr Who 'The Robot' and UNIT troops to fight him
• A giant red gorilla robot
• Maybe some giant 6mm robots (if I can find them) 

There is a chance I may also visit Krypton, in which case I would be adding a lot of Old Glory super figs, but I may just wait until the following week to post them.

However, up first will be a general cleaning of my painting table and room.  The clutter and confusion is slowing me down this,

has to be cleaned up, now!

Well, I have officially beaten last years painting total, one month into the new year!!!

 

As of today I have painted 304 items in January, compared to 260 items all of last year!

To say the least I am quite pleased with this. The main factor has been the Analogue challenge, which has really inspired me to get as much stuff painted as quickly as I can. As always my stuff will never win any Golden Demon awards, but my items are functional, table top standard and most importantly, done!

5th posting to the challenge is now up

HERE is the latest post to the challenge. This one was a grueling challenge, I did not start soon enough and I added stuff very late into the week, so by Tuesday I was really under the gun. A lot of the items had at least been started, and I really thought it would not be to difficult to finish off what needed to be done, but it was.

The princess guards have been hanging around for a few weeks seemingly always on the verge of being finished, yet they were really far from being done. The figures are really nice, very fine detail, very delicate, but that makes them a challenge to paint in my clumsy hands. I was just not able to paint up the really fine details, but these figures would look great in the hands of a pro.

Anyways, they were starting to become an albatross, so, I had to finish them off. In the end I still could not decide what to do with the shields, I knew I wanted them to be blue, but beyond that I did not, and still do not know what to do with the design. I did try to work on the outer edge of the shield but I was not in the zone, and the result was a disaster. So all contrast blue it is.

The Sanwar have been around for a while, and I had even picked up some recently through the LAF bazaar. They are not good figures, a little too clunky, but they will work as allies to the Martian tripods, and or the evil Rouge Noir villain. I went with weird colours for the musket barrels, just to make them stand out a bit.

The naval unit, comes from Hinterland Miniatures and are sadly OOP. They too are delicate figures even smaller and more delicate than the Martian princess figures. No real issues here they were a pretty straightforward paint job, once I decided on the colours. 

I had some fun with the islands. Basically primed with a matt tan rattle can, then a few layers of gray paints dry brushed o in progressively lighter shades, followed by a sepia wash. I then gathered up a selection of fine flocks that I gently sprinkled over the islands (after applying some watered down white glue) trying my best to blend them in a semi random manner.

I might have kept these looking more mountainous, but scale wise they are really just hills, rocky hills, but hills.

I think I am going to take it a bit easier this week as trying to max out on points is not a good thing, nor is it necessary. I was only trying to max out my points to see what I could do in a week, apparently quite a lot!

Painting with faith and confidence

 

 Well, for a novelty I thought I would paint up something that just arrived last month. No good reason for this item to jump the cue, just inspiration regarding what palette to use. I am amazed at how this turned out, again, no Golden Demon paint job, just to a basic table ready status. No, what I am amazed by is that I think the colour choices work, and that it pretty well matches the vision that I had when I started this project.

Update

Just an update to say that nothing much has happened...yet. 

Next project?

I sense my painting funk is on the verge of coming to an end. The question now is what will be the first to be painted?

Will it be these plant based creatures...

or will it be this behemoth?

 Stay tuned, I think December may just be my big painting month! 

(fingers crossed)

Sledgehammer BFG

So just got this the other day. Usually I do one of two things with a new purchase:

1. Take it out of the package, play around with it, dry assembly etc then get distracted and not put it away and just allow it to gather dust, and or loose parts 
2. Add it to a pile of unopened items to be built later.

Instead I did the rarely seen third option, I assembled it right away, and primed it!