AHPC XIII wrap up and week 7 post that never got posted to this blog.

Total production from this years challenge

 

 

So, I have been remiss during the last weeks of the challenge and failed to post any production photos. Above you can see almost everything that I painted in the winter months (a few items somehow missed this photo session) Fairly eclectic in scope, shows my normal amount of unfocused hobbying. I find myself rather happy to have finished certain items, most of all, all the vehicles, the forests and the Dwarf legionnaire figures. My only disappointment was not getting started on the GW plastic fortresses, they were all primed, but I just ran out of time.

AHPC XIII first entry, a small one to start

 

 So a meager 45 points to start off with, 20 points for the under construction theme and 25 points for the 28mm figures. Last year my first post was around 145 points, but was not posted until December 28th, so I am ahead of last year for posting. I do have a number of projects that I am working on for later this week and now that Christmas has come and gone maybe I can get some of them done.

I gotta say, that is one creepy baby.

The theme comes from the idea of completing some project (an impossible thing), in my case it was painting up aunt Lucy (the lady with the cane) to 'complete' the road gang of Bob, Bing and Dorothy. I kind of thought she looked like Bob Hope in drag when he was the spirit of aunt Lucy.

 

 

AHPC XIII Alphabet challenge

 To be filled in as the challenge progresses.

So, a few ideas, some carried over from last year, some new ideas. X is a tough one but thankfully I have more aliens to paint this year. I did not paint zombies last year so that's okay, but A, B, D, R, T and U are repeats, I would prefer to be original, but then I also would prefer to complete this task.

Top secret plans for Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge XIII [AHPC XIII]

The bonus theme has been revealed for this years challenge and it is centered around a massive movie studio with smaller individual studios and Sarah's limo service. A limo ride will cost me one painted female figure and the limo will take me to any studio for which I have a pass. Each small studio grants  me 20 bonus points when I have completed the challenge associated with the studio. 

 

Now the map has not yet been coloured but when it is it will show blue and green studios. I will need to complete 4 green studio in order to get a blue pass so that I can enter the blue studios. Once 4 blue studios have been completed I will receive a red pass that grants me access to the big cheese who will then assign me a final challenge. 

So, what will I paint for this challenge? I have set a target of 3000 points which will be a challenge as I will miss at least 1 week due to a trip and I expect other interruptions since we are not in quarantine and therefore I suspect I will encounter social activities. 

Bonus round plans (in no order) and possible items to paint

• Westerns                      Lots of these
  
• Historical drama          Rome vs Germans
  
• Fantasy                        Dragons
  
• World cinema             
  
• Casting couch              Pulp figures
  
• Art house                   
  
• Sword and sandal         Gladiators
  
• High adventure             Far north adventurers           
  
• 1980's                           UNIT, spies, Dr Who
  
• Superhero                     Lots of those
  
• Sci fi                             AQMF, 15mm Sci fi, aliens and marines
  
• Black and white            Space marine bust
  
• Books                            Frankenstein/Dracula  
  
• Under construction       
  

As for the limo rides, well after painting 107 female figures last year I still have, maybe at least, double that left not painted, so that will not be a problem.

Just a rough outline for now, more clarity once the challenge starts!

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 13 now up

 

 

HERE is my last post to the XII Analogue Painting Challenge. I am of two minds about the end of this event. I really have got a lot of stuff done (I still have far too much to be done) but at the same time I am beat. I certainly was running on empty for the last couple of weeks, I was loosing my focus, getting distracted and procrastinating. Many old bad habits were returning. 

In fact if I had not so publicly accepted the challenge to build the mountain I would never have done it, I would have simply sloughed it off, as I did so many other things.. I had hoped to paint a collection of figures to go with the mountain, but I just could not make it happen. My biggest fear right now is that I slip back into my old ways and loose my painting drive. However, I need a break. I need to clean up my room, put away some toys so that I can get back to painting. Without the self imposed weekly deadline and my compulsion to get as much done as I can in the 12-13 weeks of the challenge I can hopefully quickly rebuild my work area.  

The irony about my results in the Analogue challenge is that even though I was able to get so much done, score so many more points than I expected, I still failed to finish off everything that I had hoped to finish. I am sort of impressed with my production speed. I was asked about that and while I gave an answer, the actual answer is a bit more complex. 

I was able to do the output because:

1.  I am retired
2. I found time every day (at least at the start) to paint
3. I am a basic painter, I do not do fancy stuff
4. I do not know how to paint the way the pros do, so what I do is simple
5. I only paint to table top levels
6. The challenge made me paint more stuff.
7. Success bred success, once I saw I could do stuff I wanted to do more
   

I used my competitive nature and the resulting points from the challenge as a tool. The more I painted the more points I got, the higher in the point standing. In the end though I do not care about the points I care about how much stuff is now completed. I compare this to squash. I cannot simply rally when I play squash, I will not give it my all, I will not throw myself against the wall or skid across tha floor on my bear legs. But play a game, keep track of the score, then I will launch myself into the game, often shedding blood. But even then I rely on my opponent to keep track of the score, and win or lose after the game is done the score is forgotten as we are on to the next game. It is the competition of the moment that drives me forward, and that applied to the Analogue challenge. Ultimately the points meant nothing except so far as they translate into the completion of projects!

:

My penultimate post has been added to the Analogue Painting Challenge

 

 

Click HERE  to be taken away from here to my 12th post to the challenge. A modest post, compared to some of my previous posts (average post is about 475 points), but one that was a struggle. We were in a free week, that is the set posting day was no longer in effect therefore we could post any day. As a result with no set time limit I just did not feel the pressure to get the project done. Somehow I did get a lot of it done, but I failed to finish off the Gypsy caravans[2 of them]. Maybe I will find the time before Sunday, but I doubt it...

I am happy to have some more figures finished, including my Zendarians long overdue. Also up until now my five hunter figures were doing double duty as Gypsies, now I have 22 Gypsies done, including a nice music section.

 

The 'great' mountain build of 2022 part 1

 Being a chronicle of the building of 

two quarter mountain boards

 and 

two lowland boards.

For no good reason I have decided to build an arctic(?) mountain board comprising of  four 2' by 2' styrofoam boards two of which will each have a 1/4 part of a mountain. Each mountain will be vaguely triangular, about 18" by 18" by 25". They will rise to a height of about 16-18 inches. Beyond that there is no real plan of attack. I know I want to incorporate some Woodland Scenics rock faces in the build and I want some climbable terrain be it paths or protruding rocks or both. But how they will wind up looking will be anyone's guess.

The final result will first be posted on the Analogue painting challenge site. I suspect this will likely be the last thing I do for this years challenge which will end on March 20th. While Tuesday is my normal posting day we the challenge has shifted to a post something any day mode, so while I ideally will have this done by this Tuesday, if it does not happen I will still have a few days left to get it done before the challenge ends.

 

I may wind up painting some more stuff for this Tuesday just to hedge my bets should this not get done in time. 

 

 

 

 

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!

Number 9 now posted

 

 Click HERE to be taken to this weeks post.

Nazi she wolves, Dr Who Ice warriors and Martian tripods among other things on view.

The big thing that got done was a super figures Gorilla robot that I have tried to paint for a few years. Well it is done now, not perfect by a long shot, but it is table worthy.

 

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!

From the challenge

 Some more of the items done for the challenge.

Canadian armoured car in Russian service

Dystopian wars island or industrial complex in a valley

Dystopian wars islands and fortress

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!

Painting challenge round 2 pictures

 So these are the main entries from my second post to the challenge.

 

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!

Stuff from the challenge

 The Vickers Independent by Empress

4 th post to Analogue painting challenge now up

Click HERE to go to the latest post. This has brought me well above my challenge goal, which is a bad thing. We are only 4 weeks in and I already have 1342 points towards a target of 1000. I have seriously misjudge how much I could get done. 

I am now imposing a new target of 3000 points. This may become a challenge as I am already feeling a little distracted and certainly not too keen to continue pretty much any of the genres that I have currently been working on. (well maybe the 33 sand people for Mars)