AHPC Day 10 - Sunday Workbench 30 December

I've just submitted my third entry (technically my fourth, but as my third entry was for the bonus round won't be posted until next weekend, the latest submission will be my third entry. Confused? You should be!) which makes this an eminently sensible time to do a workbench post.

Edit to Add: And it's up - click this link to see it!

Yesterday morning I got round to priming the Russian anti-tank guns:

The small bases behind with the double dice cells will be for recording shock and casualties.


As the free-fire period for submissions ends today and we switch to scheduled submission days - I'm in the Tuesday Terrors group - I'm going to do a few small groups of figures to submit this Tuesday - sorry to spoil your New Year's Day, Lee! I've picked out the first few to work on:

Can't see what they are? Could that be deliberate? *grin*

I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get these finished, maybe even a few more figures, before Tuesday's done.

Back to the Challenge. Currently I am in 25th place with 52 points, but my third entry should see me propelled toward the dizzying heights of the top few.

My next post will probably be on Tuesday. That will be my 1200th post and also my 7th Blogiversary. Have I really been blogging for seven years? It seems that I have. More perplexing, perhaps, is that so many people still follow my witterings!

AHPC9 Day 7

I'm back from the peace and calm of Sussex! I had a wonderful Christmas break with my sister - lots of good food, fresh air and a teensy-weensy* bit of alcohol.

* if you believe that, then perhaps you would be interested in purchasing this limited edition £10 note - yours for fifty quid...

It seems that my second Challenge entry was posted on Saturday, but hadn't shown up until after I left London on Sunday. That might explain why there were very few comments on it. Here's the teaser pic:

And here's the link.

These are 28mm figures from Bad Squiddo Games. They were painted up at the same time as my entry for the first bonus theme round, but I can't show pics of them for a week or so.

Now that I'm back, I will be hitting the brushes again tomorrow. I've already got the figures and paints I'll need out so that I can crack on with them first thing tomorrow.

AHPC9 Day 2

My first submission has been up for a good few hours now, so I think it's safe to post some teaser pics and the link:

View the post here!


I was a little shocked today when some more shinies arrived. I knew they'd been shipped from the US, but I wasn't expecting them for a few more weeks. I was also expecting to get the "red card of extortion" demanding VAT on the import plus a £8 administration charge before Roayl Mail would hand it over. Somehow the package slipped through the net though, so no VAT, no admin charge and shinies delivered without being held to ransom.

"What are these mysterious shinies?" you ask. Without further ado, some photos:

Some more figures for my Aussies, this time from Brigade Games. I mainly ordered these to get this pack:

Engineers. I don't need another flamethrower, so that figure will languish forever in the lead pile, but I did want a mine clearance team, so the FT assistant will end up as the third man for them. Making this purchase also allowed me to see how they compare size-wise against the other ranges in my collection (previous experience suggested they would be noticeably smaller).

Yup, much shorter. However, the Papuans are about the same height as the ones from Warlord and Eureka...

...mostly due to their truly enormous heads!

There was another reason for placing an order with Brigade - they had a pack of WW1 ANZAC Lewis gun teams in their range:

I will need to do quite a bit of modification work to make these fit for WW2 Aussie militia, so that will have to wait until after the Challenge.


Challenge Workbench

I have been working on my next entries today (I did a bit last night as well). I can't show any WIP pics as they are very close to being finished. All that's left to do is to paint the bases and add static grass. One entry will be for the main Challenge, the other is for the first Bonus Theme Round.

AHPC9 Day 1

As intended, I didn't start painting at kick-off time of 6am GMT. I waited until 9am. I was only doing a few small bits, but waiting for various steps to dry (also going out shopping in the morning and having a slightly longer than planned afternoon nap) meant that none of the items was finished until just before 9pm. However, they are all done now and the draft post has been submitted.

Some more shinies arrived today:

Love that pink parcel tape!

More pink inside!

It seems that Annie has included some extra bits in my package - I only ordered one of the badges, didn't order the sticker and there is a second pack of "shin whackers". I haven't had a chance to look closely at the figures yet, but they look as though they will need very little clean-up.

The next groups of figures are out on the table, ready to go in the morning. The chances are that I won't have finished them all before I head down to Sussex fro Christmas, but I will have made good headway.

'Twas The Night Before AHPC9

As I write this, there are just 8 hours until the Challenge kicks off. I won't be getting up silly early to make my start at kick-off time, but do have a couple of items out to paint tomorrow for some quick points right at the start.

I did get most of the Soviet reinforcements primed today. I'm holding off on the guns until I've got bases to glue them onto (I discovered that I didn't have enough of the sizes I need, so placed an order with Warbases).

To clear my paint desk before the Challenge, I had one last job to do. Some of you will remember that last year I had purchased some Hotwheels models of Star Destroyers and oil-washed them to show up the panel lines. And so they had sat until today, when I finally got round to giving them a good dry-brush with white. With that done, I thought it might be a good idea to pick out some of the domes with colour and to use a different colour for each ship. When all the paint was dry I airbrushed a few light coats of satin varnish on them:

Reviewing the Kra'Vak figures I had primed, I realised that I would need to order another pack each of command and special weapons. So I placed an order yesterday afternoon for those and a few more vehicles. Now, I know from past experience and reputation that Mr Tuffley has illicit access to experimental wormhole technology for deliveries, but I was still somewhat shocked when the order arrived just after midday today.

As it's the December deal period, he had included some freebies:

That's two more two-seater grav bikes and a pair of support weapon teams for the Kra'Vak, along with some 15mm SF containers.

I also received notification that my Ona Bugeisha kickstarter minis from Bad Squiddo Games have been posted today.

AHPC9 - My Pile Of Potential

With the 9th Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge due to kick off at 6am (UK time) on Friday, I thought I would get out everything that I have lined up and take a "Before" pic:

Here's what is there (left to right):

Back row - 15mm Ming Chinese handgunners and rocketeers; 28mm Pulp; 5 boards of 28mm Wars of the Roses
Middle row - 2 boards of 15mm WW2 Soviets; 3 boards of 28mm WW2 8th Army (as Aussies for 1942); Strontium Dog figures; 15mm and 28mm odds and sods*
Front row - 2 boards of 15mm Kra'Vak; 2 boards of 15mm SYW Russians; 3 boards of 15mm Mongols

*If they get painted, you'll find out what they are!

Some of you might have noticed that items are missing. There's a good reason for that - my 5' x 3' table wasn't large enough for all of it to fit! Here is the rest:

Apart from the very obvious 28mm cargo ship, here's what you can see (L to R again):

Back row - 20mm containers and skips for Gaslands; 15mm SciFi terrain; terrain from the Strontium Dog starter set; 28mm SciFi terrain
Middle row - 15mm Musketeers and civilians; some more 28mm War of the Roses (which I'd missed when getting out for the previous pic) and Raging Heroes characters; 6mm ACW buildings; 10mm European and Middle East buildings plus 2 Cruel Seas S-Boots
Front row - some heavy support for the 15mm WW2 Soviets; 3 boards of 6mm ACW


Now, the astute among you will have mentally calculated that there is considerably more there than I need for my 3000 point target. You are quite correct in that assessment. Just in case I do somehow manage to burst through my target with time to spare, I will have lots of extra things ready to go. And if I somehow manage to paint all of those, I have a few other bits that are already prepped (but not primed), some things which are primed and a few more orders which may arrive before the end of the Challenge.

The very astute might be wondering about the 15mm WW2 Soviet heavy supports, which have suddenly appeared from nowhere. I placed an order for them at the weekend, they arrived on Monday and I assembled them yesterday.

The tank can be made up as the IS-85, IS-1 or IS-2 - I did it as an IS-2 (I might buy another to do as an IS-1 at some point). The 45mm gun pack can be made up as the M1937 45mm AT gun, the M1942 45mm AT gun or the M1943 76mm infantry gun - I made up two M1937s, and one each of the other two. The ZiS guns can be done as 57mm ZiS-2 or 76mm ZiS-3 - I have done two of each. I'll get them primed tomorrow.


Crikey! That's a lot to paint!

Sunday Workbench 16 December

Yeeps! Just 4 days (and this evening) left before the Challenge kicks off!

I've received some more goodies this week:

Resin urban bases and scatter pieces plus some MDF scenery from TT Combat

Some bits and bobs from SnM Stuff. I probably won't assemble the Mercs until after the Challenge, but they were cheaper than most other places.

Over the past few days I have got more prep and priming done:

15mm Kra'Vak - to be primed tomorrow

15mm WW2 Soviets

28mm WW2 Aussies (Artizan) and some "survivors" which are now pinned on resin urban bases

28mm wolves, 10mm buildings and two Cruel Seas S-Boots

At the moment I don't have any more prep to do* and only the Kra'Vak and the cargo ship to prime. That means I should be able to take a break for a few days ahead of the Challenge.

*until some other orders come in

Wednesday Workbench 12 December

Rather annoyingly, I've had a cold for the last few days. It knocked me for six on Monday, which meant I ended up missing an afternoon game of ADLG.

However, I have been able to get quite a bit of figure assembly and priming done despite the lurgy:

54 foot knights (seen on Sunday, primed Monday)

3 days of assembly and priming...

72 longbowmen (plus some stands of arrows)

48 billmen, 12 men at arms, 18 spearmen and four command figures

Yesterday I received two packages in the post. They contained this:

Warbases - assorted MDF bases for various projects, plus some bunnies and (more) wolves

North Star - Artizan 8th Army figures (and a senior officer from the Thrilling Tales range). Oh, and even more wolves.

Those figures have all been prepped and washed today. When they are dry, I'll stick them on bases and get them primed tomorrow.

I do still have some prep to do before the Challenge begins. That should keep me out of mischief for the next few days.

Sunday Workbench 09 December

Challenge prep has continued apace this weekend. Yesterday I got the riders for my WotR cavalry primed:

On Friday these arrived:

The little black boxes contain Perry metals 8th Army figures; I also purchased a box each of WotR Infantry and Foot Knights from Orcs Nest during the week. I prepped the metal figures on Friday evening, and yesterday stuck them on bases:

I also assembled the plastic 8th Army figures, which will be used as Militia for my WW2 Aussies..

I adapted two of the figures to be have Lewis guns (from colonel Bill's):

The busy-ness has carried on today:

I got the metal and plastic 8th Army figures primed:

And managed to assemble 54 foot knights for my WotR army:

They'll be primed tomorrow.

This week is going to see more prep work being done. I've got 72 longbowmen, 54 billmen and 18 spearmen to assemble and prime, plus foot command figures. I should have some more metal figures arriving in the next few days, which will also need to be prepped. I might even find time to do the weathering on those Gaslands gates.

Thursday Workbench 06 December

I finally had a day where it was dry and not too windy, so I managed to get some spray priming done outside.

Hopefully the weather will be OK tomorrow so that I can prime the cargo ship.

I also managed to put together some nail blocks for painting the WotR riders:

On top of that, I started work on painting these gates for Gaslands (NB - can also be used as gates for other games):

That's the metal detailing done. I just need to do the weathering on them - that's a job for tomorrow.