AHPC9 Day 42 - Thursday Workbench 31 January

A day later than normal, because everything has been slightly pushed back.

As you can see, work has been continuing on the Kra'Vak. The ones you saw on Monday are finished - washes, highlights and varnishing all done - apart from basing.

In the pic above, the three sticks on the right still need to be highlighted; the rest need a black wash and highlighting/touch-ups.

I've decided to leave the Kra'Vak as just these for now, but might return to the rest later in the Challenge.

AHPC9 Day 39 - Monday Update 28 January

On Thursday morning, an engineer working in the local exchange managed to disconnect my phone then reconnect me - to a different number. I have been without 'phone or internet at home until this morning when an engineer got things sorted out. And that is why I didn't do a workbench post on Saturday.

Now that I'm back online, I suppose I ought to bring you up to date. I'm still suffering after effects of the 'flu, but I'm over the worst of it. Although the remaining muscle pain is making painting a bit tough.

I did get a couple of entries finished while I was disconnected. One of them will be posted tomorrow; the other is for the third bonus round (I submitted the draft post for that today).

I'm currently working on these:

These are Kra'Vak aliens from GZG.

When the "in progress" figures are finished (probably tomorrow morning) I'll be doing some highlighting on the "hair" and heads, the armour and weapons shouldn't need anything more doing to them. And then I can get to work on the rest of the figures, before basing them all in one go. I've also got a few vehicles to paint up for this force.

AHPC9 Day 34 - Wednesday Update

Just an update today and no workbench post as I'm still suffering from the effects of the flu and don't feel up to painting.

The "Sport" bonus theme round entries were posted on Sunday. There were, predictably, lots of Guildball entries and quite a few gladiator ones, including mine:

Link to *my entry*


I did manage to struggle through the 'flu to finish the basing on the Mongols in time for submission yesterday:

Here's *the link*

I'm currently in 4th place on the table, but expect to be dropped back down to 5th place in the next day or so by Noel.

AHPC9 Day 31 - She Flu To Bleurghs

Yes, I have been hit by the 'flu. And a very nasty strain of it at that. I ended up spending all day yesterday in bed (can somebody please explain to me how having a fever convinces your body that you are actually a super-supple, double-jointed contortionist? My aches and pains want to know). Today hasn't been much better, although I have been able to get up for an hour or so at a time.

This was incredibly bad timing. Yesterday I was meant to be "Special Guest Minion" on the Challenge, standing in for Curt while he worked through all the bonus round entries. It has also set me back on finishing the Mongol cavalry - just the basing to do, but I need to be able to concentrate while doing that. Hopefully I'll be OK tomorrow, or I'll end up missing my Tuesday posting slot.

AHPC9 Day 27 - Wednesday Workbench 16 January

I've decided to continue with 15mm for the next few entries. As you can see, rather a lot of Mongol cavalry is on the workbench at the moment.

I finished painting this lot yesterday evening and airbrushed them with matte varnish this morning, before making a start on these:

I should finish the horses tomorrow morning. I'll then split them into two batches for painting the riders. If all goes well, they'll all be finished (including matte varnish) sometime on Friday. Which just leaves the basing to do at the weekend. I'll then have plenty of time to get something else painted for submission on Tuesday, maybe some Ming Chinese rocket troops.

AHPC9 Day 26 - 6th & 7th Submissions

I managed to submit two entries this week. The second entry was finished yesterday morning, so I would have had time to paint something else up for submission today. However, I decided instead to start work on a project which will probably take me a week to paint - the extra couple of days will be helpful in case things go belly-up.

The first entry was some Seven Years War Russians:

The post can be found at *this link*


My second entry was some Ming Chinese arquebusiers:

The post can be found at *this link*



These two entries have boosted my tally to 917 points and 4th place on the table.

AHPC9 Day 23 - Saturday Workbench 12 January

Before adding gunk

I managed to finish painting and varnishing the 15mm SYW Russians very late last night.  I was out this morning, but when I'd got home and had a coffee, I cracked on with adding basing gunk to them.  Well, that was quite a job - it took me about 90 minutes all told.

Gunk added

The gunk will take several hours to cure and dry, so the dry-brushing and flocking will have to be done tomorrow.

Later on today I'll probably start work on painting some more figures. I haven't decided which project to tackle next.

As far as the Challenge goes, I'm currently sitting very near the top of the points table.  I'm also very much on track for achieving my 3000 point target.

AHPC9 Day 20 - Wednesday Workbench 09 January

As you can see, I've been a busy bee since completing the early WW2 Aussies.  Also that I have switched to a 15mm project - additions to my SYW Russians.

Cossacks, artillery limbers and a howitzer as you can never have enough of those.  I finished painting these last night - they just need basing, which I'll be doing when the rest are finished.

Two infantry regiments which are close to being finished - just the whites, touch-ups/highlights, gold/brass and flags to do.

Two more infantry regiments plus some artillery crew and fusiliers.

If all goes to plan, I should have them all painted and based by the end of play on Saturday, leaving me free to paint something extra for Tuesday's submission.

AHPC9 Day 19 - My Fifth Entry

...in the main part of the Challenge; it would be too confusing to include the bonus round entries in the tally.

Here's a teaser pic:

You can view the whole entry by following *this link*.

I've also submitted my entry for the second bonus round and have made a start on next week's entries. You'll get s glimpse of those tomorrow when I do my regular Wednesday Workbench post.

AHPC9 Day 17 - Recon Bonus Theme Posted

Despite suffering a power outage at home, Curt resolutely decamped to a coffee shop with free WiFi to post all the bonus theme round entries.  All fifty-two of them (fifty-three if you include his own).

There are some great entries in there, so do pop on over to here take a look.  And vote for your favourites (you can vote for more than one entry).  You may find it best to use the links in the right-hand sidebar to view the posts as Blogger sometimes skips past posts.

I had my entry for this theme round painted, based and the draft post submitted before Christmas, which put me ahead of the game for once.  There was a good reason for that - I was able to paint the figures for this round at the same time as the figures for my second entry in the main part of the Challenge.  That's because it was some more Soviet women from Bad Squiddo Games, this time a section of scouts in amoeba pattern camo overalls:

My post can be found at this link.

Enjoy all the eye candy!

AHPC9 Day 16 - Saturday Workbench 05 January

I've decided that during the Challenge I will be doing my weekend "workbench" posts on Saturdays rather than Sundays.  There are two good reasons for this:

1. The bonus theme rounds get posted every other Sunday, and I'll want to do a post when they are up for viewing.

2. I should have a bunch of stuff which is at various stages of being finished to show you.


Anyway, what's on the table (as seen in the pic above).

Two batches of almost finished 8th Army/1942 Aussies:

These are all Perry metals.  They have had their Klear coat and just need to have the basing done and a matte varnish.  As these will be for the militia, I've done them with green helmets.


One batch of just about finished 8th Army/1942 Aussies:

These are Artizan metals.  They just need the final wash and Klear coat to get them to the same state as the Perry figures.

One batch of just started 8th Army/1942 Aussies:

Artizan again.  I should be able to get the basecoats, initial flesh wash and maybe some highlights done this evening.  They'll be finished quite quickly tomorrow.

The Artizan figures have khaki helmets as they will be for the AIF troops.

If all goes to plan, I should be able to get all of the basing done on Monday.  As there are two steps which need curing/drying time, I should be able to get some other figures painted up for submission on Tuesday.

Although I have reduced the painting process for these a bit, what I have found is that it is probably taking just as long to paint them.  I think that is because without the initial wash on non-flesh areas it is more difficult to determine where highlights need to be applied, so I end up applying more highlights than I probably need to.  That was particularly true of the Perry figures which have so many creases, folds and wrinkles in the uniforms.

Once this lot are out of the way, I will probably switch to another project for the following week.  I haven't decided which one yet, but it is likely to be 15mm.

AHPC9 Day 13 - Wednesday Workbench 02 January

Well, welcome to my first "workbench" post of 2019.

First of all, just to let you know that my third entry in the Challenge was posted yesterday:

Follow this link to see the post.


Now for the workbench.

As you can probably tell, I have started working on the 8th Army figures for my 1942 Aussies.  On the table at the moment are the metal figures from Perry and Artizan.  I'm painting these in batches of twelve.  I took today fairly easy and just laid down the base colours on the first group:

I've decided to simplify how I paint these ones compared to my previous system by omitting the first wash and reapplication of the base colour.  I might also skip the third highlight.

What you can't see are the four figures I painted yesterday for the second bonus theme round.  They just need to be airbrushed with matte varnish. I'll do that at the same time as some of the 8th Army figures.

AHPC9 Day 12 - HNY and 7th Blogiversary

...and my 1200th post!!

And what a year 2018 has been.  Despite withdrawing from AHPC8, I was still quite productive during the period it was running, albeit that my output was much less than if I had been taking part (I think it would have been about 650 points compared to my usual 2000+ points).  That period saw me finish (usual disclaimers apply) my Ming Chinese army and start on my Sea Peoples army - that was finished not long after the Challenge ended.  I also added a bunch of Choson Korean levy and finally painted some Scythians which had been hanging around for a good few years.

So, let's do a month-by-month round up of what I got up to.

January - Mostly painting Ming Chinese.

February - Painting Ming Chinese and Choson Koreans

March - Started painting Sea Peoples army;  finally painted those Scythian cataphracts and commanders.

April - Finished the Sea Peoples;  went to Salute;  caught the Gaslands bug...

May - Started painting WW2 Aussies;  went to Campaign in Milton Keynes;  Gaslands fever...

June - Painted more WW2 Aussies;  went to Broadside in Sittingbourne;  lots of playing around making tufts.

July - Still more WW2 Aussies

August - too darned hot to do very much

September - went to Colours in Newbury;  caught the Strontium Dog bug...

October - Back to painting WW2 Aussies;  caught the "What A Tanker!" bug;  went to SELWG show;

November - Even more WW2 Aussies!;  a bit of a 15mm tankfest for "What A Tanker!" (reminder to self - buy the bleedin' rules!);  worked on some Gaslands terrain;  started prep for AHPC9

December - Prep, prep, prep and prep.  Oh, a little bit of painting too.


I did get some gaming in at the club, but not as much as I could (or indeed, should) have.  Hopefully I will correct that this year.  I am definitely going to try to get one game a week in during the Challenge, if only to give me a sanity break from all that painting!


Looking forward to 2019, what are my plans?

AHPC9 - I have set myself quite a stretching target this year, but it should be achievable despite lots of my prep-pile being individual paint jobs (characters and irregular troops) rather than serried ranks of uniformed troops.  The three projects I really do want to get completed during this Challenge are my 28mm Wars of the Roses army, my 1942 Aussies and the Strontium Dog figures and terrain.

Shows - I managed to attend five shows in 2018.  This year I hope to get to a few more.  I just need to remember to leave my purse at home...

Gaming - I must knuckle down and get in more gaming in 2019.  ADLG, King of the Battlefield, Chain of Command, "What A Tanker!", Full Thrust, Gruntz, Gaslands

Terrain - I must get some jungle terrain made up.  I have a huge amount of plastic trees, aquarium plants etc just waiting to be painted and added to bases.

Figures - I will not buy any new...oooh!  Shiny!  Errmmm, yes.  Let's ignore that resolution as we all know that I won't keep to it.  And there are a few things that I do need to buy for ongoing projects.

15mm SYW Russians - there are nine more infantry regiments (plus the four that I already have the figures for) that I need to complete this army.  Oh, and the Observation Corps which at roughly double-strength of the regular infantry means 10 more regiments (2 grenadier, 8 musketeer). And some more artillery.  And more Cossacks.

28mm WW2 Aussies - I think I'll have the infantry well and truly covered by the end of AHPC9, so just tanks (another Matilda and some more Stuarts).

28mm WW2 Japanese - the Aussies will need an OpFor after all.

15mm Choson Koreans - you thought I was finished with that army?  So did I, then along come Essex Miniatures and they release a range which includes Hwatcha artillery - must have!  I could also add some more levy to take me to the maximum for FoGAM/FoGR.

15mm Sarmatians - it's about time I pulled my finger out and finished this army.  There are a lot of horses who have been waiting to have their riders painted.

15mm Buccaneers/Pirates - another army which has had primed figures languishing.


Escaping from London! - Part of my plan when quitting my job was to move out of London to somewhere cheaper.  Once I've recovered from AHPC9 I will start looking for a house, probably in the Newark/Nottingham area.  I should be able to buy a 3 bedroom (maybe even 4 bedroom) house which will give me space for a dedicated painting room/office and still have a room for guests.  Not to forget, space for a gaming table.

Quit Smoking - Yes, for those who don't know, I am one of those horrible puffers.  Since quitting my job I have been cutting down the amount I smoke and I am continuing to reduce it. Hopefully I will have stopped totally by my birthday in April.

Blogging - Yes, unfortunately for you, I have no intention of stopping my witterings in the blogosphere.  I think I have found the happy medium of two workbench/update posts per week, plus posts of finished figures, AARs and show reports.

Double-Spacing After Full Stops - I shall endeavour to ensure that I observe this "rule" in all my future posts.  I think I've managed it with this one.


Well, that's about it. I wish for you all that 2019 will see your dice roll high/low as required and that you get all the shinies you want.

Toodle-pip!

Tamsin

(my word!  That was a long post without any pictures!)