Tuesday Workbench 31 March

With the SS squad out of the way, I had to make a decision last week about what to paint next. There were several potential projects, but I decided to go for one which I had been somewhat dreading - a 28mm Wars of the Roses army for Art De La Guerre. Dreading? Well, just doing the chaps in plate armour, to be honest.

I did make a bit of a boo-boo initially - I decided to start with a batch of 24 figures. That was fine for things like the flesh, leather, wood and the small amount of cloth showing, but was too much for the metal. I also had a bit of a 'mare with washing and highlighting the plate and I'm not totally happy withe the end results.

I decided to switch to a smaller batch of eight figures next. That was much easier. I also switched how I did the plate armour. The results were much better, but still not quite right. It was also a bit of a waste doing the flesh, leather, wood and cloth on such a small batch.

I've just started the flesh on the next two batches of eight. I do have another batch of 6 figures for this board, but they are all in closed helms. I'll be doing the armour (trying a different wash scheme) in the smaller batches, then going back to do leather, wood and cloth on all three batches together.

Finished: 28mm SS for Michael's "Schloss Itter" Project

It took me a bit longer than intended to get these finished (not by much though), mostly due to me deciding to finish reading a book yesterday afternoon rather than painting, by which time there was no way I could finish the painting and varnishing. But such is life.

Anyway, here are some pics of the figures:

I'll be wrapping and parceling these this evening, and should get them posted back to Michael in the next few days.

Back To Painting Already

I had intended to take a week or so off from painting, but this afternoon I decided to hit the brushes again.

The figures I'm working on are a set of ten Warlord plastic SS for Michael Awdry's "Schloss Itter" project - he asked for volunteers to paint them up in time for Salute (which is now postponed) and I said I'd help out. I've already made good progress and should finish them tomorrow.

AHPC X - All My Submissions In Order

This is the photo I took before the Challenge started, showing everything that I planned to paint:

I didn't take a photo at the end of the "pile of shame" as there wasn't one - I had painted everything. I even had to dip into other projects to fill up the last few days and to fulfill some of the Challenge Island location tasks.


Here is a photo of everything that I painted this winter:

Now, onto the roundup of my posts. You could follow [this link] which will bring up all of my posts on the Challenge blog, including my admin ones, in reverse order. However, it is probably better to click each of the links below.



Entry #1 - Santa, Baby... [link]

Entry#2 - 28mm Pulp Gangsters [link]

Entry #3 - 15mm SYW Russians [link]

Entry #4 - 28mm Orcs Invade Millsy's Millpond [link]

Entry #5 - 28mm WW2 British Airborne Supports [link]

Entry #6 - Flapp(er)ing My Way Onto Sarah's Balloon [link]

Entry #7 - Evil Skulls on Awdry's Atoll [link]

Entry #8 - Ballooning Hairy Bikers [link]

Entry #9 - Lizardmen at O'Grady's Gulch (For Joshua) [link]

Entry #10 - Kreelers and LEOs [link]

Entry #11 - Dog Stix [link]

Entry #12 - Scum and Villainy [link]

Entry #13 - Snowlord's Peak - Tamsin To The Rescue! (Again!) [link]

Entry #14 - Robert E Howard Will be In His Bunk [link]

Entry #15 - Franonian Security Droids at Fran's Fjord [link]

Entry #16 - Doyle's Dockers [link]

Entry #17 - Robert E Howard Will Be In His Bunk...Again [link]

Entry #18 - Doyle And His Dockers At Hawkins' Hill [link]

Entry #19 - Down And Out In Salutesville [link]

Entry #20 - The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers... [link]

Entry #21 - Three...Errmm, Make That Ten Musketeers At Rousell's Sandhill [link]

Entry #22 - Mutant Army Generals [link]

Entry #23 - These Aren't The hairy Bikers I Am Looking For... [link]

Entry #24 - Fashionably Frequently Flying Ladies [link]

Entry #25 - Morks Calling Orsons - Docherty's Docks [link]

Entry #26 - Small Buildings [link]

Entry #27 - WW2 Scatter Terrain and Lardy JOPs [link]

Entry #28 - A Flashy Ending [link]

Most of the figures have now been stashed away, but there are a few that I need to sort storage out for.

AHPC X Is Over - Twenty-Eighth Submission - A Flashy Ending

That's it, all done and dusted until December. What a ride it has been. Despite aiming as much as possible for quality over quantity I somehow managed to finish the Challenge in eighth place with 1877 points. Over the seven Challenges I have participated in, that is my second lowest score. I'm quite happy with that as my overall quality of painting was much higher than for previous years.

This year also saw me complete (for the moment) several projects:
Strontium Dog - all minis painted
Pulp/Salutesville - all prepped minis painted
Barbarian warband - all painted
WW2 British Airborne - final figures and support weapons painted


But that's enough of this self-congratulatory nonsense. My twenty-eighth submission got published last night; Curt kindly held it in the queue so that it would be the penultimate post: [link]

Tomorrow morning I will be varnishing the last few bits and then I will get everything I've painted out on the table for a group shot.

I'll also put up a post tomorrow or Monday with all of my submissions in order.

AHPC X Day 91 - Twenty-Seventh Submission - WW2 Scatter Terrain

It's the final day of this year's Challenge and I've been a very busy bee. Alongside finishing the painting of my final entry (which should go up in the very early hours tomorrow morning) I have cooked a big batch of chilli, watched eight YouTube videos and acted as minion* for 24 posts. As of 5 minutes ago, I had cleared the queue of all "ready" posts (apart from my own which will get published as the penultimate post of the Challenge) which means I can take a break - I'll let the other minions man the fort for a while.

* a quick explanation of what the minion does. We have to read through the draft posts; reformat them where necessary; enter the post details in the "Spreadsheet Of Doom (TM)";check the scoring; write a comment at the end of the post; check that they have added the appropriate labels to the post; check the title is in the correct format; publish the post; update the points roster table on the Challenge blog. That can take 5-10 minutes per post.

But enough of that, my twenty-seventh entry got posted this morning, some WW2 scatter terrain: [link]

As I have mentioned, there will be one more entry from me - I'll post the link tomorrow when it has been published.