AHPC IX Challengers' Choice Winner ! Italian Wars Project

A very quick post today just to say how chuffed I am that my recent Italian Wars Project won the Challengers' Choice Award in the Analogue Hobbies Winter Paint Challenge XI.

https://thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.com/2019/03/closing-awards-for-ahpcix.html

For those who don't know the AHPC is run each year and brings together a group of painters and gamers who paint off against each other during the winter months scoring points for figures painted and based during that time. Various prizes are avaliable from the Challenge sponsors.

The Challengers Choice Award is voted for by the participants of the AHPC so that makes winning it even more special and it looks like the Italian Wars Project got over 50% of the voters, which is amazing.

A Matilda called "Tubby Toad"

A quick show off post today with this, the latest addition to my WW2 1941 British Desert Force, a Blitzkrieg Models 28mm Matilda Infantry Tank with a Warlord Games Commander.

I haven't done any WW2 stuff for a while but those of you who follow the blog will know that I have taken part in this year's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. Every two weeks or so there is a bonus "theme" round and this time the theme was "Armour".

I had a quick think and it was either a tank or some Crusader Knights, this won hands down as the Knights are a real pain in the backside.

There are 50 or so entries in the Armour Bonus Round, why not pop by and vote for your favourite  (open until 24th Jan) there are some great entries. This LINK will take you straight to my entry and then you can explore the others from the links on the right of that. The voting panel is there too, a word of warning, it will only let you vote once and it doesn't save your choices as you move round the pages, so have a wander then vote in bulk.

So let's get down to the name, of course it's made up but there is a story behind the name. A couple of three years ago I painted my first Matilda and that was christened "Fat Badger" in honour of a local restaurant and the fact that it looks, well, like a Fat Badger. During our Ctesiphon refight our little group where talking about the new tank when The Wind in the Willows came up with and the four main characters in the story, so I decided on "Tubby Toad" stand by for Rotund Rat, I am open to suggestions for Mole.

It would be remiss of me not to show a picture of "Badger" and "Toad" together so here they are. Badger has a greener Light tone on the Caunter Scheme whilst the Tubby Toad has come out darker in the photos but with the scheme paints were sourced locally and the sun caused all sorts of fade effects, so a bit of variation is fine with me.

I did a tutorial a while back on my tank painting which is HERE if you are interested.

It's been quite good fun painting these as a one off, the next theme is "East", let's get searching for something to paint.

The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge 7 - The Prep

This year's 28mm Prep

Getting and keeping the painting "mojo" is never easy, this year as usual I have had fits and starts of acrylic action. I've found that having a focus and sticking with it has been the key (easier said than done, I know), this year's massive Jutland paint and build focus has certainly set the tone, can YG carry on in 2017 !

2 boxes of Fireforge Templar Knights

Project Jutland has been hailed as a great success but it was in fact a massive failure in that the 2016 project was supposed to be 28mm Crusades so let's have another go !

The Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge (AHPC) is now in its seventh year and is something I have been planning on taking part in for at least the last couple of years but each time I have failed to engage my backside into drive in time to get registered. This year I was ready and managed to get my name on the list of participants.

A mass of 28mm Horse (Crusades, SCW and AWI)

For those who don't know the AHPC is a bit like an Alcoholics Anonymous for painters, a self help group for the sable fanciers of the world, if you like. Organised by the wonderful Curt and his faithful Minions, the participants set themselves a painting target for the next three months and off you go.

Goodies and baddies for "Blakes 7"

There are all sorts of side challenges, prizes and "theme" rounds involved, just the sort of thing to keep you enthused. The entry fee is a painted figure which this year is supposed to be a team or group effort (Still looking for my team if anyone has any ideas) and on the back of that Curt donates to a charity. It's all for fun and it should be a great way to keep the Vallejo flowing.

Woodbine 28mm WW1 Indian Infantry

The rules allow the cleaning and priming of figs prior to the main event so that is what I have been doing and what the photos on this post show.

Some EotD

I've been painting a unit of 15mm SYW Figs every 10 days for the last 3 months so I have no plans to stop that, but as those units are only 16 Figs I will continue to prep them as I go. Start each 10 days period with a new unit and then only start something else when they are finished. Let's see how I get on.