TomF - ACW Confederate Infantry - A Flocking Situation

I have enjoyed following the Analogue Hobby Challenge for 5 or 6 years now, always in awe of the productivity and artistic talent of the participants. Three years ago I made an anemic attempt at participating in the annual challenge myself.

When Curt posted the opportunity to participate in this challenge, I decided to sign up in order, in part, to thank all the participants of the annual challenge and hopefully contribute to providing a means of distraction from the depressing news of the pandemic.

For my first post, I have eight American Civil War confederate infantry (Perry Miniatures - plastic).  I painted these in mid-March for a game of Sharpe Practice that, unfortunately, was cancelled once my University colleagues and I were told we had convert all of our face-to-face courses to an online format.

While these figures were painted pre-challenge, they sat on my painting table without flock/vegetation since I had to cancel the game they were to participate in.  As far as the painting of these figures go, I used a gray primer then applied a black wash followed by several rounds of dry brushing with lighter shades of gray.  Quick and easy ... the Perry plastics really lend themselves to this technique.

Over the past weekend, I put static grass and other vegetation on the bases.

Below is a picture of the 28mm ACW figures that I have painted over the last couple of years.  As you can see, I have a bad habit of not finishing the basing of painted figures.

Given how well the 8 figures featured in this post turned out, I may be inspired to finish basing the rest of them over the next month or so.

But up next, I have a batch of AWI figures that I'm hoping to finish painting by the end of the week to share with you.

Thanks for viewing.

TimG in the garage....

 I acquired this mdf kit a couple of years ago and built it over the weekend. I think it’s designed to accompany 28mm toys, so 1/56 scale or thereabouts.  It arrived in my possession without instructions so I blundered my way through assembly. In spite of this it turned out OK and I gave it a basic paint job using emulsion and cheap acrylic paints.
It looks like a lot of old village garages used to - and not just here in the UK. It’s pictured here with a couple of 1/43 scale diecast cars. A side project of mine is an attempt to amass a collection of models of all the cars I’ve owned. At the petrol pumps is a Volvo 850 in more or less the same colour as my 1992 2.0 20V GLT (owned 1998-2000) while lurking inside is a Saab 9-5 standing in for my 2004 Aero (owned 2009-2013).

From TeemuL: Finishing fantasy stuff (15 points)

So, a Challenge after a Challenge. I'm usually quite exhausted after the annual Challenge or at least when the summer really starts. My good start of the year slows down until I again pick up some speed later in the year. Hopefully with this another Challenge, I can keep up running a bit later.

I work in software development industry and we work in an agileish way. Prioritizing is important, making lists and starting from the highest priority. The same applies nicely to the miniature hobby, so I made some lists for myself.

U - Unfinished miniatures. Until couple of years ago, I was quite strict on myself, if I started a miniature or a group of miniatures, I'll finish them before I start painting the next one. That included the primed miniatures. Over the last couple of years, the pile has grown. Items from the U list are these, finishing unfinished miniatures. Suitable for this Challenge, since we are not calculating points (well, yeah).
N - Necessary miniatures. These are the miniatures, that I really need for my next games. This is not that important at the moment, for obvious reasons.
R - Reinforcement miniatures. Army has been started, but not all the purchased miniatures are painted. This is related to N list, but it is a bit different. For example my WH40K Imperial Guard army belongs here, I have never played a game with them and I have not planned one yet. Same applies the Mentor Legion and all the Oldhammer miniatures.
F - Fresh miniatures. Trying to keep the miniature count down, I hope to paint the newly purchased miniatures. Why buy them, if not to paint? The cupboard is full of unpainted miniatures, so just for painting purposes there really is no need to buy anything new.
W - Wacky idea miniatures. Just some crazy idea, that I need to do. Like Sarah's Hot Air Balloon Pumping Station. This usually needs some modelling as well.
S - Space saving miniatures. One way to punish myself is to keep the bought miniatures in their original boxes or packages until I paint them. Kind of a management thing to control buying, if there is no room, why buy it? Sometimes these boxes are quite big compared to what they have inside, especially once assembled. So open a big box, assemble and paint the miniature and you have a whole in your storage. Of course the newly painted miniature needs to be stored somewhere, but it is a different story and a different storage. Actually I don't throw away old boxes, I might use them for storing some other miniatures. Or just keep them, since they are really nice and old. Or at least I cut the front picture away and keep it, so I can remember what I have purchased.

So, with these 6 lists I try to keep myself focused on the important aspects of the miniature painting. In all of the (weekly) posts, I try to list which lists I'm using, some miniatures might fit more than one list. I try to visit the Challenge Island locations as well, but using all kind of travelling possibilities, so not necessarily following the roads. This might cause distractions on the Six Lists, or it might help, I don't know.

Here we go, some unfinished miniatures from the past. The big dragon thing was started last summer and was even used in one campaign while not fully painted, shame on me. I actually bought it as assembled, which made it a bit difficult to paint. Not the dragon, but the rider, Dreadlord called Rinos Wildbringer, used in my Age of Sigmar Anvilgard army, using the rules from the Cities of Sigmar. I'm also using this in our current campaign (5 players, but only 1 play in total before the cancellation of everything). So this one is from U and N lists.

 

Magic horns on the helmet, I hope to find a magic item to match it...

These two Endless Spells were started during the Challenge, but I wasn't able to finish them. I had problems with the "magic effect", since I wanted lava base. All the colors, blue, green and purple, which are usually used as magic, didn't seem right. Then I thought about the magical fire and it was perfect. The cogs look better than the swords (I need to learn their names and rules).

I'm also counting the points for myself, just for fun and statistics, even though I have no training, experience nor knowledge of minioning and no access, superpowers, cats or kittens for any spreadsheets...

U: 3 (total 3)
N: 1 (total 1)
Points:
2x5 points for the spells (they were started during a Challenge so I count them as whole)
5 bonus points for the Dreadlord on the Black Dragon (painted mostly outside of Challenges, so just giving 5 bonus points for the big thing).
15 points total

From GregB: Cerastus Knights for "Adeptus Titanicus"

A banner of Cerastus Knights armed with Shock Lances for GW's re-booted "Adpetus Titanicus".

As the quarantine painting rolls along, I thought it would be good to get back to some sci-fi subjects.  I've been painting a lot of historical stuff lately (and plan to do even more!) but every so often I find I need to apply the brushes to a piece of war machinery from the grim darkness of the far future...here I scratch that itch with a banner of three "Cerastus" type Knights for GW's re-booted "Adeptus Titanicus" game.

These models...the detail is just incredible. Yes, the price is eye-watering...but GW has really hit it out of the park with their new Adpetus Titanicus models, just amazing.

"Titanicus" is a game of giant, city-crushing machines blasting and beating each other until their reactors cook off.  In that environment, the Knights play a supporting role, harassing and flanking the much larger titans like the Reavers and Warlords.  The individual Knights are perhaps not impressive compared to the massive battle titans, but they operate in groups and, used properly, are a real threat to enemy war engines.

Incredible detail on the rear of the Knights' chassis.

These Knights, armed with "Shock Lances", need to get close, very close, to the enemy war engines in order to strike - but their charge can be devastating, and the lances can cause fatal damage to enemy titans. These Knights are organized into "banners", and in the case of these types of Knights they max out at three machines per banner.  I opted to put together a full strength banner, just to maximize their chances of survival on the table.  These Knights are bigger than the other "Questoris" style engines, but thankfully are slightly tougher, and can move very fast on the battlefield. Opposing Princeps will need to be wary!

Power shields can fend off the assaults of other Knights...and in a group, the shields can work together to TRY and hold out under the bombardment of enemy titans...but speed is the better defence there...

Read to move out and spread "hope" - Horus for hope!

I really like the Knight models, but the actual back story of the Knights is pretty lame...best just to think of them as a sort of sub-force for the great Titan Orders.  These fellows are painted int the same teal/green colours I use for the Knights that support my Legio Mortis forces, and they will fight in the name of the Warmaster, Horus Lupercal, and his bold plans to make the Imperium great again...

I try to keep my "Titanicus" collection relatively balanced between rebel and loyalist forces, but as we go through the Quarantine Challenge I'm hoping to add a few more engines to the Warmaster's side of the equation...can always balance that out later :)

"Family photo" of my rebel Adeptus Titanicus forces...the Legio Mortis engines loom in the background...

"Titanicus" is really a great game, yet another example of how GW can crank out fantastic rule sets if they feel like it (as opposed to 8th edition 40k...but anyway).  The advantages of the Knights over the more ponderous and more heavily equipped battle titans are subtle but real, and they add a lot to the game.  The re-booted "Titanicus" is a just superb set of rules overall, and the new range of models that go with them are equally amazing (and expensive...glad I purchased these before the economy collapsed).

Thanks for reading, I hope you have a great day!

GregB

From SimonG: Crossbowmen Comparison

So following up on my last post here are the completed Wargames Foundry Perry sculpts. They turned out really nice despite the limited set of poses and the limitations based on identical sets of crossbows and hands. Quite clever really they made such a good range of poses out of the same hand layout.

Wargames Foundry HYW Crossbowmen Stand

They are much superior to the recent multi part plastic Perry set which seem awkward and clumsy in comparison despite the wider range of poses possible. Apologies for the quality of the painting and assembly here -- this was my second ever set put together some months ago.

Perry Multi Part Plastic (plus one metal casualty in the back row)

A better comparison is with the Front Rank metal HYW crossbowmen. These have some great personality and dynamic poses but are somewhat stylised in body form and as such cannot be mixed on the same stand with the Perry's but on separate stands they look nice. 

Front Rank crossbow men - nice detailed and characterful sculpts

Overall however I'm really pleased with how these came out -- especially the added crossbow strings and bolts (sorry these are rather too long!). At first I thought I could simply paint on fletching but this looked terrible so I ended up with some simple paper fletches like I use when I'm making stand alone arrows. While it's a pain in the but to locate them they came out nicely. All of this will stand me in good stead for the dozens of English archers I will have to string and give arrows too ...

This grizzled veteran is my favourite 

Next up perhaps some skirmishers and a simple house using the Terra Formers terrain system that I've decided to commit too -- just picked up cocktail sticks for my wattle fencing 😖 which I'm planning on weaving with some thick textured paper.

Voting for AHPC X Challengers' Choice is Now UP!

My apologies for the cross posting, but I interrupt our regular programming to announce that the voting for AHPC X Challengers' Choice is now up! So I invite you all to get a refreshing beverage, take in the gallery of worthy nominations and cast your votes.

Thanks!

Curt

PeteF: Hearthguard for SAGA Age of Magic (20 points)

There are two local groups that play SAGA - most of our games are Age of Vikings, a few are Age of Crusades and a number of people are interested in Age of Magic. Most of my fantasy stuff is based on big multibases for Kings of War so I'm starting from scratch to build my SAGA AoM armies - although some of the monsters will work for both systems on their existing bases.

These are Mantic figures for Kings of War/Vanguard from the Northern Alliance faction - not sure where they got the brilliant idea for a bunch of fur clad northern beserk beardy types wearing heavy furs and wielding even heavier weapons.  The tiny head/big shoulders aesthetic is typical Mantic.

Three of the figures are made from that Restik stuff and I'm not really a fan - there always seem to be a lot of mold lines and I inevitably miss a couple and can't face cleaning it up once there's paint on the model. Restik does support a lot of detail - perhaps too much.

Not having an Osprey to turn to I consulted with a colour expert to try and fix some of the initial problems I had trying to find something to work with the blue - I really like the colour shift paints for fantasy metallics.  This one is "Blue Raspberry" from Turbodork.

In the SAGA system a unit of hearthguard is one point and the recommended army size for Age of Magic is 8 points so I'm hoping to get a whole army finished over the course of the quarantine, even allowing for other distractions. I played my first game of quarantine SAGA on Table Top Simulator last week and it was a lot of fun - it's quite easy to accidentally drop your figures and have them go rolling all over the place - at least you don't have to reglue and repaint them.

AdamC: Dismounted Cavalry American Civil War

Here I am presenting two small units of Civil War Dismounted cavalry.  The Yankees were mostly painted before the Winter Challenge but not completed. 

 Since the goal here is to finish hobby tasks I figure the fact that these have been hanging fire for some time matters not at all.

 I have enough figures now to dismount most (if not all) of my Union Cavalry now.

 The Rebels are the left overs all using pistol which is the one thing I don't like about Bluemoon's ACW range.  Far too many of the dismounted cavalry have pistols not some sort of carbine, rifle or shot gun as their active weapon.

These guys will probably get split up among other units so they can have a more appropriate weapons mix.   For those who may wish to know how the Carriere family is doing during these difficult times I'll be posting at least once a week on my regular blog: Isolation Updates

From MartijnN: A Small Affair

Hello everyone,

As this is my first contribution a little introduction might be in order. Like so many I took up wargaming in my teens, but eventually life got in the way. Since some time I have sort of returned, although I have always kept buying and collecting so my lead/ plastic mountain is sizeable enough. I haved followed the Challenges from Challenge Ate on. I took up the brushes again some time ago but never found the courage to join in.  I have always been a slow painter and not a very good one, but find painting helps me unwind and nowadays I have more time for it. Now I should just find some opportunities to actually get some games in, but in the present circumstances that obviously will have to wait.

As I have always dreamed of being able to recreate complete historical battles these days I tend to paint smaller scale stuff: 6mm WWII for Rommel, 10mm ACW for Age of Freedom, and I am now working on 6mm armies for 1859/ 1866/ 1871.

Here I present the provisional brigade formed from the corps cavalry of III and IV Prussian corps during the 1866 battle of Königrätz, consisting of 3rd Uhlans and 2nd Dragoons. The figures are from the excellent Baccus range and I have been experimenting with the Citadel Contrast paints, as well as using the trusted Vallejo acrylics.

Then there are two artillery batteries. The guns are more suited for the Franco-Prussian War, but at this scale who really cares? In the 1866 war the performance of the Prussian artillery was less than satisfactory, would you believe it, it being often outclassed by their Austrian counterparts.

Of course, being Prussians, they took steps to correct this and 1870 would be another game entirely.

As long as you don't look too closely (which you would not, normally; the darn things are tiny!) they more or less look the part I think. 

From TomM: T'au SEED Destiny: UMF/SSO-3 ASH

Well, I had hoped to present this post as my newest Kill Team force, ready to go to battle in Kill Team at the local club.

But once again, something new isn't embrased by the local player base (you should have seen the discussion about Beta Bolters back when those where published...) so well, this is just my newest entry in the slow building force of T'au, based on the SEED Destiny anime.

The Stealth suits are in my opinion nice little sculpts, and honestly, for Kill Team they have a great skillset.  The -1 to hit and the high armour makes them pretty resistant, the multishot burst cannons can wrack an opponent to high heaven, and the fly rule of the suits makes them mobile as heck.  Sure, you are heavily outnumbered, but then again you have the cheap markerlight drones to fill out the force, take hits for your suit, AND add markerlights on the enemy...

The Inspiration:

Seen in episode 13 of the anime, when the Freedom makes his glorious return to the franchise, the ASH suits are new high tech infiltration suits created by ZAFT.  Hence the SSO in their designation, being part of the Special Ops wing of the organisation.

While the anime version is well armed as well, with beam claws and missile pods, I choose to copy their colour scheme.  The burst cannons nicely represent the fast firing pods, while the fusion blaster is a good representation of the beam weapons.

So that's the fourth unit of my force now completed, maybe it's time to build more of the actual "mainstay" suits for the force, the Crisis suits, next...

From AlexS: Depression after the event.

Hello to all! My name is Alex, I am from Russia and I have a paint depression. I participated in the tenth paint challenge, took the tenth place and now I do not really want to paint. I have something to do at home - two young children and studying students at a distance takes most of my time. But still, hobbies are an important part of my life and I agreed with pleasure to take part in quarantine challenge. But I just can’t force myself to pick up brushes. Help me! Tell me - paint! And I'll start painting! But what to steal? I just can’t choose, tell me - which is better - 

- cowboys?

- civilians in the 18th century?

  - African warriors? 

-  or do something else? Help me, write in the comments, what should I choose?

From ClarenceH: Quindia Studios

I've never taken part in the Analogue Hobbies challenges before, but I've seen entries from many of you on your own blogs. I've been meaning to join in, but always seem to miss the launch. It was pure luck that I saw Curt's post on this challenge.

For those who don't know me, I'm Clarence Harrison, but my online presence is usually associated with Quindia Studios. I've been painting models for a stupid long time and I've managed to turn my hobby into a mildly profitable business. My partner, Barry Hilton, and I have produced a number of wargame rule sets (Beneath the Lily Banners, Donnybrook, and Republic to Empire) under the name of The League of Augsburg. We also make numerous accessories such as flag sheets and uniform guides, primarily for our main period of interest 1660-1720.

I collect models for way too many periods and I am preparing to start ANOTHER, which will be the focus of work for the challenge: The Sword and the Flame, Sudan 1885.

I'm still waiting on the first of my models to arrive (Perry Cameron Highlanders), but they have been shipped so I hope to be able to get started later this week!

I'm looking forward to taking part in the challenge!

From SanderS: Star Wars Legion Empire Characters (42 points)

Hoi There!

Usually we would now be suffering from withdrawal symptoms due to lack of the AHPC going on. Luckily, the one good thing this whole Corona business has conjured up is this Quarantine Challenge.

So I am still beavering away at the Star  Wars Legions commission I was asked to paint during the AHPC. After I finish the Empire troops, my client wants me to paint his Rbel Scum as well, 48 more figures in the ropes then.

Darth Vader:

 Imperial Stormtrooper Officer

Boba Fett

Imperial Medical Droid

Imperial Astrodroid

Imperial Army Communications Trooper

I really do like how Boba and specially Vader turned out, I am chuffed even if I say so myself!
Just like Curt I will be trying to keep track of points painted (hence the points mentioned in the title ;-) Never you mind that, it's so so I can keep track.

Cheers Sander