From NoelW: Penultimate pot pourri of painted pieces

As we’re nearing the end of the Quarantine Challenge (but not necessarily nearing the end of lockdown as, as far as I can see, little has changed for people like my family) I decided it was time to review my plan, as it was certainly “ganging agle-y”. I'd originally planned for 23 projects, each of which I wanted to touch twice (once to complete something already begun, once to do something new). By last week, I’d touched 14 of the 23 projects, addressing only 22 of the hoped-for 46 “slots” – not even half!

So, with time trickling out through the plughole of existence, I decided I’d aim to use the last couple of weeks to gesture in the direction of as many of the remaining projects as possible. This is a bit of a cheat, really, as I’d intended much more than this, but other things have eroded my time, so this is simply a way of making me feel a bit better about myself, as well as getting a few more projects chugging infinitely slowly forwards.

Here, then, is my penultimate post of smallish offerings, from several projects. 

First off, the American War of Independence. This has long been a conflict I’ve been interested in (since the days of O level history, in fact), but a project I’ve constantly failed to get back to. So, with a concerted effort, here’s a contribution for both sides.

For the Americans, a “butterfly”:

And for the Brits, the 45^th, Nottinghamshire, regiment:

Next, a Congreve Rocket for my Waterloo setup. I try to add something each year to the Waterloo collection around the time of the anniversary. This is a Warlord model. I find their offerings quite varied in quality, perhaps because they tend to buy up other smaller firms, but this model I really like, as it gives an unusual dynamism to the Napoleonic battlefield.

I’ll finish with a couple of Lord of the Rings characters. Hama, who is definitely one of the good guys, swallowed, according to Peter Jackson, by a warg en route to Helm’s Deep:

And Denethor, Steward of Gondor. Now, is he Good or Evil? He’s wearing black, so that seems definitive. Except pretty much everyone in Gondor wears black, so that’s not much help. As the faithful steward who turns out to be faithless, and the loving father who sets his son on fire, perhaps neither Good nor Bad, just slightly conflicted.

(Apologies for the overexposed photos, BTW.)

That’s 26 foot (130 pts) and 2 war machines (20 pts) = 150 pts. Cumulative total for the challenge: 1494

And the state of play of my projects, with less than a week to go, 26 of my hoped for 46. Can I complete another 20 projects in 5 days?

Project	New Task	‘Points’	Old Task	‘Points’
Agincourt
AWI	Farmstead	3	US Butterfly British 16 foot	30 80
Black Seas (1/700th)	2 merchants	20
British in Egypt: 1801			Generals de Rolls’ regiment	30 60
Cape Wars	12 infantry	60
Carthaginians
Crusades	Command group	20
ECW
French in Egypt: 1801	Guns	50	Command Gun crew	75
Frostgrave/fantasy	3 Treemen	24	Frankie	5
Italian Wars
Lord of the Rings	Swan Knights Denethor Hama	60 5 5	Harad cavalry Harad infantry	60 45
Minden (15mm)
Ottoman
Peninsular War			12 Spanish	60
Republican Romans
Sikh/Afghan Wars	Command stand 8 Irregulars	15 40	11 irregulars	55
1860s British IF	Command base	15	Union rebasing	0
1880s, the Sudan	Buildings	15	18 British	90
Walmington/Sealion	6 landing craft	30	3 Civvies 6 zombies Bandstand	15 30 2
Waterloo			Congreve rocket	20
WW2 Desert	3 trucks 39 Afrika Korps	30 195	15 Italians	65
Zulu War	NNI Frontier Horse Natal Carbineers	30 60 50	Pearson & Chelmsford 4 foot	25 20
TOTAL		727		767

From NoelW: Playing both sides: Lord of the Rings

As time is running out, I thought I’d try hard this week to do something for as many of my outstanding projects as possible, to see how close I could get to achieving my original plan. It turns out: not very.

My son decided we should watch The Fellowship of the Ring. Dammit! I’ve been such a sucker for that story all my life, since first picking up the book in the school library in 1967. So, whenever we watch the film, I automatically resurrect a LOTR project. It's a compulsion. (You don’t want to know how many LOTR projects I’ve started. I’ll give you a hint: currently there are 11 Gandalfs in the house. And possibly some I've forgotten).

So this time I made another stab at forces for the Pelennor Fields. For the side of all that looks real Good wearing of the white hat of truth, justice and the Gondorian way, here are 12 Swan Knights, currently looking for their horses:

Whilst for their dastardly foes, representing all that is Dark, Evil and almost certainly unnecessarily smelly: 6 mounted Haradrim 

and 9 on foot:

That’s 21 foot and 6 mounted 28mm figs (all GW, of course), so 165 points, making my imaginary total for the Challenge 1454 points (although nothing for the side challenge with Stuart this week. He may have me beat.)

So far am I from the plan I began with, I'm not posting an update this week. Just imagine everything is going amazingly well, on course for a spectacular successful save in the final fortnight, then if you expect to be disappointed at the finishing line at least that expectation will succeed.

From RossM: Misc 28mm - 7 points

Another small post with a few pieces that have been lingering around for too long. 

First up is an old figure from Citadel or Marauder Miniatures back in the day. Always liked this figure and painted this one too match some skeletons from a previous AHPC.

Next up are a two pieces of scatter terrain from Games Workshop's Lord of the Rings SBG. These have been painted with an arid climate in mind and as a result only one has some additional scenic material added. 

These will see a fair amount of use when gaming is able to start again in the future and will included games such as Mortal Gods and the Rampant series. 

So where does this take the AHQC totals to? Well it will be no surprize that this isn't a high hitter on the points front however every little helps as they say

These are worth a grand total of 7 points - 5 for the skeleton and 1 each for the terrain pieces. This takes the running total to 135 points out of 500 or 27% so a little progress made. 

Hope that you found this interesting

Cheers for now

From RossM 28mm Gondorian Swordsmen (60 points)

First post of the Analogue Hobbies Quarantine Challenge and here twelve of Gondor's finest.

The swordsmen were originally purchased not long after the release of the Return of the King film in 2003/4 so they have waited a long time to see the business end of a brush.

Also included are a Captain, Denethor Steward of Gondor, a Standard Bearer and a veteran swordsman just behind the standard. 

Throughout this challenge will be including a points total as I am looking to complete another 500 points worth of figures. This time, however, this will include previously started items as well as newly painted figures.

Have enjoyed painting these figures and there will be more of the same during this challenge along with a few other things from here and there.

Cheers for now

From TomM: Elven Council Circle

Oh I love this model, produced by Dark Realms as part of their February Patreon releases.

Based on the council of Elrond from Lord of the Rings (heck, why do you think I backed that Patreon...) this makes a great display piece for the forces of Rivendell.

After spending about a week on and off printing the model, I sat down and gave it a paintjob to which I put in some more effort then usually for scenery, because it should look epic during Battle Company games.

The pillars where done by basecoating them with Vallejo Earth, then loosely applied Vallejo Heavy Ochre over it.  Consequent drybrushes of Vallejo Yellow Ochre and Iraqi sand brought it to the desired colour.

For the water, it was all Vallejo again, going from a base of Imperial Blue to drybrushes with Intense Blue, Magic Blue and finally Ice Blue, while the rocky edge was vallejo Dark Rubber drybrushed first with Cold Grey and then Sky Grey.

I really like how it turned out as a result, and check out the Patreon if you are into Middle-Earth, it is truly worth the 10USD a month.

From SanderS: "The Beacons are lit, the Corona Beacons are lit!" (10points)

Hoi,

Remember me telling you guys I had bought a 3D printer? Well it's been running almost non-stop and is making some lovely terrain and vehicles, part of which you have been able to see in my last Star Wars Legion post. I have printed quite some fantasy buildings and Heroquest furniture.

A lot of the companies that produce STL files for us home-printers, have released free samples during this Corona lock-down and this one I really liked the idea of: it's a version of the beacons of Minas Tirith from the Lord of the Rings done by RM Printable Terrain. The idea is that the beacon shines a little ray (down Roussel they don't mean you!) of Hope into our hearts and homes. I didn't print the groundwork base because I want to use it with my terrain-mat or Venice terrain.

The roof is lift-off and has a nice peg and hole so you always know how to place the roof back on.

 I included some of my old GW LotR figures just for fun, oh boy I wish I hadn't because they really need re-basing and re-painting...

 As far as points go, since this is not a building with walls all round I am awarding myself 10 points.
I am printing more GI Joe vehicles and some Medieval Terrain right now as well as painting 28mm Napoleonics and even more SWL figures...