3rd Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge

Well after having a lot of fun with this Challenge last year, I have joined in once again this year for Curt Campbell's Painting Challenge hosted at his excellent blog; Analogue Hobbies, which is actually a great blog title too in these days of electronic entertainment!

The underlying theme of this years event is the 47 Ronin, and it appears I have become one of these listed entities, presiding at an alphabetical rank of #39.

Curt's challenge has always been focused at the Historical spectrum of the wargames hobby, and I was unsure whether it would be worth entering, as I knew my personal model painting focus this year, from the time of the event, would be the 'The Hobbit' range of miniatures by GW.

There has been much web based angst at the prices of the newly released figures, but I have had to bite the bullet and press on...

Curt, has very graciously accepted The Hobbit / LotR figures into the Challenge, which is very sporting of him. So I may get a chance to score a few points after all :-)

I always viewed Tolkiens work as quasi-historial anyway; he did after all intend it as an 'alternative history' of the world.

As always I do not expect to win, as there are some phenominal painters in the Challenge, both in quality and output, but its nice to be involved and along for the ride :-)

I also have another slight problem - I have just embarked on building "Goblin Town" - a 4' x 4' terrain board full of rocky outcrops and levels, and a plethora of wooden platforms.

I know Curt doesn't include terrain in the Challenge and that is fair enough as it would be impossible to score fairly...

Now here's a thing! Curt's tweaked the points slightly this year to make painting larger models slightly better scoring, which suits me fine as I prefer the 28mm scale anyway. But, we have to set ourselves a Personal Challenge Par! In other words whats our personal target of the challenge...

Last year I managed a little over 600pts if I recall correctly. However last year I managed to do a whole pile of 15mm FoW stuff, which whilst it has its own challenges, I think can be painted faster than 28mm single models. Equating that 600pts to 28mm foot figures at 5pts per pop, thats about 120 figures!!! For me thats a lot! I think I typically average about 30 figures a month... so over 3 months of the Challenges thats 90 figures and a little more than 500 points...

As it happens I got home tonight and found the The Hobbit Ltd Ed Starter set waiting for me in the mail. Well thats going to be part 1 of my Personal Challenge Par. I'd like to think I can get that done which is about ~56 figures. Add to that the set of Trolls if I can source them and receive them and get them done in time before the challenge ends I'll be happy. Even if the trolls dont score me points, I dont mind but they are part  my Challenge to me! So thats my 'Par' at this point. And of course whatever new releases GW may do between now and March could well be factored in. So the not knowing , will be part of the excitement.

I may slot a few other bits and bobs in as time allows ;-)

So I am happy to contribute in my own small way to this Challenge and wish all the rest of my fellow 'Ronin', all the best in their endeavors!

Right, what am I doing sitting here,  in my best 'Saruman' accent; " We have work to do!"