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The seventh edition of Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge has concluded.  In fact, in concluded, like, nearly a month ago, on March 21st...man time flies! Anyway, after a slight delay caused by real life etc. here are the concluding submissions I made to the Challenge.

SAGA Warlords

These figures were submitted as part of the final theme round - which if I recall correctly was "characters from a movie, book, TV or song" or something along those lines.  Anyway, if anyone out there has listened to "Horse Soldier" by Corb Lund, you will recall some lyrics referencing the opponents of the Crusades.  This lined up nicely with my SAGA project, so I did two warlords - one for the Crusaders and the other for the Saracens.

These are 28mm figures from the Perry's incredible First Crusade range. The shield decal on the Crusader Warlord is from LBMS. These shield decals are a total life-saver, as there is just not enough time in the world to be painting all of the shields...

[Image] Warlords for my SAGA Crusade warbands...Crusader on the left, Saracen on the right, both 28mm figures from Perry Twins' amazing range of First Crusade castings [Image] Completed four point SAGA Crusader warband
The Crusader warlord figure finished off my four-point SAGA warband for the Crusaders.  The Saracen warlord is the first figure I have painted for that warband, and while I'm keen to get that finished, the Saracens are at the back of the priority list again for now as I try and track down some different figures, and the general waxing and waning of different painting interests. You know how it goes...

Anyway, for the second year in a row I managed to submit something for every theme round, and that worked out rather nicely!

Epic Warlord Titan - "Curtgeld"

[Image] Warlord Titan, old school style!! In each edition of the Painting Challenge Curt will ask participants to submit a figure in line with a theme that strikes his whimsy as he organizes the proceedings.  These figures have come to be known as "Curtgeld". There was a twist this year as he asked for participants to work together - the Curtgeld had to be some kind of joint effort between at least two of the Challenge participants.

[Image] WIP photo - you can see all of the black sections and the unfinished base...that would fall to Iannick to complete!
Challenger Iannick suggested we team up for an "all-Canadian" Curtgeld. After we bounced a few ideas back and forth we settled on doing an old-school plastic Warlord Titan from the original "Adeptus Titanicus" game.  Curt loves Epic and loves the old school GW models, while both Iannick and I are big fans of the Horus Heresy, and Iannick is a recent convert to the madness that is Epic 30k.  I was pretty psyched about the project.  Fortunately I had a few of these lovely old plastic models still on their sprues in my hoard, so I dug one out and got to work on it. 

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These classic models lend themselves very well to the unique challenge of sharing the painting duties on a single figure. The pseudo-medieval markings used by the Titan Legions, and the style of armour plating they wear, make a divided/reverse marking pattern possible.  It's still tricky, but possible.

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I did the basic assembly, priming and metal components, and painted the purple "half" of the armour sections.  Iannick painted the other half of the armour, and finished off the ground work, completed the base (which included the old void-shield-counter wheel!) as well as the Marines on the base, which add a lovely sense of proportion to the machine.

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In our hobby-ing I think we have all, at some time or another, over-painted, re-painted or heavily updated a model or figure that we either received second-hand or just wanted to re-do. In fact, as you can see elsewhere in this blog, my good friend Dallas is quite the master of that kind of project.  But jointly finishing the painting of a single figure would be really tricky, and I have to credit Iannick for the outstanding results, because he had the hard part - the finishing!  He did a great job with the bands on the leg armour, the colour and the basing. The model benefits tremendously from his smooth, careful painting style.

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The photos of the finished model are so nice thanks to Iannick and his hipster light box.  He did a very helpful set of tips on miniature photography as well, so go check that out on his blog.  You will also see cool halflings, hilarious theme submissions, and more Epic 30k awesomeness, and that is just from the recent Painting Challenge. In fact, Of Marauders and Citadels is a blog you should add to your list!

Great work Iannick - this was a lot of fun!  Your painting skills are tremendous!  Thanks very, very much!

It will also be great fun to light this thing up on the table during a game of Epic sometime...

The Missing Curtgeld...

I was also collaborating with former Conscript Sean M on a Curtgeld, but Canada Post did us in, as Sean's work did not arrive at my place for completion until the day after the Challenge was finished. I have committed to Sean that I will finish it regardless, so watch this space for progress on that score - before the summer I hope. Life has kept me away from the painting table for a few weeks, but I hope to be back at it soon.

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The seventh edition of the Painting Challenge was a real blast. I had a great time in my side duel with Iannick, Jaime and Alex, particularly because I was successful! While it was a lot of fun to send a figure over to Jaime's collection last year, I had been plotting for revenge for nearly a year, so it's nice to see a plan come together!

The best part of the Challenge, however was the spirit of fun and encouragement that built between the participants, and letting your own priorities and focus be tested (and bested) by inspirational jolts which come courtesy of the other submissions.  While I did finish a lot of 30k stuff (yay!) I also ended up dusting off and painting up figures from my Warmaster Collection as well as ending up dipping into a new game and period (SAGA Crusades).   It's more than my own fiddly attention span - it's also the excellent and inspiring work of the other participants!  And while the others continue to inspire my wandering, it is also a lot of fun to see some of the settings and scales which I am so keen on spreading among other participants.  I expect next year will see even more 30k, and particularly Epic 30k, even as I'm already plotting some kind of "Hail Caesar" insanity...

A number of the very talented participants in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge will be testing their skills in the "Lead Painters' League" as well, so be sure to check that out.  If you can sort out the Lead Adventure Forum and the League's byzantine rules etc. you can even vote for them!