My Challenge concludes

As the '3rd Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge' drew to its epic conclusion earlier this week, it seems only fitting to reflect on my small contribution to this runaway success of an idea. 

I am so delighted that I plucked up the courage to enter this year and I cannot thank my fellow Ronin enough for all their kind words of encouragement and more importantly their own magnificent contributions, some of them truly staggering in both quantity and quality.

There is of course one man in particular that must be wholeheartedly acknowledged before I go any further and that is the legend that is Curtis Campbell Esq. - editor in chief of  'Analogue Hobbies'.  How he managed to process all the posts, take time to reply to emails and even paint his own delightful contributions is a mystery to us all and an achievement not short of Herculean in stature.

So to my personal challenge; we were asked to consider a 'par' score before we started, something to aspire to, a goal if you will.  A rough calculation of what had transpired this time last year with regards to miniature painting equated to total of 420 points* so it seemed not unreasonable to me to pitch in with a 500 point 'par' score it was, after all, supposed to be a challenge! 

*Tally arrived at by using the marking matrix laid out in the initial briefing.

 I was under absolutely no illusions that I was in with a shout of winning the competition, you must remember that I had prior knowledge of how the painting colossus that is Ray Rousell, swept to glory last year with a cumulative score of 4940 points!** However when the  list of my fellow Ronins' 'par' scores was posted I harboured a secret dream of bagging a top twenty spot.  It soon became clear though that the blood lust of the competition roused many a sheathed paintbrush to spring to life and self imposed targets began to tumble, while new ones were implemented almost on an daily basis; it really was wonderful to watch.  All this meant that sadly I was to fall just short of my dream, finishing an honourable 23rd; I did, however, manage to reach, and even surpass, my own 'par' finishing with a thumping tally of 536!

**Those cries of 'sandbagging' now just a distant murmur on a fell wind.

 What follows is a shameless pictorial representation of my efforts, some of which will feature more prominently in '28mm Victorian Warfare' at a later date, presented here in roughly chronological order.

Highlander shown for scale and not entered in the challenge!

Although the podium finishers have already been decided, and my sincere congratulations go to Chris, James and Kev, there are still some prizes up for grabs.  I wholeheartedly encourage you to pop over to 'Analogue Hobbies' to see for yourself the awe inspiring amount of work that was submitted over the three months, you can even cast a vote for your favourite too - if it were to be for one of my entries that would be absolutely splendid, but one should not feel under any obligation to do so.

As a final aside take a look at what didn't get painted - a staggering .... points of loveliness!  We were permitted to assembly, prepare and even prime our miniatures before the official start date; having grossly over estimated my production rate the question that remains is do I carry on regardless or do I put them away for next year?