First figure done

So I've uploaded my first figure to the Analogue Painting Challenge. That's five points of the intended 500. At this rate, I'll only take 900 days (the challenge ends March 20th).

I've actually quite a few figures on the stocks, and hope to make another submission before Tuesday (Tuesday is posting day) - there's 12 Spanish quite close to completion, and I'm quite pleased with them, though they're not a patch on what I used to be able to do, unfortunately. They should be followed by 6 cricketers for Walmington/Sealion, anf then maybe a handful of ECW figures, if I can organise them.

I've realised, too, that because terrain counts for points, this might be a nudge to finish some pieces, too, probably with Walmington or ECW in mind. At the very least, I've a ruined barn undercoated. And there's also the mealie bags for Rorke's Drift,

The submission was  Durnford for the Zulu Wars. I was pleased with the initial painting, which was quite subtle, but then I ruined it in varnishing, had to take remedial action, and the result is a bit muddy, and less "historical" than I wanted. It'll do, though, so Burt Lancaster will be able to join Michael Caine and Stanley Baker under the shadow of Isandlwana *I can never remember where the 'L' goes in that name).

Only four days to go...

To my birthday...
To the start of the Analogue Painting Challenge...

I'm not sure I'm on top of all the rules and conventions for this, but I shall make a valiant effort to do what is expected of me. Have been homing in on possible figures to give the 500 points. Current choices are:

Burgundian cavalry	6
French HYW crossbows	2
Zulus	24
ECW cav	14
Portuguese Naps	12
Barbarians	6
Brits in Egypt	12
Ramshackle barn	1
French cav in Egypt	6
Sailors hauling gun	5

That's a total of 585 points and would give me something in 7 different projects, plus one building.

Probably it'll change right up to the 20th, especially as some figures should arrive for me on the day itself.

Here's some I prepared earlier:

A new beginning

I've not blogged as a wargamer for several years. So much so, that when I returned to my old blogs, I couldn't access them! So I've decided on a brand new blog, to document my first forays in the Analogue Painting Challenge: thepaintingchallenge.blogspot.co.uk This year it starts, coincidentally, on my birthday (20th Dec) and finishes March 20th, 2018.

I've set a low target, 500 points. I'm hoping to get well over this, but don't want to tempt fate, as there may well be other calls on my time over the same period and I'm very fickle in my painting habits, so may well decide to finish some of the figs I've currently left part painted (so aren't eligible for the Challenge). But I've been trying to decide which 500 points to focus on. As always, I've about five times this number of figures I'm keen to work on, and an even bigger number of possible figs that I'd really like to have finished one day.

So I'll post a summary of what I'm intending a bit closer to the date. Best candidates at the moment. all 28mm, are:

• ECW, a project I'm just starting,
• French in Egypt, an exotic project with lots of figures still in the pipeline, mainly for the Brits,
• Spanish Napoleonic - the Perrys have just begun their range for this theatre, and I know I'll be getting some for Christmas (plan here is for a not-very-historical-but-quite-varied army)
• Boers and Brits for the Cape Frontier Wars - I've a decent Xhosa army, but not much in the way of opponents

There are, of course, many more projects in various stages of completion: a big Waterloo project (my favourite arena, which I keep returning to); Agincourt - I love the flags; a Sealion/Walmington skirmish; zulus, pirates, Crusades, Frostgrave, Lord of the Rings. And that's not the end of the list.