Württemberg Horse Artillery

This was my first entry in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge and it earned me 23 points on the way to my modest target of 400 points. Curt generously awarded me 3 extra points for the head conversion of the gunner carrying the ammunition.

The figures are from HaT set 8232

PS. for a view of my last batrep "from the other side of the hill", as it were, Paul of the Duke of 1815 blog has put his version of events from a French point of view  on his blog. A pack of lies, bigad!

Painting Challenge Prep

For once I'm being a little more methodical in my preparation for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge; I'm actually preparing the figures I'm going to paint ahead of time! The last couple of years I've still had quite a lot of units still to paint in preparation for our big January game; too many for my small and messy workspace!

This time I'm just painting for myself without the looming deadline of the first weekend after the New Year spurring me to finish the last few brigades. I've given myself the target of 400 points to complete and below will be the first few units to be undercoated before the off in 10 days' time.

1 of 2 HaT Wurttemberg artillery batteries

HaT Wurttemberg Jager zu Pferd

Zvezda French Cuirassiers

Curt was encouraging the issuing of challenges between entrants, so as one of two challenge participants painting in The One True Scale, I've challenged the other to a race to reach 200 points! Sander, I hope you've got your running shoes on! (Truly, without the pressure of a deadline, I reckon I'll not be painting at anything like the rate I was last year...)

Here We Go Again!

Thanks to a timely email from Curt, I was reminded of the approaching advent of the 5th Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. For some reason I had missed his post inviting all comers to this annual internet frenzy of painting. Thanks for the electronic nudge, Curt!

This year the theme is Anti-Heroes and with 72 entrants from 13 countries, it really is a behemoth of global proportions! I can see the possibility of Ned Kelly featuring as a particular Antipodean Anti-Hero! I may have to try my hand at a little conversion work...

This time I don't have the looming deadline of the annual January game as we will be fighting Waterloo for the second time (the first time was the year before I joined the club), so the required figures are all ready to go.

Even though I don't have a big project to power through, I do still have some things on the go like my Wurrtembergers.

So my plan for the Challenge will be to paint:

• 6 9-figure battalions of Napoleonic Wurrtemberg infantry
• 2 8-figure regiments of Napoleonic Wurrtemberg cavalry
• 2 batteries of Napoleonic Wurrtemberg artillery
• 1 8-figure regiment of Napoleonic French Cuirrassiers
• 3 8-figure bases of Late Antiquity Gothic heavy infantry
• 1 3-figure base of Late Antiquity Gothic skirmish infantry
• Various WWII Soviet infantry which I still need to finish for the worlds' longest running commission! 

I have put my name down for a target of 400 points, and have no idea whether or not this will be too ambitious a target or not! I suppose I could just do a little bit of maths...........Nah! Why break the habit of a lifetime? I'll just wing it and see how it goes!

Presenting...IV Corps!

Yes folks, after approximately 18 months and with one day to spare, IV Corps is finally finished and ready for action! (pauses for applause...)

Every unit is labelled and ready for the trip to Drouin tomorrow. Now the fun part: packing it all in the toolbox!

13th Div on the left, 14th Div on the right, reserve artillery and Guard in the centre, Corps artillery in the top right and Light cavalry division in the top left

Close up of 13th Div

Looking through the reserve artillery at 9e Ligne

I got the Italian 6 pounders and regimental guns finished last night and sent them through to Curt for display on his blog for the Painting Challenge, which, coupled with the French 12 pounders I sent through earlier in the week earned me 140 points to put me in 8th spot overall!

Now that the Borodino project is finished, I'm sure I'll slip down the rankings, while I recover from the fame and decide what to tackle next!

Post Script:

Packed and ready to go!

Artillery in the bottom, 14th Div in the left and 13th Div in the right, with Guard infantry divided between the two sides.

The scenery box becomes the cavalry transport and the top tray carries the infantry movement trays divided by division

Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge Entries 2 & 3

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas day however and wherever you spent it.

We traveled to my in-laws for morning tea over in the outer-eastern suburbs, then turned around and drove to my sister's place in the inner western suburbs for lunch! After traversing the city, I've decided that when I become Benevolent Dictator, families will have to live within a 2km radius of each other during Christmas. Any other time of the year they can live as far as they want, but they must live within walking distance on Christmas day! Besides the driving we had a great day with family and lots of yummy food.

Anyway, back on topic now. Below are the last couple of entries for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge: another regimental gun and gunner, and the last Italian chasseur unit, the 2nd Chasseurs to be precise. These two have popped me into 17th place as I write. Out of 61 entrants I'm up the front of the pack!

Again, the gun is a 15mm Eureka metal Austrian 6 pounder masquerading as a captured Austrian 3 pounder. The gunner is from HaT's early French artillery with head mod. The chasseurs are again Italeri French Light Cavalry with head mods, riding the horse from the Italeri Hussar set.

I'm putting the finishing touches on my last Bavarian cavalry regiment, then it's just a few more artillery bases and I'll be done!

More Bavarians

This is the first of 2 red fronted Bavarian cavalry units. One more and I'm done with Bavarians!

This lot earned me a healthy 56 points in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, too.

Next up, the last of the Italian chasseurs a cheval.

The eagle-eyed among you may have spotted the absence of the previous post. After it was pointed out to me by a fellow French commander that the annotations on the photos could provide useful intelligence to the enemy, I hastily pulled the post!

I admit to being careless with intelligence and am thankful that I wasn't taken out and shot for aiding the enemy! Loose lips sink ships, after all.

Rest assured that the pictures will be restored post-battle.

Two More Battalions to Go (and Then Some!)....+ The Analogue Hobbies Challenge!

The latest battalion leaves the workbench, ready for duty! Again, it's HaT 8095 with a ring in from 8167 and a few head mods into the bargain.

After finishing the last two battalions of line troops, I've got some velites and light troops to do to bolster my existing forces, artillery, and a few more cavalry units.

Coming next will be the Dragoni Regina, or Queen's Dragoons; The pink faced Italian dragoon regiment!

And finally; Yes, folks, it's that time of year again! I've thrown my hat into the ring for Curt's 4th Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge! This time his entry fee is a Sam Peckinpah inspired figure. Besides the "Wild Bunch" I'm not really familiar with his oeuvre. A bit of research will have to be done, I'm sure.

It's Over - Now for the Prizes!

Curt's 3rd Annual Analogue Painting Challenge has finally finished. Congrats to Chris, James and Kev for finishing 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively in the production stakes. And special congrats to Ray for gracefully pointing out an error in points calculation that put him out of the running for 3rd. Well played, Ray!

After pacing myself well early on, I limped to the finish only barely scraping past my estimated total of 660 points. After reaching the giddy heights of 16th out of 47, I ended up 31st. Not too shabby for my first effort, though; there were still 16 people in my rear-vision mirror!

Now the serious part; voting on the various categories. I can take part in the Challengers' Choice, but all of you out there who didn't take part are welcome to take part in the People's Choice award. That doesn't mean you have to vote for yours truly (though I would obviously be chuffed if you did...hint, hint!), as there has been some truly top notch entries along the way. Click the link above to peruse the entries and leave your choice as a comment if you feel so inclined.

It was a lot of fun and also helped (temporarily) to increase my output, while garnering lots of positive feedback from a lot of the usual suspects, but also some new faces whose blogs I hadn't caught up with until joining in.

Here's a selection of my entries just to refresh your memories: