Duelling Paintbrushes 2 - finished!

Well, it's the morning of Friday the 30th November, and I'm already at work. I get on a plane to Canberra this afternoon, so that means I am officially out of time for Duelling Paintbrushes 2. But that's OK, because I am finished! And I was successful! Well, sort of...

My success here is only partial. I did manage to paint a legal 1000 point Empire army in a month, which was my original stated intention. However, the finished product is not the same as the one I announced at the beginning. I realised pretty early on that my original target was overly ambitious, and there was no way I was ever going to get it done. I kept painting however, and about a week ago I decided that I could still hit the 1000 point mark if I just reshuffled my target a bit. So out went a couple of characters and 20 Free Company, and in came a Great Cannon and a couple of magic items.

My completed 1000pt Stirland force. Excuse the poor picture; I was in a hurry this morning

My 1000 point legal force is as follows:

• Wizard Lord (Level 3) with Talisman of Endurance, Warrior Bane (oh yeah, baby! The weakest of magic weapons for the fighter least deserving to get one)...
• Warrior Priest with great weapon, Armour of Meteoric Iron
• 42 Halberdiers with full command
• 16 Crossbowmen with standard bearer
• 5 Pistoliers with musician, outrider with repeater pistol
• Great Cannon

TOTAL: 996 points

Duelling Paintbrushes II - Pistoliers done! (4th update)

The final week of Duelling Paintbrushes II continues, and last night I had the rare opportunity to spend about 5 hours straight at the painting table as my wife was at work and our son was with his grandmother. I sat down at 6pm, and apart from a couple of breaks for food, I painted solidly through to 11:30 at night. And what do I have to show for it? 5 completed Pistoliers.

I took a couple of progress shots, but they're not terribly interesting. I just thought I might track things and pay attention to how long it actually took me to paint them. 

6pm: 5 Pistoliers, unpainted except for the bases (which I sneakily did last thing the previous night)

8:30pm. By this point I probably wasted half an hour eating, so this is about 2 hours of work. The horses and their leather components are painted, the metal bits are painted and washed, and I've done the green basecoat

Duelling Paintbrushes II - 3rd update

November is rapidly disappearing; we are now into the final week of Duelling Paintbrushes II. My updates have been few and far between this time around, however I have still been trying to make steady progress so that I would at least have something to report. And that's what this is - a progress report!

It's been more than a week since my last progress update, but it's taken me that long to reach the target I set out then. I have completed the final wave of 16 Stirland Halberdiers. This means I now have 42 in the unit. It's not enough for an effective unit in a proper battle, however with a decent unit filler the regiment will be a good, solid size.

The final 16 Halberdiers rank up for the camera

All 42 Halberdiers, somewhat tediously ranked up together. These current plastics really don't line up all that well, especially when most of them were assembled by a previous owner...

Once more to Masters

To war!

The year's end is fast approaching, which also means we've reached the conclusion of the Warhammer tournament season. This means the Masters, which will be held in Canberra on the weekend of December 1st-2nd. That's only a week and a half away now. My strong finish to the year with Axemaster means that I've wound up ranked 3rd in the country, so I'll be making the trip for the second year running.

Rather than building an army list from scratch for the event, I decided that I might as well stick with the formula that worked well at Axemaster. I had to trim 100 points off due to the 2400pt limit at the Masters, but that wasn't too hard. This is what my list looks like now:

• Arch Lector on War Altar with Great Weapon; Heavy Amour; Shield; Talisman of Preservation; Van Horstman's Speculum
• Wizard Lord (Level 4 Lore of Light) with White Cloak of Ulric
• 1 Captain of the Empire on Barded Warhorse with Full Plate Armor; Battle Standard; Charmed Shield; Talisman of Endurance; Biting Blade
• 50 Halberdiers with Standard; Musician; Sergeant
• Detachment: 5 Archers
• 9 Knights of the Inner Circle with Lance; Shield; Standard; Musician
• 24 Flagellants 
• 4 Demigryph Knights with Lance; Shield; Standard; Musician
• Great Cannon
• Celestial Hurricanum
• Steam Tank 

Duelling Paintbrushes II - 2nd update

After my rather poor start to the painting challenge this month, I now have some momentum up. Not enough that I'm likely to actually achieve my original target, but I might now get to the point where I am not too embarrassed...

After finishing the 16 Crossbowmen during the week (Tuesday night, I think), I then started to tackle the Halberdier horde. My first batch was only 10 models, and I managed to get them done by the end of Thursday. I then decided that I'd much rather finish the unit in 2 more batches rather than 3, so on Friday I started to paint 16 more of them. Late last night (Sunday), I declared them finished.

26 Halberdiers. A bit of static grass will brighten their bases a bit, but I'll do that at the end of the challenge.

Duelling Paintbrushes II - 1st update

This will be a bit of an experiment, as my computer is currently busy doing other things, so I'm posting from my phone. Bear with me...

Well, my start to Duelling Paintbrushes has not been everything I might have hoped. After setting myself a very steep target, I shot out of the gate and got 16 Crossbowmen mostly painted within a couple of days. Then I stalled. There were things on, and I didn't find any time to sit down at the painting table. Then Halo 4 came out on the 6th. I really should have factored that into my plans. Oh well. Anyway, that lost me a few evenings.

I'm actually away on holiday for a few days at the moment, and I am only now getting any real progress made. And we're already halfway through November. I am quietly admitting to myself that there is now no way that I am going to achieve my ambitious target. Nevertheless I shall soldier on and try to put a serious dent in the tally.

I'm reasonably happy with how the first unit has come out. They're also effectively my test models for the yellow and green Stirland scheme. The approach was fairly simple - the yellow with Iyanden Darksun, washed with Devlan Mud, then highlighted with Golden Yellow. Yes, I am still living in the past, using the old paints (or their Vallejo equivalents). The green is a similar approach - Dark Angel Green, Devlan Mud and a Snot Green highlight. None of it is fancy, but it will do the trick.

The next target is the large Halberdier unit. I've decided to do them 10 at a time, and the first batch is underway. Only 32 more to go... Sigh.

Quiz: Are you a wargamer?

I found this quiz on a couple of other blogs (Napalm Elf & Rebel Scum was where I spotted it first), and thought it would be a bit of fun. Here is how I did...

To genuinely call yourself a Wargamer, then you must have done most or all of the following:

Spent at least $1000 on figures/vehicles/monsters and you get extra kudos for every $1000 you've spent
Ah, well. Starting strongly here, I see. I would say that over the last 22 years I've probably spent $10,000 on models. It's not even that much when you space it out on a yearly basis, but it sure adds up. (10 points)

Covered your fingers in layers of superglue to the point where you can no longer bend themI'm normally a bit more restrained than that, but it has happened. And sometimes fingers are used to rescue other more valuable things when things go wrong... (1 point)

Duelling Paintbrushes 2: It begins

Today is the 1st of November, which means it's the first day of the second edition of Duelling Paintbrushes. I've been a bit lax in the lead-up to this, so I'm still yet to commit to my plans. Well, time to rectify this. Here is what I plan to paint in the next month:

• General of the Empire on foot
• Warrior Priest on foot
• Battle Wizard on foot
• Witch Hunter on foot
• 42 Halberdiers
• 20 Free Company
• 16 Crossbowmen
• 5 Pistoliers