The 11th Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge

And so it was; and so it was written.

Yea and verily, it's that time of year again: prep time for the yearly Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, as issued by The Painting Challenge blog...and this will be my first time doing it for the Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy team. I say "for," but I suspect "with" might be better.

Or maybe "against".

For it would appear that my esteemed colleagues [actually, I think they might all be my bosses?] here at WSS are quite a competitive bunch, and the ante has been upping and upping over the last couple of weeks: gauntlets have been thrown down, faces have been slapped and lines have been drawn in the sand. Whilst offical announcements of duels and professional emnity will doubtless be soon forthcoming on this blog and through our podcast, I thought I'd kick off today by outlining my own broad plans for world domination...

Firstly, my target is 500 points.

As most of my toys are 28mm WW2, I'm going to focus on building the bulk of my points through clearing those painting piles first. Honestly, this is quite advantageous, because I've a lot of vehicles to paint, and they clock in at 20 points each. Models are allowed to be primed beforehand, so I've had to discount a couple of mine for already having a base coat slapped on, but I've plenty still cued up in the vehicle park.

My 28mm RAF Regiment force (with additional support). Frustratingly, those models in blue are already base coated, so I don't think they can be used.

Most of them are either British or American too, so their monochromatic nature should help to speed things along (not that this has helped me to get enough of them finished to date!) but - as this makes me feel a little guilty - I'm going to offset this relative simplicity by also painting up my brace of Char B1 bis in some colourful and complex early-war French plumage too. That'll certainly slow me down! My Panzer III will require some careful attention too.

The vehicular support on my 11th Armoured Division force (plus some odds and sods). The three armoured cars are pictured below.

In terms of other things to paint beyond my vehicles, I inevitably have a LOT of 28mm infantry to plough through too, and I suspect many more of my US 92nd Div Buffalo Soldiers will get a look-in since I devised a farily speedy way to paint them earlier this year using Citadel Contrast Paints. And maybe some Gates of Antares figures. Oh, and I suspect Guy might also have some smaller-scale Hundred Years War models lined up for me to paint too...

Infantry and Sherman fun-time. That Sherman 105, by the way, doubles-up as the FIrefly 1C in support of the RAF Regt, above; once they're painted, this'll be the focus of a future blog post.

Were I a keenly competitive type, mind, I think I'd plump for painting 28mm Dark Ages light cavalry with Contrast Paints: clocking-in at ten points apiece, all that horseflesh and natural-toned clothing would fly by!

British recce elements - primed and ready for painting. Bonus points if you can spot the 'deliberate mistake'...

For now, wish me luck, and watch this space.

- Chris