My entry for the 'Myth' themed bonus round

The latest Bonus Round of this years Painting Challenge is in full swing. This time it's all about 'Myth'. To make sure you don't miss out on many fantastic interpretations of the topic make sure you head over and cast your votes. The poll is only open till sunday so no time for hesitation!
Curt has changed his way of publishing the submissions so now you can comment on each individual entry if you wish so.

10th submission to the challenge: 28mm BEF Support Weapons (30 Points)

A less productive week this time but progress nonetheless:

9th submission to the challenge: 28mm WWII Pak 36 & BEF Infantry Section with Command (90 Points)

Somehow I totally forgot to post my latest submission to the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge:

Not really a points bomb the scale of some of you guys are capable of but for me it comes pretty close. This week I was lucky to have had some spare time and so I got some figures done.

First is a 28mm PaK 36 for my early WWII Germans.

My entry to the 'Victorian' themed bonus round

For the latest themed bonus round over at the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge Blog it was all about the Victorian age. There you'll find some very creative interpretations of the theme and the poll is still open so make sure you'll have a look and cast your vote(s) for your favourite(s).
As always below you see my submission to this round:

7th submission to the challenge: Zombicide Survivors (30 Points)

Below you'll find my 7th submission to the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge:

Doing some necessary renovation work at home the last week left me with little to no time to paint. But as today is a holiday in this part of Germany I made good use of the free time and finished the six survivors from the 'Zombicide Season 1' game.

We're all Charlie!

Normally I try to keep this blog strictly related to little toy soldiers but following yesterdays events in Paris there's no way for me to let this be uncommented.

Across all borders this is to our french brothers and sisters:

You're not alone!

6th submission for the Challenge: 28mm Crusader Crossbowmen (40 Points)

Totally forgot to post my other Wednesday submission to the Challenge:

For my todays second submission I visited the hot lands of Outremer again to add some retinue to my Monsieur Jaufrè de Montalban whom I entered for the 'Mount(s) & Rider(s)' Bonus Round.

5th entry to the challenge: 28mm Blitzkrieg German Pioneers (40 Points)

The first of my two latest entries to the Challenge over at the infamous Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge:


With the Challenge already on full steam I had to finally pull out my finger and get going. So here's the first of two submissions for today. Here we have eight 28mm Pioneers from Warlord Game's superb "German Pioneers" boxed set. 

  

Good bye 2014 here's 2015!

It's a nice habit throughout the world to use the arrival of a new year to cast a doleful eye over the goals and achievements of the last year and make new goals for the year ahead.

Plans and achievements in 2014:

What was I planning to do in 2014?

• First and foremost I want to get all the stuff painted I prepared for Curt's Annual Analogue Hobby Challenge. This includes some Fallschirmjäger, British Paras for Bolt Action (500 pts. worth of), some more early Saxons, some republican Romans and some odds and ends. Well, I got quite some stuff prepped but only a little done so FAIL!

• After the challenge I want to add to my Late Romans and the Early Saxons in order to have two well sized forces for Dux Bellorum and later on Impetus. Actually I think I could already field a 32 pts. Roman force for Dux with 5 or 6 points of allied Saxons. Though there are so much nice figures out there... Epic FAIL! I only got a unit of 10 foot and 2 mounted as well as some rebasing done but that's about it.

•  And as my second big goal I'm aiming at completing a Great War Russian Army to fight my Germans. As an aside I want to use the Russians as Whites to attend to Partisan-Con in 2014. That's a small RCW/BoB Con in Mannheim Germany. You can find some nice pictures from the 2013 Con *here* (text in German). Well, this one  wasn't a complete fail as I got some command figures and 10 foot done but it's faaaaar from ready.

So what did I do in 2014 you may ask. Well, there were some things I previously haven't had on my radar. But let us have a look on the numbers first:

Over the year I painted:
28mm:
188 foot figures
5 mounted figures
7 Vehicles

15mm:
32 foot figures

Compared to a years total of 179 figures (all together) for 2013 I can feel quite satisfied I think. Especially considering a big amount of the figures was painted in the last three months of the year. All in all I painted and sold off far more figures than I managed to buy leading to my lead mountain melting like the arctic ice shelves in the summer. We'll see if the same is true for the new year.

But now let us have a quick look at what I really did in 2014 I haven't had on my radar before (only a selected few):

28mm Blitzkrieg Germans:

These really hit me without warning. I always enjoyed the later period of the war but didn't give much thought to the early years. But when I stumbled over the great plastic Pioneers set by Warlord Games I had to get them. And you won't believe it but I really painted up the whole box till sylvester.

28mm U.S. Army:

I came across a nicely painted and fairly priced U.S. Army for sale while browsing and so I made an old dream of mine come true. Of course I had to add to this force as soon as it arrived on my doorstep. This very force also helped me to overcome a lack of enthusiasm which plagued me for several months.

First Indochina in Greyscale:

Maybe the acquisition in 2014 that surprised myself most. I was pondering over the possibility to do something in Greyscale for quite some time but when inspiration finally struck I knew I had to do it.

15mm World War 2:

A topic I was interested in for quite some time but never really started before 2014. The Battlefront plastic U.S. Paras proofed to be a real treat to paint but at the moment their metal counterparts are sitting in my drawer as they're not even half as nice.

So now it's enough of 2014 and on to the plans for the year ahead!

Plans for 2015:

• 'Completing' my early war German force for Bolt Action. This should be pretty straight forward as there are just a few things left to get to a point where I can call this force ready for battle i.e. the Leutnant and his aide, an Artillery or Air Observer, a PaK 36, a HMG and a 50mm Mortar as well as some bits and bobs. Of course a wargamers army is never really completed so I might maybe even add a second box of infantry as well as the odd vehicle, artillery piece to it-

• Starting a British Expeditionary Force to oppose my Germans. In fact the first metal box from Warlord Games is already sitting on my desk right know awaiting the arrival of their missing heads.... why can't I ever get a complete set of figures from Warlord Games?

• Enlarge my U.S. Force. Well no definite plans but I'd like to add a fourth squad and maybe even a second BAR to each squad.

• Something in 15mm. Here I'm not totally certain about what to do. Maybe the Desert campaign?

• Continue with my First Indochina in Greyscale project. Getting all the figures done I already have and maybe some more, depending on the releases from Red Star Miniatures. And maaaaaybe even do some terrain in Greyscale. The Sarissa Precision 'Far East' line of MDF buildings does look pretty decent and using my airbrush they should be quite easy to do.

So with these plans in my head and the firm knowledge that no battle plan survives the first contact with reality, I'm looking forward to the months ahead!