Limitations

“A man’s got to know his limitations…” - Dirty Harry.
A while ago I accepted my boss Jasper’s challenge to join in the Analogue Painting Challenge. All I had to do was 400 points worth of models, which equated to 80 28mm figures in only about three months. ”Easy!” I thought… How mistaken I was… I suspect Jasper had similar issues, but at least he was able to post some of his miniatures.

It’s not as if I didn’t do any painting. Models did get painted, it’s just that real life got in the way. Running a magazine can be quite hectic at times and deadlines are something you simply cannot ignore. So while I was getting paint & brush to miniature, I forgot to actually record the process in the challenge until it was too late. An additional issue arose when I realised that according to the rules, you had to post your painted miniature on the Challenge first before posting it elsewhere. Naturally everything I do generally gets posted on here first. I have a quota to make here as well!

I had grand plans and dreams, one of which was finishing my Gates of Antares Concord and Ghar armies. These still remain ‘undercoat grey’ - my main stumbling block here was thinking of a good looking colour scheme, which is actually pretty hard. It’s not an issue I’ve enountered so much with historicals! You generally know roughly what colour they have to be. The Antares stuff will get painted soon (well, as soon as I have a colour scheme I like), just after the Napoleonic Russians. These must be done next for the Borodino game we’ve got planned.

So how did I do? ‘Stuff’ got painted. I managed to complete some 36 Russians and several mid-paint, vehicles in 28mm and 15mm plus to odd experimental miniature (such as the British and some gangsters for Chicago Way). Not eighty models though and none recorded by the challenge.

As the deadline approached, I made a conscious effort to put the challenge to one side and get the magazine finished. I accepted my failure for the greater good (keeping my job!). Victory to Jasper!

I do believe that challenges like this one are an excellent way of focussing your painting efforts. Should the Analogue Painting Challenge run again later this year, I will enter it again. The next time it will be with a better understanding of my limitations.