Challenge Prep & Christmas Mayhem

Its been another very busy weekend of Christmas related mayhem and exhaustion. I'm actually glad to be back at work for the rest! Needless to say very little is happening on the hobby front, at least not while I'm at home. In fact I doubt if I'll get much done while I'm at home from here until after the New Year...the wife has me fully booked for household chores! I guess that's what we get for inviting lots of family round for Christmas Day and Boxing Day and hosting a joint New Years Eve slash 18th Birthday Party. We don't do stuff by halves in this house.

Despite the near frantic preparations I have managed to put together my 'challenge box' consisting of all the stuff I want to paint during the Analogue Hobbies Winter Painting Challenge. Like many other participants I'm currently busy trying to prep figures, build multi-part vehicles and prime models during my lunch breaks at work so that I have stuff ready to paint from day one of the Challenge. 

A couple of weeks ago I listed my initial to-do list for the Challenge but now that I have started gathering together the figures my list has changed a little. This is partly in response to models I have 'rediscovered' along the way and partly strategy (i.e. my attempt to accommodate the Bonus Rounds).

• 6mm Italian Bersaglieri Light Infantry Company - This consists of three platoons of Rifle/MG teams accompanied by HMGs and Anti Tank guns. I'm also adding a support platoon of Mortars and some P40 heavy tanks. I'm still waiting for some models to arrive but I should have everything by Mid January which gives me plenty of time to get them painted during the Challenge. 
• I have also dug out a project that never got beyond the primer stage last year. I put together a 15mm Panzergrenadier Platoon and got as far as undercoating the models just as I started putting together my 6mm stuff. In the end I put the Panzergrenadiers in a box and tucked them away untouched, but its high time I got these out and painted them. As already mentioned they are based and primed (my preferred method for working on 15mm stuff) but have not seen a lick of colour yet, so they are ideal candidates for completion during the Challenge. 
• I was planing on painting up a platoon of 15mm British Cromwell Tanks but as they are not part of a new company it seemed a bit of a waste of effort. However when I opened the box I found I had four Cromwell's and a Firefly inside and this game me a new idea. I'm going to paint several individual tanks for display only and I have a range of iconic vehicles just waiting in the wings including a Churchill Tank, a Tiger and a Sherman. I wouldn't normally base these for gaming with but as these are for display rather than gaming I'll make up some suitable bases for them. 
• As previously mentioned when I was at Blog-Con I was so inspired by the Blazing Dice game that I picked up a couple of blister packs (12 figures) of Wild West gunmen. These are 28mm foundry figures from their Wild West range and should make an interesting diversion from my normal fare.
• I also bought a couple of 2000AD character figures (Judge Dredd and Rouge Trooper) just to paint for fun. This was my Comic of choice as a kid and so I'm more familiar with these characters than I am the superheros of DC or marvel and as such they have a special place in my memory. 
• Working through my Lead Mountain I found several special models that I have bought on a whim and really ought to try and get painted at some point. These include a wonderful figure of Tom Bombadil from the Games Workshop and Bromhead by Black Scorpion. 

I've no idea if this is enough to reach the 600pt target I have set myself but hopefully I can pick up a few bonus points as we go along to bolster my tally.