Th Painting Challenge - Final Report

Incredibly how fast time flies when you are enjoying an activity. Unexpectedly, March 21^st arrived and the IX Challenge was suddenly called off. I couldn’t achieved my target points (750) but having obtained 637 points left me happy enough (my highest score in a Challenge so far).

This is a group photo showing all the models painted included in the customary wrap up post in the Challenge blog.

And now let’s look at the different entries since my latest post here

In late January I completed the third and last section of the British Airborne platoon for Chain of Command that, as you may remember, was the core project chosen for the Challenge. The third section was slightly different to 1 and 2, comprising two LMG (Bren gun) teams instead of the Rifle+LMG teams.

On the following weeks I spent most of the time painting support options for the paras. The last day of January I introduced the piece that I’m proudest: a 6 pdr AT gun towed with a Bren Carrier.

The markings are totally historical, a “46” on a blue & red square. The tractor was also painted using the Mickey Mouse cammo scheme frequently used in the Allied vehicles served by the British Army.

In February I painted some remnants of the British Paras (1 junior leader, a private and a flamethrower team)…

… and made a slight detour from the main project, completing a couple of  companies of Austrian Napoleonic Grenadiers…

… followed a month later by my latest entry into the Challenge, a mighty Sherman Firefly tank.

 

I also participated the third Bonus round labelled as “Water” presenting a Higging LC model made by Barrage Miniatures. In my initial planning, I should have also done a couple of squads of the Royal Marine Commandoes together with the landing craft, but family and professional demands restricted my ability to conclude them in time.

My very latest model (which was not finished in time to score in the Challenge) was this British Airborne communication jeep. Not vey useful in the table (except perhaps to mark a jump-off point) but nonetheless beautiful and irresistible to acquire when I saw it.

Very happy to participate and also to have been chosen as candidate for the first time to win the Challengers’ Prize, which was finally (and deservedly won) by Ken with his stunning Italian Wars project (worth taking a look, believe me)

And this was my IX Challenge performance. I once again had a hell of a time participating and must say that the quality achieved by the participants this year make it doubly enjoyable. Now a few months ;-) to rest and to prepare the X Challenge project which is just less than 9 months away.