Painting Contest, the final entry

I was going to do each item as a single post but time will not allow me to do this, so here is the lot in one go. I must say I was really happy to get all the figures I hoped to paint done. I painted more in the duration of the challenge than I have done at any other three month period. Even better, I still have the painting bug. I had a couple of days off and have jumped back into it with 108 6mm Napoleonic French Infantry and 4 28MM WWII Yanks all 2/3rd the way through and a bunch of Japanese 28's all cleaned and primed. More on these later as it's an interesting challenge all to itself.

16 British riflemen, all on the Warbase casualty counter bases. These are great value and whilst based they are not 100% finished as I need to add the Tufts that I was waiting for. I think these really finish off the models. I will do this when I have finished off the Yanks, so a few days to go.

I was not really enjoying painting these as I was not happy with the colour the battledress was coming out. Well I went over it with the colour watered down with a touch of white in it and it came out much better. The ink wash really then took it to how I wanted it to look. Now I really like them.

Next up was a unit of Cataphracts, I thought these would be a quick run over but in the end they took longer than I expected. I used 5 different metallic paints over the whole unit. Also for some reason I had a couple of lesser armoured riders, but I figure it adds to the look of the unit. Two different posed horses, just glad neither were charging. These are Essex so not my favorite but they do look fairly good and this time sat on their horses better.

The Command is for the Seleucid army . OK I know I have three bases that were with the army but I liked the idea of a command stand in heavier armour. These are Magister so don't fully sit with the Essex but they will be fine.

Given that I spent several days thinking that prepping these figures was a mistake as no way would I get round to painting them, then suddenly they are painted and I have a day to spare! Well they were easy and fast to paint but I also really enjoyed painting them (more Magister). When I saw the figures I immediately wanted to get them. The look of the figure is just excellent and I could not have picked a better unit to finish off the Challenge as I left the whole event with a positive painting buzz. This is really important, yes I was dog tired having really pushed to get as much done as possible but at the same time I was also looking forward to more painting.

I'm not really sad that the Challenge has finished, I think for me it was just the right length. However I have spent nearly as much time at the table in the last 4 days as I did the final 4 of the challenge, pleasure both times held me there but this time without a deadline hanging over my head. Very happy memories of the Challenge and happy to go at it again next year, but what Will it be on the table? Who knows for I don't.