Lead Painter's League 11

Last year I entered the Lead Adventure Forum's Lead Painter's League painting challenge/contest. It was a grueling 10 week challenge of painting groups of at least 5 miniatures a week and photographing them in cool settings for an international competition.
Here I've compiled all my entries, with just a little bit of speechifying about each.
For those of you not on LAF, here are some of the key rules:
• Each entry is paired against another painter's work and voted on
• Winners of each round are determined by popular vote
• Scenery is allowed so long as it's not a photograph
• Each entry must be a Team (Same setting and the same side. ie Big game hunters can't team up with Lions)
• Bonus points are awarded for following the theme (when applicable)
• Bonus points are given to new (unpublished) models debuting on the challenge

Round 1: Consulting the scouts

My first entry was woodland Indians by Redoubt Miniatures. I have painted some of these in the past; the new ones are all carrying clubs. Attempting the first week photo reminded me that while painting a good mini is a difficult task, actually photographing it is just as challenging. I did not win my paring on this one.

Round 2: Nock, Draw, Loose, Repeat as needed.

For my second round I tried to wow using overwhelming numbers of classic GW Bretonnian archers.These are some of my favorite figures to paint, and  many of them were converted with bits from the newer Bretonnians. Real shame they removed these guys from the Fantasy line. There are actually about twice this many on the table for the pic, but difficulty with focusing on the whole mob left me with a smaller vignette. I also did won this round on a very slim margin of votes.

Round 3: Relieving the Militia

Round 3 was my big AWI entry. Almost every figure I own for this range is in the photo, though the focus is on the newly painted continental line relieving the waivering militia as their redoubt is being overrun. It was a lot of fun to stage this, and I really like the cinematic result. This entry did take its round with a 2/3 majority of votes.

Round 4: Up the Garden Path

Round 4 allowed me do debut my new British infantry for FoW in 15mm. Mine are uniformed for Mediterranean service, from about Tunisia through early Italian campaign. Of course now they'll likely serve in the desert as not. Shooting just a few 15's is quite difficult, as it turns out, but the scenery worked nice with the little ambush story here. This tied its round.

Round 5: Prize Crew

Prize Crew was not my best entry. Not only did I forego newly painted status to work on the ship instead, but the photo did not work out as well as I had liked. I did at least stick to the "ship's crew" bonus theme, and I am happy with my brig using a Playmobil hull (build log to come... probably with some fixes to the hurriedly finished rigging.) This entry did quite poorly in its round, not least because it was paired against a very well done dock scene.

Round 6: Imperial Counter Insurgency

There's a lot to talk about in this one. Those who read my foray into Star Wars Legion will have gotten a bit of this already. The rebel troopers in this picture are repaints of my very first miniatures. I used to buy these at Disneyland at the Star Tours giftshop when I was 10. They were about the only Star Wars toy I could get my hands on during the dark period of SW merch' between Jedi and Phantom Menace. The other figures were found as reprints in some Monopoly games I scored at thrift shops, as well as a few Micro Machines Action Fleet troopers. Look and Soontir Fel were both modifications of Monopoly figures. The three sets fit well together, and I'm very pleased to create what I had only hoped to 25 years ago. I scored a very solid tie (difference in only 3 votes) with another quite competent painter this round.

Round 7: Boots on the Ground.

Boots on the Ground was a real challenge to color correct. I created a special gradient background for this photo blending from a sand color up to a blue sky to simulate rotor washway the hovering Blackhawk. Unfortunately I hadn't included a white Swatch into the photo so the white balance was way off and difficult to work with. The figures are from the game Skirmish Sangin's Maalinti Rangers expansion and the helicopter is a modified Testor's 1:60 die cast kit.

Round 8: African Anti-imperialists

African Anti-imperialists was far and away the best received of my entries. It certainly photographed well, with vibrant colors and good focus on the figures. I had a blast painting these men, and hope they see use in game soon. The men come from the Perry Brothers Madhists set. I even received positive feedback from one of the painters I look up to the most, and that is worth more than winning.

Round 9: Dunadein

Round 9 was from a set of Citadel LotR figures I picked up way back when I worked at Games Workshop, which feels like half a lifetime ago. These are the beautifully sculpted rangers of the north that came in the Guardians of the Shire pack along with Glorfindel the Elf. I tried to maintain the subtle mismatched earthtones of Strider from the film series (Always loved his worn look). In the end I was paired against one of the best painters in the league so I lost by a landslide.

Round 10: Ladies do not play "Soldier"

I went out with a whimper, not a bang with my final entry. My painting of the Continental Marines and the children was a bit hurried, and the photography really let me down. I hope to post better pictures of the camp followers and civilians to the blog soon.

Despite some regrets on a few rounds, and a longing to have shown myself better, this was not your normal competition where you get to preen a single figure for months on end to show your best work. This was not a sprint. It was a marathon. It may not sound like 50 figures (minimum...) over 10 weeks was that much, but it really takes some stamina to see it through. In the end I'm satisfied that I was able to give an entry each week and to complete the challenge (not all entrants make it all of the way).

It took me a while to recover from this challenge and is a large part of why Weasel Minis went quiet for a while.