Advent Painting Challenge 2021 - Part 1

Laura and I decided to do the advent painting challenge again. If you want to see last year's attempts, check out my wrap-up post here. 

Each day we receive a miniature from our collections (selected by each other) in our wooden advent calendar tower. I have odd numbered days, and Laura has even numbered days. This gives us 2 days with which to finish our particular miniature. 

We're a bit behind already, but like last year it's a good excuse to paint obscure and relatively unused miniatures so it doesn't really matter if we don't manage to finish all 24 models.

The miniatures are all unpainted, so we were working from scratch with each of these models.

I was planning on taking pictures of each of them in their original unpainted state first, but it looks like I forgot to do that with some of them unfortunately! So here's a selection of unpainted pictures so you have an idea of how we received them.

Day 1 - Frog

I had a little Nolzur/Pathfinder unpainted miniature frog! Actually something of a giant frog in relation to a 28mm figure. Might come in handy for spell effects or scenarios. Race to kiss the frog - whoever gets there first gets a free prince in their warband!

Day 2 - Chair

I gave Laura a nice easy chair to start with. She's had this model pretty much since I met her. It came in a little scenery pack from Midlam Miniatures from what I remember. There's another 3 chairs and a table with it I believe, but for day 2 I just put this one chair in.

Day 3 - Mirror

    

I painted up a mirror from our Mantic Terrain Crate kickstarter (which we received a couple of years back and still haven't painted up!). I tried to get the silver to look smooth, but it was difficult to paint it on without getting brush-lines on it, so I blobbed it on thick and it ended up with a kind of foggy effect. It also has a few layers of varnish on for a glassy effect but you can't tell from the photo.

Day 4 - Tiny Scarecrow Familiar

This is a classic Warhammer Fantasy familiar which Laura managed to pick up from GW's ever deteriorating Fantasy miniatures range. We were in Warhammer World a couple of years ago (just before covid actually, like a few days before the first lockdown!) and were hunting for classic fantasy models and Laura found a pack of these guys. There's a whole range of different models in the pack - little wooden marionettes and robed homunculi and all sorts. Laura's almost finished painting them all now. This scarecrow guy is particularly fun.

Day 5 - Map

This is another piece from the Mantic Terrain Crate kickstarter. Laura gave me this as an easy model to paint but I went a bit silly with the details. I'd seen an excellent map done by Tiny Furniture (link) and wanted to try my hand at something similar. I can't match their skill of course but I gave it a shot!

Day 6 - Burrows & Badgers Squirrel Rogue

Laura painted up this Burrows & Badgers (Oathsworn Miniatures) squirrel character. It still needs a white drybrush on the tip of the tail I believe but is otherwise complete and looks great! We played the game a couple of times when we lived in Castleford and it's really fun. It has some similarities to Frostgrave but there's more emphasis on each member of your team being important, and they're all individual heroes rather than just having a couple of heroes and a gang of no-name mooks. It's a good game and I recommend it.

Day 7 - Fireplace

Another Mantic Terrain Crate model for me! This time it's the fireplace with removable grate/coalpit. I decided to go for a classic 80s style set of stonework and I think it turned out well. I'd quite like to paint up a fieldstone building in this colourscheme - maybe that's an excuse to get a Tabletop World model!

Day 8 - Round Table

[No Picture yet!]

For day 8 I gave Laura a round table (once again from the Mantic Terrain Crate!). As of yet this model is still unpainted, but hopefully we'll have time to catch up on our painting this weekend.

Day 9 - Warhammer Quest Spiders

Laura assigned me two spiders to paint in this advent box. They're pretty small, and I've been putting off painting them for a while so it was a good chance to play around with painting spiders. I love the monopose figures from the 90s, they have a lot more character than I thought at the time. I have 5 of these models altogether, so I might try something different with the other three when I get around to painting those, but at least I have some classic Warhammer Quest models painted up for my various wargames now. 

And that's it for now! We're hoping to get some more painting done this weekend to catch up a little. Our advent backlog currently consists of:

Tom

Day 11 - Candelabra (Dungeons & Lasers)

Day 13 - Sword in the stone (Dungeons & Lasers) 

Day 15 - 2 chairs and a table (Midlam Miniatures & Mantic)

Day 17 - ???

Laura

Day 8 - Round Table (Mantic)

Day 10 - Tankards Set (Mantic)

Day 12 - Elf Thief (Reaper Miniatures)

Day 14 - Chair (Midlam Miniatures)

Day 16 - Walking Book Familiar (Games Workshop)

German Trip - Days 8 & 9 (Return to Leeds)

 Yesterday and today were mostly just driving back home. We had breakfast at the hotel in Aachen then set off for France. We were planning on visiting a WW2 museum in Dunkirk but turns out it was closed for the winter so when we finally arrived we just went for a little walk along the beach instead. We saw lots of jellyfish washed up, but there wasn't much else of interest there so we decided to just continue on to Calais.

When we arrived in Calais we had an hour or two to kill before we could check into the hotel (and we planned on just sitting around and relaxing for the evening), so we went to a shopping centre called Cité Europe to have some lunch and look around. We had some nice sandwiches in a café and then went to an arcade to use some of our remaining coins. We took it in turns on the pinball machines and did pretty well on the heavy metal fantasy style one called 'Black Knight'. After we'd been beaten by the Black Knight we gave a western-style light gun game a go. It was alright but it doesn't hold a candle to Time Crisis or House of the Dead!

After saving the generic frontier town from classic western antagonists like witches, armoured skeletons, and balloon-riding banditos we decided to head to our final hotel of the trip. This time it was a Best Western in Coquelles - situated a convenient 10 minutes from the EuroTunnel. The room was tiny, and pretty pricey considering, but it was fine. We stayed in and watched Star Trek & X-Files for most of the evening.

The next morning we left and went straight to the EuroTunnel. We were allowed on a slightly earlier train home and so went immediately to boarding. Laura was asked some innocuous questions by the border security ("Where did you visit?" & "What do you do for a living?").Laura answered the questions with a minimum of suspicious behaviour and so we were let through.

The journey back to Leeds was pretty uneventful. We stopped at a Tescos along the way in order to have some breakfast. I finally got a pot of black tea instead of earl grey (although I do like earl grey) and we ate some acceptable English food. They never give you enough butter for your toast in this country though! I'm sure the Baggins's would have a word or two to say about that.

When we got home we unpacked our bags immediately, knowing that to delay it would be folly. Then we shortly returned to our old habits. Playing a computer game with a friend and drinking lots of tea (well, I did anyway). Laura looked through the various presents she received and I played with some of the miniatures that Rick gave me. We are now home and cosy, very tired and glad to not have to drive around for ages. It was definitely fun having the car while in Europe (we wouldn't have found Drachenfels for one thing!), but it was also pretty exhausting. Next time we'll probably fly and just use public transport.

It's now 00:37, which is a German 01:37, so I'll leave it here.

If I'm looking at this again in 10 years time: Hello Tom! How are you? I'm the younger less cybernetic version of you. Enjoy the future!

German Trip - Day 7 (Travel to Aachen)

 We popped into Nürnberg for breakfast, and had a somewhat disappointing pretzel & pain au chocolat. Laura got a strangely shaped carton of juice which was nice though! 

After our breakfast we discussed what to do and where to go. We were originally planning on heading to Heidelberg and staying the night there, then making our way through France via Saarbrücken. However we changed our minds at the last minute and went North-West towards the Rhineland.

We stopped at a McDonalds for lunch and Laura was excited to note the little differences, like curly fries and fried shrimp. 

At the McDonalds car park. I think I'm trying to work out what Laura's doing

Along the way we saw signs to Drachenfels, which as any Warhammer fan knows is a happening place. We found a car park near the base of the hill and popped out for a little stroll up to the ruins of Castle Drachenfels.

It was already fairly late in the afternoon when we got there so we didn't have time to check out Drachenburg, but we still got to see some great views at the top of the Drachenfel, and of course the ruined keep too.

We stopped for the night at a hotel in Aachen, near the edge of Germany. We attended our German lesson from my phone and then had a tasty dinner at the hotel bar, followed by another episode of Voyager!

Tomorrow we plan to head to Dunkirk to check out some museums, followed by staying at a hotel in Calais ready for our return to England.