Sunday, April 14, 2013

My First Entry to the 7th Lead Painters League: Command Stand for the 18e d'Regiment de Ligne, 'Les Braves'



I got wind of the Lead Painters League painting competition a few weeks ago and thought I'd give it a whirl as incentive to keep some of my projects moving along. I'm not expecting too much success from my efforts as there are some pretty talented folk involved. (I would describe my painting 'style' as being similar to kabuki theatre makeup: certainly serviceable at a distance but not too flattering up close.) Nonetheless, I thought it would be fun to participate in something in which I'm more or less just along for the ride.

From what I understand there's about thirty hobbyists participating in the League. The way that the competition works is that for each week, for the next ten weeks, the participants are paired off to compete against one another in a series of matches. Every painter provides an entry of at least 5 figures for each match. Points are given to both the winner and loser of each match (30 and 10 points respectively) which I think is a great approach as you alway have some sense of progress in the standings. In addition, there are bonus points given for a variety of things such as number of votes received, submitting newly painted figures, and for conforming to the theme chosen for that particular match. For example, the bonus theme for this first match was to paint a 'Headquarters Unit'. 


Accordingly, I've submitted a 28mm napoleonic command stand which portrays the colour party of the first battalion, 18e d'regiment de ligne - a unit which became known as 'Les Braves'. It's seen here in the midst of taking canister fire at the battle of Aspern-Essling, 1809. These are primarily Perry castings with the addition of a few Foundry casualty figures put in for variation. I also did a light conversion on the falling officer, replacing his sword with the colour standard and tilting him a bit more. I'll ultimately be building upon this stand with another 24 figures to flesh-out the unit.


So I urge you all to please check out the competition as there are many talented painters displaying their mad, mad skills. I'm not sure if you have to be a member of the Lead Adventure Forum to vote, but if you have the time I suggest you join up and participate in the fun. My entry can be found hereIf any of my work strikes your fancy please pass along your vote to help salve my pride and ensure that I'm not too badly shamed over the course of the League.  ;)

58 comments:

  1. I think your too hard on yourself

    Will check it out

    Ian

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    1. Thanks Ian, you're very kind. As I said, for nothing else it will give me incentive to get things off the painting table.

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  2. That's a pretty cool competition! Benno's Figures forum has something similar; an ongoing one-on-one challenge called the Duelling Field, where members challenge each other, set the ground rules, paint the figures and all the other members are free to vote on the winners. This seems like a beefed up version of multiple rounds of duels, with an overall winner at the end?

    Superb little vignette, Curt! I'd give you the votes on this one (but I'm biased: a choice between Napoleonics and silly beasties with axes? Duh!)

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    1. Good god man, then vote for me! ;) Actually, I have a real soft spot for Beastmen as they were my first Warhammer army (way back when the earth was still cooling) and these are painted very nicely.

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  3. Nice looking command stand Curt. I agree with Ian - you are being too hard on yourself. Your painting standard is pretty darned good; your greyscale stuff and all your Challenge entries are testament to that.

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    1. Thanks Tamsin! (Your fiver's in the mail...)

      :)

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  4. Congratulation! You have done a wonderful job. Your game is looking like AOE 3. Is it? Two Steps From Home

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    1. Thanks very much! I base my stuff for use with our own home-grown set of rules but the could easily be used with rules such as 'Black Powder' or 'Age of Eagles'.

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    2. Hey Curt speaking of your very fine and excellent paint job - When do some us get a copy of your rules to play test? Or have you pushed that project off another year? Keep up the "Gold Standar of the Eagle by painting such excellent work as usual. Cheers David

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  5. That's a great stand of troops Curt and like the others have said you are being a little hard on yourself!

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  6. Very dramatic and lovely work, your painting is damn fine, will head over and throw a vote in the works!

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  7. Great that you have joined this, as there are some really good painters in it, and you will fit right in! Though your first round could not showcase anything more different from each other! Curious how it will pan out in the end!

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    1. Thanks! It should be a lot of fun and provide great fuel to get some stuff done.

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  8. What wonderful first entry, fabulous painting and wonderful conversion skills it would certainly get my vote - if I was a member! Best of luck Curt.

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    1. Join up my good man! It's very good for the humours and keeps the mind febrile! (AND you can vote for me) :)

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  9. Way too hard, you may think it doesn't look too flattering up close but to me they look superb. Especially with larger sized Nap units it's all about the group, it's composition, use of colours etc
    I often revisit some of you're great Nap work here as they are great inspiration to me.
    And thanks for another online source, more cool distractions from painting myself.

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    1. Very kind of you Michael, thanks. It was nice to get back to napoleonics again. Its like putting on a comfortable old jacket.

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  10. wow - that's a very nice command stand!

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    1. Thanks Miles! I hope I can get the rest of the unit done in a reasonable amount of time.

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  11. You got my vote on that one. Again, I would suggest doing some of the multi pics to show various angles. I felt that I was missing some of the great detail you took time to paint.

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    1. Thanks styx! I would have done some sort of a collage but I'm in the midst of transitioning to a new iMac (waiting for delivery) and I don't have access to Photoshop on my wee Macbook Air. Hopefully I can do something better for upcoming matches.

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  12. Excellent. Lots of story-telling and great miniatures. Painting is flawless and I like the very saturated colors.

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    1. Thanks Kawe! Its nice to return to Napoleonics for that jolt of colour.

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  13. Cheers Andrew - that is very high praise coming from you.

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  14. That is a very hard competition, Curt, but your entry is wonderful; a great composition.

    Good luck!

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    1. Thank you Juan! It will be a tough competition for sure but one that will keep me on my toes.

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  15. Best of luck in the competition Curt, it is most prestigious. I haven't entered before myself but quite like the format.

    I thought your first entry was wonderful and voted for it without realising it was the very same Curt. We're you taking inspiration from a challenger, perhaps? Didn't someone enter a unit hit by fire? ;-)

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    1. 'There can be only one.'

      Curt that is. Well, that's not true either, but that's what my mom always told me...

      Oh, I always shamelessly take inspiration from our Challengers, but please remind me of who did a unit being hit by incoming fire. I'm sure I was channelling from it.

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    2. Well naturally, there is so much to be inspired by.

      Anyway, I must beg your pardon, it was actually LAF where I had seen what I was referring to. It is a smashing unit well and worth checking out though:

      Perry French column under fire:
      http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php?topic=46731.0

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    3. Ah yes, very nice 'squib' action happening there. Sam Pekinpah would be proud!

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  16. Great work dude!
    I tried to vote, but I'm not sure what happened...
    Anyway, looks awesome man.

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    1. 'I tried to vote, but I'm not sure what happened...'

      You sound like someone from Florida... ;)

      Did you register for the forum first? Nonetheless thanks for the kudos and the good intentions!

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  17. Your selling yourself short Curt as your a great painter! The stand of course looks great and I wish you luck!

    Christopher

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    1. You're very kind Christopher but I know my strengths and weaknesses - we'll see how it all unfolds. If I can organize some good entries with stuff that I'm engaged with it could be alright. No matter what it will be a fun ten weeks!

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  18. Looks like a great first entry to me. I'll try to head over and check it out.

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    1. Thanks Sean and definitely check the League out as there are some very nice entries for the first round and I'm sure it will ramp-up over the coming weeks.

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  19. Sweet entry Curt. You have more cojones than I do, entering the LPL context. I shall watch it with interest.
    M

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    1. Thanks Mike! Lets see if they break my cojones over the next few weeks...

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  20. As everyone else has said, you're being way to hard on yourself, Curt. I think they're an excellent command unit. You've limited yourself to a standard wargaming base size deployment, you've taken a mix of difficult subjects (French, AND casualties) and it's a really tough, excellent competition. Huge kudos to you for having a go and I think you deserve to do really well.

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    1. Thanks for your kind words Sidney! Your encouragement is much appreciated.

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  21. Brilliant as ussual Curt. While you complain about up close falling apart, I've found that unless it's for a painting competition, no one notices anyway. Really, your stuff doesn't fall apart close up either, it's better than 90% of the stuff out there (and way better than mine), so don't worry. We know you could do better if you needed to and took time, but then you would have less than a 1/10th of your figures painted.

    You will get my vote as soon as the site approves my account :-)

    Very interesting competition.

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    1. Thanks very much for the vote of confidence Byron. Now, please extend that to my entries for the next ten weeks!

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    2. OK, but only if you don't get sloppy, you still need to earn them! No Freebies! :-)

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    3. OK dad! My shoulder is to the wheel...

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  23. Unfortunately you have broken the rules of the LPL by posting this here. You're not supposed to post your entries on any other site while it is still in competition. It could be seen as trying to drum up outside support for your entry, getting people to join LAF just to vote for you, etc. Which is rather frowned upon.

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    1. I don't know what the stated rules are, but the only way I even know about this competition is from another blogger advertising in a similar fashion last year. My initial reaction is that if it was a clearly stated rule Curt would have followed it. If LPL doesn't want more members or to generate interest in their competition, this is a good way to go about it.

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    2. Guido, the text below has been copied directly from the online rules:

      "You are NOT allowed to post pictures of your team elsewhere on the LAF while the team is active in the LPL. You may do so only after that particular team has ceased competing."

      Obviously this blog is not part of Lead Adventure Forum so I believe I have not broken any rules. Of course I will check with the organizers to confirm .

      Also, I personally see no problem in painters drumming up outside support for their work. As Sean states, the more interest in the competition the better. That is what I allowed, even expected, from Challengers in my event as it broadened the interest and built a larger following of interested hobbyists and spectators,

      Anyway, as I stated above I will check with the organizers, BUT to be clear, I don't believe I've broken any of the rules.

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  24. I do believe you are right. They have changed the wording from previous LPLs which spoke of "anywhere on the Net" rather than the LAF.

    I do whole-heartedly apologise, the error is mine. Should have checked more carefully before shooting off my gob.

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    1. No worries at all. I completely understand, especially when it was not allowed in previous Painting Leagues. I do appreciate you following up - it's very much appreciated.

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  25. Very nice work indeed mate! As has already been stated you're being very hard on yourself. This is packed full of interest and tells a real story, never mind the quality of the workmanship. I was tempted to enter myself but had other priorities right now so I'll be following your progress with real interest. Good luck!

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    1. Thanks Millsy! We'll see how it all unfolds. I'm having a dorktastically fun time simply planning out my coming entries for the League.

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  26. I too think you are too hard on yourself! It is looking great!

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Thanks for your comment! As long as you're not a spam droid I'll have it up on the blog soon. :)