The Princess and the Frog

Last week's theme for the bonus round of the Analogue Hobby Challenge was "l'Amour". Probably not the most natural subject for us Wargamers! But I was in luck. Last year while ordering my Frog Jester from Dark Sword I stumbled unto a few figures which I got as a future gift to Laurie. And of course this bonus theme landed on St-Valentine's day. The miniature painting Gods were smiling upon me! 

So I painted a romantic scene of a frog prince courting a frog princess. Your classic love story, really. A frog cupid, sending his love arrows into the prince's heart, was added to the scene, to tie the whole thing with Valentine's day. 

The figures are from Dark Sword's Anthropomorphic Animals range, and painting a frog during the challenge has become an annual tradition for yours truly! You may remember two years ago I painted a frog knight "Sir Kermit", and last year I went with a frog jester. This year I went big with three frogs! 

Painting this range is always a lot of fun, as I can let my imagination run wild and just go with lots of colours. I'm also getting good at painting the critters and really happy with this lot. I'm especially proud as they were painted using a GW brush! In a moment of sheer clumsiness I ruined my precious Rosemary and Co. brushes by spilling army painter varnish on them, and so had to buy the only available brushes in Montreal. They are worse than I remember! 

So obviously this entry is also my Valentine's day gift to Laurie, my girlfriend and mon amour. The Dark Sword's frogs have always been a favourite of Laurie (yes for some weird reason she prefers them to Chaos Champions and Napoleonic soldiers) so I spent two weeks working on them in secret, when I was alone or when she was sleeping! 

Not only did she loved it, but this piece won 1st place in the Challenge bonus round. I'm quite happy as my best score before that was a 3rd place for my Jabberwock. And the competition was fierce with some awesome entries. 

And for those wondering, so far my entries in the Analogie Hobby Challenge have been Oldhammer and Sci-Fi, which you can see in my other blog. But I am working on two historical pieces...

Bonus theme rounds entries - Hot and Comedy

This year, one of my goal for the Analogue painting challenge was to enter as many bonus themes as possible. Really, it was just a challenge to myself. It is surprisingly demanding, as you basically have a deadline every two weeks, but it is rewarding and it makes you paint weird stuff you would not otherwise have considered. My last two bonus round entries, "hot" and "comedic" are exactly like that.

HOT

 

When Curt announced the bonus theme rounds, I immediately thought that the "hot" round, considering the high number of men in this hobby, would probably have a substantial number of "hotbabes" entries. Yeah, I know, how very original...Obviously you'd supposed knowing that, I'd find something different to paint. Well...you'd be wrong! I indeed decided to go with a hot babe, and what is hotter than a pin-up? Well, how about an angel pin-up?

The figure, "Thief of Hearts Pin Up", is from Dark Sword Miniatures, whch is rapidly becoming one of my favourite manufacturer of fantasy miniatures. It is a very detailed and delicate sculpt, which made it a bit harder to paint and is very different from what I usually do. However it gave me an excuse to use pink, a colour I really enjoy painting. It also made the figure "hot" but in a cute kinda way. Pin-up style rather than Hustler style, if you get my drift. It was my first time painting women's panties!

COMEDY

Of all the bonus themes rounds I can remember, this one was the one I had the most difficulty coming up with a good idea. Comedic? Really, I had nothing in my big pile of lead which seemed to fit that bill. So, again, I turned to my favourite provider of weird and original miniatures, Dark Sword Miniatures. And again the small outfit delivered when after some search on their website I found a great little piece; a Frog Jester! Perfect!

So I went crazy on this little fellow, trying to cram as many colours as I could on him. Hey, a Jester is supposed to be tacky and colourful! It made for a nice little distraction.

So I used pink, 2 types of purple, turquoise, yellow, pale blue and red! And I'm quite happy with the look of this fellow. 

Obviously neither of these figure will find their way on my gaming table any time soon, but its those pieces I *never* would have painted if not for the Analogue hobby. And I do enjoy getting out of my comfort zone from time to time.

Sir Kermit de la Grenouille (Bonus round entry)

Last week-end was the latest Fortnight Thematic Bonus Round, this time the theme being Hero, As with the vilain, I had a lot of fun with it.

Hero. When I saw the word I immediately thought of heroes from fantasy worlds, and especially the fantasy of my youth, the Disneys and such. I just wanted to do something really different from what I usually do, something bright and shiny...and good.

  
Dark Sword Miniatures were just the right place for that (btw I highly recommend them, great figures and amazing service). When I saw the figure, a Frog Champion in shining armour, I knew I had found just the perfect piece. It was heroic enough without being too "goody two shoes". Standing tall at 37mm, this figure is clearly on the "heroic scale" side of the "28mm" world. It is a really cool and awesome sculpt and it was immensely fun to paint. I call him "Sir Kermit de la Grenouille". I could just see him in a Pixar movie! 

Obviously being meant as a display piece only I gave him a big 40mm round base and had fun putting a big mushroom on it, which I think works well with the figure and gives him a sense of scale. The mushroom was done with milliput, with some wire covered miliput for the stem.

I must say I haven't painted a figure for display only in ages, and its not a figure I would've painted otherwise, so I have to thank the challenge for that, which is pretty cool. 

If you like him, please take a few minutes to vote for him over at Analogue Hobbies. And if you don't like him, you can still vote for other awesome entries!