Around the World in 80 Days~ Painting Challenge
I put my name forward for this.Can one package of miniatures go around the world, and arrive back in town, full of painted figures, within 80 days of departure? Join the Worldwide League of Painters as we attempt this challenge!
One dozen random 28mm miniatures will be placed in a box and mailed from Baltimore to the first painter. The painter either paints one of the included figures, or takes a figure from the box and replaces it with a different one that he or she has painted. Then the box is mailed to the next participant, heading ever westward, until it returns to Baltimore!
This event is being organised by Pete Murray because he came up with the idea.
Should be fun!!
The Yahoo group is here if you'd like to join and either volunteer as a painter or just find out how things are progressing.
There should be updated coverage on The Miniatures Page too.
Update 14/03/2006
Everything is ready for the off, the miniatures have been chosen and packed and so now the waiting begins.......
The Miniatures
1. Skaven Gutter Runner, Citadel
2. Space Marine Apothecary, Citadel
3. LotR Dwarf King, Citadel
4. Mogadishu D-Boy, Brittania
5. Castle Guard, Discount Hobbies
6. Zulu War British Officer, Old Glory
7. Marlburian Period Grenadier, Foundry
8. Talisman Monk, Citadel
9. T34/76, Minifigs (fine, it's 10mm, but it's 29mm long!)
10. Samurai, Foundry
11. Reptus Breaker, Reaper
12. Zulu War British Musician, Old Glory
13. LotR Dwarf King, Citadel
14. Striking Scorpion Eldar, Citadel
Not pictured are Tobias Kroon and Maj. Betty Steel from Rattrap Productions.
The Painters
Andy Turlington: Waldof, MD
Mike Williams: Rogersville, TN
Mark Severin: River Forest, IL
Ed Gillock: Memphis, TN
Brad Harris: St Louis, MO
Joe Shaughnessy: Waco, TX
Michael Brown: Sheridan, WY
Brian Babcock: Hayden, ID
Randolph Boyd: Huntington Beach, CA
William Thompson: Vancouver, WA
Dave Arell: Phuket, Thailand
Joseph McKeen: Heidesheim, Germany
Scott Middleton: Hemel Hempstead, UK
Paul Ward: Old Woking, UK
Robert Atkinson: Leeds, UK
Alexandre Conefrey: Lisboa, Portugal
Stephen Coates: New York, NY
Andy T., of Largo, MD
I came into this project with high hopes, which were thoroughly dashed! Peter handed the box off to me at Cold Wars. Just prior to the show, I had 2 root canals. Once back home, I went in to get the permanent crowns, which they screwed up and glued in without seating properly, so 2 hours and a numb mouth later, I am sent on my way, still missing my permanent crowns, but with the added advantage of plenty of pain!
Also, while at Cold Wars, I managed to injure my wrist, and painting has proven to be a bit too painful at this time. I am scheduled for x-rays next week.
So, while my intention was to definitely paint one of the figures from the box, I ended up putting in an extra figure I painted last year. It is a Sub Roman British Cavalryman.
I took a fig from the box - The Gargoyle, from Rattrap Productions. He will paint up well when I am back in shape to properly wield a brush!
I tried to Overnight the box to Mike, but he has a PO box, so I wasn't able - but with any luck, he will receive it today or Saturday! I included $5.00 USD in the package to help pay for a quicker mail service to the next entrant.
Thanks for letting me in on the fun, and I really wish that I could have actually painted something from the box rather than using one of my extras, but you do what you can...
Also, while at Cold Wars, I managed to injure my wrist, and painting has proven to be a bit too painful at this time. I am scheduled for x-rays next week.
So, while my intention was to definitely paint one of the figures from the box, I ended up putting in an extra figure I painted last year. It is a Sub Roman British Cavalryman.
I took a fig from the box - The Gargoyle, from Rattrap Productions. He will paint up well when I am back in shape to properly wield a brush!
I tried to Overnight the box to Mike, but he has a PO box, so I wasn't able - but with any luck, he will receive it today or Saturday! I included $5.00 USD in the package to help pay for a quicker mail service to the next entrant.
Thanks for letting me in on the fun, and I really wish that I could have actually painted something from the box rather than using one of my extras, but you do what you can...
Mike W., from Eastern Tennessee
The package arrived today. Mark, I'll overnight it to you in the morning before I come into work. However, the post office clerk has informed me mailing overnight from Rogersville is actually a two-day destination/departure point.
I selected the Old Glory Zulu War British Musician. It was a tough call between he, the Rattrap figs, the tank, and a couple of others. There are some really nice figs in the package. My wife told me she thought I'd rather have the musician, since I have a thing for campaign helmets.
I bought one from Eureka at Historicon a few years ago and pretty much wear it anytime my group plays GASLIGHT, even if there aren't any British figures involved.
The pirate lass and treasure piece I painted up was specifically for this project. They're Reaper minis. I stopped by a few landmarks after picking up the package, and took some snapshots of the box with my wife's crappy little camera. I also took out Andrew's fig and mine that have been painted, and took a few shots of them at landmarks.
Anyhow, all my photos didn't come out. (Crappy camera.) There are three from the graves of Joseph and Mary Rogers, whom Rogersville is named for. They also happen to be David Crockett's grandparents. I tossed in a couple of postcards. We're small here, pop. 5,000 or so, so there aren't any great postcards that are 100 percent local. While the ones I sent are local, they're not very picturesque.
Andrew, you actually put in a sawbuck, not a fiver. I'm passing half that along for either the next guy (though I suggest we continental U.S. guys toss in a buck or two along the way for the big trip from WA to Phucket, then Thailand to Germany - that can't possibly be cheap). It was almost $19.00 USD to get to me.
Glad to have been a part of this, and I look forward to tracking the progress of the package as it makes its trek.
I selected the Old Glory Zulu War British Musician. It was a tough call between he, the Rattrap figs, the tank, and a couple of others. There are some really nice figs in the package. My wife told me she thought I'd rather have the musician, since I have a thing for campaign helmets.
I bought one from Eureka at Historicon a few years ago and pretty much wear it anytime my group plays GASLIGHT, even if there aren't any British figures involved.
The pirate lass and treasure piece I painted up was specifically for this project. They're Reaper minis. I stopped by a few landmarks after picking up the package, and took some snapshots of the box with my wife's crappy little camera. I also took out Andrew's fig and mine that have been painted, and took a few shots of them at landmarks.
Anyhow, all my photos didn't come out. (Crappy camera.) There are three from the graves of Joseph and Mary Rogers, whom Rogersville is named for. They also happen to be David Crockett's grandparents. I tossed in a couple of postcards. We're small here, pop. 5,000 or so, so there aren't any great postcards that are 100 percent local. While the ones I sent are local, they're not very picturesque.
Andrew, you actually put in a sawbuck, not a fiver. I'm passing half that along for either the next guy (though I suggest we continental U.S. guys toss in a buck or two along the way for the big trip from WA to Phucket, then Thailand to Germany - that can't possibly be cheap). It was almost $19.00 USD to get to me.
Glad to have been a part of this, and I look forward to tracking the progress of the package as it makes its trek.
Mark S., of River Forest, IL (near Chicago)
I received the box and a few of the figures looked interesting. First off there was a Castro looking fellow. So I pulled him out. Then I saw a modern SWAT looking guy. I thought he'd look just great in a scheme I had just used on some World War 2 US Airborne.
Basically I undercoated his uniform in US Drab then highlighted with Vallejo "Iraqi sand." Mixed a little white into that and did a final highlight. The rest is simple two-tone painting. Pick a dark color and paint a base coat - add white (or pale sand) and highlight. I paint very little 28mm but I'm pretty happy with how he turned out.
Ed G., Memphis, Tennessee
Sorry, everyone, for the delay. The box headed off today (April 11th).I received the box last Thursday. I popped it open to see what it was and was shocked and embarrassed. I recently received a job offer in Maryland and have spent the last few weeks packing and prepping to go, and had completely forgotten about the miniatures. I had every intention of painting one of the many figs in the box and sending it on, but due to the utter chaos at my house I ended up swapping out "the female figure with the jet pack and two pistols" for a Foundry pirate I painted four years ago - not my best work - and painted my living room instead.
I finally remembered to grab the box on my way out this morning, and decided to take a long lunch and take a couple of pictures. First, I went to Overton Park here in Memphis, and took a picture of the figure with the WWI memorial statue.
The box itself contains a lot of interesting figures. Sorry again that I wasn't able to paint one of the figs in the box. Also sorry for the delay in posting, but the package is on it's way to St. Louis!
Brad H., St. Louis, Missouri
Hello, everyone! Sorry I was late responding with my report, I have absolutely no good excuse so I'm going to say that the garden gnome ate my homework...Anyways, the box arrived at my front door on Wednesday, April 12th, and when I got home that evening I had a quick look at all the various painted and unpainted minis that were cozily packed away. I generally enjoy painting Dwarfs, and the two Dwarf Kings grabbed my attention, but I figured I would try something new so the Falconer from Mega Miniatures was my victim.
He got a nice little reddish-brown cloak and pretty standard clothes. My official excuse as to why his cloak isn't decorated is that I didn't have enough time to do any freehand. (Don't tell, but I probably wouldn't have done any freehand work anyways since I'm basically no good at doing freehand, but this way it looks like I intended to not be a slacker.)
I really wanted to get the box sent away and in the hands of the next person before Easter, so I went into speed-painting mode. I primed the guy about 5:00 that evening, sat him out in the sun to dry. After putting my son to bed, I got started painting around 8:00 later that night. By 10:30 he was done and I was tired. The next day I went to the 3rd St. Louis Cardinals game at the new Busch Stadium...
I decided that I would take a couple of the painted miniatures with me (I thought security might question me if I took a brown box in), and I feel pretty confident that these minis were the first miniatures in this stadium. Most of my pictures turned out a little blurry, but this one shows a bit of downtown and the arch in the background. The Cardinals lost the game in the 11th inning, but from what I could tell the Falconer and his new friend Mr. S.W.A.T. Team Member had a good time.
I got home Thursday and headed straight to the post office, where I got a new clerk in training. Talking to her, she assured me that my package would get to Texas on Saturday which made me happy*. I left the package to the care of the post office and the box continued on its way.
I really enjoyed looking through the box and seeing all the figures, and this also gave me an excellent excuse to break out the brushes since this guy was the first little man I've painted in about 3 months. Thanks for the opportunity!
* I later heard that the box didn't make it there until Monday, which made me unhappy...
Joe S., in Waco, Texas
The box should be winging it way to Wyoming by Thursday afternoon.
I chose the Minifigs T34 for my project, being somewhat of a treadhead but never having done 10mm. So what theme to use? Typical would be paint it green, slap a red star on the side, and send it to the front to die a glorious death battling the fascist invaders. I decided to go a different route and make it a captured tank used against the Red Hordes.
Started by looking at pictures of captured T34s in German service, when I ran across a photo of one being used by the Finns. There's something different, thought I! So it would be a T34 used by Finland, first against the Russians, then against the Germans. I started with dark green, then did some drybrushing of progressively lighter shades. I finished with some black- and rust-colored washes (Future/pigment mixes) to represent some of the dirt and grime.
Then came the stumbling block. For whatever reason, I could not paint a Finnish swastika that looked decent. Maybe it was the small scale, maybe just not feeling well, but whatever I tried just looked bad.
Bummer, what to do? Back to google.com (which is your friend) - and lo and behold, the answer came forth.
It seems that after the war, swastikas were no longer in fashion (surprise, surprise!). Bless the Finns, they went to somthing simple like a roundel of white/blue/white. I broke out my decal paper and color laser and printed out a few. There you have it, a Finnish post-war T34-76 ready to defend the borders from Russia, Sweden or those pesky Lapplander Reindeer troops. Apparently these tanks soldiered on until 1961.
The college where I work is the home of the Texas Heritage Museum, dedicated to the role of Texans in the nation's military conflicts. While mostly focusing on the ACW, there are also displays on WWI and WWII as well as Vietnam. Additional plans are being made for the Gulf Wars. I took the pictures next to some of the displays at the museum.
Overall, this isn't the best work I have ever done, and I apologize for it. We just experienced a major restructuring at work and it has seriously cut in to my free time. Hopefully at least the subject matter will prove to be interesting to you.
Now onward to the wilds of Wyoming!
Mike B. Sheridan, Wyoming
I asked my daughter if I could use one of her figures. My schedule did not really allow me to paint one from the box, and I paint 15mm. The figure is a West End Star Wars young female Jedi. We took the Foundry grenadier in exchange.We picked this up at the KublaCon flea market a couple of years ago. One afternoon she whipped it out (we paint together 2-3 times a year), and it was in the curio cabinet until we moved to Wyoming.
She (and her brother) followed the Last Painter Standing contest with me, and when it came time for 80 Days, it was: "what are we doing?" The sad part is she is a great painter (notice the eyes and lips), but only when the mood strikes her (she has a couple of Reaper Angels waiting for the brush).
The box was on its way by the 26th. I added some more packing, as a few of the items looked a little worn.
I think the included card sums up Wyoming well.
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho (Brian B.)
I joined the group thinking this would be great. I didn't know what to paint until I started thinking about Around the World in Eighty Days.... suddenly I knew that the box needed Phileas Fogg and Passpartout!
I had recently purchased some West Wind Victorian Gentlemen, and swapped for some old Foundry Old West figures.
We tacked them up on the ceiling of Bob Kelly's Gamers Haven shop ceiling, built a scaffold and ran off some Italian speaking guy, told him Rome was in Italy and he would have to trip over the Da Vinci Code people to get to the Sistine Chapel.
Anyway, we took pictures of the completed miniatures near the Coeur d'Alene resort.
The big tourist attraction up here is the lake, our mountains and crossroads to a lot of other things. We are close to Canada, Montana and Eastern Washington.
Warning: Commercial...
Coeur d'Alene (KOOR da-LAIN), city (1990 pop. 24,563), Kootenai co., N Idaho, 30 mi/48 km E of Spokane Wash; 47 degrees 42'N 116 degrees 47'W. Elev. 2,187 ft/667 m. A tourist and lumbering center situated on the N end of Coeur d'Alene L., at the outlet of Spokane R., W of the Coeur d'Alene Mts.; gateway to a beautiful summer and winter resort area. Lumber; meat processing; printing and publishing; concrete mfg. Fort Coeur d'Alene (later Fort Sherman) est. 1876. The city grew around the fort after the discovery (1883) of rich silver, lead, and zinc lodes and after the mining boom of 1884. Hq. of Coeur d'Alene Natl. Forest and seat of North Idaho Jr. Col. Inc. 1907.
I recieved the box on Saturday, but didn't get back in town until Sunday. We opened it and went oooh... aaahhh at all the superb paint jobs. Phileas and Passpartout climbed aboard, I packed the original box inside a bigger box, and shipped it to California. Postcards were added and pictures posted!
I had recently purchased some West Wind Victorian Gentlemen, and swapped for some old Foundry Old West figures.
We tacked them up on the ceiling of Bob Kelly's Gamers Haven shop ceiling, built a scaffold and ran off some Italian speaking guy, told him Rome was in Italy and he would have to trip over the Da Vinci Code people to get to the Sistine Chapel.
Anyway, we took pictures of the completed miniatures near the Coeur d'Alene resort.
The big tourist attraction up here is the lake, our mountains and crossroads to a lot of other things. We are close to Canada, Montana and Eastern Washington.
Warning: Commercial...
Coeur d'Alene (KOOR da-LAIN), city (1990 pop. 24,563), Kootenai co., N Idaho, 30 mi/48 km E of Spokane Wash; 47 degrees 42'N 116 degrees 47'W. Elev. 2,187 ft/667 m. A tourist and lumbering center situated on the N end of Coeur d'Alene L., at the outlet of Spokane R., W of the Coeur d'Alene Mts.; gateway to a beautiful summer and winter resort area. Lumber; meat processing; printing and publishing; concrete mfg. Fort Coeur d'Alene (later Fort Sherman) est. 1876. The city grew around the fort after the discovery (1883) of rich silver, lead, and zinc lodes and after the mining boom of 1884. Hq. of Coeur d'Alene Natl. Forest and seat of North Idaho Jr. Col. Inc. 1907.
I recieved the box on Saturday, but didn't get back in town until Sunday. We opened it and went oooh... aaahhh at all the superb paint jobs. Phileas and Passpartout climbed aboard, I packed the original box inside a bigger box, and shipped it to California. Postcards were added and pictures posted!
Huntington Beach, California (Randy B.)
The Box arrived safely in beautiful Huntington Beach, but I was a bit disappointed to see the damage some of the figures have suffered. Nothing extreme, mainly paint chipping and much bending of weapons and arms. I think that second box will go far in protecting them the rest of the way. I don't think the T-34 will ever be quite the same. I really like the pirate girl and the falconer (though he had some minor chipping).
I had really wanted to paint one of the figures from the box, but when I went through the remaining figures none of them grabbed me so I was a bit bummed.
Instead, I substituted the LoTR Dwarf for Rufus the Warg Rider.
This fellow is a veteran LoTR figure (one of the first that I painted) and has bitten the dust in the name of the Evil One more times than I care to think about. So I thought maybe he was due for a long vacation, see the world a bit, you know.
My wife took him to work (Disneyland) and showed him the sights, did the tourist thing.
He seemed to like meeting Donald Duck.
We then took him down to Huntington Pier (he had never seen the Pacific Ocean before) - sadly, we are suffering from an early bout of June gloom so it wasn't all that sunny.
We had a "photo op" with one of our local dignitaries, too.
Also, when looking over the figures left to paint, I noticed that the count was off. One short, so I added an extra 25mm bandito gunfighter figure I had laying around.
I am going to mail it off to Washington tomorrow (Monday, May 8th, 2006).
I had really wanted to paint one of the figures from the box, but when I went through the remaining figures none of them grabbed me so I was a bit bummed.
Instead, I substituted the LoTR Dwarf for Rufus the Warg Rider.
This fellow is a veteran LoTR figure (one of the first that I painted) and has bitten the dust in the name of the Evil One more times than I care to think about. So I thought maybe he was due for a long vacation, see the world a bit, you know.
My wife took him to work (Disneyland) and showed him the sights, did the tourist thing.
He seemed to like meeting Donald Duck.
We then took him down to Huntington Pier (he had never seen the Pacific Ocean before) - sadly, we are suffering from an early bout of June gloom so it wasn't all that sunny.
We had a "photo op" with one of our local dignitaries, too.
Also, when looking over the figures left to paint, I noticed that the count was off. One short, so I added an extra 25mm bandito gunfighter figure I had laying around.
I am going to mail it off to Washington tomorrow (Monday, May 8th, 2006).
22 Days in Limbo
When The Box left Coeur d'Alene, it had passed through half the participants with a little over a month left on the clock. On May 16th, it left Vancouver to Phuket, Thailand, via USPS Air Letter...
...and went quiet for 22 days
On June 8th, it finally emerged from limbo, two days after the June 6th deadline for 80 days.
So we weren't able to meet an 80-day deadline. But that's okay - the project isn't really about sending a box on a race around the globe, and the 80-day barrier can still be broken by intrepid painters around the planet at some point in the future. So now it's less of a race, and more of a goodwill tour by The Box.
We will rejoin our story in exotic Phuket, Thailand, and Dave A...
...and went quiet for 22 days
On June 8th, it finally emerged from limbo, two days after the June 6th deadline for 80 days.
So we weren't able to meet an 80-day deadline. But that's okay - the project isn't really about sending a box on a race around the globe, and the 80-day barrier can still be broken by intrepid painters around the planet at some point in the future. So now it's less of a race, and more of a goodwill tour by The Box.
We will rejoin our story in exotic Phuket, Thailand, and Dave A...
Phuket, Thailand (Dave A.)
The Phileas Fogg Box arrived in Phuket, Thailand, on 8 June, and was sent off the same day on the trip to Germany.
The box arrived here in great shape; thanks to whoever came up with the idea of the smaller packing boxes inside, as that made it easy to turn around quickly, and certainly gives good protection to the figures. The only change I made to the packing was to wrap each of the figures in bubble wrap, as it looked like a couple of them might have scrapped together during their trans-Pacific run.
I knew that time would be an issue, so pre-painting a figure here was a must for us. I let one of our painters, Ms. Kung, chose the figure she would most enjoy painting, and she picked a Confrontation figure called Misan the Clairvoyant.
So that is what she painted up, and we sent it off today along with the cards that go with this figure.
Once Misan was painted up, he got to make a trip around the island of Phuket and see the sights.
His first stop was a local temple called Wat Chalong. This Buddhist temple is famous for an Abbot of the temple that in 1876 rallied the fleeing local population to stand and face the Chinese coolies that were rebelling, thereby ending the rebellion.
You can see Misan and his painter Ms. Kung in these pictures in front of the temple.
No trip to Phuket would be complete without a trip to the beach, so Misan's next stop was Nai Harn Beach.
He was not a big fan of the sun and didn't want to go swimming with all those books, so it was a brief excursion at the shore.
The box arrived here in great shape; thanks to whoever came up with the idea of the smaller packing boxes inside, as that made it easy to turn around quickly, and certainly gives good protection to the figures. The only change I made to the packing was to wrap each of the figures in bubble wrap, as it looked like a couple of them might have scrapped together during their trans-Pacific run.
I knew that time would be an issue, so pre-painting a figure here was a must for us. I let one of our painters, Ms. Kung, chose the figure she would most enjoy painting, and she picked a Confrontation figure called Misan the Clairvoyant.
So that is what she painted up, and we sent it off today along with the cards that go with this figure.
Once Misan was painted up, he got to make a trip around the island of Phuket and see the sights.
His first stop was a local temple called Wat Chalong. This Buddhist temple is famous for an Abbot of the temple that in 1876 rallied the fleeing local population to stand and face the Chinese coolies that were rebelling, thereby ending the rebellion.
You can see Misan and his painter Ms. Kung in these pictures in front of the temple.
No trip to Phuket would be complete without a trip to the beach, so Misan's next stop was Nai Harn Beach.
He was not a big fan of the sun and didn't want to go swimming with all those books, so it was a brief excursion at the shore.
Heidesheim, Germany (Joseph A.)
As expected, the package arrived while I was away on vacation...
Add to that, DHL was not able to get the package past the German Zoll (Customs) as the miniatures are packaged in a "transistor-parts" box and apparently they are individually ackaged in "transistor part sub-boxes"? (The description comes from the DHL operator I talked to on Wednesday when I checked my answering machine from ADW, so it sounds a bit garbled.) The DHL were willing to try and get the Zoll to release the package as it is, but it is more likely that I'll have to go and clear things up as the folks at the Zoll are waiting for a "payment form" and don't appear to be willing to "re-open" the package to check that there are in fact miniatures in the box and not the transistor parts...
Add to that, DHL was not able to get the package past the German Zoll (Customs) as the miniatures are packaged in a "transistor-parts" box and apparently they are individually ackaged in "transistor part sub-boxes"? (The description comes from the DHL operator I talked to on Wednesday when I checked my answering machine from ADW, so it sounds a bit garbled.) The DHL were willing to try and get the Zoll to release the package as it is, but it is more likely that I'll have to go and clear things up as the folks at the Zoll are waiting for a "payment form" and don't appear to be willing to "re-open" the package to check that there are in fact miniatures in the box and not the transistor parts...
