From DavidL - Curtgeld & Farewell (20 points)

For this, my final entry, I present my Curtgeld. Coming into the Challenge, I honestly had no idea of what this was going to be, but when David Bowie ascended to the stars back in January I suddenly had a notion of who I wanted to represent a risk-taker and gambler.

As many eulogies following his death pointed out, Bowie was a consummate risk-taker, constantly shedding his pop identity in favor of new realms of exploration, dabbling in the latest frontiers of a variety of musical genres and forms of expression, never sure if his next move would spell the end of his popularity or career. Yet time and time again, he proved his doubters wrong. Even his failures and wrong-turns were interesting and edifying in their own way.

His public devil-may-care image inspired countless fans from all walks of life and identities to be themselves, to revel in their weirdness. His impact on the generations that grew up with the image of Ziggy or the Thin White Duke or, yes, Jareth the Goblin King is incalculable. And he went out like a true artiste with a brilliant final album musing on the nature of death and dying and immortality.

This figure, originally a Ral Partha and now available via Iron Wind and amusingly titled "Androgynous Rocker with Microphone", fit the bill nicely to provide a 28mm tribute to the man.

And his tush.

As I've bemoaned in previous entries, I wasn't able to participate in this year's Challenge to nearly the degree I would've liked. In particular, I'm especially saddened I was unable to keep up with everyone else's great work beyond the occasional brief perusal of the front page of the blog. And I'll end up falling a couple hundred points short of my goal. Still, 600-plus points is nothing to sneeze at, and I will continue the projects I started with this Challenge.

If anyone would like to keep up with my Black Templars, or further ventures into WWII (and other) historicals, WarmaHordes, Malifaux, or sundry other projects, please feel free to follow me over at The Miniatures Corner.

Congrats to all the folks who hit their goals, and many thanks once again to Curt (and his minions!) for organizing and running this whole crazy venture! Assuming I don't get saddled with another big deadline for a 150,000-word book next winter I will return again!

Oh wow, this is absolutely brilliant David, thank you so much. I am a huge David Bowie fan (the Serious Moonlight Tour was one of the first concerts I went to) and was quite gutted when he passed away. In regards to the figure, the paintwork is excellent but I think my favourite aspect is his hair - you completely nailed the colour which, for anything with David Bowie, you need to do.

Your work was always a pleasure to see David and I was delighted to have you with us. I hope we can join up again for Challenge VII. Regards, Curt