In any auto race, the signal to start is the waving of a flag. The one you see here is my making of Hernan Cortes’ banner of the Virgin Mary that the Conquistadores carried in Mesoamerica. It indeed will be carried by one of the soon-to-be-finished figures in the contest, so I thought it would be appropriate. Well, midnight passed last night and the Mark’s Conquistador Contest has officially started, and the flag is waved.
I have tabulated the list of entrants that you will see in the Excel chart below – sorted from earliest pick to the latest one.
You guys knew I’d have to have a spreadsheet!
I have listed the blog handles and the blogs of those who entered if you’d like to check them out. And you should if you do not know them. Click on their comments avatar to see them as they can be found in the comments section on the original contest post here. You can find most everyone on WordPress. However, a couple of entrants haven’t a blog to my knowledge (Leif Magnuson and Dave Wood), while Dave Stone is on blogger, and Buck has his own website. Buck is also on the HAWKS site with his fellow HAWKS Greg and Chris (cjpalmer), though Greg also has a WordPress site.

We have 18 entrants. The average of the dates chosen was March 24th, 2021. The dates have a 101 day range, with Mike at despartaferres picking the earliest (February 8th) and Roger at Rantings From the Wargame Table playing the long game at May 2oth. The good news is that there will be no ties – as all dates are different and none are equidistant from the average.
I am making good progress and will be posting about that shortly. I know that many of the miniatures will take me longer to paint, and some much less. And I do have an airbrush…at this point, it’s anyone’s game. So stay tuned! Thanks to all who entered and good luck!
As a reminder for what the prize choices are for the three top winners:



Yep, I have to say I would have put money on a spreadsheet! 😉
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Like betting if water was wet 🤣
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Game on! Looking forward to progress reports and more fine minis.
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I’ll do my best – good luck!
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Looking forward to following your progress Mark! 🙂
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Thanks John
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Stunning flag to open Mark, look forward to seeing the progression of the project
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Thanks Dave! Cranked on these tonight!
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This will be fun to follow. I’m going to back Roger with the long game hehe
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😄
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Flag, what flag???
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?
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The banner as the title pic?
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Must be the iPad as I still cannot see a flag anywhere 🥴
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If you use the WordPress app it should be available on the reader. If not, no worries, it looks like this: https://holymary.info/bannerofcortes.html
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I always play the long game, probably just because I’m so bloody slow myself!
Yep I too knew there’d be a spreadsheet in there somewhere, did someone get a free copy of Excel through your civil heath job and now has to justify it to the auditors?😁
Cheers Roger.
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Nah, I’m an Excel junkie since I don’t know when. I’ve paid Bill Gates his money! Remember Roger, I’m elected so I only have to answer to the voters (or the State Ethics Commission if I get out of hand but I’m not wanting any fines from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts so I behave well). Cheers buddy, now I need to get back to painting.
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“I’m elected so I only have to answer to the voters” after recent event’s perhaps someone should tell that to the president. 😉
Cheers Roger.
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Great stuff- looking forward to seeing how this goes.
Cheers,
Pete.
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