“The suns had dipped past the dunes on the horizon and the clear blue skies of Khardasian Prime had changed to black, illuminated by the moons and the countless stars in the night sky. It was a cold night and a silent night Sergeant Roth noticed, turning his head scanning the perimeter…too silent. He looked back into the darkness behind him. He couldn’t see the rest of the platoon, but he knew they were hiding in the jungle, waiting for the order. He opened one of his pockets and took out a small pouch which he emptied onto his palm. The small metal disc felt warm against his skin and he could easily see the outline of its heated shape in the darkness. With the disc turned in the direction of the platoon Roth put his hand through a series of motions, drawing several shapes in the darkness. He quickly put the disc back in its pouch keeping it warm, something told him he would be needing it again this night. 

Several yards away, covered by leaves and bush and hiding behind trees and cactii, the rest of the platoon watched the signal. Sergeant Varen sent his squad to the east and Sergeant Kashid sent his squad to the west. As silently as the night, the guardsmen spread out covering all angles of the clearing and the ruin within. 

Snap…a branch broke as something moved within the ruin…with its chameleon-like abilities, the alien was barely visible in the darkness as it moved, but the single sound was all his squad needed. The silence was broken as the crack of several lasguns filled the night, illuminating the clearing as the beams of hot las rounds painted the jungle in a dull red glow. The alien hissed and screamed as it was caught in the crossfire. Roth realized that the lasguns did little however, as the natural carapace of the alien protected it from most of the damage. ‘Aim for the head, aim for the head’ he shouted to his sides trying to get the message across to his squad. He turned his head back towards the clearing raising his bolt pistol…shit, where did it go…”

—————————————————————–Introducing the Tallarn 42nd regiment, 101st platoon. This particular platoon, has become the “home” of the 42nd veterans, earning them many nicknames like “Desert Vets”, “Fiery Farts”, “Blazing Camels” and “Jungle Jaegers”.

Before starting this challenge, I had many doubts about what to do and how to do it. The most important thing, was obviously trying to decide, how to paint the catachans. Old school codex style, with green fatigues and GG bases, or should I go way out of my comfort zone, doing some kind of desert variant to match my Tallarns?

After having tested some different colors I finally decided to go with the desert variant, and I have to tell you…I’m sooo happy I went with this. Even though there’s most surely many details I could have done better, I’m very thrillled with the result.

Not only am I thrillled with the result of the painting. But I’m also thrillled with completing the first slice and the first sub goal. This slice has taken a big chunk out of the entire challenge, giving me good odds for completing the rest. After having failed the last challenge I joined, I’m hoping that a good start to this one will help me power through and finish.

3 x Battle Line squad @ 420 pts. 

– sergeant w. chainsword & bolt pistol 

– Plasma gun 

– Missile launcher 

Sub goal finished

– Paint 30 Infantry in one month 

1st Month successfully completed despite my painting time for this challenge already being split evenly between 2nd edition models and… scenic landscapes, wait… am I doing this right?

For this month I knocked out 2 command squads and a bonus squad led by the venerable Captain Chenkov. I had a few conversions in the mix here, starting with 2 officers made from a Valhallan Lt. and a 2nd ed Commissar with some arm/head swaps. Honestly I love the look of the black beret, I might sneak that into some other conversions going forward. In addition to that I have a pair of converted Plasma guns made from some recused guardsmen, the past owner had chopped up with weapons to slot in more “modern versions”, which I swapped back out for spare plasma guns. Finally, the loader for the heavy bolter is a repair of a bad head swap, using a broken tank rider’s head I was able to get a new lasgun model!

But the real show is the heavy weapon bases, the pride and bane of my hobby time! 

For the rocket launcher team I used Green stuff world’s small tree stumps, a few regular sticks soaked in wood glue and some of AK’s moss texture to make a fallen tree. The moss texture is a good addition, though the results shown are after giving it a brown wash and some green highlights. Overall I really enjoyed it, I still have to add snow to these (and all other models, Valhallan Blizzard loves to dry out) but I think this gets the point across.

The heavy bolter team was a treat to work on, I wanted to tell a story with this team and decided to show trench life with some discarded food items. using some spare bits I mocked up a gun crew who were preparing for a nice Blue pheasant dinner, with potatoes and a Pinot Noir pairing when this damned war happened again! They knocked the bottle over in the fuss, as we all know, spilled wine is the true tragedy of war. Spilled wine, spent casings and a battered gun position.

One month down, on to the next, More to Follow Comrades!

Follow along on my instagram where I’ll post completed pictures of these guys with snow!

https://www.instagram.com/valhallan_winter/

1^st Platoon

Command HQ

Valhallan Command HQ Captain with Boltpistol & Sword, 2 guardsmen with Plasma guns, 1 Missile Launcher Team-120

2^nd Platoon

Command

Valhallan Command Squad Lieutenant with Bolt pistol & powerfist, 2 guardsmen with melta guns, 2 guardsmen with lasguns- 84

3^rd Platoon (bonus)

Valhallan Command Squad, Captain Chenkov of Valhalla, guardsman with Grenade launcher, guardsman with commlink, 1 Heavy Bolter Team-  165

Total- 369

Wow! I never thought I would even make it past the first month considering how this year started. Not a lot of hobby time has been had. 

As you can see from the pics the warboss is definitely to a higher standard than the rest but there simply wasn’t time. But hey! They’re all painted and they’re 26 models!  (I think, it’s late…) 

Very happy to have climbed the infantry mountain this month though as now the fun stuff can really start! Perhaps Mad Boyz next month? Or perhaps the stompa! Or just chill and paint some artillery? Who knows what’ll happen! Will I even make it? I sure hope so! I promise prettier photographs next time as well! 

Flogger out!

This month’s chunk: Nob – Bolter, Power Fist, ‘Eavy Armour – 33 points – He’s a rich boy. He don’t try to hide it. Teef on the soles of his boots. Phew, this was harder than I expected! Sure, it’s only one model, but I hadn’t painted anything in a clean, vibrant style for years and for most of January I was afraid to actually start painting. I procrastinated by painting a few historical miniatures in my usual style but in the end I got around to the challenge at hand.

First attempt: I primed the miniature in a weird experimental way (light grey, black wash), slapped on some colours to sketch in a scheme I liked – just to panic and throw the Nob into my vat of Biostrip. Second attempt: Black primer this time. I got out my airbrush and cursed my way through half an hour of a nozzle constantly clogging but managed to do the primer and metallics basecoat. From this point on everything felt great! I managed to sketch in the main colours to my liking and the rest of the steps came naturally.

I had thought a lot about colour recipes beforehand, so I just crossed off items from a list going forward. I used a lot of inks to make the main colours more vibrant and I’m particularly happy with the yellows. I hope the mental barrier has been broken down for good and the next months will be easier. There’s more miniatures in each of the next 5 batches so I’ll have to start on February’s chunk asap.

If you’re interested in any specific colour recipes or you’d like to check out any of my side projects, I’m posting on Instagram @bifrostpainting. Cheers to everyone who made it through January, I can’t wait to see you results!

I don’t have a description of the painting progress handy, but I plan to make a little tutorial for the bone white armor, I’d send it your way once it’s done.

Point wise we have:

Lexicanii with Power sword  158 points

5 Deathwing Terminators armed with fist and storm bolter 340

My slice this month consisted of my seers, a council of one farseer and originally five warlocks that grew to a bonus warlock in the last few days. I was hoping to get more done this month but I figure a Gamer’s painting is always improving and tightening as new units and strategies develop. After all, the difference between a sword and a power sword can be on the army roster as well as a new paint job! I’ll see how these play and see how they roll.

My experience with Eldar comes from slightly later editions but as always, their psykers are essential. Few psykers in other armies have the suite of powers to enable your space elves to succeed in their mission. The abilities available to a psyker says a lot about the character, Space Marine Librarians mix shielding their brothers with smiting their enemies while Chaos Sorcerers are selfish wielders of pain and warpfire. The Eldar seers are best when supporting their potent but vulnerable Aspect Warriors and Guardians, a well-planned ability can see the enemy in ruin and the Eldar safely beyond harm. When pushed to offensive powers, Eldar psykers have access to both precision and raw roiling power befitting the masters of warpcraft.

Successfully playing Eldar takes plenty of practice learning the strengths and weaknesses of your units. The keystone of your army is the seer and they can easily form the fulcrum of any leverage you create on the battlefield, providing that extra capability to accomplish your strategies.

Until next month,

-Slice of Dice

Month 1 has, in many ways, been a rather interesting painting journey. I decided a while ago that  although I would only be painting one model in the first month I would at least make it the largest in the army and hopefully manage to make it a suitable centrepiece. I also wanted to try out a different painting technique on it. I think I’ve managed to achieve these objectives, but the further I have progressed through the painting process the more I ambivalent I have become about the outcome!

When I was putting the army together I was in two minds whether to go for the earlier or later Lord of Change model. Originally I felt that the earlier version was a bit one-dimensional and static in the posing, and that the later model was rather more dynamic and interesting. As such I tracked down the later model and started working on that. I am very pleased with the wings, where I have feel I’ve achieved some rather nice transitions between colours working from blue all the way to light pink. This was done with wet blending, first with ‘normal’ consistency paints and then to add some shading a similar process was done with washes (mixing them wet across the transitions between the base colours). A few passes of different colour drybrushes finished off to bring out the highlights on the feathers. The staff was a similar process, with wet blending of Contrast Paints used to achieve the transition from yellow all the way to blue via orange, red and purple. This took a few passes and rather a lot of additional edge highlighting to get  the contrast to where I wanted it to be.

However, this was the point that I then started to get slightly conflicting feelings about the model. The more I was happy with individual elements the more I felt that it just didn’t feel cohesive and together when all assembled. I’d sit rotating the model to try and find and angle that I liked – but it never really happened. I’m not really sure what the sculptor was intending with this – I think the staff arm is probably the best example. When painted off the model (as I did) it looks really good – but then you try and attach it with the wings on and you find the posing is extremely limited as it actually extends below the base if you put it upright! The face on the top of staff also doesn’t point in the same direction as the creature’s head does. It all adds up to something that, although I am technically happy with the model, doesn’t have a single cohesive angle where it all comes together. This really hit home hard when I came to photograph it – there just isn’t a ‘golden angle’ – no matter what the angle of the model it just doesn’t feel ‘right’.

Anyhow, month 1 is done, month 2 is all about the Thousand Sons marines themselves, so I can focus on my technical processes and try to get 6-7 models painted in the same time as it took me to paint 3 when I was testing the scheme out… 

Models Completed – Month 1

1 x Lord of Change (280 points)

Subgoals Completed

Try a new technique – wet blending used on the staff, wings and feathers.

Here’s to Month 2!!!

Tom

It is with great excitement that I submit my first “slice” for the 4th season of the challenge.  I have been surprised by the additional fun I am having this time around by painting a totally new army – the Orks!  In the waning days of Rogue Trader I received a copy of ‘Ere We Go for my 14th birthday and I spent many hours as a teen making army lists of the ideal Ork army I wanted to create.  

Finally putting brush to model on this long held dream was very satisfying as I painted this first month’s entry.  I took on a Goff boyz mob consisting of six of the classic 2nd edition box set plastic Orks along with a metal Goff nob mini to lead them into battle.  Besides being enjoyable models to paint, it gave me the opportunity to hone the skill of some freehand checker box patterns on the Orks shoulders.  One of my sub goals during the six months of the challenge is to paint a freehand banner so the rote practice of painting the checker boxes on this unit was really appreciated.  

I kept my painting agenda simple for the first month, concentrating primarily on putting my best possible work into painting the seven models in the unit itself.  Now that I have an idea of how much time that occupies for me, I can figure out when to slot in the subgoals for future months.  The models are equipped in a similarly simple fashion to match their foot soldier nature, bolt pistols and axes for the boyz while the nob has a power sword to go with his bolt pistol.  

Thanks to the mighty Dr the Viking for coordinating this amazing challenge for the 4th time and good fortune to all the contestants, especially those trying to break the curse of the Wulfen.  Follow my painting adventures at 1stlegionchronicles.blogspot.com

Bugeye Gul Slica – Goff Nob: Power Sword, Bolt Pistol; 6 Goff Boyz: Axe, Bolt Pistol; 91 points. 

So traditionally I always place last in the challenge irrespective of when I actually finish. I do this in appreciation of all the people who have chosen to join me in this thing. I will say that I am surprised at how much joy all this extra work of doing a challenge brings me. It has been the highlight of a month that seems to just tear away at the foundation of what keeps us alive.

This is my first time ever doing “good guys”. And luckily, the Dark Angels are not even that far into that category. I went for a mix between Rogue Trader and 2nd edition with these. The transfers were kindly provided by Jonas and while a lot of them were old and brittle I think there are enough that I can add them to all my marines. They have a bit of discolouration, but I do not mind. I left the banner out for now, because I want to source a good one before adding it.

Since I am doing the Gamer’s challenge I tried to paint as fast as possible. I used a whiteish undercoat and blocked in all the basic colours. Then I varnished it with a layer of Purity Seal, and gave it a black oil wash once it was proper dry. After this I kept adding bits and bops to the marines until I was satisfied. The green was contrast. The rest is paint from what I recall.

The techmarine is a bonus that was painted through a couple of Discord live chat sessions with Valhallan Winter. It is a 3rd edition marine, but I don’t really mind. I think it does the job. My camera troubles are real, so the best I could come up with was borrowing an iphone which gave me the above. I really need to figure out this part as it is a bit demotivating.

So for next month I am hoping to finish a tactical squad and maybe a bonus! Who knows!