Here is wave 2 of the #40k2ndAC IV for February. We have 11 entries in this wave. The flag above the badge denotes where the participant is currently operating, while a small terminator honours logo means that the participant has been honoured by his peers for a previous entry.

The painting block I had planned for this month was the one I was dreading (dreadnoughting?) the most. I think what put me off was the whole 3-vehicles-in-a-month thing. I know I said it last month, but painting vehicles isn’t fun for me. Painting 3 isn’t something I’d normally seek out, but it’s a challenge, and the subgoals are there for a reason.

My original plan for this block was to paint 2 Dreadnoughts and 1 Ork Battlewagon, but I found a few more dreadnoughts in my lead pile. So I decided to add another dreadnought. After all, if you’re painting two, might as well paint three and get it over with. So it’ll be 4 vehicles this month instead of 3. I also added in 2 more Blood Axe Kommandos, one of which I converted to carry a heavy weapon (because infiltrators in 2nd edition are fun, and infiltrators with heavy weapons are even more fun).

I started by painting this month’s battlewagon (“Hellion”) using the same process as last month’s battlewagon (“Painkiller”). I found a blister of “Tyranid Squigs” and a loose snotling which needed to hitch a ride. I wanted the 2 battlewagons to feel like they belonged to the same Mekboy motorpool, so this one carries on with the Judas Priest theme. The name comes from JP’s 1982’s Screaming for Vengeance, and the banner comes from their 1988 album Ram It Down. Of course, I had to change the blue arm to be green (for orkiness). Like last month, the banner is two-sided with the same image painted on both sides.

Then I started painting the dreadnoughts, which proved to be a pain from the start. The arms and legs needed so much filing/drilling/pinning to get them to stay put. Then I changed my mind on the painting style several times, so no sooner had I started painting that I just had to drop them in the solvent bath. At that point I decided I may as well add another dread since I was starting over anyway. Starting over also afforded me a chance to rethink the weapons. I drilled the weapons and mounts to add in tiny magnets so that they are now interchangeable. That was something I always wanted to do, but avoided. I’m really glad I took the time to do it, even if it was a bit tedious.

After getting ready to take photos to submit this month’s block I realized the empty battlewagon didn’t look right without anyone sitting in it, so I decided to paint up 2 more Kommandos. Since Ork dreads in 2nd edition could no longer field heavy plasma guns, I decided to give it to a Kommando.

I’m happy with my painting this month. It’s really shaping up to be the kind of Ork army I would’ve loved back in the 90s.

MODELS AND POINTS:

Ork Battlewagon 50
Ork Dreadnought 120
Missile Launcher 25
Ork Dreadnought 120

Extra:

Blood Axe Kommandos (2 @ 14) 28
Power Axes (2 @ 6) 12
Heavy Plasma Gun (1 @ 26) 26
Ork Dreadnought 120
Lascannon 30

Points: 531
Models: 18 (equivalent)

SUBGOAL COMPLETED THIS MONTH:

Gamer’s Subgoal – “Paint 3 vehicles in 1 month”

Wraithbone comm displays surround Bel-Annath. “… the mon-keigh retreat.

Scouts report our Falcon’s pulse laser successfully blasted the ice seal and gave access to the planet’s lower tunnels.” The face and torn helmet of a Scorpion materialized in the display.

The helm’s mandiblaster had been sheared off, the metal grooved by some terrible force. Static stuttered through the image. “Sir….. rout… in-effect-”

Bel-Annath leaned closer. The Aspect Warrior’s head snapped back as a massive claw entered the frame. The display went dark. Bel-Annath turned to his silent exarch.

“I did not forsee this. A shadow clouded my foresight” “Renewed resistance?” “No. Tyranids.”

***

This month I painted three vehicles – two War Walkers and an Eldar Dreadnought, finishing the first of my three gamer challenges! Both War Walkers are equipped with scatter lasers for 150 pts. apiece and the Dreadnought has two arms and a D-Cannon for 200 pts. One of the Walkers (the sitter) is from 2e, the split-legged pilot is from Rogue Trader. I tried to work with both models to give them more dynamic poses than the standard Flamingo style.

I am particularly happy with how the gems and freehand symbol turned out on the Dreadnought. Even with a matte finish, I feel its main spirit stone looks glistening. 

BONUS: Eldar Falcon – 198 pts. 

This month, I picked up an Ebay Rescue Epicast Falcon! The build quality on this resin beast from 1992 was – is? – terrible but I’m very happy with how the paint has been turning out on it. There is still some highlighting to do, but the model is finished enough for me to use proudly in our FLGS campaign. I really pushed myself with the freehand on this one. All the cockpit struts and design are freehanded, as well as the Mymeara and Asuryani runes. I’ve included a before photo for comparison – it’s such a joy to give a 30 year-old model new life!

Total models: 4

Total points: 698

I have always loved these Tyranid Warrior sculpts, much more so than the buck-toothed plastic ones. One of my mates donated a couple to me last year, specifically so that I could paint them for this challenge. I also bought a few online in various states of disrepair; some were in horrible condition.

Painting the warriors using the Hive Fleet Proteus scheme was really good fun, I am thoroughly enjoying the colour palette. Constructing them, however, was a nightmare. The main issue was that the pegs on the arms didn’t really fit the holes in the torso (for various reasons). Bumping those parts around caused a lot of paint chipping, which meant I had to protect my work on the sub-assemblies with matt varnish before handling them. 

Despite the pain it put me through, I really love this brood. They are the quintessence of Tyranid bioforms, in my opinion. The brood features three heavy weapons, including two venom cannons and a barbed strangler. The venom cannons are the more effective weapon choice, though it is hilarious when the barbed strangler successfully does its thing. I also included three devourers, for sustained fire/fear inducing madness, as well as three deathspitters for some consistent firepower. I know I will jam the heck out of those devourers!

Challenge points: 403

Challenge models: 6

Actual points: 609

Actual models: 9

This month I finished off the Terminator squad from last month.  I had a slight head start on one of the terminators as the yellow and the first round of edge highlighting was done last month when I was trying to get three minis done.  I think my pack markings are a little rougher this month, I probably should have left them off until I was feeling more up to the task, but either way they are done.  I almost had a total disaster as I was transporting these figures downstairs for their photo op as the Sergreant fell off the tray and down three or four wood stairs.  He survived with only a little bit of the snow falling off the base.  He may need a touch up or two but I’m shocked at how well he survived.  Terminator 3+ on 2D6 for the win!

Three models:

Terminator Sergeant with Power Sword, and Storm Bolter, Terminator with Storm Bolter and Chainfist, Terminator with Heavy Flamer and Powerfist – 163 points.

-Wachtmeister

https://www.hmgs.org/blogpost/1767208/319222/The-Wachtmeister-s-Introduction

Another month, another set of Valhall… wait… There aren’t any valhallans this month, why not? … The dirt mounds melted? The paint melted the fake dirt!?! I can’t use those! Real dirt doesn’t melt, that’ll ruin the artistic immersion!

Originally I was planning to make a Heavy Weapon Squad of Autocannons and a Primaris Psyker for this month but due to a basing mishap my autocannon base’s foam was melted by the primer. This accident was due to my use of tacky glue, not the vastly superior normal Elmer’s pva glue that I normally use to seal the foam. Remember: Elmer’s glue, that sh*t still works.

The Primaris Psyker is the classic 2nd edition model with a minor conversion of fur cuffs/gloved hands. I strongly feel that a strong army theme can enhance the overall feel of an army, winterizing non-valhallan models to fit the valhallan theme goes a long way to mesh the support models into the army. And thus one space wizard was made

With little time to remedy the hobby fiasco I had, I called an audible and started work on a batch of servitors to help fill out the ranks while I sort out my melted bases. I’ve long had batches of these guys kicking around from various lots and I wanted to finally give them some paint. I went with a blue scheme for the mechanicus/forge world that will be pals with my Valhallans, I think the cold blue is a nice change from the red/oranges of normal mechanicus. Not to mention they look like auto workers wearing denim overalls, that fits too…

Though these poor guys will be kinda bored, my army thus far is only painted infantry, leaving them little to work on. 

Wait…. do you hear rumbling?

I’ll be posting wips/ additional pictures on my instagram

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

More to follow Comrades! 

Pledge-

Primaris Psyker Champion with a laspistol- 70 pts

Bonus (values from black book)-

7x servitors- 5x Powerfists (servo Arms), 2x Heavy Bolters- 143 pts

Total- 213 pts

The PDF troopers had been holding the outpost for days, and so far the forces of Chaos had been unable to break through their defences. But this day something was different. The sky had turned a sickly green, and suddenly a horde of Plaguebearers emerged from the banks of noxious clouds drifting across the battlefield.

The troopers opened fire, their weapons spitting hot death at the oncoming foe. Mortar shells slammed into the ground, throwing chunks of earth and body parts into the air. But still, the Plaguebearers came on.

The PDF troopers fought with bayonets and flamethrowers, trying to hold the line as the daemons crashed into them. The stench of the Plaguebearers was overwhelming, a combination of rotting flesh and sulfuric fumes. The troopers fought bravely, but they were outnumbered and outmatched. As the last of the troopers fell, their commander screamed in defiance, a lone figure standing against the horde of daemons. Within moments, the Plaguebearers were upon him, their claws tearing through flesh and bone.

The battlefield was silent once more, save for the screams of the dying and the buzzing of flies.

***
My second slice consists of a pack of five Plaguebearers of Nurgle. I was originally only going to paint three, but I managed to add another two to the squad.

I once again turned to the Nostalgia ’88 paints, and for the skin colour I mixed Orc Brown and Bilious Green for a sickly green tone. These daemons have a lot of open wounds so I used some gloss varnish to make them look wet and unpleasant! I was a bit unsure on how to do the Plagueswords, but in the end I settled on a Chainmail base coat followed by a few different green washes to make them look plague-ridden and filthy.

***
The Tallymen of Nurgle
5x Plaguebearers with Plagueswords (175)
Total: 175 points

***

This month I also managed to finish one of my subgoals!

-Build useable game tokens

I’ve been wanting to make some fire markers using tea lights for a long time now, and this seemed like a good opportunity to get it done! I took four electric tea lights and hot glued on some stuffing from an old cushion to simulate smoke. I then sprayed it with some cheap black paint. Simple and effective! I’m thinking these could be used to represent destroyed or burning vehicles or artillery bombardment.

***

My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oddgits.hut

Cheers!

/Ted

The poets were wrong about April being the cruelest month.  That title should certainly belong to February since it contains 2-3 less painting days than all the other months.  Probably proof that TS Elliot should have spent more time painting Citadel miniatures and less time being bummed about WWI.  Too soon?

Sliding in at the last possible minute again this month, I have finished the second Goff mob for my Ork warband.  Painting virtually identical squads of monopose miniatures two months in a row was probably not the best way to fire my hobby motivation at the twin starts of the new year and the hobby challenge.  However now that these two mobs are finished I have the core foot troops of my army finished with paint schemes that are very satisfying.  There is little else in 2nd edition that is more iconic than these orks, so doing the best painting I can manage for them makes up for their identical appearances.  I used a slightly different color combination on their uniforms this month, but replicated last month’s unit’s left shoulder checker box patterns to tie the mobs together for battles where I decided to use them all together as one larger mob.  

Just like last month’s mob, they are armed with the simple bolt pistol and axe.  The metal Goff nob mini is the same cast as the nob for last month’s mob as well. To make the squad leaders appear different even though they are the same model, I did a little kitbashing to each.  Last month’s nob had plastic pauldrons glued onto his shoulder armor giving him a much bulkier upper body shape.  This month I went meta with the nob’s weapons and gave him a power axe and RT era Ork bolter.  That way he has the same outline of the boyz, axe in one hand, bolter in the other, just much bigger.  Which I feel syncs with the idea of the nobs being bigger and “gettin’ da best stuf”.

Next month my investment in early line units will pay off with an interesting but challenging mob to complete – Snake Bite Boar Boyz!!!  I have wanted boar boyz ever since I first saw them in White Dwarf thirty years ago so I am very excited to work on those classic models next month.  No subgoals again this month so I really need to get cracking on those as well.

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

Grimskraga Slag-Dregga – Goff Nob: Power Axe, Bolter; 5 Goff Boyz: Axe, Bolt Pistol; 91 points. 

Hello there.

This month I will just start with saying UGH. I mean, I was painting away on everything, tanks, marines, things not even part of my pledge, you name it. In the end I did not really decide what entry I wanted to complete and instead I was sitting here last minute painting army symbols, chapter logos and other small details and I realised I couldnot make it to the standard I wanted.

I did pledge for a gamers challenge and this entry kind of represent that. In my life as a painter and gamer I have often been in this situation, painting final miniatures for a next day game, this time it happened to be an online painting challenge though. I decided to do as if I had an upcoming next day game, finish the minis to a gameable standard where you could see what I was bringing, sand and paint the bases and call it for today.

It feels like a fail and I don’t know if my entry will be accepted as it is, but instead of giving up I hope this entry allowds me to continue in the challenge as otherwise I will probably just stagnate at this point and not get further with the army for now.

As models go I finished the 8 of these with painted symbols and all, 3 tactical marines and the Land SPeeder needs more work, but I feel they could go on a gaming table if needed.

This represent the “Part 3” of my pledge: Tactical Squad, Land Speeder, Comm. Officer

The Tactical Squad is sporting a Lascannon and Plasma Gun bringing them to 353pts

The Land Speeder costs 145pts

The Communication Officer is just a model I had primed and have no point value or purpose beyond looking cool and all.

Total 498pts this month, no sub goals.

Hello! As promised, this month we have some heavy weapons consisting of a squad of 3 Chaos Marines with an Autocannon, Heavy Bolter and Lascannon – somehow still a Troops choice in the Chaos Codex. I’ve admired these models for decades and finally getting round to painting some myself is really fun and satisfying. Not sure what I’ll pick for next month..!

Points:

3 x Chaos Space Marines, Heavy Bolter, Lascannon, Autocannon – 142 pts

Cheers!
Mark

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This month I painted 40 out of 80 vintage plastic guardians, learning plenty of lessons along the way. As every decision meant repeating it dozens of times, I had to be efficient without getting carried away like I usually do when painting characters or elite units. These guys are pure rank and file; arranging them like this drives home how having a Warhammer Fantasy mindset can help with this kind of painting. I also added a few extra pewter guardian sculpts I had, there’s so much detail I never appreciated on these miniatures until I got close with a brush!

Using guardians on the tabletop requires a lot of practice, I usually rank Eldar generals by how well they use guardians. These space elf militiamen don’t have the training or equipment of other Eldar warriors to keep them safe, so Eldar players have to learn how to maneuver them to get the job done while keeping them alive. With practice and plenty of times where you humbly scoop up a whole unit in a turn, guardians are rewarding models to field and to paint. Plus, they show off your color scheme brilliantly compared to the varied paint jobs of Aspect Warriors!

Points:

98 Guardian Squad x6, Shuriken Catapult x6, Laspistol x5, Shuriken Pistol, Power Sword

75 Guardian Squad x5, Shuriken Catapult x5, Laspistol x5

120 Guardian Squad x10, Lasgun x10, Laspistol x10

120 Guardian Squad x10, Lasgun x10, Laspistol x10

78 Guardian Squad x6, Lasgun x6, Laspistol x6, Power Sword

72 Guardian Squad x6, Lasgun x6, Laspistol x6

Painting – it goes ever on and on. But now, spring is starting to come around, the weather is getting lighter and the sense of impending doom by drowning in rain is dissipating. For me that makes it harder to justify the hours spend huddled up in the “cave”.

Yet, I must admit that painting this month’s entry was kind of a breeze. It took no time at all… perhaps the results are not making anyone think differently haha! My main hurdle was finding a suitable colour for the Dark Angel armour. I wanted to go in the direction of a hybrid between 2nd edition and Rogue Trader. Of course, I didn’t want to go all black armour, as frankly I find that a bit boring. Instead, I decided to go with the colour on the Epic Space Marine box:

Or at least… attempting to do so. I wanted to take that.. and party! So adding some of the decals from 2nd edition. This should give me a nice mix between the realistic and the colourful.

Apparently, Dark Angel squads are named after the sergeant in the squad, so this squad is called Melekiel after the guy with the banner. The banner was a print out that I painted over afterwards… it didn’t quite do as I had hoped, and certainly doesn’t give the sense of awe that PygmyHippo instills in his work. But I guess it is “working”. For now.

In my previous challenges, I have struggled a bit with vehicles. I never quite got a good thing going with the unwieldy big models. But I thought that I would give it another go. So here is the Predator – The Sword of Benethor. Naming conventions state, that Dark Angels name their vehicles after their Force commander and my version of the 3rd will be led by Benethor. Not much is known about his brief leadership of the 3rd.

Instead of going with the “standard” 2nd edition factory clean look on this one, I went to town with weathering. I used all the small tips and tricks I could find on the internet. I also came up with a way of making bullet holes/indents which I really liked. The final touch was some pigment powder on the lower half which I think really lifted it. I kept thinking of the old Imperial Armour books from around the millenium and that style was my inspiration.

I had plans to add stowage to the tank also, but I half forgot, and then I had started the weathering and couldn’t really reverse. I will get it on the next vehicle instead.

Totals:

10 Marines Squad Melekiel, Flamer, Missile Launcher, Sgt. w/ bolt pistol and chainsword, 358 points

1 Predator Annihilator – The Sword of Benethor, 150 points

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