Here is wave 2 of the #40k2ndAC IV for May. 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.

Hello! Finished this month are 5 tall handsome monopose Thousand Sons. These were an ebay lot bought many moons ago which would definitely be too pricey for my cheap ass to pick up now. Great sculpts that fit in fine with modern minis in terms of style and size – GW hasn’t diverged too far from this design to this day. The plastic backpacks do leave something to be desired in terms of details though.

Eighty percent done but not pictured is a Sorcerer to look after this squad. This, along with all unfinished odds and ends from other months will come in June. Left to do is the army icon bearer, the banner for the Jugger Lord, a small diorama for a squad, and two tanks… Wish me luck!

Cheers,

Mark

————

Points for this month:

5x Thousand Sons Chaos Marines – 150pts

Another month down and another month of Valhallans not hitting the field! 

This month I tried to focus on heavy weapons but wasn’t able to pull it over the finish line, being a bit burned out from the last 2 entries (cross ref: Hobby Madness). The crux of the issue was my attempt to use GW airbrush paint. Unlike Vallejo airbrush paints the GW air paints required much more watering down and flow improver, the paints are a chore to deal with. Even changing colors becomes a full affair compared to other brands like Vallejo Game air.  

With Watchmeister’s vaunted Terminators on the horizon and McMaster having never lost a Skorcha in his life, renowned as the “Mozart of Skorchas” in the local gamesphere, I’ll need all the firepower I can get in the last month! 

I’ll have to fix this issue in the last month, which should still see 20+ needed to finish out this challenge.

So lacking heavy weapons I changed things up with some characters, no guard army is complete without some stylish commissars, an iconic classic. As I’ve taken to using 2nd edition commissars as officers in my army I’ve elected to use the mid 2000s commissars to avoid repeating the same sculpt in different rolls. Additionally I used the bonus commissar to try out a formula for a dark skin tone, a nod to the lore showing the non-Valhallan aspect of these political officers.

Finally I added a Preacher to even things out. The model was painted like a certain character who constantly strives to purge mythical blue woodland creatures, once I saw the resemblance it was out of my hands. Plus this will allow me to take a certain other unit… 

Much more to follow comrades, the final month awaits!

Follow along at https://www.instagram.com/valhallan_winter

Pledge

Commissar with Bolt Pistol and Powerfist- 52 pts

Bonus

Commissar Sword & Plasma pistol- 44 pts

Preacher- Laspistol & Sword- 11 pts 

Total points- 107 pts

 Total models-3

This month sees the last ‘squad’ of Harlequin Troupers finished off. I haven’t really played around with blending on these models overly much so I wanted to get a bit more blending of colours in the hair of this squad.  I also came across some cool images of someone else’s Harlequins (no idea who unfortunately) and they had two tones for the hair with no blending, just the top layer as a different colour. 

I was impressed at how striking it looked, so was more than happy to give that a go. I have been doing other projects alongside the Harlequins over previous months, most notably a 2,000pt High Elf army this month, the final month of the challenge will be mostly dedicated to the Harlequins.  I have a couple of Eldar Dreadnoughts that I’m hoping to do as bonus models, as well as a whole bunch of terrain. I’m hoping for a fairly dense 4’x4′ but I may be able to squeeze it out to a full 6’x4′.

Harlequin Squad (6) 219pts

Powerfist, Hand Flamer, Pack Grenade Launcher

Power Axe, Shuriken Pistol

Power Sword, Shuriken Pistol

Harlequin’s Kiss, Shuriken Pistol

Chainsword, Shuriken Pistol x2

You can check out more of what I have been working on at my hobby blog over on FB at:

https://www.facebook.com/ThisWayMadnessLays

Hello once more.

Here on the 5th month I can happily say I feel like I am back on track again. I decided to go on with my Part 6 of the Challenge, that being to paint a backdrop and convert a toy tank.

Not only did I manage to convert and paint up the classic GI Joe Armadillo tank for my Blood Angels, I also painted a backdrop (Although a bit crude on both), but I also managed to play a game with my Blood Angels, which totally concludes all my subgoals.

Firstly the Armadillo tank. It is a classic conversion seen in an old White Dwarf magazine and when I was gifted a large chunk of old GI Joe toys and this was in the lot I instantly decided to make my own version and for this challenge it was time to do it. I was inspired by the “original” White Dwarf version in some ways, like painting it mostly black and metal, but then I made some alternative choices too, like keeping the tracks on and not making it a hover tank and also I tilted the gun barrels up to make it more of an anti aircraft or artillery piece. I am quite happy with the result, but I might add more detail later.

Secondly the backdrop was a bit hastely done. It took me only a short time, but I liked doing it more than I anticipated and in the future I might do more to have some alternatives to choose from. Weather was great and I set up outside with a cup of coffee and just had a go with no idea where it would end and I think it is a mix of a barren wasteland/death world and poisonous atmosphere. Seems like a Space Marine vecation planet to me. Very nice.

Thirdly I played a game of 40K 2nd edition against Dr. Dr. The Viking and his Deathwing Dark Angels. He was the one taking pictures to document it, so I hope he puts up the proof eventually. We played in the ongoing Global Cowabunga Campaign and it was great fun. Preparing for this game and playing it had an evigorating effect on my mojo and before meeting up I took some time going over the models from previous months and making some further touch ups on many of those I wasn’t initially satisfied with.

All in all this month has seen to be a great one. I have no points at all since I have not statted up the tank ( I don’t think that was a part of the subgoal). I am probably not going to use it for an actual gaming piece, more like a prob or such.

I took a picture with some Marines from previous months to show scale and action.

Total:

0 pts

1 Vehicle = Model count 4

3 Subgoals, Game, Toy Tank Conversion and Backdrop

A classic last second finish this month, painting up to the last night before the deadline! Is there any better way?

This month I set a small goal of just 2 Warlocks, with the plan to add more models depending what I could acquire. For this one I was able to get a classic Eldar Dreadnought finished as a bonus model, and I was really glad to get it finished up.

The 2 Warlocks (like the others) are great sculpts to work with. Though for once I found myself without a lot of reference photos on how I should go about doing them. The codex doesn’t have any painted examples in the colour pages other than a couple hidden away in the larger army photos. I decided to keep them matching the Saim-Hann army theme with red and a white helmet. I had recently been painting up some Necromunda Redemptionists so this felt right at home :). The one Warlock had a nice flat cloth in the front so I was able to try some more freehand by putting the Saim-Hann logo on there, which I was pleased with. The other one had too many folds on his robes which would make it more difficult to pull off, and I didn’t think my skills were up to that.

The Dreadnought I had bought with some thick white paint all over it. It sat in a simple green bath most of this month until I finally scraped it clean about a week ago. Lord knows what paint they had used but it was quite stubborn. I had the same problem as above in terms of reference photos as there were only a few metal examples from GW and they weren’t Saim-Hann either. I just went with what I found most others doing, mostly all red with a big ol white dome. I was trying to figure out what freehand to do on it but got nervous about messing up the white head, so I just stuck to doing a shoulder logo and a little stripe on his knee. I think I’ll make a banner later for him as well, I just didn’t have time to do that before I had to get this entry in!

Warlock with Singing Spear – 76pts

Warlock with Force Sword – 61pts

Eldar Dreadnought – 2 Powerfists (shuriken catapult/flamer) and 1 lascannon – 205pts

This month I finally got a bonus figure painted, and it’s about time to as I have been working on him since month 1! The Iron Priest has a ton of detail so after painting the yellow, I didn’t get anything done with him. My plan had always been to complete 1000 points, and some bonus figures as well so when beating the Space Wolves curse I could feel I did so without an asterisk next to it. One month to go, it’s time to buckle down and finish strong!  Worst case scenario I have three Blood Claws to paint and I’m done as I’ve finished all of my sub goals in previous months.

4 Blood claws with power axe, power fist, power sword, chain sword, plasma pistol, hand flamer 141

Iron Priest with bolt gun, Servo-Arm 58

199 points

5 models

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

-Wachtmeister 

Month 5.. wow.

I am leaving the submission until the very end, not because I was painting more, but because I finished so early this month that I almost forgot to send it in!!! That’s “The Curse”(tm) trying to trip me up all sneaky-like.

Anyway, this month saw me painting up the second squad of Grey Hunters, all armed as the first one (8 Chainswords, 2 Powerswords, all bolters, all of the time) but I also managed to sneak in a bonus of Ulric The Slayer and 5 Wolf Guard Terminators (boxed set of weapons)!

338pts   Grey Hunters (2 Power Swords, 8 Chainswords)

175pts   Ulric The Slayer & Wolf Helm of Russ

382pts   5 Wolf Guard Terminators (Assault Cannon, Heavy Flamer, 2 Chainfists, 2 Powerfists, Power Sword, 3 Storm Bolters)

Of course, the issue I now have is my last slice of 10 Space Wolves and the dreaded 3 Subgoals. I might just see how many extra subgoals I can do in one month… 

Burning their way into your hearts, this month’s entry is the very orky Scorcher and it’s mad-driving crew.  My first issue of White Dwarf was 122 and while it was short on 40K content, it did feature a gorgeous diorama on the back cover that showed a massive (for the time) Ork warband on the move.  It had multiple mobs from three different clans, several vehicles, and a dreadnought all lovingly painted by the ‘Eavy Metal team.  

The absurd nature of a motorcycle with tank treads mounting a large flame thrower contained within a garbage can that would make Oscar proud all while towing a fuel tank precipitously behind really sparked my thirteen year old imagination.  I would include a scan of the back cover in question but I don’t want the good Dr The Viking to get sued by those rascally GW lawyers.  Do yourself a favor and search out the picture on the interwebs, it’s a beautiful preview of what a 40K army could be while the game was still in it’s infancy.

Given the nature of my always empty teenage wallet and the vagaries of third party hobby store supply chains, I never saw a Scorcher blister in the wild at a time when I could afford one.  Flash forward to February 2022 and my challenge colleague Wachtmeister was shopping at a model swap and found not one but two Scorchers plus all the Ork artillery for a very reasonable price.  He scooped them up for me faster than I could text, “I’ll Paypal you” and all that classic Ork hardware was soon in my hands.  

Besides telling the origin of this month’s model, this tale is a great illustration of the camaraderie that has become an integral part of the 2nd edition army challenge.  I’ve mailed a plastic turret ring and storm bolter all the way to Australia while also finding new gaming friends here in my own area.   Just this morning I completed a deal to secure the RT era Ork transfers I need to complete several more iterations of the challenge continuing to build my Ork army.  (ed. heart!) As long as the good doctor keeps hosting these challenges I will keep participating.  The army challenge has delivered to me the best painting motivation to complete the armies I have always wanted while learning new techniques to paint them to the standard I aspired to as a teen.

As for the model itself, I copied the look of one of the classic speed freak mobs from the inside back cover of the Ork codex.  While my Dark Angels army I painted in the first three challenges was a more unorthodox version of their paint scheme, with the Orks I am finding a lot of fun locating a second edition reference photo and doing my best to copy the paint job.  This month also saw the completion of my first of three subgoals – diorama base!

Since the Scorcher itself is a little static in pose (wild gretchin valve turner notwithstanding), I thought I would complete my Diorama base subgoal by making an elaborate landscape for the Scorcher to travel upon.  Having recently acquired the classic How To Make Wargames Terrain, I placed a combination of tile adhesive, rocks, gravel, and foam sliced in the shape of massive flagstones, on top of a 90mm oval GW base.  I used two lengths of paper clips cut to L shapes to create posts that I used to fasten the Scorcher to the base.  The uneven nature of the basing materials cause the Scorcher to sit at an angle on the base which I hoped would imbue a sense of careening motion as the vehicle travels over uneven ground.

It’s hard to believe that month 5 of the challenge is wrapping up.  Only one more month of retro painting goodness is remaining.  I am glad I saved the best for last and have Ghaz and Makari to paint along with 2 more subgoals to knock out in June.  Thanks to Dr TV and good hunting to all the challenge members who may be playing games with their new armies in this final month of the challenge.  With good fortune we will all make it over the finish line!

Scorcher – 2 Orks and 1 Gretchin crew – 50 points 

Subgoal completed – Diorama Base 

Hello everyone, 

This months been another tank fest ! 

With 2 Predators and a bonus daemon possessed vindicator. 

One Predator is armed with heavy bolters and Autocannon turret , the 

other is armed with las cannons and a twin linked las cannon turret. 

I’m not going to lie I found these tough to paint and get them to fit my style of painting but I’m happy how now it’s done. 

The next unit were 3 Terminators. These are to be the chaos lords bodyguard .  Enjoyed these as they were revamped for the project from an old Army back in the day . 

And last but not least a possessed Vindicator ! 

This has been a long time coming and was made back for the 1st ever challenge but never got round to getting it painted. 

Hope you like what you see and if you do see my work please like a share. 

As always can’t wait to see everyone’s work .

George @ebpminis 

Gamers Challenge- Month 5 

Sun Goals – 0

Models – 14 

Points 483 

Bonus models -4 

Points – unknown

Hello again Doc,

This month I painted a few units of Aspect Warriors, perhaps the most iconic feature of an Eldar force. These bright and colorful specialists wage war in unique ways; in this case I have the stealthy melee Striking Scorpions, the vexing skirmishers of the Swooping Hawks, the versatile mid-range Dire Avengers, and the risky raiding Warp Spiders.

The important thing about fielding Aspect Warriors is practicing and gaining experience with what each unit can handle. Even with heavier armor than most other Space Elves, Aspect Warriors are still flimsy but lethal. Ideally you can use them to isolate a target and basically neutralize it in a single turn, so they’re only exposed to a minimal threat at a time. This takes fine-tuning your unit sizes to keep them just right for the job without being too expensive while still able to tackle the targets you are expecting. I find that number is about 7, still small enough to stay cheap but big enough to put a major dent in a single enemy unit.

Aspect Warriors are not wrecking balls like most elite units in other factions, choosing fights on the table and analyzing your army off the table is critical. When selecting your roster, think of Aspect Warriors as packing for a trip. You cannot bring everything, so consider what you might need and keep in mind few other factions can boast so many options in tools. Aspect Warriors are *not* generalists so filling in gaps in your roster’s capability is huge.

In my case for this month, Dire Avengers do well holding objectives towards the middle of the battlefield, Striking Scorpions are tough melee fighters that can get the jump on attrition battles against horde units, Swooping Hawks can harass targets of opportunity along the edge of the battle, and Warp Spiders can hit-and-run in the middle of the board by dodging around corners while hitting targets that felt safe.

Using these units takes practice, their debut on the table is likely going to have issues but keep playing and keep thinking about how they perform to find a role that works for you!

-Slice of Dice

Points:

95 Exarch, Lasblaster, Swooping Hawk wings, Swooping Hawk grenade pack

168 Swooping Hawks x6

102 Exarch, Warp Spider Generator, Deathspinner x2, Power sword x2

164 Warp Spiders x4

130 Striking Scorpions x5

110 Dire Avengers x5

May was tough. I didn’t get to the level of painting I wanted, I didn’t get in the sub goals that I wanted, and life in general was a total shit fest and just didn’t do what I wanted. That is how it goes in these challenges. As you might be able to appreciate from the above image, my entry this month is bare bones painting… I will have to revisit them later to fill in the highlights, the purity seal scripture, the power sword, the bolter barrells and so on. But sometimes, that is how it has to roll.

One of the highlights for me in May was a sunny game of 40k with Jonas from the challenge, allowing us each to complete a sub goal of playing a game with what we got. Due to the aforementioned, I have not had the time to write it up yet, but will do so in June.

I now have a whopping 20 Terminators and a Master of the Deathwing – that is 1500 points of models before any upgrades. I have only two things left that I want to add to this army, before I call it done: I want to add at least one more vehicle. I want to add a squad of power armoured warriors painted like the deathwing – fluff wrong and all, but harking back to the time before time.

My actual pledge contains one more monopose tactical squad. I think that will just be a green one, and that I might opt to try and get an entire extra squad in in addition to that.

With the future in mind, there’s still quite a few things that could be added: I do not have a dreadnought, any ravenwing units or even any special characters for this army. Next challenge could be a Painter’s pledge for me, forcusing on painting just the characters. If you got any of the 2nd Ed. DA characters lying around, I am in the market for them.

June will be the last month of this season, but we will be back! I am travelling to London in June and meeting up with Tom Reynolds also to have a game of 40k in the Bad Moon Cafe also. I wanted to go to BOYL, but I think this might be all the truck I can get with England this summer.