The beginning of the end

So we have reached the end. We started out 30 people. 15 Gamer’s pledges vowing to finish at 50 models in a legal minimum 1,500 points 2nd edition army. Also 15 Painter’s vowing to take their efforts to the next level on considerablt smaller batches. Here is wave 1 of the #40k2ndAC IV for for the last time. 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.

For each entry, the finishing point – the whole army as it ended up with bonus models and what not – is posted followed by the starting point submitted last year before starting the challenge.

To celebrate the conclusion of this epic challenge, I purchased a titanic addition to my Eldar force – a 1990 Armorcast Eldar Towering Destroyer Knight! Equipped with a Pulse Laser, Scatter Laser, Knight Powerfist and Knight Power Sword, this mighty beast weighs in at a hefty 350 points.

This model presented its own particular challenges. Its original shape was fairly two dimensional due to the casting limitations of the time. Looking around online, I saw some other enterprising hobbyists had managed to cut theirs to bits and reshape it, giving a more dynamic pose. I took a deep breath, grabbed my multi-tool, and began hacking. I cut off the sword arm and both legs at the hip, doing an additional cut through the left leg at the knee to let me give it a bend. The sword arm was simply rotated forward to extend away from the body and the left leg bent and propped up on some modgepodge’d foam.

The right leg was left intact, but I used milliput to modify the hip joint and give it a slightly narrower gait to fit on a modern wraithknight-sized base. The pieces were connected with 1/8 in. wire to give support and allow the bent knee. All in all, I am very happy with how it turned out. I have never worked seriously with resin or milliput before, and I think for a first time it turned out pretty good! This model was a blast to paint and came together over two evening’s work. I freehanded all the runes on the armor and used a sponge to spackle/dab over the model’s larger areas instead of edge highlighting or drybrushing, which is my usual technique. Gotta say, I think I will be doing some more of it!

Also this month my Eldar faced off against their Tyranid nemesis, completing my third and final subgoal! I played my first game of Second Edition, pitting 2,000 points of Eldar against 2,000 points of ravenous alien. We played a custom mission with the Eldar attempting to recover six soulstones from the grasp of the Tyranids. After a lot of back and forth – and many wiffed venom cannon shots on the Tyranid side! – the Eldar emerged triumphant, 20-15! I’m hoping to do a full battlereport sometime later, but with summer camping season rapidly approaching, that may have to wait. I will say, I loved the use of scatter dice and templates – it added such a fun, random dynamic to the game.

And that’s it! Here’s my progress pic from the last six months. I can’t believe how much got done! We started with a pledge of 51 models and 1518 points. In the end, we landed with 80 models and 2931 points.

Many thanks to Dr. the Viking for organizing and putting together this challenge. It has been so much fun to participate in and I hope to do it again in the future!

Welcome back, meatling! How’s that marrow of your’s going? Still all juicy and trapped in those troublesome bones of your’s? Here, let me hELp YoU WiTH tHaT *AAAAARGH!!!*

Well here we are, the end of the fourth challenge and once again I have tried to bite off more than I can chew. The good news about that though is that now I’ve been turned into a chaos spawn I have some extra mouths for chewing and some extra tentacles for painting miniatures! Hail the Ruinous Powers!

This month did not intend to be one of my largest, but of course you know how the fickle powers of the warp go and very quickly I had realised that despite my wailing and gnashing of teeth (there’s even more this time), if I had any chance of redeeming myself in the eyes of the gods I must steel myself for some epic painting sessions.

The actual pledge was a squad of Emperor’s Children alongside a champion and icon bearer, but deep in my miniature stash I heard a call and I knew I must heed it.

To the original pledge, I added five plague marine terminators led by a mighty champion, Chorbo (who was completed to honour my painting buddy who passed away two weeks ago), Ahriman the Great, a final plaguebearer, sixteen chaos warriors (Taken from the daemon world list because I need more flesh for the meat grinder) and the piece de resistance, an original Rogue Trader Land Raider!

With the last lick of paint applied I counted it all up and realised that I have too many models for my normal backdrop so I had to get a large sheet and put it behind the table to capture the full scale of this horde. I believe it is my biggest army now since I had also painted twelve models in the month before the challenge started as well and I must say I am sitting here and grinning like an idiot looking at it all arrayed.

Hell, I may have to celebrate with a battle methinks, perhaps four players to represent each part of the force? Madness you say?!? Well how’s this for madness? Over the last six months I have finished: 145 models by Cowabunga count (120 in normal models), 5630 points of 2nd edition 40k Chaos forces and eleven subgoals!

With those figures out of the way, I just want to say an extra big thankyou to Dr. Cowabunga himself who has brought together so many people from all over the world to enjoy some classic gaming. I also want to thank all of my fellow challenge members, especially the Legion of the Damned, the veterans who helped me through what has turned out to be a bit of an insane year. Also, thank you all for continuing to come back and enjoy this wonderful site. May the gods smile down upon you!

Tain,

MONTH SIX’S CONTRIBUTION:

One Icon Bearer with chainsword (57pts)

One Aspiring Champion with chainsword and power fist (42pts)

Eight Chaos Space Marines: one heavy bolter, one.autocannon, one plasma gun, five bolters) (250pts)

One Chaos Space Marine Land Raider (220pts)

Chorbo, Mighty Champion of Nurgle: Terminator armour with power ace and combi melta and bears the mark of Nurgle (132pts)

Five Plague Marine Terminators: Two reaper autocannons, two combi-meltas, two combi-bolters, two power fists and one power mace (441pts)

Ahriman (316 pts)

Sixteen Chaos Warriors: (Daemon world allies with axes and carapace Armour) (240pts)

One Plaguebearer (to finish the minimum squad size from a couple of months ago): (35pts)

Total points: 1733pts

Total model count: 38

Unintentional subgoals completed:
Paint 30 infantry models in one month.

Participate in a Discord Paint-and-Chat live session with at least three other challenges.

And so we come to the end of another challenge.  

I’m exhausted and elated, I’ve managed to get an army that I’m really proud to own on the battlefield.

For the month, my final pledge is the second half of my assault squad – with a more definitive squad leader than my first combat squad.  In converting this figure I had to replace the arm and so I made a second attempt at sculpting for my additional goals.  Very happy with the resulting ram skull chapter symbol even though it’s a little larger than any of the others.

I also wanted to get a ‘big’ bonus model to finish the challenge off on a high.  I considered a land raider but settled on one of the old dreadnoughts I have had languishing since 1992.  To make it slightly more thematic I gave it the same cast of assault cannon as my terminator squad has.  This model was outright fun to paint.  If anything doesn’t look quite right just add hazzard stripes 😀

I may not continue quite so quickly, but I do have at least 25 more figures to paint. (Finish devestator squad, second tactical and jump assault squad) I hope to complete these this year and expect to come back to the challenge next year with either chaos or genestealers.

Thanks all!!

The Terminators moved in perfect synchrony, their heavy footsteps echoing ominously in the dark halls. The Imperial soldiers, caught off guard by the sudden appearance of the Traitor Marines, scrambled to form a hasty defense. Lasgun fire erupted, illuminating the darkness with erratic beams of energy, but the Night Lords’ thick armor shrugged off the feeble attacks. The Night Lords struck back with brutal efficiency. Power fists shattered barricades and sent soldiers flying through the air. Chain axes tore through flesh and armor alike, leaving trails of blood in their wake. Bolter rounds, fired from the twisted barrels of their combi-bolters, exploded with deadly precision, reducing entire squads to mangled corpses.

***
My sixth and final slice consists of a squad of four Chaos Terminators! These models were sculpted by Jes Goodwin, and it really shows. The detail is great and the design holds up to this day! There’s a massive amount of detail on them though, so the painting can be a bit of a pain. I painted three of them in the last Cowabunga challenge, so I already knew the minis well and how to paint them. It was simply a matter of doing it all again…

I did manage one bonus miniature this month – a Chaos Sorcerer! I had intended to do more bonus minis, but time ran out sadly.

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“The Night Reavers”
4x Chaos Terminators
1x Heavy Flamer and Power Fist
1x Combi-Melta and Chainfist
1x Combi-Bolter and Power Mace
1x Combi-Bolter and Chain-Axe
Total: 253 points

“Zal’Kar the Malevolent”

1x Chaos Space Marine Sorcerer

1x Force Sword

Total: 62 points 

Grand total: 315 points

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As this is the final month I also broke out my scenery and arranged an army shot. I used my backdrop and a new large hill I made for the purpose of photographing armies.

Thanks to Dr. the Viking for running the show once again! Always a pleasure to take part in this!

***

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

Cheers!

Well that was a slog! 

The Iron Plague has 100% taken its toll and so happy to get it over the finish line 

Gamers Challenge- Month 6

Sun Goals – 1

Models – 11

Points 304

Bonus Goals-1 

Firstly I’d like to say a massive thank you to Dr. The Viking for once again hosting the 40k 2nd challenge it’s again been amazing ! 

And I’d also like to say a big thank you to the guys taking part without you I wouldn’t be doing any hobby and you guys are the only reason I’m still involved ! 

Thank you ! 

This month I painted the last unit of Plague marines and if I’m honest these are my favourite plague marine models ever! 

So happy how they came out . 

Lastly a Rhino battle tank , last one of 4 in this Army and the 7th tank iv painted in this challenge ! 

If you know me I hate painting tanks they are so boring and I find them a reel drag to paint but as always I wanted to push myself and happy I did . 

For the final month of the challenge I had 10 hormagaunts to complete. Anyone who has had experience with these blighters knows just how unbalanced the models are. They are a bit of a pain to work with! I enjoyed painting them though, they have more detail than the termagants and the xenomorph aesthetic ticks all the boxes for me.

I spent a lot of time before the challenge trying to come up with alternative colour schemes to provide some variation in colour across my broods, just like the studio collection, but it turns out that all I needed to do was follow the one set of paint scheme “rules”. The scheme looks quite different on the Hormagaunts than on anything else. I managed to finish them pretty quickly and started working on some bonus genestealers, but they won’t get finished until after the challenge. It was great to have a chat on Discord with a bunch of the challengers during the week, it is amazing how much we all have in common. Thanks to the Wachtmeister for taking photographic evidence of our gathering, which I humbly submit as proof of the sub-challenge!

I probably would have had time to complete them if I hadn’t immersed myself in a rollicking 1500 point battle that took two nights to complete! This was the first time I have used Tyranids in 2nd Edition 40K, which has always been something I wanted to try.

My son took command of 1500 points worth of Dark Angels, which I painted during the first two challenges. We played the 2nd scenario out of the Return to Hamelia XI campaign: Welcome to Genetic Park. I would love to write up a battle report, so I won’t drop any spoilers here, but I will say it was a fantastic time. Listening to my son giggling uncontrollably while reading a result from the vehicle damage table, and watching his eyes pop out as a vortex blast started wandering around the battlefield, was absolutely worth all of the late nights I spent painting these figures. A couple of my mates have expressed interest in getting back into 40K, so there is a good chance of even more battle reports over the next couple of months. 

With the game over and my final sub-challenge complete, it is time to reflect on another completed 2nd Edition Army Challenge. This one was very different for me, as I have never painted large numbers of models (or large models) in short periods of time; I usually do the opposite! I came into the challenge with no real batch painting skills and had to make it up as I went along. I have certainly developed some new strategies for getting the job done. The colours I have used in this challenge are also just outrageous, you should see them in my model cabinet, they stick out like crazy! As always, it has been the camaraderie that has really driven this challenge forward for me. Getting to know new people, catching up with old friends and spurring each other on has been the highlight of the challenge for me. I have also really enjoyed voting for the honours every month; you guys are amazing. Until we meet again, thank you so much for sharing the experience of this artistic endeavour with me.

See you across the table,

M4cr0Dutch

Final Model Tally

Challenge Models: 58

Challenge Points: 1500

Actual Models: 78

Actual Points: 2226

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There are 3 things Kor learned during his participation in the Waaagh of Warlord Snagrod: 1) Don’t turn your back on an Ork that’s bigger than you, 2) Eldar taste like chicken, and 3) flamers are incredibly effective. Of course, two flamers are better than one, so this month I’ve completed 2 more mobs of boyz, each with the classic combination of heavy bolter/flamer.

I painted 2 mobs of boys last month, so I had a good plan of how to tackle rank-and-file Blood Axe Orks. To be fair, there’s such a wide range of sculpts in the Rogue Trader-era range of Ork models that you always feel like you’re painting a unique figure each time.

The short painting agenda afforded me a couple extra days this month to get some bonus models done, so I painted up a Weirdboy Warphead. I converted him to hold a ‘weirdboy staff,’ since the model came with empty hands. I made the staff out of brass rod and epoxy putty.

His banner continues the same style as I used for the Mekaniak and Painboy, with a single thematic image identifying the model’s purpose. According to the codex, a Warphead has to have 4 caretakers with him, so I painted up 4 more troopers to act as his “Minderz,” and tied them together as a unit with a matching robin egg blue color (seemed suitably warpy to me).

Lastly, I added another piece of terrain to the Hamelia XI set. This time it’s an “heretical shrine.” Certainly there must be some eternium ore to be found amidst the ruins of the precursor civilization on Hamelia XI. Will the armies of he-mankind find it first, or will Kor have the power?

I can’t help but smile as I look at the final group photo of what I managed to accomplish for this challenge! I now wish I created an even longer backdrop to fit all the terrain, tokens, and army display board. I knew that I would be happy to get all these models painted, but truly I am filled with glee! Thank you, thank you, thank you to Dr. The Viking for organizing this challenge. I know it must’ve been a huge amount of work. Without it, I would never have gotten motivated to get these models painted: something I’ve wanted to do for 30 years.

Now for the hard decision: what to paint for the next challenge?

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MODELS AND POINTS FOR MONTH 6:

Blood Axe Boys Mob (5 @ 12) 60
Bolters (4 @ 1) 4
Heavy Bolter (1 @ 10) 10
Nob (13 with Flamer 7) 20
Blood Axe Boys Mob (5 @ 12) 60
Bolters (4 @ 1) 4
Heavy Bolter (1 @ 10) 10
Nob (13 with Flamer 7) 20

EXTRA:

Weirdboy Warphead & 4 Minderz – 194

Heretical Shrine

Points: 382
Models: 17

AHH-WOOOOO!!!!  After six long months the Space Wolf curse has been officially lifted!  It was a tedious process for sure.  The yellow needed many, many thin coats, and the Coat d’Arms blue grey didn’t cover well so when mistakes were made they were a pain to cover over.  Still, I’m quite happy to have finished the project and I’m happy with how they came out.  

Almost all season long I’ve painted the fewest models each month and had the highest point to figure ratio.  This changed this month with my bonus entries.  If you have been following the C0wabung Journal challenge from the beginning you know the first three challenges were 1,000 points, and this, the fourth, entries could be the painters challenge of 750 points, or the gamers challenge of 1,500 points.  I knew I’d never get 1,500 points so I settled for the painters challenge.  I did not want to have an asterisk next to my name in defeating the Space Wolves Curse so I had planned to do 1,000 points.  Additionally, with a mulligan month in the previous challenge I would always do a bonus entry so I needed to do a unit to satisfy that as well.  The Iron Priest and the Predator Annihilator took me from this years painters challenge to the previous years regular challenge and the Valhallans earned me my bonus entry.  Valhallans only made sense as last year I did Valhallans with a squad of Wolf Guard as the bonus.  

In order to get everything done this month I painted my pledged three Blood Claws, plus the Predator, and the Valhallans.  These 14 (counts as 17) models are as many as I painted in the previous five months combined (14) and 3 more counting the tank as 4 models per the rules!  And I finished a full 12 hours ahead of schedule!  

Here is what I got accomplished this month: 

Imperial Guard Squad with chain sword, bolt pistol, flamer, missile launcher 141

460 points

14 actual models counting as 17 models via the rules for the challenge.

I plan on going through this months entry in further detail in my blog!

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

I look forward to seeing you all in six months for the fifth instalment of the challenge!  Now to decide what to paint….

-Wachtmeister 

I found this the hardest month.  With lots of other things going on and the Swooping Hawks’ wings proving particularly time-consuming, I haven’t done the highlighting of the turquoise bodies that I would have liked.  Nevertheless, they’re tabletop-ready and I reckon the wings make them stand out nicely.

Exarch, Swooping Hawk Wings, Lasblaster [95]

6 Swooping Hawks [168]

I did manage to complete the third subgoal of fighting a battle with the models completed so far – see Global Campaign Battle Report 2!  Here’s a picture of everything (including terrain) painted since the start; I’m happy with the combination of brightness and co-ordinated colours:

Totting things up, I painted 2,012 points and the equivalent of 69 infantry over the course of the challenge which I’m delighted with!  Here’s hoping I can participate next time and finish off some more models…

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THAT’S IT! THAT’S THE END!

Finally, I have a painted Space Wolf Force – I managed to complete my 10 remaining models which I submitted for my final slice. No bonus models this time, but I DID manage to get all three sub-goals done; Game played, Backdrop done and Special Character (Hagger Redclaw, my Wolf Lord).

As for painted miniatures, I have sorted out my Wolf Lord, Iron Priest, 7 Wolf Guard and a Wolf Scout Sergeant (who is used as a Wolf Guard Champion/Special Character).

155pts   Hagger Redclaw & Pelt of Wulfen, Master Crafted Plasma Pistol, Conversion Field

76pts     Iron Priest & Servo Arm, Krak, Bolter, Bionic Arm, Conversion Field

323pts   7 Wolf Guard & 3 Plasma Guns, 2 Power Swords, 2 Power fists, 4 Chainsword, Krak

50pts     Wolf Guard Champion & Power Sword, Conversion Field, Bolter 

Total Points: 3,774pts (not including extra Wargear cards etc)

I have also painted a half decent backdrop which I’m happy with (and now want to do more!) and have made a couple of characters (one enclosed) for my Wolves to use (not too mad, but a bit of flavour).

I also managed to get in a game (some pictures attached) of a battle between my Space Wolves of THIS challenge (as per the rules) and my Orks from the last one. As I had lots of points of Wolves it was decided that they would hold the refinery with 1000pts whilst the Orks assaulted with 1750pts. There were an additional 1800pts of Space Wolves coming on from reserve though!

The Wolves got battered by massed Autogun Gretchin fire and the Twin Heavy Bolters of lots of Wartrakks, which whittled down their number. Return fire picked off some Orks, but the Green tide kept flowing. Turn two saw similar results; priceless Space Wolves gunned down (crap saves) for an ineffective return (though Rapid Fire is fun).

From Turn three, reinforcements arrive on a 4+. Rolled a 3. Now the Orks got into flamer range, and Ghazkhull was Blastin’, so the Wolves were reduced to a wounded Ragnar, a Grey Hunter or two and some Scouts. Next turn the roll for reinforcements was a 1.. so we saw the Scouts assault some Kommandos.. but it didn’t go well.

The other Scouts also got burnt into crispy jerky and the Orks were all up in the face of Ragnar and his lone surviving Grey Hunter. Turn five started with another 1 for reinforcements.. auto arrive on Turn 6, but by this point the Orks were all over the compound and there was no shifting them so it was decided to end it. Man, I love Orks. 

So apart from the initial 60 models I was going to paint, I managed to get in another Wolf Priest, Ulric, Ragnar, N’jal, Bjorn and a squad of 5 Wolf Guard Terminators. Winner.

I suppose I just need to paint up a Terminator Rune Priest, some 2nd ed Servitors, Tarantulas and then buy and paint some vehicles.. and it’s done*!

Screw you, “Curse”.

Maddix

Oh Hello.

Six months have been racing by and some how I ended up getting through it all. I must admit that of the three challenges I have been in, this one has probably been hardest for me. Not because of the actual challenge or the amount of miniatures I had to paint, but there has just been a lot of real life going on and it has taken my attention.

I painted all I set out to paint. Not all ended up to the standard I want it, but I feel good about having a huge playable force of Blood Angels and no matter if it is 100% done or not it is the best my always returning Blood Angels Army has ever looked.

Some of the things I have been most happy about in this challenge had been the support from my fellow gamers and painters. I was very close to give up, but pulled through in the end. I have seen some really amazing entries all over too and it is very inspirering to see and hear about how others go about doing an army in this way.

Also I am quite happy with a lot of the things I managed to paint this time. Highlights for me is totally the Veteran Camo Marines, I tried giving them a lot of small details to give them a backstory and character, both with painted insignia and such, but also gluing on as many extra pouches, weapons, knives and whatever they needed on campaign.

The tanks are so/so for me, all four, they are gameable but I wish to go back and do a bit more on all of them. But for now they are least usefull for gaming and not just sitting in a box unpainted. This goes for a lot of the basic Marines too, there need a lot of little updates and touches before I feel all is really finished.

Again, the models I did get to work a bit more on with insignia, slogans, campaign badges and such things, I really liked that and it gives a lot of character to the individual models. My freehand painting improved much over this Challenge.

Last I made the backdrop too. Which I really liked doing and I already have plans about doing another bigger one, probably on some cheap canvas.

All for now, thanks very much.

Techmarine 33pts

Tactical Squad with Missile Launcher and Flamer 354pts

Thudd Gun + Servitor 39pts