Here we are with Wave 3 of month 2! It is done. Now kick back and relax. Or whatever you do the 5 minutes before next round is due 😉

Number of models painted:	1	Number of points :	196
Hours spent painting:	8	Crisis level (1-5):	1

Lord Lubricanus of the Death Leopards – Special Character 225 points
The second single from the new Death Leopards album “This one goes to 2×6” is a solo effort by the bands vocalist Lord Lubricanus. “Rock out with your chainsword out” is one of those gut wrenching tracks that just stays with you like the faint murring of a chainsaw after dark. 

This month I had a lot of stuff on my plate in real life, so I made things easy for myself doing just a single character. I then decided to again make things harder on myself by painting small unnecessary details on said character, like gemstones and what not.

Lubricanus is also going to be my entry in the “create your own special character” hobby bingo square. You can see it here:

Number of models painted:	1	Number of points :	215
Hours spent painting:	3	Crisis level (1-5):	5

Hopefully this month sees the end of my high crisis levels and things can settle down.  I was busy painting my Warmaster army up until the day before I flew out for Adepticon and when I got back I had two days left of the month, of which my family and I were going on vacation.  After leaving my wife home alone to wrangle the boys so I could go gaming, bringing something to paint on the trip was dicey, but it had to be done!  I thought I had brought all the colors I needed, but not surprisingly I didn’t!  Fortunately, and much to my surprise, the town we were staying in had a well stocked gaming store and I was able to pick up a few colors.  They were only a green and a yellow to paint some of his rounds a different color, but I wanted to have a little something to pop from the black.  I am going with a lot more black than in the original, but every surface is having a different preparation.  The bodysuit is Abbadon black with layers of Incubi Darkness built up, while the hard surfaces use a lighter blue, and the straps start with Reapers Coal black.  Not that any of this shows in the pictures I take, but it still makes for a more interesting look than just the same blacks across the model. 

Number of models painted:	5	Number of points :	203
Hours spent painting:	15	Crisis level (1-5):	4

Assault squad, 5 models, Jump Packs, 1x Power fist, 1x Power Axe, 1x Plasma Pistol, 3x Chainsword, 203pts

This month started calm. Rolling straight into it from the previous month i got 90% complete in 1 week. The next 2 weeks were spent tinkering around with details and preparing various other projects for bonus models in later slices. This left a week for transfers and basing, and then work piled on like a ton of bricks. Workshops and presentations meant I had barely time available to complete this months slice. I still expect the heavy jump packs to fall off at a moments notice, or the models to topple to their doom, but they look cool, so its been worth it. I’ve had this squad from their original launch in the 90’s so its good to see them looking their best.

Number of models painted:	3	Number of points :	195
Hours spent painting:	15	Crisis level (1-5):	4

 Terminator assault squad, 3 models (189) Thunder hammer and storm shield (6), 2x lighting claws, total 195 points.

Hi all! Over the last few years I haven’t been painting much, so my pace has naturally slowed down. Between work, family, and generally not having a lot of free time for the hobby, my stress levels tend to creep up when I try to keep up with monthly goals. I even had to use my mulligan for the first month after an unplanned trip completely derailed my schedule.

But with 15 days left in March, I managed to sit down, focus, and paint this month’s slice: three Terminators. Considering the limited time and how rusty I felt at the beginning, I’m really happy with how they turned out. I’ll still add a few small improvements before the final month of the challenge, but for now, I’m proud with them.

Number of models painted:	2	Number of points :	188
Hours spent painting:	43.25	Crisis level (1-5):	3

 One thing this painting challenge has made me realize is that I am a very slow painter. The land speeder took 31 hours and 15 minutes, and the tech marine took just over 12 hours to complete. I had considered getting a timer and keeping track of paint times in the past and I finally pulled the trigger for this challenge. The effort is worth it in the end as I am proud of how these models turned out, and they look great next to the rest of the army. Thank goodness for this challenge, as I would not be able to put in this kind of effort consistently without the fear of failure looming over my head.

I had thought this month’s commitment would be a bit easier than last month since this set was just “two models”, but I hadn’t painted a vehicle before, so I failed to account for how much longer they take to paint.

Just like my submission for last month, these models were painted to be near identical to the studio models from the 90s, with a little extra effort spent on recess shading and highlights to improve readability.

Number of models painted:	7	Number of points :	309
Hours spent painting:	50	Crisis level (1-5):	2

 Kaptin Badrukk, ripper gun – 100 pts

Snakebite Nob, cyboar, plasma pistol & power axe – 39 pts

5 x Flash Gits, kustom shootas – 170 pts

Funny month in a way, although its taken me the whole month to get through these and the submission’s been made on the evening of the final day I’ve never felt like I wasn’t going to make the deadline.

Kaptin Badrukk was given to me as a present by my wife a few years ago, so this was a great reason to get them painted. Also has a nice bit of synergy with the Freebooterz, because he lets them be upgraded to Flash Gitz who can take a wargear card.

This leads us nicely into the Freebooterz/Flash Gitz. Batch painting them was fun – loads of different colours and patterns on them – but time consuming as there was little commonality to lend itself to batch painting. I’ve given them all a Kustom Shoota – taking advantage of the wargear card they’re all allowed – so loads of dakka!

Finally there’s the Snakebite Nob to lead the mob of boarboyz – managed to just find the time to do their banner, so at least I won’t have to come back to that later on!

Now on to a Blood Axe mob, so a bit of a change in terms of colours. If I really get cracking on them then I might find the time to get a bonus model built.

Number of models painted:	10	Number of points :	TOTAL 119
*Hours spent painting:	10hrs	Crisis level (1-5):	3

Eldar Pirate 11*9=99pt +13 pt pirate captain+laspistol 1pt +power sword 6pt..

It’s been a great month of painting. I may have come in at a low points cost, but completing ten decently painted models and a banner feels like a real achievement. Finishing this squad is especially satisfying because I started them many years ago—they sat neglected for ages before I finally gave them the attention they deserved.

I shared photos on Facebook and was pleasantly surprised by the responses. A few people commented that they’d never liked these models before but thought I’d managed to make them look good. It wasn’t a flood of comments—under ten, really—but it still meant a lot, because that’s exactly how I feel about them too.

These are older 3rd edition Dark Eldar models, generally unloved, but now pirate raiders from the Sunblitz Brotherhood. The scheme draws inspiration from what I think was the 2nd edition Epic Eldar Legion box art showing the Guardians, Falcons, and a banner. The combination gives them a distinctive feel: less of the “spiky Dark Eldar” look, but not quite the smooth, pristine Craftworld style either. Instead, they’ve become something in between—Eldar pirates with attitude!

painted:	9	Number of points :	170
Hours spent painting:	20ish	Crisis level (1-5):	5

Tough month. Started a new job, renovating a house. Hard work. Was meant to get the house finished before starting the job but I wasn’t fast enough. 

I had the (not very original) idea of chucking wagon wheels on lascannons which was the basis of the army. Alas it is pretty much standard now, so if you have a good idea kids don’t wait 10 years to do it. Looks the part though. Looking to hit the command squad next month and start fleshing the army out some more. 

Number of models painted:	9	Number of points :	298
Hours spent painting:	18	Crisis level (1-5):	4

Harlequin Troupe, 9, 2x Laspistols, 8x Shuriken Pistols, Chain Sword, 3x Power Axe, Power Fist, 2 Hand Flamers – 298pts

I have ALWAYS wanted to field a full harlequin troupe, but was always just a few models short. Through the magic of Ebay, I finally have enough! I had a lot of fun working on these guys. If you look closely, I tried to ‘theme’ a few of them. One is Santa’s elf that deals with the naughtiest of imperials, one is a leprechaun (that I painted on St. Patrick’s Day), one is halloween themed, and one is just Megaman… I was running out of ideas. I want to give a special shoutout to the 10th miniature in this troupe (the one on the square base). When I was a kid, my mom wanted to see what all this warhammer stuff was about and she sat down at the painting desk with me and did that harlequin… it will NEVER be repainted, but it rounds out the squad to 10!

Number of models painted:	11	Number of points :	246
Hours spent painting:	~25	Crisis level (1-5):	5

Stormtroopers, 10 models, Hardened Fighters + Plasma Gun , 130+10+6 (146)
Assassin, 1 Model, base gear, 100

I scrape in with this storm trooper squad, just barely. This month was a rough one for getting painting done. I had a research paper due that lined up with the end of the month. It ended up being a race to get both done. I finished these up in a hotel room with only a hand full of paints on hand. I’ve got to do my basing all at once as I’m going to try using pigment powders which I’ve not done before, and want to keep it all consistent.

These stormtroopers are some of my favourite in all of 40K history, they really have a better “geared up for anything” feel than basically any other set.

If my plan works, out next month will be more organised and then I have Yarrick and comissars to paint in the following month while exams will be on which will take the pressure off.