Number of models painted:	10	Number of points :	429
Hours spent painting:	15	Crisis level (1-5):	2
Army entry: Howling Banshees 3 models at 27 pts each (standard unit cost per model) = 81 pts Warp Spiders 6 models at 41 pts each (includes warp jump generators and death spinners as standard wargear) = 246 pts Exarch (Warp Spider) Base cost = 50 pts Twin power swords = 2×6=122×6=12 pts Warp jump generator + 2 death spinners (wargear package) = 40 pts Total = 102 pts Grand Total 81 + 246 + 102 = 429 pts

This month, my main focus was the Howling Banshees, and I’m really pleased with how they turned out. I stuck with a fairly classical paint scheme, but aimed to match the Mark Gibbons artwork from the codex as closely as I could, which was a fun challenge in itself.

I had originally planned to work on something else, but, as often happens, I got sidetracked and ended up painting my Warp Spiders instead. I’m counting them as a bonus project for the month!

With the Warp Spiders, I tried to go for a more dynamic, warp-jump-inspired colour scheme. I took a lot of inspiration from the Taken in Destiny, aiming for that slightly otherworldly, shifting effect. I’m happy with how they came out overall, although I do wonder if pushing the contrast or adding a bit more colour variation might improve the effect further.

Number of models painted:8		Number of points :170
Hours spent painting: 25		Crisis level (1-5): 2
Army entry: 5 Ratling Snipers – 80 points Imperial Guard Heavy Weapons Team w. 3 Heavy bolters – 90 points

This month for the Catachans… it’s the last of the infantry models! Both the Ratling squad and the Heavy bolter teams took longer than I thought they would it turns out. They also both contain models I’ve owned for over twenty five years, and it’s great to finally do them justice, after stripping back some childhood paint jobs. Despite being tiny the Ratlings were not any quicker to paint than a normal Imperial Guard trooper. I added a lot more vegetation to the bases to make it look like they’re skulking in some long grass, and was happy with how it turned out. The heavy weapons teams are actually 3 models each if you count the weapons, and a pain to glue onto the bases… I can tell they will 100% explode into many metal parts if dropped, so will need careful handling if they’re used in any games. I have been working on the three tanks as well, but none of them is done yet. Looking forward to showing them off next month!

Models – 5 

Number of points- 285

Hours spent- 20+

Crisis level- 10 

Army name- Siegebreaker Wing 

Unit Name- Flames of Zarveth 

The Flames of Zarveth are a brutal Iron Warriors fire-team renowned for reducing fortified positions to molten ruin. Comprised of three disciplined bolter-armed legionaries and a single flamer specialist, the squad advances behind curtains of suppressive fire before unleashing cleansing torrents of promethium upon any defenders stubborn enough to resist.

Leading the unit is Champion Varkhos Draeg, a cold and methodical veteran whose power sword, Siegebreaker, has ended the lives of countless enemy commanders. Draeg views warfare as a process of inevitable destruction, and his squad embodies this philosophy methodically advancing, burning away resistance, and leaving only scorched steel and shattered stone in their wake.

Across countless campaigns, the Flames of Zarveth have earned a grim reputation among friend and foe alike: where their fires burn, no fortress remains unconquered.

Number of models painted:	1	Number of points :	185
Hours spent painting:	10ish	Crisis level (1-5):	2
Army entry:   Predator – lascannon sponsons, auto launchers. 185pts.

Just the Predator this month, this was the pledge so all good.

Actually, the original pledge was for the ‘modern’ Predator Annihilator but I managed to pick up this beauty early into the challenge so it took it’s place. 

It was in really good condition and well built so only paint stripping was required, thankfully the glue held and the paint came off very easily, felt like it was meant to be.

It only had one sponson lascannon so the other was press moulded, luckily I had spare side rails and exhausts to replace broken parts.

I plan to give it a banner but that’ll have to wait for a bit.

I’ve stuck with theme of red and white chequers, it’s actually become kind of relaxing part of painting, I’ve got a system and I can just zone out with it for a bit.

Overall, very pleased with the first tank I’ve painted in over 30 years!

Good luck to all!

Number of models painted: 7 Number of points : 722 points
Hours spent painting: 30 Crisis level (1-5): 2
The Wanderer: [190 pts]
Avatar of Khaine: Wailing Doom [300 pts]
Exarchs: Laspistol, Crack Shot, Fast Shot, Melta Bomb, The Firepike [120 pts]
Fire Dragon Squad: 4x Fire Dragon [112 pts]

I’m glad this month is over. My painting schedule got messed up by work and the
Montreal Canadiens reaching the Eastern Conference Finale…
The avatar took most of my painting time as a really wanted to make it good
looking. Such an iconic model for both the Eldars and 2 nd edition.
I had to pick a squad of aspects warriors and the Fire Dragons got done. I got
Fuegan on the table too but that’s going to be for next month.
Finally my special character. I loosely had the idea of an unmounted hero with a
jetbike behind him. Finding the parts was easy. Painting it was a bit more tricky as
my airbrush broke mid painting… I guess I ‘m going to buy another one really
soon. On top of being just a random character, it scored 50 points on the bingo… I
could have pushed for :Army themed piece of terrain” but the good Doctor would
have banned me for participating in any bingo ever again…
Overall not so much done but very happy with what has been done, we’ll see next
month what I can do.

Number of models painted:	1	Number of points :	141
Hours spent painting:	10	Crisis level (1-5):	4
Blood Angels 1st Company Captain in terminator armour. Assault Bolter, Power fist (10) and digi lasers (6)

This month I completed the Captain of the First Company, using the venerable RTB9 Rogue Trader miniature as a foundation. To give him the presence worthy of a veteran of a thousand campaigns, I added a banner pole and a hand-painted standard, fluttering proudly above the battlefield. In addition, and outside the challenge itself, I painted one of the greatest enemies ever faced by the Blood Angels during the epic wars for Armageddon: the fearsome Ork Warlord Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka. This has been sent to the olden_demon competition. A celebration of the classic Oldhammer era: big banners, heroic commanders, and legendary foes locked in eternal war beneath the grim darkness of the far future.

Number of models painted:	2	Number of points :	217
Hours spent painting:	31.75	Crisis level (1-5):	4
Army entry: Captain, 1 model, Plasma Pistol / Power Sword, 107 points Attack Bike, 1 model, Multi-Melta, 110 points

For this month’s submission, I painted a Space Marine Attack Bike and Captain. The Captain is painted to match the studio model featured in the codex, but I took some creative license with the Attack Bike to give it more of a second-edition feel. The ‘Eavy Metal photo of the Attack Bike in White Dwarf #207 is a little too close to the third-edition style for my taste. I was also unable to find an official photo of an Ultramarines bike equipped with a multi-melta, which gave me some additional freedom in deciding on the color scheme.
My crisis level is a 4 this month because I only just managed to finish the models in time. I’m writing this submission with less than 40 minutes left in the month, so it truly came down to the wire. Life was particularly busy during the first half of the month, and then I managed to injure myself at the gym in a way that left me without the use of my dominant hand for a week. Fortunately, I was able to dedicate enough time during the final week to get everything finished and avoid having to take a mulligan.

Number of models painted:	6	Number of points :	459
Hours spent painting:	25	Crisis level (1-5):	2
Army entry: Howling Banshee Exarch, Banshee Mask and Power Axe, 693 x Wraithguard, default wargear, 105Eldar Dreadnought, Heavy Plasma Gun, 205Vyper Jetbike, Lascannon and twin linked shuriken catapults, 80

This month was a challenge in terms of time management. I knew I was going to move at the end of the month, so I prioritized painting as much as I could in the first half of the month before I needed to pack everything up.

This month I tried sponging the Alaitoic pattern, and I was impressed with how easy it was. I thought it might be fun to try the 3 vehicles in one month challenge, and I almost finished it. I have a few finishing touches to do on a Falcon tank.

Now I am living amongst a bunch of moving boxes, but I hope to get my painting stuff unpacked soon and start my slice for month 5.

Number of models painted:	1	Number of points :	316
Hours spent painting:	6	Crisis level (1-5):	5
Army entry: Chaos Sorcerer Xenopygos, 1, Thurible of T’Sog and the Codex Halfordiensis 316 pts

“Solar winds are blowing

Neutron star controlling

All is lost,

doomed and tossed,

at what cost, forever!”

– Deciever, Judas Priest (1976)

This month I switched things around a bit since I really wanted to play a game for the Uluru campaign. Instead of my previously planned slice, I decided to put my efforts into building a full game board for battles on planet Uluru. The terrain consists of a game mat made with felt cloth, 7 rock outcroppings, 3 forests, 2 hills, and 3 turf fields. I’ve included a small thumbnail of the terrain, but more pictures will soon be found at Wachtmeister’s blog since we had a 6-army battle of the Virginia Challengers using their fully painted forces from the current and past 40k2nd Army Challenges. For my part, both my current challenge Chaos Marines and my previous challenge Space Orks participated. Rather than give away too much of Wachtmeister’s battle report, I’ll just mention that my ork warboss (Kor Sparktoof from the previous painting challenge) distinguished himself in the battle by one-shotting a Leman Russ point blank, and destroying it with his melta gun. To commemorate this feat he now boasts an imperial aquila honor looted off of the tank commander. The medal was made using plasticard, and now adorns his back banner. Guardsmen beware! For more details of the battle, check out https://wachtmeisterspatrol.com

Since I spent most of my energy on the terrain, I jumped ahead and painted my chaos sorcerer special character. I converted a Tzeentch sorcerer on flying disc to hold his special weapon, the Thurible of T’Sog – a warp-infused censor. I painted him on the very last day of this month, but the painting was fairly easy. Converting him to hold my scratch-built censor was the real pain. I created an illustration of how I envisioned him, and then tried to convert him to match the drawing. I’ve also written a PDF set of rules for this special character, Xenopygos the Mindbender, that you can find below. I hope you enjoy.

You can find more photos of my models at my blog, http://www.giantpygmy.com and on Instagram @pygmyhippo.

Number of models painted:	1	Number of points :	240
Hours spent painting:	15	Crisis (1-5):	1

Eversor Assassin – 240 points

This month didn’t go quite as I planned but overall I think I was quite successful. I knocked out my Eversor Assassin very early in the month and then I spent some time working on miniatures for Star Wars Legion. I gave myself about a week to do a few Tallarn Heavy weapons teams but I just couldn’t get motivated as I wasn’t thrilled with how I’ve painted my command squad. By the time I figured out what I (probably) want to do with my paint scheme I was down to only a few days. Rather than rush the process I decided to work on a few different elements for the Race to Terra. In the picture you can see I painted two freehand banners for my Dark Angels which I painted in Mark V of the challenge, they have been waiting banners ever since! PygmyHippo, Jon McMaster, Deacon and I played a game using some Uluru rules with challenge models, leading to my Sergeant taking an Orc headpiece as a trophy. The puffs you see are speed tokens, I’ll use one for combat speed and two for fast speed. The different sizes are for different vehicles. I made a bunch of astroturf fields, an astroturf silo, and I finally made a backdrop! I wasn’t all in on the Race to Terra at the beginning but I’m having lots of fun doing things I wouldn’t normally do. The backdrop was probably my favorite thing I worked on, with turning the $5 electrical piece and some random bits into a functional terrain piece right behind it!

Number of models painted:	3(!)	Number of points :	330
Hours spent painting:	20	Crisis (1-5):	4

This month I tried, and failed, to paint 30 infantry and 3 vehicles on top of my regular pledge. So what actually happened was that the 3 vehicles were for last months pledge and this month I didn’t do diddly squat, as life was busy happening all around me! Now, however, I have 11 fishing rods and a crap ton of figures to finish in June and July! This thing ends VERY sosoonish! The models here are all 3d prints from Dr. Spork, who is a really nice guy. I really like it. It is the best. They should have had banners, but I will add them later, OK, Jon?

I did spend an awful lot of time faffing about with photo ops, and eventually made a forced perspective image harking back to some old White Dwarf or other. Next month I want to paint some of my pledge, as otherwise I will fail. BAD! I also want to add a host of extra stuff, but let’s be honest! I’m lucky if I can get my pledge done next to the other challenge work, and finishing random shit like t-shirts and whatever! Haha! Dead!