Ladies and genitalmen! Here we are! It’s over. The last round of 40k2ndAC VII forever!

It has been a hoot, a moot and sometimes a shoot to make this, but as always I am extremely pleased that YOU (yes you, I am pointing directly, and personally at you,.. through the screen, just above your nose. No not there, a bit further up! Right!) wanted to be a part of this. Remember the point here is not clicks or likes: it is getting the job done! Slay the grey and and all that. I do believe that this sort of band of brothers approach where we all cosign an agreement that we’re stupid and we’ll do our best to paint this or that, is among the top-1 best approaches to getting stuff done. OK, enough of my rambling. For the last time let us have a look a what the cat dragged in:

Number of models painted:	1	Number of points :
Hours spent painting:	20	Crisis level (1-5):
Army entry: CHAOS Slice V: Dreadnought with Twin-linked autocannon and Power scourge = 190 points.

And here we are at last, at the end of the challenge. The last slice was a Dreadnought. Initially it was meant to be an incomplete one I bought to convert. But real life occupied too much time so I chickened out and painted a complete one. This one was badly glued and painted. With thick coats of glue and paint covering everything, including a pair of legs glued the other way around!

That also meant that several planned bonuses I had for the challenge did not make it, including seven Chaos Androids, one Warpsmith, another seven Hook Horrors and a Great Demon of Malal. The only bonus in this slice being the upgrading of last month’s Terminators with proper decals.

The Dreadnought itself has been painted like a big Chaos Space Marine, using the same colours in roughly the same places, with very little customization of the original model. Black panels, white trim, red for the weapons, gunmetal and gold for the metallics and purple/pink por the lenses. For the base I went with a truly Heretic choice of an oval base. The base itself is mostly there for the aesthetics and the stability, since the Dreadnought didn’t seem to use it back in 2nd edition. It must be noted that the model is magnetized, so in the future I hope to get my hands on different weapon systems to swap them as I need.

With this I end the challenge with a solid core for a Chaos army with a quite tough half in the form of the Terminators and the Dreadnought and an unusual and surprisingly striking colour scheme that I hope will make games look awesome. The bonuses earlier mentioned are easily going to let me reach and surpass the fabled 1500 points, the idea being to use the warpsmith and the androids as a Tzeentchian sorcerer with his bodyguard of Rubric marines and Malal’s demons as Slaaneshi ones, probably giving the Mark of Slaanesh to the Chaos marines as I think it is the best to represent the complete disregard for their own safety attributed to the Nihilistic and Self-destructing followers of the God of Hate, Anarchy and Terror. In this line, I would opt to keep them away from sonic weaponry unless someday I come with a proper proxy to represent the rules.

And that’s it. A new army is done and ready for the battlefields of the 41st Millennium. Thank you for withstanding my ramblings and I hope to see you all again soon!

Number of models painted:	1	Number of points :	300pts
Hours spent painting:	10	Crisis level (1-5):	2
Army entry: Avatar, 300pts

For this final entry, I have finally painted my Avatar. This model has been kind of a white whale for me since I was a teenager. I’ve started painting and then stripped this miniature more times than I can count. I’m Glad that I finally have a version of him that I am excited to have killed by las cannons as he slowly makes his way across the tabletop.

Thank you so much to Wachmeister and Dr. The Viking for making this happen! Over the past two challenges, I’ve painted my oldest minis in my collection and have an army that teenage me could have only dreamed of! Thanks for the motivation, guys!

Number of models painted:	15	Number of points :	802
Hours spent painting:	45	Crisis level (1-5):	5
Army entry: Commissar w. Power fist & Power Sword – 56 points 9 Guardsmen, 3 Flamers, Meltagun, Battle Standard, Heavy Bolter – 162 points Allies: Vindicare Assassin – 215 points Cannoness w. Rosarius, Simulacrum Imperialis, Combi-Flamer – 110 points Redemptor Kyrinov – 88 Points Uriah Jacobus – 115 points Missionary-Hero, Chainfist (Eviscverator) – 56 points

Well here we are already, the final month! This month was another big one and started with some more guardmen to fill out the ranks; some special weapon troopers, more lasgunners, and a standard bearer. The standard has some extremely basic freehand, but as a rule standards are just plain awesome and I wanted to make sure I had at least one in the army. I also converted a retro Sargeant Harker (a Catachan Character introduced in 5th Edition) from an Orlock Heavy (with a greenstuff sculpted arm – scary stuff!) which I think came out nicely. The tanks from last month also got retro dozer blades with yellow hazard stripes added to them, which really add a nice pop of another colour besides green to the army.

Finally I decided to pick a roster of classic Second Edition era Imperial models that I’ve had and wanted to paint for years – a Vindicare Assassin, the amazing Commissar with Powerfist and Power Sword, and four Sisters of Battle Allies; A Cannoness, Redemptor Kyrinov, Uriah Jacobus, and the priest / missionary with the Eviscerator. They look splendid and were all painted one after the other in about a week, which made a big change from the batch painting of infantry which I was doing for most of this army. I really enjoyed this and think I will try and do more of this one-at-a-time painting with future projects I think.

Assembling the army at the end for the group shot I was really shocked how big it was! In the haste of trying to get each month finished I’d forgotten what I’d accomplished before. It’s really a sight to behold – I love the strong sense of cohesion with so many models in camo, but there’s just enough other colours and models that buck the trend to keep it interesting. If I ever do another painting challenge I won’t pledge so much I think, there were too many months where I was right down to the wire. But right now it’s a feeling of immense satisfaction to be at the end with so many great models finished!

I want to give a massive thanks to Dr. The Viking and Wachtmeister for running the show (no doubt it’s a huge amount of work), along with managing to take part themselves at the same time – nutters! As usual like previous challenges I was mega inspired and motivated by all the models everyone else was painting – the standard and amount of interesting armies is incredible. Really looking forward to seeing the final shots. Over and out!

Number of models painted:	12	Number of points :	604
Hours spent painting:	I have no idea at this point	Crisis level (1-5):	1 and 5
Army entry: Unit Name, Number of models, Wargear, Points (replace the text after “Army entry:”)Cerebrex – special character Carnifex – 230  7 Gargoyles – 112 4 Protonids – Proxy tyranid warriors, 3 deathspitters, 1 barbed strangler  262

Simultaneously a very low and a very high crisis level. I completed the bonus round figures extraordinarily quickly – but left the rest of the month in order to attempt to make a difference in the hobby bingo. Falling ill with RSV mid month took a week out of that – there are at least a couple of bingo objectives that I would have attempted but I have not. I have been completing bingo objectives right up to the final hour.

My pledge this month includes some figures I originally was going to paint, decided not to and then redecided to do – so my army now includes both period accurate gargoyles and current gargoyles. The protonids come from a patreon that I am on – warfactory miniatures – and are pla prints. Printed specifically for bingo purposes.

I have included 3 pics, 1 for the months pledge, 1 for the full army shot and 1 for the hobby bingos that I have completed this month.

Thank you once again for a wonderful challenge. Where this army has relied heavily on 3d printing and other shady dealings, I have a very different army lined up of all original metal figures for the next one (harlequins).

Number of models painted: 2		Number of points :570
Hours spent painting: 15		Crisis level (1-5):2
Army entry: TJM, Eldar, Month 6 Eldar Tempest – 320 points Eldar Wave Serpent – 150 points

Hard to believe the challenge is over! This month was all bonus models, completing two which have been sitting in my collection the past two or three years. It was refreshing to paint larger models and have the opportunity to do some freehand work on them!

Over the course of the challenge, we ended up painting 72 models and a total of 3,585 points! It’s been a blast and it is always so much fun to see what everyone has completed. Till next year!

–        TJM

Number of models painted:	15	Number of points :	781
Hours spent painting:	50-60	Crisis level (1-5):	2
Stompa 400pts 2x Skorcha 100pts Wartrak 60pts -Lascannon Bad Moons Mob 95pts -5x Boyz -5x Flamers Bad Moons 52pts -4x Boyz -4x Bolters Goffs 24pts -2x Boyz

I was expecting this month of the challenge would be overwhelming. I took my family on holiday to Japan for 2 ½ weeks, which didn’t leave me much time to paint all the extra models I was hoping to do. Luckily the Scorchers and Trak painted up way faster than I expected although sadly the Evil Sunz aren’t as bright as I hoped. I topped my Goff and Bad Moons Mobs up to 20 strong each and added a Burna Boyz Mob (Bad Moons all with Flamers). Lastly I got to work on the Stompa. The model is a scaled up Red Nebular Crushinator with some minor conversion work on it. The freehand and weathering on this big clunky bot took about as long to paint as almost everything else this month. As an extra step on the weathering on the Stompa and Evil Sunz Skorcha I used texture paint on various spots to add some extra texture to the model and really helps with the weatherbeaten look. All in all I added about 2,100pts to my Ork Horde this year bring the total just shy of 4,000pts
As with previous years it has been super enjoyable working on this project with so many like minded hobbyists. Watching everyone’s awesome work unfold has been a joy and great motivator. Big thanks to Wachmeister an Dr The Viking for running it, and heartily looking forward to the next one!

Number of models painted:	11	Number of points :	325
Hours spent painting:	15	Crisis level (1-5):	5 (6)
Army entry: Eldar Falcon – 198 pts 10 Guardians 110 pts flamer and melta 8+9 pts

Final Month – Not a Great One, But Still Chuffed

The final month was really not a great one. Lots of challenges in my personal life meant less hobby time. I went into the month thinking I would get a backdrop and display sorted… but alas, it was not to be.

I am, however, dead chuffed with the Falcon. The Eldar Guardians… well, more of those 3rd edition Dark Eldar conversions were not the ones I started the challenge with. Unfortunately, I ran out of time to finish these. I’ve just gone back to a squad I had painted before, re-touched the paint scheme, and updated the base colour to bring them in line with the rest of the army.

But… I have a “but”. In any case, I’m well pleased with the army overall. Even if I did run out of steam – I think partly that was trying to do too much in the last month and then having to sort out family matters. Kind of took the wind out of my sails.

Georg Malter

Adrian

Number of models painted:	8	Number of points :	796
Hours spent painting:	20	Crisis level (1-5):	2
Tactical Combat Squad, 5 models, Chainsword and Flamer, 161 pts Type X95 Assassin Lander: 240 pts (Based on Ravenwing Land Speeder w/ holo-field and Hunter Killer Missile) Leman Russ Vanquisher: 205 pts (Cosmetic change for now….) Leman Russ Executioner: 190 pts (Leman Russ w/ Heavy Plasma Gun)

Here we are at the end of Mark VII and I am exhausted! While I didn’t quite finish all I planned this month I did finish my final bingo entries getting the full rack of points! My crisis level was fairly low this month having already finished my actual challenge so all I had were the final elements of the Race to Terra. Two Forgeworld Leman Russ tanks, a deodorant tank, a diorama, and 5 Space Marines complete with campaign markings and I’m done! It was a long way from my initial pledge of 5 Assassins for sure! After Mark VI of the challenge, I went straight into my Warmaster challenge, before heading straight into Mark VII so I am ready for a challenge break!

Number of models painted:	6	Number of points :	307
Hours spent painting:	5	Crisis level (1-5):	2
5 Noise marines + Aspiring Champ. Noisy weapons, loud farts, and screaming speakers. 307 points

There’s the challenges that choose you, and there are the challenges you choose! I think this 40k2ndAC has been a big of a mixed bag for me. I started with energy, and fervour, but then things in real life started working against the whole idea. Planning is better than anything in stopping the dreaded burn-out. That is essentially what this challenge is: forcing people to do project management, divided things into manageable work packages -chunks of stuff you can do in a month. Still I have been horrible at it myself. I promised myself to work on 1 of those Noise Marines every month because I knew I would hate to paint them as a single batch in the last month… I even used my mulligan just because I didn’t feel like starting them! At the end of the day, I still painted them at the last minute… I never found a reference picture that I liked and eventually I just slabbed paint on at random! Haha. Chaos!

So there, I have another force of Chaos now. In hindsight, I probably should have gone with an army that would expand my possibilites for gaming… Chaos is fun, but once you have 1 of each, for a small gaming group it is probably better to look outside that particular box.

As for running the challenge, I found that my popcorn brain didn’t assist me much in doing this. Don’t get me wrong – I like being able to think of things I haven’t thought before. It is a power for sure. But I wanted too much: a campaign, a midseason survey, a bingo, tshirts, cups, paintings, and a joint venture in cohosting the challenge! The good thing is that I think I learned a lot. And I took notes!

We’ll be back two times more before this challenge is dead: once with the overall challenge stats, and lastly with the big bingo reveal! I hope you’re alright with me extending the show for a few more weeks. 😛