Welcome back trooper and congratulations, you made it to graduation day for the Oedo 808th regiment! Did you bring your dress uniform and cheese grater to get rid of all your old gang tattoos? They won’t let you graduate into a full private till you’re scrubbed clean from the taint of your old criminal ways! Hmm, maybe just use some concealer for now as we don’t want lots of blood all over your fancy new uniform… not until you’re out in the field dying for the Emperor of course.

So, it’s the final month, I can’t believe it! What a whirlwind six months and, while life has definitely been throwing me some curveballs in that time, when I arrayed the full amount of models on the table in front of me my heart swelled with pride. Before we go into the final grand totals of models and all that, I just wanted to thank the good Dr. The Viking for putting together this wonderful challenge and for keeping us all motivated. It’s been another weird year around the world and we all appreciate it mate, you’re True Blue as we say in this part of the world. Also a huge thank you to my fellow participants, you have all been such an inspiration and I think egging each other on to do more and more is part of the fun of this challenge! You’ve all been such a massive help though so thank you 🙂

Right, enough sentimentality! It’s parade time maggots so look alive and let us inspect what the final month’s painting efforts had to offer:

Month 6 bonus models:

Command Squad: Lieutenant w. chainsword and hotshot lasgun pack. One trooper with a flamer and one missile launcher team (this is Marco and Tarma from last month and total points have been adjusted on last month’s entry). 102pts.

Penal Legion squad (10 models, counts as an infantry squad squad): Sergeant with bolt pistol and chainsword, one trooper with heavy stubber (counts as a heavy bolter team with one other model). 114pts

Ratling squad (using Catachan sniper models). 80pts.

Total points: 296pts.

So, adding all of this to the rest of what I’ve painted over the six months of this challenge (and forgetting I’d finished another preacher in month 1) I managed to complete: 1 Command HQ, 3 Command squads, 2 Infantry squads, 1 Heavy weapons squad, 2 Penal legion squads, 1 Ratling squad, 7 various officers and characters, 2 Assassins and 4 tanks!!! That is a grand total of 85 MODELS!!! A personal best on my third journey through the challenge and all up that comes to a whopping 2740 points of WYSIWYG. With a few wargear cards and upgrades that will easily break the 3000 mark and I’ve got to say that feels GREAT!

I hope you have enjoyed this journey even half as much as I have and thanks for reading! We’ll see you next challenge 😉

My fifth and final slice consists of a squad of seven Night Lords Chaos Space Marines led by an Aspiring Champion! One Chaos Marine carries a Plasma Gun, while another is armed with a Heavy Bolter.

***Squad Kalex

1x Aspiring Champion 30

Chainsword 2

Plasma pistol 5

7x Chaos Space Marines 175

Plasma gun 8

Heavy Bolter 12

5x Boltguns 15

Total: 247 points
Squad Kalex, led by the embittered Jahan Kalex, form the backbone of the warband. They perform vital tasks such as seizing and holding positions, providing fire support and, if need be, advancing upon the enemy and taking the fight to them.

***

As this is the final month, I have also taken a photo of the completed 1000 point Night Lords army! I decided to go all in and set up my models with my painted backdrop, an Imperial Firebase and a lot of jungle scenery.

A big thanks to Dr. The Viking for running this lovely challenge, and thanks to all the wonderful participants for a lot of inspiration and motivation!

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

Cheers!

Time is up, brushes down, lets see what you have done!

Well what a fun time we have had, Ive thoroughly enjoyed building and painting up this little force. From picking through my stash for the best minis at the beginning, to pouring over classic codex and White Dwarf for inspiration. My force totals 1000pts (ok 993) as I have not had time to add extra as Id hoped, but I am still ecstatic with what i have.  This month was about finishing those details i had missed in previous months, namely the back banners!

Having stocks of a few paper banners i knew id struggle to match these for other models so elected to hand paint all of them to keep the quality (or lack of) consistent across the army.  The banners were made out of a cut up coke can to the size of those in the Angels of Death codex, first mistake, they are slightly too big for my taste. I primed the cut banners and then hand painted the respective colour, mistake 2, should have used my airbrush as getting a smooth finish over a flat surface was near impossible, especially the yellow. For the sergeants I used transfers, but mistake 3, i didnt have enough the same size or right colour, so there is a mix of sizes and ages, painted over to get the colour. They came out ok, i might re-do them in the future if i can get enough transfers.

For the characters I was worried about trying to match the images from the codex, but after leaving a slightly lumpy basecoat i realised they were never going to be perfect so just went at it with no fear so I expected them to be terrible and need re-doing straight away. Im glad i did this as it made the process so much more fun, i just jabbed paint down with a far too big brush, not being precious about errors and just seeing what i could do. And im damned if they didnt actually come out ok!  Ive not drawn a picture for 25 years and the Chaplians banner kind of shows that, but its still way better than i expected to do HA!  So they are staying for a while at least.

I have also added a Codicier to tutor my Lexicanum, but didn’t get his base finished in time for the army photo. 

I have skipped adding a banner to the rhino, and the landspeeder, but they may get some in the future. For now the army is going on a display shelf to be admired before I have to pack them away. On that note ive purchased a KR Multicase specifically for them, with a little extra space for another few squads and vehicles, so more red marines are in my future, just perhaps at a slightly more relaxed pace.

Thanks so much the Dr. The Viking for running and having me on this challenge. Its been tough but fun and i hope to return in the future, tho might give it a year as I have other projects i need to get back to. Thanks also to all the other challengers, been great to see all your painting and back stories!

Thanks, Richard.

Hey Hans,

Please find below the final entry for this round of the challenge. Thanks again for organising everything!

Mike
So we come to it at last, the end of the third 40k 2nd Ed army challenge and what a challenge it has been!
Things started off so well with me getting the biggest units done first, being really happy with them and having time to concentrate on the big centrepiece models. However, real life events conspired to kick my backside at the beginning of this year and it just didnt let up… my painting time began to reduce and the impetus I’d built up in the early days ground slowly to a halt. In fact, I painted just one bonus unit, five bases of Rippers, which took me longer to paint than the Genestealers and Hormagaunts combined! By the end I think I was just a little bit Nidded out…
That said, it has been a lovely change to paint Tyranids. I’ve never painted any before and it was a lot of fun to use such vibrant colours. Not only that but it gave me a new appreciation of the old models, some of which I’d honestly never really liked before!
In the last challenge i pushed myself to try new things and ended up doing some freehand, including banners. This time around I really tried to up my game with blending and glazing. The latter in particular really emphasises the alien feel of the Tyranids with their glistening skin drawing the eye.

I’d certainly put this initial 1000 points up there with the best armies I’ve ever painted.
Quite a god feeling considering that without the challenge these guys would probably still be waiting for their turn in the biostrip! This is one of the Great things about the challenge. It’s an excuse to take on different projects and actually have an attainable goal to aim for. Its a great driving force to sit down and get things done.

Another great thing, one of the highlights in fact, is seeing everyone else’s efforts and what I’ve seen so far has been Incredible. Well done to everyone who took part! Maybe I’ll see you all again in round 4 but whether that happens or not I hope you’ve all enjoyed round 3 of the 40k 2nd Ed Army Challenge.

Sadly, I didn’t manage to paint anything in my bonus month. I know it’s a shame, but taking part in two painting challenges at once is not an easy undertaking. So I felt a little burned out. I really hope to play a second edition game with my sisters soon.

I want to know how they fight and what units or vehicles they could need to have a better chance. It was great fun to take part in the challenge and to see so many other beautifully painted miniatures from many different factions. I must confess I had the most fun with painting the imperial allies and frater militaris for the sisters. Therefore, I am really looking forward to paint my Cadian infantry soon. Maybe in the next challenge…

Hello again,

I have to say thanks again for running this challenge and giving me a reason to get all these models painted finally. I had been slowly amassing them for a couple years but never really had the motivation to start working on them. I always tend to be a “need a reason to paint” kinda guy, be that a narrative event weekend, campaign, etc. And I can’t say 2nd edition 40k has a lot going on around here locally.

But this 2nd Ed Army Challenge was exactly what I needed! I was really glad I managed to finish everything I planned out, and also a bonus model snuck in too. I actually used the final month, since I finished up on time by month 5 as my rest. I probably could have done some more bonus units but frankly I was busy enough working on other hobby projects like Titanicus and a lot of terrain building!

Congrats to everyone who made it to the end, and congrats for the anyone who didn’t for what you managed to finish! I can’t wait for the next one, and seeing what everyone comes up with!

Eric

Dear Dr The Viking,

Finished!!! I’ve managed to get all five slices of my entry done, and I’m really happy with how they’ve come out. I think my favourites are Fuegan, the vyper and the Banshees.

The least successful were the Dire Avengers, but they still look good and I may revisit them at some point to try and buff them up a bit!!! I’ve learned a lot on this – really pushed myself to try some new techniques. So there’s been a lot of airbrush work – particularly on the dreadnought and the jetbikes – and I’ve also been experimenting with using drybrushing. All the blends on the front of the jetbike canopies was done with drybrushing – which has come out much better then I could have hoped for.

This time round (I also did the previous iteration) has definitely felt like more of a challenge. I’ve really needed the motivation provided by the monthly deadlines to make me sit down and get on with things. I think this has been more because real life (bloody work!) has been intruding more – but the camaraderie has been a real help in getting through this! No bonus models unfortunately, but I’ve still ended up with over 1000 points to add to my army. I did start some Warp Spiders, but they’ve not managed to get much beyond the base coat stage – I’ll finish them off at some stage!

A massive thanks for running this challenge – it’s been a pleasure to be involved and without it I most definitely wouldn’t have got this lot painted in the last 6 months!

Tom

Hi everyone,

Today I write my last message for the challenge and I can proudly say that I made it! Despite life and its usual backs and forwards I was able to paint my last 3 (character) miniatures and I am very happy with the result. I present today the Farseer, the Warlock and the Phoenix Lord Fuegan the Burning Lance. Farseer and Fuegan have a bit bigger base than the usual 2nd Ed. model as their ranks meritted and so there is no doubt about their importance. 

Painting the Farseer and the Warlock was funny, playing with the different tones of red and applying a bit darker one on the warlock (because that angry guy is really dark and ready to use their sword against any lesser being).

Fuegan… oh dear she has been a real challenge. I’ve never painted orange and I was not sure how to do it, but I tested some tones and after applying some shadows and lights the result was satisfactory; the dragon scales were time consuming, but this miniature deserved it. Her pike is another story: Fuegan has been with me for 20+ years and my younger me thought it was a good idea to cut the pike and use it somewhere else, so I had to find a replacement which resulted in a really long pike; but again: it is Fuegan, it is never enough.

Also include a picture of the full army (1000 pts of 2nd Edition Eldar complete, yeeee!!)

It has been a real pleasure to paint every month, anxious to see what others painted and really impressed by the high detail the other guys put in their miniatures. 6 months full of fun and painting, nights until late painting and long days thinking how to improve the level of this little pointing-ears army.

Thanks Dr. The Viking for giving me the opportunity to participate in this challenge. This kind of thing is what makes the 40k community a very nice place. 

Until next time!

Sergio

Well this is a pleasant surprise, if not a little embarrassing. Turns out there’s a sixth month! It pays to read the rules of the challenge you’re taking part in, folks!

Spurred on by this newfound knowledge I redoubled my efforts to finish my Eldar dreadnought, and I can say with pride that it’s finished. It’s done up in the test color scheme for my Eldar army going forward, which is a base coat of Incubi Darkness, followed by progressively lighter highlights of hex-pot Hawk Turquoise.

I hit a bit of a snag with this model, which was why it took so long. I ended up redoing the bone colored parts, and while it looks better than the original method, I’m still not happy with how… Unsubtle the highlights are. The original method tried to emulate my Howling Banshees, but for whatever reason I couldn’t replicate the mix with my ever-dying, ever-tired hex-pot of Bleached Bone. To rectify it, I turned to my other set of Mike McVey-designed paints, and used Menoth White Base and Menoth White Highlight from Formula P3. 

In regards to the dark green/blue parts, my original scheme was a bit too dark, so for this model I decided to mix in a little bit more Hawk Turquoise, and of course that puts me in a more precarious position of wanting it to be brighter, but also to fit in with my guardians I painted in month two, who share the same scheme. I’m focusing on the negative, of course. I should also mention how easy it was to paint, and how impressive it looks towering over my other models.

Month 5/6 Army List Breakdown:

Dreadnought – 200 pts.

– Two power fists with built-in shrunken catapults with targeters, distortion cannon

And of course you can see the full army shot below. I went for an ice theme with my bases, partially inspired by some Epic 40,000 models in the Battles Book of the 1997 version of the game (see, middlehammer wasn’t all Goblin Green bases). 

Everything I said in my last month’s write-up about the challenge (when I thought the challenge was over) still stands. It was a ton of fun, and while I wish I was more active in the chat, it was really cool to hang with some like-minded hobbyists from around the world. I’m in awe of everything everyone’s accomplished in this challenge. For myself, I got to experiment some more with older paints, and older painting methods, and I find that kind of stuff thrilling. 

Until next time, check out my blog at www.onarollgames.com, and I wish everyone luck in ascending their own personal lead piles!

So the end is here!

Even tho it’s been a long road this time round I’m please to have completed all my entry’s and a few bonuses .

Want to start by say a massive thanks to Hans for running what is and will continue to be a fantastic little group of like minded people from across the world .

Secondly to thank everyone who has supported me along this journey and at some points long the way it was much needed.

I hope you all like my take on the Legion of the damned .

And can’t wait to be back for the next one!

Iv ended up with around 2000 pts of the Fiery ghosts and will continue to add a unit here and there in the future .   

Can wait to see what everyone’s army’s look like in full .
If you have time please check out my instagram page @ebpminis .

Regards

George Shepherd

“LEFT! ROIGHT! LEFT! ROIGHT! LE- NO!! DA UVVER ONE YOO NUMPTY!!!”

Urglush’s Runtherd was on the verge of shooting another Gretchin for stupidity.

“YOO NEED TA FOLLOW ORDAZ!!!!”

***BLAM***

Apparently he was beyond the verge. Oh well.

Urglush was still happy with the surprise reinforcements that his Boyz had rummaged up for him. Some more Trukks and a Trakk for the Evil Sunz and his Boyz, some more Goff ladz to bolster those mobs and another 42.. sorry, 41 Gretchin to provide a distraction for the enemy guns,

Next he had to work out how he was going to turn on those stoopid Humies and take all of their stuff as well…

—————————————————————

Well, it’s bonus month so I decided to finish off the Orks from my 2nd Ed box set, some GorkaMorka vehicles I had lying around, my Makari and a random Mek sans Shokk Attack Gun (until I get the actual gun too). Pretty much painted up all of my 2nd ed stuff (bar 3 Bikes)!

A fun challenge again, and I didn’t expect to churn out more vehicles, never mind 40 Gretchin! I’m going to miss the challenge (until it’s back) as it’s been another fun one, sharing the hobby with like minded people.

I now have a viable Ork force to face my Chaos Marines from last challenge.. the only issue I now have, is what to paint next?!

200pts 40 Gretchin

78pts 6 Skarboyz

200pts 3 Trukks and a Trakk

Xpts Sad Mek without his big gun 😦

Anyway, enjoy the picture of the complete (for now) army!

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Good evening again

Last minute entry :)I hadn’t been sure if I would be able to get this done this month.  The purpose of the challenge was finished and I had other tasks to be done.  But my time freed up and with 10 days to go I thought ‘I should have enough time’.

I also bought a small lot of marines a few weeks back in order to get one figure – and that gave me a duplicate librarian for my ‘other’ mk 7 army.  So I decided to attempt that as well as my original potential bonus bike and side car.  

Librarian 

  Codicier (Level 2) — 97 points, Force rod 15

  Bike and sidecar 110

Total 218

The bike was missing a multi-melta – so I kitbashed a replacement out of a couple of missiles from a plastic model kit.  

I’ve attached these two along with a full army shot.  At the moment it is just over 1200 points.  With some twisting of character levels, wargear cards and the addition of a previously painted mentor legion combat squad I could reach 1500. 

I’m very happy with this little force and even happier that I’ve finished with it 🙂 

I look forward to the next challenge (though I am hoping for a January rather than December start).  Thank you all for the great encouragement.

The Legionnaire leaned over and snapped a shot off with his bolt pistol. The glowing green round punched through the back of the hormagaunt’s skull, reducing it to a tumbling mass of bladed limbs. Uncontrolled, it crashed down into the trench network. With no defenders left to kill, it spent its last moments thrashing impotently in a flooded funk hole. With one hand, the Legionnaire steered the Landspeeder into a sharp right turn, whilst the other hand carefully replaced the bolt pistol in its holster. Vaguely, he remembered that the weapon had been a gift from the Commander. He had no concept of how long he had been fighting for the Legion anymore. Each battle was a brief memory of flames and death, and there were far too many of them to count. The moments of peace in between were filled with the maddening prayers of the damned.

The Gunner fired a stream of burning promethium into a genestealer brood. Where the flames hit, chitin charred and fused. Internal organs boiling, the creatures rapidly succumbed. The few that survived were cut down by a squad of Legionnaires who had teleported into a nearby trench. As quickly as they had appeared, they were gone again, leaving carnage in their wake. Ahead, the Legionnaire could see a Carnifex venting its rage against the armoured door of a command bunker. It turned as the Landspeeder approached, emitting an ear-splitting scream as it launched a ball of bio-plasma from its hideously distended jaws. The Legionnaire jinked the Landspeeder hard to the right, catching a scintillating arc on his left pauldron. He felt a shock run through his nervous system and pressure where the armour had melted onto his skin, but no pain. Jinking back, The Legionnaire fired a melta beam that obliterated the top half of the beast. The ashes of its destruction were caught in the gust of the Landspeeder’s passing, whilst its lower half vented plasma and toppled to the ground.

“That was the last of them, brother.” The Legionnaire returned the Gunner’s salute, then steered the Landspeeder towards the distant horizon. It did not matter which direction they travelled; it was only a matter of time before the haze of teleportation returned them to the in-between space of the Legion’s chapel. He looked at his pauldron, which was already returning to its original shape. Where his name used to be, carved in high gothic, a line of leering skulls had appeared.

“Until next time”.

I have been focusing so hard on the deadlines each month that the end of the challenge has really snuck up on me. Painting Legion of the Damned has been all at once cathartic and incredibly challenging. They were my first army, so working on them has brought back some great memories, but all of that free-hand painting was a serious test of my painting ability.

I would spend my complete allotment of hobby time just blocking in and refining the flame shapes in grey, then have to find time somehow to actually paint some colour! As a result, I didn’t get as many models finished as I was hoping to.

I completed my 1000 point list, but still have some bikes and characters to work on after the challenge. In the final month, I focused on getting my most prized bonus model finished, a Landspeeder with heavy flamer and multimelta. With most of the pressure off, it was great fun to work on and a fine way to cap off the challenge. My army at the end of May looks a lot like my dream army from 26 years ago!

I would like to say a huge thanks to all of the other challengers for their support and camaraderie over the past 6 months. Their work has been inspiring and a great motivation when times got tough during the challenge. Huge thanks also to the indomitable Dr The Viking, for keeping us all in line and showcasing our efforts on his blog. Champions all.

Colonel Beider looked via his binoculars at the glorious developments unfolding before him. After consolidating the new defensive lines and halting the Ork advance, the salient produced by their reckless thrust had been cut out from the main Xenos horde thanks to the efforts of Paradeshan armoured columns. Since then, the 88th had been tasked with the elimination of the resulting cauldron, a task everyone was keen on after weeks of retreats. Imperial artillery had been hitting the trapped beasts hard and now ranks of Urban veterans were cleansing the remaining trash without much issue.

But Beider was no fool. He knew this victory was only the first step in the long journey to cleanse the planet of the Greenskin infestation. Years of gruelling conflict remained ahead and things promised to get worse. Any Guardsmen worth his salt knew that something was wrong with these Xenos, and even if the Ecclesiarchy and the High Command battled the rumors among rank and file, senior officers like himself had been informed of Chaos activity linked to the Ork Waaagh. Not that the news could have been truly suppressed, has any psyker attached to the Guard in the planet has experienced weird nightmares pointing to the insidious presence of the Ruinous Powers.

Worse still, there are unconfirmed reports about sightings of the infamous Blood Skulls warband. If those were to be true, all Imperial citizens in the sector would have to harden their souls and muster every atom of faith, for the monstrous Chaos Space Marines were a completely different breed of enemy than the Orkish cannon fodder…

So, the last month of the challenge has already finished. This has been quite a lovely ride and I hope to be in for the next one. Anyhow, since I finished all my pledged slices last month, this one has been devoted entirely to bonus content: a Heavy bolter squad, a command squad, a psyker and yet another preacher. 

For the heavy weapons team there is nothing new to add, they are more of the same as all the black-clad heroes I have painted, just a couple of new decals from 15mm WW2 German tanks I did not know I had. The psyker is a midhammer model from an Inquisitorial retinue which I think fits quite well with the army. I painted him with a lack of black in order to make him stand out among his fellows, as any psyker does. The preacher is a last minute addon, finished literally the last day of the challenge.

Finally, the command squad main feature is the battle standard, which I have designed based on a flag taken from a video game. As I explained to my challenge pals via chat, the Imperial Eagle represents the Imperium, being protected by the star fort, which symbolizes the Paradeshan Cohorts, with the star, the Party, watching over them. Finally at the corner there is Sol, orbited by Holy Terra and Mars, leading Mankind forward. Overthinking you say? Perhaps, but I cannot help myself with that. Also, I have toyed a bit with metal modelling to modify the voxcaster blanket in order to accomodate the device and have more variety among the army.

Bonus

Heavy weapons team with heavy bolters (x3) = 90 points.

Command squad (Colonel with Bolt Pistol & Power Sword, two Plasma Rifles, Voxcaster, Battle Standard) = 185 points.

Veteran Psyker = 69 points.

Preacher (Laspistol + Chainsword) = 12 points.

Total: 287 points.

But wait!, this is the end of the challenge, so a recap of everything painted is in order. Let’s see how strong the Black Cohort has growth.

Paradeshan 88th Black Cohort

1. Command squad (Colonel with Bolt Pistol & Power Sword, two Plasma Rifles, Voxcaster, Battle Standard) = 185 points.
2. Veteran Psyker = 69 points.
3. Commissar (Power Fist + Bolt Pistol + Sword) = 53 points.
4. Confessor (Plasma Pistol + Power Sword + Carapace Armour) = 71 points.
5. Preacher (Laspistol + Power Sword) = 16 points.
6. Preacher (Laspistol + Power Sword) = 16 points.
7. Preacher (Laspistol + Chainsword) = 12 points.
8. Imperial Guard Squad (Missile Launcher + Grenade Launcher + Chainsword for Sergeant) = 142 points.
9. Imperial Guard Squad (Missile Launcher + Grenade Launcher + Chainsword for Sergeant) = 142 points.
10. Imperial Guard Squad (Missile Launcher + Grenade Launcher + Chainsword for Sergeant) = 142 points.
11. Stormtrooper Squad (Grizzled + Heavy Bolter) = 155 points.
12. Ratlings = 80 points. 
13. Heavy weapons squad with lascannons (x3) = 150 points.
14. Heavy weapons team with heavy bolters (x3) = 90 points.
15. Hellhound = 165 points.
16. Sentinel = 75 points.

Total: 1563 points & 70 models.

All in all, a sizable force which I think can reach 2000 points if we add options and extras. And it will grow bigger in the future since several models have been left outside the challenge. There are a couple of assassins, two more Sasori pattern Sentinels, at least one Chimera, one Carnodon pattern Demolisher, several Inquisitorial about thirty additional footmen… Newer models such as Ogryns. Also, allies such as Squats, a ton of Eldars, Battle Sisters, Space Marines, Necromundan & kitbashed Frateris Militia and so on. So, there is enough material for another challenge if I resist the allure of Chaos. Anyway, see you next time!

The mighty dreadnought strode without effort across the cracked landscape. Mauruin felt a sense or pride and awe, but also something that might be sadness. He knew all to well what it meant to call on the souls of the infinity circuit, and what was at risk. The soul inhabiting the construct was not simply the spirit of a fallen kin, but in a way it was parts of all the sisters and brother that inhabited the circuit, and if lost a small part of that collective would be lost forever. This concept was beyond anything the humans could comprehend, their crude constructs was a pale shadow at best. But now the host was gathered there was no return and it was time to leave the shadows, and strike.

With the dreadnought finished the force is finally assembled! It is not very big but it can hopefully pack a punch. From memory this would fairly well reflect the sort of army I would have used back in the 90s, although it would have been poorly painted at best.

Trying the brushes at 40k minis has mostly been a very nice experience, although it did take a bit of thought  to decide on painting schemes. I am quite happy about how the Warp spiders and Farseer turned out, in contrast I struggled a bit with the Dark reapers.  I will try to get a game on at some not to distant future, the first game in many long years. It has been a great experience participating, the challenge has been well organized and there has been loads of lovely entries, big thanks to all participating and Dr. The Viking in particular. 

Finally it’s over! What can I say, more then 6 months goes by far to quick… But atleast it has been a awsome experience! First I want to thank all the wounderfull peapole in the chat. It has been hours of wonderful reading and to be abel to be apart of everybodys Journey. For my challenge, it started strong and ended abit in a lowering of the quality, but hey… atleast I got something painted. Hopefully I can join the next run aswell as I got alot of unpainted models that need to be taken care of!

So I made it! Praised be Khorne – Blood For The Blood God!

With only the last slice left, it still took me to the last day… but once more: done is done! This means:

• Chaos Terminator with Twin Bolter and Chainaxe … 51 points
• Chaos Space Marine with Bolter … 28 points
• Chaos Space Marine with Plasma Pistol and Chainsword … 32 points
• Chaos Space Marine with Bolt Pistol and Chainsword (x2) … 54 points

For a total of 165 points, finishing all I pledged at the beginning for my original list of 1008 points.

The following were done as bonus:

• Month 1: Standardbearer with Mark of Khorne and Warpbanner, with Power Axe and Bolt Pistol …104 points
• Month 2: Oldschool Plastic Khorne Berserker with Chainsword … 37 points
• Month 3: Khornate Ork as “Bloodletter” (x4) … 140 points
• Month 4: Bloodletter of Khorne (x4) … 140 points
• Month 5: Mighty Champion of Khorne with Plasma Pistol and Axe of Khorne … 108 points

This adds 529 points… and messes up my plan of „point cost divisible by 8“ (aka Khornes sacred number). Tzeentchian trickery must be at work here! Anyway, this is a problem for another day.

In the end I want to thank all the other participants for their energy, support and the general banter on the Book of Faces, as well as of course the good Dr. The Viking for all the hard work he has done for this project. I hope it was good fun for everybody involved, and look forward to return – assuming both the Chaos Gods and the good Dr. allow it. Until then: best of luck to you all!

I guess this is the end of the ride for now. Thanks.
http://deathworldadventures.blogspot.com/ is my usual playing ground and I will also document my progress there along with this challenge.

The third season of the 40K 2nd Edition army challenge has completed and I am happy to report that I have completed my 1,000 points and a bonus entry.  Although I had a low model count this season, I was excited to paint the full panoply of character models that really compliment the 2nd Ed Dark Angels force that I have been building over the three iterations of the group project. 

The challenge has once again provided a fun community of 2nd ed fanatics to help carry on the spirit over the course of the 6 months of entries.  It has also continued to improve my painting skills and give me the confidence to finally paint characters models I have owned but not painted yet.  Plus banners! So many banners this season.  Banners make up such an important part of what 2nd edition looks like that it was really pleasing to add banners to many of the characters in my “slices”. 

My entries over the course of this season also helped me complete a goal I always dreamed of when reading White Dwarf back in the 90s.  I loved when ‘Eavy Metal would feature a picture showing the three ranks of Space Marine librarians for a particular chapter.  Finally adding this trio of models to my army was a real treat, plus my bonus entry was a kitbashed Command Razorback for the Dark Angels Librarius to use. 

The last “slice” of the challenge for me also bought my first ever special character model, Azreal Grand Master of the Dark Angels.  Improving my painting skills over the course of the three challenges led me to take on this great looking model, and since he has existed unchanged since the second edition I can use him for any edition of the game I happen to be playing.  Thank you for all the support and laughs from the great community of gamers and hobbyists who make up the challenge.  A huge thank you to Dr The Viking for coordinating this great experience, and I can’t wait to send in my entry for the next challenge – Orks!.  If you want to see more of my hobby experience, check out my blog at 1st Legion Chronicles.

Well, this is the final entry on this great hobby journey and I wanted to give a huge thank you to Dr. Tv and all the other participants! It was great talking in chat and swapping our painting processes. The end result is impressive! 

This month sees both my Final slice and a bonus squad, making a total of 75 miniatures all told. Between the complex valhallan models, large heavy weapon models and my own basing providing a hurdle it was a great experience. Now I have a large basis for my valhallan troops to go off of.

As for the models themselves, I imagined the Lascannon teams as hidden tank hunters more than trench borne guns, so I added some camo net (I have branches as well but they couldn’t be finished, I’ll post the end result on Instagram later). 

The commissar is just an iconic pose, I had to include him in a space Soviet army.

The command squad is special, the LT. Is actually my very 1st model I bout with my own money, back on release day over 25 years ago. I’ve decided to strip all my old troops and repaint them to take the field again, lead by this true veteran officer. 

It’s been great getting into this challenge and hopefully I’ll get the chance to get in again! Though next time I’ll actually paint some tanks, lol.

Thanks to everyone involved, feel free to follow me on Instagram, I’ll be churning out more Valhallans for the foreseeable future!

https://www.instagram.com/valhallan_winter

Lieutenant Antanov was glad to finally feel the snow in his face. This cursed planet had been toying with his Valhallans for almost 6 months, promising snow but only giving flurries. What kind of ice warriors fight in flurries he thought himself? Well, it was over now as the snow had come down in thick sheets covering the rocky terrain in the blanket of pure white. He smiled as the wind began to howl, a true winter at last. He suddenly paused, and cocked his head. That wasn’t the howl of the wind, it was the howl of wolves. He had m been on planet six months and hadn’t seen a wolf, when suddenly five of them reared up out of the snow. Not four legged wolves, but space wolves. Wolf Guard at that. This was a unique honor indeed, this planet must be important. 

This is the final month of my third 40k 2nd Edition Challenge and it brought a lot of firsts for me. 

This month I finished my Baneblade from last month. I named it the Pillar of Davidson as my pop culture reference, which was a special theme from last month. Pillar of Davidson is the name of a song on the Live album Throwing Copper, an album I listened to 100’s of times back in the 90’s while reading GW magazines and dreaming of a Imperial Guard army. I added three tank riders, I wanted five but ran out of time.

I also completely re-based my army with a snow and rock theme. I wanted to do something like this from the beginning and only just got the materials and the idea of how to do it. I used the crushed glass method from James Wappel, you can find his video here: https://youtu.be/R-dwhjsJt34

Finally this months entry includes five Wolf Guard. Many have entered the challenge with Space Wolves but none have succeeded finishing them. I’m hoping these troops help lift the curse of the Space Wolves once and for all! This was also my first time hand painting a paper banner and I’m pretty glad with how it turned out!

5 Wolf Guard – 3 power fists, 1 power sword, 1 power axe, 1 plasma pistol, 2 hand flamers. 

233 points

Thanks again to the good doctor for running this challenge, as always it was great fun!

You can read more about what I am up to on my blog: https://www.hmgs.org/blogpost/1767208/The-Wachtmeister-s-Patrol

-Wachtmeister 

That’s it folks! The challenge is over and I am ready to go into hiatus with 2nd edition 40k until the next one. It is important to keep focus when doing these things and remember why you are doing it. Ultimately, you should do it for yourself.

For me, the challenge has been a joy to behold this time around again. I have enjoyed the chats, the unrelated banter, the painting tips, and the completely bonkers stuff that made it into our secret challenge society.

We have seen all kinds of armies, from Demonworlds and Penal Legions to good old Blood Angels. Again nearly everyone made it and I am of course extremely happy to have been able to facilitate some of this.

Even though, as a group, we are spread out over the whole globe, I am super thrilled that the events I have set in motion have led to the results we see here. I do not mean to take credit for any of the hard work seen here, but merely to note that spending my time and money on this serves a purpose and actually makes a difference to someone else! As abstract as it may seem.

I could only wish that some of these armies would meet on the table. While it might be some time out in the distance, I will definitely keep you guys in mind whenever I travel the planet in the future – who knows if I, at some point, will be able to negotiate a game at a table in the US, Oz, UK, Sweden or even Germany!

Oh yeah, and I painted a 84 model >2000 points Tyranid army for the challenge.

I have – too late admittedly – started to do a bit of stats for the rounds as the entries came in… And some the accumulated stats (I have many more for each round and so on). Don’t be too alarmed if you spot any error – it is based on counting and whatever you have written, so there are numerable sources of inaccuracies, but it probably hits close to the mark.

EDIT: The “Points Reported” clearly needs some explanation: The participants were originally asked to list their points each month (point 3 under “what you must do every month”) but a lot of them did not. So this column is only an accumulation of the points that they did in fact report and only goes towards the aim of saying that we painted a combined total of at least 24k.

Participant	Rounds Completed	Models Painted	Average Models Per Active Month	Total average	Points Reported	Points per model
Adrian Bell	6	28	4,6	4,6	1397	49,9
Andreas	5	28	5,6	4,7	966	34,5
Carmin Carotenuto	5	24	4,8	4,0	1000	41,7
Chris Cale	2	10	5,0	1,7	412
Darnok	5	25	5,0	4,2	1387	55,5
Dr. The Viking	5	84	16,8	14,0	2030	24,2
George Shepherd	5	17	3,4	2,8	200
Jon McMaster	5	14	2,8	2,3	835
Jonas Frickmann	5	63	12,6	10,5	649
Kym Jackson	3	14	4,7	2,3	701
Ma4cr0dutch	6	17	2,8	2,8	1150	67,6
Machonin	5	16	3,2	2,7	603
Maddix	6	101	16,8	16,8	1343	13,3
Marcel Josch	5	36	7,2	6,0	723
Martin Taylor	6	85	14,2	14,2	2779	32,7
Mattias Hedström	5	15	3,0	2,5	541
Mike Thompson	6	41	6,8	6,8	1162	28,3
Richard Elsdon	5	21	4,2	3,5	997,5	47,5
Ted Gunnerson	5	20	4,0	3,3	1000	50,0
Tom Reynolds	5	25	5,0	4,2	630
Valhallan Winter	6	75	12,5	12,5	1153	15,4
Viden	6	67	11,2	11,2	1494	22,3
Wachtmeister	6	39	6,5	6,5	1234	31,6
Wargamer Eric	5	21	4,2	3,5	448
Totals		880			>24482,5

While there is a lot to be said about painting – this chart shows how you can go about it several ways. M4cr0dutch painted few models, but extremely meticulously… whilst Maddix went all in with the broad brush strokes on a host of models. Just lovely.

It has been a good raid, and our ships definitely could need some repairs before we set sails again.

With this final note I bid you farewell!

Viking out!