Monthly Archives: October 2018

Mechanical November ’18: Monthly Hobby Challenge

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So, something a little bit different for November, but hopefully something that’s still flexible enough to fit in with people’s existing projects (and half-painted/abandoned models).

The idea for this month’s theme is to paint mechanical models. Now, this might seem restricting, but the way I see it, the theme can be applied pretty broadly. Tanks and indeed, any kind of vehicles work, including Steam Tanks that Dwarfs or Renaissance humans might use. All manner of Droids and Robots, obviously.

Lots of terrain pieces work – particularly some of the new-ish stuff from Games Workshop (Sector Mechanicus) but then also a lot of other terrain works well also – Mantic’s Inductrial Battlezones for instance and of course no end of resin options from a hundred different companies.

Even smaller stuff like some of the Sci-fi terrain I’ve been doing lately can be shoehorned in there.

Not the crates here, but certainly the sci-fi automatic doors and the terminals.

Walkers of all types, obviously are appropriate. Star Wars, AT-43, DUST, Konflikt ’47, Martian walkers.. you get the idea – as well as the obvious 40k stuff.

Didn’t get your Dreadtober piece finished (or started?) No problem, finish it in November and post it up for this month’s challenge!

Some armies are obviously better served than others here. Necrons being a standout – but I’m happy to consider power armour of whatever kind to be mechanical.

Some things that don’t immediately come to mind as mechanical are absolutely that. Most fantasy war machines fit the bill and even moreso for historical ones – after all, what is a trebuchet, if not a mechanical device?

So have a look at your painting desk, your shelf of shame or even the grey hordes and see what you wanted to get done anyway that you could fit in here.

This challenge starts on the 1st of November and as always, runs until the end of the month. if you finish the model at 11:58pm on the final evening, that’s fine – just get it varnished and photographed in a few days and I’ll include it in the community round-up. I always give a few days grace period.

There’s also no special criteria as to who can or cannot participate. If you’d like to participate, then you can. Simples. Just link your post/models back to this post or leave a comment below with a link so I can find your stuff during the round-up time.

That’s pretty much it. If you might be interested, you’ve got a few days for thinking about it before the challenge starts – though if you’re keen there’s also no reason you can’t be working on your models. Because it’s only about completing models in November! 😉

Neglected Model September ’18 Painting Challenge – Community Round-Up

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The Imperfect Modeller’s Andrea Miniatures Rooster Cogburn (John Wayne)

The Imperfect Modeller has gotten into the Neglected Model act in September by completing this model that had been neglected for a decade or more. Depicting John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn in the 1969 original of True Grit. As always, the entire model is amazing, but that Horse is a real thing of beauty.

 

mcmattila’s completed Tactical Marines

…and his completed squad!

First time participant, mcmattila has submitted the above Combat Squad of Tactical Space Marines, which combined with the first batch to form a full-strength squad. Some very nice painting here! As mcmattila doesn’t have a blog at this time, I’m putting his pics up here – hopefully he’ll continue to participate in these challenges!

 

Argentbadger’s Trollblood Fennblade Officer and Drummer

Argent Badger of The Bovine Overlord has continued with the Warmahordes theme in September’s Challenge, painting a command pair of Fennblade Officer and Drummer. His blog post features a group shot of them alongside their unit, looking very cool – so go check it out!

 

Just Needs Varnish completed another nice batch of figures in September. This time a mixture of Infantry, Armour and Civilian vehicles which all have a location and time in common – specifically the early Pacific War campaign in the Philippines.

 

Wudugast’s Skaven Plague Furnace.

Wudugast from Convert or Die completed a pretty impressive centrepiece model in September – a Skaven Plague Furnace. I’m aware of how redundant it is to mention when an enormous amount of work goes into a model like this one, but if you check out his post you really can see it in detail.

 

Red Boar Wiiingers’ Baruk-Khazâd Bastards Dwarf Blood Bowl team.

Red Boar Wiiingers from Presenting The Red Boar Wiingers! completed this Dwarf Blood Bowl team – The Baruk-Khazâd Bastards. They don’t look like a group of lads you’d want to mess with – on or off the pitch!

 

Dave Kay’s original Warhammer Quest Bats.

Dave’s Skeleton Jester.

Dave Kay, from Scent of a Gamer completed these old-school Warhammer Quest Giant Bats. Now they definitely look the part! Dave’s second submission was this Skeleton Jester which he picked up for Warhammer Quest, though I think it also has a very Mordheim feel to it as well.

 

Bifur’s Deathshroud Terminators.

Bifur of Sigmund Freud is Judging You completed this trio of Deathshroud Terminators of the Deathguard Legion. I know the pic is tiny – maybe we’ll see a larger version at some point in the future?

 

Backtothehammer’s Wood Elf Waywatchers…

…and his Ungrim Ironfist.

Backtothehammer was so enthusiastic about September’s challenge that he finished and posted these models on the 21st of August! A unit of Wood Elf Waywatchers as well as The Slayer King – Ungrim Ironfist!

 

 

Alexis “Westrider” West of Cascadian Grimdark had a very productive September – finishing quite a variety of Neglected models in the month of September. The Shadespire warband, Spiteclaw’s Swarm; a selection of Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower Heroes/Antiheroes; several Tzeentchian Daemons from The Warp, and finally – the containment chamber from the 40k Battlefield Objectives set.

 

Pandora’s Bitz Box’ trio of Tyranid Hive Guard

Pandora’s Bitz Box from the Krakendoomcool blog got his neglected unit done in contrast to Backtothehammer’s August submission – PBB got this unit of Tyranid Hive Guard completed this month, in October! Still, motivation is the key and given how late this update is I’m not going to be an arse about anything. On reflection, they could have easily been a submission for this month’s challenge of Unit-ed October.

 

 

Thomas’ Neglected Servitor.

Not sure how I missed regular Challenge Challenger Thomas from High Times on the Eastern Fringe‘s submission for September, but apparently I did. I usually see all of Thomas’ posts, but apparently I missed this one completely. I guess September wasn’t the greatest month on my end, so this sort of thing can happen. Anyway, Thomas completed this nicely-worn and weathered Servitor over September. The plan is to eventually mount him on a larger piece or diorama, which explains the plain base that he has at this time.

 

Joe’s Dark Eldar/Drukharii Voidraven Bomber.

Joe, of Joesavestheday painted a rather lovely Dark Eldar/Drukharii Voidraven Bomber. It turns out that Joe actually wrote a series of three posts on his Neglected Model entry progress, though I didn’t know they were a thing until just now. I’m genuinely not sure how I missed them, since Joe linked to the blog itself and more importantly, also to the post. Maybe WordPress won’t recognise a trackback to Blogger’s posts? I’m guessing that for non-Wordpress bloggers a direct comment might be needed.

 

Then there’s my own stuff, highlighted both in my last post, and in detail across last month’s posts on this blog.

Once again, I have to offer a hefty congratulations to all of the people who managed to get something done. The last months have been a real challenge for me to keep motivated myself, and this post is now half a month behind, but the doldrums that often hit me this time of year have indeed hit, and hard this year. I’ve got one unit done, and a probable second close to done with luck. With one more weekend left of the month, I don’t think I’ll be getting any Dreadtober stuff done, but there’s always a chance, I guess.

and finally…

Did you paint a neglected model during September? Did I forget to include you? Did we discuss neglected models in the comments of one of the posts or someone else’s blog comments and now you’re not included here? Just let me know in the comments below.

Not to be a nagging bastard, but that’s why I ask you to link back to me. I don’t need the money or the fame of a trackback, but it makes it a million times easier for me to round up the community posts and make all of the links. 😉