Yeah, I know.

“Wait, dickhead. I painted a model for this thing last year and you never bothered to do a community round-up post.”

Well, fair point. Though as you may know if you’re a regular here, the latter half of 2019 was quite difficult for me IRL and burned me out of blogging for quite a few months, and then even painting for several months. You’re probably also aware of the shitshow that 2020 has been if you’ve been awake even a little bit. So while I am now actively working on the 2019 Jewel of July Community Round-Up (which will hopefully go up in a week or so – I’ve got the first three submissions done). I thought I’d announce the 2020 Jewel of July Painting Challenge. Kinda works a little better this way, since the recycled images I’m using from last year’s announcement post from other people in the community won’t be doubled-up in a week or so’s time when the 2019 Challenge Round-Up post goes up.

……………..

To celebrate the middle of the year, it’s time to run The Jewel of July Challenge, the first challenge I’ve run for 6 months now.

Oh – and all of the images I’ve used in this post are illustrative of things that do indeed count for challenge purposes. July is a wide-open month that above all, aims to be fun. Just as importantly, all images are clickable and will send you to that person’s blog post. So do indeed check out some stuff that’s new to you!

Alexis West’s Keeper of Secrets

Marouda’s Fimbrethil, Entwife.

I’m under no delusion that everyone I’ve linked here will have the time/inclination/etc to participate this next month, so don’t feel “called out”, but I did feel like this post would be a good opportunity to provide a ton of examples of stuff that can be considered valid models for July, and rather than just populate it with models from my own collection beyond the intro image – use models from your collections instead with links so people can check out more of one anothers’ blogs. Because community and all that.

Ellen’s Idoneth Deepkin Eidolon

Krautscientist’s The Hound, Enkidu Lance, XII Legion 4th Assault Company.

Thomas’ Aramis the Skullstalker.

TIM’s “Fantasy Island”

The Jewel of July is about painting (almost) anything you want that you think will be cool, or impressive, or just nice.

It’s for Heroes. Big or small. named or otherwise. A Lieutenant or a Medic or a Warlord Riding a Dragon. An Inquisitor’s aide or a Star Player or a Bounty Hunter.

It’s for Vehicles. A Motorcycle or a Maus. A Starship or a Gaslands Car. A Panzer IV to a Kettenkrad. A Rhino APC or a Konigstiger or a War Rig or a M’ak I. (or M’ak II?)

It’s for the more impressive scenery pieces. A desert oasis or a (ruined?) temple or a bunker complex or a single bunker or a skyscraper or a Ferratonic Incinerator or a Kwik-E-Mart. A forest worth of trees or a jungle worth of plants.

It’s for Monsters. Ogres or Ogors. Dragons, Giants, decent-sized Daemons. Bronze Bulls and Dinosaurs and Great Wight Sharks and Goremaw and Cthulhu.

It’s for Dieties and Demi-gods. Primarchs and Titans. Atlas and Aeres and Abaddon. Horus and Hercules. Venus and Vulkan. Saturn and Sanguinius.

It’s for Mechs and the Mechanicum. Steampunk walkers, Dreadnoughts, Imperial Knights, Warjacks, Tripods, Titans.

It’s for Dioramas and Vignettes. Historical, Fantasy, Sci-Fi. It’s all good. Even better if they also feature something from the above!

So yes. Anything from a USMC Corpsman to a 28mm scale Warlord Titan counts for this coming month’s challenge.

Mark Morin’s Cavalry Squad of Power Armoured Frinx, riding Glyptodons. Because OF COURSE they are.

Caseyrog’s Chaos Minotaur for BloodBowl.

Jason’s Volturnos, High King of the Deep.

Wudugast’s Skaven Warp-Lighting Cannon.

Ann’s Yellow-Moldy Poxbringer

Just Needs Varnish’s custom Panzerjäger V Ausfuhrung A Kobra.

Argent Badger’s Carrion Emissary.

Krakendoom Cool’s “Horny Toad” Nurgle Helbrute.

Pandora’s Bitz Box’ Norris Thing/Possessed Marine.

Pandora’s Bitz Box’ Imperial Assault AT-ST.

Warbringer’s Magni Warbringer, Techmarine of the Salamanders.

Alex’s Kal Jericho and Scabs

Backtothehammer’s Garagrim Ironfist

Mr.White’s Terrorgheist and Ghoul King.

Sfjy’s Knight Castellan, in all its imposing glory.

EJ Henries’ Night Lord Renegade

Imperial Rebel Ork’s Bruiser and Bully.

Redboarwiiingers’ Blood Bowl Ogre.

What isn’t it for? It’s not for the truly small stuff – units of line infantry, or barrels and crates. Little bits of scatter terrain.

Units are okay, if they would individually fit in with the above categories. This means units of tanks, or Inquisitors’ retinue members, or units of Ogres or Carnifexes (Carnifii?) or what used to be Space Marine Command Squads all work, but an Imperial Guard squad, or a Space Marine Squad, or a unit of Fallschirmjaeger don’t.

Not this…

…or this.

As always, the biggest distinction between this painting challenge and many others out there are that I only care about you completing these models. It’s not a “start-to-finish” challenge set during a single month, so regardless of whether you just missed out on finishing that diorama or tank this month, last month, or six months ago – or you’ve got stuff that you’ve been chipping away at for six months – or, indeed – if you’ve got models that have been shelved for months or even years, feel free to dig them out and join in.

Similarly, if you want to go start-to-finish, then feel free to go right ahead. It’s about completing cool things. The challenge is designed to easily fit into your (and my) painting schedule and be flexible enough to encompass quite a lot, and hopefully just act as a bit of an impetus or inspiration to get this stuff completed.

As I said up the top of this post, I don’t expect that everyone shown above will be able to join in, but if you’ve been on the edge of joining in on one of these challenges, or just painting some stuff anyway that fits into the many categories, please do feel free to join in. This goes for you, too Marouda! AGAIN.

Paint that effing treeman or those Turtles!

Or both.

Once again, I will NOT be posting regular updates over the course of the month on it. I WILL do a round-up of all the participants I’m aware of following end of the month, though – so once again – please DO LINK to this post when you finish something that you want counted in the round-up – because I WILL forget your post otherwise. It happens every single month that I ran these things.