Community Painting Challenges for 2018

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Leonard the Cat and LPS Bub look to the future of painting challenges.

So as Painting Decembuary seems to have been reasonably successful for those of us participating, I’ve been asked about other challenges. I have an idea that I think manages to keep it simple but hopefully focused enough to keep it interesting for anyone who chooses to participate.

February and March will be small challenges. I may or may not have an initial round-up post at the start of the month and a single wrap-up post for each of these two – but no more than that.

Mega-City One Judge. Adeptus Arbites in Power Armour, RTB01 Marine.

This guy was REALLY neglected. For over a decade.

February will be “Finish a neglected model” month. Simply complete a single model (or more if you want) that you started painting at least 6 months ago, but still sits unfinished.

A game-legal unit of Minotaur Space Marine Devastators wot I finished.

March will be “Finish a legal unit” month. I don’t care if or when you started the unit – or even how many models are in it. Just finish it. It could be 100 goblins or one Space Marine Medic. As long as it’s a legal unit for a game, then it counts.

Example photo from mordian7th.blogspot.com (Mine are in a box in the shed!) Look at all those sprues! Euggggh!

April will be “Assembly-Easter”. Where we celebrate not with chocolate eggs but by assembling something largish that you’ve been putting off for months or longer. I’m sure we’ve all got something like that. Depending on interest, I might do semi-regular updates as with Decembuary.

May and June will probably repeat the “neglected model” and “legal unit” challenges – simple and easily-achievable things that can nonetheless help to motivate us to get some more stuff finished – before another more “Main” Painting challenge in July. We’ll figure that out later, depending on interest – along with anything further through the year.

For a small donation of time this coming month, you can give your neglected models some paint and flock so they can find a new home on your shelf instead of thrown in a box.

If Un-Neglect February strikes your fancy, then start thinking about what poor neglected model(s) you might have hanging around that you might be motivated to pull out of that cabinet, out of that figure case, out of that box, out of that sandwich bag – and get them finally finished off.

The criteria for February: Simply complete a single model (or more if you want) that you started painting at least 6 months ago, but still sits unfinished.

If you’d like to participate, please let me know in the comments here. Or don’t, if you prefer – but I can’t include you in round-ups if I don’t know you’re out there. I’ll do an intro post next week, then post your updates on your own blogs at your own pace. I’ll than do a wrap-up post at the end of next month.

Citadel F3 Barbarians (Alan & Michael Perry, 1987)

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Ok, so only our friend here with the double-bladed axe “Gerloc” actually appears in the 1987 Citadel Journal under the F3 banner, but the other two models are both variants on “Gudrud”, who is on that same page, so I’m comfortable with placing these in the same vintage.  A further variant appears in the 1988 “Blue” catalogue under the Barbarian range, along with a Valkyrie-styled figure who I kept in a baggie alongside the boys here for many years. She’ll be painted alongside the Shieldmaidens and Valkyries from Foundry.

This first figure clearly draws heavy inspiration from Frank Frazetta and Boris Vallejo’s Conan artwork, as do so many barbarians from so many ranges.

This figure was a real motivator for me to learn new techniques for painting black hair, which (let’s face it) can be a right pain in the arse, since we don’t want it to look blue, or grey, or dark brown. Hopefully I’ve managed to pull it off (thanks, Duncan!) and if I haven’t – blame Duncan!

Gerloc here is pretty much also Conan. The spike from his helm was lost long ago, but at least I managed to keep the rest of him intact enough over the years.

I painted these three together, and tried for a slightly more tanned look to their skin than my usual Caucasian skin without appearing too ruddy or too orange. Not that you can really tell here with no models to compare the trio to.

Also on these three, I avoided painting on any tattoos, as I’d be temped to with any models that have a lot of muscular skin showing. Given that they’re old-school models that are a representation of a particular style of artwork (Frazetta, Vallejo) I left their bare skin bare of ink.

This third figure is actually not Conan! He looks and feels to me like a barbarian warlord. The stance, topknot of hair, helm under his arm and especially his cape really work together to suggest a veteran of many battles who now leads a party of warriors to battle.

Of course, his stature being that of a figure circa the late 1980’s means that he looks like a peon when stood next to a newer Barbarian from pretty much any company – let alone something like a Khorne Bloodbound (his spiritual successors), so he may well be relegated to veteran warrior or even a regular warrior/cannon fodder when/if he’s used in any games.

I was painting a similar Chronpia model alongside these guys, but he got bumped at the 11th hour so I could concentrate on this trio of truly old-school models. He’ll be done soon, and the four shall again be united!

Finally – a note and shout-out to those people whose Blogger/Blogspot blogs that I follow – especially Curis and The Responsible One. For whatever reason, either my computer, or my browser, or something is screwy and so when trying to leave a comment in Blogspot blogs using my WordPress account often (almost always) throws me into some weird loop of selecting my username and “publishing” my comment, but then it goes back to selecting my username, and then round and round we go. So I might not be commenting much – but I’m still out here watching and reading! And if you’re unfamiliar with their blogs, you should definitely check them out!