Tag Archives: Monthly Painting Challenge

Armoured/Army April ’19: Community Painting Challenge – Community Round-Up

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Dave Stone’s Imperial Forces

Kicking off this month’s challenges for Armoured April/Army is Dave Stone of Wargames Terrain Workshop. Made up predominantly from Imperial Assault figures from FFG, seeing them all collected together certainly has an impact beyond what the individual models can convey, as nice as they can be individually. I think this is something we’ll see repeatedly throughout this round-up.

Dave Stone’s Imperial Riot Stormtroopers

Dave has also completed a few models for the Armoured aspect of the month’s challenge, starting with this squad of Riot Stormtroopers.

Dave’s Stormtroopers.

Next up, Dave has a squad of regular Stormtroopers, adding to his armoured troops completed in April. Quite a nice collection of dirty-white armoured troops completed in a single month!

 

ssspectre’s Thracians

ssspectre from The War For The End of the World gives us a shot of his beautifully painted Thracian force. With them, he’s achieved something very similar to what I’m aspiring to with my Vikings, in a colourful and characterful that also retains a link to reality and how things may have actually looked in the day. The details apparent on his warriors’ shields and the patterns embroidered on their tunics and cloaks look fantastic, and even moreso when you go in close to look at them more closely. There are a number of close-in photos of them on his blog post, and I think it’s one that is definitely worth checking out!

ssspectre’s Thracian heavy hero – Anathaetes.

ssspectre also put together an individual model for Armoured April – Anathaetes, a Thracian Hero in heavy armour. Anathaetes can also be seen on the right-hand side of the group shot above, alongside his fellows.

 

Steve’s Relictors Space Marine Dreadnought

Steve from Dreadaxe Games completed a pair of models for the Armoured April challenge – reinforcements for his Relictors Space Marine Chapter. The first being an Ironclad Castraferrum Dreadnought. I really like how smoothly he applied that decal for the banner’s skull-icon.

Steve’s Relictors Primaris Chapter Ancient.

Steve’s second submission for the month is another Relictor – this time a Primaris Chapter Ancient carrying a captured Chaos Icon. I can’t in any way see why other Imperial Forces might think the Relictors’ loyalties to be a little suspect.. can you?

 

mcmattila’s Warzone Capitol Light Infantry Captain #2

mcmattila of mcmattilaminis painted an Old-School WarZone model. The figure is Light Infantry Captain #2, though he’s armed as a Capitol Special Forces Trooper with M516D Shotgun. Back in 1e WarZone, though – you could equip your heroes with pretty much anything from their faction’s wargear list rather than them having bespoke gear, as many current 40k models have, which explains the confusion. Either way, he’s done a great job with the Star-Spangled Pauldron, as well as the dented and scratched armour.

 

Dave Kay’s Reaper Bones Wights

Dave Kay from Scent of a Gamer completed this pair of Reaper Bones Undead figures for Armoured April. I’m not sure of their exact “official” names, but Dave has painted them as a pair of Wights, which works for me! In order to achieve that Undead glow, he’s used the new(ish) technical paints from Games Workshop, Hexwraith Flame and Nighthaunt Gloom – and to great effect!

 

steinbergshedspace’s Death Guard Chaos Legion force.

Another hobbyist who has contributed something for both Army April and Armoured April is Steinberg of Steinberg Shed Space. He’s firstly shared a shot of his impressively-sized Death Guard Legion force.

Steinberg’s Death Guard Plaguecaster Pete

Next up, Steinberg also completed this Death Guard Plaguecaster (named Pete) – geared up in his Powered Armour.

Steinberg’s Death Guard Myphitic Blight-Hauler

Finally, Steinberg completed and submitted this Death Guard Daemon Engine – a Myphitic Blight-Hauler. I don’t know who names these things…

 

Wudugast’s UR-025, Man of Iron.

Wudugast, from Convert or Die completed UR-025, the Man of Iron player character “hero” from the Blackstone Fortress Board Game. As Wudugast rightly points out, UR-025 is basically a walking suit of armour, and so qualifies quite nicely for Armoured April.

Wudugast’s Khorne Bloodrager

Wudugast also completed this heavily iron-looking Khorne Blood Warrior as part of Armoured April.

Wudugast’s growing Khorne Warband.

That same Blood Warrior features in Wudugast’s first of two shots for Army April. The AoS Khorne Mortal Warband inspired by Alex’ challenge from earlier in the year.

Wudugast’s mob of 75 40k Boys

Finally, Wudugast shows us what 75 footslogging Ork Boyz for 40k looks like.

 

Sunfire’s Age of Sigmar Tzeentch Warband

Sunfire, from Rhoda’s Reach has shared his Age of Sigmar Tzeentch/Tzaangor Warband, for Army April – along with some intricate custom scenery. The details of these can be seen much mroe in a series of posts over on his blog.

Sunfire’s 30k Death Guard Legion

Sunfire also shared his Death Guard Legion army shot for Horus Heresy/30k gaming. A pretty sweet looking shot of the earlier iteration of the Death Guard here!

 

Carlo’s Dirz

Carlo of Deuteros Games completed a trio of Dawn Warriors from the Alchemists of Dirz faction from Confrontation. The soft pastel shades and subtle tones within the NMM that Carlo used on these models is reminiscent of Rackham’s artwork for the game at the time.

 

mcmatilaminis showcase features 5 different Warhammer Underworlds Warbands.

mcmattila of mcmattilaminis has chosen a “compilation” shot of 5 Warhammer Underworlds/Shadespire Warbands. The shot features Bonerattle, Stormcast, Ironjawz, Khorne Bloodbound and Skaven.

 

mcmattila’s Revelators Ironclad Dreadnought

mcmattila also completed this Ironclad Dreadnought for his Revelators Space Marine Chapter. This model obviously covers the Armoured portion of April for mcmattilla, and the machine looks all the more impressive for the heavy weathering and chipping that has been applied.

 

Warbringer’s Mollog’s Mob

Warbringer, from the Krakendoomcool blog completed Mollog’s Mob, a Troll/Troggoth-themed warband from the Warhammer Underworlds game. If you’re interested in seeing how Warbringer achieved the vibrant look on these models, he happens to have included a series of WIP photos with a walkthrough on the post.

 

Eloth’s Space Wolf Force

Eloth, of Eloth’s Endeavours has submitted his Space Wolves Force as an Armoured Army this month. A nice mix of Thunderwolf Cavalry and infantry, along with a kitbashed Wolf Priest on foot to lead the force. Eloth has gone to lengths to make each of his Space Wolf models an individual.

 

Pete's IS-7 Heavy Tank

Pete S /SP from SP’s Projects Blog completed this IS-7 Soviet Heavy Tank. This beast is certainly a piece of armour that qualifies for Armoured April! Makes me want to dig out my 28mm scale one from Warlord and get started on it!

 

Argentbadger’s Druze Bayram Security force

Argentbadger, from The Bovine Overlord this month shares a shot of his Druze Bayram Security force from Infinity that he has been diligently working on over the past several months. We kept asking for a group shot, and now that we have it, the wait was certainly worthwhile, as I’m sure you’ll agree!

 

Krautscientist’s Original HeroQuest Collection

Krautscientist from the Eternal Hunt provided the final submission for Army April – his completed Old-School set of HeroQuest models, along with a couple of custom extras to cover some of the characters that GW/MB never supplied unique figures for. The project has been a clear labour of love for KS, as it was something that readers could watch take shape over the course of several months. A pretty spectacular achievement!

 

So of course, I missed some models, as I was working down the comments and missed some of the stuff up top.

Alex’ Zymot Thrallgash, the Ork Commander of Station 2

Alex’ Old-school Armoured Orks

Alex of Leadbaloony finished off rather a fair few old-school armoured Orks of different types. There’s Zymot Thrallgash, the Commander of Station 2, followed by da Yellow Skwad…

Alex’ Rulko, Captain of the Guard

Alex’ Kalug – the boss for Station Three and his cronies.

These boyz were followed by Rulko, Captain of the Guard, and Ork engineer Kalug, the boss of Station Three – along with his power armoured entourage.

 

 

 

And me? Well, I didn’t get an army shot taken, and I only finished a small few of the Armoured figures I had hoped to. So here’s what I got done for April’s challenge. There’ll be another month for army shots down the line, so I’ll catch up later on…

Speaking of… is your own Armoured or Army April Challenge work missing from here? If you left a link in the announcement thread, then it should be here and I apologise. If there’s no link there, then leave one here. I may seen, read and even commented on your post, but I’m damned if I can remember each and every blog post I go through each month! Broken links, etc – just bring it to my attention and I’ll also fix them up ASAP.

Squad: March! + Gender-Ambiguous Model Painting Challenge 2019 – Community Round-Up

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Argentbadger’s Seishin

Argentbadger, of The Bovine Overlord completed a group of models which safely qualify both as a squad as well as gender-ambiguous. They are Seishin, from Malifaux’ Resurrectionists faction, and I think he’s done an amazing job with the ethereal looking scheme on them.

 

Alexis West’s Genestealer Hybrid

Alexis West, aka Westrider from Cascadian Grimdark, completed a nice little set of Models of Indeterminate Gender in March. To start with, we have a Genestealer Cult hybrid in the colours of the Cult of the Emperor’s Embrace.

Alexis West’s Ur-Ghuls from Blackstone Fortress

Alexis also sorted out these Ur-Ghuls from the Blackstone Fortress boxed game. I really do like the pink, fleshy effect on their hands and faces. Alexis submitted these models as Gender-Ambiguous as well, though with the minimum of three of the challenge, they also qualify as a “squad” (for the purposes of this challenge, if not any “official” Warhammer rules.)

Alexis’ Spindle Drones from Blackstone Fortress.

Finally, Alexis also completed this trip of Spindle Drones, also from Blackstone Fortress. They’ve come up quite nicely, I think – almost looking like wraithbone in the pic. As with the Ur-Ghuls, they’re Gender-Ambiguous, and also qualify as a squad for the challenge.

 

Pete S /SP’s Russians in Paritsan camouflage.

Pete S /SP’s Winter Russians.

Pete S /SP from SP’s Projects Blog completed a pair of radically different 20mm Contemporary Russian squads from Elheim Miniatures range of ultra-moderns for the Squad painting challenge. Did I say radically different? Well, clearly, they are. But they’re also the exact same set of sculpts!

 

Mark Morin’s Trio and other-trio of tanks for What a Tanker!

Mark Morin, of Mark A Morin did something around Tanks (shocking, yea!) for the Squad challenge, and kinda doing it in two ways at once. He completed a trio of Italian M11/39 tanks, as well as a British M3 Grant and an M4 Sherman for his 8th Army. However, one of the M11/39s is painted as a captured vehicle, complete with kangaroo-silhouette on the turret side.

Mark represents some I̶t̶a̶l̶i̶a̶n̶ Aussie armour…

This little touch effectively creates a squadron for the 8th army with that (formerly) Italian tank!

 

Ann’s Spiny Black Poxwalker

Ann, of Ann’s Immaterium completed a model known as Spiny Back Poxwalker for the Gender-Ambiguous Model challenge. According to Ann, the completion of this one leave only five more Poxwalkers for her slowly growing horde.

 

Wudugast’s Blackstone Fortress Spindle Drones.

Wudugast, from Convert or Die completed a small group of figures which qualify for both of this month’s challenges. This group of four Spindle Drones, from the Blackstone Fortress are both gender-ambiguous and also four makes enough for a “Squad” by the spirit of this challenge. I find that Wudugast’s take on their colour scheme – with the stark contrasts on their carapace is quite reminiscent of the production design from the Alien films, and even Giger’s work.

 

Sunfire’s Vengeance Knights Primaris Marine Reivers

Sunfire, from Rhoda’s Reach has completed a trio of squads for the Squad challenge – the first is a group of three Primaris Space Marine Reivers, these guys are part of his Vengeance Knights chapter. The headswaps certainly give them a different look, which I may well steal for some of my own Reivers…

Sunfire’s Vengeance Knights Intercessor Marines

Sunfire’s second squad for the month is a squad of Intercessors. He has achieved a nice contrast between the weather-beaten and worn armour and the clean looking shoulder pauldrons.

Sunfire’s trio of Idris, the Wind Reader and two attendant Tzaangor

For his third squad, Sunfire has something completely different in a trio of Tzeentchian Tzaangor, led by Idris, the Wind Reader. The impressive bases make them look like a Shadespire/Warhammer Underworlds Warband!

 

Just Needs Varnish’s Royal Navy Naval Brigade riflemen

Just Needs Varnish from Just Needs Varnish completed a pair of units for the month, both from his slightly-neglected 20mm Royal Navy Brigade force. The first are a unit of Riflemen, featuring some pretty sweet detailing on those scarves that really makes the figures stand out nicely from a distance.

Just Needs Varnish’s Naval Maxim and 4.7″ gun carriages.

JNV‘s second unit for the month is a support unit for the same force, featuring a carriage-mounted Maxim for close fire support, as well as something a little …bigger!

…along with the horse(s) they rode in on!

 

The Imperfect Modeller’s

The Imperfect Modeller from The Imperfect Modeller finished this odd little model of a ..Power Armoured Space Wasp? for the Gender-Ambiguous challenge. It looks very much like something Mark Morin would be painting rather than TIM, but it made sense in the end, as TIM used it in a very cool diorama that I urge you to check out – titled “Get Out Of My Fucking Room” it does what it says on the tin!

The Imperfect Modeller’s “Get Out Of My Fucking Room”

The Imperfect Modeller’s Posse of Wyatt Earp, his brothers Virgil and Morgan and Doc Holliday

TIM‘s second submission was something much more to speed, though no less impressive. We have Wyatt Earp, his brothers Virgil and Morgan, and Doc Holliday – with their apppearance in miniature form being based on the 1993 film, Tombstone. As always with his western models, TIM has done a great job of capturing the feel of the Old West, with dusty blacks used across these models. They look like a group of gents that you would not like to cross on a dusty Arizona road…

 

Maenoferren22’s Reaper Ghost

Maenoferren22 from Bogenwald also completed a model for each of the month’s challenges – leading off with this Ghost model by Reaper Miniatures which is plenty gender-ambiguous. In completing this model, his actions gave me the kick I needed to grab and complete the pair of these models I had in my own collection, that had been sitting on the painting desk for months and forgotten – so thank you!

Maenoferen’s 3D-Printed Cultists

Did I say “a model” for each challenge? Maenoferren22 not only completed the singular ghost, but also three entire units. The first of which is a unit of 3D-Printed Cultists which actually qualifies for both challenges (until you look under their robes, at least!)

Maenoferren’s 3D-Printed Hand-monsters

The next of Maenoferren’s units also qualifies for the gender-ambiguous challenge. I guess you could theoretically argue these 3D-Printed hand-monsters look kinda like a pair of males and a pair of females based on their chests and chest-clothing, but who’s to say exactly how the anatomy of weird monster-demon-things that have hands for heads works?

Maenoferren’s Heresy Miniatures “Inspector” crew.

Finally, Maenoferren has completed a crew of sci-fi-type Inspectors from Heresy Miniatures. This group clearly features both genders, though Blue-K9 and the other little bot technically fit into that neutral territory of the other challenge yet again! Kick arse submissions from Maenoferren this month!

 

mcmattila’s Revelators Devastator Squad

mcmattila of mcmattilaminis completed a Devastator Squad for his homebrew Space Marine Chapter, the Revelators. He’s used MKIII armour legs, torsos and limbs to give the models a heavier, weighted feel as befits Devastators, especially with the preponderance of rivets on the older armour – while the MK8 Helms and backpacks give them a more current, modern look. it’s certainly a touch I appreciate!

 

To wrap up, as have my own Models for March – more detail can be seen in my Personal Round-Up Post for March. While the four “Squads” are pretty typical fare of the random stuff I seem to get completed on a semi-regular basis, the more interesting part of the equation is that all of the models I finished in March, bar one turned out to be Gender-Ambiguous. While I did set out to paint some that fit that specific criteria, the real kicker was that when I looked at each model once completed, I found that so many more fit – even when our typical assumptions (and honestly, the sculptor’s intent a lot of the time ) make us think “male”.

I certainly found that to be an interesting exercise through March, and I have tried to keep it in mind gong forward as well – so thank you to Ann Wycoff of Ann’s Immaterium for the initial thought, and Alex of Leadbaloony for running Fembruary – which in turn spawned this challenge theme.

 

Speaking of… is your own March Challenge work missing from here? If you left a link in the announcement thread, then it should be here and I apologise. If there’s no link there, then leave one here. I may seen, read and even commented on your post, but I’m damned if I can remember each and every blog post I go through each month! Broken links, etc – just bring it to my attention and I’ll also fix them up ASAP.

…and now onto compiling Armoured/Army April’s Community Round-Up!