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The first round of this second rotation of challenges has been a fantastic start to the year, seeing a huge number of stellar entries and some very varied interpretation of the theme to keep things lively! Now it's time to pick your favourites. As usual, you can vote for whichever entries stand out to you, for whatever reason, be that the quality of the paintjob, the creativity or imagination on show, the most improved entry or anything else that you think deserves recognition. The recommended number of votes to cast is 3-5, but feel free to use more or less as needed.

The entrants!


List of Entrants

Januine: Space Hulk Brother Goriel


Moolet: Blood Angels Tactical Squad


Paradigm: Salamanders Centurion


Deadshot: Blood Ravens Chaplain


KINGPIN54: Black Dragons Space Marine


Nevelon: Ultramarine Captain


Farseer Anath'lan: Dark Angels Contemptor Dreadnought



Kustomer D: Space Marine Sergeant




Master Azalle: Angels of Vengeance Devastators



kb_lock; Deathwatch Ultramarine


Nordicus: Gal Vorbak


sockwithaticket: Devastator Sergeant


Albinoork: Chapter Master Karl Sten


NidLifeCrisis: Blood Angels Terminator Sergeant


Brennonjw: Leviathan Siege Dreadnought


ssisal: Dark Angels Tactical Squad


kingmanhighborn: Techpriestess



Snotcatcher: Ultramarines Captain



Priest Foxley: Raptors Squad



Midget Gems: Grot in Looted Power Armour


LordRahl: Abbadon The Despoiler


Zambro: Imperial Fists Master of the Marches




Whittlesey40k: Rogue Trader Dreadnoughts


xSoulgrinderx: Iron Hands Glaive



TP^DC Deputy Manager: Deathwing


Ustrello: Nex, The Blood Crow



Jadenim: Ultramarine Terminators


Winter: Raven Guard Scouts


Guildenstern: Luna Wolves Space Marines


vejut: Antipodes (Infinity)



tittleman'screst: Blood Angels Predator


methebest: Iron Warriors Vindicator


Redflex: Plague Marines


Camkeirhi: Blood Angels Terminator


jah-joshua: Iron Warriors Consul



keezus: Veteran Sergeant



Falienia: Space Wolf


JBschrodes: Salamanders Terminator


Talys: Plasma Obliterator


Tsukuru: Tactical Squad


King Pariah: Exodus


sevren: Scout Sniper


Loricatus Aurora: Ultramarines Devastator

Hey Para, mine's actually a Devastator Sergeant rather than a Sternguard Veteran. The servo skull and large markerlight on his bolter are there in lieu of the official signum.

Will vote and comment in a bit.

Man, this one was awesome!
Voted 13 votes!!!
Usually I try to only vote for five minis, but this one was an absolute excaption.

Congrats to all who participated!

Thanks again to Paradigm!

Now focus on the 14th challenge!!!

K D

Nordicus blew it away....again :p

Midget gems!!!!my some wants me to slap his gretchin heads on some marine bodyz now, awseome work to everyone though. And always thanks to paradigm for this awesome platform for motivation and inspiration.

Well I gotta give it to Snotcatcher, and I hate Ultramarines ha.

My other favorites were, sockwithaticket: Sternguard Veteran, tittleman'screst: Blood Angels Predator, and Talys: Plasma Obliterator.

All great entries though, nice work guys!

Oh yea, that plasma obliterator

There were loads I wanted to vote for, I have cut it down to 6 and can't go any further. I really do try to keep it at 5 votes each time so that I don't end up just clicking on everything.

Januine - you've already had my feedback, excellent work as usual.
Moolet - Repping the Sons of Sanguinius with some style.
Paradigm - gritty as feth.
Kustomer D - always love seeing that model and that's a great yellow. You've had a good crack at changing the arms up, though I do feel the pistol arm doesn't quite make sense pose-wise, but I appreciate the difficulty of doing much without radical model surgery.
Snotcatcher - exemplary Ultramarine. The head tattoo is a great touch and the base is unusual, but very well done.
Midget Gems - typically inventive conversion.
antipodes - nice to see something a little different.
titleman'screst - Very nice. Assault cannon on one sponson is a bit fo question mark, but very nice paint work. The heat staining on the autocannon barrel is superb.
jah_joshua - well, we can all see how you make a living out of this.
Keezus - That is beautifully painted. Love the blends.
Sevren - that's a really nice little diorama with the Scout and decent paintwork.


Gunzhard - thank you very much.

To be fair, Keezus's Marine isn't necessarily a Raptor, I just assumed it was as that's what the colour scheme looked closest to and he didn't list a Chapter. Please don't downvote it based on that! Actually, I'll edit that and sock's entry now while I think about it!

Sock, that is the best white I've ever seen, please teach me

kb_lock wrote:
Sock, that is the best white I've ever seen, please teach me

I know, it just pops!

Para - fair enough, consider the comment retracted. Definitely didn't dissuade me from voting, though, the blends are too pretty.

Kb_lock - You're too kind. It's actually relatively simple (he says, having painted white a lot for the last 4 years or so). Base coat Vallejo Game Colour Stonewall Grey. Cover completely with VGC Ghosty Grey and cover that completely with Vallejo Model Colour White. I then go in and add some shading with Ghosty Grey, darkening down a bit with some Stonewall Grey for the deepest bit of the recesses and layering back up to white at the recess edges. The main thing is having the patience to apply maybe 20+ thin layers, particularly at the white stages.

I also am totally remiss for not praising you bringing a 54mm DW marine to the party. The scale of the thing is intimidating and you've done a good job with him. That much surface area, particularly so much of it black, could get visually uninteresting very easily, but you've broken it up well with all the scratches.

Jadenim - thank you. I think the Vallejo Model Colour White is the reason for that. It's by far the most vivid white I've ever used.

Wow, 43 entries! Great job everyone!

54mm was a fantastic way to cheat - it looks ultra detailed, but everything is double the size of a normal 28mm

Thanks for the guide sock, I'm going to try that on my tau!

Hard to vote this time around. Well done everyone. I have taken notes on all of them and will vote for at least one of your photos over the next few days.

My votes (7, sorry, couldn't reduce further):
Midget Gems - the work involved in the conversion was huge, I'm sure. But then the paintjob was extremely good.
Paradigm - I have stated it before, but your minis always tell a story. I "believe" your figures because they are not pristine. I can't do it myself and wouldn't know where to start. It is a brilliant skill and well done.
KB Lock - Great attention to detail.
Januine - Great depth of red. I wonder whether some more gore in the severed arm and stealer spine may have looked more believable, but just the presence of it adds more story to the mini which is lacking in other versions I have seen
Loricatus Aurora - very well painted devastator. Great highlighting
xsoulgrinderx and tittleman'screst - great quality tanks, very impressive.

Every entry deserves credit, even if I haven't mentioned them here. I would like to compliment our first time entrants their entries were better than my work. Well done. I hate to single out one person, but Sevren should take pride in the concept of his entry it was a pleasure to see.

Good luck all next month - please come back everyone again

I couldn't decided who to vote for, so everyone cept me gets some love.

im glad too see so many entries and so many others of all sorts of varing skill levels working on something we all xare about. I look forward s to the seeing how all us newbs progress over time, abd how the greats inspire us

ssisal wrote:
I couldn't decided who to vote for, so everyone cept me gets some love.

im glad too see so many entries and so many others of all sorts of varing skill levels working on something we all xare about. I look forward s to the seeing how all us newbs progress over time, abd how the greats inspire us

you know, I think me and you are in the same boat...we need better cameras. I think we could have done our presentations better.

Find software that does white balancing of photos, it makes a HUGE difference

kb_lock wrote:
Find software that does white balancing of photos, it makes a HUGE difference

how much photoshoping is allowed? I was glad to get a i phone inorder for me to do collages?

KINGPIN54 wrote:

kb_lock wrote:
Find software that does white balancing of photos, it makes a HUGE difference

how much photoshoping is allowed? I was glad to get a i phone inorder for me to do collages?

Any kind of editing is fine so long as the mini is still the focus. Playing with colour balances, cleaning up pics, adding text or the odd special effect is all ok.

This free software is a great and easy to use way to do this stuff:
http://www.photoscape.org/

Well once again we have a lot of amazing entries, it was hard to pick just five to vote for! My votes went to the following:
Januine: That terminator is pretty amazing, but what really sells it is the strings of gore hanging down from the head in his hand. Awesome!
Nevelon: Very nice Ultramarine, he's clean and very well executed. If I'm not mistaken, that's the captain from the Betrayal at Calth set, isn't it? Either way he's great!
sockwithaticket: Not sure what chapter this guy's from, but that is one amazing Marine!
Snotcatcher: That captain, like Nevelon's, is very cleanly painted, but to me what stands out is the good use of shading! Wish i was that good at getting shades in the recesses to pop!
Midget Gems: A Grot in Space Marine power armor. What's not to like? Very funny concept, very well executed!

I enjoyed this challenge even though I didn't finish my own entry. Life happens, y'know? Special shout out as always to Paradigm for running these things, always an inspiration to see so many well-painted miniatures! See you all next month, and I will hopefully have an entry of my own then!

Excellent entries this month around - Thanks so much for the votes for my miniatures so far guys. You honour me!

Really high calibre this month, usually one or two stand out but this month I had to vote for waaaay more!
Great work as always!

ZergSmasher - Thank you very much, he's from my BA successors, the Crimson Tears.

My votes this month go to:

Best painted: Keezus, jah and tittleman'screst, three fantastic pieces.

Standout entries: Ustrello and Redflex, the conversion and paintwork on both your pieces really caught my eye. Also to Moolet, for that awesome BA squad, kb for the awesome DW model and Snotcatcher for that really, really nice Ultramarine.

Most improved goes to Falienia, for picking up a brush and taking the first steps into the world of painting! A great first mini!

Well done to all, a really inspiring month!

KINGPIN54 wrote:
Midget gems!!!!my some wants me to slap his gretchin heads on some marine bodyz now.

hahha good lad, If your going to stick any on you'll probably need to trim the chestpiece down a bit, grots have considerably larger chins than humans. Since your the second person who is interested I will take some extra photos and put a post together on what I did.

I've been away with work for a few days so missed the start of the votes, amazing that we have so many entries. It really good to see people getting involved new and returnees, enjoying it and the thread getting more popular as a result.

Sock, KingPin, TP^DC, Zerg, and anyone thats votes for me, Thank you for the Grot marine love

I found it very hard to vote for less than a dozen or so of the entries because I liked so many of them for different reasons I won't list everyone but congrats to all who have taken part its been a great month to watch.

honestly this go around I totally forgot to write down who all I actually voted for - but it was a lot of you!! soooo many beautiful entries.

I'm in the same boat as Guildenstern! Voted at the start on the fly and can remeber exactly who. I know I ended up voting for 8 folk (soz Para) but I just couldnt narrow it down any further! Just looking through them again the now and this has to be one of the best months quality wise eh?!
@Para - you know how much I like your take on the Salamanders and the gritty 'we're actually fighting here chaps' look so voting this fella up was an obvious choice
@KusD - love the pose, the washed out tones and the base. great sense of action and movement. sweet work
@Nordicus - those Gal Vorbak are just stunning. Great figs get an even greater paintjob. Probably my favourite entry this month. The only hiccup for me was the airbrushed green osl flames. Not a fan of that technique. but the squad looks bloody stunning overall.
@Midget - I just love this entry! So awesome. Great idea, conversion - great work.
@Zambro - cracking piece here. That long scoll is deadly. You need to build a big ol gothic organ for him to play with those hands though
@TP - That termie came out so well. Your layers are so much smoother now and the blood on the powerfist is perfectly executed dripping down
@Jah - my other favourite of the month. Really outstanding metalwork here. Love it. You do gritty and real even better than you excelllent clean and smart marines. That IronWarrior is fantastic. Hope that's one of your own you get to keep rather than a commision

So many other awesome entries but am tired of typing and I need to get back to the Than. Great work everyone and looking forward to this month's entries

Cheers, Jan

Time to announce the round's winners! While everyone will be receiving points based on their percentage of the vote, it wouldn't be a proper challenge without the top 3 spots getting a shout out!

In joint 3rd place, we have:

jah-joshua's Iron Warriors Consul






And
Paradigm's Salamanders Centurion (thanks guys! )




In second place,
Snotcatcher's Ultramarines Captain



And in first, Januine Blood Angels Terminator!
[url=http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/788235-Blood%20Angels%2C%20Brother%20Goriel%2C%20Space%20Hulk%2C%20Terminator%20Armor%2C%20Warhammer%2040%2C000.html]

Well done you everyone who entered, keep your eyes peeled for a new League thread coming soon and head on over to this month's challenge, The Relic!

Big congrats to everyone, especially our top three places. I think a monthly top 3 should continue despite the scoring change. No reason why the best of the month shouldn't get a "hurrah!".

Midget Gems and Januine should be doubly proud that they made it to the homepage!! Well done both