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Another month, another vote! This month, the entrants were asked to theme their entries around all things scary, and we've got some fantastically spooky stuff as a result! Now it's time to pick the winners, so as usual, it's over to the Dakka community to vote. Please pick as many entries as you like, be that for the skill on show, how well it embodies the theme, the ambition and effort involved or anything else that catches your eye! Feel free to leave feedback for the entrants in this thread as well, and head over to to their gallery pages and throw them a vote or two there!

Without further ado, the entrants!

Nevelon: Sorceress


Jadenim: Tyranid Genestealers


rollawaythestone: Harlequin Death Jester


Toothgrinder: Khorne Demon Prince


Zergsmasher: Kroot Carnivores


Bottle: Genestealer Abberants


Modock: Khorne Champion


Moolet: Death Jester


MadSculptor: Genestealer Patriarch



Paradigm: Something Wicked This Way Comes



Elbows: Harlequin Dreadnought


Midget Gems: Genestealorks



Possumcraft: Necromancer


Kustomer D: Space Wolf Terminator


feltmonkey: Helbrute


GiraffeX: Dreaguth Warriors


Hive Fleet Lazarus: Tyranid Haruspex


Red_Ink_Cat: Eldar Harlequin



Vejut: Ikore Icon Bearer


tittlemanscrest: Monster Hunter

So many awesome entries. It's so hard to pick

Paradigm - It's just too thematically perfect. Anybody that can make a space marine terminator seem scared deserves applause

Bottle - the subtle veins on the aberrants are really nice. Makes them even creepier than standard Tyranids

Tittlemanscrest - your scenery is amazing, and the number of details in the diorama is great. I can only imagine the time and effort it would take to make all of that greenery so realistic and match the models so well

Rollawaythestone - my harlequins wish they could be like yours I love the scheme. I have been wondering what alternatives would appear for death jesters, and yours is awesome

Went with two of the Genestealer entries which really were well done. Some entries this time by really suffered from poor photos and I tend to prioritize gaming miniatures over dioramas when picking my favourites. I also gave a nod to the well done Hellbrute.

Bottle, Modock and Moolet all got my votes this time. Really nice work from all, but those three stood out for paint skills/theme embracing goodness.

Some fantastic entries this month. Its a hard choice between Bottle and tittlemanscrest if I had to pick a single winner. Great job everyone!

Another great challenge, and some pretty awesomely creepy entries from everyone! My five votes for this month went to:
rollawaythestone: That Death Jester looks like he came from some 1930s movie or something, or at least that's what the all black and white made me think of!
Bottle: Those Aberrents are amazing! You really are nailing those Genestealer Cult models!
MadSculptor: Between you and everyone else I'm really wanting to get that Patriarch model and have a go with it myself. Awesome job!
Paradigm: Your gritty style really fits both the theme for this month and the whole atmosphere of Space Hulk. Great stuff!
feltmonkey: That Helbrute turned out really great! I love that model and had a blast when I painted my own!

As always, it's been fun. I'm pretty well pumped about the next challenge, Heavy Metal. Special shout out as always to Paradigm for taking time out of his busy college life to run these things. I salute you!

So my picks for the month were rollawaythestone, Moolet, Para, Midget Gems and feltmonkey; feels like I've got some of you on speed dial for this now!

Special mention to Modock, who didn't quite make my top five votes, but only because your colour choice just isn't quite my cup of tea. The technical quality of your shading is excellent.

 Jadenim wrote:
So my picks for the month were rollawaythestone, Moolet, Para, Midget Gems and feltmonkey; feels like I've got some of you on speed dial for this now!

Special mention to Modock, who didn't quite make my top five votes, but only because your colour choice just isn't quite my cup of tea. The technical quality of your shading is excellent.

Thank you for commenting on my piece!

Some mucho nice paintjobs this month folks. Roll, Bottle, Moo, Para, Midget, Felt, Giraffe & Tittle (nearly missed that spider!!!) all got my vote this month. Cracking stuff everyone

Yeah, another fantastic month! Thanks for the votes, everyone who voted for my Hellbrute, and for the kind comments.

I really must get into the habit of writing my thoughts on the entries I voted for when I actually make my votes. I voted a while ago, and now I can't remember exactly who I voted for. Anyway, here are my thoughts on a few of my favorites.

For me, two entries stood out above the rest, in terms of how much they appealed to me personally - those from Paradigm and tittlemanscrest. Paradigm's Terminator is an incredible mini-diorama, so full of character, atmosphere, and absolutely dripping with narrative. I've seen that Terminator miniature many times before, but then it always seemed to be stepping forwards, or at least confidently braced for action. Paradigm has made it look as if he's stepping backwards nervously in anticipation of the horrors which are obviously approaching him. It captures the month's theme perfectly, but also the feel of Space Hulk, a setting I've always found oppressive and kind of terrifying. It's Grimdark turned up to eleven. As well as this, no-one should underestimate the painting skill and colour judgement to make a diorama like this look as if it's taking place in the dark. You don't see a lot of night scenes (or ones in dark corridors like this) because it's really difficult to do. It's not a case of just making everything darker, it's all in the muting of the colours. Congratulations, Paradigm, you've created a little piece of art.

Talking of little pieces of art, tittlemanscrest's larger diorama is also one that hinges on the narrative. I must confess, when I first saw it, scrolling through the page having missed the WIP posts, I didn't even notice the spider. I thought it was just a guy standing by a noticeboard (which reminds me a quest board from a videogame!) in a nice lush bit of forest. I appreciated the modeling on the forest and thought it looked nice, but I thought the whole thing was a bit plain, and didn't see the point of it! Sorry, tittlemanscrest - it was my bad. It was several days later when I noticed the spider. Having seen it now though, wow! The way the spider is huddled into the crevice under the rocks gives me the creeps, and I'm not in the least scared of spiders. There's just something malevolent about it. Again, great job.

I voted for a few others for various reasons. Elbows' Harlequin dread for recreating such a great old model. GiraffeX for a nicely chosen colour scheme of purple and rust, well executed. Modock for the blending and that purple skin. Toothgrinder and Kustomer D because they both turned in lovely painjobs which I felt weren't getting enough appreciation in the poll. Bottle for a nice clean GW-style paintjob.

I could easily have voted for everyone though, to be honest. I sometime am tempted to do just that. It would make things easier.

I went for my top 5. (Which was incredibly hard to narrow down!)

In no order:

Modock - fantastic smooth paint job, with unusual colours. My only crit is the base detracts from the mini.

Paradigm - amazingly atmospheric! One of your best. I only wish you would take the plunge and start drilling out your barrels

Feltmonkey - I feel like I vote for you every month lol, but this was another fantastic piece. I would use a bit less cork on the base, but that's down to personal taste

GirrafeX - Wow, fantastic rusted metals and a great deep purple with bright pink highlights. Only thing I could ask for is bigger pics next time! 1000px wide!

Tittlemansecret - What an amazing diorama. Nothing really to critise, but hope to see more from you in following competitions too!

Thanks for the kind words and votes from people too :-)

Thanks for the votes and the mention Jadenim, Januine, and anyone else that votes for my entry

Voted for 8 pieces in the end, Stand out ones where

Bottle for the fantastic skin tones and detail.
Para - Think that is one of your best pieces to date, very good positioning (and painting) of the model that added to the atmosphere of the entry.
GiraffeX - I really liked the rust and the colours in the cloth.
Titlemansecret - Really brilliant diorama, think you could have made it even better with a few more hints the spider was there (felt I had to point it out in the other topic when I eventually saw it) e.g. some cobwebs in the trees, or drag marks from previous victims.

Voted for all the entries I could in the Dakka gallery.

p.s. Elbows and Feltmonkeys Picture links seems to have broken.

So they are. I wonder if it's a photobucket problem.

How do you guys post photos that link to your gallery that are a decent size? I don't know if it's the dslr I use outputting massive photos, but if I link to the gallery, I have to choose between really big photos, or ones that are quite small. Is there a way of setting up how big the photos appear in the thread manually? I'd rather use the gallery if I can, rather than photobucket.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I'be checked another site and yeah, it's something to do with photobucket. I'm going to assume that this has cost me 40 votes, and sue photobucket for the league points.

Not sure what's causing that, all the image links are exactly how they were before and they were working last time I checked. Did you delete/edit the pics on their actual Photobucket page at all?

As far as the gallery goes, your best bet is simply resizing the pics in something like Photoscape or Photoshop before uploading, otherwise your choices are 600x600 or the massive original size.

Great work everyone. Sorry I've missed the last few, but I'm in for Nov. Just hope I can finish it in time!

Bottle: Great detail and suitably wicked looking!
Modock: Really clean and sharp, the detail really pops.
Midget Gems: Your conversions are always cracking!
tittlemanscrest: A superb diorama, beautifully put together and painted. I didn't even see the spider until Midget Gems pointed it out.

@Para - as always, thanks for the effort you put into the comp each month. Don't know where you find the time to actually paint minis!

Yeah, photobucket has been down for a while now - "maintenance".

Brill work as always peeps, really enjoyed seeing the themes this week.
Midgetgems loved them so much - the guy with the tail

My votes this month are going to....

GiraffeX for those awesome undead, the colour choice on them is super!

MadSculptor for a great rendition of the classic Genestealer scheme

Moolet for a fantastic update of that retro model, and a background that frames it perfectly!

Bottle for some simply fantastic paintwork!

Tittlemanscrest for a brilliantly composed diorama!

Really impressed with FeltMonkey

Thanks, Janovich!

Voted. Well done guys, I love the different takes on this theme.

Ah good the pics are back up and working now. Nice change of colour you have on the armour Feltmonkey, looks very good

 feltmonkey wrote:

How do you guys post photos that link to your gallery that are a decent size? I don't know if it's the dslr I use outputting massive photos, but if I link to the gallery, I have to choose between really big photos, or ones that are quite small. Is there a way of setting up how big the photos appear in the thread manually? I'd rather use the gallery if I can, rather than photobucket.

What I do is select the final pics I want then edit them in Windows Picture manger, normally its just a crop and then resize them to 800x600 or 1024x768 depending on what it is (well a close as you can get while still maintaining the ratios.) then when you upload them on the Dakka gallery when you link them just select the "full sized" image size option rather than the Medium option which is only 600px. Means people can actually see you work and the detail you have put all that effort into.

Lots of quality entries this month.. again.. its great to see everyones different takes on the theme.
My votes have been cast:

Jadenim: I really like your different style of genestealer. The use of a board tile with a warm tone to contrast the stealer is a nice touch.
Bottle: again utter perfection... Beautifully done.
Paradigm: I think this is your best yet. It has such atmosphere, nice one.
Kustomer D: Very nicely done terminator, the highlights are subtle but very well done. The base is way too large for my tastes but looks awesome anyway.
Titlemanscrest: Lovely piece, the spider lurking below is just perfect but took me a while to see it. Perhaps in person I’d see it quicker but i liked the fact it took a little while to notice it.. it draws you into the feeling of been duped...

And the scores are in!

In third place, with 36 votes, Paradigm (thanks guys! )




In second with 44 votes, tittlemanscrest!







And in first, just ahead with 49, Bottle:



Congratulations and thanks to everyone who entered, see you all this time next month!

Thank you for voting for me people :-) it's an honor to be ranked against such high competition! See you all next month :-)

The ones who placed definitely deserved it! Congrats!

I'm pretty pumped to actually get more than 5 votes this time around. I guess I'm doing something right!

@Moolet, thanks for the comments, I was deliberately going for a cooler, more Alien (as in xenomorph) look than the standard pink/purple (although some people have done a fantastic job of it this month). The board tile was just a moment of inspiration when I was setting up the camera, I mean I have Space Hulk, so may as well use it!

Congrats to the winners and all that entered really good stuff

Glad you placed Para was defiantly one of your best to date.

See you in the next challenge

Congrats guys! Really really good work this month.