Welcome to the 47th round of the Unofficial Painting Challenge! For the unfamiliar, the challenge is a friendly competition open to any Dakka members, whether you're painting your first model or your 1001st! The more rounds you enter, the more points you accrue based on a public vote, and these are tracked in a League Table over the course of the year.
This month, the theme is Bonds of Fellowship: Your entry should consist of two or more models who share some close bond, from a hero and their faithful sidekick to a squad of footsoldiers sent out to face the world's horrors together.
How To Enter
- You may enter up to 5 MODELS as a SINGLE ENTRY, and are permitted one entry per member per month. If you enter multiple models, they should ideally be related in some way, such as part of the same squad, unit or scene if you are doing a diorama
- You MUST post a 'proof' picture of your entry in the thread of the state it was in before you started working on it; this must be either unassembled, unpainted, primed or coated a single colour. Entries that do not submit a valid Proof Picture will not be eligible for voting.
- After this, you may post WIP pictures in this thread and your own if you wish, and on completing the entry, you may post up to 6 final pictures IN THIS THREAD that will then be used for voting. Please note that pictures in a montage or collage picture will be considered individual images for this purpose, so while these types of presentation are certainly acceptable, please keep the image limit in mind when compiling them. For example, a collage of 5 images and one separate image would count as your 6 picture allowance.
So What Do I Win?
- Points... and points mean... bragging rights for the next month! Following the vote, points will be awarded to every entrant. This year, the Points you receive will be equal to the Percentage of Votes your entry receives in the final Voting thread; if you get 10%, you get 10 points, if you get 6% you get 6 points, so on and so forth.
These points will be used to form a league table, which will be updated month on month as the results come in.
How Long Do I Have?
This challenge begins 1st of January and will end at midnight UK time on the 31st of January . After this, I shall compile the finished entries into a new thread, and voting will run for 5 days.
I'm in, gonna be painting some Flash Gitz...not sure which 5 I'm actually entering though, the "official" ones, or the ones I kitbashed...so I'll just post proofs of both and see what happens by the end of the month
I figure they fit the theme nicely, as they're a motley bunch, all kicked out of their old clans for various reasons, coming together under the bonds of fellowship, and promises of loadsa teef, and flashy gubbinz!
Ok, let's see if I can push myself to actually complete something by way of the challenge this year
I may change this if I can create a partner for my stilt-walker tomorrow, but I think it'll be Inguisitor Isabella Dominique and her tracking servitor...
I'm in, these challenges always provide the motivation I need to paint things in a timely fashion. I'm trying to build up my AdMech Kill Team, and have a couple of rangers further along in the process which I will be working on in parallel (but not entering), but my focus will be on these two.
Proof, ranger sniper (w/ arc rifle) and spotter (w/ omnispex):
Question: the mighty lord of Khorne is technically a single model that has a single base, but is the lord with his faithful flesh hound companion. Does this fit the bill?
Well I didn't think I would have anything for this but I found some DKOK gunners that fit. Can take a break from morty to crank these out with into a simple diorama.
Didn't think I had anything for this theme but I found some DKOK gunners that should do nicely. Can take a break from morty and work them into a little diorama.
Didn't think I had anything for this theme but I found some DKOK gunners that should do nicely. Can take a break from morty and work them into a little diorama.
Didn't think I had anything for this theme but I found some DKOK gunners that should do nicely. Can take a break from morty and work them into a little diorama.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Not sure what happened there.
I'll try to think of something for this. Trying to avoid buying new models, so I'll have to dig deep into my bitz bin to see what random stuff I have lying around.
I'm Glad both you and DV8 are trying to enter something even if it doesn't fit directly into what you wanted to do. I've enjoyed both your entries over the last few months
I think I'll go for some Tanith for this one but will decide tonight.
I'll try to think of something for this. Trying to avoid buying new models, so I'll have to dig deep into my bitz bin to see what random stuff I have lying around.
Me too. I'm buying 0 miniatures this year. 2 days in and it's already difficult. Treated myself to daemon magnus just before NYE so I should be held over for the whole year.
Spent the evening cleaning and assembling these fellas so I could show them off with a decent proof picture. Whether I use them all is another story but they'll be painted together. I reckon I'll be whipping up a small diorama with it to add some flavour to them.
Inquisitor Lord Bane wrote: Question: the mighty lord of Khorne is technically a single model that has a single base, but is the lord with his faithful flesh hound companion. Does this fit the bill?
I'll try to think of something for this. Trying to avoid buying new models, so I'll have to dig deep into my bitz bin to see what random stuff I have lying around.
Me too. I'm buying 0 miniatures this year. 2 days in and it's already difficult. Treated myself to daemon magnus just before NYE so I should be held over for the whole year.
Yeah I have a horde of unpainted models and bits but the promise of shiny new ones always gets me in the end. I've started doing a reward if I do a goal e.g. paint 10 models I'm allowed 1 new character model or something like that. Hard to go cold Turkey.
I had a thought last night and what thought shows the "Bonds of Friendship" more than an Goblin and his Squig, especially when the Squig is Gobbla , it also shows how far my collection goes back since it got this around when it was first released
I'll try to think of something for this. Trying to avoid buying new models, so I'll have to dig deep into my bitz bin to see what random stuff I have lying around.
Me too. I'm buying 0 miniatures this year. 2 days in and it's already difficult. Treated myself to daemon magnus just before NYE so I should be held over for the whole year.
Yeah I have a horde of unpainted models and bits but the promise of shiny new ones always gets me in the end. I've started doing a reward if I do a goal e.g. paint 10 models I'm allowed 1 new character model or something like that. Hard to go cold Turkey.
Cold turkey is the only thing that works for me. Last year I vowed to buy no new clothes, succeeded. I tried reducing my Facebook usage, deleted loads of people and groups etc.. Failed. Deleted it entirely. Never been back. Its all or nothing with me.
I'm in with two of the heroes from Blackstone Fortress. Here's my proof:
Taddeus the Purifier and Pious Vorne are very much bound together. It was either them, or the two Ratlings, and I'd rather paint these two as they interest me more and so should hold my focus better.
New guy here - these challenges seem like a fun way to get my models painted and push my painting skills, I'm in!
Here's my proof
The twin pariah kings Prince Akhenaten and Lord Ozymandias accompanied by their supreme Cryptek, Amenhotep the Preserver
Old guitar marine painted, new marine built... Gorgeous mini, I love the detail and the pose...
But it's huge compared to his companion from 25 years ago...
Looking forward to getting some paint on it!
(This has given me the impetus to get the rest of my noise marines out of storage and finish painting them... )
ChaosDad - that is a larger difference than I expected, even after recently comparing some of my old chaos metals!
Nothing much, but proof of starting (I almost changed my entry as I have something I'm more excited to paint, but that will also likely take me a lot longer and I've just realised how little time I have in Jan )-
Old guitar marine painted, new marine built... Gorgeous mini, I love the detail and the pose...
But it's huge compared to his companion from 25 years ago...
Looking forward to getting some paint on it!
(This has given me the impetus to get the rest of my noise marines out of storage and finish painting them... )
Does the new NM include an original as well? I'm sure I read somewhere it did but it seems unlikely to me?
I'll probably enter part of my Fellowship of the Ring (The Hobbits). Pics are going to follow as soon as I get home to the models.
EDIT: Here's proof pic, Pippen's jacket was basecoated a while ago so I could tell him and Merry apart
I'll play! here are my witch and apprentice, for Frostgrave. They are of course fairies, leading a merry band of enthralled townsfolk (already painted)
Cheating slightly as I already started painting her skin
Please see the rules in the OP. You can enter any time up to the end of the month, but only if you have an appropriate proof picture taken after the start of the month.
Some zombicide survivors for me this month - a welcome change from my almost exclusively gw painting pile. Not sure which ones yet, these are my options
I have not had chance to do a painting challenge for ages! So I will have to dive in to my bitz box and fix something up for this! Proofs to follow soon!
I'm thinking I might paint Luke and Han from Star Wars Legion, what do you guys reckon? Would that fit the theme? Would it be interesting, or a bit boring, being as I've done a SWL mini recently? I would have done Leia and Chewie too, but I haven't got either of them yet. You can't get Leia anywhere.
I'm in this month! Excited to see all the hobbits and inquisimunda and rock gods and skarsniks!
I was going to do mini's for two characters in our new D&D campaign, Bandobras Burrows and Marian the Barbarian. The characters are bound by fellowship in-game and we're all bound by fellowship in real life as well, so it seems good for the theme.
Proof
I'm slowly but surely making progress on my entry:
Still a few little details left to pick out (like the skin), but I'm definitely getting there. Next task will be to shade the metallics.
Hello and Welcome Munn, I like the posses you have put them in
also hello and welcome Scythern
Very interesting seeing those two models side by side, good luck Chaos dad it is a very cool model. My Ork Guitarist is available should you wish to form a band
Yep I recon that would fit the theme very well Feltmonkey
My progress so far.... seems to good to be true tbh I might even be finished before the end of the month (1st time ever!) Gobbla is mostly done and Skarsnik has his base coats on.
Which do you guys think looks better, Gobbla on the left or right?
Lovely mortars there. I love a good bit of camo and a dash of practicality. Nice work.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Also, a progress shot of my BSF Beastmen. Almost done with the first set of base coats. Metals next and then on to shading and patterningof the fur. Going for a rag tag motley assembly of scavenged clothing and kit. Everything that is orange Brown will be a rusty thing.
I'm at a bit of a loss with my entry. I have them primed and the diorama is planned but the sticking point is my lack of power armour experience. I have no idea what colour to paint them up.
Tyranid Horde wrote: I'm at a bit of a loss with my entry. I have them primed and the diorama is planned but the sticking point is my lack of power armour experience. I have no idea what colour to paint them up.
I recommend a strong contrasting colour to the background - if you've got a matt green jungle type background, paint them bright reds. Paint the shoulder pads/shoulder trim in a complementary colour to the armour, and the eye lenses and purity seals in another complementary colour. For example, red, black, green.
So, I was going to do some mongol horsemen, kinda burned out on them, and started some more animal adventurers, but like a dummy forgot to take pics before I got done with the base colors for two out of three. Earliest pic I've got is this one:
Looking at the cat, rat, and duck (the fox I started last year). Still OK, or jump back to some mongols/grab another model?
I'll try to finish up the sheild and sword on the duck this weekend, and then its on to basing. Cat feels a bit...ragged? Muddy? Not sure, but not happy with how it came out, and any suggestions for salvage, or at least "causation to avoid it next time" would be helpful.
Killteam Zephyr. Specializing in lighting strikes and rapid redeployments, as befits his White Scar heritage, Brother-Sergeant Zephyr has forged his kill team into an aggressive blade, ready to cut the heart out of the xenos.
Eventually I might get around to naming everyone in the team, but they are really more designed for use in 40k, not KT. Their battle-brothers over in Killteam Solari are the guys specd for that job. Although the BT or Fleshtearer could take on the combat specialty, and the Wolf would make a good scout, two roles I didn’t build for in that killteam. With the exception of the Brazen Claw, the squad is composed of aggressive, in your face chapters. So they get the auto bolt rifles and get to charge up the battlefield. Eventually they will get the back half of the squad in the form of some aggressors, inceptors, and reivers in some combination.
Grey edges are always a pain. Getting better at them, but still not a fan of the actual process. Shoulderpads should add more color to the squad. One problems is that two of my chapters (BT, FT) are basically black and white, the Brazen Claw is fairly subdued, and I already use a bit of red as an accent color. Space Wolf gets to get some yellow on, with a bit from the WS as well. As I branch out into adding more to the squad, I need to brighten things up a bit.
Of the squad I’m most proud of how the sarge came out. Fun to build, and I think I did a decent job on him.
oops! I appear to have been rather distracted this month!...I don't think I'm even halfway through my flash gitz entry yet ...instead, I've painted a random daemonette standard bearer, an ork boy painted like a catachan guardsman, and I went rainbow-style on a box of the new squigs
Spoiler:
erm...s'pose I should get to work on my actual entry now, huh?
Tbh you could prob enter the squig herd in this challenge (they would have to have some friendship in the pack not to eat each other right?)
A strange feeling for me I've actually finished early! (yesterday) and took the photos today.
Heres my finished Skarsnik and Gobbla Pics. Iam quite happy with how the overall model came out and feels really good to have painted something thats been in my collection for 15+ years
edit: Just noticed theres a bit of detail been lost in the upload, Skarsnik has Red eyes with a dot of Orange in the middle but they have disappeared on the main photos which is annoying and makes it look like I haven't bothered painting them, but I have honest. .Maybe I painted them too small?
And done. The braying in the deep causes our heroes to pause in contemplation... through the lambent blue glow of the Fortress, the thunder of approaching hooves rings out!
Finished pics. Hope you enjoy them. As always super close up photography shows the table top level of painting marvellousley, but I'm happy and they are done
Na doubled checked it all and the photo on my PC has red eyes. I think I narrowed the problem down to my picture combiner, I think it stretched it slightly and lost a bit of detail so I made it bigger to compensate, but not too big so you can see all the mistakes (gone back and edited it, there's a hint of red there now.
Good Progress Maharg, still a few days left to get Grindlock done
I really like how the rusty metal came out Flinty, well done
Ah, I thought it was a draw last month (thus providing a theme for 2 rounds) but looking back at it, it wasn't. I'll stick a poll up first thing tomorrow, and apologies now for the short notice of subject.
Looking forward to seeing the final products. Unfortunately school has been absolutely brutal this month and I've had almost no spare time for painting, so I won't have anything done for this one.
I hope you do manage to find the time to get something done, guys. Chris particularly, as the league table is neck-and-neck between the two of us.
If you want something super quick and fun to paint in a couple of hours, you could do worse than grabbing a Squig Herd box from Games Workshop and painting the squig that is eating his handler. It'd be a nice subversion of the theme.
If you want something super quick and fun to paint in a couple of hours, you could do worse than grabbing a Squig Herd box from Games Workshop and painting the squig that is eating his handler. It'd be a nice subversion of the theme.
omg I so wish I'd thought of that... not that anything would get to me inside of a month to paint it, even if I ordered on jan 1st.... The new goblin releases are really awesome, so much temptation
Anyway... I am entering with a heavy weapons team. I figure two idiots left out in the middle of nowhere with just a big gun for company counts as fellowship..?
This is my proof, and the entry is about 99% finished, I just need to find somewhere that is daylight to photograph and yet not hot enough to melt the bloody models.
Well, I'm out for this month, I broke my arm last week (my left, non-dominant arm, so it's not all bad), and I won't be regaining enough mobility to paint my second guitar marine...
feltmonkey wrote: I hope you do manage to find the time to get something done, guys. Chris particularly, as the league table is neck-and-neck between the two of us.
If you want something super quick and fun to paint in a couple of hours, you could do worse than grabbing a Squig Herd box from Games Workshop and painting the squig that is eating his handler. It'd be a nice subversion of the theme.
Yea I'm not buying a kit just for this lol. I'm entering stuff I already have lying around so as to help clear OUT my backlog, not add to it!
Legit tho, I had a Batman Miniatures Joker and Harley Quinn lined up for this.
Ok - so I finished my duo, also primaris I thought I will make it to finish all three of them before I will leave for ski holiday, but eitherway this also fits I have to admit its also first time I tried blending with more than 3 shades ;D Hope, you'll like it.
What a great idea, felt! I don't have time to go and get anything new, though so I'm going to go with some old Chaos dwarfs that I have had for along time - I figure they are at least little!
Some great work up this month - lipsdapips, those marines look like the bloody box-art from GW! Awesome work.
As always, Vejut, your choice of models is super-cool and the paint is great. The rat-druid especially looks fantastic!
Nice light points, Wish - they really give your armour a great finish.
Great job on your Infinity guys, Powerelephant. Yellow is a bloody tough colour and you have done a top job.
Anyhoo, here is my proof photo....now to try and channel the Paradigm within...
My entry; first attempt at painting Skitarii. I realized not long into these two that you could spend a lifetime picking out details and improving on them. These are the start of my Skitarii Kill Team, and they are bound by the fellowship that only a cybernetic-enhanced gunner and spotter can know. Final pics:
ehh, nah, think I'm out for this month...I really need to work on getting a squig army up and running...my local store's starting up an AoS escalation league soon, and I need more stuff ready for the start of that...also I'm just really feelin' the squigs at the moment, whereas I'm kinda not, with the flash gitz...so no point in my trying to chore through them just to get them done for this...I'll get back to them when I'm in the mood again, probably after I'm burnt out on squigs
@Chris: YOU CAN DO IT! Meaning you'd better because those Chaos Dwarves are going to look awesome in your style!
As for my own entry, these were painted very early in the month but between an exam and a week away from my camera, I've only just got the pics in at the last minute. What better fellowship than The Fellowship? A sendoff for these original LotR metals as the new plastics for these characters come out this month.
Any thoughts welcome, of course! Aragorn was a real pain to photograph, given the angle he's at.
@Gulgo, wow those eyes are positively glowing; you didn’t sneak some LEDs in, did you?!
Automatically Appended Next Post: Aragorn looks good and Gimli’s excellent, not sure about Legolas; his skin looks a bit pink, is the colour balance on your camera correct?
I think it's just a flaw in the paintwork to be honest.
Between the slightly blocky face on this sculpt (it was one of the earliest LotR minis, I believe, and one of the weakest sculpts in the original Fellowship) and an attempt to give him a slightly paler skin tone than the humans/hobbits it ended up looking a little pink and ruddy, I tried to fix it but there's not much more I can do without slathering more layers on and losing detail.
I've run into a bit of a frustrating problem. I've finished painting my entry, I could take the photos, but my PC has stopped working. I'm not sure how to transfer the photos from my camera to my phone, or how to upload them properly even if I managed to. I'm hoping I might be able to get the PC working again.
Phew, got the Death Rider Command Squad done just in time!
Here's the final pics:
Still learning my camera, so some of the are darker than the others.
Also wanted to take one with a darker background, which is closer to the tabletop we usually use.
Thanks, MG. My wife has reminded me that we have an ancient, creaking laptop we might be able to use, and I'm trying a system restore. I think it might just be something to do with the graphics card drivers. I'd rather not use the laptop as it takes an hour to start up, and then keeps opening a help window while you're trying to do things!
Edit - By the way, some fantastic entries appearing. Quality stuff from Para and Lipsda as usual, and I love those Death Korps of Krieg.
Thanks Jadenim, there’s a kind of blue paint that’s kinda my secret weapon, and I mixed some of it with a violet ink wash before applying; glad someone noticed!
Man, those ancient LotR mini's make me nostalgic. My first real entry into the hobby was the LotR miniatures game and I have all those in various appalling 'early try at painting' schemes!
The DKoK look bloody brilliant, as do the Hobbits from the Fellowship!
Personally I'm just struggling to get a decent lighting and photo deal going on for this month... :S
Wow, so many great entries this month!
Those Death Korps - fantastic stuff!
Anyhow, I got my chaos dwarfs finished!! This was the most fun I've had in a long time painting minis and it's nice to know that I can work to a deadline when I have to. I really love these sculpts but they are bloody hard to get in Australia - it costs like a million dollars in postage. I just lucked out with these guys on ebay...still, I'm really happy to get them finished in time! My favourite is the banner bearer.
Good luck to everyone and see you next month for 'Into the Breach'!
Awesome stuff this month! I love the hobbits. Hope everyone gets there stuff done.
I finished my two dungeon adventurers, Marian the Barbarian and Bandobras Burrows, for our new D&D campaign.
Marian is a book loving brute and Bandobras a guitar playing bard.
With two hours to go, I don't think I'm gonna get my entry done. I'm nearly finished with two of them but they're in no shape to be entered for this challenge. Disappointed in myself that I couldn't get the drive to finish them up in time but that's life.
Catch y'all in the next one, there are some seriously impressive entries once again this month and I look forward to the voting!
Paradigm wrote: God damn, Modock, that might be my favourite entry of yours yet. Sublime use of colour and those bases are beautiful.
You could put those paintjobs on an Infinity box and I wouldn't even question it being the official work!
Thanks a million, Para! The models are gorgeous and when I paint something I really like then I put some extra effort on top.
Took me a while to decide the color scheme for the K9. I'm happy with the result.
Some pretty cool entries coming in at the last minute. I guess I'd better put mine up too. Here are Taddeus the Purifier and his loyal minion Pious Vorne, ready to start exploring the mysterious Blackstone Fortress:
I'm pretty happy with how they turned out, and I had a lot of fun working on them. The camera, as usual, decided to make the gold metallics on Taddeus look really flat and uninspiring, but in real life I assure you they look better. Not sure what I need to do to make the photos turn out better, but I'm sure I can figure it out eventually. Looking forward to the voting!
Well that was quick Chris and still very good quality, I didn't know Para had started doing speed painting lessons
Some really good final entries, its been nice to see them coming in rather than my normal mad panic of ingoring everything and getting what paint I can on the model.
PossumCraft, would love some bigger pics of that scene, looks like there are some really nice touches like the hair.
Superb again Modock, both models have come together really well
Hope it's not too late yet - I was practising stuff from a photography guide to improve my pictures, and I accidentally managed to get some better photos of my entry... Still got to work on focus and depth of field, but it's an improvement.
Here we are, with a heavy weapons team and their faithful chameleon spotter busy applying runes of protection to the shield of their autocannon in the swamp.
![[Disk]](/dakkaforum/templates/default/images/icon_disk.gif){kind=icon}
oops! I appear to have been rather distracted this month!...I don't think I'm even halfway through my flash gitz entry yet 
...instead, I've painted a random daemonette standard bearer, an ork boy painted like a catachan guardsman, and I went rainbow-style on a box of the new squigs 
.Maybe I painted them too small?
