Welcome all to the 94th round of the Dakka Painting challenge. For the unfamiliar, this is a friendly painting competition open to members of all skill levels and experience, whether your entry is your first or you thousand-and-first time painting miniatures. Each month, finished entries are collected into a thread where the community can vote on their favorite pieces, and those votes go towards an annual overall League that runs for 12 rounds.

This month, the annual Open Round returns, so you can paint whatever takes your fancy, whether that's some last-minute gifts, prep for holiday gaming, starting the new shiny army waiting under the tree or just squeezing in time to paint a mini or two amid a busy time of year. The usual rules still apply in terms of model count and such, but beyond that, this is the chance to paint whatever it is that you want or need to get done before the year's end!

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 December and will end at midnight GMT on 31st December. After this, I shall compile the finished entries into a new thread, and voting will run for 5 days.


List of entrants

inmygravenimage: Core Space Auxiliaries


Giefer: Shoretrooper Captain and Civillian


Mr Nobody: Word Bearers Dark Apostles


JoshInJapan: Dragon


FrozenDwarf: Dwarven Battleships


Daia T'Nara: Doomrider


KidCthulhu: Chaos Knight and Imperial Soldier


Lovejoy: Stormcast Archer


Nevelon : Parasite of Mortrex


theCrowe: Ninja Weasel and Highland Viking Dog


Flinty: Stargrave Alien Lizards


Pariah Press: 8th Necromunda Regiment, the "Spiders," Company F, 2nd Platoon.


CancelledApocalypse: Raven Guard Librarian, Battle Sister and Inquisitor Greyfax


Snail22: Torgillius The Chamberlain


Vejut: Giant pikachu sloth,


Jadenim: Ultramarine Lieutenant:
Jadenim: Ultramarine Lieutenant:


Boringstuff: Cartoon Thief


Captain Brown: Escher Gangers


Gulgog TufToof: Ork Kommando


Maharg: Blue Horror and Tzeentch Acolytes


ZergSmasher: Exorcist


Turaxa: Chibi Commisar


Midget Gems: Santork's Little Helpers

I think I'll do leader for my Stormcast Eternals army. Well, I say army... 5 painted models so far! At least this will add 3 more.



cheers,
Michael

It's the merry season so I'm going to paint this happy couple:

Geifer, that is AMAZING! Do you take sculpting commissions?

I'm still trying to decide what to enter. I have one idea, but I don't know if I'll run out of steam (again) once I put brush to model

^seconded, and, exalted! I'll be doing something for my primaris Stormcast I reckon.

Still need to pick something. Probably more nids.

I'm gonna get very ambitious and try to finish this in a month:

Blocking in the main colors should be pretty easy; it's all the little details all over this thing that have intimidated me. But, if I painted a Daemon Primarch in just a month (five years ago!), and I've grown as a painter since, this should work out okay, so I'm gonna give it a go.

 KidCthulhu wrote:
Geifer, that is AMAZING! Do you take sculpting commissions?

Thank you. No, I don't take commissions. I suffer from considerable health issues these days and I don't feel comfortable making promises I can't keep. It's unfortunately not viable anymore for me.

 KidCthulhu wrote:
I'm still trying to decide what to enter. I have one idea, but I don't know if I'll run out of steam (again) once I put brush to model

Well. there are another twenty nine days of December to figure out what kind of mood you're in.

Who knew ideas for the open round could be so sparse?

In the spirit of the open round, I'm keeping my options open... which is to say, I don't really know what I'm going to do, so to be on the safe side I just took a photo of everything that hasn't gotten further than the spray primer yet. The bikes are the ambitious goal, I've been wanting to make a Doomrider for a while, but I don't know if I'll come up with a conversion I'm happy with inside of a month; guess we'll see.

Well, then, some early thoughts.

Core Space Bounty Hunters and drones (got excited, started painting the wee tracked one before taking a pic).

Or possibly the crew of the Cygnus (again, Core Space, and again, got a bit excited)


Or then again, maybe a few more Snazzy Storm Marines (not that the ones I started for last month are done yet - vid chappy at left edge of pic!)


Decisions, decisions

As promised, this month’s open round entry will include my ninja weasel and possibly some others depending how much painting I get done.

Back to Oldhammer stuff for this round: Imperial Guard soldiers!

If nobody minds, I’ll have another go at painting this commissar, since I didn’t actually apply any paint to him last month,

Mantic`s Armada; Dwarf Starter box.

I figure I should start getting some 30k stuff done. My word bearers need some proper orators.

Thanks that puts in in some perspective (quite literally )

Finally got around to this the League table and HOF have been updated, its close at the top
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/732117.page#9481149

Need to work out my entry for this one, I always try to do something Christmas themed, I have the starting's of an idea but need to work it through

I'll be painting this OOP Gold Dragon from Grenadier. At least, I think it's OOP.



I've had this model since I was in high school, which was a long, long time ago. It had been sitting in a box back in the US for years, and my dad sent it to me for Xmas last year, along with some other random stuff he's been keeping for me ever since I came over here. I guess this makes this a Christmas-themed entry.

Geifer wrote:It's the merry season so I'm going to paint this happy couple:

Lovely bit of putty work there!

theCrowe wrote:As promised, this month’s open round entry will include my ninja weasel and possibly some others depending how much painting I get done.

...and more cool putty work! I love seeing all this greenstuff getting used.

JoshInJapan wrote:I'll be painting this OOP Gold Dragon from Grenadier.

I love those old Grenadier dragons, great models. And a much more realistic size than the enormous dragon models you get nowadays... (yes, I am old.)

Anyway, I've got my entry built. I have a few doubts though, as some bits look like they'll be very hard to reach, even to undercoat, never mind paint. I'm wondering if this is why I see so many people painting minis as sub-assemblies...




I didn't like either of the helmets this model comes with, and I wanted a bare head with a hood. I picture him as having been a scout / ranger type before Sigmar took him. So I've jumped on the greenstuff bandwagon too, and made a head. First human head I've sculpted in a very, very long time (been doing too many mice and badgers and stuff...), but it all came back to me pretty quickly, and I like it!
Just have to paint it without spoiling it now...



cheers,
Michael

So I already painted some really cool stuff in December, but neglected to take "before" pictures. My painting schedule is often up in the air and inspiration is often feast or famine. But since I started painting this guy already, I might as well drop him in here as a "before" pic.



With any luck, I'll get him finished on time. If anything else comes up, I'll just have to try to remember to tale pictures before painting.

Here's a quick WIP shot of the Exorcist:

Still looks pretty rough, but it's a start. It'll look better once I get the wood railing/panels basecoated, plus some more of the metallics.

 Lovejoy wrote:

Geifer wrote:It's the merry season so I'm going to paint this happy couple:

Lovely bit of putty work there!

Thanks. You did a pretty neat job on your ranger, too.

 Lovejoy wrote:
Anyway, I've got my entry built. I have a few doubts though, as some bits look like they'll be very hard to reach, even to undercoat, never mind paint. I'm wondering if this is why I see so many people painting minis as sub-assemblies...

Presumably it's easier if you're unsure whether you can reach every part to just paint sub-assemblies by default. In my experience most GW models are pretty friendly to people like me who don't usually bother with sub-assemblies. I don't remember a GW model with cape or robes or similar where I had to leave a visible blank spot. The tricky part isn't to get the brush or paint in, but to not mess up the surrounding areas. It doesn't hurt to get your painting order sorted out ahead of time.

Not that I always remember to follow my own advice, mind you...

I have so many different things I want to paint for this round I can't decide which to do!

Definitely want to paint up an inquisitor greyfax, but I've also got a sororitas kill team I want to get at least some models painted for. Then I've got all my aspect wraithlords still to paint, a ton of various eldar, with some really nice character models to do, lots of exodite conversions and a whole corsair army to follow my recently painted corsair prince. Not to mention my 1995 Warhammer Quest set - plus extras!

When it comes down to it, though, I might just paint a primaris librarian...

OK, I’m going to phone it in a bit this month. Not a lot of energy/motivation. Took me a week to get together enough umph to pick something. Primary goal is to get the parasite done. One model, should be doable. Secondary is as many ripper swarms as I can. Just finished cleaning 3 more, but would need to prime them.

Keep at it Nev; the competition is working if it gets you to paint even one thing

I think I’ll try to finish off these Plague Marines that have been sitting in my painting area for a while.

Okay, inspiration is a fickle and ephemeral thing. I'm working on this too, so I thought I should put it in here in case it gets finished.



Some of you may be familiar with my sci-fi miniature webcomic, 28mm; I'm planning on a fantasy counterpart sometime in 2023.
This is three different models of one of the potential protagonists.

Ooh, nice. Looking forward to seeing them done 👍
Remarkably, my entry is done! "Spacer's Little Helpers": Auxiliaries from the Core Space: Wanted - Dead or Alive expansion

An assault hound (PUH-ppy!), a cargo drone, utility drone, a Gurnrit (a little pack animal) and a gun drone - for all that it's quite a grubby, lived-in universe, I wanted that in particular to feel sleek, as they're very expensive bits of kit in game, often used by scary-as$ bounty hunters.

Really enjoyed these wee dudes.

I figure that at this time of year have a group of Little Helpers is fitting

I particularly love the Utility Drone. Inspired by Xero from Star Trek Prodigy.

And the Beasties! Auxiliaries are pretty much essential in game as your crew size is limited - and require pay! So they're a fitting Xmas gift to all my trader scum and Villainous scrappers.

I spent some time making a scenic base for the dragon:



The bark, sand, and stones all came from the side of the house. Once the mod podge is fully dry, I'll hit it with the gesso and start the painting process for real.

Well he's in enough of one piece that I guess I'll see him through this month - a proper proof photo (I mean, the last photo most of these parts were still in different boxes, by that logic you could just photograph the shelves at a GW store and call it a universal proof pic) of Doomrider, who I like enough to want in my warband, but not enough to bother getting the actual mini off ebay.

I am pretty much finished with the base:

 JoshInJapan wrote:
I am pretty much finished with the base:

That's a lovely base.

That dark area in the lower left, are you going to leave it like that? I think it's cool to have a shady area under the rocks, but it feels a bit flat compared to the rest of the base and might benefit from a strip of intermediate brown texture to get a smoother transition from the sandy part, maybe?

 Geifer wrote:

 JoshInJapan wrote:
I am pretty much finished with the base:

That's a lovely base.

That dark area in the lower left, are you going to leave it like that? I think it's cool to have a shady area under the rocks, but it feels a bit flat compared to the rest of the base and might benefit from a strip of intermediate brown texture to get a smoother transition from the sandy part, maybe?

Good catch! I painted the rocks from above, and didn't even look at it from down low. I went back in and blended that section into the surrounding area. When the whole thing is finished and sealed, I'll be adding foliage here and there to hide the ugliest transitions.

Happy couple, now in Technicolor™!

Glorious!

I think you have a winner, Geifer. Well done!

Lovely work, Geifer!


The dragon is pretty much finished:



Inspiration for the colors and pattern came from the collared lizard. I kind of feel like the wings a missing something, but given how deep the folds are, I'm not sure I can do anything that won't turn out weird and lopsided. After I seal the model, I'll start adding vegetation to the base.

My Word Bearers are now ready to go out and proselytize.

Okay, so I need to take some real photos when my lighting is better, but this is the vibe I'm going for.

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Glorious!

 KidCthulhu wrote:
I think you have a winner, Geifer. Well done!

 JoshInJapan wrote:
Lovely work, Geifer!

Thanks, guys!

 JoshInJapan wrote:
The dragon is pretty much finished:

Spoiler:

Inspiration for the colors and pattern came from the collared lizard. I kind of feel like the wings a missing something, but given how deep the folds are, I'm not sure I can do anything that won't turn out weird and lopsided. After I seal the model, I'll start adding vegetation to the base.

Cool. I don't think I've seen a green and blue dragon before.

Maybe you could take inspiration from that last lizard in the Wikipedia gallery whose tail fades to a paler blue and do something similar towards the end of the wings? It'd be more subtle than differently colored patterns but still break up the large mono color area. And it kind of mirrors how the head and feet end in a different color.

Maybe not even the whole tips but just the forward part with a fade both towards the darker back and the body.

 KidCthulhu wrote:
Okay, so I need to take some real photos when my lighting is better, but this is the vibe I'm going for.

Spoiler:

Nice.

Kidcthulhu, if those pics are allowed use ‘em! I love it.

Thanks, Crowe. But I'm definitely using better quality photos with decent lighting. It was more to get a feel for what the new comic will be like.

I reckon this is as finished as it's going to get:

Great work, Josh. Makes me nostalgic for the old Grenadier dragons. I still have a handful of Grenadier models, including an anniversary Paladin that's in desperate need of repainting.

 KidCthulhu wrote:
Great work, Josh. Makes me nostalgic for the old Grenadier dragons. I still have a handful of Grenadier models, including an anniversary Paladin that's in desperate need of repainting.

Thanks. Grenadier made some great monsters, but their human-sized models (from this era and earlier) were kind of hit-or-miss. I still love the ones that I have, though.

 JoshInJapan wrote:

 KidCthulhu wrote:
Great work, Josh. Makes me nostalgic for the old Grenadier dragons. I still have a handful of Grenadier models, including an anniversary Paladin that's in desperate need of repainting.

Thanks. Grenadier made some great monsters, but their human-sized models (from this era and earlier) were kind of hit-or-miss. I still love the ones that I have, though.

I have a number of their D&D sets. Some even have some paint on them. But really old paint, not well done. Not that there was a huge amount of options at the time, but I mostly preferred Ral Partha.

It is always a nice kick of nostalgia to see old lead painted to modern standards. Well done on the dragon.

That's one hell of a dragon, and a great adaptation of that lizard color scheme.

Had to rush this as an artic coldfront swooped in over my country and it will come and go this month, and using rattlecans outside in -10 to -17 celsius aint gonna work well even if one preheats the rattlecan. The day i rattlecan varnished these 3 models it was -6 celsious outside...

So here is the 3 ship models in the Dwarf Starter box for Mantic`s Armada.

------

I've made good progress on Archaon the Everchosen Haazmat the Black but I haven't had a chance to take any photos. If I get a chance to paint today, I might be able to finish him and take some real pictures of my entries.

EDIT: Just finished him. Photos tomorrow

Doomrider:







(Of course he's watching pornhub mid-battle.)





And of course his signature move:

Fabulous!

There are so many fun details on that Doomrider model, Daia T'Nara!

That Doomrider looks amazing! I thought the WIP looked interesting but the finished product is mind-blowing!

Now on to mine. For some reason Dakka won't let me upload these. I have to host them on my comic site:
EDIT: I was able to upload to Dakka now and re-uploaded & auto-adjusted:

I spent the weekend desperately painting and photographing, because I reckon the rest of the month will be insanely busy. But I got them done!

Face close-up first, because I sculpted the face, and I like it!


Other pics behind spoiler tags, to avoid a massive post:


cheers,
Michael

Holy macaroni

Amazing work everyone! Love the entries and progress.

I finished mine, but having problems uploading to Dakka at the moment. But still time left in the month.

 Nevelon wrote:
I finished mine, but having problems uploading to Dakka at the moment. But still time left in the month.

Same here! When I'd upload, I'd get a broken link icon for the image. I tried uploading from two different PC's to make sure it wasn't my main device.

That guy looks like a total badass, Lovejoy!

I love that 5 o'clock shadow.

OK, photo thing seems to be sorted.

The parasite does not have a good side to photograph. Nothing bad bad angles on her. Anyway, she’s done now, with a bunch of little biters for her to spawn. Unfortunately nothing new or exciting, but checking off another month and 4 minis from the Pile of Shame.

As the month wares on it’s becoming apparent that I’m not going to get any more work done or any better photos taken, So here it is (Merry Christmas)

My Ninja Weasel and Highland Viking Dog






Cheers for another great year of monthly painting challenges.

Last minute addition!



I started and literally just finished painting her tonight; photos tomorrow!
This will bring me to 5 completed models. Huzzah!

If anyone is still having issues with uploads towards the end of the month, let me know and I'll leave the round open until it's resolved. Some great work coming in already!

Paradigm, I think the photo load issue is resolved now. I haven't had any more issues.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Last entry photo:



Good luck and happy painting, everyone!

I wasn’t sure if I would make it, so here all at once is my proof pic


And finished pics. While I detest the name, I thought I would give the slapchop method a go. I think I left too many it’s in black, rather overshadowing some bits, it otherwise it gives interesting shading. I would prefer a more neutral or bluish grey in the darker model. Basilicanum grey contrast is way more brown on the model than it looks in the pot.

Some amazing entries already. Hope everyone has a happy Christmas and looking forward to being able to contribute to these great comps more in the next year.

Imperial Guard soldiers complete!

These are members of the 8th Necromunda Regiment, the "Spiders," Company F, 2nd Platoon.

Nice. Classic look for classic models. As I recall there is some kind of sayings about running out of gum that might apply here

Nicely done, Pariah Press! I have two of those ladies myself.

Subject poll for Jan will be going out in the next day or so, so feel free to toss out any suggestions, people!

I just had some come to mind:

For Love Of Money:
Everyone likes mercenaries, right?

Ascended:
This could be things like a Space Marine that crossed the Rubicon, a necromancer who attained lichedom, a sergeant that just got his stripes, or a foul worshiper of darkness getting his first debilitating mutation dark blessing.

The Art Of Concealment:
All sorts of camouflage; ghillie suits, smoke bombs, false flags, two grots in a great coat impersonating a Commissar.

Conversions, kitbashes, and unique sculpts: Anything from a simple head- or weapon-swap to an elaborate conversion to your own sculpted miniature qualifies!

Lock and Load - anything that looks ready for action

Green: New recruits, orcs, or anything else that's green, really!

Strike hard and/or strike fast.

Dance-off. Any units that rely on fancy footwork to get ahead.

I'm in for this month. Proof pic:


I've got the nob on the left finished and just have to take proppa pics sometime before the end of the month. Seems like holidays are the only times I can keep pace with these competitions any more. The fella on the right is the inspiration for my "lock and load" theme suggestion for next month.

Happy Holidays!

Managed to get not two, but three models finished this month! I've taken photos of them finished but not got them collaged together yet, so here's proof pics in the meantime:

I finished the librarian and Greyfax early, so I thought I'd try to make up numbers doing some members of a sororitas kill team I've been writing a story for for a while, but in the end only got to do one. I won't have time to paint up any of the others before the end of the month so... it's just the one circled in red.

Location Location Location. A model standing on a particular cool looking base.

The suject vote for January, thanks for the suggestions folks!
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/808216.page#11470586

Here's my entry:



Three characters, two of which are from a story I'm writing - A primaris librarian of the Raven Guard (Karas Medari), a battle sister of the Argent Shroud (Cecilia Ophrea), and of course Inquisitor Katarinya Greyfax.

Those are some sweet models, Cancelled Apocalypse! Very well done!

What's your skin tone recipe? The ladies' faces look especially well executed.

 KidCthulhu wrote:
Those are some sweet models, Cancelled Apocalypse! Very well done!

What's your skin tone recipe? The ladies' faces look especially well executed.

Thanks KC! The skintone recipe is Darren Latham's pale (female) skin tone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aExOoI2xOM

It's a nice easy way of doing paler shades of skin and It's surprisingly easy to darken or lighten, just by taking the shading or highlighting a bit further. I mainly paint eldar or sororitas, so I've just got used to it. I do need to branch out and widen my skills with different skin tones, though. I'm planning to do that with my sororitas.

Thanks for the thread, best wishes y'all

Cursed city/Radukar's Court Torgillius The Chamberlain

Proof



Complete

Hi All, I hope everyone had a good Xmas.

I've been a bit distracted by the Dwarf Fortress steam release this month (and also Xmas)

here's my proof, got most of the base colours and washes on now but still need to do a far bit for my traditional xmas scene.

Actually had this guy done a while, just finally gave up on better pictures.
Giant pikachu sloth,
Proof:


And finished:



Not getting the best image of the shading, but thats yellow for you.

lol, love the Pikasloth, @Vejut

So just realised I really ought to choose a model for this month!

Keep it simple, an Ultramarine Lieutenant:




Automatically Appended Next Post:
And here he is, finished:







Couldn’t be bothered to breakout the light box tonight; might try and take some better photos tomorrow if the thread’s open and I have the motivation.

Proof:


Finished:

So I have been unable to paint since the middle of October, and have only been able to attempt it today. I wanted to finish this project before the end of the year...a little hiccup has sidelined me until now.

Proof pick:


Finished:







Cheers,

CB

This month I finished the nob for my blue camo kommandos, now the minimum squad is complete and I plan on working my way up to the full 10.
Final pics:






Happy New Year All!

Lookin' good! Great last minute entries, folks.

Here's my entry for the month, part of the Tzeentch Underworlds warband
proof

Got my entry in during the closing hours of 2022 (local time); here are the final pics of my Exorcist:



Not my best work, but far from my worst, I think. I kind of rushed at the end, and it shows. Still, this was a fairly challenging model to paint so I'm happy to have it done.

Some great stuff coming in, hopefully any others are able to finish within any grace period our master and commander Paradigm sees fit to bestow.

It must still be 2022 somewhere on the planet, right? Late as always, here is my entry.

Chibi Commisar-kun


All images in the spoiler below.

New round:
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/808262.page#11472179

As usual, there'll be a few hours' grace to get any December entries in before I close this one up!

Heres the final Pics for this years Ork Santa Scene "Feed Da WAAAGH!"

I hope you guys like my interpretation of a touching scene of Ork generosity..... Santa and his helper feeding the local Snotling Orphans (and their pet squig).

This took me a little while to come up with but eventually got there, technically I am over the 5 model limit but as most of those are tiny Snotlings I'm hopefully that is acceptable. (Santa = 1 model, Grot + Squig + 1/2 a snotling = 2 models , 7 snotlings = 2 models, Total 5, my theory on the numbers anyway) There are 2 or 3 areas to the piece which I hope tell a bit of a story. I misplaced my fake snow otherwise would have added that to the streets as well. I tried lots of new skills in this creation. The base is a drinks wooden coaster with a polystyrene plate cut out glued on and then a textured roller pressed into it. I cast the Pavement flagstones with dental plaster and the curb stones I resin cast. Xmas tree was a bit of a cop out but its there just for the background ambience.

I hope you all had a good Xmas and wishing you all a good year.

@Midget Gems

I see orks of Green.
Red noses too.
I see them feeding
Snotlings with stew.
And I think to myself,
What a wonderful Waaaagh!”

Great job. Really playing the open round for a festive holiday theme which is always great fun.

Feed the waaaagh!
Let them know it's krumpin' time...

Superb MG!

Thanks theCrowe & CancelledApocalypse, I'm glad you are having some fun with the scene

Very good poem/song and idea

This came to me late so wasnt able to do it but if I had swapped the xmas tree for a podium put the new Ork Rocker on it painted as Freddie Mercury I could have had my my own Ork Live Aid concert going.

That is a spectacular entry from you, MG! I've liked most of your Orky Christmas stuff over the years, but this might be your best one yet.

Sorry for the delay on this one folks, it's been a busy couple of weeks to start the new year so I'm a little behind. I'll try and get the poll up later tonight or tomorrow.

Here's the vote! Shout if I've missed or mislabelled anything!
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/808488.page#11478795