Welcome all to the 97th 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 (of which this is the fina round!). This is the first month of the new season, so a great time to get on board!
This month, the theme is our traditional Space Marine round. Tall, short, spiky or otherwise, any flavor of post human super soldier would fit the bill. Alive or dead as base decoration. Pretty much any space-based warrior will work, does not have to be a Games Workshop Space Marine (tm). I’d say the sky is the limit, but we are way past that out into the stars.
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 March and will end at midnight EST on March 31st. After this, I shall compile the finished entries into a new thread, and voting will run for 5 days.
To get in the spirit of things (and not be lazy and just do another chaos marine) I've decided to go way back to the late 90s, when I got the 2nd edition box (a bit before 3rd came out) and added the monopose Tactical squads to my Terminators from Space Hulk to create my first ever army, the Furies:
...yes, female marines. Shut up, it was really important to me that they be as much like Xena as possible.
Right, well, rummaging through the pile of opportunity, I have an idea for Suppressor for my Storm Lions I think:
An Eliminator, and maybe some veterans, are also possibilities...
So in an effort to clear some of the really old stuff out of the primed pile, I’m going to finish the back half the the destroyer squad. You might recognize the front half from Aug ’17 “Brutal” contest.
At the rate I’m finishing squads, I should be up for a game of 30k by it’s 4th or 5th edition.
Good timing. The school has a burgeoning Warhammer club, and I snapped up a couple of the club kit minis to paint as an example and hopefully as inspiration for the kids. One of them happens to be a Space Marine (shocking!)
youwashock wrote: Good timing. The school has a burgeoning Warhammer club, and I snapped up a couple of the club kit minis to paint as an example and hopefully as inspiration for the kids. One of them happens to be a Space Marine (shocking!)
If they want to join, they are welcome to stop on by and sign up.
Or if you are willing, you could enter their works as a proxy. Just give me a name to put up on the vote thread with a finished pic. You can forward any advice and accolades back to them. We are usually good about constructive criticism.
I dug into the backlog and pulled out these dudes:
I'm not really an army painter any more, so I'll be giving them each a unique paint scheme, inspired by some of the color illustrations in the original RT rulebook.
I'm not really an army painter any more, so I'll be giving them each a unique paint scheme, inspired by some of the color illustrations in the original RT rulebook.
Is that an LE1 marine? Nice! I had one of those but made the mistake of selling it...
I'm not really an army painter any more, so I'll be giving them each a unique paint scheme, inspired by some of the color illustrations in the original RT rulebook.
Is that an LE1 marine? Nice! I had one of those but made the mistake of selling it...
It is, indeed. I got all of these many years ago, when GW mail order would custom cast anything, as long as you had the catalog number for the model. I got a small-but-complete Melnibonean army that way.
Pariah Press wrote: I'm going to paint some decidedly more modern beakies this month:
I love the very old aesthetic on those modern-looking models.
Yeah, the sculptors did a great job of adapting and refining the design elements of the old Rogue Trader era models into a modern kit. I'm really pumped to paint these up in a retro style.
I have mostly finished the first of my Oldhammer marines:
I'm not wholly convinced I have figured out the Grimdark that I was going for, and there are some little details that I can see that I have missed. There are more photos in my P&M blog (in my sig).
Ahoy captains, my entry for this new years first challenge, spacemarines huh.. well.. I don't build those!..
Look's like I'll have to use a freebie I once got from a store in another city that has a whole Warhammer section upstairs (I don't travel much, only own a bicycle and trains have been getting crazier and crazier past few years.. so only visit that city once every half a year or so.)
That won't be enough ofcourse.. so there's only one thing to do..
GO ORKY WEN ALL THINKZ ARE LOZED OTHAWISE.. *harhar*
wut dat.. engliz orky blah? nut gruk dat.. me blah da blud urukhai!
Ok.. ok.. I'm not going to type the story to my entry in either type of Orkish don't worry. -_-
Let me shake something out of my sleeve here cause I'll have to make up a story right here and right now.. (not having done so when I started with this silly project..) I'll keep it short.
(Ha! right!)
-Gubgreeb'r and his never-stolen vehicle; Zatra Ahrmz.. poor blud klan language for "twelve arms"..
Probably named after the arms of a clock.. because this thing does not have twelve arms..
Can Orks even read a clock? This is something we have to find out right now..
Or wait I'm busy telling the story of this project.. nvm.. we will keep this one for another time.
Anyway.. Gubgreeb'r was an Orkyer than Ork.. 'Ork' in the sense that He was too big for his stance among the Orks.. which made his pressence generally confusing'.. His clan's Ork boss ChokOongk Erd-thuut in particular couldn't stand the guy because he wasn't a full fledged boss (yet) and therefor bullied him until one day Gubgreeb's had enough and put his bosslike strength to good use.
He went to the nearest spacemarine outpost.. (onfoot) protecting himself from incoming fire with a big gun-round cannister he named "Elby hed" after drawing a face on it.. casually he ignored therewith the startled marines and walked into the closest hangar where he ..'obtained' a Cadian warmachine that was decomissioned having lost most of its outfitting.
Being the bigger than ordinary Ork Gubgreeb'r was.. he strapped the entire thing on his shoulder and walked it all the way back to his own clan's territory.
When ChokOongk Erd-thuut saw him approaching.. he emediately recogniced the boss-ness of Gubgreeb'r previously not having been noticed for his strength.. instead Gubgreeb'r had always been a bit of a kitchenrat.. waiting around the butchershop to get dibs on whatever came out of it, which is probably why he became the size of a boss..
Anyway, his Ork boss promoted him to an underboss and never bullied him again, giving Gubgreeb'r the title "da pulra'r" which translates to "the capturer" and allowing Gubgreeb'r to use an entire garage to work on his spoils.
This Gubgreeb'r did.. attaching the craziest Orky weaponry to the Cadian warmachine husk.. customizing it to look as Orky as possible and as the final touch.. loading it with an original chevrolet corvette V8 engine roaring like a bilepiper who's been strapped to a shofar.
Then one day..a few weeks later, gunfire, lasfire and firefire was heard and felt in and around the Ork camp perimeters as the Spacemarine base had unleashed a proper force to deal with the Orks who had the audacity to just "prance around" into their base without even as much as a keycard with clearance.. 'stealing!.. of all things.. the very remains of one of their old Cadian generals gear.. one of the royal bloodline to be exact.. murdered at the hands of the drasted Snikkrot being slightly too careless in trying to encircle an Orkish junkyard..
The warmachine had been tucked in the middle of said camp as a display, with golden decorations and freshly cleaned for the troops to admire (and boost the ego of said general, unaware of the impending doom..)
Alas.. turns out right after the poor sod was geep'd in his back by the gigantic Ork assassin.. the junkyard went up in an explosion so strong that everything apart from Snikkrot already dashing back into the Ork-god knows' which shadow.. was blown into the dirt with the force of a sledgehammer swung by Khorne himself.
Ah.. that also goes for the prized Cadian warmachine..
ALAS!!.. This unruly.. unsocialized.. blunt gourd of an Ork pompously had grabbed this memorial of the empire's finest and dragged it across the mud .. for atleast two thousand feet.
THE MUD!..
No.. this a proud Spacemarine could not let slide.., and thus they had mobilized in full strength.
Gubgreeb'r peeked over the wall at the back of his workshop garage.. seeing Spacemarines take professional effort to assault the area in tactical formation..
He grunted.. and mumbled to himself that this was the best time to test his creation..
For a moment he inspected.. one .. two.. five.. hurghh.. five.. ehghh..
He realised he wasn't good at counting so decided to make up a random number for how many weapons he had strapped to the machine..
Aha!! The mystery is solved dear reader.. it was never about a clock! This was why he called it twelve arms! Not ARMS!! Ha-Ha!! Not like floppy arms with fingers but GUNS GUNS GUNS!! DAKKA DAKKA!! DAKKAAAA DAKKA DAAKKKAA DAKKA ADAKKA!
Gubgreeb'r jumped into the cockpit and pulled the only switch still operable.. (that turns the machine on..) then continuing the test-ride's piloting by smashing his hands down on the the warmachine's hood in front hoping to trigger one, multiple or all of the guns, saws and other crazy stuff attached to it with the banging.
The spacemarines were not prepared..
Muffled screams, marines fleeing in all directions and panicked shooting at everything except Gubgreeb'r swaying from left to right as the contraptions legs proppeled itself no longer in a human running-pattern, the repurposed golem of a rig had itself become proper Orky..
From a distance, sitting at the dining area unfazed while eating a still living giant chicken.. ChokOongk Erd-thuut nodded proudly.. thinking to himself.. that his nudges mistaken as bullying.. had made a real Boss out of Gubgreeb'r.
--++--++--++--++--
And this.. is the story of my project.
Gubgreeb'r shall.. if all things go right (and I figure out how to sculpt properly) most optimally 'be holding a spacemarine in an appendix.. otherwise.. a spacemarine will suffer in a different manner being tortured by Zatra Ahrmz.
So.
This shall by my spacemarine entry, as the victim of a vehicle of the empire repurposed to be Orky.
Wish me luck.
This is a bit much to work on but atleast its fun.
Originally I thought I'd paint an Imperial Fist or Black Templar for Marine month, but I unexpectedly had time and inclination to sculpt her in the last week of February. It took until now to finish her as even with double shifts one week isn't enough to finish a model with so much going on.
So no GW for me this month. I've been in the mood for 80s and 90s B-movies of late and wanted something to catch those vibes. Now all I have to do is figure out a color scheme. I'm going to have to go looking for a nice camo pattern or two for the pants and armor.
Side note, it looks like I'm about to paint my first female Space Marine. Okay, maybe I'm cheating, but so what? I'm totally going to claim I'm with the in crowd now.
Keeping it simple this month and just rounding out a tactical squad. If the sergeant is considered too far along I’ll ditch him and just enter the others.
Jadenim wrote: Keeping it simple this month and just rounding out a tactical squad. If the sergeant is considered too far along I’ll ditch him and just enter the others.
A couple more kitbash marines:
Went with a Heavy Intercessor and an Infiltrator. I'm not totally sold on the Infiltrator build, weirdly, as I had a much clearer idea for him, yet the Heavy Intercessor was a huge, complex build of many random parts laid out in front of me that somehow came together and I just love. Maybe I just have to accept that the Infiltrator is too good at infiltrating sigmarites
Ah.. you know what.. one more pic then.
This is the last one before the endresult though.
(And that may still take 2 weeks of adding detail, cause there's a lot of detail!)
Also to those who wonder, the spacemarine (from the back you can't really see it, and the lamp was shining right on it so the detail is kindof flushed out to begin with) is of the Iron Ravens. (thought that would suit the story)
I missed out. Just saw this today after starting a squad of assault Intercessors on the 2nd. They're almost done. I guess I could work on another unit for my entry. Got my Techmarine and Apothecary in the mail yesterday. Chaos Boarding Patrol arrives today. Recruit Edition Starter Set and Imp Fist Upgrades arrive Monday lol.
Gubgreeb'r and his never-stolen vehicle; Zatra Ahrmz.. poor blud klan language for "twelve arms"..
Probably named after the arms of a clock.. because this thing does not have twelve arms..
Can Orks even read a clock? This is something we have to find out right now..
Or wait I'm busy telling the story of this project.. nvm.. we will keep this one for another time.
Anyway.. Gubgreeb'r was an Orkyer than Ork.. 'Ork' in the sense that He was too big for his stance among the Orks.. which made his pressence generally confusing'.. His clan's Ork boss ChokOongk Erd-thuut in particular couldn't stand the guy because he wasn't a full fledged boss (yet) and therefor bullied him until one day Gubgreeb's had enough and put his bosslike strength to good use.
He went to the nearest spacemarine outpost.. (onfoot) protecting himself from incoming fire with a big gun-round cannister he named "Elby hed" after drawing a face on it.. casually he ignored therewith the startled marines and walked into the closest hangar where he ..'obtained' a Cadian warmachine that was decomissioned having lost most of its outfitting.
Being the bigger than ordinary Ork Gubgreeb'r was.. he strapped the entire thing on his shoulder and walked it all the way back to his own clan's territory.
When ChokOongk Erd-thuut saw him approaching.. he emediately recogniced the boss-ness of Gubgreeb'r previously not having been noticed for his strength.. instead Gubgreeb'r had always been a bit of a kitchenrat.. waiting around the butchershop to get dibs on whatever came out of it, which is probably why he became the size of a boss..
Anyway, his Ork boss promoted him to an underboss and never bullied him again, giving Gubgreeb'r the title "da pulra'r" which translates to "the capturer" and allowing Gubgreeb'r to use an entire garage to work on his spoils.
This Gubgreeb'r did.. attaching the craziest Orky weaponry to the Cadian warmachine husk.. customizing it to look as Orky as possible and as the final touch.. loading it with an original chevrolet corvette V8 engine roaring like a bilepiper who's been strapped to a shofar.
Then one day..a few weeks later, gunfire, lasfire and firefire was heard and felt in and around the Ork camp perimeters as the Spacemarine base had unleashed a proper force to deal with the Orks who had the audacity to just "prance around" into their base without even as much as a keycard with clearance.. 'stealing!.. of all things.. the very remains of one of their old Cadian generals gear.. one of the royal bloodline to be exact.. murdered at the hands of the drasted Snikkrot being slightly too careless in trying to encircle an Orkish junkyard..
The warmachine had been tucked in the middle of said camp as a display, with golden decorations and freshly cleaned for the troops to admire (and boost the ego of said general, unaware of the impending doom..)
Alas.. turns out right after the poor sod was geep'd in his back by the gigantic Ork assassin.. the junkyard went up in an explosion so strong that everything apart from Snikkrot already dashing back into the Ork-god knows' which shadow.. was blown into the dirt with the force of a sledgehammer swung by Khorne himself.
Ah.. that also goes for the prized Cadian warmachine..
ALAS!!.. This unruly.. unsocialized.. blunt gourd of an Ork pompously had grabbed this memorial of the empire's finest and dragged it across the mud .. for atleast two thousand feet.
THE MUD!..
No.. this a proud Spacemarine could not let slide.., and thus they had mobilized in full strength.
Gubgreeb'r peeked over the wall at the back of his workshop garage.. seeing Spacemarines take professional effort to assault the area in tactical formation..
He grunted.. and mumbled to himself that this was the best time to test his creation..
For a moment he inspected.. one .. two.. five.. hurghh.. five.. ehghh..
He realised he wasn't good at counting so decided to make up a random number for how many weapons he had strapped to the machine..
Aha!! The mystery is solved dear reader.. it was never about a clock! This was why he called it twelve arms! Not ARMS!! Ha-Ha!! Not like floppy arms with fingers but GUNS GUNS GUNS!! DAKKA DAKKA!! DAKKAAAA DAKKA DAAKKKAA DAKKA ADAKKA!
Gubgreeb'r jumped into the cockpit and pulled the only switch still operable.. (that turns the machine on..) then continuing the test-ride's piloting by smashing his hands down on the the warmachine's hood in front hoping to trigger one, multiple or all of the guns, saws and other crazy stuff attached to it with the banging.
The spacemarines were not prepared..
Muffled screams, marines fleeing in all directions and panicked shooting at everything except Gubgreeb'r swaying from left to right as the contraptions legs proppeled itself no longer in a human running-pattern, the repurposed golem of a rig had itself become proper Orky..
From a distance, sitting at the dining area unfazed while eating a still living giant chicken.. ChokOongk Erd-thuut nodded proudly.. thinking to himself.. that his nudges mistaken as bullying.. had made a real Boss out of Gubgreeb'r.
I should have Belial finished up here shortly, i have been painting him in-between the Votan Army Box (been waiting a long time!). I have 1 more bike and 3 more Hearthkyn to finish, while putting my touch's on Belial!
JoshInJapan wrote: That's a sweet mech. Could we get a photo from lower down-- it's so dynamic that it's kind of difficult to read the pose.
2nd pic in the 'moar' spoiler tab is from lower down.
I can't fit my photocamera under the model with the lamps providing proper lighting, best I might be able to do is photograph it from below in front of a daylight granting window while holding it in my hand but that's not very photo-genic.
JoshInJapan wrote: That's a sweet mech. Could we get a photo from lower down-- it's so dynamic that it's kind of difficult to read the pose.
2nd pic in the 'moar' spoiler tab is from lower down.
I can't fit my photocamera under the model with the lamps providing proper lighting, best I might be able to do is photograph it from below in front of a daylight granting window while holding it in my hand but that's not very photo-genic.
Most of the pics I take have the model flat on the table and my camera on a small box for a good angle and to steady it. When I want a low angle shot I reverse that, and put the mini up on the box and just brace the camera on the table, pointed upward.
Sorry guys, ok so I removed a few pics and added two new ones taken through my loop-lamp for maximum exposure so you can actually see some of the detail on the machine (I did linework, harhar) of which one is taken from below (I did hold it in my hand though).
Hope that covers it.
Thanks for pointing out btw, totally forgot about the pic# rule
Zero confidence that I'll get anything done this month due to a manuscript deadline on April the 1st but I really wanna get back into the challenge after unceremoniously dropping out last year
Anyway these "Space Marines" you guys keep talking about, these are basically armed sailors but in space? Got some of those.
Don't advocate for progress. Progress isn't always a good thing. I painted the camo pattern on my Marine's pants. Now I can't see them anymore. How will I know the pants are finished if I can't see them?
Geifer wrote: Don't advocate for progress. Progress isn't always a good thing. I painted the camo pattern on my Marine's pants. Now I can't see them anymore. How will I know the pants are finished if I can't see them?
Pants are optional. But if you are going to post pics without, be sure to tag as NSFW.
Geifer wrote: Don't advocate for progress. Progress isn't always a good thing. I painted the camo pattern on my Marine's pants. Now I can't see them anymore. How will I know the pants are finished if I can't see them?
Pants are optional. But if you are going to post pics without, be sure to tag as NSFW.
And a shot with the other Marines the club has painted. Sadly, the group is already losing interest. Have to see if it picks up again after spring break.
It’s a little early in the month to start thinking about the next month, but I could use a hand gathering ideas for April. Or challenge ideas in general, non-month dependent.
We don’t want this to degenerate into “Paint along with Nevelon” where I just pick something off my to-do list and think of 4 ways to describe it and put that up for a vote.
I like Flinty's ideas (except maybe the one that involves personal injury). I might also suggest "Paint it again, Sam," in which we paint something we have already painted sometime in the past. This can show improvement, or allow a different take on the same model using different techniques. Models that have been updated by their manufacturer would also fit.
Also, I finished the last two RT marines:
I still have to spruce up their bases, and then decide which I want to enter in the Comp. There are a few more photos in my P&M blog if you are interested.
XvArcanevX wrote: Sorry to ask here but when is the deadline for this painting challenge? Wondering if I still have time to paint something?
End of the month, so the 31st. Week from Friday. Technically midnight eastern time, but more realistically Saturday after my first cup of coffee. assuming nobody needs an extention for decent pictures for light or some such. We often run a little over (but not crazy amounts, like a day, maybe two)
XvArcanevX wrote: Sorry to ask here but when is the deadline for this painting challenge? Wondering if I still have time to paint something?
End of the month, so the 31st. Week from Friday. Technically midnight eastern time, but more realistically Saturday after my first cup of coffee. assuming nobody needs an extention for decent pictures for light or some such. We often run a little over (but not crazy amounts, like a day, maybe two)
Noooooo!
I won’t have time to enter this one I don’t think. Damn, just came up with a great excuse to buy a sweet looking model then too. Oh well…
XvArcanevX wrote: Sorry to ask here but when is the deadline for this painting challenge? Wondering if I still have time to paint something?
End of the month, so the 31st. Week from Friday. Technically midnight eastern time, but more realistically Saturday after my first cup of coffee. assuming nobody needs an extention for decent pictures for light or some such. We often run a little over (but not crazy amounts, like a day, maybe two)
Noooooo!
I won’t have time to enter this one I don’t think. Damn, just came up with a great excuse to buy a sweet looking model then too. Oh well…
Sorry. We run from the start to the end of the month, every month. So even if you missed this month, there is always next time. The topic will be different, but we try to keep them mostly open-ended most of the time.
XvArcanevX wrote: Sorry to ask here but when is the deadline for this painting challenge? Wondering if I still have time to paint something?
End of the month, so the 31st. Week from Friday. Technically midnight eastern time, but more realistically Saturday after my first cup of coffee. assuming nobody needs an extention for decent pictures for light or some such. We often run a little over (but not crazy amounts, like a day, maybe two)
Noooooo!
I won’t have time to enter this one I don’t think. Damn, just came up with a great excuse to buy a sweet looking model then too. Oh well…
Well, if you're looking for an excuse, why not pick up the model with the intention of entering? Who knows, you might even finish it in time...
XvArcanevX wrote: Sorry to ask here but when is the deadline for this painting challenge? Wondering if I still have time to paint something?
End of the month, so the 31st. Week from Friday. Technically midnight eastern time, but more realistically Saturday after my first cup of coffee. assuming nobody needs an extention for decent pictures for light or some such. We often run a little over (but not crazy amounts, like a day, maybe two)
Noooooo!
I won’t have time to enter this one I don’t think. Damn, just came up with a great excuse to buy a sweet looking model then too. Oh well…
Well, if you're looking for an excuse, why not pick up the model with the intention of entering? Who knows, you might even finish it in time...
Funny you should say that, just ordered it from Amazon. Haha
Knights Sanguine Assault Marines with Robes (I'm going for rule of cool here, In a practical sense this doesn't work at all because as soon as they go down the robes would fly over their heads blinding them. The only way to avoid this is they have to fly everywhere head first!)
I am 100% out of hobby time for the month, so this will have to serve as my final picture, I'll post details of each mini on my painting blog sometime next month since all three really deserve individual glamour shots. I am really proud of the effort I put in to knock these guys out in (for me) record time.
If you want input into next month, now is the time to toss out ideas. I’m aiming to put the poll up tomorrow and let it run for 2 days, give people time to get stuff lined up. The more ideas I have to pull from the better.
Great work so far this month. Still have some time to get paint down.
Well, after seeing Josh's entries, I've decided to enter this month:
I should have him finished this weekend. I went from "I don't think I can enter anything this month" to "Holy crap, I'm almost done" in a single sitting.
Cap'n Brown, I still stand with the Eldar; note the shuriken catapult
KidCthulhu wrote: Well, after seeing Josh's entries, I've decided to enter this month:
I should have him finished this weekend. I went from "I don't think I can enter anything this month" to "Holy crap, I'm almost done" in a single sitting.
Cap'n Brown, I still stand with the Eldar; note the shuriken catapult
Wow, that's some old, old lead! I don't think I've seen that one in real life.
Nevelon wrote: If you want input into next month, now is the time to toss out ideas. I’m aiming to put the poll up tomorrow and let it run for 2 days, give people time to get stuff lined up. The more ideas I have to pull from the better.
Great work so far this month. Still have some time to get paint down.
I give as suggestions..
-Giants, only big single units allowed, and make them more giantsy if you can. (I don't mean gargants obviously, but anything bigger than a trooper)
-On steroids (stronger than usual versions of whatever you make)
-Out of place/standout (a unit that would probably get shot first for standing out so much in a crowd)
-Wrecked (a unit that will not survive the battle but may still pop a few shots)
The Naked Truth - Any model that has some form of nudity, weather it be a humanoid or a monstrous creature, anything with little to no clothing is allowed.
Down but not Out - Any model (or models) that are damaged or dying but will still continue to fight till the end. Acceptable models include healers, people that are injured, or even a model you have that is damaged or broken. Blood and gore effects are not a must, but are appreciated!
BFG - Any model or models that either have big fricken' guns or are big friendly giants. Big ferocious giants are also acceptable.
Feel the Fire - Models that are equipped with flamers, flame throwers or any type of fiery weapon. Models with flames (such as the Dark Apostle with his flaming lava book) are also acceptable.
Spaced Marines - Not all warriors fight sober. Drunken masters, alchemists, or any type of dope fiend model is allowed.
JoshInJapan, those are soooo cool! The paintjobs are absolutely perfect!
KidCthulhu, that's one of my fave rogue trader models! I love the fact that back then the weapons of whatever faction could be picked up and used by anyone. I've got a RT squat with a shuriken catapult, too. Wish there could have been an eldar trooper wielding a boltgun, lol!
1 week to go and I still haven't touched paintbrush to model... :/ I spent most of the month building and kitbashing exodites, which isn't exactly helpful for this particular painting challenge. I've just built Kayvaan Shrike and a phobos librarian, though, maybe I'll be inspired to start them, if the normal Raven Guard troops aren't giving me the push to get started. I don't know what it is about black armour, but I always feel reluctant to start painting it, even if I love the look of completed black armour (Raven Guard/Ulthwe/whatever)...
I went with Dark Angel colors but focusing more on the Deathwing bone look. The really bright yellow-gold is because that's the accent color for his particular Inquisitor's retinue:
I hope I can get better photos before the month is out.
I went with Dark Angel colors but focusing more on the Deathwing bone look. The really bright yellow-gold is because that's the accent color for his particular Inquisitor's retinue:
I hope I can get better photos before the month is out.
My original marine chapter, created way back when I got 2nd edition (prior to that I'd played Blood Angels, since I only knew Space Hulk - but that's why they're red, I was used to that being the 'natural' colour for space marines). I had a whole convoluted backstory about how we would up with female space marines back in the day, but as you'd expect from Baby's First 40k Fanfic it was full of every cliché you can imagine and then some, as our intrepid heroine pulled the strings of the High Lords of Terra, won the loyalty of her chapter by sheer badassness and an inspiring speech, beat up Ragnar Blackmane (back then the perception among my fellow players was that the Space Wolves codex was overpowered and used by min-maxing powergamers, so they were the designated punching bag), romanced a hot engineer who'd solved the warp problem, was on a first name basis with Jain Zar, was actually the Emperor's biological granddaughter... and so on. It'd be a stretch to say I regret any of that, because I'm shameless, but while I haven't bothered writing anything down lately I nowadays consider the Furies to have undergone a kind of Battlestar-style gritty reboot in the background, and keep the specifics of why they exist nice and nebulous; they show up out of nowhere when things have gone ploin-shaped, slaughter traitor Astartes like it's personal, then vanish without a trace.
Octavia therefore is the Starbuck recast of my old 2IC Octavian, as seen here (not part of the contest entry, obviously, this guy was painted over 20 years ago, so that's a bit outside the month):
Spoiler:
...really should dust those old minis, huh? I keep them in a glass case now, but they were just on a shelf for years in between. It's not terribly obvious in that photo, but my technique back then was to paint them red then absolutely slather on crimson ink, which left them with a shiny finish - since inks don't do that anymore I had to pop by the store for some Ardcoat to replicate the old look.
Having been knocked out with Covid AGAIN I did a bit more on the Chapter Master and pushed to finish off my final set of Storm Lions: Finished Chapter Master. Face is a bit goofy, but NMM on the pommel and hilt also. Infiltrator and Executioner. Tried to give the Infiltrator a bit of chipping also. As for the Executioner, I've never tried doing that style of camo, so it was a worthwhile, if not entirely successful, experiment. Suppressor and Heavy Intercessor. Very much about the full-on kitbashing, trying to make it very clear what the original model is without it feeling unnatural in 40k. They are not perfect, but they were fun to do, and if they start to feel a chore that's a sign to move on.
Just powered through today and finished my entry.
Here's my Terminator Librarian, keeping a tally of his quarry. He'll probably join some Deathwing Knights in my DA-successor chapter:
Well...the revolution appears to have crumbled. Only four of us are protesting against the Space Marine tyranny. There has been no rising of the people...those on the barricades are fewer in number (and some of them are even wearing Space Marine colors ).
While our attempt to change things has followed the same success as the revolution of 1848...we do have our catchy song.
Do you hear the miniaturists sing?
Singing the song of angry painters?
It is the music of the people
Who will not paint marines again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is art about to start
When tomorrow comes!
Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Beyond those Space Marines
Are there other models you long to see?
Do you hear the miniaturists sing?
Singing the song of angry painters?
It is the music of the people
Who will not paint marines again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is art about to start
When tomorrow comes!
Then join in the fight
That will give you the right to be free!
Will you paint all that you can
So that our banner may advance?
Some will finish and some will not (dam)
Will you stand up and take your chance?
Marine helmets on the ground
Will cover the bases all around!
Do you hear the miniaturists sing?
Singing the song of angry painters?
It is the music of the people
Who will not paint marines again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is art about to start
When tomorrow comes!
CB
PS: we have no issue with those painting Space Marines (or Chaos Marines, or Marines armed with Shuriken Catapults) ...we just like to complain about it...and I have long run out of space marine parts to place on bases.
Highly unflattering but honest photo. Please ignore the Chainsword, i kinda forgot about it. The base is to match an army so may look a bit odd but works well (honest) en masse
Perkustin wrote: Highly unflattering but honest photo. Please ignore the Chainsword, i kinda forgot about it. The base is to match an army so may look a bit odd but works well (honest) en masse
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Looks nice. As a suggestion, you might want to crop your picture a bit. Do you need all the whitespace? When I click through to your gallery, I can see so much more detail. But with the way Dakka displays pictures, we either need to have it blown up huge so we need to pan and scan to see it all, or he’s just a little guy lost in the background.
I don’t mean to single you out, but pretty much every month there are great entries that miss getting votes just because we can’t get a good look at them. Some of that is bad photography (not a problem here) or framing issues.
Also don’t forget you can have up to 6 pictures, if you want alternative angles, or close crops/zooms to highlight certain areas of the mini.
Got these five done in time to mount the barricades with the captain. It’s a bit of an involved scheme. I first did a few like these about ten years ago and if I’m honest it’ll prob be another ten years before I do any more. Unless I just do five more every March, That’ll only take another 3 years.
I give you, not Astartes, but Classic 2nd Ed. Harlequins.
Photography is a topic that I used to know more about back in high school (where I contributed to the yearbook, developed film in the dark room, and worked a mostly manual film camera). I’ve forgotten most of it. With modern cameras you don’t need to play with chemicals or wonder what a F-stop is. Not that you can’t mess with the settings to get some cool effects, but it’s not required.
Mostly when mini painters talk about photography, we just stick to the basics. Lots of diffuse light, make sure your camera is braced on something. But there is a TON more aspects that can be looked at. How to crop a pic to make sure the model is set up the best. Which is the best side? Best angle? If you are doing a collage, how do you want the eye to flow across it?
I’m no expert. It’s a whole field of study I just dabble in and think about as an amateur. But since we can’t all get together and put our entries on a table an walk around looking at all of them, it’s how we present our work.
Advice from folks on these challenges improved my mini photography by leaps and bounds.
I’ll second what Nevelon said. Light bouncing off your subject into your camera is fundamentally what creates your image so you need lots of it but it should be diffuse so that your image isn’t washed out or doesn’t get too much glare.
Camera on a stable surface is best too, if you are holding your camera or triggering it manually, it will shake and your image will be blurry. If you don’t have a remote of some sort, use a timer so that it has a few seconds to stabilize before the image gets taken.
And yes, for the love of all that is fine and good with this world, crop your image at least such that you don’t see the edges of the paper you’re using for your background.
Just to add to the conversation, I have an A-level in photography, some reasonably expensive equipment and software and I still just use my iPhone because putting it all together is just more hassle than using the diffused bathroom light and shower curtain for a background. My pics are adequate and allow me to take part and i’m content with that.
theCrowe wrote: Just to add to the conversation, I have an A-level in photography, some reasonably expensive equipment and software and I still just use my iPhone because putting it all together is just more hassle than using the diffused bathroom light and shower curtain for a background. My pics are adequate and allow me to take part and i’m content with that.
Sounds like my life atm, built a photostudio/lightbox from scratch, got two big lamps for it that have true-light bulbs..
And currently prefer to photograph through my loop with circle led, because it looks better.
Don't own a(ny kind of) phone so best I can do is photography with my Samsung Camera.
When a particularly dangerous foe (or a member of the elusive Fallen) is encountered by the Dark Angels Chapter, they send in their First Company, the Deathwing, to resolve the threat by any means necessary. Here are my final pics of a squad of Deathwing Terminators:
Nothing too impressive here, so I don't expect a ton of votes, but I'm satisfied with them and they'll look great on the tabletop. They'll look a bit stunted next to the upcoming 10th edition guys, but that can't be helped (these guys have more bling than the new guys for sure though!). I had fun working on them, and it's nice to be back to painting Dark Angels again in earnest.
Doomsday: The end is nigh! Whether a crazed cultist prophesising the end of the world, or a vicious warlock ready to commit such acts themselves, your entry should be themed around an apocalpytic event, either one to come, one that has already happened or one that will occur as soon as your entry opens fire!
Finally giving in and painting astartes for this challenge. Wanted to do some space gnoll gunmen, but just ran out of gas, and the Tyr hovertanks I did Tuesday I can't find hex bases for.
I've finished a grand total of one solitary primaris infiltrator. There's no way I'm going to get any of his buddies done now, so that'll be the sum total of my painting effort this month... Just waiting for the basing stuff to dry, so I'll take pics later on today.
I'd planned on finishing 10 terminators this month
but only managed three
Had some trouble with a final contrast wash (lots of medium with skeleton horde and a little brown) ending up very shiny, not sure why, though I think I recall this happening before when not shaking the pot enough before use? Anyone else find this happens? So I tried fixing it using a pot of GW varnish (Stormshield) that their website describes as matt - made the finish even shinier! Again, not sure what I did wrong - applied too thick maybe? Or does it just take a long time to properly cure (though it was left over a day)? Finally sort of fixed it with a coat of Lahmian medium but not ideal
One primaris infiltrator of the Raven Guard chapter, sneaking through the stark white snow in broad daylight, yet still somehow managing to remain unseen...
I had a load of other Raven Guard to paint for a kill team (old kill team), but didn't get anywhere near most of them. Still, I'm quite happy I got this one done, as I only started him four days ago...
Good luck to everyone! The space marine month certainly seems to have brought an additional load of highly talented painters out of the woodwork!
We’ve had a request for extra time, so I’ll leave this open for an extra day, closing it up Sunday morning, eastern time. Next month will still open tomorrow.
I think I bit off a bit more than I could chew with this freehand, but it's good to go outside of one's comfort zone, right?
This next one isn't part of my entry, just a size comparison for everyone's amusement. A Horus Heresy Mk7 Marine next to a C100 Space Marine like JoshInJapan entered. Scale creep is real, folks!
I think I bit off a bit more than I could chew with this freehand, but it's good to go outside of one's comfort zone, right?
This next one isn't part of my entry, just a size comparison for everyone's amusement. A Horus Heresy Mk7 Marine next to a C100 Space Marine like JoshInJapan entered. Scale creep is real, folks!
Maharg wrote: Had some trouble with a final contrast wash (lots of medium with skeleton horde and a little brown) ending up very shiny, not sure why, though I think I recall this happening before when not shaking the pot enough before use? Anyone else find this happens? So I tried fixing it using a pot of GW varnish (Stormshield) that their website describes as matt - made the finish even shinier! Again, not sure what I did wrong - applied too thick maybe? Or does it just take a long time to properly cure (though it was left over a day)? Finally sort of fixed it with a coat of Lahmian medium but not ideal
I can't say if you had the same problem as I did, but my entry also came out shiny after I broke open a new bottle of matte varnish. I'm fairly confident that I didn't shake it well enough,even though I thought I did, and fixed it with the remains of what was left in my old bottle (which I thought wasn't enough, but I got lucky). Matte varnish definitely can separate to the point where if there's not enough matte agent in the medium, it can turn out shiny.
I have no experience with GW varnish, so I can't say if this will work, but I intend to give mine repeated two or three minute shakes. Do that four or five times over the course of an hour and I should be good. You may find the same to be true of your varnish. In my experience (which I totally didn't remember myself this time around...) it's a problem if the varnish sits unused for too long, either because it's new or you took a break of several months.
Thickness shouldn't be an issue. Matte varnish should appear matter and cloudier with thickness, not shinier.
No idea about the original problem, though. I only use Contrast straight from the pot or diluted with water, and I've never seen it come out shiny.
We have an extension on this one, so going to leave it open for about another 24 hours from this post. So finish the old and start the new. If not the Pile of Shame will crush us all.
Nevelon wrote: The end is neigh! Prepare to meet your Doom!!!
Is that a four horsemen quip?
If it made you laugh it was.
But a more probable reason was me trying to do this while the coffee was still brewing and not having enough energy/motivation to figure out the correct spelling of nigh.
Nevelon wrote: The end is neigh! Prepare to meet your Doom!!!
Is that a four horsemen quip?
If it made you laugh it was.
But a more probable reason was me trying to do this while the coffee was still brewing and not having enough energy/motivation to figure out the correct spelling of nigh.
So these guys have been lurking in the PoS for a while now. First half of the squad was my August ’17 entry. They let me check off a unit on my paint the oldest thing in the pile goal. I think the first half I didn’t do true edge highlights, just drybrushed and put a later on ink on to smooth that out. Also, freehand symbols were a lot rougher. Now that 30k is on a new edition, good to have the squad finished. Interesting to see how I’ve progressed in the ~6 years. Maybe I’ll have their jump packs painted in another 6