Welcome all to a bonus 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. Once finished, entries are collected into a thread where the community can vote on their favorite pieces. For the bonus round the votes are not added to the league table, but internet fame is forever! (or so they tell me)
This summer's the topic left open. Like our normal December open round writ large. The idea is to use the summer to tackle projects that take larger then a month, using the format of the competition to help encourage and assist each other. This could be a large and/or detailed model you need the extra time to get right. Or a new combat patrol/spearhead. We will be lifting the normal 5 model limit. If you don’t want to do a formal boxed starter, a build your own with a character and 2d3 units could also be a good way to get a new force up and running. Or that final push to get that 2k list done. As always, this is not just GW. Got a fancy new boardgame you want to paint up but no motivation? Let us help give you some. If you want to get some terrain for your table, this is also a great time to get that done. Just be sure to add some rivets!
How To Enter
- No model limit.
- You may enter at any time during the summer, up to the last minute. We do encourage people to enter early, as to be part of the community, but if you can’t start until the 11th hour, that’s OK.
- 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 12 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 half of your picture allowance.
So What Do I Win?
- Points... and points mean... bragging rights! 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 NOT used to form a league table, which will be updated month on month as the results come in. This is a bonus round, just bragging rights.
How Long Do I Have?
This Summer bonus round begins Memorial Day (May 26th) and will end at midnight EST on Labor Day (September 1st). After this, I shall compile the finished entries into a new thread, and voting will run for 5 days.
A while back I had a game against knights, and I thought they were cool models, so I ended up picking up a box of Armigers on the basis that a War Dog Executioner is pretty similar in points and firepower to a Havoc squad so I could just drop it into my regular army easily enough whenever I wanted (the other Armiger got traded, with the same knight player, for some Tyranid sprues, including some older ones from Battle for Macragge I was keen to add to my hive for history's sake). I've been assembling since this year's contest started being discussed, and luckily Satuday last week the wet season took a break long enough to get some undercoating done, so starting tonight I'll be painting the War Bitch:
Probably a bit quicker than last year's greater daemon, since she's already converted, but this is likely the only knight I'll ever paint so I don't want to be rushing her.
So my summer is going to be the Summer of Death. To repost my ramblings from my blog:
Spoiler:
The FLGS is doing an armies on parade, final is sometime in October. I’m planning on getting my Soulblight up and ready for that. One issue is army structure, what to include. My thought was both the old and new Spearhead, and a few units to round it out to 2k points. After the freeform 40k list building, needing to get everyone in a regiment is weird. Especially for a character centric army like vampires.
The Spearheads:
Vamp of foot
- 3 vargheists
- 5 blood knights
- 20 skeletons
Wight King on foot
- 5 barrow knights
- 10 barrow guard
- 20 skeletons
While I could do 40 skeletons total, I plan to just keep it to 20 to share.
Add to that:
Vamp on nightmare
- 5 barrow knights
- 10 barrow guard
Wight king on steed
Shuffle around the regiments for a little theme:
1950 points of SBGLs
To do:
Vamp of foot - Done
Wight king on steed - Done, should be re-based to 80mm round
Vamp on nightmare - Need to build/prime/paint
Wight King on foot - Need to paint
3 vargheists - Done
20 barrow guard - 4 WIP, 6 primed, 10 need to bulid/prime/paint
20 skeletons - Done (stretch goal, 20 more so I could field both SH at once)
10 barrow knights - 5 done, 5 to prime/paint
5 blood knights -2 Done, 1 WIP, 2 to paint.
Display Board: Need to buy/build/paint.
From a painting POV that’s (not counting current WIP) 25 models. 30 if you count the stuff on the bench. Plus the display board. I’m planning on having this be my goal for the summer painting side quest challenge. Should be doable, especially if I can overlap with the regular challenge. Heck, I did that much in the month of April.
For the display board I plan on getting a frame and using the sheet of metal I have left. Pick up something color matched close to goblin green, spray glue, and undercoat and flock it. Part of me is curious if I could make it double sided and snow flock the back, so I could flip it around as needed. I am also going to try to paint up some of the random scatter minis from CC to spice it up a little. Undead black cats, hanged skeletons, gravestones. If I was more of a hard-core player, I’d grab the faction terrain. But for $80 for something marginally useful for my list? Thinking “No”.
Now this is a 2k list with some restrictions (keeping units from both spearheads) Thematically it’s a little too foot-centric for me. I keep looking at the box that’s got the snake vampire, 10 wolves, 3 bats. I really want the wolves. Stat-wise the bats seem lackluster? For 20 more points you get vargheist, which are tougher, hit harder, etc. I’ve already got way to many heroes, and don’t like the look of the vamp But if you want the wolves/bats, she’s a free extra. Alternatively, grab a box of wolves and see if I can pick up another unit of vargheists from ebay from people splitting the spearhead. Or grab a second spearhead myself. Another 5 blood knights would not be out of place. But how much we spending on a secondary army? No rush. I’ve got enough planned to keep me busy for the summer.
I’d like to finish this up for the end of the summer. The stuff for the summer challenge not yet started/WIP:
Vamp on nightmare - Need to build/prime/paint
Wight King on foot - Need to paint
16 barrow guard - 6 primed, 10 need to bulid/prime/paint
(20 skeletons - stretch goal, 20 more so I could field both SH at once. I have 10 primed, 10 on sprue)
5 barrow knights 5 to prime/paint
2 blood knights 2 to paint.
Display Board: Need to buy/build/paint.
All the CC board fillers/markers
My goal is to build an paint a big, multilevel, modular terrain tile representing a section of a spaceship interior. I've been collecting various kits over the last few years in preparation, as you can see in my picture. Not pictured are various pieces of plastic and metal that have accumulated in my bitz pile. The tiles will be built to accommodate various centerpiece terrain models, such as the voidshield generator. I'll start with those centerpieces so I can get a feel for how big the tile should be, how high the walls should be, and what altitude the second (and third?) level doors should be. I imagine that the final tile will have a floor and two walls, and be designed so that subsequent tiles can be attached to it to make a larger battlefield broken up by walls with doors.
If this goes anything like last year's Summer Side Quest, I won't finish it all, but that's okay. I'll probably just paint whatever's fully built in the final month of the challenge so I have something to enter.
I'll try to build model that not yet exists - a cyberpunk flying car. So far I am making a digital model in Blender. The main parts are finished, except the underside, windshield and rear "antigravity generators" but there are lots of small details to make too. Maybe the contest will give me the motivation to finish it . I plan to print the physical model and paint it. So far it looks like this:
Okay, I'm in. I'll try to get the entire Lumineth Realm-lords Spearhead done over the summer. Here it is in its unpainted glory:
Most of these particular models will be painted in a scheme inspired by the Fire Nation from Avatar: The Last Airbender. If I ever expand this into a full army, there will be forces representing all four nations from that show. I do have a set of Ydrilan Riverblades, and will consider them a stretch goal if I manage to get the spearhead painted quickly enough. They'll be made to look like the forces of the Water Tribes. My main hangup with my theming is how I will do the Scinari Cathallar; she's not Vanari and so wouldn't necessarily be Fire Nation by my reckoning. I'll be needing to have a good long think about that, so she'll probably be the last thing from this box that gets painted.
I might try to tackle something that has sat for over a decade. I was working on it when my first seizures hit...and have not taken it up since. Just gathering in a long open book on the very top of a storage rack.
Oh, a full Summer project? I might actually be able to get something or other done in that time frame. Have a goal of painting up at least some of an Ogre army this year.
Spoiler:
Primed these up a month ago, photo is a week or so old to show friend what my next project was, but then instead of painting I started up a new game of Wrath of the Righteous. Only thing done on them is that I poked a mircron pen into their eyes to dot them. I figure if I get these done in a semi-reasonable timeframe I'll dig up more ogres, I have probably 30-40 of them to go still. And if I don't actually get to putting paint to them in the next 2 or 3 days I could even try to shoehorn them into the monthly one he. Seems I always start/finish a project in the middle of the month so things never line up for that.
Gulgog TufToof wrote: @kurhanik: an ogre army would be dope to see indeed, here’s hoping you find the motivation and get a bunch of em done!
I got 5 of them done so far, I'm hoping to get 15-20 more done here, maybe less if I go for bigger things or characters, or more if it all ends up grunt tier ogres without too much I need to paint on.
So with big projects, it’s good to go in with a plan. The journey of a 100 miles begins with a simple step, every big problem and be broken down into a series of small ones, etc.
I’m sure there are project apps out there, but I like an old fashioned bit of scrap paper.
So this is my goal of what needs to be done for Army on Parade, with what’s at what step.
I’ve purchased almost everything. All the minis at least, the mounted vamp was the last on the to-buy step.
4 more wights to build, and they are already clipped.
And there should be a decent day at some point this summer to prime.
Now we have 3 months to get everything painted. I an going to double up with the monthly painting comp, double dipping on the motivation. June is "Slow and Steady", July is “Sidekicks”.
For June I want to get as many of the barrow guard done. I’ve got 6 primed and ready to go, and 10 more still in the build/prime stages. 4 more are waiting to be based.
While doing those I’ll start the mounted vamp lord on the large monster handle.
That should keep me busy for June.
I’ve got 2 more blood knights that also need the large handle. I’ll aim for one each for July and August.
For Sidekicks, I’m going to do the trusted wight king on foot, who is second fiddle to all the vamps in the army. Also as much of the cursed city filler as I can. Most of those should go pretty quick. I can also use this time to catch up on any wights I didn’t get done in June.
That leaves the barrow knights for August. Which might be an issue, as they have a lot of detail. If I’m ahead of schedule, I can try to get them done earlier.
So models per month:
June: 17
July: 16
August: 6
Bonus skeletons will be a bonus if they happen. I’m guessing that June might not make everything, so some of those will spill over into July. What I might end up with in July is on my 5 normal painting handles I’ll have one mounted wight, 2 foot wights, and 2 cursed city bits. What the topic is for August’s comp could also skew things.
So that’s a snapshot into my workflow management. It might not work for everyone, but it helps me keep focused and on track.
My summer idea revolves around these:
This is a stack of Knight Models dc minis, specifically the Christmas Santa Lobo and Hallowe'en BeWitched Harley Quinn.
My idea - which is a bit mad - is to turn them into bookends for a couple who are moving into their first proper house in September. That's totally not insane, right?
Hmm, I've got quite a few options for this, the pile of shame is deep. Currently thinking of cracking on with an army for Old World, maybe some grrenskins, elves or beastmen or perhaps finishing up an Underworlds season. Will post up a proof pic once I've decided.
Is it ok if some of the models have been started? I have a bad habit of half finishing a unit or two before getting distracted, and this challenge would be great inspiration for finishing these off, along with adding some completely unstarted units of course
If models are already painted, they can’t count. That said, we can work with you.
For partial army projects get a start pic of where you are at the start.
Spend all summer painting everything.
Most of your final pics should be of the minis you did over the time of the comp. But you can have a couple “finished army” pictures that include models that were done before the start. Remember that the picture count has been raised to 12.
I’m in the same boat. You can see in my proof pic where I started.
I want to work on a Revell 1/72 scale Flower Class Corvette model. Now there is a base coat on it and some spray paint on the hull...but as it has over 1000 pieces and I have quite a number still to build.
I want to work on a Revell 1/72 scale Flower Class Corvette model. Now there is a base coat on it and some spray paint on the hull...but as it has over 1000 pieces and I have quite a number still to build.
Would that be acceptable?
Phil
Basecoated/colored primer/spray with zenithal highlights are all OK. As long as it’s mostly at a basic starting point, it’s fine.
Didn’t you already build one? I seem to recall following your blog a bit ago, with a crazy level of detail. Building a whole flotilla?
Basecoated/colored primer/spray with zenithal highlights are all OK. As long as it’s mostly at a basic starting point, it’s fine.
Didn’t you already build one? I seem to recall following your blog a bit ago, with a crazy level of detail. Building a whole flotilla?
I did build this ship earlier (although I built her in the 1942 configuration, which meant I used part of the hull and some rafts. So about 1000 pieces replaced with scratch builds). https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/774273.page
This time I am building her in the 1944 configuration, and more like HMCS Snowberry in the kit. Which means a little less converting, most of that I have already done.
Looking forward to seeing you tackle another of those boats Captain Brown. I enjoyed reading the blog for the last one, the modelling details you did were superb - well worth hunting that blog down for anyone that didn't see it.
I think I'm going to attempt a wood elf army, though there are a couple of other options if I don't enjoy painting the first few of these. Here's what I've gathered together, I'll be surprised if I paint it all though
Quixote wrote: I feel like I'm playing way outta my league.
Everyone is at their own spot in their hobby journey. The important part to to walk your own path at a pace you are comfortable with, and grow as an individual.
Take inspiration from others, don’t be daunted. We are all here to help and encourage each other. At every skill level.
I cleared my entire pile of unpainted figures in the Monthly Challenge (now doing random old planned scratch built terrain each month).
Here, I am going to do something that would take more than a month...two months...three months...maybe more...Nev I might need an extension into 2026.
CB
Well, the tentative plan is to make February a “Finish it!” month were we waive the “must start unpainted” rule to help people wrap up projects. People seemed to enjoy that, and I know a lot of us need help clearing the decks of old projects.
So, from a certain point of view, extension granted!
If people just need a few more days at the end of summer, we can get a little wiggle room at the end here. Which would hopefully let you finish in time for the wrap up poll/vote.
Added the railings...very fidly...I use a third party seller (Great Little Ships) to put in the verticals and then fine wire. Really fragile...but so much better than the thick plastic kit parts.
Spoiler:
Spoiler:
Then adding items to the sweep deck (no railings to bend here)
Depth charges...lots of depth charges.
The two bars or to allow you to tow another vessel without hooking a depth charge rack...
So my entry is a big ol' block of Marauders for my Chaos Army:
I have about 17 or so of these bad boys. I hate panting plastic Marauders and my opponents tell me I need at least 20 for them to be at all useful. With luck, I can paint at least 19 (and throw a Hero in there) by the end of the summer.
I'll try to get a better photo of all the ones I have in-hand before going back to getting gouged by eBay
Nevelon wrote: They hard to find/crazy priced? I might have some partial ones I stole the flail heads off of in the pile of shame.How many you need?
I need either three or four. Mine are actually Bear Men of Urslo since they're close combat weapon and shield. I just used the non-Bearmen command and converted a Champion from a flailer one. There's another buy-it-now for Bearmen I have my eye on, but it's $52 for 6 and I don't need all 6.
But I appreciate the offer. Let me double check how many I need and get back to you.
@Nevelon: Okay, so I have 17 Marauders, meaning I need a minimum of 2 if I stick Hero in there:
Ideally, the sculpts would be any of these three, because I can cut the haft way down and still glue a shield on one arm so they're still WYSIWYG Maurauders with Hand Weapon & Shield:
Plus I already have the overhead swing one as my Champion.
Those guys look familiar: Spoiler to keep my rambling history from cluttering the thread.
Spoiler:
So why do I have marauders with flails but no flails? Set the wayback machine for sometime in the late 90’s and WHFB 5th edition, it’s story time! Back when the army books were full of unit entries that didn’t necessarily have models available. Maybe they made them at one point but they were OOP. Maybe they never made them. But the rules were there if you wanted to use them. Army construction was also fun for chaos, where you picked a hero and built their retinue. Across both my undead and chaos armies, I made heroes to represent characters in a Rolemaster game we were playing. Gist of the campaign was that we had all sold our souls to the same demon, and were trying to get them back. One of the characters was an Arabian Nights type swashbuckling charmer dervish. GW made a named character for the bretonion line that would fit, but I needed some mounted marauders to back him up, and none were made at the time. Enter some DE Dark Riders. A little clipping off speartips and replaceing them with flail heads later Was it a bit wasteful? Ish. I always intended to get them new weapons, either stick some large mace heads, or axe blades, or something. Never got around to it. Until much later, when we actually got a plastic marauder kit. Which was not a good one. Although it did come with flail heads, which could be fitted to the old metals. At one point in 8th WHFB my BIL at the time got me the core book and I was going to re-boot my chaos army. Picked up the army book, started cleaning up and painting some marauders. Never got them to the table before the world ended and AoS began. Where I returned to my undead roots.
Compared to the very impressive plans one can see in this thread, my plans seem to be quite considerable modest (I hope this is the right word).
I have this neverending list and from this I picked all the models I allready started, but didn`t finish - that`s my Summerproject:
- Zodgrod is built and primed and has its first green layer
- The Wartrike is built, primed and has a basecolor, driver and the two copilots are not yet primed
- One Meganob is built, primed and has the first green skintone
- The Mek is built, primed and has its first green skintone
- The original Gazgkhul Thrakka is built, primed and has a basic green skintone
- The Painboy is built, primed and has a green Skintone
- and today I started with a Biplane Conversion for my "Guttsnot`s Flying Circus" =)
- extra would be another conversion of an Albatros D III for the Circus
Well, my plans have changed:
I have been distracted by gift of orcs which has in turn spiralled into both an orc and black orc team with some conversions. Still need a couple of Goblins though.
Oops.
The varnish is still drying on them, but I figure I'll do an actual finished project photo with everything I've done instead of just these 5 (unless life gets in the way and I make no more progress).
So here is just a picture of (most) of my Ogres, I have a few unpictured Mounfang and 3d printed Sabretusks, but honestly i'll probably only work on painting those if the monthly challenge happens to perfectly align with them. I'm just planning on picking a handful out of these bins at a time and priming/painting them.
Alright, I'm committed to this damned beast now! I'm hoping to have this done by July 5th, but that seems unlikely now. In either case, I'll at least have it done in time for the local painting competition in the fall.
OK, we are a month in, about 1/3rd of the way through. How’s everyone doing? Let’s get some progress reports!
So this was my June:
Here is where I am painted for the Army on Parade board:
Here is where I’d like to be:
Some Dire Wolves found their way into the army. I might drop the second unit of foot wights to make room in a 2k list which is my goal. But right now they are all in the paint queue. Plus the extra random decorative bits which I didn’t bother to get out for the photo shoot.
I’m a little behind where I’d like to be, but have been setting a very aggressive goal for my pace. And June is classically a very low motivation month.
Progress report: since finishing the Terminators for the monthly contest, I've completed the Skull Rock update for Dreamlight Valley, and unlocked all the characters/costumes in Mario Kart World... so not a huge amount of work. But the legs are coming along, I'm getting to the point where I'll be able to glue the body on without it getting in the way of anything I need to paint below the belt, I've got a single mini entry queued up for 'sidekick', and Wimbledon's about to start so that's a couple of weeks I won't be using the tv for playing Switch late at night, that's quality painting time.
So my 20 Marauders are slowly coming along (mounted to proper bases and the first layer of drybrushing is done) while I also get more work done on my 15 Chosen. Photos soon, I hope.
I’ve built some interior elements and scatter terrain. Getting a feel for how the various Zone Mortalis, Boarding Action, and Sector Mechanicus parts interoperate. It looks really promising so far!
I know they're still in the "ugly phase" but pushing myself to start was the biggest hurdle. They're go faster the more I get accomplished, which is par for the course with assembly line painting.
I also have been working on my Chosen at the same time:
Again, I know just having highlighted black and few bits of color doesn't look great. So tempted to force myself to finish one from each regiment, just to show what I'm working towards.
The sum total of my progress so far:
This Missouri humidity is preventing me from getting the rest of my Lumineth sprayed. And when it's not humid, it's windy. I don't have a garage or anything so I'm very much at the mercy of the weather when it comes to spray priming stuff. I suppose I could brush prime all the models, but that sounds like something that would make me just quit entirely. I did brush prime the test model in the pic, and so far I'm happy with my color scheme. It looks different to any other Lumineth I've seen, and I think it's a good parallel for the Fire Nation uniforms seen in the Avatar cartoon.
ZergSmasher wrote: The sum total of my progress so far:
This Missouri humidity is preventing me from getting the rest of my Lumineth sprayed. And when it's not humid, it's windy. I don't have a garage or anything so I'm very much at the mercy of the weather when it comes to spray priming stuff. I suppose I could brush prime all the models, but that sounds like something that would make me just quit entirely. I did brush prime the test model in the pic, and so far I'm happy with my color scheme. It looks different to any other Lumineth I've seen, and I think it's a good parallel for the Fire Nation uniforms seen in the Avatar cartoon.
The red looks good so far.
re: brush priming. Where I live, it's either muggy, raining, or freezing pretty much all the time, so I gave up spray-anything years ago, and instead use brush on gesso for everything I paint. I can't really prep a whole pile of models at once, but since I don't paint armies anymore, that's not such a big deal for me. You might want to give it a try, so you can at least keep up a steady pace despite the weather.
Ugh, I'm reminded of how unfun Marauders are to paint, but I'm making progress:
Once I drybrush the fur white, I can start base-coating the skin. That should do a lot to make me feel like I'm accomplishing something and I can get more energized to work more. These guys are still in the "ugly phase", which leaves me demoralized.
Nev, I'm still trying to find some Eldar stuff for ya. I haven't forgotten.
I'll be doing the most recent Blood Angels Combat Patrol. I bought it for myself for Christmas last year, and after being sick for awhile, I'm finally up to painting these guys. I only started on Friday, so hopefully I can get these guys painted up by the time the contest is over.
Added some orange details (and some washes on the exposed skin) on my Chosen:
On the Marauders, I highlighted the fur with white on all 20 of them and moved on to start the skin. By the fifth one, I was burned out for the day:
I worked on a few non-sidequest stuff today as well, but that's another story. For whatever reason, both of these regiments are just draining to paint, so I can't devote all my attention to them in one go.
I wasn't intending to enter this, but I've just got back into collecting old Man O War (having stupidly sold my entire collection in the mid 2010s) so I may end up painting up a small fleet or two for this. Not decided which race to focus on collecting, yet. Maybe High Elves or Bretonnians, or maybe I'll be a basic b***h and just do Empire... I do like red, after all.
GW really need to rerelease Man O War, it's such a good game.
Projects that take more than a month you say? Ok then my entry will be anything I paint from Runar.
I may paint 1 model, I may paint 20... We will see...
Fixed and painted on the bandstand.
The anchor windlass (built from scratch), cable, anchor brake and bottle slip
Bridge is coming along.
QF 2-pounder (QF denoting "quick firing") and universally known as the pom-pom
I’m hoping this forms some good motivation for me.
I want to get the following minis done by September.
10 solar guard (Imperial Breacher proxies) - built and unprimed
1 solar guard leader - built unprimed
10 Scions - built and primed
2 - flamer troopers (inquisition acoloyte proxies) - built and primed
2x deathcult assassins- built and unprimed
2 crusaders - built and base coated
I realise the last ones have been started so kinda don’t count for the challenge so I wont include them in the voting photo at the end but I’m adding them so I get them finished.
If I some how get the above done I will add a character like a commissar or inquisitor
carlos13th wrote: I’m hoping this forms some good motivation for me.
I want to get the following minis done by September.
10 solar guard (Imperial Breacher proxies) - built and unprimed
1 solar guard leader - built unprimed
10 Scions - built and primed
2 - flamer troopers (inquisition acoloyte proxies) - built and primed
2x deathcult assassins- built and unprimed
2 crusaders - built and base coated
I realise the last ones have been started so kinda don’t count for the challenge so I wont include them in the voting photo at the end but I’m adding them so I get them finished.
If I some how get the above done I will add a character like a commissar or inquisitor
How long ago did you start them? Any time after memorial day is still fine.
carlos13th wrote: Speed paints made quick work of the assassins and I’m calling the crusaders done too
Nice. I always found that the non-sisters in the SoB army painted up real quick.
Also they were fine cast models that had issues anyway so I wanted them just knocked out quick. I realise there are purity seals i didn’t paint properly ect but I’m ok with it.
I have got some sisters to paint up too but not starter them yet
I was getting burned out on assembly line painting two large-ish units, so I focused on finishing some models to completion:
Why is it I can bang out the other plastic Warriors in an afternoon, but these guys are killing me? Is it just having 35 models staring me in the face?
After I didn't even get to start painting my froghemoth last year and successfully lazed about for the first two months this year, I finally finished gap filling on it yesterday.
We'll see if I actually paint it this year. No promises.
Well now.
Been away on me holidays (Malta, lush, much history, much food) and back anew with fresh ideas!
Summer holiday project idea #3 : Turn this into a dice tower.
That thing is about 12"/25cm high.
It annoys me, irrationally, that I don't have a sci-fi dicetower (I have my castle greyskull for fantasy and Venetian house for Carnevale) and Shatterpoint is a game that really needs one. I have made one in the past from juice boxes for Dreadball, though it's now fallen apart (through use, which is not a bad thing), and had considered using Mantic Deadzone terrain to do so. I plan to add another ladder to the gap at the front whilst cutting out the plate behind it.
Maybe.
Oh, you're too kind Still, got started; still want it to be functional terrain, though:
Doing a dry fit, it became apparent that there was simply nowhere for Dice to go. Out came the jewellery saw to remove the door recesses.
For the tray, the floor below with ladders as balustrades seemed reasonable.
Ladders on the inside prevent Dice getting trapped.
The top hatch becomes the ramp, a platform from another part of the set acts as one cover, and the inlaid pipework - cut down - becomes the exterior.
So far, so good!
That's a nice bit of scenery!
Dice Tower build is 95% done, I would say
I think i have to add another side rail in the lower level. Enthusiastic dice chucking leads to too much bouncing off. I think it can probably be a lower rail as the dice will have less energy at that point - hopefully.
In an attempt to get motivated again, I finished the unit Champion:
I like the end result, but actually painting marauders is painfully unfun. I don't know exactly what it is (the constant touching up since there's so almost equal bare skin and armor/clothes?) but it's very draining. Marauders are such a slog for me, especially when they die so easy on the table.
Hoping to tackle the musician next while also doing a few more assembly line colors on other models.
I know what you mean. I started putting the basecoat on the froghemoth. Boy do I hate large models. I didn't even get half the base done so far. I know it will get better, especially when it's all drybrushing and washes, but for now it feels like a lot of work for not a lot of progress.
At least your Marauders look good, so the slog is worth it.
Ironically, I love models where it's mostly drybrushing and washes. I could crank out 20 Plaguebearers in a weekend (which explains why I have over 100 of the guys finished )
If you can get large models that are just washes and drybrushing, those are glorious. The giant monsters for my tyranids take roughly the same time to paint as the gaunts. I just use a bigger brush. Ironicly, it’s the ripper swarms that get me. Multiple copies per base means it’s lime painting 3-5 minis, and the small scale makes sloppy work more obvious.
But for “normal” large models I have a l0t of trouble keeping focused and getting them done. Tanks especially.
Yeah, I'm glad the froghemoth doesn't need the extra attention of a tank or similar kit. I'd run into trouble with the deadline for sure. Drybrushing and stippling should get a lot of work done on it.
I'm already using the biggest brush I can reasonably use. The next bigger one is for terrain and doesn't even fit inside a GW paint pot.
I'm hoping a part of it is just fatigue from wrapping up the monthly model and things pick up a little in the coming days.
KidCthulhu wrote: Ironically, I love models where it's mostly drybrushing and washes. I could crank out 20 Plaguebearers in a weekend (which explains why I have over 100 of the guys finished )
I see 77 is behind you. The next milestone is 777. Should be doable.
Yeah, Nurgle is nice that way. My 40k Nurgle army was quick and easy to paint because those techniques work so well on them.
Roll the Dice! It's over Anakin, I have the Dice Tower!
Tee Chuta hhat yudd!
The Die is Cast
Who Watches the Watchers?
Fully functional!
And then storage boxes, trays, dice cups etc with the rest of the set
I decided to go a bit more freehand with the graffiti. Really happy with how the Aqualish and Gamorrean have turned out. The one on the left says Aliens Out Now and the other says Rebel!
Another graffiti shot The tag that looks like 2 stylised Js is huttese, it's a Nikto gang tag (same species as Vane from Ahsoka/Skeleton Crew), I've used it before on another piece of terrain, to tie them together. The squiggle is a vague, non-specific tag that pops up across The Mandalorian
Having made the dice tower, and with a bit of time left in the challenge it got me thinking: what ELSE would be useful that I could make from the same set? Shatterpoint is a game of a lot of bits and pieces - damage tokens, negative conditions, status effects, objectives, rulers... and they all end up everywhere.
So:
Ruler Storage / Dice cup!
Rulers end up all over the place in Shatterpoint, so having somewhere to store them makes sense.
When using the Dice Tower, as rolls are opposed, you might want to have a dice cup to chuck simultaneously (or not risk models falling off the dice tower). Going to embelish them a bit, but the principle is sound.
Cut-down ladders in the underside mean nothing falls through, either.
Token Trays! There are millions of tokens in the game, and having them organised just makes life much easier
carlos13th wrote: I’m hoping this forms some good motivation for me.
I want to get the following minis done by September.
10 solar guard (Imperial Breacher proxies) - built and unprimed
1 solar guard leader - built unprimed
10 Scions - built and primed
2 - flamer troopers (inquisition acoloyte proxies) - built and primed
2x deathcult assassins- built and unprimed
2 crusaders - built and base coated
I realise the last ones have been started so kinda don’t count for the challenge so I wont include them in the voting photo at the end but I’m adding them so I get them finished.
If I some how get the above done I will add a character like a commissar or inquisitor
Going to switch my goal on this. Friend of mine decided to pick up a Votan combat patrol and wants to do some kill team up to 40k esclation type games so going to paint up some kriegers for my astra militrum instead as I am closer to a semi functioning force with them.
KidCthulhu wrote:Very nice work. Congrats! The Aurebesh graffiti is a nice touch
Thanks KC! So, I made more stuff with the rest of the I Have the High Ground terrain set.
I decided to go a bit more freehand with the graffiti. Really happy with how the Aqualish and Gamorrean have turned out. The one on the left says Aliens Out Now and the other says Rebel!
Another graffiti shot The tag that looks like 2 stylised Js is huttese, it's a Nikto gang tag (same species as Vane from Ahsoka/Skeleton Crew), I've used it before on another piece of terrain, to tie them together. The squiggle is a vague, non-specific tag that pops up across The Mandalorian
And all together I'll edit my earlier post so these pics are in there too.
Nice work on the terrain and the freehands in particular, inmygravenimage.
Me, I'm six sessions (modest as they are) into applying the basecoat and over half of the froghemoth now has a nice, shiny layer of brown on it. Wait, shiny? That's right. Reaper's dreaded white PVC is still giving me a headache, which drains my motivation quite a bit. What a dreadful material.
Well, took a month and a half, but 5 more ogres are done. I'll get a better picture of everything at the end of the event but for now here they are plus the next project. I doubt I have time for anything big so going for some 3d printed Sabretusks I've had laying around. Since I'm not planning on doing any complex color schemes on them I at least hope I can get a few painted up before September, but I suppose we will see...
I won't be able to paint the froghemoth on time. I'm still one or two painting sessions short of a fully basecoated model. Progress was slow to begin with and then I lost over a week to a heatwave. Since my monthly model isn't in a much more advanced state and August is quickly running out, there's no way I can spare the time to paint a colossal model on the side.
I guess that means I'll come back to it sometime in the future. Maybe next year's theme should be I Know What You Didn't Do Last Summer.
Geifer wrote: I won't be able to paint the froghemoth on time. I'm still one or two painting sessions short of a fully basecoated model. Progress was slow to begin with and then I lost over a week to a heatwave. Since my monthly model isn't in a much more advanced state and August is quickly running out, there's no way I can spare the time to paint a colossal model on the side.
I guess that means I'll come back to it sometime in the future. Maybe next year's theme should be I Know What You Didn't Do Last Summer.
The month is not over yet, miracles can happen. But prioritize you hobby time as you need to do.
Heh. I like the concept of "I Know What You Didn't Do Last Summer” but I think as a topic it might have some issues. Also some advantages. Knock the dust off an old project, and get it finished up. Some people need help with motivation on that. But also, dusty projects are dusty for a reason. I think we might see more people drop out then normal.
--
Progress:
I should have got an after picture, but these guys are flocked and done. I’ve got one more barrow knight to do the last steps on, and 6 more wolves.
After that I could finish 6 more barrow guard, but think that squad has been replaced by the wolves. I should still get them done. I could also do more of the CC random bits and bobs. Or another 20 skeletons, but that’s not going to happen any time soon.
Yeah I'm gonna be doing good to finish even a single unit by, what was it, Labor Day? My motivation just dropped to near zero, and I've got other projects with higher priority. I might see if I can get the one unit done so I have SOMETHING to enter
Well I am falling further behind...had a catastrophic failure with the windlass, anchor and the anchor chain on the starboard side...then another on the bottle screw slip on the port side.So a rebuild is required as the parts were fitted with the wired joins being under the deck there.
I did make the depth charges (you can see the original kit version in grey.
I decided that, given the rate stuff was getting done, that I should cut loose some of the pieces and concentrate on finishing about half of the stuff. Making progress.
. I plan to print the physical model and paint it. So far it looks like this:
I do like red, after all.
