Welcome all to the 126th 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 topic is: Weathered - Rust and Dust! Mud and Blood! We want to see the dirtiest, nastiest model put on a base. Practice those weathering skills. None of that parade ground clean, spit and polish stuff. Revel in the filth, play in the dirt, show some wear, tear, and decay.
- 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 may enter at any time during the month, 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 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 August and will end at midnight EST on August 31st. After this, I shall compile the finished entries into a new thread, and voting will run for 5 days.
I'm going to give this here swamp golem a try, partially in the hope that painting animated mud is so easy it doesn't cost too much time. I'm going to need it if I have any hope of finishing the summer side quest.
I actually really want to enter my Tomb Kings' High Priest on Necrolith Bone Dragon for this month, but I've got to hope I get a window in the weather to get it primed. Today was a nice temperature and low humidity, but it was too windy. A lot of models I might otherwise use for this challenge are similarly unprimed as of now. Here's hoping something gives.
Time to open up that set of cult marines they did made-to-order a couple of years back:
The colour on the base is just the technical paints, it'll all be sprayed over, when I can - currently we're being weathered in a direct sense by constant rain.
Maybe I'll try one of the Trench Crusade Models I have. Plus a terrain piece or two for the summer side quest. My Brets aren't really in the bloodied and weathered category this go around!
I'm in the middle of moving from Washington State to North Carolina, so we'll see if I can get back into my monthly painting routine. If I manage to get my models unpacked and my painting station set up, I’m planning to work on a couple of Death Guard Kill Team figures from the starter set.
If the timing's tight, I’ve also got a metal Fenbeast prepped and ready to go—that could be a solid fallback. We'll see how things shake out!
Daia T'Nara wrote: Time to open up that set of cult marines they did made-to-order a couple of years back:
The colour on the base is just the technical paints, it'll all be sprayed over, when I can - currently we're being weathered in a direct sense by constant rain.
Looking forward to seeing this guy painted. That was my first Plague Marine.
With decay listed in the description for this month, seems like the perfect opportunity to try to paint up my three homemade Nurgle greater daemons. They have been sitting untouched for close to 10 years after making them.
I'm intending to enter three converted female wizards, one each of amber, grey and jade. Unfortunately, for the grey and jade wizards I'm struggling to get hold of appropriate conversion parts, so all I can work on is the amber wizard at the moment. I've attached a proof pic. It's actually one I converted for a previous monthly challenge, but didn't get round to painting. Amber wizards are notoriously out doors-y, weather-beaten (and animal-bitten) wizards, so I hope that fits the challenge. The more appropriate wizard for the theme is the grey wizard as grey magic extremely weather oriented, so here's hoping I can get her completed in time. Jade wizards are, again, very nature oriented, so hopefully she'll be okay, too.
I guess if I piss and moan about the weather it'll change for me. Got my entry primed so I'm entering officially now:
This will be a High Priest on a Necrolith Bone Dragon. I think something as ancient as the Tomb Kings is generally pretty weathered, and indeed the howdah thingy for this model has some chipping and stuff on it to show the passage of time. I'm not gonna lie, this is one of the more daunting models I've tried to tackle for this challenge, so wish me luck!
I ended up painting this chap almost entirely with shade/ink paints, apart from the shoulder badges and a few spots of brass - wasn't planned, but I started weathering the white armour before basing the shoulders and equipment, and just kind of kept going.
So the FLGS does painting comps for the free mini of the month, one week speed paints. Decided to push to get this guy done. Tried to work some directional splatter on the gore. DW was a bad choice for the armor chipping, and the black line under the silver just matches the armor. Oh well. Done.
Still might do the necrons this month, but really need to focus on the soulblight for the summer comp.
We are off to a flying start. Lot of good in here already.
Including some finished minis! Looks good Nev, he's definitely got the look of a weathered veteran. The splatter of snow up his legs is a nice touch and something I've always forgotten on my 120+ snow-based imperial guardsmen.
Great job Daia T'nara - wonderful dirty muted palette - and testament to what you can do with washes, a happy accident for sure.
Stoked for the big clay boys and that lovely gobsmasha to get some love Syro and theCrowe!
I've had these $2 crates from DAISO sitting around for a while so today I stuck some gubbins on them and primed them up for the contest.
Not going to be the world's prettiest paintjob - I have limited patience for painting at the best of times and terrain has always been a slog - but that's kind of the point this month right?
Nevelon wrote: DW was a bad choice for the armor chipping, and the black line under the silver just matches the armor. Oh well. Done.
Back in the day when I gave chipping on black armor a try my solution for that was to use a dark grey green for a base and shade. Something granite. I don't even remember the paint's name anymore. Shame GW discontinued it.
It's still dark and a contrast to silver, but also looks noticeably different to black. Worked decently for me.
Does anyone have any experience with making washes out of craft paint? I think my next step is going to be to dunk them in a bucket each of black and brown wash.
Does anyone have any experience with making washes out of craft paint? I think my next step is going to be to dunk them in a bucket each of black and brown wash.
I have never made a buckets worth for dunking but the method I use is I take an old paint pot and I start with a 5 to 1 water/paint ratio and the smallest drop of dish washing soap. Give it a good a mix and then I start applying to a test piece and add paint or water as needed to get the right effect. Cycling back to the bucket, I would recommend just making smaller batches and apply with a brush. Those look like large pieces so you would need a decent size bucket of wash and then you would be left trying to store the excess wash. On the plus side if you could store it you would probably have enough wash for the rest of your life.
The boat is almost completed, the only things left are rope with hook for the crane and some proper base, better than the current one . It was very fun to paint, and I like the effect. I was planning to add some sailors, but the boat looks like it is abandoned for a very long time.
"All Your Base Are Belong to Us"
A model with an extravagant base. Or a model that is part of a military base or is adept at infiltrating or destroying such bases. It could also be a model of a conqueror such as Genghis Khan or even Julius Caesar who once declared "I came, I saw, all their base are belong to me!" - or something along those lines. Noise Marines or other units armed with sonic weapons are also acceptable entries since all your bass are belong to them.
"Somebody Set Up Us the Bomb"
A model that deals with explosives or sabotage. It could also be a character that's a master of deception who could work his way into a position to set up you the bomb. It could also be an exploded piece of scenery or a destroyed/derelict military base that is now belong to us.
"For Great Justice"
Police? Palanite Enforcers? Vigilantes? Judges? All are acceptable entries for this theme of seeking or enacting justice against those who set up you the bomb. Any who hunt down and punish criminal scum fit this theme. As the great philosopher Robocop once said, "Your move creep!"
NOTE: All the above potential themes come from the English translation of a Sega Megadrive game called "Zero Wing" that was released in Europe and contains some of the greatest meme material of all time.
Maybe "playing with toys" or something similar? Paint a toy as a terrain, or for example rubber dinosaur as wargaming model. Also soldiers with their favourite weapon or vehicle, Orks with everything hey have, chaos followers or genestealers being toys in the hands of their gods. Dark Eldar or Slaanesh followers with their slave.
"All Your Base Are Belong to Us"
A model with an extravagant base. Or a model that is part of a military base or is adept at infiltrating or destroying such bases. It could also be a model of a conqueror such as Genghis Khan or even Julius Caesar who once declared "I came, I saw, all their base are belong to me!" - or something along those lines. Noise Marines or other units armed with sonic weapons are also acceptable entries since all your bass are belong to them.
"Somebody Set Up Us the Bomb"
A model that deals with explosives or sabotage. It could also be a character that's a master of deception who could work his way into a position to set up you the bomb. It could also be an exploded piece of scenery or a destroyed/derelict military base that is now belong to us.
"For Great Justice"
Police? Palanite Enforcers? Vigilantes? Judges? All are acceptable entries for this theme of seeking or enacting justice against those who set up you the bomb. Any who hunt down and punish criminal scum fit this theme. As the great philosopher Robocop once said, "Your move creep!"
NOTE: All the above potential themes come from the English translation of a Sega Megadrive game called "Zero Wing" that was released in Europe and contains some of the greatest meme material of all time.
A fitting theme, as I'm in the middle of a "vehicle boom". Started painting an Immolator for my veeeery slowly growing SoB army.
Also building a Death Guard walker kitbash, but that will take way longer than the challenge allows. So I'm going with the Immolator.
Here's the proof. Picture taken a little over a week ago.
Work in progress. It looks very clean currently. So... time for oils and enamels!
It will not be overly weathered, but I want it to look like a machine of war.
Trying to rehearse the weathering steps we were taught at a workshop by Gregor Pilarski a couple of months back.
The boat is gorgeous, halfling84! Love the consistent weathering across the two primary colours - looks suitably lived in and worked on!
Great start Ezki - looking forward to seeing the progress on the tank, and the stained glass window looks super promising!
Thank you for the tips Peterhausenn - I had definitely meant buckets in a figurative sense but I used your recipe - would never have thought to add dish soap!
They're sitting here at the moment. They are darker in real life - think the lighting and the camera were playing off each other. Think next step is to sponge on some highlighting and then go back and re-wash a bit more carefully around panelling etc.
The first four peacekeepers are essentially finished:
There are still a few models remaining in the set. I'll get as many as I can done this month, take better photos at better angles of whichever I decide are the best.
Thank you for the tips Peterhausenn - I had definitely meant buckets in a figurative sense but I used your recipe - would never have thought to add dish soap!
My pleasure, it looks like it turned out well. To be honest I'm not sure how much the dish soap helps, but that is something I read a while back when I first tried to do this. I don't think it hurts anything so I keep doing it.
And speaking of washes, I have completed the wash stage on my model as well. Next steps will be to build up some highlights and add some rusting.
That scale mail soaks up the wash really well. Will look great highlighted up!
@JoshinJapan, lovely colours on your band so far. Love the simple but well executed basing to tie them together too.
Been playing around with the best way to get photos of the terrain, and I've gone from too light to too dark, but this captures where we're at with the weathering much better. I'll show them off together and spoiler the rest for cause there's quite a few massive pics.
Just some detail work to do now - pipes and lenses and so on. Though I've also got half a jar of Vallejo Thick Mud that I'm tempted to use to crust up the bottom sections and cake around the greebling...we'll probably see how we're going for time at the back end of the month.
@tzurk: Thanks! That's my go-to basing-- white glue+sand, with a couple layers of drybrushed browns. Normally, I'd add some tufts, but the only ones I currently have are too big for these bases. I'm really liking your cheaphammer buildings so far. They'll look great on the tabletop.
It will be cutting it close, but I might just have enough time to get this done. I real shame. I was excited for the theme this month, but life has been getting in the way of painting lately.
Calling him finished. A couple notes, I was not happy with the brown color on his sleeves as I felt it blended in too much to the rest of the model. I changed it to a dark red and I think it adds enough color to what would otherwise be a drab model. The base is something else I am not happy with. It looks too blue for me, especially in these pictures. It almost looks like he is standing on water. While the green I used for the base was more bluish than I normally use I didn't think it would look like this. I am pretty sure I will end up repainting in the future to make it better fit my game boards. Just don't feel like having to take more pictures so bluish base it is.
I'm gonna try again - this year I have only managed to get one model finished in time for the monthly challenge...so I'm determined to get this one done!
I've been meaning to paint this fen beast for a while, and this finally gave me the perfect excuse! The more I work on it, the more I’m blown away by the depth of the sculpt. At first, I remembered it as just a mass of rocks and tree branches—but now I’m spotting bones, tangled vines, and even a random fish tucked in there. It's wild! Hopefully I can do it justice.
Finished! I made a few mistakes with my experiments. The corrosion paints I used on the sword did not mix the way I thought they would. I probably should have just stuck with the red rust. But my biggest mistake was the resin I put on the base.
It was supposed to be a mix of 2:1 and I did a mix of 1:2. I don't think it's ever going to fully set now.
I finished my entry a few days ago, but only just got it photographed. Here are the final pics of my High Priest on Necrolith Bone Dragon:
I had a ton of fun working on this model, even if I do think it is far from my best work. I also consider this to be one of GW's most phenomenal sculpts ever, just an amazing addition to the Tomb Kings range (most of the rest of which is showing its age rather badly). I figure it fits the theme since the model is fairly weathered; I mean, it's literally been stripped to the bones! Plus the cloth on the canopy and the saddle has seen better days.
Looks like we're gonna have another great month! Hope to see more of the rest of you fine folks get something done this month!
Syro_ wrote: I'm going to bow out for this month. I won't be able to work on my pieces before the end of the month.
Would an extra day or 2 help?
That's very kind of you Nev, but I don't think it would help. I had hernia surgery last week. I'm recovering, but it's still not comfortable or enjoyable to sit for hobby time. It will come, but no idea when.
JoshInJapan wrote: I have all the models finished, I just need to select which ones to enter and take proper photos. I may need the extension for the photos.
Just in case you (or anyone else) we’ll just go ahead and tack an extra 24 hours onto this. So we’ll close it up midnight on the 1st, or more realistically Tuesday the 2nd when I wake up and have a cup of coffee before work.
I didn't think I would get any painting done in time for this months comp, just finished building some random orcs to make a little warband and need a test mini, so going to enter this guy
Automatically Appended Next Post: Little update, used some contrast paints for quickness and then used a brown wash all over it, letting that dry now for abit, then clean it up
Face and axe left to do now, then calling him done.
Here is my finished model. Fenbeast from the Isle of Albion. I'm going to give him to my brother to play DND with since GW doesn't support the model anymore.
Something new I tried with this guy was "liquid" on his base. I'm gonna continue to try to expand on that with some other models I have.
Figured I'd paint this cool model I got off ebay for this month. I think it turned out pretty well, I tried to really focus on the weathering effects.
Good Luck everyone
Ork Rusty Tank
Proof
Spoiler:
Final Pics
P.S. Between 70th Birthdays, football tournaments and trips to scotland with work I'm running behind on the league table update, which will be done as soon as I'm able.
MG that model is just plain bonkers and you've done an awesome job on the rust!
Love the Bloodbowl ork and the coat on the lawman, too - great work for both.
I actually got finished this month, which I am taking as a win in itself. I really enjoyed painting this model - though I forgot how the camera shows you all the bits you missed and messed!
Anyhoo, now I have to start this month's...
So far it is painted with base, with preshading. Proof:
BB Team, just ordered them for this. Excuses, excuses...
I don't think it's ever going to fully set now. 
