Welcome all to the 134th 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: Irregular - All’s fair in war. Not everyone is going to engage in a standup fight on a field of battle. Irregulars could be militia, guerrillas, mercenaries, or partisans. They could be warriors who specialize in hit and run warfare. Alternatively, you could interpret “irregular” to refer to a camo pattern that breaks up the shape of the subject. Or anything that doesn’t fit into the normal mold.


- 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 April and will end at midnight EST on April 30th After this, I shall compile the finished entries into a new thread, and voting will run for 5 days.

I gave the topic some thought and I don't think I want to paint anything irregular. I'd much rather paint this perfectly ordinary goat.

I'm choosing to interpret 'irregular' as referring to equipment; the Codex Astartes clearly details the proper wargear, markings, and decorations for every marine, and then there's the Star Leopards chapter.

Going to try to get some paint on some scouts. Who both engage in asynchronous warfare and will be in camo.

I think it will be these bad boys:

These have been repurposed from their regular use to be BB Star Players. And Star players are irregular inherently.

Riding a huge bat to battle seems pretty irregular to me so I'm going to paint my leftovers from the previous challenge i entered.
Plus their ability to retreat without damage and charge again fits with the hit and run theme or rather run and hit I guess.

You don't get much more irregular than Harlequins:



I'll paint up a few of these and enter the ones I like best.

Going to go for Irregular camo pattern.

Well you say mercenaries will do? I say it is time for the Maneaters!

By which I mean I very conveniently was just about to prime up some Ogre Maneaters anyways, so I'll do a few of these for the challenge, not sure which ones specifically yet.

 kurhanik wrote:
Well you say mercenaries will do? I say it is time for the Maneaters!

By which I mean I very conveniently was just about to prime up some Ogre Maneaters anyways, so I'll do a few of these for the challenge, not sure which ones specifically yet.

Spoiler:

Paint them all and choose your favorites. That's what I usually do.

 JoshInJapan wrote:


Paint them all and choose your favorites. That's what I usually do.

He he, I *would*, but I am a rather slow painter. Well, a combination of that and other hobbies. I'm currently calling it a win for the night that I primed them all.

Hmmm. I have an unfinished kitbash that might fit the theme of irregular, but I'm too lazy to want to finish it. What else? Would some Comic book style Killa Kans fit the theme, you think ?

Snafu wrote:
Hmmm. I have an unfinished kitbash that might fit the theme of irregular, but I'm too lazy to want to finish it. What else? Would some Comic book style Killa Kans fit the theme, you think ?

Pretty much anything out of a Mek’s workshop would be fine.

I'm going to enter some Techno-Barbarians.

Mon-keigh wrote:I'm going to enter some Techno-Barbarians.

I recognize a couple of Frostgrave kitbashes, but I can't identify the other two.

 JoshInJapan wrote:

Mon-keigh wrote:I'm going to enter some Techno-Barbarians.

I recognize a couple of Frostgrave kitbashes, but I can't identify the other two.

Yup, two of them are Frostgrave/Stargrave kitbashes. The robot thing is a Ghar Battlesuit from Beyond the Gates of Antares, and the other bloke is an Algoryn troops' body (also Gates of Antares), with some Frostgrave arms and a MESBG Eomer head.

I'll post some better pics, once I've got some paint on them.

I managed to almost finish two of my minis this morning.
Artos, king of Albia, one of the few Techno-Barbarian states that was never fully defeated by the Emperor in the Unification Wars.
And a Man of Iron.

 Mon-keigh wrote:
I managed to almost finish two of my minis this morning.
Artos, king of Albia, one of the few Techno-Barbarian states that was never fully defeated by the Emperor in the Unification Wars.
And a Man of Iron.

Woohoo! love to see the progress and the Union Jack.
I have been interested in Stargrave, and Gaslands of late, maybe will convert some hotwheels next month.

Well, finally found the motivation, still need some work, smoothing/sanding the putty and a few details here and there, but here are 5 Cheesestealer cults kitbash for this month contest:

Snafu wrote:
Well, finally found the motivation, still need some work, smoothing/sanding the putty and a few details here and there, but here are 5 Cheesestealer cults kitbash for this month contest:

Awesome!
Sending extra motivation points to aid your efforts, you can use them to lvl up the (enjoying the process) stats.

@Mon-keigh: That's some pretty quick turnaround.

@Snafu: "Cheesestealer Cult" made me giggle.

We're still on Spring Vacation, so I had time to sit down and crank out the first two Harlequins:


There are some more photos in my P&M Blog.

I think grots fit the theme of irrigular. I plan to paint these 5 for the contest. Hopefully, I won't get them mixed up with the other 34

Irregular you say? And which is the best irregular unit in Infinity? Kum bikers (obviously the original monowheel ones not the poncy american chopper ones).

I'll enter these chaos cultists. I'll see how many I can get painted this month and, if I go above five, enter my favorite five.

How is it that I voted for this theme and now I'm stumped for an entry?

 KidCthulhu wrote:
How is it that I voted for this theme and now I'm stumped for an entry?

Couldn't have gone any other way.

 KidCthulhu wrote:
How is it that I voted for this theme and now I'm stumped for an entry?

What’s at the top of the pile of shame? What projects you have under way? What models are you looking for an excuse to paint?

 Nevelon wrote:
What’s at the top of the pile of shame? What projects you have under way? What models are you looking for an excuse to paint?

Right now I'm going between another Inquisitor & his crew (many of which are currently soaking in acetone) or a group of 80's oldhammer Empire guys I was going to use as brigands in Big Fantasy Epic (but I can't decide on a color scheme). Both are unconventional units.

 KidCthulhu wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:
What’s at the top of the pile of shame? What projects you have under way? What models are you looking for an excuse to paint?

Right now I'm going between another Inquisitor & his crew (many of which are currently soaking in acetone) or a group of 80's oldhammer Empire guys I was going to use as brigands in Big Fantasy Epic (but I can't decide on a color scheme). Both are unconventional units.

Oldhammer is always fun. Go with those guys.

You want realistic or fancy for colors?

It's these guys:



So they're fancy and dirty at the same time...

I think these guys fit the definition of irregular, being a mob of barbarians after all:

These are Hill Tribesmen from the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game, as seen in The War of the Rohirrim. Definitely not a professional army by any stretch of the imagination, and they wear various bits of leather, cloth and fur for clothing and so should appear as a rabble. Perfect for Contrast-type paints if I do say so myself. Here's hoping this can get me out of my current painting funk and actually finish something.

 KidCthulhu wrote:
It's these guys:



So they're fancy and dirty at the same time...

I would go with more deeper tones, like burgundy and corresponding greens and blues. But that’s just me. Or you could embrace the poofy sleeved glory and go with bright yellows and reds.

But the dark colors hide the dirt and bloodstains better, which is better in their line of work as brigands...


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 ZergSmasher wrote:
I think these guys fit the definition of irregular, being a mob of barbarians after all:

These are Hill Tribesmen from the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game, as seen in The War of the Rohirrim. Definitely not a professional army by any stretch of the imagination, and they wear various bits of leather, cloth and fur for clothing and so should appear as a rabble. Perfect for Contrast-type paints if I do say so myself. Here's hoping this can get me out of my current painting funk and actually finish something.

You’ve got this! One layer at a time and they will come together. Just try to make it to the workbench, even if it’s just a few minutes a day to put one coat down.

I'm probably going to paint some Goblin Nasty Skulkers this month

 KidCthulhu wrote:
It's these guys:



So they're fancy and dirty at the same time...

Quite fancy indeed. Can't wait to see them.



Automatically Appended Next Post:

 ZergSmasher wrote:
I think these guys fit the definition of irregular, being a mob of barbarians after all:

These are Hill Tribesmen from the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game, as seen in The War of the Rohirrim. Definitely not a professional army by any stretch of the imagination, and they wear various bits of leather, cloth and fur for clothing and so should appear as a rabble. Perfect for Contrast-type paints if I do say so myself. Here's hoping this can get me out of my current painting funk and actually finish something.

Some washes and speed paints.
What do you think of giving them green flames for their torches?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Progress, few more days and its done.

Getting those basecoats down. Slow and steady…

Okay, let's see if I can finish five of these guys in time...



Still stumped on a paint scheme

My entry for this month's contest: converted Rat Ogor Star Players






Kreek Rustgouger

Hakflem Skuttlespike

Okay, so it looks like I'm going with purple and red:



Looking better than I thought.

Good stuff, graven and Kid!

Three more Harlequins finished, apart from basing:

Only 1 out of my starting 4 minis turned out to my liking, so I will only be entering Artos, King of Albia.

Love Artos, what's the story on him?

Those Harlequins and Rat Ogres look ace lads, nice work!



I'll enter my last 5 kasrkin. Although rather than the two plasma gunners one of them is the Sergeant.

@Olthannon brining in the heat! cant wait to see how they turn out.
________________________________________________________________________________
DONE
Palatinate - Irregular Mechanized support.
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/817689.page#11783890

Status update:


Left to right: Schläger, Kapitän Schwarzfeder, and Krebs

Pros: Making good time, they look decent enough for table standard
Cons: Some soft Oldhammer details, there's nothing really spectacular with my paintjobs

I posted it in your thread already but well done Mothsniper, those vehicles absolutely rule.

Great work Kid, your faces in particular are excellent. Great name for the guy on the right, I don't think he could be called anything but Krebs?







First of my 5 stormtroopers completed. Sniper Lambley.

A little late with an entry but what could be more irregular than a Dredd street gang?

You can enter at any point up to the final bell. Welcome aboard!

We are about at the halfway point, so plan accordingly. Now is also a good time to start brainstorming about what we want to paint in May and tossing out ideas.

(and be sure your taxes are filed for my fellow Americans)

Just chucking this in. Planning some Tau irregulars for Space Wierdos.



We’ll see how far I get by the end of the month.

Two more stormtroopers with two to go.

Daia T'Nara - Star Leopards Intercessors





The sprues for this squad were actually a prize from my local gaming group's open painting contest last year, won by Brother-Captain Fragman (of the leopard print cape), so obviously they had to be Star Leopards as well, meaning I got to paint the Thundercats logo - which I'd chosen for Fragman because I'd only have to do it once - five more times, getting increasingly wonky each time. The lore is now that each brother-marine paints the symbol himself upon being granted his armour, and they're not trained for art.

In addition to blogging here, I also post on my FLGS’s WIP Wednesday posts. When I posted my latest WIP, I was asked if I was going to paint or freehand markings.

In response I wrote:As I’m going to have the armor is arctic camo I’m going to have to dig around for some non-white Ultramarine transfers. But I’ve probably got some somewhere. If not, freehand. Although the white “U” masked out of the camo stripes might work as well. Seeing that the underlying color is going to be a more greyish white then the pure white of the transfer. Or I could do one shoulder in blue. Something to ponder while I finish them up.

As you can see, I’m dithering.

Also historically, I did not put chapter markings on my scouts. This dates way back from before I switched from Blood Angels to Ultras, so I could use them with either force. In universe my justification was that their job was to gather intel, not give it out. By not wearing chapter markings their opponent would not know what force they were up against.

Now my phobos get a blue shoulder. But they also have nice formal shoulderpads with a rim and everything. The non-pad shoulder is generally left bare. Exceptions made for HQs.

I know I can get blue :ultra: symbols somewhere, as one of my Lt’s is wearing one.

Where it came for an do I have 10 more is another question.

So the options:
A - No markings, all stealth
B - Blue/black U’s over camo. Transfers if I can find them, freehand if I can’t.
C - White U’s over camo (this is the easy answer. Well, easy that’s not A’s do nothing answer)
D - White U’s over chapter blue shoulder. Mimics the phobos.
E - Other, please describe.

I think the standard white chapter badge with black outline on top of the regular camo pattern would look good.

Pure white helped by a black outline should be readable, but also neatly blend in with your camo colors, especially from a distance.

Should be fairly easy to paint, too. Put a black basecoat on the shoulder pad, apply the transfer, and then fill in the remaining spots with your camo colors while leaving the black outline. Should hardly be any more difficult than painting the pattern on its own.

Good progress guys!

@Nevelon
Interesting question.

I can make an argument for each option, but it depends on what is more important like:
Consistency with ultramarine doctrine, whatever looks coolest, whatever reads best on the table, whatever is fastest to paint, ets.
If you can identify what condition is a must, that might help you to make a decision that you can be satisfied with without feeling like you have missed out on a better option.

For me whatever is faster that also reads best on the table is primary.
Because scouts are part of the larger battle group that already has the classic "U" markings.
For scouts, I would vote (A)

@Nevelon you might want to use the coloured shoulder pad, just so that you can find them on the table. I made the mistake of painting my Tau stealth suits in a military grey like a stealth aircraft and the buggers just disappear amongst the terrain. Turns out camouflage is effective, even at scale!

Meanwhile, I keep pluggin' away:


Wolpertinger Kompanie left to right: Knüppel, Schläger, Kapitän Schwarzfeder, Bucklige Jan, and Krebs

At least I have five done if I can't get any more done this month. It's easy to pick the five best when you only have five finished

 Jadenim wrote:
@Nevelon you might want to use the coloured shoulder pad, just so that you can find them on the table. I made the mistake of painting my Tau stealth suits in a military grey like a stealth aircraft and the buggers just disappear amongst the terrain. Turns out camouflage is effective, even at scale!

Oh, I am well aware of the effectiveness of camo. One perk is that most tables are not ice themed, so it will be hard for them to blend.

--

No suggestions for next month? I’ll just grab some from the archives.

Well, how about From the Archives?
Librarians, archivists, researchers- or old classic minis from the vaults!

You'd get my vote, Graven.

I don't think I'd vote for From the Arrrchives. I already painted my pirate librarian.

Got basecoats done on the bikes. Just need to get paint on the riders now. And the bases.

I've had 'Versatile' in my head for a couple of days, although there're probably previous suggestions along the same lines. Jacks of all trades, all-terrain vehicles, fighter-bombers, troops with rifles and swords, not you, Aspect Warriors, put your hands down, that sort of thing.

Last two Wyrmdrengen. I'll have to muck about to take a group photo.





Meltagunner and the sergeant. Had fun with the wasp stripes on the chainsword. Always a favourite.

For the next month vote, what about mekworks - anything built or engineered. Big or small, could be a tank, could be a robot, could be that nice bit of terrain you have sat waiting to be painted.

I'm going to paint this Skaven sniper.

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/818803.page

Vote for next month’s topic

Five singled out from the herd:


Here are the 5 grots I entered for this month's comptition.

That’s a wholottagrots!

yep and thanks Gulgog TufToof, they were this month's hobby project. All but five of them of them were primed and given a wash a few days before April started. I have gone from 0 painted grots to 30

Well I *was* making good progress (for me), but then whatever plague that was ravaging the workplace hit me and I've been sicker than I've been in 15-20 years. Better now except for a lingering cough, but its feeling likely I'm not finishing on time since I haven't touched a brush since last Sunday and would rather not try to paint between coughing fits.

Oof. Feel better. Still some time left in the month. And if you get close but need an extra day, the extension is always available if someone asks.

Good luck recovering from the plague and getting back to painting.

Finally got a chance to finish my Dredd gang reinforcements.

The five model/six photo limit was really tough this time-- I had a lot of difficulty deciding on which models to enter.

Harlequin Troupe:







You can see the rest in my P&M blog.

Nevelon wrote:Oof. Feel better. Still some time left in the month. And if you get close but need an extra day, the extension is always available if someone asks.

syrinx0 wrote:Good luck recovering from the plague and getting back to painting.

Spoiler:

Finally got a chance to finish my Dredd gang reinforcements.

Thanks. Mostly over it at this point it is just the lost time. We'll see how close I get, I got some vacation at the end of the month so the actual painting *should* get done, but varnishing tends to be a bottleneck for me since I put on perhaps more coats than necessary and put 24 hours between each one.

Also nice models, I completely forgot that there was a Dredd tabletop game.

Decided against the blue shoulder. Camo down, now for more details and touch ups.

Nothing irregular going on here. Nope. Not a thing.

Perfectly Ordinary Goat:

Hi, all.

This guy is about as 'irregular' as they get...!!!

Good progress guys! Saving comments for the voting

Very late to the party, but hoping to get these guys done before the end of the month (maybe!). I've been meaning to try and actually paint up some Fallout minis that I've had in my pile of shame for ages and thought the commonwealth minutemen definitely fit the bill of irregular militia at least.



There's a settlement that needs your help, let me mark it on your map...

Also nice models, I completely forgot that there was a Dredd tabletop game.

I picked up most of the models but never did play the game.

I’m in need of the extension if possible this month; my entry is shaping up but will be a lot closer to passable as finished with just a bit more time.

 Gulgog TufToof wrote:
I’m in need of the extension if possible this month; my entry is shaping up but will be a lot closer to passable as finished with just a bit more time.

Granted.

We’ll wrap this up on Saturday morning. So all of Friday May 1st guaranteed. And whatever time it takes me to get up and get a cup of coffee on Sat. Because I’m too old to stay up until midnight just to click a button,

Fair warning for those who want to push their luck, the Fuzzy Mistress has been making an effort all week to get me up earlier. So don’t think I’ll be sleeping until the crack of noon just because it’s a weekend.

Final photo for me, the Wyrmdrengen.

Some cracking entries this month, good luck everyone!

Cultists of the Abyss

Hey, waddyaknow, I actually finished something for once! Here are the final pics of my Hill Tribesmen as seen in The War of the Rohirrim:



These guys were actually pretty fun to paint, and are a great set of models for Contrast-type paints (which is what I used on everything except the metallics and the all-over drybrush at the end). I'm pretty happy with how they came out, too. Nice to finally actually get something done, too! Of course, I've still got a whole horde of these guys remaining to be painted (the rest aren't even primed, and I've got another whole box yet to even put together!), so there's work to be done on this army still. Looks like we've got ourselves a decent crop of entries for this month, so the voting should be pretty fun! Anyone who's not done yet, get busy!

 Nevelon wrote:

 Gulgog TufToof wrote:
I’m in need of the extension if possible this month; my entry is shaping up but will be a lot closer to passable as finished with just a bit more time.

Granted.

We’ll wrap this up on Saturday morning. So all of Friday May 1st guaranteed. And whatever time it takes me to get up and get a cup of coffee on Sat. Because I’m too old to stay up until midnight just to click a button,

Fair warning for those who want to push their luck, the Fuzzy Mistress has been making an effort all week to get me up earlier. So don’t think I’ll be sleeping until the crack of noon just because it’s a weekend.

I’ve been trying to get some of my Dark Angels Fallen done, this gives me a chance!

And done. Doing things a little different on these guys. One is only the carapace armor is camo, over basic white fatigues. Help differentiate them from the phobos marines. No chapter or unit insignia. Scouts are to gather intel, not provide it. The enemy will not know who they are up against. This harkens back to my old scouts, who wore woodland camo in the days where I was still undecided on switching to Ultras or continuing my BA. No markings let them swap. New plastics are so much better then the old ones, but still not up to the old metals.

Still need to do the other 5, but that’s a topic for another month...

--

Time’s running out. Get those last highlights down!

With the insanity of painting miniatures for another challenge, this was the best I could do with these guys:

Kid Cthulhu-Wolpertinger Kompanie



Good luck, everyone!

Gave myself a fair few options at the start of the month, figure adventurers are a fairly irregular lot:


Only got the this gnomish bat taur kitbash done of them though (too much battletech on the enthusiasms


Pictures aren't the best, kept forgetting to take them and then didn't have a good space with other projects, but she's done

Got a group done. Technically not complete as not varnished yet which is why they are still on their stands, but the varnish won't change much honestly so good enough.



Next goal is to actually stumble on the commentary thread sometime less than 2 weeks after its posted.

Hi, all.

First time in ages that I have finished two months in a row!

I know that might not seem such an achievement, but I am pleased to have an entry.

Below is a bit of an 'irregular' individual, I reckon.

Good luck everyone - see you next month!

What on Earth is that model?

 Chris56 wrote:
Hi, all.

First time in ages that I have finished two months in a row!

I know that might not seem such an achievement, but I am pleased to have an entry.

Below is a bit of an 'irregular' individual, I reckon.

Good luck everyone - see you next month!

He's one of the bad guys in the 'Kill Team - Rogue Trader' box from years back....that set had a lot of very cool models, actually.
They always look better in my head than my humble skills can achieve but the sculpts are interestingly bizarre, I reckon.

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/818848.page

Leaving this open for an extra day, but let the hunt begin! May the odds be in your favor.

I really struggled to finish these. They are not difficult minis to paint but after painting the bodies of the bats (that was the new and interesting thing) I didn't really have any motivation to paint the rest so I appreciate the extension. 2 months ago I painted 10 more ghouls and that is more than enough of the same model for me.
I think I have been spoiled with Marvel United where each mini is a different character. After 2-3 sessions if I don't have a finished mini it feels like it will take forever to finish and I don't want to continue.

Anyway with these 3 minis (and February's Challenge) I finished my second Spearhead army. I really like how they turned out! I might add a little blood on them at a later date though.

So my entry for this month, the Morbheg Knights






And my complete Spearhead

I can probably only finish one or two, but here goes:

Sadly just the one kroot done this month

I hope I'm not too late! This month was a mess, so I only got a single model from the squad done.

We have the extension running, so still some time left. Probably about 12+ hours from this post.

Closes over my coffee tomorrow morning.

My entry

Well, I DID NOT in any way forgot to paint theses little guys, nope.

Anyway, it is speed painted so not the best and one of the original ones was far too ugly and ended up in the stripping jar, so there's another in there:





I'm still trying to have better photos but aniway...

Evening All

Sry been a bit quiet on messages this month

Managed to get a small squad of Reiklander Mercs done for Mordhiem or similar, thought I'd try to give them a bit of colour to stand out.



Proof


Good Luck everyone

Those look awesome MG.

Here’s my entry, too tired to do the full camera setup, but I at least got two of the Fallen Brothers of the Bloodied Sword done:

Last Minute Entry.

Eldar Towers.





Build Photos:


Cheers,

CB

Bit of a last minute rush job, especially on the bases but managed to get these guys finished! For the Commonwealth!

Man these competitions bring out some amazing work! I too am last last minute-ing my entry (but at least I finally nailed a pair of human-sized eyes, they're even looking in the same direction and everything!)

"Every Inquisitor knows that death worlds produce the
toughest soldiers in the Imperium. Many go to great lengths to
draft experienced death worlders, for these warriors’ fighting
skills are vital for hunting down the heretic."

Kill Team Inquisitorial Agents Death World Veteran:












and proof:

Bit rushed, but got these nasty skulkers done

Everyone in? Closing this up, go paint on May’s topic.

Vote thread is up:

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/818863.page

Well done all!