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Welcome all to the 136th 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: From the Archives: Librarians, archivists, researchers, wizards, inquisitors, - or old classic minis from the vaults! Knock the dust off the old tomes and bring them to the light. Dig something up from the forbidden stacks.

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

Well, at the moment, I'm thinking more oldhammer. I have a metal terminator librarian that might do the trick, a classic Jokaero, but marines and eldar in the mix too. Pics to follow!

I have some metal Necrons en route from eBay, so I might do one of them... unless I force myself to bang out more metal Maurauders or those metal 80's Khorne Chaos Warriors I have waiting in the wings.

I’ve got 5 minis on deck, with an optional 6th if I change my mind. Probably pick the one I like the best to enter.

Tigurius - librarian.
Old RT chaplain. Be just and fear not.
2 deathwatch marines a sn old scout with a comically large rife. The 3 oldest things in my primed pile I need to knock the dust off and get painted.
Optional - old metal eldar warlock

I have options, but haven't decided yet what to do. I thought I did, but I'm not sure anymore. Might just take a week off and assemble stuff. See what I feel like doing.

 KidCthulhu wrote:
I have some metal Necrons en route from eBay, so I might do one of them... unless I force myself to bang out more metal Maurauders or those metal 80's Khorne Chaos Warriors I have waiting in the wings.

My Necrons came in today and they sent me the wrong blister (doesn't have the pose from the photo), so I have to send it back for the right one.

Would any minis from the assault on black Reach set be allowed? Not sure if those are old enough.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I actually do have some older stuff I could try painting that is older than that (second edition) that I could also do if minis from assault on Black Reach aren't allowed.

Miniatures would probably be some old deaff copters or 2nd ed Space Marines.

The deaff copters were in rough shape when I got them but I fixed them up decently I think.

KidCthulhu wrote:

 KidCthulhu wrote:
I have some metal Necrons en route from eBay, so I might do one of them... unless I force myself to bang out more metal Maurauders or those metal 80's Khorne Chaos Warriors I have waiting in the wings.

My Necrons came in today and they sent me the wrong blister (doesn't have the pose from the photo), so I have to send it back for the right one.

Oof. That sucks.

Mrangryork wrote:Would any minis from the assault on black Reach set be allowed? Not sure if those are old enough.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I actually do have some older stuff I could try painting that is older than that (second edition) that I could also do if minis from assault on Black Reach aren't allowed.

Miniatures would probably be some old deaff copters or 2nd ed Space Marines.

The deaff copters were in rough shape when I got them but I fixed them up decently I think.

Old is relative. AoBR was 5th, and we are about to go into 11th, so it should qualify.

I've got the original metal Farseer from made-to-order a short while back, and the metal Inquisitor with the big hair and long-barrel flamer, both freshly sprayed and waiting.

I misremembered the theme as Ancients, and started working on a very old RAFM skeleton horseman, with a Melnibonean soldier as my backup. Then I saw the title of this thread, and pulled out some Call Of Cthulhu Investigators. I'll paint up all of these and choose my favorites.

Looking forward to this one, I need to find somebody suitable. I'm sure I've got somebody with a book somewhere.

I have no idea what I might do for this. I'd love to get involved, though, and I've a heap of old models which need some paint! I'll have to dig it all out and have a look!

I will admit that I shamelessly suggested this with an eye on all the retro minis I have dotted about

I'm going to enter the Terminator Librarian from the 10th edition 40k launch box, but Dakka is being a pain and won't let me upload images currently.

Last year (I think) I bought an old metal Chief Librarian Tigurius mini. Seems like it's a good fit for this months theme. Also Nev, if we are both doing Tigurius, try not to make me look too bad

I count three Librarians so far in this thread-- maybe do a Librarian-off mini challenge?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I have my first model finished. Hopefully the issues with the gallery are resolved soon.

 inmygravenimage wrote:
I will admit that I shamelessly suggested this with an eye on all the retro minis I have dotted about

Good to know who to hold responsible for my ongoing indecision.

Proof pic:


Looks like we are in buisness

More inquisition agents proof:

Oldhammer proof

Okay, now that Dakka's been fixed, here's the proof for my Terminator Librarian:

The most daunting part for me is going to be the glowy lines all over this model. I'm already watching Youtube videos on how to do it, hoping some one of those will work for me.

Proof pics:

I traced all those lines out with a shiny metallic, only to have all my work erased when I glazed the mini. If you can get it to work, more power to you. I failed on that task.

Hmm, don't have much in the way of archivists, though could probably rustle up a wizard of some sort, so it's probably going to be an old model for me. Got quite a few of those to choose from

Archives you say? inquisitors you say? Say less!

And here they are:



Not much progress yet either, I've been in a weird place where not having posted the image has kind of made me feel we haven't started yet, so I've kept defaulting to other projects (converting a Lieutenant and painting a Ballistus). It'll be the Farseer though, I've started colouring his base (which is super thick technical paint caked on there, fingers crossed it doesn't break apart, as it tends to do).

@Mothsniper: that bin of jumbled models hurts my soul.

@Daia T’Nara: The picture thing really did put a damper on the start. I feel like we lost a week, even if it was just a few days. I similarly didn’t pick up a brush until I could post a picture.

 Nevelon wrote:
@Mothsniper: that bin of jumbled models hurts my soul.

Let your soul rest easy! It was a rescue deal from a local swapmeet, just never had the time for them till now.
In this lasagna bin, below gray knights is a layer of gothic terrain wall sections, and under that a layer of metal sisters of battle.

I want to try your camo tech, however anything but silver for the armor would be heretical.

Waiting on an eBay seller to send me the correct Necrons.I have some more Oldhammer stuff but not sure if I'm feelin' it. Better take photos of EVERYTHING in case I end up painting something that fits but wasn't planned

Craftworld infinity circuits are kind of like archives. So here is a specialist construct sung into existence to support ship to ship combat and hulk insertion. Often seen escorting Umbral Seers on their dangerous journeys into dark places