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This month, entrants were tasked with painting up something ancient, holy or both, and the wide array of entries was particularly impressive! Now it's time to pick your favourite entries! You may cast as many votes as you like, 3-5 being recommended, on any entries that catch your eye, be that for the quality of the paintwork, the effort and ambition involved, the suitability to the theme or anything else you think is worthy of recognition!

Without further ado, the entrants:


Zach: Archaon The Everchosen


Januine: Adeptus Mechanicus Tech Priest


SirOllox: Uriah Jacobus


ChaosDad: Cypher, the Fallen Angel


ssisal: Dark Angels Dreadnought


Ustrello: Chaos Knight



TP^DC Deputy Manager: Anrakyr The Traveller


Reavsie: Kharn The Betrayer


KINGPIN54: Space Marine Chaplain


piratepizzadog: Death Guard Space Marine


Loricatus Auroura: Ultramarine Captain with Burning Blade


sockwithaticket: Heavy Bolter Rapier


Zergsmasher: Dark Angels Chaplain


vejut: Typhon Harbinger of Set


Paradigm: Chaplain Ortan Cassius


Wilson: Lightning Fighter


optometris: Contemptor Dreadnought


Guildenstern: Luna Wolves Chaplain


trob52: Chaos Champion


Midget Gems: Indianork Jones and the Temple of Doom


Moolet: Blood Angels Chaplain


Nevelon: Cataphractii Terminator


Nordicus: Fateweaver


GulGog TufToof: Ork Loota with Relic Missile Launcher


methebest: Iron Warriors Warsmith


jah-joshua: Ulrik The Slayer


Keezus: Beserker Warjack



Zambro: Imperial Fists Contemptor Dreadnought


Pneumo: Chaos Sorcerer


Jadenim: Inquisitorial Henchmen



King Pariah: Necron Pariah


Farseer Anath'lan: Cataphractii Terminators


JBschroeds: Reverend Healer



Camkierhi: Freeboota Kaptin


spuj: Space Marine Chaplain


Kustomer D: Ork Megaboss


Sevren: Space Marine Chaplain


kb_lock: Dead Blood Angel Terminator

All pretty amazing.

3-5 choices is really too few to make a solid choice... Great entries all around, was difficult to choose between so much awesomeness!

Wow, that was tough. So many good ones, for different reasons.

Congrats to all just for finishing, that's one more off the unpainted list!

Zach (Iechine) - possibly this month's most impressive entry. I'm not a big fan of the sculpt (the monster's heads do't fit imo), but you're paint job is stellar

Januine - the aesthetic of your AdMech continues to be a treat. The freehand cog on his hood is a great little touch

Loricatus Aurora - I told you in the main thread, I really like the gold you've achieved, especially on the pad and jump pack symbols.

Moolet - as with Zach, case of a great paintjob on a sculpt I'm not wholly sold on.The vibrancy of your reds is a highlight.

Keezus - you've managed to subtly make this 'jack look worn and ancient, but still in excellent condition. Good job.

Man this is getting tough!

First pass I was like ok vote for everyone... second pass I only narrowed it to 16 lol

So much beautiful work, great job everyone on your lovely minis, or not so mini minis! Ustrello I'm looking at you

So anyone who's photos linked to a Dakka gallery has had a vote from me. Took 40mins or so. Time well spent, helped me quantify in my own mind how good the minis were, that left me with 12 to choose between them it came down to photo quality and interpretation of theme. I apologise but I couldn't get it down to less than 6.

All entries were great again this month. My over-riding feedback for those looking to develop would be to thin paints (I'm still not 100% great at this but really does help), choose your colour palette carefully and don't feel sheepish about asking the big guns for tips (maybe hold off PM'ing Januine or the others en masse at this point, I know for example Januine gets LOTS of messages for advice which he happily gives, but only has so many hours in the day ). It's always good to follow a painting and modelling blog and pick up hints that way or ask directly about how stuff is done. Only way to learn after all.

Final word again, can people please try voting in the gallery. And not just for the top painters, far more useful for you to vote for those not at pro or nearly pro level - they are the ones wondering how good they are compared to everyone else. Case in point - I have 1 photo out of 358 that has 5 votes and it scores a 7 on painting, but that was aaaaages ago. Always good to know if you're getting better. Thanks again for reading the plea

Thanks all that voted for me.

I am really feeling that my entry is lacking in the metal parts - as in they need some additional color - maybe some brassy bits to offset the uniformity of the grey metal. In retrospect, some OSL would have helped immensely by adding punchiness as well, but I really didn't have luxury of time to devote to this month's entry...

LMK if there is anything else that can be improved!

For next month... I think I may have an exciting surprise!

Votes this month going to:

Zambro, Jah and piratepizzadog take best painted entries, really great work!

TP^DC, that's one of your best yet, great metalwork and overall improvement!

SirOllox, there's something wonderfully muted and subtle about that model, good stuff!

Midget and Kustomer D: Two brilliantly creative entries, take a vote and a bow chaps!

Wow, I have to admit that I didn't think I would get many votes this month due to me having such a hard time on my mini - Thanks a bunch all who votes for me!

A few special mentions this month for me:

Zach - You do a Chaos player proud. Hot damn that Archaon looks amazing!

Paradigm - As always, your muted palette does all of it's talking on its own. I have to pick your brain at some point.

Moolet - Classic take on a good model. Great job!

jah-joshua - I usually don't like Space Wolves, but this miniature and its paintjob is top of the line. Ace work!

Keep it up in the coming months guys!

Oh my, there are some truly stunning models in this line up and some very creative ones as well (looking at Midget Gems entry) so tough to choose a winner.

Great work guys I think we're really pushing the level the entries each month

You raise a valid point TP^DC, I will make sure I vote for more images in the future.

Another bumper month with 38 entries, its almost taking as long to go through the entries and appreciated them as it is for me to actually finish a model My shortlist ended up at around 16 that I really liked, in the end managed to whittle it down to 8 or so.

Para, Knightley thank you very much for the mention, the Indy Ork was a fun model to make and strangely my second Harrison Ford character Ork. Thank you and any one else that votes for him in advance.

I'm very happy my friend Spuj got his entry in, great work mate
The wings and colours on your piece are fantastic Zach
I'm amazed how quickly and how well you where able to get your knight done Ustrello
Loricatus Auroura, the burning blade turned out wonderfully.
Para, Jan both still regularly painting exceptional pieces, Para with your definite Grim dark style and Jan your cloth is always perfect. I do feel I'll have to do a unique conversion and try to commission either of you to paint it
Kustomer D - love your conversion work, you are giving me you great ideas for my own war boss conversion in the future.

I could go on a mention more but then I would just be writing a comment next to a list of everyone's names.

Took me longer this month than any previosu to make decisions adn cast votes. (I know my typing is pish at the mo - it's mornign an coffee is still brewing) So so many awesome entries so I had to try adn stick tightlyt o the themem and what really jumped out at me. I voted for 12 in the end here's some of my favs. (where is that coffee dammit!!)

@Zach - that is a fantiastic piece. Gorgeous paintjob. What I liked most about it was actually the heads. You didnt go the bright bright bling bling path but made them much grittier and therefore a lot more effective and beleivable. Sound job fella

@ChaosDad. Lovely job on Cypher. I like having an unhooded version for a change. Lovely gritty dark colourscheme. Works great and there is no doubt that Cypher is a relic in his own right

@Ustrello - you damnable heretek!!! Great job on the Chaos knight. fantasitc conversion and a deleicious paint scheme. My only niggle is the blood on the back blade - just doesnt look right to me - maybe some splatter to cover up the brushed on look. Overall - what a fantastic piece!!

@TP - each month you produce something that goes further and surpasses your previous efforts. You're improving at a rate of knots. That toaster is cracking and really embodies the theme. Lovely stuff

@Midgetgems - There are no words!!! Just fantastic work. totally got my vote

@Nordicus - gorgeous gorgeous work and totally hitting the theme. Just wish we had some more photos of the big fella to see more of him. Perfect palette choice and really nice treatment. Your transitions and blends work beautifully esp on the glowing hand and the subtle osl you put in. Top banana

@jah-joshua - bloody hell mate - you made me vote for a space wolf!! I hate those mutts!!! But I love that paintjob - its a really nice sculpt and you've taken it a step further. Skinwork is perfect and I really like how you've treated the cloak; using the crosshatching on the highlights really gives it more of a rough feel of material - like hessian cloth or the like. Fits in some much better withthe character of the figure.

Great job everyone and big up to Para for keeping this most awesome of comps going. Till next month painters

Beautiful work everyone

What an awesome display of painting talent. It was hard narrowing it down to five to get votes for me. Here's the ones I picked:
Zach: You made Archaon look pretty amazing! Must have been a tricky model to make look good, but you nailed it!
Paradigm: Chaplain Cassius looks great, such a great sculpt and your painting style really works for the Deathwatch!
Midget Gems: Yet another great Ork konvershun from you! It seems there's just no end to your creativity with Ork models!
jah-joshua: Ulrik fits the theme pretty well, and your paintjob does the model justice. Well done!
kb_lock: Your model looks great for a dead guy! Awesome stuff!

Thanks in advance for whoever decides to throw a vote or two my way, I really had fun with this month's entry! And of course as always a big shout out to Paradigm for organizing these challenges. I know my painting continues to improve and these challenges are a big help to that.

im happy too with my work, it not near the quality of ya all. but its fun and im learning more.. just looking at the pictures and how you guys take them, how you guys and gals put what color where.

my only color theory is what looks good to me based on the codex and colors I wanna go with. im very new, in 2016 I bought my first brush since the earlye 90s when I painted pinewood derby cars.

just like playing the game, learn more by doing and watching others.

I voted for all of you again. fir having the courage to do this too regardless of skill level. kudos and thanks to each of you for your advices, or simply just your beautiful art.

 Midget Gems wrote:

Para, Jan both still regularly painting exceptional pieces, Para with your definite Grim dark style and Jan your cloth is always perfect. I do feel I'll have to do a unique conversion and try to commission either of you to paint it

Mate, it'd be an honour! Honestly, just let me know what and when and I'm up for it!

401 votes already, looks like we're on track for a fair few really high scoring entries this month! 8 are on 20 or higher already, which is phenomenal! Keep up the good work y'all! This has been one of the best months of the challenge on every level, I reckon. Some fantastic entries at the top, a handful of new faces which is always great to see and some great efforts and improvements across the board!

That's the first time I've seen a brit use the term y'all before

Had to vote for a few this month (again!).
But definite shout out to midget, terrific

Also thank you everyone for the votes and kind words. As for you Jan your loyalists will be crushed underfoot by the true followers of the machine god . As for your advice that is a good point I will probably go back and fix it when I pick it up from the gw it is at haha

Lol. I've a growing taghmata that may have to disagree Ustrello

Thanks to everyone that voted for me! For me painting is about impression and adding charachter to the minis, and even with al this good entries only few deserve to win the challenge, my congratulations to Zach, Januine, Paradigm, Moolet, Nordicus and jah-joshua!

 Paradigm wrote:

 Midget Gems wrote:

Para, Jan both still regularly painting exceptional pieces, Para with your definite Grim dark style and Jan your cloth is always perfect. I do feel I'll have to do a unique conversion and try to commission either of you to paint it

Mate, it'd be an honour! Honestly, just let me know what and when and I'm up for it!

Cool. I've got a few pieces in mind that I want to do, I started writing them down in a book of ideas to keep track, at least 2 of them are different Warboss conversions but getting the time to do them is the hardest part atm. Once I've got one that I think is worth of your painting I'll let you know It won't be for a good few months yet tho.

Thank you very much for the mention Ratius and Zerg, I'll try to keep doing conversions in the future

First off, thanks to everyone for the huge response to Archaon, it was a huge effort so Im glad he's well received.

As others have stated, Januine and Para delivered once again. Jah's entry is great, and I'd like to shout out to Moolet as my personal favorite. Midget's entry is as always unique and a labor of love, thanks to everyone for their hard work.

Hi all great work.
I spent a long time trying to decide and ended up writing a few notes for each. I love it when someone comments on my work whether positive or negative so as i had to do a lot of waiting around to day i decided to comment on everyone, (at least i think everyone, sorry if missed you). I’ll not say who i voted for but I will say it was more than 5.


Zach: a lovely paintjob paint job with so much detail but that base just brings another level of excellence to an already winning paintjob. Outstanding.

Januine: I love the atmosphere you give to your models, you have an extraordinary talent for expressing ‘grim dark’ whilst bringing the models to life. I love your use of all different tones of the metallics.

SirOllox: Such an expressive face and great looking banner, really nice. All the dirty tones look great on this model.

ChaosDad: Solid paint job on a strange pose, i guess you need to place a messy cauterized corpse a few feet in front of him. A very expressive grimy face and a good choice of colour, nice work.

Ssisal: Solid base coats. It could benefit from some washes and highlights, practice on a less precious model and come back to this beast when you’re confident with them. I think you could get better photos and do you model more justice by taking the picture from a little further away and then cropping it down. (I started doing this couple of months ago and it really helped me)

Ustrello: Getting all that work done is great. Doing it to such high quality is phenomenal. Fantastic work. I’m not a fan of huge amounts of blood spatter but as someone else said, i think in your case it would make sense to put a little more. I really love your work and I’ve linked it to my brother who is thinking about starting up some ad mech (his last army he painted was renegades).

TP^DC: Beautiful metallics and i love that blade. I wish i could see it closer up. I hate playing against necrons but if they looked like this, perhaps I’d change my mind =)

Reavsie: Who doesn’t love Kharn. The darker red tones really do suit him and the weathering is a great balance between subtle and eye catching.

KINGPIN: I really liked your model last month; it was very stylized and would look great on the table top. I think this month you’ve upped your game. I really like the fist/claw and the converted jump pack. The golds/brass looks really nice too.

Piratepizzadog: This is how i image deathguard to be. The pastel purples with the light greens of the deathguard armour are really nice. The weathering works so well with the tones you used and patchwork armour is really brought to life. The misplaced black shoulder pad is what draws your eye to look for all the different armour types. Nice choice of pallet and well carried off.

Loricatus: This marine looks great. The fiery blade and the engine glow are great. The golds are beautiful and the tones of the blue are what i imagine an ultramarine to look like. I wish my blues looked that good.

Sockwithaticket: I was waiting for more gorgeous whites this month! Such a fanatically clean paint job. I think sometimes i hide behind making a model look worn and weathered because i can’t paint this cleanly. Your blacks, especially on the marine itself are beautiful, something i aspire to.

Zergsmasher: Solid job on a model of a biker marine ( the aesthetics of biker marines ‘sculpts’ really grates me). I love the mace and the metallics you did on it. The highlights on the bike are subtle and well done. The white/grey of the left shoulder pad is really well done and something i’m hoping to mimic in future.

Vejut: I’ve never seen this model before, I like its pose. The cloak looks great and the red gold of your metallic’s are something I’d never think of and look really good. Very unique.

Paradigm: I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I love the grimness you bring to a model. Outstanding, this is my favourite of your recent entries. The darkness of the model, the battle damage but without obscuring any of the finer details really is amazing.

Wilson: A great entry and a lot of work in month (I’m currently doing storm raven and its taking me forever to make progress). The weathering is superb and well placed. I love the worn paint wearing through to white rather metallics.

Optometris: Lovely dreadnaught. I keep having myself to force myself to look at the rest of the model as that sword just keeps drawing my eye away; that in case you didn’t already know, is fantastic. I guess this guy must have looted it from wraithknight or something? I like the colours you used for engraved chest and the scrolls. The weathering on the legs ties it to the base well.

Guildenstern: I’m not sure if intentional but the monochromatic theme with a few splashes of colour works really nicely and accentuates those colours wonderfully. To pull it off i think takes great forethought. I really like the blue glow from the back pack. Not over done but gorgeous (i must remember to steal this idea).

Tob52: I think the image doesn’t show off the quality of your paint job to full effect (perhaps turning up the brightness without adjusting the contrast or gamma). The red highlights look well done and very neat, the skulls look great. I’m yet to ever attempt flesh colour (other than ork) so i can’t comment much there but it looks good to me.

Midget Gems: No idea what to say. Where ever you get your inspiration from... i want some. Inspired and beautifully crafted. Anyone not in love with diorama is just plain crazy. I really like the tones of your ork flesh, if i was to do my entire ork army again I think I’d change my method and use these images as a guide. The satchel and Sankara stones are really nicely done.

Nevelon: I think i read somewhere you didn’t get time to finish so please post a pic when you do! The klaws look nicely done and i really like the tone of your gold, i think it contrasts with the blue very well. The base looks great.

Nordicus: A beautiful entry. The selections of colours are great and to me say tzeentch, the green glowing hand is very cool too. For me the real gem on this paint job is the book. It is expertly written, not just the pages, which are very arcane and makes me want to worship chaos a little but also the cover and the metal binding.

GulGog: Your tank busta is great. I just converted 10 up and not once did i think of using this ‘rokkit launcher’. I think you get a prize for most theme appropriate in my book (also i’m biased towards orks.). I think your model would be better represented if the image is a little better white balanced but from what i can see the colours of the skin are great and the metallic’s look appropriate to an ages old weapon. The rokkit on the back is a very nice touch.

Methebest: perfect iron warriors scheme. I really like the way the metallics are done and gives the idea of the hulking, clanging warrior of iron. The shading on the helmet i particularly like.

Jah-joshua: Oh my. If only i could paint like this. Magnificent job, i can’t tell you what i like about it as I’d have the list everything. I think if pushed I’d say the choices made in pallet selection, particularly the contrast of the model with the base.

Keezus: I’m not particularly well informed about the setting but from what background you gave us it fits the bill beautifully (in theme and atmosphere). The shading of the reds is very well done and the metals look worn but well maintained. Its left glove from the side picture is very nice with a huge range of red tones shaded cleanly.

Zambro: Great looking dread. Your yellows are solid and nicely shaded with that lovely yellow/brown paint chipping that i think works so beautifully. The weathering is great and i really like the light rusting of the joints.

Pneumo: Your flowing greys and whites in the model are really nice with splashes of colour here and there. I particularly like effort that has gone into the runes, it really gives a lot of intricacy to the model. The blue warpflame coming out the base (i assume you modelled it yourself?) is a really nice touch.

Jadenim: I can only assume the figure is perhaps 12” tall to get the beautiful scroll work like that. Astonishing work, I’m fairly sure i can actually read what it says (“vote for me!”).

King Pariah: The metallics look like rolled steel and beaten brass and i think they work well. I’ve never been keen on the glowy green rods for necrons but thats just my personal choice. Solid job well done.

Farseer: I like the colours scheme especially the storm bolter colours. I couldn’t decide if i liked the bases at first or they were too ‘alternative’ They very quickly grew on me and but i like the contrast of the sharp colours with the very muted terminators.

JBschroeds: I don’t think I’ve seen the sculpt before but i love it. The colour scheme is very sci-fi and not 40K so it’s nice and refreshing. I’m finding it hard to work out what is shine from a satin (?) finish and what is highlight. Using a diffuse light source should help limit that. The gun looks really nice, particularly from the second to last image and i think the base suits the model very well.

Camkierhi: I’m not sure how much of this is conversion but it looks like a huge amount. Its really cool and i love it. When i started playing as a kid i played orks and my most common adversary was unltramarines so this model is just perfect. I think the colours on the chest are done particularly well.

Spuj: Really nice clean paint job. The colours of your gold/orange is a really interesting contrast to the black and the script on the scrolls a real test of patience, very nicely done. As i said before to someone else... sometimes it’s easy to hide behind battleworn effects (i know i hide some of my mistakes under them) and it’s often hard to create such lovely clean contrasts as you have. A really nice paint job.

Kustomer D: I look forward to seeing what you and Midget come up with each month and this is just awesome. Very nicely converted (where did you get his left shoe from, it looks v comical.. in an awesome way) and a great paint job on top, (your yellows and the weathering look great). This is how I’m going to imagine megabosses from now on.

Sevren: A great looking model that takes a little study to appreciate the details of it, perhaps because the pictures are rotated through 90 degrees). The armour is subtly but well highlighted and that marble effect looks really nice. The paint job gives an atmosphere of grime yet with nice clean and contrasting details. Your base really helps to set the scene.

Kb_lock: a great looking model and the consistency with which you painted those gems are great. I’m sure on my blood angels every gem looks different (despite me really trying to get consistency). The black cloth is done really nicely and the script is nice done too. I also like the shading on the skulls.

Thanks Moolet.

Exalted Moolet, that's going above and beyond the call of duty!

Also I think I've proved subliminal messages don't work, cause all the "vote for me"s in the scroll didn't get me very far! Still, happy to be a part of this fantastic crowd

@Moolet: Thanks for the feedback! I'm glad you like my model! The decoration on the left shoulder pad was really easy. I just basecoated in Celestra Gray, shaded with Nuln Oil, and then drybrushed it with Ulthuan Gray. Was probably the easiest thing I did on the whole model!

@Jadenim: I haven't gotten many votes either, but like you I'm just happy to have a finished entry in this thing.

Yup, I hit my target just by finishing. Frankly I'm amazed I even got a vote.

Great post Moolet, thanks for taking the time to comment on everyones work

Have an Exalt