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Another month, another challenge, another huge range of great entries! Something I definitely noticed this month was a very high proportion of finished entries, which was great to see. Nonetheless, it’s now time to crown a winner for this round, which means voting!

As ever, you should feel free to cast as many votes as you like for whatever reason you like, be that the quality of the paintjob, the effort and ambition on show, the interpretation of the theme or anything else that catches your eye!

Without further ado, the entrants:

Januine: Antor Delassio, Deathwatch Vanguard Veteran


Nevelon: Eldar Swooping Hawks


ZoBo: Ork Stormboyz


aldo: Owl


Bottle: Deathwatch Vanguard Veterans


albinoork: Drop Pods


Jadenim: Deathwatch Vanguard Veterans


Zergsmasher: Deathwatch Vanguard Veterans


methebest: Emperor’s Children Hellblade Fighter


Moolet: Sanguinary Priest


TP^DC Deputy Manager: Nephilim Jetfighter


Buttery Commissar: Sigvald The Magnificent and Steed


Verveidi: Tau Barracuda


Manalishi: SU-27D Flanker


Moebius5: Drop Pods


Midget Gems: Baron Von Orkhothen


vejut: Corvus Harriers


sockwithaticket: Guild Austringer


feltmonkey: Dark Eldar Scourges


Guildenstern: Ork Deffkoptaz


Ustrello: Ashen Claws Assault Marines


PossumCraft: Eldar Crimson Hunter


Elbows: Eldar Swooping Hawks


Kustomer D: Ork Deffkopta


Paradigm: Harlequin Skyweaver


Jah-joshua: Astorath The Redeemer

Well done everyone. Some great miniatures produced

Wow, just wow. Glad we can pick multiple entries because picking just one would be hellish D:

It's really fun to see all the different ways people have approached the same models, with the mutiple DW and kopta's etc.

What an amazing month. My favourite entry this month was TP^DC, that flyer is perfectly done - I absolutely love it. After that I went for methebest, for another excellent flyer, feltmonkey for those beautiful scourges (such a nice blue!), Paradigm for some very nice subtle blending and a great muted harlequin theme and Jah-Joshua because he knocked it out the park like he always does! :-)

Lots of great entries this month. But this is not a new thing.

It took a while flipping between them, but of all the DW Vanguards, I liked Bottle’s the best. But it was a hard call; they were all very good.

I love interaction of the chalice and the sword in Moolet’s BA priest. The smooth colors also help; deeply jealous of the whites.

In the actual aircraft category, I liked TP^DC’s DA flyer. Again, tough choice here.

Feltmonkey’s scourges fit the category perfectly. If you looked up into the sky and saw them, you would soon be dead (or wishing you were) A great balance of theme and execution.

If I thought about it too hard, I’d keep clicking boxes until I voted for everyone. So I just went with my gut first impressions for a lot of these. I’ll admit that I tend not to vote for the “top dogs”, despite the excellent work they do, to try to spread the recognition around a bit.

So hard to choose there... I just went with my gut eventually... that blood angel priest. Maybe the model and red BA scheme were the deciding factor. It was between that and the two jump pack deathwatch guys slightly further up- awesome job with the black power armour, I love everything about those guys.

Some of the entries suffered with bad picture quality, the scourges and ork stormboys in particular. They look great but it wasn't possible to really look at them as closely as I would have liked. Maybe this kind of competition just favours one or two models at a time rather than squads

The owl entry was very enigmatic

I love the owl! Peep!

Net time though, pop it on a bit of paper, Aldo. You deserve to give your stuff a nice clean BG even if you're not being technical.

Voted for a bunch (couldn't keep it under 5), but my fave was Elbows' swooping hawks. Love those old models and really nicely done.

As always, great job everyone!

I really like the paintjob on Paradigm's Eldar so I voted for that one. Too many Space Marine Deathwatch to even try to choose one.

I also went for Bottle in the DW sub-competition and I don't know why; something about the finish just caught my eye a little more than the others.

Votes for Elbow and feltmonkey's swooping Hawks and scourges; Elbow for a different look to Eldar, much more naturalistic and fm for that lovely blue shading.

I also picked Zobos Stormboyz for the lovely exhaust plumes and Aldo for that quirky little owl and finally Jah for that insane scrollwork!

A great set of entries, hard to keep it down to 5 votes. Here's who ended up getting said votes:
Bottle: I think you did the best of all the sets of Deathwatch: Overkill jump marines. They look great!
TP^DC Deputy Manager: That Nephilim is SWEET! Good reminder and inspiration for my own partially painted Nephilim.
Midget Gems: That is such a creative piece, I love it!
PossumCraft: That is one of the best paintjobs I've ever seen on a flyer model. Words are inadequate...
jah-joshua: Astorath came out really well, too bad you couldn't get him to that event you were trying to complete him for.

Everyone did really well this month. It was also cool to see different ways of painting the same two figures; even cooler considering I was one of those who did them, so I could compare my own work with that of others. Special shout out as always to Paradigm for continuing to run these challenges, they are always an inspiration to me to push myself that little bit harder with my painting skills. It's working too, I look at my first couple of entries in these challenges and those models just don't hold a candle to the stuff I can do nowadays, and I have these challenges mostly to thank for that!

A good load of entries here. Quite a few around the same level to me for one reason on another so hard to choose. I voted for as many of the images as I could on the gallery.

The standout entry for me was TP^DC Nephilim, looks really good, I'll be trying to replicate your weathering on my next flyer, (whenever that is).

Points to Aldo for entering an Owl, made me laugh

To me Bottle just won the Deathwatch sub comp. it very interesting to see the slight differences in how the 4 people painted these model and hopefully it will give each other ideas on how to improve painting wise.

Most improved goes to methebest

 Nevelon wrote:

I’ll admit that I tend not to vote for the “top dogs”, despite the excellent work they do, to try to spread the recognition around a bit.

There are certain people like Para, Jan, Jah, BC etc that I find myself voting for on most Comps (not every one) just because I enjoy their work a lot and they often show their WIP photos so makes me more interested in the final product to see the journey it went through .

Fantastic entries here. Moolet, that sanguinary priest.........breathtaking!!!!! Amazing job, everyone!!!!!!!

Wow this gets really hard every time!

So I voted for like a lot of them - if I don't mention you, I likely just forgot to write it down :(

but from memory,

I really liked your exhaust and your stomrboyz Zobo, as others have mentioned - just a great touch and an awesome all over job!
@aldo - really liked your owl, its expression is so quizzical
@TP^DC - wow that is just so awesome, you should be really proud of that model your job on it was perfect and it looks excellent!
@Buttery - I really like your model and the mount. The minis eyes are really well done! And the blood touches are just perfect
@kustomer D - love your kopta, I only just now noticed the sword on the back I thought that was a clever little touch, to go with all the others you put into it!
@methebest -that fighter looks lovely, really like it, very striking!
@Midget Gems - lmao your nick is perfect cuz this is really a little gem. Well done on that one for sure sooo cool Showed it to my kids and they all thought it rocked as well =D just a really cool idea!
@sock - man you nailed that model, so nice and clean! love it!

I think I voted for roughly half the entries this month. Special mention to:
Jan & Bottle: winners of the deathwatch sub-comp imo, the blue light in the jet pack exhausts put yours over the top.
Zobo: those stormboyz are boss, and that boss stormboy is Extra Boss!
Albinoork & Moebius: Can't believe I'm voting for drop pods? Well done.
Methebest: As someone else mentioned, the addition of terrain to the base gives the model a story; nice touch. It's a beautiful model, too (good choice!).
Moolet: Captures a Sanguinary Priest perfectly.
Manalishi: Nice camo! Clean lines, well done.
Midget Gems: Yes, more this! Waaaaaaagh!
Sock: As usual, clean lines, whatever... but this model is the most lifelike of the entries this month. Really compelling, well done.
Feltmonkey: You should do an entire army in this scheme, it's beautiful.
Elbows: Nice detail, clean lines, etc. Overall, a solid entry.
Kustomer D: Nice kopta, the addition of little details makes it stand out from other koptas I've seen.
Jah: As usual, impeccable attention to detail and flawless execution. Keep 'em coming, you are an inspiration to us all.

Well done to everyone else...I realize that planes and other "death from the skies" units are what started a lot of people on the path of this hobby, but planes have never really been my thing. That being said, there has been some stellar content this month (as always), and it's inspiring to see what can be done with paint and a brush. See you all in next month's challenge!

Wow, that is shaping up to be a really close vote this month, good job everyone!

Another great month. Congratulations to everyone who entered, and thanks to everyone who voted for me or commented on my work.

The first time I looked at the thread not long after it was posted my browser had logged me out so I could see what the standings were, and I was winning! Naturally, I started composing a victory speech in my head. I was going to thank Paradigm, God, my agent, my mum, Paradigm's mum, my cat, Jesus, Satan, The Emporer, and Tzeench. However reality reasserted itself, I didn't get a vote for two days, and I slid back towards my usual mid-table position, vying for a Europa League spot. That's a reference our American members won't get.

Anyway, I had a hard time narrowing my votes down again, and a hard time remembering who I voted for (at 2am several days ago, I think!) I voted for several more than the ones I'm listing below.

Paradigm - The first time I saw your muted Harlequins I wasn't sure I liked them, but they've grown on my to the extent that they ended up being my favorite thing in the thread this month. They look the way a Harlequin jetbike might look after a few hours in the field of battle, weathered by gunfire, smoke, and mud. It's miles away from a traditional Eavy Metal paintjob, and that's no bad thing. Kudos for applying your own style to them and pulling off something quite unique.

Midget Gems - As with most of your miniatures, the humour is what appeals most to me. There's some nice texturing on the body of the plane, and the guy clinging on to the wings is a nice addition. The humour does kind of clash with the attempts to link it to the actual World War One, but that's okay!

Januine - My favorite of the jump marines, even though you only entered one of the two minis. It's the bit of weathering and grime that swings it for me. Excellent job.

Jah-joshua - I really like the highlighting on the armour, and the detail on the face. A nice interpretation of the theme too, as even without the jump pack, it looks as if he's about to literally deliver death, from above.

I voted for a few others too, Possumcraft's eyecatching ship, Bottle's jump guys, and I had to vote for Zergsmasher's jump men too, as the Morcombe and Wise comment in the WIP thread really made me laugh!

Again, brilliant job everyone. Quite an intimidating standard!

edit - to reply to some individual comments -

Bottle and the other who commented on the blue, it's easily replicatable. My wet pallate had black, white, Vallejo's Deep Sea Blue, Vallejo Turquoise, and Vallejo Blue Green. I ended up with a big smear across the pallate where the DSB ran into the turquoise, which ran into the BG, which ran into a mix of BG and white. I could pick up paint from any point in the smear depending on how many layers of transitions I wanted. Also, I didn't use the Deep Sea Blue as a basecoat, they're basecoated black, and the DSB is effectively the first level of highlight. I usually use Citadel paints btw, but these three Vallejo paints were too nice to leave in the shop!
Gulgog Tuftoof (great name) yeah, the plan is to paint a Dark Eldar army in this scheme. So far I have the five scourges and a single Kalibite Warrior I used as a test model done, so I've got a way to go.
Snake Tortoise, I see what you mean about the photos, they ended up quite small. I'm not sure how that happened as they were taken with a DSLR and the originals are huge. I think I must have uploaded them on photobucket, then linked the gallery to photobucket, and they took a hit in image quality both times. Lesson learned, and thanks for drawing my attention to it - I hadn't clicked on them from the thread, so hadn't noticed the drop in quality (they look okay as they sit in the thread.)

Is the vote due to end soon? we need to crown Midgetgems the winner!

Votes to:

TP^DC for top notch work! Definitely 'Best in Show' this month, and your best work to date. It's perfect!

Moolet for inspired conversion work and nice use of some technical effect to create a wonderfully characterful model!

Elbows for a great update to some classic models!

Ustrello for some mean Marines!

methebest for a fantastic execution of the scheme!

Midget Gems because Ork+Triplane+MG conversion=win!

Albioork and Moebius for making Drop Pods interesting!

I just got back off holiday and luckily in time to vote!

My votes were for:

Januine for the best deathwatch.

ZoBo for really nice looking stormboyz and Kudos for completing 5 of them to such a high standard.

TP^DC for a really great flier. I tried to get similar wethering to you on my stormraven but I swung and missed, yours is great!

Midget just because when it comes to conversions... he is our spiritual liege!

Elbows for a novel scheme well executed.

Paradigm for another great colour scheme and well executed. This paint job really grows on me with time.

There were many others I wanted to vote for but this time I'm feeling a little ruthless and only choosing 6.


Thanks to all who liked my Sanguinary priest and your kind comments, I'm over the moon he went down well.

Another great batch of awesome looking stuff!

I threw my votes to Verviedi, Manalishi, Moolet & Moebius5, really nice work there across a good variety of models (and eras, lol).


Honourable mention from me goes to PossumCraft and his sweet Eldar flyer. The words drawn on the sides really ruined it for me though as they didn't fit the astral body theme, that was otherwise very nice done!

The results are in!

In 3rd place,TP^DC Deputy Manager's: Nephilim Jetfighter




In second, Januine with Antor Delassio, Deathwatch Vanguard Veteran



And taking the win, Midget Gems with Baron Von Orkhothen






Congratulations to all who took part, see you next month!

Grats to the winners!

Wow!

Thank you everyone for voting for me. I'd also like to thank everyone for all of the kind words written in the thread. I'm overjoyed that so many people thought I did a good job.

Big congratulations to Januine and Midget Gems. I'd also like to congratulate everyone who finished an entry this month, that in itself is a huge achievement and the standard this month was very good across the board. Finally a big and thanks to Paradigm for running the challenges.

See you next month.

Congratulations to the three winners! Midget Gems ran away with the vote. My personal favorite was TP^DC, and congratulations to Jan for winning the Deathwatch with mini-comp. all three really well deserved

And thanks to Para for organizing this!

Wow guys thanks for the votes and all the kind comments, I was very happy with how it turned out but didn't expect it to win, I still think TP^DC deserved the victory.

Its very motivating that you like what I'm trying to do and vote for my entries, this was the first attempt at putting Orks in RL History (other than the Santa entry, I still believe!) rather than the fictional settings of previous entries e.g. Star Wars, Highlander, Max Payne, 40k. I have now added creating a whole group of converted flyers called Orkhothen's flying circus to the list of long term project goals

 feltmonkey wrote:
The first time I looked at the thread not long after it was posted my browser had logged me out so I could see what the standings were, and I was winning! Naturally, I started composing a victory speech in my head. I was going to thank Paradigm, God, my agent, my mum, Paradigm's mum, my cat, Jesus, Satan, The Emporer, and Tzeench. However reality reasserted itself, I didn't get a vote for two days, and I slid back towards my usual mid-table position, vying for a Europa League spot. That's a reference our American members won't get.

Midget Gems - As with most of your miniatures, the humour is what appeals most to me. There's some nice texturing on the body of the plane, and the guy clinging on to the wings is a nice addition. The humour does kind of clash with the attempts to link it to the actual World War One, but that's okay!

You had a very good entry Felt and where only 1 vote off 3rd place so doing very well, you will have to keep the speech for another challenge and I'm sure you will get to use it in the future.

I seem to have turned a lot of my entries into things I'm interested in and I like adding little touches or small bits that reference other things, I was nervous about putting an Ork in to a RL situation in case I did offend anyone but was hoping it would be taken with the normal good spirit that this community has. I wanted to add the Wilfred Owen reference as a little nod to what people had to go through for us to be able to do this today.

Well done to all the finishers, thanks again for my votes and to Para for his continual running of this challenge. See you in the next one

Awesome sauce folk. Big congrats to MG for his superb piece. Totally totally deserved the win. Really cracking job. Well done to TP as well. That is without a doubt my favourite of yours and shows a massive stepping up in your game. You've set your own bar jumps higher and thats what we now expect!!! Great job. Well done to everyone who managed to finish up and get an entry in. The standard just gets higher and higher with each passing month. Big thanks to to everyone who took the time to look through all the entries and put down some votes. See you all for the magic

Congratulations to all the winners, some wonderful things were entered this month. I cannot wait to see next month's entries.

Congratulations to the winners, all very well deserved! Midget a worthy winner too.

Thanks for the words of encouragement, Midget. I'm not really bothered about where I finish in the vote, the taking part is genuinely the most important and enjoyable thing. The competition pushes me to improve and paint more. It actually pushes me to paint loads of stuff apart from what I've decided to enter, as a form of advanced procrastination. I'm supposed to be painting a Malifaux mini and a Slaughterpriest, so of course I've spent all week painting SDE turtles, Sedition Wars troops, and some WWE miniatures. I'll get to the Dakkadakka stuff three days before the deadline. Does everyone in the thread work like this, or is it just me?