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February's round brought to an end the 2016/17 rotation of the Monthly Challenge, and it's fair to say things ended with a bang as this month particpants produced a standout set of entries, ranging from technological terrors to mechanical maestros and all sorts in between. As always, now's the chance for the Dakka community to pick their favourites from the bunch.

As usual, feel free to cast as many votes as you like, and for whatever reason, be it a cool conversion, a great paintjob, a unique take on the theme or a really ambitious entry or any other reason that catches your eye. Please also leave some feedback for the entrants, and if the images are linked to the Dakka gallery, I'm sure a few votes there will be appreciated. Voting will run for 5 days, at which point the winners will be announced. As this was the final round of the 2016/17 challenge, the final League stats will also follow some time soon, so keep an eye out for those.

The entrants!

NathanD298: Commander Farsight


Whittlesey40k: Land Speeder


Nevelon: Ultramarine Master of Signal


Guildenstern: Ork Battlewagon


Vejut: Gopher Engineers

Voted

Just a quick nitpick, mine's an Exodite Autarch important distinction

Some fantastic painted models this challenge,but i'am pretty sure i know who will win this one,by far,good luck to all anyways,off to work on the next challenge!

Voted!

Moolet: Awesome atmosphere and weathering. Great to see an old model given new life!
Warpig1815: Very clean and nice freehands.
Chris56: Suggest you attach a smaller size photo!
Farseer Anath'lan: Nice job on the Rhino text... especially in yellow. Gave freehand a try this month around and it was a PAINFUL experience. Kudos.
Inevitable_Faith: Was hoping there would be bigger photos. Are those cherry blossoms on the carapace?

@Para: can you make mine a photo and not a link?

Feltmonkey and warpig got my votes this time around, beautiful work in a strong competition.

Great work everyone!!

Handed out far too many votes to count this month, but I wanted to give a particular shout-out to Moolet, Modock, Feltmonkey and Para as my personal favourites this month!

See you all in the March challenge!

I voted for the below:

ZoBo - Beautiful. Very clean. I like the smooth, clean colors a lot.

Inevitable_Faith - Simply impossible for me _not_ to vote on it. Great muscles.

godardc - Nice clean colors, and I love the Purple People.

 Verviedi wrote:
I voted for the below:

ZoBo - Beautiful. Very clean. I like the smooth, clean colors a lot.

Inevitable_Faith - Simply impossible for me _not_ to vote on it. Great muscles.

godardc - Nice clean colors, and I love the Purple People.

Thank you

A lot of good work this month !
I was difficult to make a choice Feltmonkey: Jesse James (Wild West Exodus), Warpig1815: Salamander Space Marines, Inevitable_Faith: Talos Pain Engine, the ork battlewagons and the Tau Commander were my favourites, but I voted for Modock: Tau Piranha. Simply an awesome paintjob.

Wow, this has to be one of the best months for final entries yet! Too bad I didn't have time to finish my own entry. It was hard to narrow it down to 5 votes, but I did manage to do it. Here's who I voted for:
Midget Gems: Like most of your entries in these comps, your Snotling weapon crew really is characterful. I don't want to be standing close when those guys fire that thing...
Inevitable_Faith: That Pain Engine is exceptionally well done. Such a cool model, and you made it look awesome!
Moolet: Now dat iz wun ded shiny waggin! Yu'z can 'ave a proppa WAAAGH! an' krump da 'umie gitz all day long now!
feltmonkey: I don't know much at all about Wild West Exodus, but you made Jesse James look amazing. I might have to look into that game now.
Verviedi: Nothing says technology like Ad Mech. Your Secutarii turned out really well, especially the little designs on the cloaks.

This was a fun month for watching everyone put together some cool high-tech entries. I look forward to next month (where I will actually finish unless RL throws me a massive curveball). Special shout out as always to Paradigm for taking time out of his busy college life to put this inspiring show on for us. See you all next month for SPACE MARINES!

I've been very infrequent with these painting challenges, but I'd like to know if it's ever been this difficult to narrow down all these great entries.

Just voted;

STG - looks great like the kit bash and extras

Midget gems - fun and awesome, gotta love grots and nice application of OSL

Mootlet - some amazing orkiness, but a great clean style to the painting

Modock - that piranah is just great, nice colours and the battle damage is just stop on

Feltmonkey - just wow

 KommissarKiln wrote:
I've been very infrequent with these painting challenges, but I'd like to know if it's ever been this difficult to narrow down all these great entries.

Some months it’s worse then others, but it’s never easy. This month is up there.

This is why there's no limit on how many votes you can cast! If you like something, vote for it. There's no such thing as 'too many' votes, so don't think you have to pick just a few.

Well, that was about 10 votes. Great job everyone, top notch even for this competition. Top of the list were Feltmonkey and Chris56, for a fantastic robo-cowboy and a slick looking battlesuit.

I wanted to vote for each and every one, but I narrowed it down to 3:

Bandwagon: I loved the contrasting blue and tan of your Kasrkin, along with the smooth painting and clean lines - well done!

Feltmonkey: A fantastic looking, dyanamic model, made all the better by a gritty and realistic paint job (Particularly the leather!) - again, really well done!)

Modock: I thought your Piranha was great, especially the way the minimal weathering set off the clean paint-work. I also thought the pale blue was an interesting take on Tau models - once again, well done!

TBH, I could have voted for everyone, but I felt these really jumped out at me.

Votes for ZoBo, Inevitable_Faith, Moolet, GulGog Tuftoof, Modock, Feltmonkey and Warpig1815.

I'll try to add some individual comments soon.

Wow talk about tough choices!

So I voted for:

Vejut: cuz - GOPHERS! hahahaa
Farseer's Rhino - awesome job on that
ZoBo - I don't even know what they are, but they're freakin awesome
Midget - Best Ork Gun
Moolet - Best Ork Vehicle
GulGog - Best interpretation of theme imo - Just needs a "say hello to my little friends" note
Modok - There were some awesome Tau but tbh yours won me over! The little touches of weathering were just perfect imo
ChaoticMind - cuz Gremlins! <3 Zipp and ironskeeters, really like how you did them they look very unique
Feltmonkey - good lord, what a brilliant entry. Totally deserves top place imo
JamesY - best TANK! Love it, well done! looks beautiful

So I have an overwhelming disposition towards Xenos I see... sorry all you SMs!

 ZergSmasher wrote:
Wow, this has to be one of the best months for final entries yet! Too bad I didn't have time to finish my own entry. It was hard to narrow it down to 5 votes, but I did manage to do it. Here's who I voted for:
Midget Gems: Like most of your entries in these comps, your Snotling weapon crew really is characterful. I don't want to be standing close when those guys fire that thing...
Inevitable_Faith: That Pain Engine is exceptionally well done. Such a cool model, and you made it look awesome!
Moolet: Now dat iz wun ded shiny waggin! Yu'z can 'ave a proppa WAAAGH! an' krump da 'umie gitz all day long now!
feltmonkey: I don't know much at all about Wild West Exodus, but you made Jesse James look amazing. I might have to look into that game now.
Verviedi: Nothing says technology like Ad Mech. Your Secutarii turned out really well, especially the little designs on the cloaks.

This was a fun month for watching everyone put together some cool high-tech entries. I look forward to next month (where I will actually finish unless RL throws me a massive curveball). Special shout out as always to Paradigm for taking time out of his busy college life to put this inspiring show on for us. See you all next month for SPACE MARINES!

Thanks! I'm trying to do the whole army with unique designs.
...It makes me wonder why I chose to do that sometimes.

I_F, Ynead and Feltmokey, and ZoBo got my vote this month.

Everyone who participated had lovely work! Congratulations everyone!

Quite a nice variety of entries this month, well done everyone

my personal top 10 this month were (in no particular order):

Whittlesey40k - always love seeing the old rogue trader stuff seeing some new life, and you did a nice job on it too - love the little control panel detailing

Guildenstern - should be getting a lot more votes in my opinion!...love the build in general, and it's just covered in nice little details (love the grots in the engine bay! )...great weathering all-over too! (so glad the wheels turned out ok for you too, that would've been a real shame if they stopped it from getting finished on time!)

Midget Gems - it's snotlings with a plasma cannon! how could I not vote for that?

Inevitable_Faith - would've liked to see more closeups/larger pics so I could see more of the detail, but from what I can see, it looks really nicely done...good to see some more dark eldar for a change too

Moolet - another old model seeing some new life, and just a generally great orky piece...nice skin on the grots, and that weathering, specifically on the yellow parts is lovely

Modock - just pretty great all-round...a really nice, neat, clean paintjob, and those scratches and chipping look great, and don't dirty up the model at all...nicely done

Feltmonkey - a great dynamic piece...love how the leather, wood and metal turned out, real nice

Warpig1815 - great looking salamanders man...the modifications fit in flawlessly, and the paintjob is great, nice flame details too

Paradigm - yet another great dark, grim, gritty piece from you, always love your work man

Keezus - nice smooth highlighting and detailing on a tiny model, nicely done


great work everyone, and thanks to everyone who's voted/commented on my bright lil' robot critters

Thank you very much Keezus, Zergsmasher, Gummy and ZoBo.

Photography skills are still very much something I lack and only getting to pick 5 pics was a tough call for me this time around. I have a few more pics in my plog here on Dakka, link is in my sig and those photos you can click on to blow them up and make them bigger. If you want to see more angles or detail shots by all means drop me a line in my plog and I'll be happy to oblige.

Yup Keezus those are cherry blossoms, or at least my attempt at them. I put them on almost all my DE units to tie everything in with a theme.

Tons of great entrants this month, everyone did a phenomenal job. I won't be able to enter in for March but hopefully will be able to get in on more of these this year, this is such a great crowd with an amazing pool of talent.

Unreal amount of fantastic minis this month!

I voted for so many I was afraid I would run out of votes.

Thanks all for the comments/advice, I'll take it on board for SM month.

In no particular order...
Midget Gems - awesomely cool modelling AGAINAGAIN...
Ynneadwraith - also very cool modelling and brilliant colour choices;
Modock - clean and effective with cool touch of weathering;
Bandwagon - super-clean and crisp with great colour-scheme, my pick of the month;
Paradigm - love your distinctive style - I am so going to copy your style soon and pretend I came up with it to my friends;
Warpig - spot on colours and clean lines, looks really slick;
keesus - great blending on such a delicate model with real personality;
Inevitable Faith - smooth, pro paintjob; and finally,
Feltmonkey - great model from a great range with a great paintjob, I loved it.

Whew! I think I ran out of space!

Can't wait to see Sm challenge this month...

This is the toughest competition since I started. Plenty of great entries.

First thanks to godardc, Bandwagon, Warpig1815, Guildenstern, Chris56 and ZoBo for commenting on my piece.

My votes went to:

ZoBo: Those Nomads look great. Light blue and orange goes really well together. Like it a lot.
Inevitable_Faith: Fantastic paint job. Pretty sharp as well. No offense but this model really needs some close up pics.
Moolet: Great, just great! What you did with battle damage is just awesome especially on yellow plates.
Bandwagon: Clean, precise and simple but very effective. A color scheme that really works for those troopers.
Feltmonkey: Excellent paint work all around. Love the leather cape. I like when the base also gets some attention.
Your's matches the model masterfully. Bravo!
JamesY: I like this a lot. I think it's well done. This deserves more votes really.
Warpig1815: Top notch paint job. Green is very smooth and the flames are a nice touch.

Out and see you soon.

Thank you very much Chris56 and Modock.

No offence taken Modock, there's certainly worse things that could be said other than "I would like to see closer and more detailed shots of a mini you painted" . For those interested I'll take some extra photos today (extra angles and close ups) and post them to my plog, link in my sig.

Managed to keep my votes to an even dozen this time. Great work to everyone, but particular standouts IMO are:

Guildenstern: Nice scratchbuild work and paint job, and as others have said, it's the details on this piece that really seal the deal.
Midget Gems: Brilliant custom work as always, plus... Snotlings! and... Plasma! and nice work on the OSL.
Inevitable Faith: Nice details, highlights, etc... this just looks like you put a lot of time into it.
DukeofBeer: Interesting model and well painted.
Drummernathan: You've stepped up your game this month, keep it up!
Moolet: If I had to pick just one entry, this would be it. Flawless execution, 10/10!
Bandwagon: Kept it simple and clean, nice execution.
Modock: The weathering and details plus a super clean paintjob = a vote from someone who normally isn't a big fan of Tau. Well done.
Feltmonkey: This is a complete scene, a fairly unique mini, and it's well painted
Warpig1815: Nice clean lines and that's some precision detail work, too.
Veriveidi: The freehand on those cloaks pulls them together as a squad and makes them stand out too.
Keezus: Hair (did!), Lipstick (did!), Eye shadow? (did!) and they all match beautifully.


Thanks to everyone who voted or commented on my little grot. Lots of ork entries this month, which means that the rest of you should be shoring up your defenses an anticipating the next great Waaagh! in your sector! See you all again in April!

Firstly, thanks to everyone who has made nice comments about my mini - I'm surprised and really delighted that you guys seem to like it!

I voted for absolutely loads of models this month. I'll comment on a few, but even if I don't mention you, I might well have voted for you! I'm kind of exhausted after a long day at work, so I don't have the energy to comment on absolutely everyone, I'm afraid. :(

Inevitable_Faith - I really like this Talos Engine. I liked it enough anyway, and then Keezus pointed out the pink flowers (cherry blossoms?) on the armour. A beautiful touch that adds so much to the model.

Moolet - Wow, fantastic work! Several different weathering techniques, all exectued really well. You've done that thing where you highlight the upper edge of the paint just below the areas of rust really effectively. I also really like the radar screen and the controls.

Modock - Great anime Tau vehicle. I love the almost cell-shaded style, the weathering is great, especially as you seem to have judged just the right amount to do so it doesn't overwhelm the model but still adds interest.

JamesY - Yeah, that's just a great tank. A very realistic paintjob.

Warpig1815 - Fantastic Salamanders. They're so bright and vibrant! They really pop in the photos, and I bet they look amazing on the table.

Paradigm - As usual, amazing work. Everything you paint is just dripping in narrative, and this is particularly evocative.

Well done to everyone though, another great month.

 Gulgog TufToof wrote:
Managed to keep my votes to an even dozen this time. .
Drummernathan: You've stepped up your game this month, keep it up!
!

Thanks man! Really appreciate it! Was a good motivation to get my conversions done as well as plannout how to tackle the other 2 I still need to do!

Now to figure out what to do for march's entry...too bad I already painted up my counts as dreadknights and my daemon prince, really proud of those paintjobs, I guess that just means I have to step it up on whatever I do choose! =P

Thank you very much Gulgog Tuftoof and feltmonkey, I appreciate your kind words. I'm glad the contrast works well on the model, it was a risk when I designed my DE like that but I'm glad I did.

My plog has been updated with some close up shots of the cronos for those that were interested.

My favourites this month:

- Moolet
- Modock
- Feltmonkey
- JamesY
- Warpig1815

Fantastic work from all of you, and if I had to pick a favourite it would be Modcok!

I am sad I haven't contributed the past two months, especially as I think I could have challenged Januine for the number 1 spot. But I will try my hardest to get back on board this month!

Well done by all! Real sad I didn't finish this time around, was real close too. But i'm simply blown away by all the models here today!