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--Year 6--

March 20 -- No Poll -- Challenge -- Vote -- Space Marine
April 20 -- No Poll -- Challenge -- Vote -- Pile of Shame
May 20 -- No Poll -- Challenge -- Vote -- Old-School Cool
June 20 -- Poll -- Challenge -- Vote -- In a Supporting Role
July 20 -- Poll -- Challenge -- Vote -- Objective Secured!
August 20 -- Poll -- Challenge -- Vote -- Mastermind
September 20 -- Poll -- Challenge -- Vote -- The Long War
October 20 -- No Poll -- Challenge -- Vote -- Halloween Special
November 20 -- Poll -- Challenge -- Vote -- Saints and Sinners
December 20 -- No Poll -- Challenge -- Vote -- Open Round
January 21 -- Poll -- Challenge -- Vote -- New Tricks
February 21 -- Poll -- Challenge -- Vote -- Showing Off

While we have not quite closed the books on this year, I figured those of us who have finished might want to take advantage of a quiet morning over coffee on the weekend to engage in a little retrospective woolgathering over the last year. 2020 was a rough year for a lot of people, but we made it through. And from a painting perspective, knocked it out of the park. I feel like a broken record saying it all the time, but it really is amazing to watch the progress. Every month is better then the last, everyone is making progress and improving. We pull together as a community to offer help, support, and advice to each other. This is a great crew we have here, and I’m proud to be a member.

--



Another year, another 12 entries. What I lack in quality I make up in volume, consistency, and persistence.

Crazy high volume this year, with 5+ models for 3/4s of the months. “Pile of Shame” could have gone higher, as the cap was waived that month, but I still got 6 minis done. Total of 52 minis over the year, which is coincidentally my 1-a-week painting goal. Slow but steady, solid tabletop work. If I had focused on one army, that would be a playable list painted in a year. The Grey Host might seem endless, but can be overcome.

Quite happy with the variety as well. Solid representation from most of the factions I paint (maybe the Nids will show up next year) and even within factions there were multiple paint schemes. No deep dives into the Pile of Shame this year for entries for odd stuff. A few relics of the past were dusted off and finished. I’ve got more RT-era lead/plastics kicking around, but less after this year.

Quality is incrementally up. My aim for votes is “not last” and I think I hit that every month. I’m not painting in the big leagues here. Solid work, every month, small steps. Some years I do have a stand out entry that is up there, I think my best reached the top 3rd of the pack, but not this year. My personal favorite is June’s “In a Supporting Role” where I am pleased with the results on both the minis. I’m having trouble picking out my least favorite, which is probably a good thing. Probably the undead. Not fond of the minis, and it really was just executing my basic scheme on them without a lot of thought or love.

--

So, how do you all think you did this year? Lets hear your thoughts on your own works!

One of my goals for this year's challenge was to submit an entry every month, which I was successful at. The previous year I think I had missed 2 or 3 months, so I wanted to improve on my consistency and just make sure I was putting something into the schedule every month.

My other goal was to be deliberate in painting something of quality for my entries each month, which if I'm being honest, I failed at. My entries for April, June, July, September, October, and February were all units in armies, that just happened to fit whatever the theme of the month was, and so while some are better than others, they're not all my best work (in fact, many of them fall into the category of "entries I'm most unhappy with").

Of the remaining months (and this may also be compounded by a case of "I'm my own worst critic"), there's a few I'm proud of, and others that for one reason or another, I just didn't have the motivation to spend more than a day or two on. This has actually been something I've struggled with over the past couple of years, actually; an inability to spend more than a couple days on a project without quickly losing interest or motivation to continue working on the piece. Invariably I rush to get it done, or I put down the piece and never finish it, and at least to me, I think it shows in the quality. In fact, my entries for April (Katakros) and September (Ironclad) were the longest I'd spent on any one single model in years (2 weeks for Katakros, 3 for the Ironclad), but it's also a bit of a cheat because Katakros is actually 5 separate models (6 if you include the base), the Ironclad was a ship, 5 crew, and a lot of extra bits and details (like the cooler) that were both fun and unique to do. And I think the quality of those models absolutely shines compared to everything else I've entered, because I was able to sit down and spend the time to make them good.

I honestly attribute a lot of this to the fact that I always seem to find myself working on an army project in tandem, and because I hate having a large pile of shame, I'm always just trying to blitz through it. And honestly it feels like 2021 is going to be much of the same. I'm only just nearing the end of my Junkforce (just 2 Gunhaulers after I finish my Endrinmaster), and I already have a 2000 point Deathwatch army that needs a lot of build/conversion work, and I just know GW is planning to slam me with a new Soulblight army sometime this year as well.

Ultimately there's no real stakes in this other than bragging rights and getting stuff done, so it's not like it's the end of the world; as an artist I know I'm my own worst critic, and as a habit of growth and learning, I'm always super critical of finding flaws, mistakes, and things to improve upon when I look at past works.

--

My favorite entry of the year is the Ironclad, hands down. A little over a month of work to build, almost a month to paint, and I tried (and learned) quite a lot with techniques that I'd never tried in the past. While this is technically not my neatest or best work, it still makes a great centerpiece for my Junkforce and I'm very proud of this piece.

Katakros is a very close second; it's the best in technical ability across all my pieces for this year, and I'm still absolutely in love with this model.

My least favorite entry is the Agents of the Imperium. I felt rushed to get these guys completed for a Necromunda campaign that ultimately never took off, and the quality of the casts overall meant that some pieces were just awful to paint (the Forgeworld female bounty hunters in general, the imprinted scrolls of the Daemonhost, etc.) My gaming/hobby group also gives me a lot of flak (obviously in good fun), for never painting in saturated colors; a lot of my work invariably ends up super desaturated/pastel in values, so a lot of my work this year, and this Necromunda gang in particular, were an exercise in pushing myself to saturate my colors more. I honestly struggled sometimes, and this inadvertently led to me just painting sloppy sometimes because I would fail to achieve a particular color mix or just botch a shade down/highlight up because I'm using all the wrong colors and trying to correct afterwards. I'm usually able to hide this by adjusting with other colors, glazes, etc, but honestly I think this entry (in my eyes) has a lot of failures that I either just failed to correct, or didn't even bother because by the time I got halfway through painting my roster of 9 models, I'd already lost interest in the project and the models were not at all inspiring for me.

--

One particular area of growth that I absolutely achieved as one of my goals was to do better in photographing my entries (and photographing my work in general), and I think you can see incremental improvements, until about August when I really hit that sweet spot where I've figured out my setup. Probably the thing I'm most happy about this year.

While our skill levels might not be at all comparable, DV8, I definitely get what you're saying about trying to slow down a bit, rather than turning out an entry i a day or two and calling it done. That's definitely been my learning curve over the last few months, and I'm starting to see the benefits, even for non-competition stuff. Over the last year our group has made the jump to using minis for our DnD games, so I've been doing a lot of painting to have stuff ready for sessions, but equally on the stuff I'm painting just for pleasure, I'm getting used to taking my time a bit more.

This last rotation of the challenge was a real up and down for me, though a lot of the down was out of my control, being that I couldn't see straight for most of the summer/early autumn. For most of that period, just getting an entry in was a victory enough, but I was also very hard on myself having turned out some of my worst work in years. I think the votes reflect that, and despite a couple of surprisingly strong months in December and January I think I'll fall short of last year's League score.


Coming back from the illness, though, I took the decision to start pushing myself artistically, having felt that even before the problems, my painting was starting to stagnate. I was churning out the same two styles (grimdark and comic book) with no real consideration for painting theory or more advanced techniques. In November/December, I invested in some new paints to liven up my collection a bit and stop me using the same old standards, started watching some more advanced tutorials, and tried to learn something even from the minis where I didn't like the end result too much. Incidentally I jumped into 3d printing at around the same time, and that was also a big help; if I experimented and messed up a mini, it had cost me pennies worth of resin rather than GW prices. It also opened up easy access to larger scale models, which are a tremendous help both for learning,and for the times my eyes are still struggling.

The upshot of that is three months running where I turned out entries I'm actually proud of, two of which took podium finishes, one missing first by a single vote. As an exercise in slowing down, diversifying my style and pushing hew techniques, I'm rather pleased with these three.


Hopefully some momentum to carry into the next rotation. Once again I want to give a big thanks to Nevelon for stepping in to manage things while I was unwell, and to the Painting Challenge community at large for continuing to be so inspiring, helpful and generally excellent!

(Pictures in the spoiler.)

I joined the painting challenge this year to give me a bit of structure and motivate me to actually engage constructively in hobby acitivities during what has been a rather unhappy time. There have definitely been some months when I would not have painted anything at all otherwise. At the start I was using old materials pulled from storage, but I've since picked up newer kit that has made painting easier and more enjoyable. I've tried some new techniques this year, some of which worked out better than others. While I enjoy using my go-to technique of inks, washes and drybrushing, on some projects I have found that it has its limitations (particularly with bright, non-primary colours), so I aspire to branch out and try other techniques more often.

My least favourite miniature was my entry for February. I was initially looking forward to painting the Harlies, but was struck by a lack of motiviation in general last month. When I did manage a last-gasp effort to finish at least one, I managed to break it twice while handling it and took three attempts to get something even close to a diamond pattern. Not fun.

My favourite miniatures from this year are probably the Zaku II and the Techmarine. Both of these were some of my lowest-scoring entries this year, but I enjoyed making them. The GW studio paint schemes on that techmarine miniature often make it look like a brick, but it's actually surprisingly detailed with many different textures and materials to represent. The Zaku, being an oddly-scaled gashapon kit, needed some extra modelling work, like repurposing transfers for the markings and scratch-building a base. I enjoyed adding some narrative aspects to both of these builds.

Some of the painting skill on display in these contests is amazing, and I appreciate the helpful feedback I've received from other participants.

I submitted four times last year and was happy with the positive feedback each time. To me last year represented a shift in my hobby from focusing on gameplay to focusing on painting. I'm working on becoming a better painter. Submitting to these posts was hard to do because we're all our own worst critics and I know I'm improving. But there's a joy in sharing accomplishments with others. I've loved the support I've received from my submissions which were based on my efforts and relative skill level and not a direct comparison to the others who had a submitted. It's just an incredibly inclusive group.

Whoa, what a year.

I somewhat second DV8 and Para by falling into the pit trap of rushing the minis to completion.
For me this usually happens when I've been working on something for a while. I'm a rather slow painter and I usually manage to paint max two hours per session (with exceptions of course), so it takes me a week or two to finish a single entry.
I'm always enthusiastic to start a new project and try out new techniques, but when I've been spending hours after hours with the model, I usually just rush the final details.
I think the main issue is the fact that I seem to go back and forth with the different steps, so I end up wasting time during the process.
Failing to get models done quickly is not that big of an issue for the contest models, but it sometimes is for the purely tabletop miniatures.

I should try to learn how to switch my mindset between painting special models and more common tabletop models, and learn to call a model done even if something does not look perfect in a close picture.
Well, none of my models do, but hopefully you know what I mean. Sometimes the extra time I end up spending on a model does not do much for the end result.
I should allow myself to make mistakes and to produce mediocre models every once in a while without stressing about it too much.
Might sound a bit funny as I'm far behind compared to the top levels of this competition, but just like DV8 said: the artist is their own worst critic.

That being said, competing with such high standards gives me something to look up to.
Makes me want to try and push myself for the better each month, even if that is not always possible due to lack of time / motivation / other factors.
Following the progress of others is both fun and a good source for learning more. Thank you for everyone for being a part of this awesome community. I'm privileged to be a part of it.


The models I painted this year:



I'm really happy that I managed to take part eleven times, only missing the first round.
I'm also happy and at the same time astonished that I managed to snatch a few podium places, and even a first place in December!
The different themes motivate me to paint a variety of models, even though I sometimes struggle to find a fitting entry.
During the summer time I usually don't paint much (if at all), but thanks to this competition I got two models done: the June an July entries.

As far as the painting goes, I think the entries were quite consistent, both in good and in bad.
I should venture a bit more to different styles and play around with different palettes than I'm used to.
I got to try out many new or newish techniques though. To name a few:
The August and November entries (Escher girls) were highlighted with glazing. Took me a really long time and the shades are not exactly what I was looking for, but I'm still fairly happy. Need a lot of practice though.
During October I got to work with many new materials to build the Graveyard. And finally during January, I played around with enamel paints, which was a lot of fun.

The voting also proved my point that spending way too much time on a miniature does not always produce a better result:
The Krieg Autocannon (3rd place) and Ork Weirdboy (no podium, but decent number of votes) were painted very quickly compared to some of the other models, which did not fare that well.
It shows that sometimes it's more about the aesthetics and choice of colors that appeal to the eye. But it also shows, that I still have much to learn on the more advanced techniques.

If I were to name a favorite entry this month, it would be the graveyard. I really loved building that.
Without any measurements or a plan whatsoever and a bunch of materials, I just went to town. I think it was the only entry, where I did not feel like slogging at any point, even though it took the longest to build and paint.
A close second and third are the Krieg Sentinel and the Shokkjump Buggy, none of which got any podiums. But building and converting them was a blast, and I really enjoy playing around with weathering effects.

But in the end, I'm quite proud of all the models I managed to finish for the competition. Mostly just for finishing them, but also for trying my best and learning a lot in the process!

Thank you for everyone once again and see you in year 7!

Quick message, League table updated just waiting on the final month

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/732117.page

Big thanks to Paradigm, Nevelon, Midget Gems and anyone else behind the scenes for making this possible!

Putting the collage together was a nice reflection on that last 10 months, I started painting in early May with a dozen old tubs of paint, I now I have more than two hundred, I'm on my 3rd set of Series 7 brushes and more modelling materials and tools than you can shake a stick at ... All this I put down to finding this website so early on (and COVID).

With all the hobbies and interests I've had in the past I have found the best way to improve is to jump in at the deep end, and with a lot of the competition here, the end is pretty deep! Each month I've tried to push a little further and try something new, sometimes this has paid off and sometimes not.
I have now left the citadel method behind and started painting with more tones, studying the work of top artists, trying new recipes, wet blending, loaded brush, etc. I'm at the point now of knowing how much I don't know, which I guess is what makes this hobby so appealing.

Here is the summation of the last 10 months worth of entries, with Mortarion being the only unfinished entry.

This looks a lot of fun, will get my own collage up later.

Maxwin - you say you started painting in late May, i assume that was after a break from the hobby rather than being brand new? If not you are off to an unbelievable start!

So *theoretically* I've been in this hobby for something like 30 years but practically I just started last year, I think I've (properly) painted more minis for the 2020 challenge than in all the years before, combined! Thanks, Dakka challenge ^^

My surprise insight: I have much more fun painting 40k Chaos & GSC than I thought, two factions I really never cared about previously. Hmm.
My favourite project: The Sylvaneth minis - my favourite WHFB range, anyways. The Mordheim Sisters were also fun to paint, and the Lumineth mage was a bit of a weird experiment (trying out Kimera Kolors) but this is an AoS faction I might really get into, as wacky as they are.
Meh: The Blackstone Fortress bot - bizarrely, it might even be my technically best paintjob, but its so dull - bombed at the box office votes, too. It's telling that I even didn't care to properly work on the base. Might get back to this one eventually if I come up with an interesting idea.
Kinda frustrating: Sisters - I love this range and am quite happy with my paint scheme, but boy are they annoying to build. That Pengine, gah. I've spent days fiddling around with the subassemblies for all the half-hidden details, painting up the Chaos dude in just two evenings at the end of the month afterwards was kinda therapeutic :p

One thing I'd like to work out this year is how to make loyalist Space Marines fun to paint - this is something I never really figured out for some reason, even though I like the design (the primaris even more so). Let's see what challenges will come up to help me in this regards (of course, I'll be entering CSM for the March marines round, LOL)

Okay, I guess I'll go ahead and put one of these up even though I didn't finish every month.



I'm happy to say that I at least improved my photography by the very end. All it took was using PhotoScape to adjust the white balance to show my entries' true colors. Some of the photos in the above collage have not been adjusted, but that's on purpose to show my improvement.

My entries were:
March 2020: Space Marines: Interrogator-Chaplain Asmodai, Dark Angels Master of Repentance
Since I play a couple of different Space Marine armies, I had a lot of options. I chose to paint up Asmodai as he's got a pretty cool model.

April 2020: Pile of Shame: Dark Angels Predator Annihilator
I'd had this model sitting unpainted in my collection almost since I began my Warhammer 40k journey back in 2014, so it was nice to finally get it painted up.

June 2020: In a Supporting Role: Tom Bombadil and Goldberry
These two characters definitely played a supporting role for the Hobbits in the Lord of the Rings books, giving them shelter from the dangers of the Old Forest. GW's sculpts for them are really characterful and cool, so this might have been my most fun painting project for the year.

August 2020: Mastermind: Sisters of Battle Dialogus
I figured a Dialogus fit the theme of a Mastermind for the Sisters of Battle well enough, as they are known for their mental fortitude in the face of the Emperor's deadly foes.

November 2020: Saints and Sinners: Dark Angels Judiciar
I originally planned to enter both this and the Chaplain from the Indomitus set, but ended up not having time to finish both. This ended up probably being my worst entry for the year.

December 2020: Open Round: Sisters of Battle Canoness
I was nearing the end of painting the models from the Sisters army set, so I decided to enter the Canoness as I thought I could get her looking really spiffy for the challenge. My photography let me down a lot as I still wasn't white balancing my photos properly, plus the model itself didn't turn out as good as I had hoped. Oh well.

January 2021: New Tricks: Dark Angels Assault Intercessors:
I decided to try a new painting recipe for Dark Angels power armor, and it came out really well. Going forward, I'll probably use this technique for all of my Dark Angels infantry, and perhaps adapt it for use in painting vehicles as well.

February 2021: Showing Off: Space Wolves Intercessor Pack
I didn't have a huge amount of stuff for the theme, but Space Wolves are showoffs among the Astartes, so I went with those. Rushed them at the end, and it shows, but at least I got something done.

8/12 completions is not great; I'm hoping to get something done for all of them this time around. Of course, I say that every time, but it never happens. Maybe if I knuckle down and stick to it instead of getting distracted, I can make it happen. Hopefully real life doesn't get in the way and we don't get a theme that catches me completely flatfooted.

Damn its hard to make a collage on your phone. But here we go.

Should be in date order from top left through to bottom right. I am happy to have completed something every month. My favourite is between the Judiciar and Sang Guard but the closest i made it to the podium was with the Vatican crew (i guess loads of people gave me a bonus vote for the white).

Still kicking myself over the indomitus captains sword but happy to have made up for it with the SG and later the Judiciar.

I continue to learn loads from these competitions and love how the subjects sometimes take me out of my comfort zone. I think one of the most immediately apparent improvements is definitely photography so thanks again to everyone that helped with that.

Thanks to the organisers and everyone that keeps the party going.

Normally, I don't go back and look at my older hobby work. As I've said with pretty much every DPChallenge entry since I started, all I see are the flaws. That said, participating in the challenge this year has really changed how I think about my painting.

April: Ghosts of Gaia


I stayed well within my comfort zone with these models. They work well enough for gaming pieces, but really could have benefited from my spending more time on blending/highlighting.

May: Chaos Centaurs:


A blast from the past with these guys. I spent more time on and gave more thought to the skin on these guys, rather than just putting a Caucasian torso on a chestnut horse body.

June: Wrenchmouth and Handlers


Back to the Ghosts of Gaia with this set, but this time around, I worked harder on the blending, with subjectively better results on both the armor and the bone.

July: Teleport Pad


The theme this month was for Objectives, so I went with this bit of terrain made from a cheese container, supplemented with some Sedition Wars scenery that I had been sitting on for years. This month, I attempted OSL/lighting effects, with questionable success. I'll have to revisit that technique soon.

August: Dwarf Heroes


Back to the comfort zone for these guys, but I am please with their faces and beards.

September: Throne of Bone:


This model had been languising in a box for decades, occasionally seeing the light of day when my son and I were "snooping" in my backlog. I'm pleased with the platform and the characters, but should have put more effort into the skeletons. This one shows up on the front page semi-regularly, which makes me internet famous.

October: Ghosts


Another entry that shows up on the front page periodically. I got some good advice on the glowy effect, but didn't quite pull it off.

November: Succubus and Abbess


I actually did some research (which is to say, watched some YouTube painting tutorials), and the cloth turned out much better than on previous models. The steel and gold on the Abbess didn't really work, though. I had planned to do her in NMM, but couldn't pull it off...

December: Harlequins


After seeing how much time and effort everyone was putting into their Challenge entries, I decided to up my game a little. These models were my first real attempt at NMM. They don't look particularly metallic, but I'm satisfied with them as an early attempt.

January: Iron Golem


Since the theme of the month was trying new things, I decided it was time to get serious about NMM. I watched countless videos and read countless tutorials, and spent very nearly the entire month on this model alone. I was this close to placing in the top three with this guy, but the competition was just too stiff.

February: Female Dreadball team


I had originally planned to paint up captains for a few different teams, but realized that the Koris captain would be more frustrating than fun. Thus, I painted these models instead. I can't remember ever working with this much pink before.

March: Enforcers

These guys aren't finished yet. Go check out the current challenge for WIP from everyone.

Participating in the monthly challenge has been both educational and enjoyable. I have really learned a lot, just by checking out what everyone else shares.

It's great to see so many wonderful pieces here. Everyone should be very proud of what they've created as a result of this challenge. Thanks to Para and Nev for running the challenges and Midget Gems for updating the league table, your commitment to this community is fantastic and is much appreciated by me personally and I'm sure everyone else as well.

Here's the odds and sods I threw together this year -

March - Guilliman.


I think I started the year off pretty well. I spent a LOT of time getting the blue armour right. I wanted the shade and the amount of shine to be right, so that's what I spent the most time on. It's sort of a NMM blue. The gold trim took about a hundred years as well, of course. I actually painted this while I had Covid, which didn't make it any easier. I was only awake for around four hours a day for a couple of the weeks of this month.

April - Stuffed Fables


My favorite entry of mine of the year. I like how colourful it is and how smooth some of the painting is, but I particularly like how they look together. It's a characterful group. I mostly like the memories attatched to it - in the early days of lockdown 1, our family ritual was to play a page of the boardgame (it's arranged like a storybook) every evening together - my wife, my son and myself. It's a genuinely wonderful game and I recommend it to anyone with children.

May - Oldhammer Harlequins


Meh. I recreated the paintjobs of some Harlequins from the 80s, albeit without any of the neatness or subtlety. A rubbish version of some wonderful old paintjobs.

June - Greedo


Pretty average. I like the colours, but it's not very interesting is it? The finished model is blighted by mould lines that proved impossible to remove. Soft plastic Fantasy Flight miniatures are a nightmare for this.

July - Assault Intercessors


Talking of average. These boring-to-look-at Space Marines exist to teach me a lesson about edge and spot highlights that I should have learnt when I painted much better Dark Angels over a year ago. The edge highlights are far too subtle, and the whole squad ended up looking unhighlighted. The green also isn't dark enough.

August - Mollog


This is a better one. A fun miniature to paint, and I dug out the ultra-matte Shade Color paints for him. I used a bit of pointalism on him, which I always enjoy. I quite like the skintone, but the blue mushroom and frog creature are too loud. I actually prefer the back view of this guy -


September - Foetid Bloat-Drone


Well, it looks good, but I have no particular feeling of pride about it. The problem with it in my eyes is that I painted it using the exact same techniques, tones, and individual paints as a Plague Marine I painted a couple of years ago. There's nothing new about it, so I don't feel like I did anything worthwhile on it. I kind of don't like repeating myself. Bob Dylan apparently doesn't ever sing the a song exactly the same way twice and I understand that mindset. I'm not comparing myself to Bob Dylan by the way - that is for other people to do.

October - Imperial Fists marine (or Yellow!)


This was an exercise in painting a Marine in as clean and crisp a style as possible. I was going for an Eavy Metal/Darren Latham feel. It's not quite that sharp, but it's a good shade of yellow, and I'm pleased with the freehand symbols.

November - Saint Hazael


I'm grateful to the challenge one this one as without it I wouldn't have painted this otherwise. It would have remained in my stack of shame with most of my Anima Tactics stuff. I don't think the finished piece is particularly good though - it's an odd miniature with a lack of focal points. The way I painted it meant it's really disjointed. The marble base is good in isolation, but looks realistic while the rest of the miniature doesn't have that look. I like the body, with the visible brush strokes, but the wings are airbrushed, so they don't fit with the style of the body. The whole thing is incoherent. It's another one where I prefer the back view - I love the girl's hand against the angel's armour. I think it's really evocative and makes me strangely emotional.


December - Bastian Oriel


I don't know what went wrong here. I like the green bit of cloth at the front of his skirt, and I enjoyed painting the pages of the book, but it's just not interesting overall. It's a nice sculpt - I just made it boring.

January - Rakkir (Oils)


A first foray into the world of oil paints, and I really enjoyed using them. I managed to get some nice blends and some interesting textures with them. The colours are more muted than a lot of my work, because you have to mix your own colours with oils and I don't know how to mix really vibrant colours. I did manage to get a really vibrant orc skin though, which worked out well because it draws the eye to the face. I did the eyes with oils as well, and that was bloody difficult.

February - Vanessa the Treasure Hunter


Crap. I usually spend hours and hours over minis, but this was done in an hour and a half on the last day of the month. I did it as a bit of fun as a palate-clenser after a big stressful project, and an exercise in lighting and limited colours. In that context it's okay, but the fact is I didn't really get it right. I never managed to get to grips with the face, and that's the most important part of any miniature. I imagined her in complete darkness, using her magic purple glowy thing to light the way and how that would look. I imagined her wearing a black leather coat and red leggings, and tried to craft the light reflections accordingly. I guess the only succesful part is that her leggings do look like they're red, just in the dark and lit by a magic purple glowy thing.

Anyway, that big stressful project was the real reason it was rubbish, honest. What happened is that a few months into lockdown 1 I was made redundant. I've been surviving on my savings and redundancy payoff, and we have my wife's income as well. Finding another job has been impossible. Late last year I applied to become one of the painters at Siege Studios and what do you know they accepted me, on a probationary basis. It's not really a job exactly, but it is a bit of money coming in, so that helps. Through February I was doing my first big project for them. It was this -



I dedicated every hour I had to it, inbetween the horrible struggle of home-schooling. I managed to get it finished in time, and even more surprisingly got it posted back to them safely. It's pretty weird seeing my work on Siege's instagram (getting 4000 more likes than I've ever got for anything on mine) and pretty cool. I want to thank Para, Nev, and everyone who joins in with the challenges every month, because I think it has improved my painting to the point where I can actully sort of do this, and has helped me in my ability to hit deadlines. Cheers guys.

I'd say see you in the Space Marine challenge, but I'm painting 50 Marines in white armour at the moment, and I'm not allowed to enter them!

That knight is majestic, congratulations on getting that work!

congratulations feltmonkey, I saw that Knight on Siege's insta feed and was well impressed, now more impressed!

Well I painted 22 figures, 2 objective markers and 3 pieces of terrain. Since everything I paint is for gaming, everything painted is a bonus.

Two Objective Markers
Two Sisters of Battle Tanks
Four Eldar Phoenix Lords
Eldar Farseer on Jetbike
Eldar Webgate
5 Goliath Gangers
3 Shining Spears
2 Necromunda Scum
3 Necromunda Bounty Hunters
2 Necromunda Towers

My favorite and most successful entry was:
Eldar Master Minds - Phoenix Lords and Farseer







Although the Sisters of Battle Exorcist was a close second, because without the Challenge, I would probably still not have it done.

My two cents,

CB

Paradigm wrote:That knight is majestic, congratulations on getting that work!

maxwin wrote:congratulations feltmonkey, I saw that Knight on Siege's insta feed and was well impressed, now more impressed!

Thanks, guys!

It's honestly so cool to see everyone's retrospectives and there are some seriously memorable entries from this year. I really enjoyed the feedback, providing feedback and voting for such a range of miniatures and helps me realise there is much more to minipainting than just GW.

My relationship with this challenge has been a bit love/hate at times. I really enjoy the challenge and seeing everyone's work but I tend to struggle with monthly time frames and prefer to paint what I want and when I like. As a result, I've only finished 5/12 entries for the year, completing 8 models from the entries.

Doing my best to improve my painting habit and I've consistently entered something and completed it since November.

So, starting with Mastermind, the August challenge, where I pledged to paint a Captain and Lieutenant from Indomitus. Only the captain was completed and overall I was disappointed with my placement and also my inability to finish two models that month. This continued into the following month that I'd entered but didn't complete a single mini for that month and stopped painting until November. The Captain is a model I'm proud of and I still enjoy looking at the mini.



November was my next successful entry having taken a break from painting and it was a refreshing experience painting a character model to get back in the groove of painting. Reasonably happy with this mini, but the hourglass was lazy, as was the sword and helmet. He is also a bit too clean considering the rest of my army is weathered. Top 10 though, so happy enough.



December was the open round and I went for a left of field model in a Porsche 911 which I completed as a Christmas present. I definitely know I could have done better, there are numerous mistakes made due to the time constraints of Christmas and the trim is sloppy. Different skillset needed and the votes are about what I expected.



January's entry was fun for me, trying out a new painting style and I think I didn't spend enough time on this guy. The kitbash was lengthy and the paint job wasn't good enough and the feedback highlighted that, which was very useful.



February was my most successful entry since 2018, netting 5th place among stiff competition. These Underworlds models are gorgeous and I thoroughly enjoyed painting them. I liked the mix of airbrush and brush blending and the skin tones were a challenge too. Techniques I'll definitely carry forward.



Really hoping to push myself this coming year and improve the results!



Thanks to Para, Nev and MG for organising this consistently, big ups.

 feltmonkey wrote:
Anyway, that big stressful project was the real reason it was rubbish, honest. What happened is that a few months into lockdown 1 I was made redundant. I've been surviving on my savings and redundancy payoff, and we have my wife's income as well. Finding another job has been impossible. Late last year I applied to become one of the painters at Siege Studios and what do you know they accepted me, on a probationary basis. It's not really a job exactly, but it is a bit of money coming in, so that helps. Through February I was doing my first big project for them. It was this -



I dedicated every hour I had to it, inbetween the horrible struggle of home-schooling. I managed to get it finished in time, and even more surprisingly got it posted back to them safely. It's pretty weird seeing my work on Siege's instagram (getting 4000 more likes than I've ever got for anything on mine) and pretty cool. I want to thank Para, Nev, and everyone who joins in with the challenges every month, because I think it has improved my painting to the point where I can actully sort of do this, and has helped me in my ability to hit deadlines. Cheers guys.

I'd say see you in the Space Marine challenge, but I'm painting 50 Marines in white armour at the moment, and I'm not allowed to enter them!

Really sorry to hear about the redundancy Felt and yeah home schooling is tough, but with a positive spin on it that looks like its opened up a new route for you and all those Dakka Entries are finally paying off

Congrats on being accepted as a Siege studio painter, really excited for you. I do hope you can still keep some level of entry into out competition even if its not the same as it once was (like me over the last year)

For everyone else

The league table has been updated, go check out the final positions for the 20-21 season to see how everyone did

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/732117.page#9481149

Seems as good a place as any to announce the year's League victors formally! Our top 3 this year all managed a 12-month completion streak, and have a whopping 20 podium finishes between them.

In third, with 60 points (beating out his closest competitor by just one!), congratulations to Feltmonkey!

In second, with 75, it's last year's winner, Modock!

And taking the overall win, and a shiny set of Dakka dice (PM incoming about that) it's DV8. 85 points and no less than 10 podium finishes secure a phenomenal victory!

Well done everyone, and remember. if the challenge got you to paint one more mini than you would have, you're a winner too! Massive thanks as ever to Midget Gems and Nevelon for all the admin work.

Well deserved felt, modock and DV8. 10 out of 12 podium finishes with some of the competition on here is very impressive but i will be expecting at least 11 this year DV8 :-)

Very cool! As I'm always saying every month, everybody who finishes something for this challenge is a winner for putting a dent into their pile of grey/shame! Podium is largely irrelevant, it's all about that 12-month consistency, and about being better than you were yesterday, and worse than you will be tomorrow.

A huge huge HUGE shoutout to Paradigm, Midget Gems, and Nevelon for keeping this challenge on track, and for all the work that they do behind the scenes!

Jamie Shred wrote:
Well deserved felt, modock and DV8. 10 out of 12 podium finishes with some of the competition on here is very impressive but i will be expecting at least 11 this year DV8 :-)

Haha! The thing about community voting is it's never a guarantee! And there's always so many cool entries with interesting techniques, narratives, styles, and interpretation of the theme that can swing a crowd either way! I'm just happy to get something done consistently every month! Taking a podium is just gravy on the train for me (is that even a saying? I can't tell if it is, but there it is, no takebacksies now!), and the last thing on my mind (although admittedly, I definitely gun for Modock every month! That man's consistent technical ability just astounds, inspires, and motivates me).