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Welcome all to the 110th round of the Dakka Painting challenge. For the unfamiliar, this is a friendly painting competition open to members of all skill levels and experience, whether your entry is your first or you thousand-and-first time painting miniatures. Each month, finished entries are collected into a thread where the community can vote on their favorite pieces, and those votes go towards an annual overall League that runs for 12 rounds.

This month the topic is Let's Finish This! - Soldiers prepped for the big battle, two arch-enemies in a duel, a sniper ready for that one, perfect shot. In meta terms, we could tackle something we have been meaning to get around to, or else those last few models from a starter box. This month we’ll also suspend the “must be painted in the month” rule and allow you to finish a project that was previously started, but stalled. However if you choose this option, you must post a proof picture of the start point, preferably early in the month. Painting a partially finished model is an option, and not required. You can start something new that fits the theme and participate as normal.

How To Enter

- You may enter up to 5 MODELS as a SINGLE ENTRY, and are permitted one entry per member per month. If you enter multiple models, they should ideally be related in some way, such as part of the same squad, unit or scene if you are doing a diorama
- You may enter at any time during the month, up to the last minute. We do encourage people to enter early, as to be part of the community, but if you can’t start until the 11th hour, that’s OK.
- You MUST post a 'proof' picture of your entry in the thread of the state it was in before you started working on it; this must be either unassembled, unpainted, primed or coated a single colour. Entries that do not submit a valid Proof Picture will not be eligible for voting.
- After this, you may post WIP pictures in this thread and your own if you wish, and on completing the entry, you may post up to 6 final pictures IN THIS THREAD that will then be used for voting. Please note that pictures in a montage or collage picture will be considered individual images for this purpose, so while these types of presentation are certainly acceptable, please keep the image limit in mind when compiling them. For example, a collage of 5 images and one separate image would count as your 6 picture allowance.


So What Do I Win?
- Points... and points mean... bragging rights for the next month! Following the vote, points will be awarded to every entrant. This year, the Points you receive will be equal to the Percentage of Votes your entry receives in the final Voting thread; if you get 10%, you get 10 points, if you get 6% you get 6 points, so on and so forth.

These points will be used to form a league table, which will be updated month on month as the results come in.

How Long Do I Have?
This challenge begins 1st of April and will end at midnight EST on April 30th. After this, I shall compile the finished entries into a new thread, and voting will run for 5 days.

So, storytime: when 10th edition rolled out, I drew up a 2000pt army list for my warband... which turned out to be unnecessary, since as I pored through the rules and observed games it became obvious that I wasn't going to be any more interested in playing this version of 40k than the last but I enjoy modelling and painting and the list was a convenient guide to what to do next besides 'whatever', so it's not wasted effort. These are all that's left unfinished of that 2k army:



The five in front (four Chosen, plus a Legionary on the far right with a heavy melee weapon) are the actual contest entry, since they're the furthest from done, but I'll be trying to get the three in back (Chaos Lord in the middle, flanked by my two Masters of Execution) finished as well, since the contest is as good a reason as any to buckle down and complete the army.

By all means, if you have larger projects that need to be finished, get as much as you can done! Just pick 5 to enter at the end.

Errrr….

I’m not sure what to do. I’m feeling strangely unmotivated and despondent at the moment.

Like kind of … just… ‘meh’

Frankly I don’t like it. Not sure what to choose, not even built anything. Errrrr

I have this squad of Wookiees I haven't put a brushstroke on in almost three years. I might paint them this month. Might? Well, it's obvious that motivation has been an issue. Who knows if that's going to change. But that's what we're here for, right? Help me, Dakka Painting Challenge. You are my only hope!

 Geifer wrote:
I have this squad of Wookiees I haven't put a brushstroke on in almost three years. I might paint them this month. Might? Well, it's obvious that motivation has been an issue. Who knows if that's going to change. But that's what we're here for, right? Help me, Dakka Painting Challenge. You are my only hope!]

Me exactly. I’m genuinely stuck. I’ve got so many minis, so so many, but I’m just drawing a total blank on what I feel hyped to paint.

Um, help me too Dakka Painting Challenge. We have ourselves a crisis of morale on the team here! Lol

Well, I like to remain positive. The Wookiees stand a better chance of getting painted this month than they ever will. And if in a week they still look the same, I know it was a bad choice and find something else. Moods can easily change in a week, and there's still plenty of month left after that.

So hey, it doesn't always have to be the first idea on the first day. What matters is that there's a painted model (or several) at the end of the month.

Back to Aeldari again,

My first purchase when getting back into the hobby in late 2022 was an Aeldari Combat Patrol. After painting two guardians I got side-tracked and started hoarding Aspect Warriors and never really went back to finish the Guardians. I have picked out four half-done guardians and a weapon platform as my five minis for this month. I actually tried to get these five finished about two months ago, but only worked on them for a single day, so the deadline (hopefully) gives me the perfect excuse to get these guys finished this time.

Cheers,
Oskar

If you are stuck looking at end endless pile of stuff, snap a pic and we’ll offer advice.

A good default is “what’s been there the longest”

Also priority to things that were started for previous monthly challenges but never finished.

I have this Cheftain tank sitting in a box for I don't know how long. I took it out and painted with black primer, and I plan to build a Prism tank from Red Alert II from it. I recently bought the game cheaply on Steam, and I liked it. Below the picture of the model, and reference of the tank from the game. Now I will try to design and build the turret.

 Nevelon wrote:
If you are stuck looking at end endless pile of stuff, snap a pic and we’ll offer advice.

A good default is “what’s been there the longest”

Also priority to things that were started for previous monthly challenges but never finished.

I suppose I could pick one of the characters from the FEC army box as that is about halfway done. There’s the Gorewarden that is a bigger piece. I’ll figure something out, maybe even snap a pic of the pile like you suggest lol

 Nevelon wrote:
By all means, if you have larger projects that need to be finished, get as much as you can done! Just pick 5 to enter at the end.

Yep, I did that last month with seven heavy weapons space marines last month, and entered five of them at the end. I don't have much free time, but I'm tempted to do something crazy this month. I have a total of 38 Dark Angels tactical squad space marines left on sprue or in ziplock bags. It's tempting to try to batch paint all of them this month...

Syro wrote:
Yep, I did that last month with seven heavy weapons space marines last month, and entered five of them at the end. I don't have much free time, but I'm tempted to do something crazy this month. I have a total of 38 Dark Angels tactical squad space marines left on sprue or in ziplock bags. It's tempting to try to batch paint all of them this month...

Sir, you have vision.

Keep hitting a wall with these guys

So I'm aiming to do Cap and Bucky as they fit the theme as well... we'll see.

Going to go with Cammy. She fits because "let's finish this" is definitely something a Street Fighter would say, and also because I was having printer trouble while making her, she had more than usual "printery-ness" that needed cleanup, and she has sat primed for longer than I would like. So, it's time to finish her.

I have a couple of options. First, the rest of my metal Fellowship of the Ring:



The second is the Harlequin Dreadnought that has been sitting with my unpainted Eldar for decades:


I'll paint up everything you see here and submit whichever I am most satisfied with.

I tried to paint Redemptor Kyrinov back in 2020 for the "Saints and Sinners" challenge, but wasn't able to get him done. As you can see, he's gathered dust for the last four years. Let's get him off the painting table and into some games!

 halfling84 wrote:
I have this Cheftain tank s

Spoiler:

itting in a box for I don't know how long. I took it out and painted with black primer, and I plan to build a Prism tank from Red Alert II from it. I recently bought the game cheaply on Steam, and I liked it. Below the picture of the model, and reference of the tank from the game. Now I will try to design and build the turret.

Awesome! Wait Red Alert II on steam? I thought steam only has Red Alert I remastered and Red Alert III.
I got the C&C bundle on Origin because it was not on steam back then. Oh snap I just checked, yes you can. That is Awesome!
For turret structure reference look up (red alert 2 prism tank art) in the browser

Will be my entry. I've had this conversion done for over 10 years and I can just imagine this Daemon Prince saying "Let's finish this" and finally engaging the heroes himself.

Going to try to finish either or both of these from 2022. Cnebba, the werewolf in the back was started for Force of Nature, but never got anywhere, while the dwarves were assembled about that time, eventually got one layer of fur color, and stalled in the anti-cat box. We'll see if I can finially finish off some cavalry, or if it'll jist be a monster sort of month:

Getting right to work trying out what I had in mind for the skin. Not completely convinced. There's things I like, things I am less sure about.

I am in the process of trying to clear my pile of shame completely so I can always buy and paint the new thing that excites me.
So I currently have 3 projects I want to finish.
- All the Thundercats for Zombicide(Only Cheetara and Tygra left)
- The Wildercorps Hunters (Just the 5 dogs left)
- The Askurgan Trueblades (The Pariah and the 2 Ascetics left)

Since I am excited to paint the first 2 but not the rest of the Askurgan Trueblades I will use this Challenge as an excuse to do so.
Here's what I have done so far.

If I manage to finish those 3 and base everyone, the Warcry Bloodhunt box will be the first big box I have bought and painted everything. So let's finish it!

Apparently was the kick I needed--base color done for the fur, and just rolled into several layers of drybrushing. Needs some washes and glazing, and doing those tiny eyes will be painful and unforgiving, but still, kinda happy with how its going...

 Nevelon wrote:
or else those last few models from a starter box.

Hehe, incidentally, that's exactly what I've been doing over the last month, been finishing up the armies from the Tempest of Souls and Storm Strike boxes, and I just so happen to have 5 models remaining on the Nighthaunt side. Here's the condition they're in so far - the Lord Executioner is only primed, and I'm just trying to figure out the basecoats on the Myrmourn Banshees. I'd like to enter these, sounds like fun!

This is the model I've reserved for this challenge. A kitbashed Tyranid winged Hivetyrant which I only basecoated and basic-drybrushed.

proofpic

My boss at work gave us one more day free after Easter, so I had some time to work on the model So far I made preshading on the hull, but it has to wait for the turret with final color. I also designed large part of the turret. It is a laser artillery, so I imagine the thing at the rear of the top part is some kind of lens cooling system. I still need to make details at the sides of the turret and the targeting device under the laser "barrel".

Good time to put in some progress towards the Reaper Dwarf project.
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/780044.page
Lets Finish This Dark Gnome band, consisting of (Bloodstone Gnomes and Deep Gnomes) from Reaper. Began work mid 2023 but never finished em.

Here's my proof picture for the Avatar of Khaine. I would have finished this guy for last year's April contest, but then I developed severe bursitis in my shoulder and couldn't paint for awhile. Anyway, it's time to dust this guy off and FINISH HIM!!!

More progress on these in a hour than in months previous! Hurrah for dakka motivations.

I'm excited to get started on all my tactical marines, but things have not been going well so far. It turns out I don't own nearly enough bases for these guys. I ordered more bases, and they are shipping surprisingly fast, but my vacation will still be mostly over by the time they get here. After washing all the models, I rigged them up on these pieces of cardboard for early priming and painting until the bases arrive, but I'm wondering if I didn't wash them well enough, the wet primer was pulling away from the model and pooling. Being attached to cardboard, attempting a second wash destroyed how they were attached. So I have mostly been spinning my wheels and not getting anywhere.