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-- Year 10 --
March 24 -- No Poll -- Challenge -- Vote -- Space Marine
April 24 -- Poll -- Challenge -- Vote -- Let’s Finish This!
May 24 -- Poll -- Challenge -- Vote -- Nice Ride
Summer Side Quest -- Poll -- Challenge -- Vote -- Centerpiece
June 24 -- Poll -- Challenge -- Vote -- Glow Up
July 24 -- No Poll -- Challenge -- Vote -- Footslogger
August -- Poll -- Challenge -- Vote -- Beep Boop
September -- Poll -- Challenge -- Vote -- Absolute Unit
October -- No Poll -- Challenge -- Vote -- Halloween Special
November -- Poll -- Challenge -- Vote -- Ancients
December -- No Poll -- Challenge -- Vote -- Open Round
January -- Poll -- Challenge -- Vote -- Frugal
February -- No Poll -- Challenge -- Vote -- SURPRISE!

--

I know we are not quite done with the year, but some people have already wrapped up their entries for the month, so I wanted to get a thread started for retrospectives. Gives me something to do over my morning weekend coffee.

Somethings to discus for the next year:
This year we did a summer side project, to stretch over the summer and allow time for multi-month projects. How do people feel about that? Do we want to do it again? We did “Centerpiece” what other topics would be appropriate for a summer side quest?

I’m debating putting on my Benevolent Overlord hat and dictating a topic for a month, probably April. “Picture Perfect” where in addition to the literal theme (parade ground clean, polished armor, immaculate hair, stepped off a recruitment poster) we focus on the photography side of the hobby. Change the rules to require at least 3 pics, maybe up the cap. Every month there are models I’d love to see more of, but can’t due to bad cropping, cluttered backgrounds, poor lighting etc. You can still use your phone and a desk lamp to take pictures, but with a little thought and effort, you can showcase things so much better.


---

Automatically Appended Next Post:
And on a personal level:



So mixed feeling for the year.

32 minis painted, which feels low, but is above average (30) Now for October I picked the best 5 out of like 20 models, which was good. But both July and August were supposed to be full squads and ended up with loners. Which is bad.

On a model per month I had a good mix. Typically the 1 model months are HQs/monsters/vehicles, but two of mine this year were just troopers. It happens.

Feels very marine heavy, but again, within statistical norms. This year was 8/12, where I average 61% Ultramarines. And only basic blue company marines and a pair of black chaplains. No scouts or phobos to at least pretend to have some variety. At least the 4 non-marine months were no repeats.

While the vote hasn’t started for Feb yet, overall I’ve polled pretty well. My JP chaplain got me a slice of silver, cut 3 ways. September was also a very strong showing. Which is a little odd, as I think the bike chap was my best month, with the nightguard and jump chap behind him in that order. We’ll see what the final standings look like, I might crack the top 10. (un)fortunately we have enough quality people entering regularly enough that my tactic of “just showing up every month” is not what it used to be.

Overall pretty happy with the year. Could be better, could be worse. The first half being 100% marines was not a good start, but I was able to mix things up at the end.

March - I like painting vets. I’ve painted so many basic battle brothers with assorted gear over the years it’s not particularly exciting. Needed for the game, but as a painter I like it when there is more detail, and things aren’t just basic power armor. These guys turned out pretty well IMHO.

April - I had originally started these guys a while back, but not a fan of the sculpts, so they kinda rotted on the back of the bench. This month’s topic was a good incentive to finish them off. Might return it to the polls at some point for another go.

May - Honestly my favorite work for the year. The only issue is I had to paint it assembled, so some parts of it (not generally visible at normal angles, but there) are not painted as well as I would like.

June - This should have been a full squad. Part of that was the summer comp taking time, but also life and general motivation. Still, I like the new terminators. The rest of the squad did eventually get done.

July - A lot of the problems in June still here. If not a full squad, I wanted to get more done. Just one marine made it across the bench in time. Nothing fancy, just a marine designed for a prior version of KT getting paint after the need for him is gone. He can still serve in the battle company.

August - A bit phoned in again. Not an easy topic for me to find something for.

September - For being a box I picked up because it was cram packed with cool minis, the Cursed City stuff is taking it’s sweet time to make it across the workbench. Like how these guys turned out, second favorite of my work this year.

October - Nice to know I can still bang out the minis if I need to. While nothing in this batch was spectacular, I’m in general happy with how they all came out. And while this was just the top 5, I painted like 2/3rds of a nighthaunt spearhead in one month to a (for me) high tabletop standard. While individually not making my top picks of the month, overall real proud of them.

November - Painting RTB01 beakies never gets old. I need to clean up and prime more guys from the recycle pile.

December - I often use the open round to help clean up my yearly goals. For this it was getting the models for the tyranid combat patrol done. Grateful of the feedback from the comp thread to help.

January - So tied for 2nd, my best showing in 10 years here. But I can’t see past the soft ETB details in spots, or bits where I know I could be a little tidier with the paint. We are our own worst critics.

February - Pretty happy with how these guys turned out. Month is still open, so we’ll see how they do in the poll.

Summer blockbuster - So I only managed to finish the central sarcophagus/cherubs/base and the leading sister, I felt that was enough to enter. I managed to finish off the rest by the end of the year. Such an important big project I needed the help to motivate on.

Good stuff, Nev. As resolute and dependable as your chosen Chapter. Here's my year:

March: Sicaran



April: Cammy



May: Star Eagles prototypes



June: Judges Dredd



July: Mandalorians



August: Necromunda Pit Slaves



September: Fett and Co.



October: The Watcher



November: Elric



December: Eldar gals



January: Black Ark



February: Sunstalker Dancer



Summer Blockbuster: Twin Wraithknights



So, that's what I painted. A mixed bag, for sure. Some good sized models in there. Not too many podium finishes this year, but, I am pretty happy with most of it. Low points would be the spaceships and Mandos, I think. High points for me are Fett, Dancer, Eldar ladies and Wraithknights. Thanks to Nev and Midget Gems for keeping the train on the tracks. Big love to all who voted for my models and congrats to everybody that took part and got more painted models out in the world.

It's been a much more varied year that my first two:



Space Marine: Brother Quiff Lustgarten (far left) who kicked off the Boys From The Astronomican project (paint new marine minis in old colour schemes just for fun) that I'm still doing.
Let's Finish This!: The Servants of Bliss (centre), the warband's Chosen, who (typically) I painted up a whole squad of ten then left them on the shelf because they're overqualified for the battlefield role of 'ablative armour for chaos lord'.
Nice Ride: Dalek Legionary (far right), just for fun.
Centrepiece: Lily II (centre, the greater daemon), very pleased to have finally painted one of the first miniatures I bought after reconnecting with the hobby (before I'd even really decided to collect an army, just to put the box on a shelf as a keepsake). Never been used, both because she's too fragile to transport, and because I'm not comfortable putting a miniature with detailed genitals on the table at the local gaming group.
Glow Up: Anachronistic Primaris Young Lieutenant Tycho (mid left), who I keep meaning to get back on the table to repaint his hair white and add a bionic eye since Pariah Press recalled that mini did have a name (Chavez), but mostly by luck that face turned out real good so I'm hesitant to mess with it.
Footslogger: Xenonian Guardswoman (left), glad to finally have one, confirmed that as much fun as it would be to have a Guard regiment complete with Eschers in tanks, I cannot be bothered with drab colours.
Beep Boop: Traitor Castellan Robot (mid right back), technically a Helbrute, haven't gotten around to using her yet.
Absolute Unit: Terminator Sorceress and Familiar (mid right front), doesn't see much use in 1K games, the Familiar's actually been on the tabletop more often, as Fabius's helper.
Halloween: Legion of the Damned (far left), could see myself doing a squad if they ever got rules again.
Ancients: Lord Elrond (centre), finally put a decent paint job on one of the first minis I ever owned.
Open Round: Victor Bantax (left, the Land Raider), representing the Empyrean Crusade I started kind of by accident.
Frugal: Neurotyrant and Genestealers (far right back), representing the Morbus Gravis Strain Tyranid hive I started extremely by accident.
Surprise!: Lord Bentley Spore-Mine and Associates (far right), demonstrating how quickly the hive went from grimdark horror to screwball comedy.

You've got some great models in there, DaiaT'Nara. Really like the Land Raider, the Keeper and the not-exactly Centurius. Keep it coming!

I hoped to do an entry for every month of the 2024-25 Challenge, but ultimately only managed six.

March – Chibi Rogue Trader Crimson Fist

A re-paint and minor conversion of a figure from Warhammer 40,000 Chibi Figures Vol. 2. Not bad from a distance but the blue paint I used is obviously streaky up-close, and I’m tempted to repaint it at some point.

April - RE2 police zombies

Very detailed (considering they’re PVC board game figures) but also quite small. Luckily I have plenty of these zombies to practise on, they’re quite different to paint from Warhammer minis.

June – Space Marine Heroes marine

The Space Marine Heroes series minis are really nice sculpts, with updated proportions and scale compared to classic marines but the same aesthetic. I painted this one to practise the Deathwatch paint scheme.

September – Chibi Triceratops

A repainted shokugan toy. I had fun painting this one. I searched the web for “what colour was a Triceratops?” and based the colour scheme on the answers.

October – More RE2 police zombies

I’ve mostly got the process for painting these minis nailed down, but whilst I really like the navy blue colour I use on them, the paint itself is really thin and has a glossy finish, so I want to find a replacement.

February – Iron Hands Deathwatch marine

Converted from a duplicate I had of June’s entry, this was more Deathwatch practise. I ran out of time with this one, so it doesn’t have any highlighting.

+++++++++++++++++++++

Comments for All

Nevelon: 32 minis across four distinct factions is pretty good for one year. I like your Scorpions, I haven't seen anyone do camo Scorpions before, and it works really well.

Geifer: Elric, the Eldar ladies, and Fett & Co. are my favourites, Elric's sword is really good. The face and skin tones on the Sunstalker Dancer are also excellent.

Daia T'Nara: I really like the way that you've been re-interpreting old 40K material with the new models.

Thoughts for Next Year

Summer Side Project
I didn’t enter the Summer Side Project this year, since I felt that I didn’t have anything impressive enough to be a centrepiece, but that’s really on me. Some months of the Challenge I drop out or don’t quite enter my best work due to running out of time, so having a side-Challenge where time is less of an issue would be welcome.

Picture Perfect
This is an interesting idea. Perhaps this might also be a candidate for the Summer Side Project topic?

Let’s Finish This
In the February Challenge thread, Geifer suggested a revival of the “Let’s Finished This” topic from April. If we do this, perhaps it should be the topic for February, to give people a chance to revisit any incomplete projects from the previous 11 months of the Challenge?

The Future is Now
A topic suggestion of my own: Paint a miniature which is futurtistic in some way, either from our present-day perspective, in a retro-futuristic style or which is futuristic within it’s own time period (eg gunpowder weapons in medieval armies).

The thought of adding “let’s finish this!” as another fixed month, turning it into finish it February to wrap up the year, also crossed my mind. A lot of people don’t complete entries, or only get part of them done. But do we want to cut out a new topic from each year? It would push the number of fixed months to a quarter of the year.

For the summer thing, if we want to do it again, the question is what topics could use the extra time? Generally my thoughts are if you are going to numbers of models, size of models, or quality of paint. I guess extensive kitbashings or things with long build processes would also fit, but we handwave that time here, as we only count the time painting. I guess if you were going for a literal “picture perfect” interpretation and were aiming for a photorealistic paintjob the extra time would help, but it’s intended as a photography focus, which should not take much more time then normal, just a focus.

Topic idea added to the list.

I posted my retrospective in my P&M Blog, so hop on over and take a look.

If we're taking suggestions for topics, how about Leftovers? This one occurred to my after Thanksgiving (an American holiday celebrating eating too much). Ideally, it should come in December, but that's the Open Round, leaving November at the best place. Topically, one could paint the one or two models left after building a unit, kitbash something with parts left on sprue, or just that one dude needed to get a unit up to full-strength. Alternatively, you could paint the remnants of a unit that was nearly wiped out-- Tanith First and Only, for example.

 Nevelon wrote:
The thought of adding “let’s finish this!” as another fixed month, turning it into finish it February to wrap up the year, also crossed my mind. A lot of people don’t complete entries, or only get part of them done. But do we want to cut out a new topic from each year? It would push the number of fixed months to a quarter of the year.

One option that comes to mind to get a recurring Let's Finish This and keep the number of set months down is to expand the open category in December to allow for finishing started projects.

 Nevelon wrote:
For the summer thing, if we want to do it again, the question is what topics could use the extra time? Generally my thoughts are if you are going to numbers of models, size of models, or quality of paint. I guess extensive kitbashings or things with long build processes would also fit, but we handwave that time here, as we only count the time painting. I guess if you were going for a literal “picture perfect” interpretation and were aiming for a photorealistic paintjob the extra time would help, but it’s intended as a photography focus, which should not take much more time then normal, just a focus.

The big thing for me about the Picture Perfect idea is that I'd need feedback from other people about my photography to even know what needs improving. I've learned a thing or two over the years, but by and large my idea of good photography is to stay out my camera's way and let it do its job.

To me the important thing isn't how much time we have but whether there's a thread with kind, competent people that leave comments and ideas for improvement.

Yah, the idea of “picture perfect” relies on people being friendly and supportive. Which we already are with painting, it would just need to extend to the photo side as well. Which I’m sure we could do.

--
(sorry for the delay)

So that’s a wrap for the year!

Thanks to Midget Gems for keeping the league table updated.

Close battle at the top this year with XvArcanevX and CancelledApocalypse neck and neck at the wire. youwashock and Midget Gems were also duking it out for the last spot on the podium, with a tight pack bringing up the rest of the top 10. Congrats to the winners, and everyone who participated.

Looks like we get somewhere in the mid 20ish entires every month, with just shy of 50 people tossing their hat in the ring over the year. 11 people managed to enter every month. The highest was April’s "Lets Finish This” with 29 entries, and the most votes for a month was September’s “Absolute Unit” 450 total cast.

Wonderful stuff Nevelon, youwashock, Daia T'Nara, Turaxa and JoshInJapan!


My year started very slowly, taking part first time in July. We moved house during the spring and I was working with a couple of larger projects, so I did have the time nor energy to take part.
After September however, it seems that I somehow managed to keep a consistent pace throughout the rest of the year with various entries. I also took part into the summer challenge, as the longer
Thank you Midget Gems for the helpful table! Made keeping track of my entries much easier.

To prevent this post getting too long, I spoilered the picture collages (I did not have single pictures from all of them in the Dakka gallery).


July - Footslogger - Spartans of the Church

After an exhausting spring and a full summer, I decided to quickly paint a bunch of Church Hunters from the Bloodborne boardgame (based on the video game with the same name).
Quick 'n dirty and just kind of wanted to get these out of the way. The obscured details of the models made the process a bit tedious.


September - Absolute Unit - Archon Conversion
I needed a new Archon for my Dark Eldar army. Decided to convert it from one of the vampires in the Crimson Court kit.
Had so much fun painting this while practicing volumetric highlight instead of the usual 'Eavy Metal style.


October - Halloween Special - Lady Maria of the Astral Clocktower
Third bust for me. Printed by a friend.
Many long nights and many iterations with the NMM on the sword.
Took this model with me to Italy for Monte San Savino Miniature Painting Show. The sword broke during transportation, but I was able to fix with Roman Lappat's fixing kit! A slight fanboy moment.


November - Ancients - Erza of Dedheim
Second Kingdom Death model I've ever painted. The one that I always wanted to paint, but was afraid to.
Very happy to have finally painted the model and was quite happy with the end result. I also took my first steps towards larger and more defined OSL effects.


December - Open Round - Kat, the Witch's Apprentice
Large model by Big Child Creatives. One of my absolute favorites in my own collection.
Had a blast with the painting process. I used more saturated colors compared to those I'm used to.


January - Frugal - Deep Gnome Adventurer
A quick D&D miniature painted while I hosted a paint 'n wine evening to a group of friends who are taking their first steps into the hobby.
Even though this miniature was painted in a few hours, I think it turned out rather nice. Lot's of contrast and saturated highlights.


February - Surprise - Traitor Guard Sergeant
One of the miniatures that have been waiting their turn for years.
I wanted to really challenge myself with two different light effects: a bright fire from the ruins and the moonlight.
This might need some more work in the future (such as a rim light), but other than that it turned out pretty alright.


Summer Special - Belladonna of House Escher
First time creating an actual display base for a Warhammer miniature.
Worked on and off with this for a couple of months, managing to get it done for the summer challenge.
This was the one miniature, that really opened my mind for display painting and taught me that the hours spent on a miniature don't alone count towards quality or end result.
Really enjoyed creating it.



What a year.
A variety of different models and styles. New things and techniques. Fear, stress, failures, successes, happiness and joy. A roller coaster of emotions, as art usually is.
Over the last year I really wanted to challenge myself and step outside of the comfort zone both in painting and other areas of the hobby.
I Focused more and more on display painting, while at the same time tried to find quicker and varying ways of painting gaming miniatures.
I took part in competitions both abroad and locally. Something I'm looking forward doing more and more in the future.

Thank you Nevelon for running the show!
Thank you Midget Gems for keeping the score!
Thank you for every single one of you who take part in these challenges. They are truly a joy. Each and every time.

My 2024 Retrospective, I enjoy doing these recaps to bolster my hobby spirits and motivate me to continue. I've been meaning to get one of these in here and only now have the time. Better late than never, eh?
April - Let's finish this! The 2nd of my gnot tanks:

May - Nice Ride The 3rd of my gnot tanks:

June - Glow Up The 4th and final gnot tank, finishing out the squad of 4:

July - Footslogger Peg-legged freebooter:

August - Beep Boop Cybork:

September - Absolute Unit Skitarii sniper, finishes out the squad I bought as part of the Kill Team starter set back in 2018:

October - Spooky! GSC Neophyte Hybrid 'Eavy Weapons:

November - Ancients GSC Neophyte Hybrid Iconward, I actually got the eyes right on this guy:

December - Open Round A couple more cultists, these two complete the other squad from the Kill Team box:

January - Frugal Fellgor Ravager (aka the walking water buffalo, love this guy!):

February - Surprise! Ork Kommando breacha boy and dakka boy (I didn't actually enter these two, because I didn't finish them in time for the competition, but they got completed not long after):


Looking back, apparently I took the first Space Marine-themed month off last year but completed at least one mini a month which is my general goal. I also managed to finish out three whole squads which is pretty awesome, because it means that the other minis that I finished previously can engage in glorious tabletop combat rather than waiting on the shelf for me to complete their compatriots.

As always, huge thanks to Nevelon for running these and MG for keeping the league tables up to date. Also thanks to the whole community who participate and comment on these things, this competition is my primary motivation to continue painting and hobbying!

About better late than never, you're never late if someone else comes in after you.

My year ended up fairly colorful with a good bit of variety, but the main thing for me was playing around with black to give it more depth and match the other colors in that regard. I'm pretty happy with how that turned out.

March: Black Legion Plague Marine


The legionnaire was the first one I tried that on. I like to paint my 40k models a bit grimy and not as neat as other settings. I specifically went with a Plague Marine this time around because I could go all out on the weathering and cheat when it comes to painting black armor as most of the edges just end up with rust. I tried a brown wash and beige highlights on the black parts and was pretty happy with the result.

April: Wookiee Squad Leader


This one was all about getting the highlights on the fur to look neat. I've never painted fur like this before and it was a good experience.

May: Bo-Katan Kryze and Tooka


Bo-Katan was good practice for my area highlighting. She's simple in having a blue and grey color scheme with little else to draw attention. That made it easy to focus on the dark to light transitions.

June: HeroQuest Barbarian


A fairly monochrome barbarian as a test to see how I feel about painting the HeroQuest PVC models. Nothing fancy here.

July: Cyber-Ninja


The ninja is the first return to black. I tried simply techniques to get four different varieties of black. Seeing the various effects helped me form an opinion on how I wanted to proceed.

August: Droids (mostly)


Back to a little fun on the side. I had spare time for a change and made good use of it. I tried to keep C-3PO and R2-D2 as close to the original trilogy look as possible, but finished early enough to sculpt the Twi'lek girl and add the nanny droid to the lineup. That gave me an excuse to work more with silvers and paint something shiny and chrome.

September: Carnotaurus


This was a bit of a filler month again. I wanted to paint the dinosaur for a while and this was a good chance to do it. The carnotaurus itself isn't anything fancy but I got a chance to paint an ocher based desert theme, much like the dirt bits on my Shatterpoint models get. That's something I want to expand on in the future because the four sculpted bases that come with Shatterpoint models get repetitive after a while.

October: Emperor Palpatine


Granny Palps was my first attempt of combining what I learned painting the ninja, with a blue base for the black robe. Preshading with four or five layers ended up looking pretty decent, although I was a little haphazard with the transitions between the various blues. I'm not the biggest fan of blue highlights on black, but three washes later the blues are very toned down and much more to my taste.

November: Omega


A little cheeky filler. My time was limited that month and a small model was exactly the right thing at the time. Her pants gave me another shot at black, this time with a brown base instead of blue. And grey on the boots.

December: R. Booty Goldiman


This was a frustrating model to paint (and assemble as well). The stupid bird on his backpack broke off several times. I could have done without all the frippery on his armor. But I meant to paint him for a while, and I finally got it done. So that's good. One thing I found interesting was how well mixing the gold of the armor works with the brass of the trims. That's something I may want to use in the future.

January: B1 Battle Droid


Not my first choice of model, but after I didn't feel like painting the original model at all, I switched to trying out my Separatist color scheme on this droid. Nothing fancy, but good to have.

February: Alice After Hours


I had a little fun with colors for the end of the year. I also tried a more subdued black on the ghetto blaster compared to Palpatine in order to form an opinion on that as well. But that was just a little bit on the side. The focus was on painting something bright and colorful again as much of the rest of the year ended up pretty subdued.