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Well, 25 models is about 2 1/2 Blood Bowl teams.
I've got 6 unpainted ones. I might be able to get some done by May anyway.

By early May? I should be good for 25, maybe 50 if I get on a roll and crank out some nids or skeletons. 100 would be a crazy stretch.

How many models are in a typical 2000 point Space Marine army?

I can't believe they actually mean it when they say "any size", but the LI starter set alone contains "223 epic scale plastic Citadel miniatures", by GW's own metrics. I always thought it was silly that they counted each miniature individually on those boxes, but by their own metrics, I certainly painted over 500 miniatures last year.

And yet on Nurglings it says 3 miniatures even though there's dozens of the little guys in that box and they're the size of a GUO compared to LI guys.

I noticed the teleport homer that comes with a box of Terminators is a model...

Makes me wonder if the skulls in the battlefield trophy kit are all individual models...

Whilst I very much hope people are just having a laugh?

Remember, store staff are just doing their job. And having worked various retail jobs, customers being wilfully difficult is a level of hassle the shop staff can well do without.

Don’t be a Karen.

I'm not planning on being awkward, but I'm going to nip into my local GW on Tuesday on the way back from the train station to ask some questions.

Ask them about the Citadel Skulls.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Whilst I very much hope people are just having a laugh?

Remember, store staff are just doing their job. And having worked various retail jobs, customers being wilfully difficult is a level of hassle the shop staff can well do without.

Don’t be a Karen.

I don't understand where this has come from.

Has anybody implied or outright stated that they are going to be wilfully difficult to GW staff?

If somebody painted 100 LI minis instore, then expected to receive the rubber coaster and the paint brush tin, in your mind they would be behaving like a Karen?

Oh well I was planning on taking time out of my day to go and bully some ordinary hard working folk but since you've said that I'll just leave it.

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Whilst I very much hope people are just having a laugh?

Remember, store staff are just doing their job. And having worked various retail jobs, customers being wilfully difficult is a level of hassle the shop staff can well do without.

Don’t be a Karen.

I don't see any of the posts here as them being "difficult"? It's a perfectly valid question what does or doesn't count as "a miniature", especially when something like Legionnes Imperialis are literally labeled as 100 or so miniatures per box. .

Maybe a staffer who insisted that you can't get a free coaster because when they said "miniature" they meant "base of 5 miniatures" would be the Karen in this case?

Anyway the initiative is cute, the incentives are laughable.

I'd like to join in with this. I do love those water pots, its one of the items GW have made that 'yes, there are free/cheap alternatives' but for what it costs I really, really like them, so a little mat to sit under mine would be nice. Not necessary sure, but a nice addition from doing something I intend to do anyway (paint minis!).

The paint brush tin is really nice, its a nice little bit of branded merch.

I normally paint in a good year (2025 was not a good year) around 50 minis if I am consistent and I've hit 100 before when I've pushed myself, getting a couple of nice units done.

This is a nice idea and I normally need something like a small kick to help push me to get more minis painted as someone that is
- easily distracted.
- has a full time job that can actually be rather stressful at times.
- Can often drop working on a mini that is close to being finished to work on something deemed 'more interesting'.
- Has a lot of house work to do instead of painting.
- Often takes on projects bigger than my painting appetite can manage.
- Buys more than I paint.


However, I think the logistics of me travelling to the store and back 2-3 times during the challenge would be the challenge in of itself. There is no accessible public transport for me. The absolute cheapest taxi & train travel for each trip is around €120ish per trip. I don't know if the local store would be willing to accept online/photo entries, but in reality I guess this is a challenge to really get people in the store multiple times to continuously buy new models to work towards the end goal. I understand it, it just would have given me a kick to get back into painting in a bigger way than normal.

However, my wife has suggested that if I wanted to start painting again during the same dates as the challenge and I reach the same end goal, then she will find a similar 'prize' to help push me to paint more than my usual output. She's also agreed to be less strict on model counts, even though from this thread and our own conversation about it I've found several loop holes to 'cheese' the entire challenge- from painting 100 legions scale "tabletop ready" Iron warriors and being done on 18th Jan, or finally getting around to doing all 300+ nighthaunt in my classic nihilakh oxide scheme (going horribly insane but also being done in about a week), as long as I 'play fair' she'll count everything individually. Eg a goblin chariot would be worth 6 models (chariot (1) goblin crew (3) wolves (2)).

That way I'm not feeling forced to just paint models that are 'quick' or 'easy' or start avoiding things I've wanted to work on because they are big or difficult because they would suffer the Gimli problem (That still only counts as one!). I could go for some bulk/easy models to hit a steady pace at the start, then start working on some bigger or more difficult models to clear some backlog. Worst case is, if I don't hit 100 and I only hit say 50- that's my average yearly total anyway and its only May. I have the rest of the year to smash my normal targets!

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Whilst I very much hope people are just having a laugh?

Remember, store staff are just doing their job. And having worked various retail jobs, customers being wilfully difficult is a level of hassle the shop staff can well do without.

Don’t be a Karen.

GW customers are, to be fair, pedantic nerds (that's why they like it). GW really should be expecting such vague statements to be met with clarifying questions, because it's so obviously going to happen.

As written, any miniature, even IA counts towards the limit. Though it's possible GW really means bases. It's reasonable for a customer (who isn't the expert in this exchange) to check the details of a promotion before making purchasing decisions based on it.


That said, there's no need to make life hard for the store staff, but I don't see any indication that's going to happen any more than usual.

The rules are likely a bit vague because a LOT of promotions are left up to local and regional managers to interpret based on their customer base.


Eg things like the monthly free models could vary in how you got them depending on the store. Eg very busy stores might have limited the number going out originally to new customers only (or at least at the start of the month).
Whilst stores with much smaller customer bases might have given them out freely to anyone.

I this lets GW HQ issue a general statement and then local managers balance it out on the specifics locally.

I will not be participating in this.

At my local store you have to bring in unassembled models to pledge them.

I had my Kill Team there today, but they wouldn't accept them til the 17th.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
I will not be participating in this.

At my local store you have to bring in unassembled models to pledge them.

I had my Kill Team there today, but they wouldn't accept them til the 17th.

I only go into the shop pretty much once a month, if you basically have to know in advance what you're going to be painting for the next few months before you've even started assembling them and go through the effort of taking it all in just to prove it, then that sounds like quite a limiting and annoying way to do things.

Most people who got brand new models for Christmas already know what they'll be pledging

My local GW is very hang loose on this. Pledge and show pics, and he’ll trust you. Even said to use the time between now and the start to build. So does not need to be un assembled.

YMMV, but check with your local. Sounds like they have some flex on how they run it.

For many it might also flex depending on who you are to the manager. If you're a regular going there for years then chances are they'll trust you more than someone randomly turning up for the very first time.

Someone known might well just be trusted whilst someone totally new they might want more layers. And that's not just a trust thing, its a "get them in the store more; make it a regular thing; change their behaviour and they might keep coming and then buying"

If I wanted the free model servitor that I was building in the store to count, I had to stop building it and bring it back on the 17th.

Ugh.

 Lathe Biosas wrote:
If I wanted the free model servitor that I was building in the store to count, I had to stop building it and bring it back on the 17th.

Ugh.

Odd that they've turned a challenge of "Paint X amount of miniatures" to "Build and Paint X amount of miniatures" instead. I get showing it's not something already painted already, but if they told you you had to stop putting it together and bring it back unassembled for it to count that's a whole different thing.

Went into my local GW today and the manager confirmed for me that models don't have to be purchased/built/painted in-store. He said the only requirements were that we had to either present the models new-on-spure in-store or bring in photographic evidence of them being new-on-sprue. Everything else can be done at home.

I also asked about basing requirements and was told "A single coat of paint is enough. Just as long as they're not black plastic."


So there goes my idea of painting my 80 odd assembled-yet-unpainted skeletons. But I've got 40 chainrasps sitting there new on sprue, so this seems a good use for them at least.

'new on sprue' still seems a little overboard, at least in my opinion. So all these brand new models I got for christmas that I had time to sit and build during the holidays wouldn't count, as I've gotten them ready to undercoat once we see some warmer weather.

If stores are being that strict with it, someone like me with a huge backlog of miniatures could still exploit it. 300+ nighthaunt miniatures still on sprue. I could be working on my 100 right now and take another separate 100 in on sprue on day one and be 'completed' by the following weekend.

It all seems to be a game of 'rules as written' rather than trying to run it 'within the spirit of the challenge', which is to encourage people to get a few more minis painted, clear some backlog, and perhaps buy a couple of new boxes on their trip to claim the prize.

I can understand the business need to not just hand out the prizes to anyone, as some sort of 'fair' system of order and to encourage sales/store footfall. Its probably more suited to having youngsters buying new minis and getting them in to stores, than older forum users with huge backlogs of 100s of unpainted minis anyway.

(Side note: I still have my clear plastic MESBG army of the dead MTO to do, as it took forever to arrive I've not even opened them. Thats 63 models right there + my clear Frodo in blister. Quick drybrush of white counts as a single coat of paint + some fast basing. )

Pity I started them in December so they won't qualify because I'm already on track to finish 100+ models in January...

GW on Facebook:

1 base worth of tiny dudes = one model.

Not got a problem with that, but I'd prefer a little truth in advertising when they're saying n miniatures on the cover of the LI boxes.

 Olthannon wrote:
I'll be buggered if I managed 25 miniatures but I'll give it a shot.

I can get this i go thru phases, no painting for months then a combat patrol in a week!

So this challenge that was supposedly just "paint any miniature regardless of size" has now changed to "You need to prove unassembled sprues to count, and it's not any miniature as was said, it's per base". Right...