In really early this month.  Full month planned and I knew I had to get stuff done early or I’d miss out.

Having done the second slice in the first month I’m backtracking to the first slice.  My army commander patriarch and a unit of 10 hybrids.

The hybrids are continuing the overall desaturated red look that I started with the magus and brood bros but with fewer other coloured clothing.  From this i’ve made the claw arms the same bright blue as the patriarch.  They are the connecting pieces that make the colour scheme fit together.

In both cases the figures have some conversions.  For the patriarch I had only had half his arms so they have been converted from more modern genestealer arms and legs plus original claws.  Makes him look a bit lighter and more like the genestealers he is commanding.  

The macrocosm hybrids unfortunately don’t have quite the same design in their claw arms, so I spent an evening with a little ball of greenstuff adding 2 extra claws to most of their existing arms.

No bonus figures this month.  I intend to complete the second limosine next month.

Patriarch 72

10 Hybrid acolytes 80

8 lasguns, flamer, missile launcher 70

222 points, 11 models

Wachtmeister: I love how the blue arms of this months early generation hybrids goes with the blue of the pants of last months units.  It really helps to make a cohesive force.  Papa Patriarch really cuts an imposing figure, I’d hate to meet him in a dark alley…. Or in the back of that limo on a traffic stop!

The Battlewagon roared over the ridge, heavy weapons fire blazing out from various shoulder mounted heavy weapons of various description carried buy the passengers and joined in a cacophony of fire by duel mounted auto cannons that appeared to be controlled by the driver. “Ere, where’d day find dose big kanz?” Vorggash Starshokk turned and asked his mob of boyz, the Bad Moon’s having to duck out of the way of the gun fire as aiming didn’t seam to be high on the Deathskulls priority list. “Off dat flash gitz bike ‘oo got ‘imself squashed by da ‘umie tank in dat game of chicken las’ week. Turns out it still works…mos’ of da time when dey found it” replied on of Vorggash’s boys. “Well I ‘ope ‘e can fire betta dan’e can drive!” Muttered Vorggash to himself as the battle wagon appeared to almost tip over when thrown into a tight turn, wheels lifting off the ground briefly before crashing back down again and the wagon tore off towards the Space Marine battle line. 

A concealed unit of the Marines had their own heavy weapons and a missile streaked out from a ruin as the Battlewagon passed, and Vorggash flinched at the expected impact and resulting detonation….but the explosion didn’t come, at least not right away. The missile appeared to have hit one of the passengers and lifted him off his feet, the trajectory carried him away from the Battlewagon and towards other Space Marines defenders, and Vorggash was sure in the split second before detonation, the  unfortunate Deathskull was still firing on those red armoured humans below him. “Well dat’s ‘ow ya do it, lads! Lets not let dem thievin’ Deathskulls ‘ave all da fun!” Vorggash cried as he led his boyz into the firefight. 

Month two and I have managed to paint a lot few models than last time, but with my first vehicle out of the way this month still feels like good progress. I have faced the power of a Battlewagon covered in Deathskulls before and its not a pretty sight having to confront such mobile firepower when the open canopy allows the vehicle a pretty good chance of avoiding taking any damage from any heavy weapon as the individual Deathskulls pay the price instead. Having a twin linked atocannon strapped on the front risks a little bit of overkill…but i figured that’s never stopped an Ork before! Looking back at the old Ork figures, the Deathskulls were somewhat underrepresented which meant I had to look for colour inspiration elsewhere – and I focused on the old RT Goff Battlewagon, with the black and red just replaced with light and dark blue. Sadly the old banner pole didn’t survive being in storage (or its been used in another Ive forgotten about!) so these guys will have to make do with various other tribes pieces of armour ‘borrowed’ and attached across the bodywork.  Also, 4 boyz is the magic number here, as that’s how many I can just about fit Battlewagons flatbed!

I did also manage to paint up my first bonus model – in the form of Nazdreg. While somewhat more imposing than the original figure, this proxy has far more character to my mind and is spot on to the 2nd edition codex artwork. Can a figure ever be too bright…i’ll let you decide, but no Ork with all those teef isn’t going to be going into battle looking anything but his best. And yes, I know I’ve not actually painted any Bad Moons as yet, but as mentioned previously I am adding to an existing Bad Moon force, and Nazdreg is certainly a key addition. So this month 

Deathskull Battlewagon (with twin linked autocanons) 100 points 

Deathskull Boyz Mob 

4 boyz with Kustom Kombiweapons  108 points

Bonus 

Nazdreg Ug Urdgrub, Bad Moon Warlord  145 points

Total  353 points

Total models         6 models 

As always, you can follow along with my various Middlehammer projects over on instagram,   @ad80_herohammer 

Wachtmeister: Now that is a drive by shooting waiting to happen if I ever saw one!  With that weight of fire they are bound to hit something!  That Battlewagon screams second edition, and I love the blue warpaint on the Deathskull boyz!  Nazdreg is a total beast, looks like he can even boss Ghazghkull around!

My army list for this challenge is themed around Ork fast attack vehicles. However, the army wouldn’t be able to hold any board objectives without infantry of some sort. This month I switched gears and painted up a mob of Bad Moon Ork Nobz in mega armour, a mekaniak with shokk attack gun, a herd of snotlings, and a few bonus models.

These mega armour Ork models are the newest Ork models I own. I’m not a fan of them, and only bought these models in the 90s because the local hobby store was closing and I bought what they had for around $1 USD per blister pack. These models lack the complexity of Rogue Trader-era Ork models, and probably even that of their Ork contemporaries from the time of 2nd edition. Considering that they’re ridiculously larger than all the other infantry of the period, they should have more detail. They just feel rushed. I love Alan Perry’s figs, just not these. Most examples of Bad Moon meganobs use a black/yellow palette, but I didn’t like the high contrast. So I went with a green/yellow palette. Most of the banner poles were snapped off in the blister, so I drilled holes in the models so that in the future I can replace the poles and give them some banners. As usual, power claws are painted in “power weapon blue.”

I was planning on painting the mek with shokk gun later on in the challenge, but I finished the nobz so fast that I had time to finish more models. I enjoyed painting him up: silly face and lots of fun little details (typical of all Kev Adams figures). After digging through my Ork bins I found some more snotlings, so I upped the number of bases from 4 to 6. Now I can keep shooting for a full six-turn game, if needed. I enjoyed painting all these little grubbers, though it took alot longer than I had anticipated. Each model had a quirk to them that needed to be brought out in some way: a cool pose, funny expression, strange weapon, etc. In the Ork codex (and fantasy Orc army book) the troop description of snotlings says that a base “contains about 9 snotlings…” which is bananas. In what practical way could you fit 9 of them on a 40mm base? Seven, maybe, but no way could you do nine. You honestly couldn’t properly flock the base, and you’d never see the awesome little faces on these freaks. Since I must get a Judas Priest-inspired banner into the army, I painted up one of the snotlings as holding a teeny banner in the same style as my banners from the previous 40k challenge, adorned with JP’s metal cross.

The last models for the month were a quick little bonus batch of figs: 2 hop-splat field guns (splatta kannons) and 4 crew. I painted 3 hop splats in the previous Cowabunga challenge (Mark IV), so now I have a total battery of 5 hop splats. I have to imagine that 5 hop splats will be a huge irritation for your opponent in terms of how much longer your turn becomes dealing with the additional rolls and measuring required, and might lose you some good will.

Next month, back to Ork fast-attack vehicles!

Models and Points:

Bad Moon Nobz Mob (8) – 433

Mekaniak with Shokk Attack Gun – 43

Snotling Herd (6) – 30

Hop Splat Kannons with Crews (2) – 120

Totals:

21 models

626 points

More photos of my miniatures can be found on Instagram @pygmyhippo and on my blog https://giantpygmy.com

Wachtmeister: Once again PygmyHippo knocked it out of the park in both quantity and quality.  Even if you count each snotling stand as one model he has painted more this month than I have pledged for the whole challenge!  On the quality side of things I absolutely love his paint work.  I especially love the blue on the Bad Moons power claws, they really pop!

My offering this month is a thick slice of Genestealers, 12 strong. I have always considered Genestealers to be a bit on the expensive side at 28 points apiece. With only a 5+ armour save they are very squishy if left out in the open. If you can screen them successfully, though, they can tear through enemy squads with their high Weapon Skill, Strength and Fear causing ability.

Painting them was another exercise in “trusting the process”, I really wasn’t sure when I started (…or even halfway through…) whether they were going to look any good or not. It was interesting to note the similarities between the Genestealer sculpt and the Carnifex, especially when viewed from above. 

I was pretty happy with how the Brood looked in the end; the pink fingernails were the icing on the cake. I was also very happy to have my largest unit for the challenge, at least in terms of model count, done and dusted. I have to say, I am a bit nervous about painting the Gargoyles. They look… fiddly…

12 models – 336 points

Wachtmeister: M4cr0Dutch decided to paint on the other side of the points to model ratio this month.  Instead of one awesome Carnifex he painted 12 awesome Genestealers!  I love the color scheme and how it works on gribblies both big and small!

Hello again!

This month I painted a simple unit of 5 Howling Banshees. Boy, am I glad I set the bar low for this challenge since these took longer than I thought they would, mostly since I struggle painting power swords. They also have a lot of gems on them, 45 of them all together! I’m fairly happy with how they turned out though and I feel like I’m on a good run for this challenge! I know they don’t quite add up to 200 points this month, but if I have planned everything correctly, I should be able to make up those missing points down the road.

Hopefully I can keep up this pace for next month, see you all then!

5 Howling Banshees – 135

Wachtmeister: I love the bone armor on these Banshees, they really pop.  They’ll look really nice running next to the Dire Avengers Niklas painted last month.  I love that Niklas is using traditional goblin green bases, they will help tie the army together with so many different armor colors too!

“Greetingz fellow mekboyz and girls, owz da shokk attak gun? Still pushing runtz inside oomies an’ mushin’ dere guts up? Zoggin’ good!”

This month it was time to knock out some of the big models that have been in my collection unpainted for too long. First up is the classic 2nd Ed ork dreadnought! I really wanted to move away from the Goff one since I am not doing Goffs in this project and wanted lots of bright colours. A banner is in the works but I have a bit too much on in the real world to make one from scratch at the moment. It is joined by a warbuggy with multi-melta that needed some work to rescue (especially the crew!) and then as a few little bonus models I managed to complete a Traktor Kannon, Splatta Kannon, their crew and one very brash gretchin assistant who will be joining someone in the future.

Anyway thanks for reading and see you next month!

Slice 2:

Dreadnought with two power claws, heavy bolter and lascannon (145pts)

War Buggy with Multi Melta (65pts)

Bonus models:

Trakror Kannon (60pts)

Splatta Kannon (40pts)

Gretchin assistant (3pts)

Total: 313pts

Wachtmeister: More Orks for the Waaagghhhh!  I love Martin’s take on all of these pieces.  The freehand on the buggy is especially inspiring!  I’m also a fan of the rosy noses on the grots, too much fungus beer I’m guessing!

Month 2!

Completed:

Chaos Marine Veterans (35 x 3) boltgun x2 (6) chainsword (2) (113)

Chaos Marine Veterans (35 x 3) boltgun x3 (9) (114)

Aspirin Champion (30) power sword (15) master crafted bolt piston (10) (55)

Total 282

+212 (Feb)

Grand Total 494…49% 

My original plan was to paint 5… but it snowballed into 7 miniatures. I carried on with the same pallet of colours, black red cream and white with a touch of green. 

The miniatures are a mix of 3rd ed plastics and metal and two transitional RT/2nd edition miniatures. My favorite is probably the 3rd ed plastics with the RTB01 helmet and gun, and chaos backpack. I went for the classic rogue trade black stripe on all the helmets, which make them feel retro! To finish them off some Dark Angel rogue trader transfers.

A slight unfair bump on the point cost for the Aspiring Champion, who had to take a power sword and (as per the codex) pay the 50% buff as it’s an imperial weapon…

Next month I’m going to do the dreadnought. Really looking forward to doing this chaos model in this Dark Angels scheme – hopefully it’ll look the part!

Wachtmeister: I love how Vectis can make the mixture of editions in this squad look like a coherent force.  The classic black Dark Angels, the red stripes, and white checks really do bring me back to the earlier look while tying everything together.  I can’t wait to see the Dreadnought in this scheme!

This was a great first wave, I hope you are all ready for wave two!  See you later in the week!

-Wachtmeister