I am super excited to present Wave 1 of the final entries for the 40k Second Edition Challenge Mark V. I went back into the archives and pulled out our contestants starting point pictures so everyone can appreciate just how much work our finishers have put in. I hope you’ve enjoyed our journey as much as I have!

Vorrgash stood surrounded by his mob of boys, in amidst the wider forces of Nazdreg all the Orks around them yelling and hollering. He cast a glance to his left and to his right. There is no greater sight than a unified Ork army he thought. The various clans were mixed together, boys, from the Goffs, Bad Moons, Deathskulls and Evils Sunz all joined together by a simple desire for War. The energy of the gathering was visceral, and the growing momentum to charge grew in Vorrgash’s chest. He caught a glimpse of a Weirdboy who didn’t appear too keen to be caught up in all this being carried to the front by his minders, and from the sparks firing out of his head, it was no surprise he was less keen to be around this many Orks. 

Still, all got to do our bit figured the Bad Moon nob as he hefted his axe and bellowed along with the others, channeling the primal energy, ready for the final charge into the human defenders, then the boyz could prove themselves to Gork and Mork once more, for the glory of the banner, the glory of the Warlord and for the glory of the WAAARGH! 

So here is my bonus month for the end of this challenge. I have had a blast painting up these Orks, and while an Ork army is never really finished (I need some Komandos…and some Snakebites…and maybe a Stompa) I had to get to a point where I could make the final months deadline! For this month I have added some more Bad Moon boyz, armed with bolter and a couple of plasma guns, to help flesh out the units I already have and provide some alternatives when building out the boyz mobs in the future. Also, I have another Wierdboy with his minders, a Battle Standard Bearer and Squig Catapult – which is the single most annoying piece of the Ork artillery options for me having faced them all at one time or another with its great area denial abilities as the flesh eating squigs buzz about the battlefield! 

11 Bad Moon Ork Boys, 2 armed with plasm guns  144 points 

Battle standard Bearer  35 points 

Squig Katapult  40 points 

Weirdboy  85 points 

18 models total

Month total points  304 points   

Seeing the Orks all amassed together is a real sight! My original pledge and bonus models from various months means my final total points for this challenge comes in at 1850 without much in the way of Wargear and Vehicle Upgrades so this force could easily make a 2000 point list. 

Time to sign off with a thank you for reading along with my prattling’s for a second year as I have had great fun putting this Ork army together. A massive thanks is also due to Dennis who has really stepped up to keep the challenge running this year, as well as thanks all the other participants for the fantastic armies that have come to life over the course of the challenge. It certainly feels like a mighty WAARGH has been unleashed onto the gaming tables of 2nd edition 40k in 2024! 

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

Wachtmeister: Once again Alex knocked it out of the park with this months entries.  The Battle Standard is incredible, easily one of the best I have seen.  The detail on the catapult is more 2^nd edition fun, and so are the rest of the figures.  As a surprise superlative Alex receives “Most Likely to  Finish First” as he was the first to get his entry in 5 out of 6 months, and he was at least a week early most months! 

Hello,

So this slice completes my take on the Fleshtearers and iv got to say iv had fun doing something not chaos ..

Sooo this month see me take on an old but one of my favourite takes on this model the rogue trader dreadnought. 

I’ve gone for a blood angels classic with two power fists I believe they were called Furiosos (I could be wrong). But regardless loved every minute of painting this mini.

I really hope everyone has enjoyed this challenge and I want to say a massive thank you to Dennis for organising and keeping everyone in check , hats off to you mate as I bet it can’t be easy.  

As always, I can’t wait to see everybody else’s entries. 

Oh also here’s some army shots from the last few months.

Massive thank you Again. Can’t wait to see you all in the next one.

George @EBPminis 

Regards

Wachtmeister: I have loved Shepherd’s take on the Flesh Tearers since I saw his first entry.  The dark colors are really counterbalanced by the bright purple basing he used.  Plus I appreciate that it took him five months to note I had been spelling his name wrong!

Well folks, we’ve made it to the end! For my sixth and final slice, I have a biovore and five spore mines – or nine spore mines, depending on how you count! I completed this model to use in a 10th edition tournament this month, building up the base into a bit more of a diorama than some of my others to give it a similar size and shape to the current model. While I didn’t win the tournament, I am happy to say that the models painted during this challenge helped me win the “Best Painted” category, something that I’ve been shooting for the last several years!

In addition to the biovore, I had attempted to begin five genestealers and a genestealer patriarch. I was able to get them based and primed, but time has run out to finish them. A few third edition models got in my way for the tournament and stole the ‘stealers painting time 😉

All in all, this month we have six total models painted. With 20 points for the biovore and 10 points a mine, month six rounds out at 70 points! That brings the challenge total to 79 painted models and 1789 points.

It’s been a joy and honor to participate this year with you all and to see all your hard work these last months. A HUGE thanks to the Wachtmeister and PygmyHippo for hosting it this year – and to DTV for kicking it off so many challenges ago!

Until the next one!

– TJM

Wachtmeister: TJM brough us some big numbers this challenge all while adapting the 2^nd Edition figures we know and love to the current game.  Winning “Best Painted” at a tournament shows the appeal these figures still have, especially when painted to the standard TJM has show all challenge!

I made it! Even though my motivation to paint suddenly dropped off a cliff, I was lucky to have allowed myself plenty of time to finish the challenge. I had to force myself to paint these last couple of days, and I struggled a lot with the final slice. Painting HQ models always seems daunting to me because you want to spend some extra time on them to make them look nice and stand out from the rest of the army. Even though there were only three models, this was by far the hardest slice for me, so much so that I had to use a mulligan to complete it. 

I’m super happy that I managed to complete everything in my original pledge, and I’m relieved that I didn’t try to bite off more than I could chew. I’m also excited to finally have my first fully painted 40k army! I still have a ways to go before I hit the full 2000 points, but for now I think I’m going to take a long break from painting Eldar. I’m already looking forward to painting something totally different next year! Until then!

Farseer – 195 (Singing Spear 25)

Warlock – 51 (Power Sword 6)

Warlock – 51 (Power Sword 6)

Total: 3 models, 309 points

Wachtmeister: Niklas used his mulligan to good effect allowing himself to power through and finish some more brightly colored Eldar to lead his army.  There are many wonderful nods to second edition in his scheme, and Eldar are notoriously difficult to paint as a coherent force but he managed to do it and then some!

It’s been a hard couple of months, I completely  missed the deadline last month and I almost missed this one. It’s all family related stuff and that comes first, but I still manged a few hours to (almost) finish everything off.

So this month I finished off the Terminators and a Sorcerer. The Sorcerer was a long term target for the army but I struggled to get him at a price I was willing to pay. But I think he looks suitably sinister and Dark Angel-ish with his robes. 

As a bonus I had a go at making some banners. I used power point to block them out and then simply painted over them. I really really rushed this !!! but it’s good enough for the group shot!

57 – Chaos Sorcerer (52) Force Sword (5)

202 – Terminators (3×51), Reaper Autocannon (25), Chain Fist (10) , Power fist (8), Combi Meltagun (6)

 Total 259

So…the grand total 

212

282

290

196

0 (nothing)

259 

_____

1239

So was great to get a few extras in. I’d like to add a few vehicles if I get chance in future. 

Wachtmeister:  Vectis is another challenger who used his mulligan month to good effect.  The freehand banners are incredible, and the sorcerer and terminators once again give the old Heresy look to his fallen.  This army looks terrific and really represents the older amour and combines loyalist and traitor elements to perfection.

With this wave 1 is finished, join us next week as we celebrate our Wave 2 contestents!

-Wachtmeister