Welcome to Wave 3 of our introductions to the contestants of the 40k Second Edition Challenge, Mark VI! I wanted to get all the contestants introduced right so I posted them three blog posts in a row. The entries will be done once a week from here on out to give everyone’s eyes a rest from the bight colors sure to come our way!

Greetings

My name is Manu, and I am writing from Spain. This is the first time that I join the 40k 2nd Edition Army Challenge and I am very excited at the prospect. Since I am an avid collector I have a few miniatures already, so I did not know what to participate with. So I thought “which is the most iconic 2nd edition army?” Without any doubt, that is the Blood Angels, and if you do not believe me, you only have to look at the 2nd edition starter box. Moreover, 25 years ago that box was to blame for getting me in the hobby. So I cannot think of a better tribute than painting a Blood Angels 5th company army.

The army list is a classic space marine list with the small detail of the commander being a Chaplain.

I know the challenge is painting 200 points per month, but in an army this small and expensive points-wise, this is a bit hard to do. So some months I would have to paint a bit more than 200 points and some others a bit less.

If you want to follow the progress of this project and others you can also visit my Instagram @legionario1445

Army List Blood Angels 5th Company 995 points

Chaplain Mighty Hero (1) 132 points – Hand Flamer

Tactical Squad (10) 356 points – Flamer – Missile Launcher – Sergeant – Chainsword

Terminator Squad (5) 332 Points – Power Fist x 4 – Heavy Flamer Sergeant – Power Sword

Space Marine Dreadnought (1) 175 points – Power Claw with built-in Storm Bolter – Assault Cannon

Wachtmeister: I’d like to welcome Manu to the first annual Blood Angels Painting Challenge!  He is right, the Blood Angels are absolutely iconic and I can’t wait to see those terminators painted up.  I can still picture the Blood Angels terminators on the cover of the Terminator box set and can’t wait to see them painted up!

So here we go again !!

This time iv decided to add to the Iron Warriors! This will be the Forth time I’m adding to this army but this time it’s all about the guys in mini dreadnought amour !!

So here’s my Iron Strike ! 

Mighty Champion 58pts, Terminator Armour 47pts, Mark of Slannesh 10pts, Combi bolter 6pts Total pts 111

Keeper of Secrets Pts 288 

Terminators x5 255pts, power fists x5 40pts, Reaper x1 25pts, Total pts 320 

Terminators x5 255pts, Chain axes x5, Total pts 255 

Basilisk 175 

Total 1149 pts

Bonus 

Chaos Androids x5 

Tech Priest

The picture is missing the mighty Champ as I need to do some digging in the warp (garage) 

Can’t wait to see what everyone has to bring to this years challenge ! 

Wachtmeister: It’s nice seeing so many veterans throwing their hats back in the ring!  Shepherd did a terrific job with his Flesh Tearers last year, but with all the Blood Angels in the mix I’m glad he’s going back to Chaos!  The Iron Warriors scheme is going to look really good on the 2^nd Edition models, I’m kind of jealous of this project.  A few years ago I was “talked” into playing the Horus Heresy and I’ve painted one squad and a Dreadnought as Iron Warriors in the last two or three years.  I can’t wait to see an actual force painted up!  I have a small Chaos force in need of stripping and repainting maybe next challenge I’ll move to the bad guys! 

Hello again!

Ok, so I skipped the last challenge and didn’t know the first one existed but I’m back – painting all those Space Wolves last time took a lot out of me!

Based on the fact that I’ve been painting up all of my original forces, I decided it was time to face my Magnum Opus. My first Warhammer 40k purchase. Rogue Trader style Imperial Guard, namely starting with the old box of plastic Guardsmen which are awesome. 

I’ve split my initial 1,000pt force into 5 slices, which gives me a nice base to work from. These slices may be done in a slightly different order, but they’re the minimum I need to get done:

Slice 1: Imperial Guard Tactical Squad armed with Heavy Bolter and Plasma Gun plus Command Squad (armed with various means of death).

Slice 2: Imperial Guard Tactical Squad armed with Heavy Bolter and Plasma Gun plus Colonel

Slice 3: Imperial Guard Support Squad armed with 5 (FIVE!) Lascannons.

Slice 4: Imperial Guard Assault Squad armed with Chainswords and Laspistols (mostly)

Slice 5: Imperial Guard Tactical Squad armed with Lascannon and Grenade Launcher, plus Commissar

I’m sure later entries will have more words and stuff.. 

Maddix

Wachtmeister:  For those of you who don’t know Maddix you might think he is a man of few words from this introduction.  You’d be right as he can normally be found shouting MALAL over and over again.  His preoccupation with painting things black and white might also have you thinking he’d already painted this army but rest assured he’s going to put in the work!  In challenge 4 he combined his love of black and white to paint an entire army of Space Wolves in grey, helping to firmly crush the Space Wolves challenge!  I can’t wait to see the force he puts together for this challenge! 

Howdy!

My brother (Master Splinter) and I have been talking for years about wanting to go back and paint up a 2nd Edition army. We’ve been in the hobby since 1992, but we mostly played Fantasy Battle. However, towards the final months of 2nd Edition, we worked together to finish an Eldar army for a tournament at Games Worksop’s headquarters store in Glen Burnie. It was a blast! So, when we saw this challenge (our first one), we knew it would be a great way to stay motivated and finally complete these armies.

I will be building and painting a Legion of the Damned army. The test model I did a few years ago was a lot of fun. I’ve decided to start with my troops. My tactical squad will be built using these blisters, possibly some bits from this Devastator box, and a few models I have soaking in Simple Green.

In the first month, I’ll tackle five bolter-toting tactical marines. In the second month, I’m hoping that my missing Sgt. Centurius model will decide to show up in typical Legion of the Damned fashion—just when I need him most. If not, I’ll use a regular sergeant (probably the one from the Devastator squad), along with three marines with bolters and one with a flamer to finish off my tactical squad.  For the third month, I’ll focus on a Librarian. After all, there has to be a Librarian behind all their trickery. I might need to do something about that unhelmeted head, though.  In the fourth month, I’ve decided to paint a Bike Squad. I’ve always loved Space Marine Bikes, but I’ve never painted any for myself before. Plus, a squad of Ghost Riders will look rad.  Finally, for the fifth month, I’ll take a victory lap with an Attack Bike to round out 997 points of Legion of the Damned. I’m really excited to get started and see what everyone else is working on.

– FE Warrior

Wachtmeister: We have seen the Legion of the Damned in the challenge before, but that doesn’t make them any less unique an entry.  I’m looking forward to seeing FE Warriors entry.  I have painted the single squad I own but would love to do a full army of these guys, including the hard to find Sergeant Centurius.  Maybe I’ll start searching the net and see if I have any luck!

I played Warhammer Second Edition many, many years ago and had Space Wolves and Orks in my collection. Both are sadly long gone, the Space Wolves were stolen and the Orks given away, apart from a few stragglers! It was a great fun but slightly mad game, very different in its play-style to the 40k of today. Some local friends and I have been debating trying Second Edition again for a while and have been picking up the minis needed to get started. I always fancied an Eldar army, a faction I have played against but never with. As a big Ogre enjoyer in Warhammer Fantasy Eldar will be a very different experience and I think I can expect some big Ooofs as I learn the army, which will be great fun. When we saw the challenge a few of us agreed to sign up to motivate ourselves and each other. I’m definitely one to get distracted by different shiny hobby projects so this will hopefully help me not start painting Lizardmen or something part way through! The plan we all have is to successfully complete this challenge and then play a cool four-way or 2v2 game at the end of the challenge. I have come up with a 1000 point list which covers many of the different infantry unit types but does lack a centrepiece model. I will be pushing hard to get the models painted so I can spend month six on a cool centrepiece, like a Dreadnought, War Walker or Avatar. 

Army List

Farseer – 170

Exarch – 50

6 Guardians With Shuriken Catapult – 84

5 Fire Dragons – 140

3 Dark Reapers – 201

3 Swooping Hawks – 84

Distort Cannon on Anti-Grav Platform – 55

5 Striking Scorpions – 130

4 Dire Avengers – 88 

Total – 1002 points 

6 Guardians With Shuriken Catapult – 84

5 Fire Dragons – 140

Month 1: Kicking Off with Core Units

My plan for month 1 is to start off with some ‘bread and butter’ (the guardians) and some jam (the sweet Fire Dragons). Although I have chosen Shuriken Catapults for the Guardian Squad I am not too fussed about WISYWIG as long as they look cool, for most of the army this isn’t really a factor as they have very limited options for weapons. I do love banners in Warhammer Fantasy though, so it’s entirely possible some poor Eldar will be encumbered by a massive and unwieldy banner which constantly gives their position away! 

I haven’t decided on a Craftworld yet, though I am partial to Alaitoc and Biel-Tan at the moment. I will need to decide before January and make sure I don’t stumble at the first hurdle, I will also need to settle on a theme for my basing, which will carry through to the rest of the army. 

Month 2: Enter the Characters

In month 2, I’ll be painting the Farseer (170 points) and an Exarch (50 points). Only two models but they will be quite tricky and I will want to focus on them.

Farseer – 170

Exarch – 50

Month 3: Heavy Firepower

Month 3 will be painting three Dark Reapers, these look great and look like they’ll put down some huge firepower. They are enormously expensive though – 201 points for three! I haven’t painted black a lot before and I am already pondering how to do this, maybe doing a highlight with a dark purple or blue…?

3 Dark Reapers – 201

Month 4: Death from above!

In month 4, I’ll paint 3 Swooping Hawks (84 points) and a Distort Cannon on an Anti-Grav Platform (55 points). I think these might be a bit tricky, the feathers on the hawks will be tricky to make pop and the flat panels on the platform will give their own challenge to get looking nice and hopefully smooth. I wonder if this will be the toughest month to get through, that’s why I have added the Swooping Hawks, they’ll be tricky to paint but they’re amongst my favourite models.

3 Swooping Hawks – 84

Distort Cannon on Anti-Grav Platform – 55

Month 5: Aim for the neck!

In month 5 I will be adding a good chunk more meat to the list, some close combat specialists in the Striking Scorpions and some anti-infantry shooting in Dire Avengers. I might have gone Howling Banshees if I had the models but honestly all of the Aspect Warriors are cool and I would like to have a unit of each eventually. I think (hope) that this month should be easier – on the home stretch and with my eye in I will be able to smash these out….. right?

5 Striking Scorpions – 130

4 Dire Avengers – 88 

Month 6: The Final Push

TBD!

The Ultimate Test: The Game

I am hoping to get a few smaller games in before the end of the challenge but once it is complete, my friends and I will meet up for a game with our fully painted armies. 

Total 1002 points (minimum)

Wachtmeister: HamsFan has pointed out some of the struggles he might face in the challenge, such as choosing a color scheme for his Guardians.  I like how he’s doing the more difficult choices early, knocking them out early will help him coast.  I on the other hand like to do the easy stuff first and the hard stuff later on.  Not because it’s a good strategy but because I don’t like future Wachtmeister anywhere as much as I like current Wachtmeister! 

I have a loooooong history with Eldar. Back in middle school before I played 40k, I remember going into Immortal Journeymen, my local game shop in Huber Heights, OH (America’s Largest Community of Brick Homes, thank you very much), to buy Magic cards and looking at all of the 40K stuff – spiky cacti, space marines, and elves in bell bottoms – I thought the space elves in disco pants were particularly stupid… 

Fast forward 3 years, and high school me had an army of bell-bottomed warriors and very little patience for painting. 3 colors? Good enough. 

Adulthood came… work, kids, wife… and I got out of 40k and decided to be more serious and play historicals. I started selling of my warhammer and investing in IS-2s, Napoleonics, Carthaginians, you name it… until last year when I attended the Manassas Massacre, a local gaming convention in Virginia… We played a scenario from an early White Dwarf involving an insane number of imperial tanks on both sides of the table – It was a BLAST! So much madcap fun… I had forgotten just how wild a game of 2nd Ed 40k (The Lord’s Edition) could be and I HAD to get back into it!

I dusted off what was left of my Eldar and began to strip paint (leaving a few models untouched to remind myself of my wargaming journey). I can’t wait to get this chunk painted up to supplement the wraith guard, and guardians I already have done! 

Here is the list I plan to paint:

1) Eldar Dreadnought armed with Lascannon – 190pts 

2) Eldar Falcon Grav Tank with Pulse Laser and Scatter Laser – 233pts

3) Farseer with a witchblade and spirit stones – 215pts

    3 Dark Reapers – 201pts

4) 7 Dire Avengers – 154pts

    Dire Avenger Exarch with Power Sword and Shuriken pistol – 59pts

5) War Walker with Scatter Laser and Lascannon – 150pts

The plan is to paint this force up as an Iyanden army because I need to practice painting yellow and I am a glutton for punishment.

Can’t wait to see how this all comes together! Thanks, Wachmeister, for running this and getting me off my couch and down to the painting desk!

Wachtmeister: After watching me paint for the last five challenges my buddy Deacon has joined the fun!  I’ve been watching him paint Eldar for the last few months and his yellow’s and blue’s are looking great!  I can’t wait to see this force finished and for us to get in some games.  If I’m going to get smashed by Eldar at least I just need to go to my basement to do so!

I never played 2nd edition, I started in 3rd. However a friend gifted me quite a few older models and I’ve had them sitting around for years now, this feels like an excellent excuse to use them.

I’m just using base points for the model count so I’m possibly pledging a little more than I need to but it’s fine.
Sadly the Keeper of secrets and basic marines are incomplete so I’ll have to do some kitbashing to complete them. I’m going to strip off the bit of paint that is on these so I can work from new. There’s a fair bit of excess models beyond this also, so hopefully I can participate next year when it comes around.

When I remember I post on instagram as Psykkapaints.

List:
Keeper of secrets       280

Army Icon              55

Chaos Marines x10      250

Khorne Berserkers x10    350

Plague Bearers x10           350      

Total 1285

Wachtmeister: Oh no.  Someone else has the “my project next year” bug.  I knew I should have quarantined Jon!  I’m really looking forward to seeing the kitbash on the Keeper of Secrets, this is a great model and lends itself to conversion! 

2nd Ed Sisters 1002pts

Cannoness 85 / 305

   -5 body guard 150

   -Standard Bearer 70

Battle Sisters Squad (7) 210

  – Heavy Bolter, Flamer.

Battle Sisters Squad (7) 247

   -Multi-melta, Meltagun.

Immolater 140

Imperial Assassin 100

My brother and I have been talking about returning to 2nd Edition for a long time.  There is something about the nostalgic bright colors and classic metal models, it tingles the memberberries.  My first love was Eldar but I am excited to paint something new to me.  I settled on Sisters of Battle which is a surprise even to myself.  I have never painted a Sisters of Battle army before and maybe that is why they feel really exciting.  The Order of the Bloody Rose sounds like the perfect amount of angry and Red is typically a color that I struggle with.  So the challenge will be a good chance to try some things and improve on painting red.  Here’s the plan.

Month 1: Finish building/ filing models.  Primer and basecoat the red on all models. Rough out display board and backdrop.

Month 2: Paint Battle Sisters Squad 1, paint display.

Month 3: Paint Battle Sisters Squad 2, paint backdrop.

Month 4:  Paint the Canoness and Bodyguard.

Month 5:  Paint the Immolater

Month 6:  Paint the Imperial Assassin

Wachtmeister: 35 entries in and this is our first Sisters of Battle!  Viden did bone colored (coloured?) armor on his Sisters last year, it will be cool to see Jacob’s take on the same army in a dramatically different armor (armour?)!  Jacob will be spending his first month doing a basecoat.  He is in essence going to be spending his mulligan in the first month to get ahead in later months.  It’s a bold strategy here Cotton, lets see how it pans out! 

Hi Wachmeister, when I saw you were keeping up the mantle of the 40k2ndAC I decided to give it another whack. I had previously participated in the ACIV with my Harlequins but didn’t quite make the final push. I had a ton of fun doing it and got the bulk of an army I’d had sitting in boxes for years done, and many did that feel like a great accomplishment!

This time round I’m working on a dream 2nd ed army for me. The Orks. I played them from 3rd ed onwards and loved their brutality but they lost a lot of their silliness from 2nd ed (and earlier). Now I finally have the opportunity to work on all those great units I never got to field, like boarboys, and units with fun rules like most of the artillery, and stormboys jump packs.

I’ll definitely be adding to this basic force, if I get the chance during the challenge. 

The army is built from 3d prints from mostly Trollet Miniatures amazing range,  supplemented by Mkojiro’s great stuff on cults. I kept the weapon loadouts pretty simple because I didn’t know exactly what I’d be printing out. So the boarboys and stormboys are a little off what I’ll be modelling them with. 

Nazdreg 145

Mekaniak 18

Runtherd 18

3 Nobz Mega-armour, 3x powerfist, 1x plasma pistol 154

8 Bad Moon Boys, 4x Bolters, 2x Plasma Guns, 2x Auto Cannons 144

7 Stormboys, Jump packs, 7x chain swords 126

5x Snakebite boys, 5x cyboars, 5x chainswords 145

10 Gretchen , 10x auto pistols 50

Traktor Cannon 40

Pulsa Rokkit 50

Gobsmasha 110

There are a couple pieces I haven’t finished printing as yet hence the couple empty bases and few missing bits here and there. I can’t wait to get these boys on the painting table and then the battlefield!

Wachtmeister:  Earlier I mentioned no one has ever entered the challenge with modern miniatures, this the first time someone has entered with all 3D prints!  These are terrific sculpts that really capture the feel of 2^nd Edition and I look forward to seeing them painted.  It really makes me want to learn how to use my 3D printer for sure!

Back when I was in high school, we had a teacher who ran a wargames club. My friends invited me along to play 2^nd ed 40K and Wednesday afternoon became my favourite part of the week. For a few glorious years, I enjoyed painting minis, pouring over codexes, fine-tuning army lists and crushing my friends on the school desk battlefields of the 41st millennium. By the time 3^rd edition released, all of my friends had moved on to girls and grunge bands and the allure of playing with toys soldiers had gradually faded. Once I put down the dice, I never played another game of 40k.

By the time I was 30, I was freshly married, had a new baby and discovered that my brother-in-law played Warhammer Fantasy. I decided to get back into the hobby and began a Vampire Counts army. Today, I still play Age of Sigmar but I’ve never been back to my 40K roots. Recently, I pulled out the tattered remains of my boyhood 40K army and was dismayed to find that very few pieces of minis survived the long years. But when I saw this painting challenge, I knew it was time to travel back to the 90s, when the miniatures were characterful, and the colours were bright!

I plan to paint a 1000-point Tyranid army in honour of my first ever army. From that original army I have most of a hive tyrant and one genestealer so they will form the base of this new army and be aided by some eBay reinforcements to fill out the broods.

Army List –  Marty’s Tyranids

Hive Tyrant                                            219 pts

5x Tyranid Warriors                        317 pts

13x Genestealers                           364 pts

21x Termagants                                153 pts

Total                                                            1053 pts

Wachtmeister: Marty Von Carstsein posted he was interested on the blog on the last day I was accepting entries.  I was already well over my “max” number of participants so I was going to let him in regardless, but when I saw he had Tyranids I knew he was a lock.  When I was playing 2^nd Edition I could only get one friend to get on board with me, everyone else wanted to play Fantasy Battle exclusively.  With over thirty entries we did not have a single pure Tyranid force and I was just bemoaning this to myself the day before this entry came in.  I look forward to his take!

Hi all!

Back for a third challenge, I will again be doing Tyranids, trying to round out the extent of my 2e ‘Nid collection. Work and family have conspired to reduce my painting output this go around – six kids are no joke; the swarm grows! 🙂 We’re numbering only twenty-two models, total, for the pledge itself. This is less than the total number of models I pledged in a month last year, but c’est la vie, as they say! What the models lack in number, they make up in expression. This go around, we’re all Tyranid Warriors, all Tyranid time! 18 warriors, to be precise, nine dedicated to ranged weaponry, nine dedicated to claws-on melee. The amount of poseability and dynamism in these sculpts is a beautiful thing to see. I’ve also added two Hive Tyrants to the mix, who will each be getting a pair of wings (modern ones – you can’t win them all 🙂 ) and two very fun squig ripper swarms I picked up in a happenstance eBay purchase earlier this year. With that being said, I have some other models I’m hoping to toss in as bonuses over the coming months, but I anticipate this pledge will keep me plenty busy!

To everyone participating, good luck! Your painting is inspirational and the online community formed around this challenge is a blast. Painters, to your brushes!

Hive Fleet: Cowabunga, Ninja Turtles! – Starting Point

2x Hive Tyrants with Sharpened Claws and Toughened Exoskeleton – 358 points

3x Tyranid Warriors with Lash Whip and Bonesword – 189 points

6x Tyranid Warriors with Boneswords – 370 points

3x Tyranid Warriors with Barbed Stranglers – 237 points

3x Tyranid Warriors with Venom Cannons – 264 points

3x Tyranid Warriors with Devourers – 171 points

2x Ripper Swarms – 40 points

Total Models: 22

Total Points: 1,589

Wachtmeister:  Just as I was bemoaning the lack of Tyranids the last two entrants came in and dropped the space bugs on us!  TJM has a proven track record of large numbers of miniatures per month, seeing him work on a smaller model count will take some getting used to!  Of course he didn’t just pledge 1,000 points, he went all out with over 1,500!

I’ve completed three of these challenges in the past, but had to skip the last one as I was feeling a little bit ‘challenged out’. I’ve managed to clear the decks with the time out – butterflying all over the place with a range of scales, armies and periods – and I’m now ready for 6 months of grind to get myself another playable army. I’ve also tried to be a bit clever with my list, as it has a couple of squads that can serve duty getting another couple of armies up to strength – so at the end of this I’m hopeful that I’ll end up with quite a few playable armies, not just the one!!!

The army list is a follows;

Canoness with plasma pistol, power sword, rosarius, purity seal, melta bombs & frag grenades – 121 points

Missionary Champion with autogun and chainsword – 26 points

Veteran Sister Superior with power sword – 12 points

Veteran Seraphim Superior – 10 points

Squad of 5 Seraphim with frag grenades & one with 2 x hand flamer – 191 points

Squad of 7 battle sisters with flamer & heavy flamer – 220 points

Imperial Guard squad with a sergeant with bolt pistol and chainsword, plasma gun and heavy bolter – 120 points

Salamanders Tactical Squad a sergeant with chainsword, flamer and heavy plasma gun – 351 points

Rhino – 50 points

Total comes to 1316 points (a shade under 1000 if you discount the space marines). I’ve marked the photo with the slices, but I may have to bring the Space Marines forward in the order so I’m not necessarily going to paint them in this specific order. As with my previous challenges these will all be painted to the best of my ability, so definitely going to quality over quantity. I’ve also been eyeing up the cathedral terrain centrepiece in the Codex, so if I have time then some army specific terrain may well end up being constructed to go along with them.

Thanks,

Tom

Wachtmeister: Tom was slightly late in his entry but considering the quality of his previous submissions I just couldn’t bring myself to consider turning him away.  He has put together a fun little list here by taking advantage of the Support section.  I’m looking forward to his Sisters of Battle but I really can’t wait to see Salamanders painted in a 2^nd Edition style!  I also just saw his Imperial Guard are Vostroyans, and while they aren’t a 2^nd Edition Regiment they are certainly cousins in style and material.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen them painted by anyone but Games Workshop so this will be a real treat!

Hello!

So, here’s my entry for the 6th edition of the 2nd Ed. 40k Challenge! I took part in the 4th iteration of the challenge way back in 2023 with my Chaos Space Marines. I thoroughly enjoyed it and was really pleased with the models I was left with afterwards, despite a lot of last minute scrambling and late nights each month to get it all done.

After flirting with the idea of Imperial Guard or Eldar, I’ve decided to go for a Khorne force this time – to add to my 2nd Ed. Chaos horde. I did in fact paint a Khorne model last time around, a Chaos Lord on a Juggernaut, so this will bring him some reinforcements!

The models:

The force will be led by Kharn the Betrayer himself – a model I’ve had for years, but never managed to get round to painting. A sturdy core of 8 Khorne Berzerkers (including an icon or banner) will bulk things out a lot, along with three Khornate Chaos Terminators – which will be enlarged / embiggened a little bit to fill out 40mm bases. The 2nd Edition Chaos Dreadnought may be my favourite 40k model of all time, and although I already have 2 of these painted up, I can’t resist doing a Khorne version. Finishing up with some daemons, I’ve got the excellent Trish Carden Bloodthirster that came out towards the end of 2nd Ed., along with 10(!) Bloodletters, including musician and banner.

That’s plenty I think! Let the pain begin!

Rough Points Costs (wargear may change):

Kharn the Betrayer – 217 points

8 Khorne Berzerkers with Aspiring Champion, Power first, 2x Plasma Pistols – 351 points

3 Chaos Terminators with Mark of Khorne, Heavy Flamer, Combi-Flamer, Power fist, Chainfist, Chain Axe, Combi Bolter

Chaos Dreadnought with 2x Power Scourge, Havoc Missile Launcher, Auto Launchers – 210 Points

Bloodthirster – 300 points

10 Bloodletters – 350 pts

Total: 1768 points

Wachtmeister: Mark joined the contest when I put out a call for a 40^th participant.  I am very glad I put out a call for one more painter and quite excited Mark answered the call.  He won many painting awards during the 4^th Challenge and I look forward to his take on one of my favorite models in Games Workshop history, Kharn the Betrayer! 

I knew I was going to do Imperial Guard this challenge but I wasn’t sure which Regiment. I actually had planned on finishing my Valhallans but when Mørk told me he was doing Mordians I thought it would be fun to do the same regiment. Mørk and I are going to have different paint schemes as I’ll be doing the traditional dark blue and he will be doing a desert scheme to go with his previous armies. It certainly makes sense to link all the regiments together in one color scheme but I’m well past that smart decision in my painting by now!

Lt Command HQ w/chain sword, Bolter, 2 flamers, melta gun, comm link 130 points

Commissar w/ power sword, power fist 56 points

Inquisitor Lord w/ power armor, Bolter, level 4 psyker 225 points

Infantry squad w/chain sword, las pistol, lascanonnon, grenade launcher 142 points

Infantry squad w/chain sword, las pistol, missile launcher, grenade launcher 142 points

Infantry squad w/chain sword, las pistol, missile launcher, grenade launcher 142 points

Mortar squad 120 points

Auto cannon squad 108 points

1065 points

This is the biggest commitment in figures I have ever made for one of the challenges, and it happens to not only be one I’m running, but the largest amount of contestants we have ever had. Normally I’d have one less infantry squad, and one less heavy weapons section and I’d make up those points in a tank or two. Ever since the second challenge I’ve costed characters out as cheaply as possible so making the Inquisitor Lord a level 4 pysker adds some points to the mix as well. In retrospect he costs almost as many points as a Leman Russ. I considered making him a level 2, after all I only need 1,000 points, but in all the challenges so far I have yet to paint a pysker and I don’t want Jon to miss out on the opportunity of worrying about the psychic phase like I have been. See how generous I can be? Wish me luck, this is the first challenge I’m actually worried about completing!

With that we have met all of our contestants, both returning and new alike. I look forward to seeing these entries painted up and sharing them with you starting in February!

-Wachtmeister