Welcome to Month 1, Wave 1 of the 40k Second Edition Challenge, Mark VI! You’ve heard me prattle on enough during the lead up, lets get right into the awesome paint jobs!

“Ignorance is the parent of fear”

As I persevere with using quotes from Moby Dick for at least another month, it’s time to get stuck in as I face my White Whale of 40k 2nd edition projects – getting around to try and paint some Blood Angels to my satisfaction. I took heed of the above quote and set out to try and conquer my ignorance by gathering as much information and examples of the GW studio Blood Angels as I could over the course of the holidays. 

This took the form mostly of collecting as many painting guides from that era as possible and also speaking to a few others who had already taken on this challenge and succeeded (@oldgrumpywolf on Instagram was particularly helpful!). It became clear rather quickly that there has been a significant evolution of the Blood Angel colour scheme from Rogue Trader to the end of 2nd Edition, with each iteration of the army that was painted up moving away from the Terracotta scheme that was originally introduced in the Space Marine painting guide from 1989. The 1994 Eavy Metal painting guide talks about a bright red base coat but using BA Orange and Sunburst Yellow for highlights. By the time the Angels of Death codex was released in 1996 the base coat appears a much deeper red, with orange used for edge highlighting only.  

So what did I learn from all this you ask? Well mostly that there isn’t a single way of painting Blood Angles in 2nd edition and I guess you can’t really get wrong what isn’t properly defined in the first place! With that liberation from my doubts, I dived in and got started on painting a bonus model in the form of a Rhino Transport – the classic 2nd edition option when you absolutely positively want to make sure everyone you try to get into battle fast dies before they get to where they are going, accept no substitute! This served as the perfect starting point to try and work out my own approach that I wanted to take with these colours on a larger surface with many edges to work on for the highlights. I will talk more about the paints I settled on later in the challenge.  After getting this to a place where I was happy I moved onto my first half of the Tactical Squad which made up part of my pledge. These guys are a mix of metal and plastic and included a couple of the original 2nd edition box set monopose guys who I needed to get in as I had rooted through my somewhat extensive collection of models to form this battle force. My squad leader also was given a final without the banner to show his rank, to set him apart and I thought it looked neat! (this is the way to heresy I know). 

Still, there was one more hurdle I hadn’t really thought too much about and that was all the iconography on the marines in the form of squad badges, company badges and the famous winged blood drop Chapter badge. While last time out, I could rely on the Ork’s rag-tag nature to hide any mistakes I made painting symbols that’s not the case for these icons, so I decided to call on some trusty transfers to get the job done…and that proved to be a whole other story for another time (so Dennis doesn’t get too annoyed with all my prattling)! 

1st Month 

Tactical Combat Squad, with Missile Launcher  195 points 

Rhino Transport with auto-launchers    55 points  

Month 1 total 250 points 

As always, feel free to follow along with my progress and various other Oldhammer projects over on Instagram @ad80_herohammer. Thanks for reading! 

Wacthmeister:  Alex has continued with the tradition he started in Mark V of the 40k 2^nd Edition Challenge by being the first in with his entry.  I really like the red he has achieved and it does make me think of the Angels of Death Codex.  I look forward to hearing the tale of the transfers in a future month because they look so good I can’t imagine them having caused Alex any problems at all!

With a roar, the Plague Marines surged forward. Gorath crashed through the barbed wire with contemptuous ease, his rusted armor deflecting the pitiful lasfire that greeted him. He fell upon the nearest PDF trooper, his plague knife sinking into the man’s chest. The trooper’s flesh blackened and sloughed away, even as he screamed.

Malgor waded into the fray, his bolter roaring as it spat shells filled with virulent toxins. Each impact reduced an enemy to dissolving piles of ichor. Beside him, another Plague Marine threw a blight grenade at a squad of troopers, their bodies convulsing and mutating into grotesque forms before collapsing into heaps of putrid flesh.

The trench was soon a charnel house. The few surviving PDF troopers fled, their screams fading into the night. Malgor stood amidst the carnage, his breath steaming in the cold night air. He turned to his squad, their armor slick with the filth of battle. “The Grandfather is pleased,” he said. “His gifts have been delivered.”

***
My first slice consists of a squad of six Plague Marines. I was originally only going to paint five, but I threw in another one while I was at it!

I didn’t know exactly how I would paint these when I started out, but I knew I wanted a fairly bright look to suit the 2nd edition aesthetic. After some testing I settled on Elysian Green (from GW) as the main colour of the armour, and a dark red for the cables and tubes. The bolters were painted bright red (what else!) in the same way as for my Night Lords.

In the game Plague Marines cost 35 points each, and that’s 10 points more than a regular Chaos Space Marine. However, they do come with toughness 5, and they’re equipped with a Boltgun (which you have to buy for your normal Chaos Space Marine for 3 points more, bringing him to 28 points) and a Plague Knife. The knife will kill a model wounded by the blade on a roll of ‘6’. Not terribly useful, but nice to have nonetheless. They also come with the awesome Blight Grenades that will inflict a S D6 hit on any non-Nurgle model that comes into contact with it. The cloud of nastiness will also remain in place, so with some good placement of the templates you can force the enemy to move through the miasma of death if they want to come get you. All in all, not a bad deal!

***

Squad Malgor
6x Plague Marines with Boltguns, Plague knives and Blight grenades (210)
Total: 210 points
***

My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oddgits.hut

Cheers!

Wachtmeister:  Ted did an absolutely excellent job on nailing the green on the Plague Marines armor.  It screams Nurgle and 2^nd Edition at the same time which isn’t easy to do!  I like the red bolters and they will really help tie them in with the other figures he has painted for his army previously.

First section finished!

5 harlequins – 172

Great Harlequin – 102

Now… Solitaire or Death Jester…

Jim.

Wachtmeister:  Jim is a man of few words, but his brevity in writing is more than made up for in his painting.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but these Harlequins must count for way more than that.  I love the riot of color and pattern Jim put into these guys they are quite frankly amazing little works of art!

January Pledge. 

HQ – Prince Yeril and Persobal Bodguard. 

HQ – Farseer 

Support – Eldar Dreadnought 

Bonus pledge. 

HQ – Navigator with Gryinx Cat. 

Thanks for the motivation. This has been a great start. 

Wachtmeister: Capt Dunnwa is another man of few words, looks like Alex will be able to talk about whatever he wants next month!  While these are (mostly) modern models Warren did a terrific job of capturing the 2^nd Edition feel.  The black squiggles on the armor are really cool, and the top knots really add to the pirate feel.  The banners also really add to the 2^nd edition feel, and I adore the blue, purple, yellow banners, they scream 90’s to me!  I really look forward to Warren’s next entry!

“Welcome back beloved brothers and sisters! Please feel free to grab a matching purple robe and shave your heads in the vestibules provided and then please take a pew before the Great Father takes to the pulpit. What’s that, you brought friends??? Excellent! Just take them into the insemnia… I mean introduction booths first before you are seated…”

Hi there folks! The first month is already upon us and I’ve been a busy little hybrid getting things all together for it. I decided to get Big Daddy Patriarch done and dusted right off the bat along with some purestrain Genestealers to be sure there was a strong colour scheme to build upon for the rest of the challenge.

I also wanted to add some extra firepower to the army in the form of more Acolyte Hybrids. This is down to the fact that they are still from the squad choice allowance, have at least an average ballistic skill and they are incredibly versatile when it comes to how you can kit them out. With the support section of the GSC army list being so restrictive (only 25%, pretty much the lowest in the game!), it is important to be able to pin down enemies when the need presents itself. So often against more ranged forces (and I have been those forces against GSC), if they take your purestrains out and you are just left with broodbrother chaff and a couple of characters, it can be hard to deal with armoured targets. I want my opponents to have to choose between effective threats when dealing with the army. All well and good in theory to be honest, I’ll have to put my money where my hidden ovipository gland is ;D

Till next time \\*//

Tain

JANUARY SLICE:

Genestealer Patriarch (72pts)

6 Genestealers (168pts)

6 Acolyte Hybrids: 4 x boltguns and 2 multi-meltas (190pts)

TOTAL: 430pts

Wachtmeister: The more of these challenges we do the more it seems like a cult for those of us long term members.  As always Martin has done a terrific job with his entry, I look forward to seeing this army progress from a skirmish to a horde!

“Lord Geronitan, we are being hailed by the Adeptus Mechanicus corvette Lone Cog. Telemetry tracks them on an approach vector 91 light seconds from the Imperial picket line.” 

Geronitan cast his gaze over the amassed Imperial Fleet, as it executed the morbid task of destroying evacuation craft. Every being with a spacecraft was trying to flee the planet, now that the Death Guard were trapped on its surface. Like a beast caught with its leg in an iron trap, the traitor marines were punishing all within reach and no corner of the planet was safe from their plague-craft. It was for this very reason that none were permitted to escape; extreme containment protocols were critical. Every pitiful flash of extinguished life was saving untold millions more. Despite this, Geronitan could spot the approaching corvette through his warp-sight. Like a burning speartip, alive with the souls of machines and crew alike, it cut through the daemonic effluvia surrounding the planet towards them. 

“Lock onto them with our port lance array. Open an encrypted channel and prepare for a tight-beam transmission, magenta level clearance.” Geronitan paused for his order to take effect. “Corvette Lone Cog. This is Supreme Grand Master Geronitan of the Grey Knights Chapter. We have locked onto you with our weapons array. State your intentions and prepare for judgement.”

For a moment, Geronitan could sense the skeins of fate splitting into multiple threads. In many possible futures, the Lone Cog executes a hard turn coreward and burns away from the planet at top speed. It is hunted for weeks, or years, or centuries. In some futures, it is found to harbor corruption, before being purified by the fires of the Inquisition. In others, it is found to be pure but burned all the same. In some futures it continues on its course and attempts to run the Imperial blockade. In all but one of these fates, the Fire of Dawn immolates the ship with its lances. With a pulse of thought, Geronitan compelled the servitor embedded in one of the port lances to recalibrate his distal emitter’s focal length. A skein of fate dissolved.

“Incoming transmission from the Lone Cog. Shall I accept it?” 

Geronitan nodded his assent and turned towards the hologrammaticus. The inhumane and faintly comical image of a Tech-Priest Magus appeared, sweeping back his hood to reveal a polished iridium pate. 

++Shucks howdy, partner++

++This is Marshal Ferric Voltrane, of the Cydonian Rangers, requesting permission to come aboard++

++01111001 01100101 01100101 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110111++

Selecting your army commander as your test model is probably not the best way to go about experimenting with a new paint scheme! Ah well, I am pretty happy with how my Inquisitor turned out and I am looking forward to applying this technique to the other Grey Knights in my collection. The Techmarine and Apothecary models are both very old prototype Terminators from Rogue Trader. I give my heartfelt thanks to Dave Weston over at Confessions of a 40K Addict (https://www.40kaddict.uk/) and his mates for donating these models; they look ace!!

With a couple of days to go before the deadline, I decided to overextend myself precariously and paint a squad of 10 Tech-Priests armed with needle rifles and a plasma gun. I have a bunch of Adeptus Mechanicus lined up as bonus models for this challenge and I am so excited to be working on them. All are newer models or proxies, but I will be working hard to give them some old school flavour. If you would like to see some extra photos and follow my adventures in the challenge this year, check out my hobby blog at: https://oldschoolg4m1ng.blogspot.com/

Inquisitor Lord (psychic mastery level 4, terminator armour, nemesis force weapon, storm shield, bionic leg): 293 points

Techmarine (Terminator armour, storm bolter, power glove, targeter, refractor field): 89 points

Apothecary (Terminator armour, storm bolter, power glove, targeter, medi-pack, refractor field): 91 points 

Tech-Priest Squad (Laspistols, flak armour, 9 x needle rifles, plasma gun): 187

Total points: 660

Model count: 13

Wachtmeister: Wow.  I’m not at a loss for words often but every time I look at this entry all I can think is wow.  M4cr0Dutch has a way with red and it really paid off with the Tech-Priest Squad.  The purple on the Inquisitors sword, and the Grey Knight armor is terrific as well.  This is just an all around awesome entry!

Alright! First entry of 5 Necron Warriors finished! Quite happy with the result, it took an evening and if I make the entire army at this level I’ll be happy with it for sure 🙂 

Already have a 1500p game planned against my local 2nd edition player! So hopefully this will be the start of quite a large and pretty army! 

Flogger out! 

Wachtmeister: Flogger is well on his way to having a classic Necron army painted and ready for the field.  I like the Martian red bases, they add a pop of color to the metallic of the armor!

My opening shot this month includes just five Necron Warriors, coming in at a stonkingly expensive 220 points. I feel a bit like a fraud as they were pretty simple to paint. For maximum nostalgia, I deliberately went with the original colour scheme from when they were first released, complete with Goblin Green bases. I remember fondly White Dwarf 218 and the battle report, Massacre at Sanctuary 101. The Necrons attacked a beleaguered outpost guarded by a small force of Sisters of Battle. It was a walkover for the Necrons, yet still looked like a super fun and evocative fight, full of narrative and tense moments. Ever since then, it’s the force I’ve wanted to collect. And funnily enough, all the ‘new’ Necrons released since have never hit the same buttons for me as these sculpts do. Despite their age and ‘clunkiness’ I just love them.

Wachtmeister: The may be simple to paint but Brawlerguts Necrons look like they crawled out of an old White Dwarf magazine.  They are perfect and really bring out the nostalgia feels! 

I start off this challenge with an Eldar War Robot… kind of. As I’ve been looking up images of this guy, I’ve begun to realize that I may have acquired a bit of a mishmash of different kits. I’ve never seen an Eldar War Robot (the tiny headed version of the dreadnought) with two arms or the ‘bright lance’ style of lascannon… that being said, I’m really happy with how this turned out! I feel like I have my yellow formula down. I’m still working on my blues, though. It took me a lot longer to get the color right where I wanted it to be on the blue areas. Next month is Dire Avengers, so I’ll have a lot of time to work on blue!

When I decided on Eldar, Wachmeister commented that I would have a lot of gems in my future and, did I really want to do that to  myself… Fool that I am, I replied, “I love painting gems! No problem”. The dreadnought really challenged that for me. SO. MANY. GEMSTONES. And with this being a centerpiece type model, I didn’t feel as though I could leave some of them yellow and call them ‘bumps’ on the dreadnought. Wachmeister, you were right.

The stats:

Eldar Dreadnought, Lascannon, Powerfist, Shuriken Catapult – 190pts 

Wachtmeister:  I’ve had the privilege of seeing some of Deacon’s Eldar in the flesh and I’ll tell you this his yellows and blues really pop.  Of course the true win of this entry is getting to hear something I never get sick of hearing “Wachtmeister, you were right.”  I feel I’ve already won the challenge!

January sees what is likely the biggest push I’ll make in the challenge. I airbrushed the base yellow down for my all my Bad Moons. After that slog was done I decided to get started on my Stormboys. I was torn as to wether to do their jump packs in a uniform fashion or to be a bit more orky and mix it up. I got some excellent advice to treat them like fighter pilots. So each jump pack has unique freehand designs on it. The Gobsmasha I managed to blast through in a single afternoon of joyful painting. I did get a reminder of why I dislike playing with transfers, so about half of the glyphs, dags and flames are freehand. Apart from the airbrushing, I came quite late in the month for painting these up. I am seriously keen to paint more so I’ll likely jump straight into the next lot.  

Month 1

7 Stormboys   with 7x Bolt Pistols, 2x Power Axes, 1x Power Sword, 4x Chain Swords, Jump Packs

Gobsmasha   110pts

Total points 250pts

Wachtmeister: Not only did Georg do a terrific job on this entry he made some real progress on later entries as well.  I love the Stormboys, and is that a dedication to Khorne I see on their helmets?  The detailing on the Gobsmasha is really impressive, and painting that much yellow is no easy task.  Great job Georg!

Master Librarian with force sword, bolt pistol, and frag grenades 250 Points.

Wachtmeister: This is another short on words, long on awesome entry.  I love the skin tone on the Master Librarian, it really fits well for the Legion of the Damned.  FE Warrior’s orange and yellow’s really pop, and having seen his art in the past I’m sure he did the banner on his own and once again it looks terrific!

So this is potentially not a great start – as I’ve finished a total of 6 models that don’t map to any of my original slices!!!

I was originally planning on a 7 person squad of Sisters to kick of the challenge, but after submitting my entry for this challenge was invited to 40K event that required me to paint some more Space Marines. As I’ve got a squad as allies in the original list this meant I needed to re-work the programme and move a combat squad of said tactical marines forward into this month. Unfortunately I now can’t attend that event, but I’ve at least managed to make a dent in the most time-consuming models in this challenge and have also got most of the way through a bonus squad that will make an appearance at some point during the challenge.

Anyway, as a result this month’s offering is a combat squad of Salamanders tactical marines. Lovely models, even if the lone ‘Strike Force’ marine looks like someone’s been forced to bring their younger brother along… I originally developed the paint scheme for Epic scale tanks, but it works really well on these models as well – I think it’s vibrant enough for the 1990s if nothing else!!!

As I’m supposed to be working on Sisters of Battle I have managed to find the time to paint up one of the character models – in this case the Imagifier. Nothing says ‘war torn battlefield of the far future’ than a big flag, particularly in 2nd Edition, so I think she’s a good characterful start. I’m particularly pleased with her face, as I struggle with them at times and I was concerned I’d make it too stark, but she looks very normal and subtle! I may well need to re-visit the actual banner at some point, as it’s not the best quality scan, but that’s definitely something for another time.

Total Points – Month 1

Imagifier with rosarius & frag grenades = 82 points

Space Marine Tactical Combat Squad with flamer = 159 points

Month 2 will see the full squad of 7 Battle Sisters with bolters, flamer and heavy flamer. If I get the time I will also see if I can get the aforementioned bonus squad of Salamanders done as well.

Thanks,

Tom

Wachtmeister: Sometimes things don’t go as planned in the world of the 40k 2^nd Edition Challenge but it’s ok to pivot as Tom did.  The green on his Salamanders is excellent and in keeping with 2^nd Edition colors.  I love the white armor on his Sister of Battle and look forward to seeing a full unit painted next month when his Sisters of Battle upgrade from Sister of Battle!

First month complete, first time in the challenge and it’s been brilliant!

I was a bit worried about painting Eldar and had been putting it off for a while. The challenge has really spurred me on to put in the effort and the thought of having a completed army in 6 months is very exciting.

Everyone involved are really supportive too, cheers guys!

Another first is playing around with backdrops. This was a free download from the internet and I think it worked really well, definitely some Eldar fortune.

The warp portal is the cardboard one from white dwarf.

This month’s pledge was 5 guardians and 5 Striking Scorpions. I managed to make time for another 5 guardians to make a much worthier unit, all armed with shuriken catapults – all the better for taking out my brother’s Genestealers!

Oh yeah, 4 of the catapults were press moulded, they’re a bit shonky but do the job well enough, hence they’re hanging at the back!

Next month – 3 Dark Reapers, phew!

10 Guardians, shuriken catapults, frag grenades and leader with chainsword – 162pts

5 Striking Scorpions – 130pts

Total 292pts

Wachtmeister: These Eldar are drop dead gorgeous.  I never would have guessed the Shuriken Catapults had been press molded if Justin didn’t give it away!  He really outdid himself with his picture backdrop and terrain too, I can’t wait to see his Dark Reapers next month!  They will almost double his painted points too!

That’s it for Wave 1, see you all next week!

-Wachtmeister