Month 2, Wave 2, let’s get to it!
Second month under way, as it’s time to dig into the core of the army and get that production line going.
As reality has been somewhat challenging of late, I originally decided to only pledge about a third of the Mordians I’ve got on the desk. I did this mainly to give myself better odds of actually completing the challenge, should real life prove too much of a distraction.
However as the first two months have gone by, I’ve found a lot more time on my hands to paint than anticipated, so I simply dove into the pile of minis head first, ending up with a lot more finished minis than I had pledged.
When I decided to paint the Mordians in a desert theme, I had two important things in mind. First they needed to match the other two companies in the 42nd. regiment, using many of the same colors on equipment, weapons and other details. But secondly they still needed to have their own theme, making them just as unique as the rest of the army.
After having done a few tests I decided on the following colors. Steel Legion Drab, will be the base with a drybrush/highlight of Zandri Dust. Weapons and gear is Militarum Green as with the 2nd company. Red Aquilas and stripes and the uniform had the benefit of matching both the rest of the army as well as being a sort of throwback to the original codex Mordians.
The shoulder tassels gets a treatment of Zandri Dust, as this one color probably is the one that connects all three companies in the army. Zandri Dust will also be used alongside Steel Legion Drab on the company’s armor, painted in this simple two color theme, some time in the future.
But this wouldn’t be a challenge, if it wasn’t challenging. So as it looks like I’m going well above and beyond the original pledge, I obviously couldn’t help myself, when a certain participant of the challenge, made me aware of a small detail.
Doing (hopefully) three platoons with multiple squads in each, I really need a way to designate who’s who. Having thought about several options, all revolving around the shoulder tassels, I decided on a “simple” approach.
Top “edge” of the tassel will be color coded to designate platoon (in this instance, red for 1st platoon), and the left tassel will be marked with 1-5 stripes, designating squad. It seemed easy enough, but definitely proved to be a bit of a challenge. I did however succeed, and I’m honestly very happy with the result.
Anyway, I think that’s more than enough talk about me and my painting… back to the desk and to finish even more Mordians 🙂
For the Emperor and the Screaming Camels
Pledge – Slice 2
Imperial Guard Squad – 123 pts.
Sergeant (Power Sword, Las Pistol), 9 Guardsmen, Meltagun, Heavy Bolter
Bonus Models
4 x Imperial Guard Squad – 498 pts.
1 x Sergeant (Power Sword, Las Pistol)
3 x Sergeant (Chain Sword, Auto Pistol)
36 Guardsmen
– 4 x Meltagun
– 1 x Heavy Bolter
– 3 x Autocannon
Wachtmeister: Mørk’s bonus entry is almost the size of my entire pledge! He has done a terrific job on his Mordian’s shoulder boards, it’s a terrific idea and well executed. This is an impressive amount of miniatures for sure!
This Month I painted some bikez! They took a bit longer than I expected as there were some delays due to a few heat waves here in Australia hitting around 40 degrees. You just can’t paint when it’s that hot. The paint dries on the brush so fast. But I got there with these sweet old models I could not afford as a kid but now I have a painted squad.
In Feb when I wasn’t painting, I was able to convert some scorchers from the old plastic wartrack kit. I also pulled the trigger on 3d printing a Battlewagon. So watch this space for more kult of speed goodness coming soon!
Wachtmeister: I don’t know if Gazamataz was suffering through natural heat or the heat coming off these engines of these classic red Ork bikes! Either way I’m glad he pushed on through and got them done as he finished them up and they look just as iconic as you’d expect from the classic “red onez go fasta!”
Maddix, Orphidian 23rd (Imperial Guard Black Codex)
<<<Message begins>>>
Captain Chylton-Merriwether reports that the perimeter is secure but requires reinforcement. 2nd Squad has been dispatched, led by Commissar Luq Karrd and his team of enforcers as requested.
Further resources will be deployed as they become available.
<<<Message ends>>>
Month 2, Slice 2! Another Squad, with some extra backbone added.
40pts Commissar Luq Karrd
46pts Commissar Darnan & “Plasma Gun”
46pts Commissar Raddus & “Plasma Gun”
116pts Tactical Squad & Heavy Bolter, Plasma Gun
13 models
So that’s two Squads of ten down, the Command Squad and a bunch of Commissars to keep them in line. Oh, and a bonus Inquisitor to investigate this whole business.
Trawling thorough my “reserves” and working out what I can add has borne fruit, which we will see in the coming months… Also planning what to do for the sixth “bonus” month, which I tend to forget. Of course, I’m still missing some heavy support and keep getting distracted by my next shiny project…
Maddix
P.s. Still need to sort out my camera..
Wachtmeister: Maddix is still on his own program, working on his Rogue Trader Challenge here in the 40k 2nd Edition Challenge. Still, you can’t argue with the plasma heavy results!
———— Transmission Begins ————
Another month gone!?! That hardly seems possible. And yet here we are. Alas as I think will become a pattern for me with this challenge once again it was a busy month. This time however I managed to plan a bit better and left myself about a week to get this months 200 points done.
So once again despite being tighter on time than I would like I was able to finish up my remaining 5 tactical marines.
I am especially pleased with the free hand flames on the barrel of the missile launcher. And don’t hate the freehand banner on the squad leader. I love pushing myself and doing more free hand is something I’m excited about in this second edition challenge.
We are a little under the 200 points this month, but given we were over last month I think it all evens out this combat squad totals 195 pts
I painted 5 models this month, with the 6 from last month, and with the full army consisting of just 20 models, we’ve broken the 50% mark reaching the dizzying heights of 55% complete already!
Next month, I’ll only be painting two models, but what models they are! A techmarine and a mighty Dreadnaught! This is where it starts to get really fun!
Remember: “Blessed is the mind too small for doubt.”
— Sam
Wachtmeister: I know I’ve been saying this a lot this challenge but Sam’s paint job look like it’s fresh out of the 2nd Edition Codex! I’m particularly impressed with the flames on the missile launcher, at first glance I assumed they were sculpted on until I remembered they weren’t! You can’t go wrong with a good back banner either, and Sam’s back banner is terrific!
Month two.
I’ve failed as I’ve never failed before. My promised slice is unfinished. My time management skills have sailed over the horizon.
Spent a good 10 days this month working on a big project for later in the challenge, and another several days working on bonus figures – but that is no excuse.
I give you 4/7 of my slice. 4 plague marines, one being an Aspiring champion.
| Plague Marines | 3 | 35 | 105 | ||
| Aspiring champion | 1 | 30 | 135 | ||
| Mark of Nurgle | 1 | 20 | 155 | ||
| Power fist | 1 | 10 | 165 | ||
| Flamer | 1 | 9 | 174 | ||
| Cloud of Flies | 1 | 5 | 179 |
I did finish a bonus selection. 6 deamonettes. 210 points. These were really fun to paint.
My next slice is only a single figure. The remaining 3 marines will accompany my commander.
Thanks
Adrian.
Wachtmeister: Sometimes we get distracted along the way to finishing our armies and that’s ok. Adrian did a terrific job on his Plague Marines, and surprised us with his awesome Rogue Trader era Daemonettes! I look forward to seeing the unit completed in a future entry!
This month, I tackled the largest squad in my challenge, my Dire Avengers… or as my daughter has taken to calling them, the candy cane warriors. These have always been some of my favorite models of the old Eldar range and they were really fun to paint. When I was a kid, my Dire Avengers were the squad I was the most proud of… I kept a few of the old ones in my original scheme as inspiration through the process… it was really fun to see how much my painting has developed over the past 25 years of gaming!
The stats:
7 Dire Avenger Aspect Warriors – 154pts
1 Exarch with power sword and shuriken pistol – 59pts (no powers assigned as they aren’t modelled)
Next month, I’m taking a break from yellow and blue and painting up some Dark Reapers… and maybe my Farseer, we’ll see!
Wachtmeister: Deacon must have figured he wasn’t working hard enough painting yellow so he decided to add white armor to the mix too. His Dire Avengers and Exarch look terrific, they will really pop on the table! I’m looking forward to seeing these guys on the field of battle, although I am hoping to drop some mortars on them real fast!
Greetings one and all,
I’d like to start out by thanking Wachtmeister for covering for me last month on the writing end. I was so excited about getting my Librarian and his tiny freehand banner finished in time, that I completely forgot that we were supposed to write something too. Forgive me.
Back in 1997-98ish; while in the middle of painting an Eldar army for one last tournament with my brother, White Dwarf 195 featuring the Legion of the Damned came out. As a life long comic book fan I was instantly drawn to the idea of an entire army that looked like Ghost Rider. Unfortunately, that was a very busy time in my life and I never got around to starting the army. About 6ish years ago me and brother were talking about building and painting 2nd Edition armies and doing a weekend of games with friends. That year for Christmas my brother got me 90% of the miniatures I needed for the army. Unfortunately the army got shelved; like so many other great project ideas, until my brother sent me a link to this challenge. “Count me in!”
Last month I was able to knock out my armies general. The unnamed Librarian of the Legion of the Damned is armed with a force sword, conversion field and Hood of Hellfire for 285 points.
This month I choose to focus on the troops. So, here you have 5 LotD Legionaries armed with bolters and a flamer coming in at 204 points. All 5 were built using only LotD models and bits available during 2nd Edition. I also tried hard to consider 2nd Edition era Citadel paints and painting techniques used during that period. Not fun to build, but they were very enjoyable to paint. Can’t wait to paint some more. Thanks for reading.
Wachtmeister: I’m glad FE Warrior’s brother got him the miniatures he needed for this army, they are looking terrific! The flames are definitely not easy to do but they look stunning! For some reason the bone on the flamer marines head always makes me laugh, it looks like such an after thought for some reason, almost as if he felt he needed just a little more flair to get the commanders approval!
Hi Wachtmeister,
This month I have 6 Nurgle Plague bearers to add to the Black Legion force
Armed with:
6x plague swords for a total of 210 points.
I’m Significantly happier with my work this month over last. I went in with a much better idea of how I wanted them to look at the end. I wanted a close to the typical green skin for these daemons but a bit of a less cartoony look, I took the highlights to a more jaundiced yellow colour and shaded with purple to give the impression of dead blood pooling
I have a couple more of these to paint in a later month, I enjoyed these ones so they’ll be fun to paint as well. I’m almost tempted to paint some sickly looking orks in this style.
Cheers,
Psykka
Wachtmeister: I painted an entire army of Nurgle Daemons in the more traditional green color scheme, I love how Psykka went a different direction. These guys look really sickly and diseased. Definitely not cartoony at all!
I completed my first 3 man terminator squad as well as my lord from January. As you seen from my earlier pictures I base coated the whole army with an airbrush, I know that this isn’t classical 2nd edition style, for that I wanted to focus on using vibrant colors. The horror has been seeing how damaged these models really were. They have been rattling away in cardboard boxes against other metal models for 25 years. In hindsight I think I should have sprung for some new in blister and just paid the eBay tax. It just wasn’t in the cards for me, mainly because it just wasn’t in the wallet lol. I have 6 terminators left, two three man squads and a dreadnaught. I hope to play my first game of 2nd edition “in 30 years” this month against my buddies Josh, Jake and Sam. I watched Jake and Sam play a game at the local game store, and it brought back all the good times I had when I was a kid.
Wachtmeister: These guys may have been base coated with an airbrush doesn’t mean they aren’t 100% 2nd Edition! I love the vibrant base color and the heavy metal on the trim! DJ and his crew don’t live to far from me, and even if they aren’t in Virginia I’m still hoping to get in a game against these heavy monsters!
Brother Nicodemus did not give the daemon an opportunity to close with its entropic blade. Lowering his force weapon, he sent a measure of his disdain pulsing through the psychoactive conduit of the weapon’s haft. The modulator at the base of the blade converted the stimulus into a burst of energetic bolts, which tore the creature apart. A second Plague Bearer charged through the pestilent cloud of its comrade’s demise, aiming a wild swing at Nico’s head. With preternatural speed, he lunged within the arc of the blow, crashing the full weight of his Tactical Dreadnought armour into the daemon. Trusting in the protective hexes carved into each plate, he directed one massive pauldron to connect with the Plague Bearers head, pulverising it. As the creature stumbled backwards, Nico swung his halberd in a great looping strike, bifurcating it from groin to the top of its horned skull. Noticing a sudden lull in the combat, Nicodemus checked his tactical display and noted that the rest of his brothers were safe and had banished the remaining daemons. Opening a channel to the orbiting command vessel, his calm declaration heralded the start of an invasion.
“Beachhead secured. You may commence teleportation operations.”
It has been tricky to get this squad of Grey Knight Terminators finished this month. With work getting back into full swing and a bunch of family milestones in February, time for painting was in short supply. As a result, I was unable to get any bonus models finished, but I am pretty happy with the way this squad turned out. They are very challenging models to paint, thanks to the high levels of detail and odd textures. The number of skulls on a completed model is ridiculous!
Total points: 350
Model count: 5
Wachtmeister: These guys are absolutely terrific, I especially like the purple blades! Watching their progress in our group chat has made me want a squad for myself! Funny enough I ran into previous contestant Hazzy at a local convention and he found a full squad for only $30 USD in the flea market! I’ve benefited from his luck and good eyes in the past but I can’t help but be jealous!
How to justify this… Well. It’s done, but not complete. I’ll have to go back and add more later. But this was not the time for that.
I hope March will be lighter on several fronts.
I raise my glass to you guys and your awesome entries.
Wachtmeister: I’ve been known to say “finished is better than perfect” and while the good doctor wants to go back and do more work in the future this Eversor certainly looks good enough to unleash on the field of battle!
That’s the second month down and the challenge remains a lot of fun. As expected a bit of burnout for me this time around and I nearly opted to Mulligan with a few days left. A couple of late nights though and I just about powered through, getting inspiration from others on here. I only managed to find hobby time on 16 days during February which represented a big drop down from last month and this was despite a full week of holiday, off from work. I expected to get a head start on future months or bonus entries during this time but sadly it just wasn’t to be.
To try and kick start my motivation I decided to paint the nicest slice of the whole challenge and slapped some paint on my Rogue Trader Terminators. These are probably the sexiest models I’ve ever painted, classic old school sculpts, I love these minis but never got around to painting any in the 90’s. They intimidated me back then and I was worried about not doing them justice now, but I’m pretty pleased again with the results.
I rushed the highlights a little bit and I really need to work on my airbrush use for the base coats and priming (too thick coverage) but it’s good to get another unit done. I know the white helmets are more of a modern look but I think it helps to break up the yellow and I like them. Sadly the varnish did flatten the shading/highlights on them a little though. The Sergeant will gain a back banner at some point and I might revisit the Power Fist patterns just to extend the checks around the curve of the gloves. This is certainly not a priority though.
I didn’t really push the envelope much this time although panel lining was much easier with these more detailed minis than the primitive RTB01 kit. I’ll be painting vehicles next month just to change things up again and hopefully this will provide some more opportunities to try new things. Then it will be back to shoulder pads for the last couple of months!
February Miniatures finished: 5
1 x Terminator Squad: Consisting of 5 Marines wearing Terminator armour and equipped with Storm Bolters, Targeters and Power Fists. In addition one Marine has exchanged his Power Fist for a Chainfist and one Marine has a Cyclone Missile Launcher.
Total Value = 380 Points
Challenge cumulative points total = 579
Challenge cumulative models count = 10
Wachtmeister: TJ is a glutton for punishment going with yellow, red, and white on his marines but the effort is well worth as these have come out brilliant. I do love this old school Terminator Captain, his scabbard has always been one of my favorite bits of detailing. I’m glad TJ pushed through, these guys were well worth it!
Another round of great miniatures awaits us next week when we present Month 2 Wave 3!
The Wachtmeister's Patrol 