Lets check out the final entries of Leopard Print month here at the 40k Second Edition Challenge, Mark VII Month 3!
| Number of models painted: | 3 | Points | 190 |
| Hours spent painting: | 15 | Crisis | 2 |
3 x Chaos Terminators, Chain Axe, Power Axe, Power Fist, Reaper Auto-cannon, 2x twin linked bolter.
I had really big plans this month, but most of it fell through… luckily all these plans were about bonus entries, so it doesn’t really matter. I managed to finish my terminators. They’re the core of the Lubric Marines, that form the inner core around the leader of the Death Leopards. Every month seems to be red circus leopard print round for me. I converted all models to not have trophy racks, but animal skins instead. A giraffe, a zebra and a tiger. The squad is also called The Animals so it kind of fits. I am really let down by how difficult it is for me to get a decent photo of my models. They’re either muddy and dark or over exposed. I can’t find the middle ground. I guess there’s just too much automation in these goddamn phone cameras.
I made 12 blight grenade markers to use while gaming. I guess a small token is better gaming-wise, but I wanted something that would look imposing during battle. I imagine Plague Marines advancing under the cover of mustard gas. I know they don’t block LOS in the game, but still it will look cool I hope.
Till next time – Sayonara!
Wachtmeister: Looking cool is very important and those blight grenade markers do the trick, whether they are supposed to block line of sight or not! The full spectrum of animal skins really make this trio look like a glam rock band, which I guess in a way they are!
| Number of models painted: | 6 | Number of points : | 316 |
| Hours spent painting: | 20 | Crisis level (1-5): | 1 |
Culuxus Assassin – 210
Imperial Guard Command Squad w/Captain, Bolter, Grenade Launcher, 2 Plasma Guns, Meltagun – 106
With my mad dash to finish my Warmaster tournament army finally over I can get back into the 40k 2nd Edition Challenge in full strength and unleash my secret plan: painting a Tallarn army! Last year Mork and I discussed painting Tallarn armies simultaneously and now I’m ready to get started! The dicey part is I essentially only have four months, including the one that just passed, to get a guard army painted. In order to help me get this done I’m relying on something that is fairly new to me, contrast paints. I have used them on Star Wars Legion droids and clone troopers but those are very basic figures and these guardsmen are much more detailed. To be honest I’m not quite sure how much I like them, I may go back and add some highlights and see if that makes me like them better, time will tell!
As far as the Hobby Bingo goes this unit nets me a whopping 75 points for the Race to Terra! That plus another 30 points between the rules for the Vanus Assassin and the objective markers I have a feeling I’ll be competitive this month for one of the top spots!
I also see I’m the only one who took this months challenge “Red Leopard Print” quite literally with the red leopard print, but now my Tallarns have a name: The 2026th Tallarns, “The Red Leopards”!
| Number of models painted: | 3 | Number of points : | 249 |
| Hours spent painting: | 15 | Crisis level (1-5): | 4 |
This month I focused on painting three more Terminators. Working with the older metal models was especially satisfying—they’ve got a weight and texture that makes the whole process feel nostalgic.
I have also moved away from my usual red scheme and did blue instead, and honestly, it felt much easier to work with. The layering and highlighting came together more smoothly than I expected, and it gave the librarian a cleaner, more defined look without as much effort.
One of my favorite touches was using an old banner I had sored for years on the sergeant. It adds a bit of character and history to the squad, like a relic that’s been carried through countless battles. Small details like that really help the unit stand out on the table. I still need to place some decals as well…
Overall, crisis level is still high due to hobby time constraints. But I’m managing to get ahead with the project, which makes me feel great!
Wachtmeister: I love these guys, they really are terrific sculpts. I have to say my favorite part is the hazard stripes on the power fist, followed by the sergeants power sword. Great work all around!
| Number of models painted: | 1 | Number of points : | 44 |
| Hours spent painting: | 15 | Crisis level (1-5): | 4 |
Apothecary, 1, Chainsword, Bolt Pistol, Medi-pack, 44
This month was a bit of a disappointment as I only managed to finish a single model! A holiday trip followed by nearly a week with a severe cold unfortunately cost me a lot of painting time, and the crisis level will therefore have to be pushed up to a 4. I had intended to finish the Techmarine this month as well, but the time just wasn’t there. He’s well underway though, so he’ll most likely join the army in May instead. The Apothecary model (which I did finish) is the one that was released as part of the Space Marine Command Squad that came out in September 1998 (just a month before 3rd edition launched). This set was sculpted by the talented Jes Goodwin, so naturally the detailing is top notch! Painting white power armour will always be a challenge, but I used the old trick of using a light grey (in the form of Elf Grey) instead of a pure white as the main colour. I used Shadow Grey for shading the recesses, and then I finished off the armour by highlighting the edges with Skull White. The model has a lot of detail in the form of tubes, glass containers, gems and other paraphernalia, and these took quite a bit of time to do properly. As with my previous models I used the photos in Codex: Angels of Death to get the authentic 90’s look, and I think it worked out rather well in the end!
Wachtmeister: Ted may be disappointed with his lone model entry but I say isn’t harder to do just one model to a high standard than a horde of models to a low standard? Why yes, I am the one doing the Assassins “army.” Why do you ask? In all seriousness Ted did a terrific job on this model, I’m working on Eversor Assassin for May and Ted’s vials will be something I try to emulate on my crazed nutter!
| Number of models painted: | 13 | Number of points : | 742 points |
| Hours spent painting: | 30 | Crisis level (1-5): | 2 |
Maugan Ra – The Harvester of Souls: Shuriken Pistol, Crack Shot, Tough, Turn Aside Blow, The Maugetar [179 pts]
Karandras – The Shadow Hunter: Chainsword, Power Fist, Shuriken Pistol, Stealth, Sustain Attack, Tough, The Scorpion’s Bite [150 pts]
Exarch: Laspistol, Mandiblaster [2 pts], Crushing Blow, Stealth, Chainsword, Shuriken Pistol, [72 pts]
Striking Scorpion Squad: 4x Striking Scorpion, Chainsword, Mandiblaster, Shuriken Pistol [104 pts]
Guardian Squad: 6x Guardian Mounted on Jetbikes, Power Sword ,2x Twin Linked Shuriken Catapults, Targeter, 2x Shrieker Cannons, 6 Surpercharged engines [232 pts]
And we’re half-way done! Not as many models I initially planned for that month, but sill more than Wachtmeister! Life has been a bit crazy and between college application and work, I painted less days than I wanted.
Maugan Ra was a relic for last month, he was started around the same time as the Dark reapers but was never considered a priority until the end of April.
The bikes were the big project for the month. I came to the conclusion that the more I like a model, the more it is painful to paint it. Somewhat torn between make them good and get them done. I have 18 more jetbikes potentially to do and I’m not sure those are going to happen soon. Printed some custom-made banners and hop the squad is done! Now I look at the 18 other bikes staring at me and tell them 2027…
Scorpions were originally planned so they had to be done. Karandras was just added along. First time I’m using Pro Acryl paint (lime green). Airbrush application was great; brush work was a reminder of certain yellows that need high dilution to be applied properly. I cut it with Moot Green from GW and it drastically increased the coverage.
Next month is open! I got option, maybe some of the bingo thingy goals…;)
Wachtmeister: Another month, another terrific entry from Julien! One day I’ll have to figure out how to use one of those airbrush things, Julien seems to get some terrific results with their help!
| Number of models painted: | 5 | Number of points : | 177 |
| Hours spent painting: | 20 | Crisis level (1-5): | 5 |
Five Chaos marines with three boltguns, one missile launcher and one plasma gun = 177 points.
The third month of the challenge is over. This time I painted five standard Chaos Space marines. The miniatures themselves are the classic metal torsos with plastic arms, weapons and backpacks, again scavenging from my bits boxes to supply missing parts like some backpacks, the auspex of the missile launcher guy and the mouth of said weapon, I also added an Ork skull trophy because why not.
The colour scheme is basically the same as before with some new details like the scavenged Imperial Fist pauldron. Nothing really new to say here.
About the Hobby Bingo I would claim giving a unit scenic bases (Which I will call Skynet Apocalypse Blue from now on) and Metal model squad.
This time I don’t have time to toy with backgrounds, so it is what it is! I hope next month I can do something about it!
Wachtmeister: I love the chaos space marine Predator lascannon head on the missile launcher, what a great use of the bits box! The Skynet Apocalypse Blue bases look terrific and add an extra pop of color which goes great with the red details, and the random Imperial Fist shoulder pad!
| Number of models painted: | 6 | Number of points : | 390 |
| Hours spent painting: | 30 | Crisis level (1-5): | 5 |
Farseer – 185 points
Eldar Scouts (5 models @ 23 pts each) – 115 pts
Total Army Cost: 300 pts
Would have been easy—if I hadn’t decided to convert five Scouts from 3rd‑edition Dark Eldar. That meant clipping and filing off all the spikes, then using baby wipes and PVA to make cloaks and gun wraps. It was a proper ADHD crisis moment: I just had to make these models, but I also wanted to stick close to my original pledge. In the end, the force will be decent, even if it’s not exactly what I set out to achieve.
The final model is the Farseer, which I converted in month 1 and painted in the last week. He turned out very different from my original plan because of the leopard‑skin 5‑point bingo requirement.
Wachtmeister: These guys are a terrific use of the 3rd Edition Dark Eldar and with the old school stripes on the helmet they fit in just terrifically. I do feel obliged to point out the leopard print was not a requirement, but those boots make me glad Vectis thought they were!
| Number of models painted: | 37 | Number of points : | 567 |
| Hours spent painting: | 25 (approx.) | Crisis level (1-5): | 5 |
Unit 01: Fire Dragon Squad – 112 pts – Laspistol and Meltagun (x4)
Unit 02: Fire Dragon Squad – 112 pts – Laspistol and Meltagun (x4)
Unit 03: Fire Dragon Squad – 112 pts – Laspistol and Meltagun (x4)
Unit 04: Fire Dragon Exarch with Firepike – 77pts.
Unit 05: Fire Dragon Exarch with Firepike – 77pts.
Unit 06: Fire Dragon Exarch with Firepike – 77pts.
Just a short blurb this month, for an entry finished by the skin of my teeth! We took the family to Alaska for ten days followed up by a week-long work trip, so almost three weeks of the month had no painting done. As it was, these guys got finished to the point I am happy with them. I am especially happy with how the red – this month’s theme – turned out. The bases on a few of them really need one more round of drybrushing to be “done done,” but they’d certainly look good on the table top as is. I have two third edition Fire Dragons (heresy!) who’s meltaguns I converted with a length of metal rod to be firepikes. I feel the third edition look isn’t so far off from the 2nd edition Exarch as to be jarring – and I also only had one second edition exarch to work with! Beggars can’t be choosers. Till next month!
Wachtmeister: I’ll be honest, I read TJM’s monthly entry before looking at the picture. I’m doing this entry late at night and read it three times and thought he just had a cut and paste error. No way he painted this many Fire Dragons, that’s almost an army of Fuegens warriors. Then I realized A – This is TJM and B – yes, there were just that many in the picture! I notice he stuck the conversions in the back but with their Firepikes I easily found them and agree, they look terrific!
This month we had two Blood Angels and two Imperial Guard players use their valuable mulligan and joined my Penal Battalion. Hopefully they can redeem themselves and get back in the Emperor’s good graces next month!
-Wachtmeister
The Wachtmeister's Patrol 