2nd Edition Army Challenge: June

 

Hi folks,

Just a short post today, as I am burnt out as all heck. After 6 months of effort, and no small amount of joy, I have completed the 2nd Edition Army painting challenge for 2025. This year I was working on Imperial Agents from the Codex Army Lists book (the "Little Black Book"). The models were mostly from the Inquisition, Grey Knights and Mechanicus portions of the list; no Sisters of Battle or Arbites. 

Finding proxies for some of the models and making new stuff look old was a real blast this time around. I especially have a soft spot for my Electropriests, so much so that i painted them a Rhino transport, lovingly named the "Voltswagon". The Electrohull vehicle card causes models that charge it to be thrown back, giving it room to deploy some frenzied electro-psychos into the mix! I also painted a Mechanicu Predator armed with a Conversion Beamer, using the vehicle conversion rules from the Dark Millenium book. The model itself is from the Horus Heresy range; what a beauty that kit is.

It has been another great journey this year and most of us are already planning for the challenge next year, assuming we can convince someone to run it. Now, though, I am tired. Teaching isn't getting easier and my father has been in palliative care for 12 months. I am still recovering physically and mentally from surgery 12 months ago. Without going into too much detail, things have been hard. I can't help but feel like I am in a liminal space at the moment and not sure at all what comes next. If you have stuck around with me this far, I thank you from the heart. I have the greatest respect for my "Blogger brothers".

See you across the table,

Marc

2nd Edition Army Challenge IV: May

 

Hi folks,

It has been a surprisingly fruitful month on the hobby front. With wifey away on a bunch of work trips I have been whiling away the late hours painting. On the table this month were a battery of Rapier Laser Destroyers, their Servitor crew and an Engineer for my Adeptus Mechanicus. The Rapiers are pretty brutal in 2nd Ed.; not many things can match them for taking out vehicles. The trick is keeping them alive for long enough to do anything, they are utter glass cannons.

I have painted them using the scheme of my Grey Knights, firmly placing them in that portion of the list. the crew, however, is painted in my Mechanicus scheme, which kind of ties the two halves of the army together in my eyes. The servitor models are from Station Forge and are whimsical as heck; very 2nd Edition in vibe. I particularly like the guy with the mop and the one polishing the servo skull.

With the last couple of hours of painting time I knocked together this engineer to keep my Grey Knights Dreadnought upright and shooting.

Having honoured my original pledge for the challenge, I am left with a month to paint bonus models. I am hoping to pull out all the stops and finish really strong with some vehicles and something special.

See you across the table,

Marc

2nd Edition Army Challenge VI: April

 

Hi folks,

We are getting towards the pointy end of the challenge now and April was a busy month on the home front. With school holidays spent at the beach and a week of school camp supervision, there wasn't much time to mess around. I probably finished this Dreadnought in the first two weeks and just got smashed the next couple of weeks, failing to get any of my bonus models completed. That leaves me with a bit of a backlog of models that don't really count for the purposes of completing the challenge, but that I don't want to leave unfinished either! I am going to put in a big push this month to see what I can catch up on. 

The Dreadnought itself is not really a vintage model; it is a more modern Venerable Dreadnought sculpt. It is such a great kit, though. It came with a huge amount of options that allowed me to give it a Grey Knights vibe. I added an extra purity seal to the sarcophagus and an old school autolauncher that I had left over from my Legion of the Damned Dreadnought from a few challenges back. Autolaunchers can have a huge impact on the game in 2nd Edition; "popping smoke" can lay down a large barrier that obscures line of sight and can persist for a significant amount of time before it drifts away. It can protect both the Dreadnought and other nearby units as well.

The twin heavy bolter was another vintage addition. It was kindly donated from a fellow old school gamer, Kharnifex, who I have had the pleasure of playing a couple of games with. He is an all-round good bloke who gives so much back to the 2nd Ed. 40K community back here in Australia, and he is particularly great to play against; his patience is amazing (most of us can only remember 50% of the rules at any one time!). The weapon was originally from a chaos dreadnought but had had one bit of the iconography filed away. I went the whole way and ground out everything I could, except for the ammo feed gargoyles. A couple more purity seals sealed the deal.

The close combat weapon is from a Blood Angels Dreadnought kit, with a storm bolter attached in a very Grey Knight-adjacent way. I think it looks super cool next to the squads which have such a similar look to their wargear. 

Next month I have some Rapier Laser Destroyers to paint and I am sweating on a delivery of 3D printed servitors from Germany to crew them. Hopefully they make it before the end of the month. Then it will just be bonus material until the end of the challenge. So... once more to the breach!

See you across the table,

Marc

2nd Edition Army Challenge VI: March

 

Hi folks,

March has been a fairly productive month on the hobby-front. My first job was to complete the bonus model I missed out on last month. The Tech Magus is the commander of my Mechanicus troops. He isn't quite as powerful as other commanders, having a ballistic skill and weapon skill of only 6. This isn't bad for taking out basic enemy troop choices but he is going to struggle with other commanders. Thankfully, the Inquisitor Lord I already have for the Grey Knights is at the other end of that scale and has an advantage over just about anything short of a Greater Daemon. 

A Tech Magus comes with a power axe, so giving him a plasma pistol was an obvious choice; it gives him an excuse to wield the axe two-handed every once in awhile. The armour and grenades section of the Imperial Agents list is pretty generous; I have selected a displacer field for him to complement the power armour he already has. It also allows me to slip some rad grenades into his pocket! This frees up wargear slots I would usually spend on survivability and grenades, giving him a solid three additional options. I have spent those on a warp jump device, bionic leg and bionic arm. Tooled up and under 160 points, he has a ton of survivability and mobility. 

I also painted a second squad of Grey Knights. These sculpts are what most people remember when they think of Grey Knights back in second edition. I always thought they looked a bit like Mexican Wrestlers, but I resisted painting them that way! Overall, they were great fun to paint, though the weird textured armour still drives me nuts. Using the rules from the Codex Army List, these Terminators aren't particularly powerful, though there force weapons make them scary for daemons. They can sling out a psychic power as well, which is certainly a force multiplier. Using the Dark Millennium rules, however,  they are fantastically deadly. Expensive, but lethal. For about 700 points I can teleport them in as a Level 4 psyker unit wielding strength 8, -5 save mod. force weapons, with multiple defensive saves. 

They cost AND hit like half an army.

To finish off the slice I painted a full squad of Electropriests. These models are proxies I ordered from a 3D printshop overseas. They were pretty good value for money, despite the postage. Electropriests are a really unique and odd entry in the Codex Army Lists book. They don't have any ranged weapons, but hit in close combat at strength 8. This allows them to punch down just about any other infantry. They are also effected by frenzy, which increases their number of attacks and makes them immune to the kind of psychology daemons like to wave about. If they are broken in combat, however, they drop dead from exhaustion, as the electrical charge they have whipped up dissipates. 

For Armour in April I will be working on a special 2nd Edition inspired Dreadnought for my Grey Knights. I may be able to fit a bonus model or two in as well, depending on how quickly I can get started on the Dread.

See you across the table,

Marc