DreadTober 2026 Completed

 

Hi folks,

It has been a busy month on all fronts. Hobby-wise I have been chipping away at this DreadTober project whenever I get a spare minute. That left me with about 50% complete with 5 days to go, which was not going to be fast enough! Sooo, I bit the bullet and went hard at it yesterday. 

The main inspiration for this project was the classic Epic 40K box art by John Blanche (below). In particular, I have always been fascinated by the character with the underslung plasma gun, power sword and "snow leopard's" pelt.

To reflect the artwork I used a more modern Venerable Dreadnought plasma cannon arm. It didn't look right having a full red barrel for the weapon; I think my brain has been wired to see that yellow multi melta on the Furioso for too many years. As a compromise, I painted the exterior barrel yellow but retained the white flames on the red armoured parts.

The left arm is from the Bjorn the Fell-handed kit. I ordered it off eBay a while ago because I needed the lightning claw part for my Moriar the Chosen project. Thankfully, I had some spare plastic lightning claw parts from a Blood Angels Dreadnought sprue I bought for my Grey Knights Dreadnought project (I am beginning to see a pattern here...). I rebuilt the lightning claw and then worked on the wolf pelt to make it look less lupine. That involve clipping away the muzzle and giving it a snow leopard pelt paint job, which I think sells the idea pretty well.

The decals were nerve-wracking to put on, as I only had one of each. The blood drop/2 decal was 30 years old and very difficult to float off the backing paper. I was so scared that I going to split the thing and have to piece it together on the model. To be honest, my Plan B was to just free-hand it. A layer of matt varnish and a new Dreadnought is born: Felix the Red-handed!

We have a couple more days until the October deadline for DreadTober, so if you are reading this early, I wish you all the bet in completing your project. It has been a bumper year in 2026 with a bunch of new challengers joining and working on some amazing projects. It has also been wonderful to see the veterans returning for another year; it makes the whole thing worthwhile.

See you across the table,

Marc

 

DreadTober 2026 Planning

 

Hi folks,

DreadTober has begun again for another year and I have been digging deep into my pile of potential to find a project. I probably should have checked earlier, but I have run out of old 2nd Ed. Metal arms. Thankfully, I have two or three plastic sprues with various Dreadnought parts that can fill in the missing parts. To be honest, I am still not sure exactly how I am going to arm it. I will get started tonight and see how the dice roll.

My plan is to paint this guy up as a classic 2nd Company Dreadnought to help kickstart my next 2nd Ed. project. 

Feel free to follow all the shenanigans on the dedicated DreadTober Blog or on Instagram @dreadtober. You can even join in the fun; it is never to late to register.

See you across the table,

Marc

2026/27 To-Do List

 

Hi folks,

This year I have a number of projects carrying over from the previous season. I also have a feeling my list will change significantly if I decide to participate in Season 8 of the 2nd Ed. Army Challenge. At this stage, I am not 100% sure if  it will go ahead, though there are still a bunch of people who would be ready to do it if the call comes. If the fates do happen to align, I will be painting a bunch of 2nd E. Blood Angels from January to July! I'll probably add these to my list if/when I post my entry early in 2027.

The rest of my list looks like this:

2nd Edition 

Dark Angels

Veteran Sergeant Naaman

Apothecary

Legion of the Damned

Bike Squad

Techmarine 

Librarian

Attack bike

Chaplain on bike

Imperial Agents

Everson Assassin

Blood Angels

Dreadnought 

11th Edition

Dark Angels

Lion El'Jonson

Azrael

Chaplain with jump pack

Assault Intercessors with jump packs

Deathwing Knights

Black Knights

Ravenwing Command Squad

Hellblasters

Terrain

CHROMA Bunkers

CHROMA FOB Ignis

Fortress of Redemption

Halo: Flashpoint

Elite Team

As they say, "no plan survives contact with the enemy" and perhaps the more appropriate "everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face". Let's see how this list goes!

See you across the table,

Marc

2025/26 Hobby Review

Hi folks,

It is hard to believe that another year has passed. It feels like life is getting harder; I think it is just the stage of life many of us are in. Having a hobby is such a precious thing in these times and I have been leaning on it pretty hard. Time has been at a premium, however, so quick wins have been the focus of many projects. Unfortunately, my idea of a "quick win" is not quite the same as everyone else.

To kick start the 2025 season I worked on a Tervigon for DreadTober. It has been a while since I tried the Hive Fleet Numereji scheme and this project quickly reminded me how frustrating it is. It didn't help that the weather conditions were inimical to painting the night I did the colour shift layer. Later in the year I also painted a Ravenor Kill Team in the same scheme. I used them in a game of 10th Edition and they absolutely carved; prompting a unit of Thunderwolf Cavalry to retreat (!), wiping them out then taking out a Repulsor Executioner. That's gnarly!

As January rolled around I started contributing to the 7th season of the 2nd Edition Army Painting Challenge. This year I was focusing once again on my Dark Angels and started the challenge off in a fairly reasonable manner, ticking off my goals steadily. I am particularly proud of the Ravenwing models, which I have been dreaming about for decades.

During the final month I went a little nuts. I managed to finish off some bonus models for my Dark Angels and then kept the momentum going with a reasonably large force of Fallen Angels/30K Dark Angels. I am particularly chuffed about the Plains World scouts; my dream of fielding an infiltrating lascannon scout is finally within reach! 

A bunch of the older models (Rogue Trader era) were kindly donated by Dave Weston of Confessions of a 40K Addict fame. He and his mates put a care package together for me a while back; just a couple of guys on opposite ends of the world sharing kindnesses. I happened to open the package during a really rough time and it was greatly appreciated. Thank you, thank you, thank you!! The vintage Terminators were an absolute joy.

I also made a huge push to tick off all of the Hobby Bingo boxes for the challenge, culminating in the creation of a massive display and hand-painted background. The display features a Fortress of Redemption I have been working on. It isn't quite finished, but getting very close. Considering how long I have had it, I consider that a win at this stage!

All things considered, I think it was a successful year on the hobby-front. I ticked off a bunch of projects from my To-Do list, but there are still plenty that remained on the shelf. Tomorrow I will be having a think about what the next hobby season may look like, no doubt starting with my 2026 DreadTober entry.

See you across the table,

Marc

2nd Edition Army Painting Challenge Month 5

 

Hi folks,

The months are rattling by quickly and the end of the challenge is in sight. Last month I spent some time working on a special character for my Ravenwing units; Gideon, Master of the Ravenwing. If you were around during 2nd Edition you probably already know that Gideon is Sammael's predecessor. He didn't have a specific entry in the Angels of Death Codex army lists, but you could make him using the Master of Ravenwing entry. I have provided him with a special house rule that allows him perform hit-and-run attacks even when in a Landspeeder (you can't usually do this in 2nd Ed.). He is also equipped with the Raven Sword (D3 damage powersword) and a cyber raven that gives him a one-off parry. The model itself is from early 3rd Edition, which feels a bit like cheating, but I can live with that.

Towards the end of the month I worked on a bunch of Hobby Bingo challenges, including a faction specific terrain piece. I found some native american tipi templates and swapped the symbols for some old Deathwing tribal symbols. They all fit on circular hill terrain piece that I built, that includes a little tea light for the campfire.

To go with the terrain piece I reworked the old Purge scenario from WD213, so that people could play as the lone Deathwing Squad that saved the Plains World from a Genestealer infestation. If you aren't familiar with that story, it is the reason why the Deathwing paint their armour white. At some point during the month the scenario will probably be published on the challenge blog and I will provide a link if you want to go hunt some blips!

With July rolling on, I started prepping for a big month of challenges. First off the paint table is a 2nd Ed. rendition of Lion El'Jonson. Sgt Waz gave this model to me (painted!) a while ago, but I got the sense he wasn't too happy with the paint job. I kept the face and chest-eagle and repainted the rest, with a healthy dose of kitbash on the sword, shield and backpack.

That's it for now. I have a lot of models I am hoping to paint this month, if the fates allow. Hopefully, I can make a few more posts too, which I haven't been great at doing of late. 

See you across the table,

Marc

2nd Edition Army Painting Challenge Month 4

 

Hi folks,

The challenge is in full swing at the moment. Having worked on my larger units in the early months, I am now left with a couple of characters and the odd vehicle. April saw me adding to my Ravenwing force with an Attack bike and two bikers. All of the new models are equipped with powerfists, which is great for hit-and-run attacks against enemy vehicles and provides a bit of a sting if they get caught in close combat.

Multimeltas are stonkingly powerful in 2nd Edition, making Attack Bikes a really fun unit to bring to the tabletop. The two bikers are from the very start of 3rd Edition and are in MkVIII errant armour, which I absolutely love.

In my first game with them, the bikes didn't fare so well. It was a bit of an uneven match-up against two Zoanthropes, one of which used Ultimate Force to sling out a Warp Blast that destroyed two bikes in one hit. The others joined my Assault Squad in lobbing krak grenades at the Hive Tyrant. Needing 4s to would, I managed to roll seven 2s [sigh]. The Attack Bike took out a Maleceptor transport bug on the first turn, but both the gunner and driver were eaten by spiders (a common threat in the campaign we are running).

My Librarian and Assault Squad did not fair much better. After a good round of close combat, knocking the Tyrant down to 3 wounds with his Force Sword, he was killed in the last turn by the his enemy's Bonesword. In that round I rolled three 1s (fumbles, also affectionately known as "wombles" back in the day). Having the Librarian's Conversion Field get burned out by the Tyrant's Voltage Field earlier was particularly galling, as blinded Tyranids are much easier to fight!

Below is a better show of my Librarian, with some spiders that I painted up for the challenge. They are literally just some rubber spiders from the shops, with a coat of paint and some tufts to make them look truly bizarre. In the campaign we are running, spiders can crawl out of the terrain and attack the nearest unit, which just happened to be me most of the time.

I have a lot of crazy plans for the final two months of the challenge, so I am hoping to post a little more frequently with some work in progress shots. I haven't been great at doing that lately; life has been getting on top of me a bit. Until then, I'll sign off with a well deserved stamp!

See you across the table,

Marc