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 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 IV: February

 

Hi folks,

February was a ridiculously busy month on the family front. It made it tough to build any momentum hobby-wise. For the challenge I was working on a squad of five Grey Knights and they were a bit painful to paint. Each had the detail of a character model; just the bodies alone had 17 skulls each!

Things went right down to the wire and I submitted my contribution directly on the midnight deadline. Taking photos of them was also pain, but here is a shot in the display cabinet.

I'm tempted to go back over the Nemesis Force Weapon hafts in black, but it is 2nd Ed., so bright is also usually better. I'll see how I feel when I do the next lot.

I missed old stuff day again after a pretty rough weekend. I'm hoping to take a trip down memory lane tonight and hopefully build a post out of it.

See you across the table,

Marc 

2nd Edition Army Challenge VI: January

 

Hi folks,

For the challenge this year I have picked a list entirely from the Codex Army Lists book. This book was in the 2nd Edition starter box and gave you a basic army list for all of the models GW was thinking about releasing. It was delightfully speculative, including a bunch of cool things that were never released (well... not until recent times anyway!). My Imperial Agents list focuses mostly on Grey Knights and this month I tackled the Character portion of the list.

Supreme Grand Master Geronitan

I have used an old Inquisitor Lord miniature to represent my force commander. It states somewhere in the Grey Knights Codex that Grey Knight Masters are all highly ranked Inquisitors, so it made sense to use the profile and model of an Inquisitor Lord. This model has been converted to include a Nemesis force sword from the old Brother-Captain Stern model. He is also equipped with a storm shield and bionic leg, providing ample parry opportunities and an extra attack, with the ability to knock a model down with his kick at the end of combat. What a boss move!!

Mech-Sanctifier Kallus Draeven

Techmarines aren't in the Imperial Agents list itself, so I have included one as an ally. This will allow me to field a Dreadnought, which is going to be in the Grey Knight scheme. The "Techmarine tax" that Space Marine players have to pay in order to take certain support units is a little onerous; I made sure his name reflected his exact reason for living in my army list. The model is a very old prototype Terminator model from the Rogue Trader era. I find these things fascinating; I'll let you spot the design influences that were ditched in the later models and those that were refined. 

Medicant Primus Tiber Acastus

If you are going to take a ~ 300 point commander in your army list, you may as well take an Apothecary to keep him alive. Every Grey Knight he saves is worth an absolute bucketload of points as well!

Tech-Priest Squad

With a couple of days left over until the end of the month, I decided to have a craic at some Mechanicus allies. The Imperial Agents list had a couple of Mechanicus choices, which were never released as models. I can remember experimenting with them back in the day, using proxy models. It was awesome fun repurposing some modern models to finally bring them to life. These Tech-Priests are armed with needle rifles and one plasma gun. I have a lot of plans for this part of the force; I hope I get around to doing it all.

February is Squaduary; so I am hoping to paint a full squad of Grey Knight Terminators this month. It is going to be a tremendous challenge, because they are all so beautifully detailed.

I have said it elsewhere on social media, but it would be remiss of me not to thank Dave Weston over at Confessions of a 40K Addict. He and his mates put together a care package of vintage models that are just perfect for these challenges. It was like opening up a box of dreams. 

See you across the table,

Marc

2nd Edition Army Challenge VI: Imperial Agents

 

Hi folks,

For the challenge this year I will be working on a collection of Imperial Agents figures, with the army list coming straight out of the 2nd Edition "little black book". This is another army I used to dream about back in the old days, but had no way of collecting. I have added some anti-armour punch with three 3D printed Rapier Laser Destroyers, because Grey Knights can't afford to muck around with the usual support options. I have snuck in a newer Venerable Dreadnought as well, with the hope that I can add some retro touches to it. Here's the full list:

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 

5 x Grey Knights (psychic mastery level 1, nemesis force weapons): 350 points

5 x Grey Knights (psychic mastery level 1, nemesis force weapons): 350 points

Dreadnought (Twin heavy bolters, power fist with built in storm bolter, auto-launchers) 165 points

3 x Rapier Laser Destroyers (Servitor crews): 162 points

I still have a few modelling problems to solve and haven't settled on a paint scheme, but very excited to get started. The challenge kicks off in January; I'll post a link to the intro post when we start.

See you across the table,

Marc