DrTheViking at www.cowabungajournal.com is running his 4th annual painting challenge to complete an entire 1500+ point army using the 2nd edition 40k army lists. I decided to throw my hat into the ring to paint a space ork force using primarily Rogue Trader-era models. Each month we are to paint a block of models that we commit to painting at the start of the challenge. In addition to the miniatures, there are 3 extra challenges that we must complete, such as painting 3 vehicles in a single month, or painting a decorative backdrop for photographing finished models. To find out more, and to view all the amazing army entries, visit the Oldhammer Cowabunga blog.

As nerve-wracking as it was to finish, it was also a genuine joy to complete everything I did. Thank you, Dr. The Viking, for arranging this challenge! My initial plan was to just paint a mob of 6 Blood Axe Kommandos (“Kor’s Kommandos”) and 1 Ork Battlewagon (“Painkiller”), and that was it.

The mob was pretty straightforward, but it took me a couple weeks to decide what I wanted to do as far as a recipe for their skin since I would be carrying that through all the rest of the army. I want the overall force to have the Rogue Trader Ork aesthetic, when Orks were a gnarly, unpredictable, armed biker gang in space.

The Armorcast Battlewagon was a new painting experience for me. I’m a Tyranid player, so vehicle painting was never something I needed to do. I used a technique I’d seen model railroaders use with salt to simulate paint chipping and rust spots. Since the model was from around 1989 it seemed only proper to adhere to what my 1990s-era self would’ve wanted it to look like, so it’s got a Judas Priest homage. I styled the name on the front of the vehicle and the banner after JP’s 1990 album “Painkiller” cover art by Mark Wilkinson. I made the banner from styrene that I shaped with a heat gun, mounted on brass rod, added some resin skulls, painted it up, and “Painkiller” was finished. My big mistake was making it a flying style flag rather than a hanging banner, which neccessitated me painting the JP scene twice, one for each side!

One of my subgoals for the challenge was to create a painted backdrop to photograph my miniatures (from the “Common Subgoals” list). So I painted a war-torn background using Procreate on an iPad using a stylus. The finished illustration is 32×22 inches (81×55 cm). I exported the file and printed it on a large format printer. I will post the time-lapse of the drawing process on the Discord channel if anyone is interested in the process. I will also post the finished art file there in case anyone wants to use it or modify it.

After finishing the backdrop painting I thought it might look better when photographing the finished models to have a full display board with the backdrop hanging behind it, so I decided to give it a try. I added a section of plastic gothic ruins from Pegasus Hobbies, and a 3D-printed ruined tower that I acquired a couple years ago. I think it’ll be more fun to share my monthly pics using that display board instead of just the backdrop. I didn’t intend to do the army display board (from the “Gamer’s Subgoal” list). I’m glad I did, but it was way more work than I should’ve taken on.

Last thing I did (which was actually the first thing I did, since I created them on New Years Day) was complete my subgoal to build usable game tokens (from the “Common Subgoals” list). I own a button-making press for 25mm buttons. So after creating the designs for each token, I scaled the icons to the right size, printed them, punched out the designs, and pressed them into buttons. I skipped adding any pins to the back, and voila! The buttons are the same size as 25mm round bases. Since I created all the images from scratch I’m happy to share the files freely with anyone who wants them to use with a button maker of their own, or modify as they like for some other 40k project. I’ll post the files as a PDF in the Discord, but if anyone needs the original vector files, let me know and I can send you the EPS files. The game tokens I made are Ork-themed green tokens (including tokens for the various psychology/madboy effects) but the file will also include a set of the same tokens in a variety of colors for the non-Orky folks.

Next month I’ll start on my second block of minis which will be 2 Ork Dreadnoughts and 1 Ork Battlewagon. Painting those will also complete my third (fourth?) subgoal of “Paint three vehicles in one month.”