WH40K 2nd Edition Army Challenge II - March Completed!

Scout Squad Rhellion 

It's probably not obvious from the quality of these photos but I think these minis rank among the best painting I've done on my collection so far.

It is very exciting to be engaged in the second season of the 40k2ndAC.  Not only were these scouts my favorite models to paint in the challenge so far, I also reached a personal goal in the first month of the second season and finished this unit several days before the entry was due.  No more midnight emails to Dr The Viking on the day of the deadline or not painting the back of the backpacks , this entry was actually submitted a full 36 hours before the cutoff.  Follow along after the jump for more photos of these great looking sculpts...

Nothing like close up pictures to make you question why you didn't paint the ammo pouch clasps.

These scout models were so much fun to paint.  I have never painted a full squad of metal miniatures before and it really felt like painting this unit was similar to painting five characters.  No matter how detailed the plastics get, and in many ways they are visually superior and more dynamic when compared with these models, there is just some thing special about painting metal miniatures.  There is an indefinable quality about the way they hold the paint and the weight of the individual model that encourages me to try and paint them as detailed as possible.  There are some downsides to that approach, as these 5 miniatures took me almost 5 weeks to paint, so I was glad I started them early.

The "2D" nature of these old metal minis can easily be seen on the side views, as detailed as they are front and back, they are rather flat when viewed from either side.

Finding interesting colors for all the details that would work next to each other was really fun, I love how painting these old sculpts really fuels my impulse to break the modern "only three colors on a mini rule".  Picking out the grenades in blue and the melta-bombs in yellow helped me separate my paint jobs from other hobbyist's Dark Angels scouts painted with the same green armor/white pants scheme.  I kept referring to this great post from Old School Gaming, the author tackled this same squad for the first season of the challenge.  I knew I wanted my miniatures to have the same main colors but look slightly different to reflect our own interpretations of the 2nd edition, his is straight out of the old codex picture perfect while mine is more exaggerated by the nostalgia for bright colors and multi-hued minis.

The back of the armor looks very reminiscent of Imperial Stormtroopers.

I was really happy with the way the blending on the green armor turned out, and as usual the faces and the cloth of the pants were the most challenging parts to paint.  I'm still very challenged at shading cloth properly, I can never seem to get the right places brighter or darker for the overall look to come across the way I want it too.  I think in the future I need to paint more areas brighter and save the dark contrasts for only the deepest folds.  If this challenge makes it to a third season I will have a lot more of these old scouts to paint so hopefully I can remember these areas for improvement if we ever get there.  Fortunately I won't be struggling with cloth in the next month's painting, 5 classic Terminators are on deck so it will be the endless boredom of layering up to bone white that will be the challenge for me next month.  Thanks for reading and be sure to stay tuned to Dr TV's C0wabunga so you can see all the great work turned in by the participants for the first month of the challenge.  Stay safe out there!