With Warhammer 40k’s 10th edition fast approaching it’s time to start saying goodbye to 9th edition and start thinking about how we’re going to paint those new Terminators and Tyranids we’ve seen in the Leviathan box.
But what’s that creeping up on us, visible from the corner of our eye as it claws its way out of our minis closet? Why, it’s an Indomitus box, asking us when we’re going to finish painting the models in the 9th edition starter. Well, we’ll get to it eventually… we promise!
OK Fine, it’s time to buckle down and finish some of these old projects before we start the new. By our reckoning we have about a month give or take until 10th edition is on our desks with fresh models demanding paint and that seems like a good time frame for a HOBBY CHALLENGE.
Also, this one is sponsored by The Army Painter, creators of many of the fine paints and hobby supplies we use all the time. They’ll be providing some prizes for this challenge, so read on for info on how you can score some cool stuff.
The Hobby Challenge Rules
The intent here is simple: Let’s get some of our backlog finished. Here are the rules.
- Get something finished. Anything. It can be partially completed project or something new. It’s about getting one last project done before 10th Edition hits. Let’s see 9th Edition out with a bang. In order to be considered for a prize, you need to post or submit a “before” photo with some kind of date identifier – a phone or today’s newspaper, whatever. We want to see what your starting point is.
- The Closing date for submissions is 11:59pm PDT on June 30th, 2023. Post your progress pics to Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #Readyfor10th. You can also e-mail your entries to us at contact@goonhammer.com with ‘End of Edition Painting Challenge’ in the subject line.
- Judging –Â We’re going to pick our favorite projects and results. Three of them. The criteria here is a bit loose. We’re generally looking to pick along three categories, however: Best painted, Most productive (think volume of minis), and Most shameful (think broadest selection of armies/minis).
In early July we’ll put together an update post with all your pics to celebrate our progress and successes from the pictures on Twitter, Instagram, or emailed to us at contact@goonhammer.com. Our three winners will receive an Army Painter wet palette, which is one of the most useful hobby tools they make.
Legal Text
Legal text - click to expand
No purchase of any kind is necessary for entry. Note that in order to receive prizes you must be a resident of the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, France, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Mexico, or Canada, with the exception of Quebec. You can still submit an entry if you aren’t in one of those countries, but you won’t be eligible to receive a prize. Also Goonhammer authors are not eligible to receive prizes.
By submitting any entry to this competition, you agree that Goonhammer may, but is not required to, display your entry on the website or any other media in connection with this competition. You agree to grant Goonhammer an irrevocable non-exclusive license to use, display, publish, transmit, copy, edit, alter, store, re-format, and sub-license any image submitted as an entry to this competition.
Goonhammer will only gather the following personal information at the time of entry:
- email address used for entry submission.
- name supplied for image crediting.
This information is the minimum required to conduct the competition. By sending us an entry, you consent to us gathering and retaining this information. Winners will be contacted via the supplied email address to organize delivery of prizes. Prizes have no cash value and may not be returned, refunded, or exchanged.
Goonhammer reserves the right to cancel or amend the competition and these terms and conditions without notice in the event of a catastrophe, war, civil or military disturbance, act of God or any actual or anticipated breach of any applicable law or regulation or any other event outside of the promoter’s control. Any changes to the competition will be disseminated as soon as possible by updating this page. We reserve the right to disqualify any entry in our sole discretion without notice.
If for any reason a winner is precluded from receiving or possessing any prize by the law of the winner’s country of residence, the winner will be ineligible to receive the prize.
With those rules out of the way, let’s look at the projects Goonhammer authors are taking on for the challenge.
Thundercloud1
What am I doing?
Well I’ve extracted the following from my pile of sin.
So here we have:
1 Primaris Lieutenant
3 Primaris Outriders
1 Brutalis Dreadnought
5 Desolator Marines
5 Heavy Intercessors
If I add this to my pile of victory from the Boarding Patrol Challenge, then I’ll easily be over 1500 points of Blood Angels (and approaching 1k points of Primaris) and in a great place for a new edition where for Boarding Patrol sized games I can go classic with MkVI and terminators or modern with Primaris with a load of options. One thing I’m desperately short of is HQs, so I’m hoping we see some new and cool Terminator and MKVI characters in our future.
Summer Tao
I’m glad Thundercloud called out those of us who still haven’t finished painting Indomitus now that the new edition is on the horizon. I’m one of those people. It’s mind-boggling, but I’m gonna finish up some Indomitus Box stuff. I might even do it in time for Leviathan.
I’m a bit of a conversion diva, so this won’t be a build-to-the-instructions project. Nothing I do ever is. My pledge for the end of the edition is:
5 Assault Intercessors with jump packs
5 Primaris Tactical marines with boltguns and one plasma incinerator
3 Primaris Outriders converted into a recon bike squad
My current goal is completing a Company-sized force of space marines. I was close to the goal years ago, but it was a mix of obsolete firstborn marines, Primaris and various vehicles. The whole thing was mismatched, and a lot of the older models were painted below my current standard. I eventually sold my firstborn and committed to the better proportioned Primaris marines. This left me with a much more uniform force, but naturally set my plans back as I had to catch up on the 60+ infantry models that were sold.
Years of steady progress followed.
I took inventory last month and found that I had the models to make up a company. It’s just a matter of filling in force organisation gaps and re-doing some models to a higher standard. Following my successes in the Boarding Patrol Challenge, I intend to make another strong contribution to my Battle Company project here.
My collection currently leans to the heavy side and a squad of assault intercessors + outriders will contribute some much needed Close Support. I’m also missing some Battleline units and a Primaris Tactical Squad will pay homage to my hobbyist origins. I started 40K in 6th Edition and the humble Tactical Squad was the first unit I ever built. Marking the end of my 3rd edition of 40K with a throwback to my first kit seems sweetly appropos.
This pledge is another incremental step to meeting my long-term hobby goals. My plan for 2023 is a complete Battle Company. It’s a project five years in the making, and I can see the end from here.
Edwin “Lupe” Moriarty
I’m pledging to paint a Cadian infantry platoon with specialists because I’ve wanted to have one since 2nd Edition. The models finally live up to my expectations, so it’s time.
My pledge is:
30 Cadian infantry
Bullgryn support
10 Kasrkin
1 Command Squad
Officers
I have a good idea about the colour scheme already. They’ll be based on my existing Cadians that I finished up a while ago.
Matthew “Rockfish” Herrington
So with 9th coming to a close and the threat of another box upon us, I wanted to finish what I have lying about for my marines.
Right now, that’s:
– 1 Apothecary
– 1 box of reivers
– 1 repulsor
I have a few Tyranid kits lying around too, but I’m probably going to wait until I know what to build them as under the new rules before finishing the bugs.
PierreTheMime
I am incredibly excited for the future of 10th Edition, especially with the expansion of the Tyranid range. That being said I have a TON of projects that I had told myself I wanted to get to and this is a fantastic opportunity to light a fire under myself. I’m going to pledge to finish up my current idea of a Word Bearers AoO list, of which I require the following completed models:
10x Possessed (I’ve already started in on these)
5x Chaos Terminator
1x Chaos Land Raider
1x Venomcrawler
Here’s the pile of shame I hope to work through:
Let’s get going!
“Contemptor” Kevin Stillman
So, I’ve been a bit quiet in 2023, as I’ve been moving. This entailed moving all of my hobby supplies from one space (my kitchen table in my condo) to another (a full-fledged hobby room in my house). But as I’ve gradually settled into my new place, my hobby restlessness has come to the fore! One of the benefits of the new place is that I now have the space to both prime my miniatures in the evening (yay garage!) and airbrush them (yay hobby room!) And with the End of Edition Painting Challenge AND my local GW Store (Tower Center)’s Retribution Campaign, it’s time to get crackin’
Having painted (most recently) Angron and a whole bunch of Ultramarines Troops, I wanted to change things up a bit. The GW preview from Adepticon (1) made the selection of what to switch it up to easy – The Lion is coming, and so I need to build a Dark Angels army to go alongside the Lion once I get him. I also have a Combat Patrol: Dark Angels that I only bought in 2021 because I needed a Redemptor for my Space Wolves and they were sold out everywhere back then, so we do have some synergy going on.
So before the End of the Edition (TM), we are going to build the following units into the army:
1. 5x Intercessors
2. 5x Desolators
3. 5x Heavy Intercessors
4. 5x Inceptors
5. 1x Redemptor
6. 1x Lieutenant Zakariah
7. 1x The Lion
April is going to be a bit of a busy month for me, as I have two major trips planned, but we shall see what I can pull off before Warhammer Fest!
-Contemptor Kevin
(1) Normally I would have gone to Adepticon, but I’m going to Warhammer Fest instead!
Josh ‘Mutt’ Boyes
Since moving half-way across the world, from England to Vietnam, my hobby progress has gone from too many projects all at once, to absolutely no projects at all. Back home, I was spinning the plates on my Drukhari, my Black Templar, and my SBGL (and too many other boxsets I bought that I’m too ashamed to bring up.)
With a new edition looming, and a lively tournament scene in Hanoi that’s calling my name, it’s time I get back on the hobby horse. I want to return to something old, but with that new, grimy style. I’m kicking off my new crusade the best way, with a boxset.
By the end of 9th, my Crusade will consist of at least:
- 10 Primaris Crusaders
- 1 Primaris Marshal
- 1 Emperor’s Champion
- 1 Redemptor Dreadnought
Colin Ward – Legalized Mischief
From a hobby perspective, 9th edition has been the most productive period of painting for me. I want to close out the edition strong! I have three 40k projects currently: Blood Angels, Feral Knights, and Leagues of Votann. My Blood Angels are currently “finished” and awaiting new models with the release of 10th edition, which is a pretty exciting place to be hobby-wise. My goal is to finish what I have on hand for my Feral Knights and Leagues of Votann, including and Armies on Parade board for the Leagues of Votann. There isn’t a lot, and I’m confident I’ll be able to finish in time!
Leagues of Votann:
- 10 Cthonian Berzerkers
- 6 Brokhyr Thunderkyn
- 5 Einhyr Hearthguard
Feral Knights:
- Knight Abominant
- 2 War Dogs
Rich “Cronch” Nutter
Like Colin, the last 3 years have been pretty good to me from a 40K painting point of view. Since 9th edition dropped I’ve built and painted a Tome Keepers Space Marine army, culminating with taking it to (and bringing home gold from) Armies on Parade last year.
However, Games Workshop’s recent and much-needed points reduction takes me back below 2,000 points painted, and so at a bit of lost end for pick up games. So before 10th drops, I’m going to paint through my shame pile of Marines, ready to get some games in as soon as I have the rules in hand. I’ve also slowly been working on some Tyranids, so I’m going to try and get those done too, ready for (presumably) a big box of both armies to drop on my doorstep sometime later this year.
So, alongside 5 outstanding Tyranids models (3 Warriors and 2 Carnifexes) I’m going to paint:
-Gravis Captain
-Primaris Lieutenant (Agastus)
-Phobos Lieutenant
-Primaris Chaplain
-Primaris Chaplain on Bike
-Primaris Librarian
-Phobos Librarian
-Primaris Apothercary
-Primaris Ancient
-Bladeguard Ancient
-5 converted Primaris Sternguard Veterans
-5 Hellblasters
-10 Infiltrators
-3 Suppressors
-3 Eliminators
-Firestrike Servo-turret
-Roboute Guilliman
With those 38 models done, I’ll have a healthy selection for games. We’ll have to wait and see if 10th keeps me loyal to the Tome Keepers, or whether the Lion and his Dark Angels might convince me to stray…
Michael “Enz0 da Baker” DiCianna
To toot my own horn, I’m incredibly happy with my painting throughout Warhammer 40,000 9th edition. I’ve been incredibly productive—more than 100 models paint this year, and I think I’ve definitely improved as a painter. There’s been more compliments on my painting, both in my color schemes and technical details. I’ve taken time to learn new techniques, from edge highlighting, to undershading, to just using my airbrush for more than priming and simple base coats. Now, I’m leaning more into improving my basing use of transfers. I consider myself an above average painter, and I think my armies qualify as very very well-done tabletop ready.
But before this edition ends, I want to paint one (1) model as close to competition worthy as I possibly can. I don’t know if that means leaning into different techniques or painting tools, or just slowing every part of my progress to a crawl. I’m going to paint the Commander Shadowsun model so well that when she drops on the board for 10th edition, folks go ‘dang, that’s your best model yet.’
Oh and I wanna paint Commander Farsight if he comes out in his own box before the edition ends, I suppose. I don’t need more Crisis Suits, they’ve taken over most of my apartment.
Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Also we’d like to thank The Army Painter again for offering to provide prizes for this challenge.
