5 to 25 Years Painting Challenge
Or my excuse for not repainting old minis
By Ian
There’s a dichotomy among wargamers of how they collect and build forces. Some are army builders, people who have multiple armies from different factions, each one usually focussed around a specific list or theme, built and painted to whatever game size they play most frequently and only revisited when rules or points change. Others are collectors, creating sprawling hordes representing not just one strike force but an entire company or even chapter.
I firmly sit in the latter category.
My hobby journey began back at the start of 3rd edition 40k, diving into the Dark Eldar in all the spiky, bladed goodness terrible miniatures. Taking a break for several years, I came back in 5th edition, eventually starting my own homebrew successor chapter, the Storm Guard. At the start of 8th edition, after reading Aaron Dembski-Bowden’s fantastic Talon of Horus, I began a Black Legion host. That’s not to say that there weren’t other armies or projects along the way (really, I think very few people sit in one end of the army/collection dichotomy or the other without some overlap), but those three forces have become the cornerstones of my collection.
Suffice to say, I’ve been playing this dumb game for a while, and in fact have miniatures from way-back-when that still see the table regularly. And because my backlog is terrifyingly massive, I don’t repaint models unless they are absolutely dire.
Welcome to my painting challenge! Comparing years-to-decades old models in my collection.
Three to Five-ish years – the Black Legion
This army started with panic buying the 7th ed starter box (Dark Angels vs Chaos) right before 8th edition released. If you’ve been around long enough, you’ll remember those dark days when Chaos players were forced to rely on their 3rd edition sculpts for Legionnaires, about two years before the Vigilus releases revitalised the Chaos range. Fortunately there was a little game called the Horus Heresy which had plenty of marine models to kitbash with.
The Chosen were the first unit I painted for this army, roughly in 2017. This was a very straight-forward scheme: spray black, drybrush, wash, drybrush some more. You’ll see I didn’t even bother picking out the leather holster or tabard. Fast forward to this fun guy in late 2022: I’ve gone much cleaner and with way more colours to add variety.
Skully, Chosen of Khorne, started life as a fun little kitbash with a random servo skull in my bits box (specifically from the thunder wolf cavalry kit, if you’re curious–and it took me a long time to figure that one out) and quickly became my favourite model in the entire army. All the legionnaires from this time were kitbashed with various 30k models, third party bits, and whatever I could scrounge.
Being my favourite model, Skully was eventually promoted to Aspiring Champion, where he leads his own unit, colloquially known as “Skully’s Heroes”. Originally armed with a combi-plasma, I had to swap that out for a bolt pistol in 9th ed when half the loadouts in my army were invalidated. It’s fine, whatever, I’m not bitter. Now my other aspiring champions are Chosen with combi-weapons.
Eventually, Skully will be promoted again. I plan on seeing him rise through the ranks to Exalted Champion, Chaos Lord, and Daemon Prince – all Mark of Khorne, of course.
Eight to Ten-ish Years – the Storm Guard
I started the Storm Guard at the beginning of 6th ed, after playing Dark Eldar for most of my days. I’ll cover them (and hopefully all my armies) in more depth in a dedicated article, but primarily they were started because I wanted a force with a much wider range of miniatures than the Dark Eldar. What better army than Space Marines?
The firstborn Death Company were originally painted in 2014. By then, I had discovered the horror/beauty of edge-highlighting, and nothing needs more highlights than black. The highlights were directly over a black basecoat rather than the dark grey I use for all my blacks now.
With the Primaris model, it’s still the same concept, but much cleaner. This was in 2021, showing a steady improvement in brush control. In the lore of the Chapter, the geneseed is rapidly declining, with a high intake of Death Company: therefore, I always have at least one Death Company unit on the table. The DC Intercessors were built before chainswords were an option, unfortunately. I sometimes think about doing another unit with swords (and the chain-wrapped Black Templar weapons come to mind), but that’s down the road. For now, the DC Intercessors fill a nice all-rounder role in the army.
The Tactical Sergeant was the first model I painted in this army. I didn’t thin my paints, I didn’t do more than one layer, and goddamn those highlights are chunky. The helmet crest is from a Dire Avenger Exarch and the loadout has never been particularly efficient in five editions. Nevertheless, I love the pose of this model and the sheer gall of taking two melee weapons when a pistol would be better.
Now the Assault Intercessor Sergeant is where it’s at. All modern parts, with a 3D printed helm from Pop Goes the Monkey to keep the ancient Greek/Roman theme alive. Paints thinned, multiple coats, crisp(er) highlights, he’s got it all.
Fifteen to Twenty-Five-ish Years – the Kabal of the Red Nightmare
Ah, the Drukhari, aliens formerly known as Dark Eldar. My first love, and still a favourite. As a kid, I loved the aesthetic (why…) and when they got redone in 5th edition it only got better. This army has taken a back seat for the power armoured collections, not nearly as large as the other two, and I have only been able to field a fully-painted 2,000 point force in 2022 when I pushed everything along for an event.
Unfortunately, some of the models in this collection I don’t know when I painted, so you’ll have to bear with me.
For the longest time, Incubi could be taken in units of four, so I didn’t bother painting the fifth squad member until last year. That’s not the photo that’s blurry: that’s how rough the paint job is. I believe the older model was painted sometime in 5th edition, as the colour scheme for the incubi was originally black and gold (though each warrior squad painted in 3rd edition had its own colours).
Honestly, I have no idea when Urien Rakarth was painted, but I haven’t done goblin green bases in a long, long time. I distinctly remember being proud of the two fleshtones on his faces. I still really like this model and will eventually break my rule by stripping and repainting him (and the Crucible of Malediction is now its own enhancement in 10th ed!), though when that’ll happen is anyone’s guess.
The other Haemonculus was stripped and repainted (or at least primed over). He was painted in the big 2022 Drukhari push to get the army up to scratch. The base is using Vallejo’s mud texture and is meant to represent the Webway. Having a full table of Webway terrain is one of my (many) hobby dreams. I have a city table for the Storm Guard and a martian table for the Black Legion, so why not a Webway table for the Kabal?
Personal Best
Painting in a digital age can be very intimidating: going on your hell site of choice and seeing a dearth of stunning models while yours sits half-finished on your desk can cause anyone to lose hope (especially if that model was started two editions ago, please help me). Reflecting on how far you’ve come as a painter can be a huge inspiration to keep going, and keeping those models in regular circulation for your lists can help remind you of that. Sure, it might not be the best choice if you’re going to an event hoping to win Best Painted, but I enjoy holding up the new and the old to my opponent and showing them how far I’ve come.
And that’s why I won’t repaint my models. No you can’t make me. Except with a Crucible of Malediction.