From AndrewB: The biggest 40k project I’ve ever completed [Sci-Fi] (50 pts)

I’ve owned GW models from the Warhammer 40,000 range for twenty years or so, and have largely moved past them for the last decade, despite multiple armies having passed over the hobby desk.  Then a buddy mentioned in passing how cool the big McFarlane space marine models were.  When I ordered one off Amazon(cheaper than a good number of ‘32mm’ single marines from GW), I wasn’t sure exactly how large it would be.  Needless to say, I was rather surprised when it showed up at nearly the scale of a Barbie doll.  I was expecting something along the lines of a traditional action figure.  With great gusto, I jumped right in with a new head printed at home.  

Forgive the improvised superglue stand, he intends to place it in some sort of individual display which includes a stand/cradle which will hold it in place.  Otherwise, it's dangerously top heavy, and the soft plastic makes it a perfect candidate for chipped paint.  My improvised backdrop is likewise quite cringe, but I'll work on getting it improved for future posts.  It was a fun model to paint, but quite challenging, as I'm not a particularly adept painter at 28mm, much less this scale, which turns out to be roughly...  

At approximately 170-180mm, I'm not sure where this falls on the scoring matrix, which rather sensibly stops at 54mm. I'll also be shooting for 20pts from the Studio Challenge's Sci-Fi room. My apologies to the wonderful minion deciding the points.

I'm excited to see what else I can get posted in the next couple days of the free for all!

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Wow, he's certainly a BIG lad! Great work Andrew, I think you've done a magnificent job him, especially with your clean brushwork and use of subtle shading. I also really like the head swap you've done on him. Until you mentioned it I assumed it was stock to the original model. Good one!

As to points, I figure he's similar in mass to a very large 28mm vehicle, so let's go with 30 points a base.

Thanks for sharing this big Blood Angel with us, Andrew!

- Curt

From PeterB: An Iron Snakes Space Marine [Istvaan V] (75 points)

Greetings all from Istvaan V. For those of you not familiar with this planet, I believe it was the site of one of the early battles in the betrayal of the Warmaster Horus when he betrayed his father the Emperor and turned to Chaos. If you would like to know more, I believe there are a large number of education volumes available from your local Games Workshop under the umbrella title, The Horus Heresy.

For Christmas Mrs B was kind enough to buy me a paint your own, articulated, Primaris Space Marine, from McFarlane Toys. Obviously this wasn't part of my original plan for the painting challenge, but as she gave me the gift Mrs B did wonder how many points it would be worth, due to the fact it is 180mm tall!

Not being a 40K player anymore (I still do own a company of Space Marines, but they just slumber peacefully in their foam trays in storage) I am however a big fan of one Black Library author, Mr Dan Abnett. For those who don't know his work, most of his GW titles are about a chap called Gaunt (think Sharpe in space) or an Inquisitor called Eisenhorn. He has also written Dr Who, 2000AD and even Mr Men, but I digress. Mr Abnett does have one title about an Ultramarine successor chapter called the Iron Snakes, so it was really the only choice for colour scheme. Therefore being another chapter from the Black Library, I believe that qualifies me for the points for visiting this planet.

Ultramarine shown for scale

He is armed with a Hellblaster gun and is technically known as an "artist proof" so is fully articulated and therefore also comes apart to make painting easier.

The undercoating stage

The only issue I really had painting it, was there isn't really any option for a model grip, you just have to hold it to paint it and then wait for parts to dry!

As it did come apart, the shoulder pads were the one part I painted fully before putting back together, which definitely helped with the detail.

The Hellblaster is technically loose, but as his trigger hand isn't really flexible (he isn't Action Man, or GI Joe to those across the Atlantic!) once he has hold of the gun, unless you want paint to start coming off, it is not going anywhere.

It comes with a stand that plugs into either of the feet, but to be honest, it can stand by itself as well.

Finally here it is with a ruler to show scale.

So to the points. Well, I don't know. I am sure of 20 points for the planet. Then 20 points for the Space Marine? I'll leave it to Millsy to decide.

From Millsy:

Crikey, he's massive! I hope you didn't need a second mortgage for the paint Peter. Seriously though, what an absolutely cracking model and what a wonderful job you've done too. The shoulder pads are just spectacular and the smooth finish on his armour can't have been easy with a metallic on something this size either. Well done mate!

As to points? I can't score by height or weight unfortunately or you'd break the Miles' spreadsheet and we can't have him in tears this early in the Challenge. Let's call him 50 points for scale and another 5 for the shoulder pads. Plus the quarant bonus that's 75 points all up.

Amazing. I'm gobsmacked.