The Arena of Escalation is officially in motion, and today we're introducing you to the second half of the contestants. If you missed the last post, you can find it here to see who else is participating.
The Arena gathers together a group of eager hobbyists from around The Army Painter offices to take part in a 9 month challenge of building, and painting an entire 2,000 point (or thereabouts) army for Warhammer 40,000. To make it easier for everyone, Dipit, our official commissioner for the event, has broken it down into more manageable chunks, with checkpoints and deadlines scattered throughout the length of the Arena. At the end of it all, we'll all gather together at The Army Painter offices in Denmark in December to take part in a special event day filled with games and inevitably, some light trash talk.
You've already met Bo, Thomas, Adam, Sofie, Danni, and Jonas, so who else has committed to the challenges of the Arena?
Steffen: Ever since I got into 40k back in 3rd edition, I always loved the colourful, sleek looking Eldar armies, but somehow I never got around to building one myself. I was always distracted by Space Marines, so I decided now was the time! I LOVE Aspect Warriors, especially Striking Scorpions, and the Fanatic range offers endless possibilities for flashy, colourful paint schemes, perfect for an army of arrogant xenos in colourful armour.
You can follow Steffen's progress on his Instagram @artificers_minis.
Tyler: While I've had several 40K armies over the years it's actually been since 6th edition since I've had a playable Space Marine army. Being the poster boys for the game, and also an undeniably cool faction (there's a reason they're the poster boys), I decided the Arena was the perfect opportunity to commit to getting a full army of them painted again!
When it came to which Chapter to pick, always an agonizing decision, I waffled back and forth. I'm a known fan of the Ultramarines, my first ever army 25ish years ago, and have also created my own Chapters in the past. In the end I decided I wanted something official, but a little more off the beaten path. After scouring the Codex I landed on the Iron Lords, a successor to the Iron Hands. My plan is to use a lot of Gravis armour and to make some cool custom bases to really theme the army. The Warpaints Fanatic range will be perfect for their striking red and black scheme, giving me smooth coverage with the red overtop the Matt Black primer.
You can follow Tyler's progress on his Instagram @mengel_miniatures and on Twitter @MengelMinis.
Erasmus: Ever since I started playing 40k I have always been drawn to melee armies and there is no army who better represent the fun of hand to hand combat on the table than the Orks! It is an army project I have always wanted to pursue, but have multiple times been led astray by other projects. But no more! The age of men is over, the time of the Ork has come!
I have always found an immense joy in creating unique and fun bases for my mini, so that is one of my main focuses of this project. The idea for my army is based on a creative and thematic basing scheme, which can best be described as "alien jungle" with lots of colors. My Orks will take inspiration from the Evil Sunz clan and have red armor. The red I will paint as a fade, by using a red triad from the Warpaints Air line to easily glaze with my brush.
I cant wait to place my army on the table and krump sum gitz!
Oliver: I have picked T´au for this project, as I am a big T´au fan and I have many, many, MANY unpainted models in my "Pile of Opportunities."
I have yet to paint any models for the Farsight Enclaves, so I will use the Arena challenge to work on that part of the T´au lore.
The new Warpaint Fanatic range is exactly what I needed to jump into this gorgeous colour scheme, and I will focus on painting my models without aerosol primers or an airbrush.
Caleb: I have been painting many, many Imperial Fists for my 10th edition 40K army so I jumped at the opportunity to paint something different then Yellow (though my Fanatic/Speed/Air Yellow recipe is sooooo good).
Trying to decide what army was another thing, but right as I was invited to join the Arena, the new Dark Angel releases were teased.. and yah... I'm all in! I have a fantastic recipe that I'm going to use, incorporating the CK airbrush method, filtering with dark green Speedpaint and the Fanatic colors to make it pop!
You can follow Caleb's progress on his Instagram @calebwissenback.
Lasse: In any game I play, I always like odd and wacky rules. I played Ork Speed Freaks back in high school, Goblins in Blood Bowl, and my favorite D&D class is Warlocks. So, I simply asked which faction had the weirdest rules and someone said that the Miracle Dice for Sisters of Battle was pretty odd.
Also, I have always been a sucker for cults and cult-like factions in fiction, so the fanatically religious Sisters of Battle seemed like the perfect choice. Although I LOVE the original colour scheme, I’m too edgy to paint that, so I’ll be going for a white/light scheme where you’ll be able to see all the True Blood I’m gonna use!
You can follow Lasse's progress on his Instagram @fantasticmapsstore.
With that the board is set and the pieces are moving! Be sure to check back in here for more updates in the future, as well as on our social media accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok. You can also follow along on everyone's personal social media accounts with the hashtag #ArenaofEscalation
