The Arena Challenge, our inter-office escalation league focusing on Combat Patrols and Spearheads from Games Workshop’s Warhammer 40,000 and Age of Sigmar ranges, is now in full swing! With a test model and their first unit under everyone’s belts, as well as some slight shuffling of who’s painting what (as can only be expected—it’s hard to escape that dreaded hobby butterfly effect), we’re now into the fleshing out of their forces. But alas, we have also moved into Summer, that blissful time of the year when many a participant takes some well-deserved R&R away from their workstation and/or painting desks. For others, it’s the height of event season, and work beckons more than ever before.
Long story short, not all our participants were able to meet this particular deadline, but of those who did, we have some wonderful hobby to showcase! Behold the work of the most diligent of Arena participants.
Ian: I am in what I like to call the 'groove' stage with my army. It’s a place where the colour scheme works for me, and now everything is on a production line. You start to think one or two units ahead. I never build more than about 20 models in one go. Which is usually the limit for spraying in one batch. For each unit, I adapt the colour scheme slightly (even for duplicated units like the termagants). This is for two reasons—one, I usually forget the exact colour scheme (what's life without whimsy), and two, if they are slightly different, I can identify units on the battlefield if they happen to be close to each other.
Now that I have completed over 50 models, I have started to understand the paints more and how they can work together. I have painted both large and small models, the Screamer Killer and Von Ryan’s Leapers being the most satisfying so far. Next up, Tyranid Warriors and a Winged Hive Tyrant. This is fun.
Adam: If my Arena entry needed a title, it would likely be, “Distracted but Still Digging!” You know me—I get distracted. That’s no surprise if you read my last update. But just because I’ve been scatterbrained doesn’t mean I’ve been idle. I’ve actually been getting my hands dirty (literally) working on basing for my Sylvaneth.
I’ve been experimenting with textures and trying out some new combos—mixing our Battlefield Snow Flock with cork from the old Gamemaster terrain kits and even some leftover dental plaster from my wife’s office. That’s the joy of basing—it’s part art, part recycling. Sometimes the best results come from combining pre-made materials with random bits from the garden or the bio-bin. (Joking...mostly.)
Despite how static these Sylvaneth sculpts can be, I managed to sneak in some dynamic poses using spare bits. I even gave my leader a makeshift spear. I’ve already got a Durthu assembled, so I wasn’t sure how I wanted to build this Treeman or Treeman Ancient. Instead of the usual staff or, frankly, weird vine flanges, I imagined him conjuring pure fey energy to repel a forest invader—something a little more mystical, a little more narrative.
So, maybe I’ve been a bad Arena participant lately, but I’ve still been hobbying hard. Another army project is coming together, and you’ll see more of that later on. For now, here’s a peek at my beautifully based gray plastic. Fully painted reveal coming at the big finale.
Time to go kitbash a hero.
You can follow Adam's progress on his Instagram @tacticalpainter.
Lasse: My Combat Patrol is almost done! The only thing left is the “tall robot”. Overall, I’m fairly pleased with how everything looks. It’s a very simple scheme, fast, and fun to paint. Looking at it now, it might be a bit too simple, and if I were to do it again, I’d colour in some more details and make the rust effect more dynamic with more shading. Perhaps I’ll try and implement some of these ideas on the Doomstalker?
The thing I’m most pleased with is the conversions. It’s really fun to tinker with poses by mixing and matching bits to really make the army unique. It would be cool to expand this to a full army, if I somehow get the time (and money!).
You can follow Lasse's progress on his Instagram @fantasticmapsstore.
Sarah: So far, I’ve painted one of my minis all with Speedpaints and the gorgeous John Blanche Emperor Gold metallic colour, which provided the perfect base for her armour.
I’m really happy with the results so far, and I like the colours I’ve picked, especially the Tyrian Navy for their hair, which gives a kind of dark villainy look. Peachy Flesh also gives an amazing taint to the skin, whilst Moody Mauve is a perfect color for the little dragon mascot, and Absolution Green looks amazing on her snake scales.
Now, I have my first test character ready and can begin painting my entire army!
Oliver: For this installment of our Arena Challenge, I have painted a unit of elite Incubi.
They’re deadly killers and absolutely gorgeous sculpts, and here I can show how the Drukhari in this warband get access to more orange wargear when they are progressing through the ranks.
Next up: boats!
You can follow more of Oliver’s progress over on his Instagram @liondalepainting.
Rune: I was quite pleased with my test colour scheme, so I chose to use it for my army. The Darkness from the John Blanche Masterclass range works well to get the deep, dark blue I’m going for.
For my character, I tried to use as much Speedpaint as I could. I chose Occultist Cloak for his black carapace and drybrushed him with Warpaints Fanatic Uniform Grey. Then I wet-blended Speedpaint Magic Blue, Speedpaint Plasmatic Bolt, and Speedpaint Thunderbird Blue for the magical effect circling around him. The gold details were made with Greedy Gold, washed with the John Blanche Warm Skin Shade and then highlighted with Warpaints Fanatic Bright Gold.
Danni: Instead of painting more of my Nighthaunt army for the Arena Challenge, I fell into a trap—a trap of wanting to paint something else. So, I abandoned all reason and decided to paint a Sons of Dorn Space Marine. Why you ask? Well, simply because our very own Tyler Mengel invented the chapter, and his birthday was approaching, so I felt it was an appropriate thing to do.
In honour of Tyler and his birthday, I present to you my take on a Sons of Dorn Space Marine. (I love it! - Tyler)
It was painted with a combination of Warpaints Fanatic, Speedpaints and some of the John Blanche Masterclass paints. I tried to do some freehand on the shoulder. It was the hardest thing ever, but I am quite happy with the result. I promise I will paint up more Nighthaunt in the future!
You can follow Danni's progress on his Instagram @beertasticbear.
Let us know which entry was your favourite, as we celebrate these hobby heroes, and don’t forget to equally, and jestingly, deride those who fell short and are absent from today’s update. A little hobby motivation may be all they need to put brush to miniature in time for our next update.
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We encourage you to participate in the Arena Challenge at home by painting your own Combat Patrol or Spearhead with Warpaints Fanatic, Air, or Speedpaint. Be sure to tag your posts with #thearmypainter and #arenachallenge so we can follow along with your progress!
