Monster March 2 - Summary

Greetings!

Second Monster March is over and it was my absolute pleasure to host the painting challenge again!

I would like to thank all the participants for responding to the call. It was an honor to host you and to present your fantastic models at various stages, from assembly to finished, beautiful master pieces!

I would also like thank the guys from Kings of War Australia group who supported the initiative by changing the group photo regularly to showcase a monster painted by a group member. Cheers guys, it was awesome to have your support!

In this post I am going to summarize the painting challenge by posting the photos of the models participants sent that present their chosen model either as a finished project or in the most recent stage.

Azazel

Azazel did a great job by contributing more than one entry! He pushed himself to actually finish something more at the very last moment too and here are the results:

More photos of this model are in this post: Reaper Bones 80001: Ape-X 

Here is the link to the post dedicated to this model:  Shadows of Brimstone Burrower as Giant Chaos Spawn 

And the link to the post with more pictures of this great model: Idol of Gork (or possibly Mork) 

Blazmo

Blazmo contributed two models for his great idea for a 40k army, Space Rats! :) Here is the picture of the models he is working on:

Make sure to visit his blog where he posts pictures of other units that are in this fantastic looking army: Tabletop Apocalypse 

Cylde Ar

Cylde made a great contribution with his monstrous Baneblade superheavy tank and finished his project ahead of time! Well done!

Check Cylde's blog for his other awesome painting projects, I highly recommend that as he is a really gifted painter: Mastodontica 

Caladaris

Caladaris put the bar high for himself and tackled more than one model at the same time. And he made it! That is a fantastic achievement, congratulations! Especially that he also took time to write in detail about his painting process, paints used and spiced it up with some really cool stories. 

 Please, check his final post about the painting challenge here: Marching to Completion (Part #4)

Darth Sabre

Darth was working on his new Dragon that came together with one of the kicstarters he backed up and the model is getting some nice red painting applied!

But Darth sent me also another picture of a fantastic model he got for his collection:

I can't wait to see entire army made up of the models he got as these two examples are fantastic! Keep up the great work!

Ed O'Malley

Ed contributed to the challenge regularly and he planned his project perfectly so that he could post some WiP pictures every week and finish exactly in time! What a wonderful model! Thanks a lot for your contribution, Ed!

There are more pictures of this awesome model on Ed's blog here:  http://berserkerbladeblog.blogspot.com.au/2018/03/monster-march-cerastus-knight_28.html

Julian

Julian has also finished his model ahead of time but didn't stop there! He continued with the momentum and painted another model that perfectly adds to his main contribution:

Matt Gee

Matt painted a very cool model for his Forces of the Abyss army. I really like his unique painting scheme and choice of the model for the Archfiend to lead his minions to battle!

You should also check other Matt's projects on his new blog, link here:  Matt Gee Minis

Nathan

Nathan had really cool idea and picked a very nice model of the Greater Earth Elemental for his Kings of War army. He executed it very well and it definitely made the model look unique and personalized.  

He is now busy with his other great conversion, Iron Golem:

Really well done guys! I congratulate you on your efforts and once again, thanks so much for your contribution. You made Monster March 2 a fantastic painting challenge and an inspiration for many others!

Some plans did not come to fruition

There are some of us who really wanted to participate and contribute but unfortunately it didn't happen. I think I am the best example myself. I am really sorry for that as I hoped I can progress with the painting at least. 

I would like to take as much as possible from that challenge and try to understand what happened that in the end resulted in me not painting the model I wanted to.

I assumed I would be able to coordinate a few things in March so that I would be able to spend some time on painting the Drakon Lord for my Kings of War army. One of the parallel project I had was to prepare 10mm army for Mortem at Gloriam historical system. I have not played it yet and there is a small event next weekend where I am going to have a chance to do so. The models required cleaning, undercoating and some drybrushing for the very basic colors. I thought this process is going to be straightforward and while it was I often found that I already spent time and energy on painting.

That led to the second observation. After doing even some simple painting (or other activities for that matter) I was concerned if I could maintain the  focus to paint at the highest available level for me. The model I chose for Drakon Rider is beautiful sculpt and I felt I would risk making too many mistakes if I started painting while not perfectly rested. But then I found out that such state is a rare condition. Perhaps the lesson is to keep painting no matter what and simply slow down during the process to make sure the quality is kept?

I also think that whenever I painted, even if I had entire unit to paint, I did not do it in a strictly planned process. I tried to find a bit of time every evening but I didn't quite plan what I am going to finish during the session and what goals I want to achieve every week, for example. Hence, it was always more about "I finish when I finish" and often resulted in projects taking longer than initially anticipated. 

I wonder if you guys would be so kind and share your approach to the painting challenge. What works for you and how do you accomplish the goal? At the same time, if you did not achieve the one you set at the beginning, what do you think was the reason? 

Thanks in advance!

I wish you all the best in your future painting projects! Please, share them whenever you have time to do so. It was absolute pleasure to follow the progress and I will be checking the blogs for more updates for sure! 

And hopefully we will see each other next year!

Thanks for reading!