The Pinturama Campaign: A Painting Challenge

Murphy the Dreadnought, Raven Guard, 3rd company

I enjoy painting. The quiet solitude. The concentration. The pride of having a finished product marching across the table. The challenge of making the model turn out as good, or maybe better, than expected. Watching my meager modeling skills develop as I practice new tricks and methods for painting my tiny plastic army men. 

With my Tau army essentially finished, (minus some Broadsides and Kroot I want to revamp my list with...) I decided to start serious work on my next two armies. I am concurrently building and painting both Orks and Space Marines- forces that were started with the Assault on Black Reach boxed-set and slowly augmented by drug and alcohol fueled all-night eBay benders. I have drawers full of half-finished plastic failure and now it is time to put the superglue where my mouth is and get these miniatures finished. Hence the commencement of the Pinturama Campaign.

Coming to the 40k galaxy from the worlds of Dungeons & Dragons, I have a certain affinity for  campaign-style play. A single fight rarely decides an entire war and I like the idea of battles being connected by a certain narrative and internal logic. Combining the campaign and painting challenge, I hope to achieve the goals of learning the Warhammer 40,000 rules more completely and having two fully painted 1500 point armies at the end of the hostilities.

Tau Devilfish of the Red Star Cadre on patrol in the Pinturama System.

Besides painting during every free moment I have, I will also be developing a set of simple campaign rules that can be played over the course of a day,  weeks, or even months. I have read and researched many different, and really pretty good, campaign rules for Warhammer 40,000. I find myself liking parts of all of them, but I have not been satisfied by any one set of rules. Again, perhaps my background in D&D spoils me to a degree, but that narrative is what sells Black Library books and makes the game more interesting than a small plastic-chunk maneuvering exercise. These rules will be developed and revised right here, as the armies grow and the stakes for the Pinturama System increase.

Since my first goal is 500 points, and since painting Orks takes significantly longer than Marines due to the higher model count, the first battle will be between 500 points of painted Space Marines and the already-complete Tau. I will post army lists, battle reports, rules questions, the developing campaign guidelines, and photos of each battle on this blog. Furthermore, I will be posting photos of the models as they are readied for deployment.

Good hunting. And may your paint never dry out before its time.