April for Armageddon results!

Hello dear customers!
Welcome to our first ever blog post!

Over the course of April this year, we hosted our first-ever painting contest on our Instagram: #AprilForArmageddon!

The contest

The Warhammer 40,000 tabletop wargame is launching its 11th edition soon, with the starter box set themed around the in-universe War World of Armageddon, a mostly desert planet torn apart by countless, unending wars between many different factions of Warhammer 40,000 (but mostly, it is Imperial Guard vs Orks).

We chose to theme our contest around this world as well. Although not very tight, considering how diverse Armageddon's wars are, it is nonetheless a constraint. We hoped it would challenge participants, and maybe motivate you to step out of your routine to paint something new, e.g. an ork, if you never painted greenskins before.

The entries

Our contest got really strong submissions, I'm really pleased with the overall level! It's clear that the average customer at Supernova is very passionate and skilled at our hobby.

Before we announce the winners, let me show you every project painted first, grouped by their faction!

Please make sure you visit the contestant's Instagrams and give them a like on their work!!! Lets recognize each other for the wonderful art we produce!

Da Orkz

The endless green hordes are out in force, and we have all levels represented!

Leading the charge is none other than Da Boss ov' All Bosses himself, Da Prophet of da WAAAAAGH, Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka by @mechanic0s!

This is miniature is as huge as Ghazghkull himself, and a massive project to complete in just a month!

Going a level down in the hierarchy, I present Supernova's own entry, the classic Ork Warboss from the Assault on Black Reach box set, dating all the way back to 5th edition. I think this is actually the first plastic Warboss model ever released? Judging by the new model coming out in 11e, Warbosses these days are eating much better though, they almost doubled in size. So he's probably just a nob now, at best.

I painted this one up with the Dark Arts paint set from Two Thin Coats. It provides you with a moody and dreary palette, ideal for painting in the Grimdark style! I've been too busy running the shop lately to keep my skills up to date though, so can't say I got the most out of this set, but I really like the vibe the more muted colours and the finish created by inks.

Next up, we have one of the most dramatic entries to the contest — Da Looted Templar by @muchmorepaint!

This man made a whole little diorama, complete with custom parts and a little greenstuff sculpting of the poor knight's spine there, clutched in the nob's klaw! This raw creativity for the fun of it is the essence of what collecting Orks is like.

For the rank and file, @zerschmeterling painted the humble Ork Boy:

He doesn't have much to brag about yet (except the late Black Templar he's got underfoot), but then again he still has his whole life ahead of him.

Finally, we have Da Littlest WAAAAAGHriors, the Grot Squad by @morgul_hathol:

They might be small, but if you check the paintwork, they're actually very well executed. Check out how defined the highlights on the muscles are! Plus, painting models this small is its own challenge. Morgul also has the distinction of being the first contestant to submit a finished entry, about 3 days after the contest was announced. Some would say painting a mere grot is cheating, but I say, it demonstrates a clear understanding of mission parameters!

Forces of Chaos

Chaos is the other great enemy of Armageddon, and actually the First War of Armageddon was fought mainly against slaves of Khorne. But this time, the war world suffers raids from opportunists and brigands of every other kind instead!

First up, racing across the ashen wastes come bikers of the Alpha Legion from @hades_paints! Love the basing on these guys, you can feel how these brutal bikes force their way through uneven terrain.

Next up, we have a joint entry from @warp.palette and @heretic_artistes — Penivar Ith, the Laughing Chirurgeon.

In their narrative, Penivar is apothecary of a roving warband of Red Corsairs that descended upon Armageddon to reap the spoils, while others do war.

As is expected of the constantly squabbling and cannibalising Slaves to Darkness, @warp_palette was not content with a joint filing and shortly followed up with an independent entry — Reave Captain painted in stunning NMM.

His face also seems quite mad and clownish, just like Penivar's... They seem to have a theme going on in their warband. A quirk of the geneseed, perhaps?

Well, while Alpha Legionaries pursue their mysterious schemes, and opportunistic Red Corsairs loot and pillage, a lone sorcerer of Nurgle is also in the thick of the action, on his own dark agenda. @gooseinthehats presents us with his Malignant Plaguecaster:

What is he doing on Armageddon? How did he get there? No one knows, but whatever his designs, stock up on hand sanitizer and try to stay away from your fellow citizens inside the crowded hive-fortresses.

Defenders of the Imperium

Threats to mankind are without count, and so must be the defenders!

And they do come to meet threats to Armageddon in force. None less so than the Angelic Host itself, authored by @enter_warhammer's brush!

One miniature was not enough for this guy, he brought not one, not two, but THREE total squads of Death Company Assault Marines! That's 15 models total. But there is no kill like overkill, so Chapter command dropped a whole Dreadnought on top too.

Under other circumstances I'd say "by the Sanguinius, calm down my dude," but looking at the hordes of Greenskins at the gates and roving bands of Chaos raiders, actually this is an appropriate response force.

The Armageddon Steel Legion is also on standby, as shown by this Sergeant kitbashed by @mortighaar_minis.

Games Workshop has not yet provided us with proper plastic kits for the Steel Legion, so mortighaar built one himself almost from scratch! Check out the WIP post too, it shows how much sculpting happened here. Very impressive work, topped off with great weathering on the finished model, for that greasy, Grimdark look.

The Winners!

Best Overall

At first, I did not want to declare an overall winner at all and just focus on awarding minis that stood out in unique ways, but we ended up with several very strong challengers...

@warp_palette presented a very strong entry with an incredible NMM job on the Red Corsair Reaver Lord, and @mechanic0s contested closely with the maximum effort Ghazghkull. I would say @mortighaar_minis also came in very close with his custom, kitbashed Steel Legionaire and incredible weathering.

But in the end, it was @gooseinthehat's Plaguecaster that blew me away.

You have every hallmark of a great character model here:

  • Very clean, well-defined details, on a model that provides lots of them.
  • Great texturing on all surfaces, the trademark of a Nurgle model. Here it's present on both the armour and the wooden staff.
  • Bright, vivid highlights. Again, both on the armour by itself, and the lighting effect on the spell.
  • Contrasting base well-matched to the model's primary colours.

Great execution overall, and if this is just the plaguecaster! I'm terrified to see how this guy paints his actual centerpiece models.

Best Narrative

One of the fundamental concepts of our hobby is that every mini should be telling a story of some sort. @muchmorepaint has this in spades with his custom mini-diorama!

Really not much more to add here, the piece speaks for itself. You can imagine it taking place in Helsreach just by looking at it. Hope to see more pieces like this from @muchmorepaint in the future!

Most Productive Painter

This one goes, without a doubt, to @enter_warhammer and his Angelic Host.

This guy painted more models than I do in a year, and he just had to show off with a Dreadnought on top on the final day of the submissions deadline. Absolute paint-o-maniac.

Da Biggest Project

There is only one individual who can claim this title, and it's also Da Greenest and Da Meanest WAAAGHboss of all of Armageddon, Ghazghull by @mechanic0s!

Ghaz is THE centerpiece model of the current Ork model range for Warhammer 40,000 — not only is he very big, but also incredibly detailed. It's impossible not to recognize the volume of work and effort that goes into painting something like this.

Da Fastest Brush

I think @morgul_hathol was going more for the comedic factor with his submission, but he did round it out with the whole squad of grots later.

Still, he came up with the first completed submission just days after the contest started, and it's painted quite well, so hey, it counts! Just be careful next time we have a contest, someone might paint up something bigger than a grot in a day or two...

Most Grimdark (but also Best Kitbash & Best Weathering)

Sorry, I couldn't pick one category for this one, but I can't let go without recognizing @mortighaar_minis's project. There's a lot of work that went into it, even though it's just one small footman. And it's also one of the minis most on theme, as who else could possibly represent Armageddon if not its very own Steel Legion?

The prizes & closing words

Again, I'm blown away by the overall high level of the entries to this contest!

This was the first time we held a contest at Supernova, so thank you very much to everyone who joined in, we're overjoyed by your support and hope you had fun participating!

For prizes, I thought to award particular items at first, but after everything considered thought, why not just let people pick whatever they please? We're a shop, after all.

So the prize will be a flat discount on anything from our catalog:

Also for everyone who participated (including the winners), we have a 10% discount for our whole* range. We originally intended for this discount to be until the end of May, but I've taken a very long time to publish the results, so it'll be in effect until end of June instead. This discount will be applied for you automatically on checkout, provided you replied to my DM asking you which email you use to shop on Supernova. If you haven't yet, please DM and tell us your email yourself!

Thank you very much for joining us for the ride, we hope to see you again for the next contest (sometime, eventually)!

P.S. 0% of the text in this post was generated with AI. That's why it's taken me over a week to write. I hope you share our passion for artisanal, hand-crafted products.

* — except miniatures, we have a separate pricing scheme for them.

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