Confrontation Painting Challenge of 2025

Only a few days after I linked my previously published post to the 7 Hills discord, user Shino jumps in and decides to host the painting challenge for 2025! Now, I'm not saying that my post and me resurrecting the 2024 painting thread on the server pushed Shino to make this happen, but my ego would like to imagine that I at least inspired them to do so.

In any case, these are the guidelines for the upcoming painting challenge:

• Start February 1st and end June 1st
• Minimum 200AP, max 300AP.
• Single miniature point cap at 80AP
• At least one miniature a month, proxies are allowed for cards that have no miniature designed by Rackham
• Must create a thread on the server for your army
• An army list must be submitted by the end of February

The prize for this endeavor will be a Wolfen Worg miniature awesomely painted by Shino!

You are definitely his victim...

And there you have it, loud, clear, and extremely exciting. A bunch of people have already applied, so it'll be a load of fun once it gets rolling. There's still time to jump in on it, so head over to the discord server (you can find an invite in the Useful Links tab above) and "sign up"!

As for me personally, I will definitely participate in the challenge despite still not being fully decided on which army I'll be painting. I think I have a pretty solid idea, it just depends on whether or not I manage to land some ongoing deals for a few essential minis. This is largely due to having to submit a complete army list within the coming month, so I just have to take some choices into consideration... would suck to signup with a model which I don't end up owning! (that would totally be so "me") 

In any case, I'll probably make a separate post about my decision in a couple of days. Stay tuned!

Paint me like one of your French minis

I've been a bit lazy over the holidays when it comes to Confrontation and miniature painting in general, since I've been prepping for a couple of RPG sessions which I'm due to run next week back in my home town. Regardless, Confrontation is almost always on my mind, so in the spirit of the new year some mental energy was spent on reflecting on the past year, thus here we are.

This time last year (the period when the previous post ended) was like a small Christmas miracle. Not a creature was stirring on "The 7 Hills of Confrontation" discord server when all of a sudden the Living Legend known as Sweet popped his beautiful head into one of the channels. And lo! Up he comes with an announcement regarding the Confrontation Painting Challenge of 2024!

Needless to say I jumped on that faster than S’Érum would get offended by someone calling him a "snek". Truth be told, I am a lazy painter. When left to my own devices I tend to step away from the painting table all too often and progress is extremely slow. So what I've learned over the years is that challenges, competitions, leagues, or any similar collective endeavor in any hobby is absolutely golden when it comes to motivation and there should be no excuses not to participate in this one.

The gist of the challenge was this: starting from February, take a pic of your unpainted army and then paint your heart out all the way up to 400AP worth of models by the end of August. You're in a raffle for prizes and you get extra raffle tickets if you post your monthly progress with at least 50AP.

So the first challenge for me was to decide what to paint! At that point I haven't really collected anything remotely close to 400AP of a single faction, so I had to quickly make a decision. Previously I spotted a decent chunk of Cynwall and Sessair models locally, so picking one of those up would give me a solid start from which to start painting and fill in the blanks with new models over the seven upcoming months. 

Out of those two factions, undoubtedly the Cynwall Elves are beyond iconic as an Aarklash staple. But you have to understand, I am easily intimidated by complex and beautiful sculpts (which the Elves definitely are), so as a result I usually tend to overthink painting such models and I'm extremely slow with those. Yet now we need swiftness, speed, and power, throbbing biceps which flex with a firm hold of our mighty brush while sitting on clenched buttocks and an occasional pause for a guttural scream as we pick up our next victim model. So what did I do? I did what any sane person would do. I got both the Elves and the Kelts.

Not pictured are two blisters of the Sons of Ogmios which I forgot to add to the shot...

On a more serious note, I decided to go with Kelts mostly because they seemed easier to paint out of the two choices, since I'm used to painting a lot of skin and leather from other projects. I really didn't want to overthink the process during the challenge and I wanted an army which doesn't intimidate me with too much complexity. And above all else, Sessairs are awesome, don't listen to the naysayers who are plentiful on the server and should be shunned. You know who you are. 

I've been told that I should go and touch grass...

I also decided to get some basing goodies, since I wanted to try out some new techniques and get more into that part of the hobby. I'm really a sucker for nicely looking bases, so I took this opportunity to learn a thing or two along the way.

Couple of things to note though. I guess Sweet's main idea for the challenge (aside from pushing people to paint) was for participants to have an actual army that they can play with in the end. Honestly, I knew I was gonna fail this one right from the get go, since I was more focused on getting things painted and getting relaxed with painting Rackham things in general. But also, I knew I was going to "cheat" for a few months, since I knew in advance that a few months I'll be away from home for longer stretches of time so I had to cheat with models that have a higher AP value in order to meet the monthly quota of painted stuff. 

I won't bore you with all of my thoughts about each and every model I painted for the challenge, but these are some personal highlights.

So immediately to start with, I painted one of the Sons of Ogmios. What an absolute lovely chonker! Usually I dislike painting larger models, mostly because bigger surfaces mean a bigger spotlight for poor painting skills and glaring mistakes, but this one was a joy from start to finish. I guess it is a testament to Rackham's awesomeness when it comes to sculpting, because there are so many neat details packed into their models, yet at the same time they never overdid it.

Painting for that initial month of the challenge was difficult, mostly because I had only two weeks available and I had a bunch of Infinity models which I also needed to paint, since at the same time I was participating in an escalation painting/gaming league and a whole lot of stuff had to be done there. But also, I had a frequent "helper" at the painting table and she made things extremely slow...

Fluffy chonk...

Funny detail about working on the Sons of Ogmios though, while I was basing it I realized that I accidentally glued it to the base at a wrong angle, so it was leaning forward way more than it should have. But I actually ended up liking it like that way more, since the pose looks like he is charging at someone who severely pissed him off, probably some Alahan shitter.

"Out of my waaaay!"

In a similar wain, I painted his smaller brother, the Giant Barbarian. It definitely lacks a bit in the pose dynamic which the Sons of Ogmios has and is much more static, but it is similarly chonky and nicely detailed.

As the months went by, I expanded the tribe with a few more purchases. I was pretty excited about the Danu Warriors since those sculpts are some of my Sessair favorites, but I sadly never got to painting them within the challenge, since during certain months painting more than one model was sadly not feasible and I really didn't want to slack on those. 

Quick and bad photoshop mashup of the few pictures I took back when I purchased these...

Featured above are the said few additional buys I made. There are sooo many more amazing models that I'd love to buy, Fiannas, Virae, the BEEFY BOYS (actually we're all beefy boys here, so you take a guess what I mean by these in caps), the third Danu Warrior, the sword/halberd Barbarians... ah, the list goes on and on.

If you looked closer at the picture which showed the Cynwal Elves, you'll notice that I also got an Air Elemental in that haul and I actually decided to use it in this Sessair project. Since I was painting the Kelt Shaman I wanted to give her a "little" summoned friend. Also, I was actually inspired to put on some paint on it because there are so few images of it painted online and as far as I know there is no official Rackham paintjob for it. What I saw online was mostly people painting it in off-white and gray colors, but I wanted to try out a different approach with blues. It does end up looking more like a water-based elemental at first glance, alas! I am pleased with the final look though, the golden/rusty bits pop with the blue on the model, plus the inclusion of the Air Elemental in Sessair ranks gives nice contrast to the composition of the whole tribe. 

By the way, the idea with the base is that it is also air.

The only models which I didn't enjoy so much were the Shaman and the Hunters. It's not that the sculpts are necessarily bad, but there's something missing to make them more dynamic. They don't really have anything special going for them that would make them unique (outside of the little squirrel sitting on the Shaman's shoulder) and I would guess that these are some of the younger Rackham sculpts, but I could be wrong on that. They were okay to paint, it just felt a little bit like a chore.

In complete contrast, I have to mention the three characters which I painted, because spending time with them felt special. Markhan the Wild, Bragh An Scathar, and of course Tanath, all three were such a joy to paint. The unique weapons, the little details, the poses and basing, everything about them felt like an invitation to pay attention and dedicate some extra time. They ooze with importance and glory on the table, which really makes me feel like I wouldn't want to be on their shit list. The only thing which I regret not doing, but I was actually too scared to mess it up, was the white face-paint on Bragh. I was happy with what I did up to that point, especially with the belt and the blade, but faltered a bit with the face, mostly due to the fact of how difficult it is to manipulate white. Oh well, maybe next time! Picture of all these bad boys are below!

Now, to make this post at least a bit useful and not have it all just be about self-indulgence, I'll give you my super secret recipe for painting the leather parts. One friend who saw the Sessair models in person actually asked me for it, so here ya go. 

The paints for the dirty deed.

It's actually nothing too complex, but it might annoy people who don't have patience to go through the whole process on all the leathery bits. Pictured above are all the paints you need, plus add one extra wretched brush which you will use for the stippling dirty work.

This is what we do:

1. Rhinox Hide as base.
2. Ivory, applied primarily stippled.
3. Black, applied primarily stippled.
4. Skrag Brown, applied primarily stippled. All three of these steps (2, 3, 4) can be fairly messy, and I'd recommend the Skrag being the "dominant" of the three. As stated for all three, primarily stipple, but also make scratches, dots, splotches, whatever. You don't have to pay attention to any kind of pattern or order, the point is that these should create natural layers and be fairly random. It's definitely going to look shit before it looks good, this is the shit part. 
5. Ushabti Bone on the edges of the leather, those raised bumpy parts all around.
6. Washes. This is the fun part, since you can go wild with this one. Use all four washes at the same time, some either straight out of the pot, some mix together, just move them around the surface. This step adds depth to the leather. Usually how I did it is use Agarax, Reikland, and Nuln Oil (as stated, mixed or out of the pot, sometimes also adding a bit of Lahmian Medium to make some parts more watery), once those are dry I'd go evenly with one coat of Seraphim Sepia just to tie it all up. While you are at it, also add a coat of Seraphim Sepia over the Ushabti Bone ridges.

And that's that. It's an entertaining process since you get to be messy and not care about being too detailed, plus it gives decent results.

Overall, this event was an absolute blast. I love challenges like these, because they truly inspire me to put in the effort and it is really fun sharing your progress with the community and seeing what the other participants are coming up with. I just wish more people joined in, but hey, maybe next time, hopefully my entries inspired at least some of you. 

On that note, shoutout to discord user Xris Wraith who managed to paint an absurd amount of Acheron models, which look absolutely stunning! In the end, Xris Wraith and I were the winners of the challenge, since we are both so talented and awesome. Actually no, we were the only participants who posted progress every month and thus had the most entries. But also, we're awesome, yes.

And of course, a special thank you to Sweet for all the efforts with organizing such an awesome event and being a source of inspiration in the Confrontation scene. So if you're reading this, THANK YOU, you absolute legend.

(EDIT: forgot to take a picture of the sweet (hur hur) prize I received for this endeavor and I was eager to publish this tonight, so I'll edit the post tomorrow.)

And also, thank you for reading, if you got this far. Now if you'll excuse me, gotta go flex!

P.S. I've added a post break here to avoid the layout of the blog being shitty, so if you want to view a photo dump of all the painted minis not shown above, click the link below to expand the post.

How it all started

Well, it has been a hot minute since the blog's opening post, mostly since I took up way too many hobby "challenges" in 2024 (more on that soon) which ended up eating a lot of my hobby time. Nevertheless, here we are. This post might not be so thrilling for veterans, but at the same time it may be interesting for everyone to see how my collection started up. I for one definitely suffer from that voyeuristic rush of taking a peek at other people's collections and I'd imagine that many of you suffer from similar afflictions. So essentially what this post is going to be is just a photo dump of all the stuff I bought in 2023.

***

"To kill, protect and serve...and get you into Confrontation!"

As I mentioned previously, my Confrontation collecting journey started off in the month of August 2023 thanks to the guy above. A peculiar bit of my own personal lore is that the first piece of Confrontation art that I saw was in fact the amazing work which Édouard Guiton and Paolo Parente did for the Dirz. Back then the game was out of my grasp and I was mostly eyeing it on the sidelines, but seeing the Centurus Clone last year I felt a sort of calling that it is finally time to get into it... on top of the fact that the blister itself was absurdly cheap.

There's no denying the fact that Dirz are a visual staple of the entire setting. If you observe them in the context of the world, the visuals of the Alchemists just ooze with eeriness and, at the same time, they completely belong in Aarklash, but also seem like a true anathema to anything remotely fantastical as a setting. They are cold and alien, but fit absolutely perfectly into the weirdness of the world. And to me that is absolutely a huge selling point. 

This initial acquisition kicked off a small streak of other Dirz purchases which made me think that I'm definitely going to end up as a primary Alchemist player. Which, you know, is good. Focus is good when collecting things, instead of spending money on ten armies all at once... right?

At the time, against all sanity, I was bidding on numerous Confrontation-related auctions for models of various factions, yet fate would have it that I only managed to snatch a box of Sentinels of Danakil and two card packs, Litanies of Darkness and Spellbook of Technomancy. 

I joked many times on Discord that I'm "cursed" to be a Dirz player, but once the curse got broken I haven't touched the Dirz since.

The Dirz curse ended up being randomly broken by none other than a Griffin Executioner, quite fitting and poetic in a way. Usually, I shy away from human-based armies in fantasy games, simply because there's always something way more interesting to play than plain old boring humans. Griffins of Akkylannia, on the other hand, are not your average plain old boring humans and are absolutely an army I would play, both for the lore and the aesthetics. Menacing, brooding, religiously unhinged and quite brutal, the grim-dark vibe in a fantasy setting definitely stood out at the time and it suits the Griffins superbly to this day. 

This was just a cheap local purchase that was too good to ignore and so up to now I haven't given the army any more attention, even though I plan to in the future. Recently I've found some local Griffins which I plan to pick up, but they have to stand in line for a little bit longer.

Soon after that I stumbled upon a small trove of various card packs which I grabbed without a moment of hesitation. I'm well aware that these are not usable in V2+ editions of the game, but I'm a sucker for cards and different accessories for miniature games in general (evidently a result of my very real obsession with various dead CCGs). The big plus when it comes to cards in Confrontation (aside of the unit cards, I mean) is that spell, item, faction, etc. cards feature so much lore and flavor. It entices you to read each and every line in order to go further down the rabbit hole of Aarklash and discover some corner of the universe which you didn't reveal before. 

Never say "no" to more cardboard...

The streak of randomness continued when a random Cynwall Equanimous Warrior dropped out of nowhere. To date this has been the cheapest miniature find, since I picked this guy up for a whooping 1 euro. That price definitely doesn't pay the sculpt justice since this is one of those weird miniatures which made Rackham designs stand out so high above the competition. Everything is wild about this mini.

"GW wish they designed me first..."

Elves suddenly abound! The next two pickups I was extremely excited about. First of all, Cynwall  Quarterstaffer which, lets be honest, are going to cosplay as Truth Warriors on the table. Last, but definitely not the least for 2023, a Daikinee Zephyr. Years ago when I was browsing the Confrontation armies, the Daikinee stood out as my army of choice. I'm generally a sucker for woodland-based fantasy faction designs, but the Rackham take on elves leaning more into the insectoid aesthetics is amazing.

Elves with paws for scale (you'll see those paws a lot on this blog)

These humble and chaotic beginnings marked the end of 2023 and, let me tell you, the collection craze definitely ramped up in 2024. I've made some big purchases this year, but those require posts of their own... and in reality I haven't even delved properly into most of said purchases, to my great shame all the acquired stuff is still laying around in shipping boxes, so this blog will make me sit down and give all those goodies some much deserved attention.

At the start of this journey in the months of last year I basically just bought things that were popping up locally. Chance encounters without much searching, they all ended up being interesting miniatures and cards which pulled me deeper and deeper into collecting. Casual adjacency to Confrontation turned into rabid scouring the internet for bits of information and the next purchase. (yeah you might call it early signs of addiction, but at least it ain't crack). Peculiarly, it showed me that all the armies in Confrontation have a special something that would make me want to pick them up and play, be it aesthetics, the lore, the strategies, or something fourth. And usually, in almost any game I play, it's rather difficult to settle and collect only ONE thing, something that I would assume a lot of us suffer from. But Confrontation pumps the difficulty of that choice up to eleven, and I'd literally want to play with all of the things it has to offer.

Well, except the Lions of Alahan. And Tir-Na-Bor Dwarves. Fuck those guys.

At the dawn of a new age...

Greetings, fellow traveler, and welcome to this small corner of the internet.

As I've never formally introduced myself on ye olde Confrontation Discord server (the first place where I'll actually reveal this blog), a little intro is in order.

Name is Stefan, but depending on the webspace you encounter me at you might hear some different nicknames. Some call me Moth, some call me Moon, other places know me as Howler, or some combination of those names. All of these are mainly because I've been stretched between numerous hobbies and communities and long time passions, those primarily being RPGs, various board and miniature games, CCGs, and hardcore punk (and generally underground DIY) music... In real life, you will mainly encounter me in Sweden or to a lesser extent in Serbia, the place where I spent most of my years originally.

When it comes to Confrontation, during the years when Rackham was active I was a humble student with rather shallow pockets (and already committed to several of the aforementioned hobbies which I barely maintained at the time), so I was mostly observing the game from the sidelines and had only a handful of demo games under my belt with borrowed community miniatures. The scene in my home town was relatively small (some 10-15 people), but quite active at times since I remember gatherings and tournaments happening regularly. But for me personally, there was always something special about Confrontation that got stuck in my head and it made me think about it for years on end, many times feeling the pull to start collecting.

Two decades later and now living in a new country, I nose-dived right into Confrontation in 2023 when I locally stumbled upon a cheap NIB Centurus Clone blister at random. Something simply clicked in me that it was finally time and I just let myself be consumed.

So what is the point of this blog? Not sure to be honest. I am rather impulsive when it comes to creating blogs, since I always have a strong urge to document my thoughts and feelings, primarily due to my love for writing, yet another passion. The actual process of writing anything puts me in a specific kind of headspace where I have to step back and truly reflect on a particular subject, exploring all the emotions and in fact properly appreciating the thing in question, preserving the moment for some future point in time. 

But being less poetic, I am hoping to simply record my journey through Confrontation and document the growth of my collection (which happens all too often) and my knowledge of the game and its universe. I'd also like this place to be a good repository for useful resources for other beginners. There are some other, grander plans that I would like to achieve here and provide something useful and entertaining to the wonderful community built around this game, but for that both you and I need to be patient. Time will tell if I succeed or not.

Thank you for reading, hope you follow along!