Templecon 2015 Painting Challenge Explained

I have been mentioning a painting challenge for sometime now but never really got around to explaining what the actual challenge was about. I figured it is time I should explain.

Those that have been following along with my little journey over the year know I have faction ADD and pretty bad. This year I had another flair up around Lock n Load. When PP spoiled Cephalyx at Templecon 2014 I wasn't interested much at all but once the spoiler started to hit NQ I started to get the itch. Then when my buddy Mickey said he'd ninja for me at LnL it was pretty much all over.

The beginning

Shortly after picking up the Cephalyx box I was texting with my good buddy Jaime aka Northblade about getting a 50pt Cephalyx force painted by Templecon. I am not sure when exactly or how it came up but Jaime said he was in and would paint a new 50pt list and have it ready for Templcon as well and the challenge was on. Me being who I am couldn't leave it at just "OK we'll both paint and see each other there".....no no no. I proposed that we will play a game with our newly painted armies in iron arena and the loser has to buy the first round of drinks and "if" one of us doesn't finish their army they have to buy the first 3 rounds......really no loser here right ;)

I was then chatting with another Canadian buddy and member of Jaime's meta Chadi and he said that he wanted in on the challenge as well. Oh boy oh boy not this changes things. Once again me being me "how about we all play our newly painted lists in Hardcore...OR....we build a second list and play the team tournament together?" This was met with surprising optimism by both Jaime and Chadi so we decided on the team tourney. The deal is one of the 50pt list needs to be fully painted to meet the requirements of the challenge. This second list is what put me into my total merc tailspin and sent me on a spending spree to fill out my mercs. I am going to try and have all of my mercs fully painted for Templecon but the "challenge" minis are the priority. You can see my painting log here: http://nogspaintingcave.blogspot.com/2014/10/templecon-2015-painting-log.html. I am going to try and get updates from the guys as we go along and hope to post their progress but I'm not sure how well that will work ;) I also think I have "inspired" one of my local guys (Nick) to paint up a 50pt Xerxis2 list as well. I guess I should get painting ;)