Cowabunga VII

”The 40K 2nd Edition Army Challenge VII” (lovingly known as the ”Cowabunga Challenge”) was a Warhammer 40,000 2nd edition painting challenge hosted by Dr. The Viking at Cowabunga Journal and Wachtmeister over at The Wachtmeister's Patrol. This page details my endeavours during the 2026 edition (the 7th iteration) of the challenge.

Starting Point

Hello fellow Cowabungites! Great to hear that Dr. The Viking has returned to the challenge.

Ted from Sweden here. I previously took part in Cowabunga III, IV, and VI with my Chaos army, and in the most recent challenge I painted a force of Slaanesh and Nurgle allies for my Night Lords.

For Cowabunga VII, I want to mix things up by painting a small Blood Angels force, giving my Chaos Space Marines a worthy opponent. Blood Angels are the quintessential 2nd edition Space Marine chapter, and I think their bright red armour will look fantastic clashing with the midnight blue of the Night Lords. With two painted forces, I’m also hoping to tempt an unsuspecting relative into trying 2nd edition—fingers crossed.

My collection includes two squads and several characters. Leading the force is a Terminator Captain with power sword and storm bolter. Although technically a 3rd edition model, he fits the 2nd edition aesthetic nicely. Supporting him is a classic 2nd edition Company Standard bearer with a blood drop and wings atop the banner, armed with a power fist and bolt pistol. The Techmarine and Apothecary come from the Command Squad released at the very end of 2nd edition; while edging into early 3rd edition design, they should blend in perfectly. The Apothecary wields a chainsword, and the Techmarine carries a power axe.

For troops, I have the iconic plastic Tactical Marines from the 2nd edition starter set, which I’ll split into two five-man squads and strip before repainting. Rounding things out is a Terminator Squad made from a mix of metal and plastic parts, including an assault cannon and a sergeant with a power sword.

I’ve also picked up Warcolours’ Nostalgia ’94 paint range and plan to recreate the classic GW Studio Blood Angels scheme as closely as possible.

The List

Characters:

• Captain in Terminator Armour (Storm Bolter, Power Sword) – 125 points
• Company Standard (Bolt Pistol, Power Fist) - 67 points
• Techmarine (Bolt Pistol, Power Axe, Servo-Arm) – 52 points
• Apothecary (Bolt pistol, Chainsword. Medi-Pack) – 44 points

Squads:

• Tactical Squad (Veteran Sergeant with Chainsword & Bolt Pistol, Missile Launcher, Flamer) - 363 points
• Terminator Squad (1xStorm Bolter & Power Sword 1xAssault Cannon & Chain Fist 3xStorm Bolter & Power Fist) - 354 points

Total:

• 1005 points

Slices:

1. Terminator Captain and Company Standard
2. Tactical Combat Squad 1
3. Tactical Combat Squad 2
4. Techmarine and Apothecary
5. Terminator Squad

Month 1 (February)

For month 1 I planned to paint only the Captain and the Company Standard, but when I saw that there was time left, I decided to throw in a Librarian as well! I put the Crisis level to 3 mostly because I had to figure out the colour schemes and get used to my new Nostalgia ’94 paints and my new wet palette (very much worth it if you are using dropper bottles). I never felt stressed about not making it in time, but I did cut it pretty close with two days to spare! As for the colour schemes I wanted to replicate the ‘Eavy Metal paintjobs in Codex: Angels of Death to the best of my abilities. I had to do some tests in the beginning, but I settled rather quickly for Blood Red (go figure!) as the main colour with highlights of Blazing Orange and Fiery Orange. My ambition with this project is to go all in on the look and feel of the era which meant a strong orange red, back banners, Goblin Green bases and blue armour for the Librarian! The banners were made by taking a photo of the images in the Codex and then instructing an AI to change the image into a black and white colouring page. This worked really well, and after printing them out I varnished the paper and then painted them with my regular paints. All in all, I’m very pleased with the results of the first month!

• Terminator Captain, 1, Storm Bolter, Power Sword, 125
• Company Standard, 1, Power Fist, Bolt Pistol, Frag Grenades, 65
• Librarian (Lexicanium), 1, Force Axe, Bolt Pistol, Frag Grenades, 63

Month 2 (March)

This month I had to finish off the final unit in the Call of the Crown Warhammer Fantasy painting challenge, leaving me roughly half a month for my Cowabunga entry. Not the best starting position, but I figured five of the 2nd edition starter set monopose Tactical Marines would be fairly straightforward to paint. Turns out they took far longer than I had anticipated, and I had to paint right up to the deadline (hence crisis level 3 again)! Thankfully I had already worked out my colour scheme for the red armour (Nostalgia ’94 Blood Red with Blazing Orange and Fiery Orange highlights) in the previous month, so I could at least get stuck in right away. I turned to White Dwarf 166 (the release issue for 2nd edition) for inspiration, and I also looked at the colour pages in Codex: Angels of Death to make sure I got the company and squad markings right. I decided to go with the 2nd company (yellow blood drop on the right shoulder pad) and the 1st squad (black right kneepad with a white skull) for my Tactical Squad to get the iconic look I was after! These models, painted in the bright Blood Angels colour scheme and mounted on Goblin Green bases, really epitomises 2nd edition for me! They are what immediately comes to mind when I think of early 90’s Warhammer 40,000, and I’m really stoked to finally have a small unit of them painted up!

• Tactical Squad (Combat Squad), 5, Bolter, Bolt Pistol, Frag Grenades, 150

Month 3 (April)

This month was a bit of a disappointment as I only managed to finish a single model! A holiday trip followed by nearly a week with a severe cold unfortunately cost me a lot of painting time, and the crisis level will therefore have to be pushed up to a 4. I had intended to finish the Techmarine this month as well, but the time just wasn’t there. He’s well underway though, so he’ll most likely join the army in May instead. The Apothecary model (which I did finish) is the one that was released as part of the Space Marine Command Squad that came out in September 1998 (just a month before 3rd edition launched). This set was sculpted by the talented Jes Goodwin, so naturally the detailing is top notch! Painting white power armour will always be a challenge, but I used the old trick of using a light grey (in the form of Elf Grey) instead of a pure white as the main colour. I used Shadow Grey for shading the recesses, and then I finished off the armour by highlighting the edges with Skull White. The model has a lot of detail in the form of tubes, glass containers, gems and other paraphernalia, and these took quite a bit of time to do properly. As with my previous models I used the photos in Codex: Angels of Death to get the authentic 90’s look, and I think it worked out rather well in the end!

• Apothecary, 1, Chainsword, Bolt Pistol, Medi-pack, 44

Month 4 (May)

Back on track this month having finished the Terminator squad (on the final day of the month!) and the Techmarine. The Techmarine was mostly painted during April, so it was a matter of mopping up the remaining bits. I used a darker red on his armour (Crimson Gore) to make him stand out a bit from the regular red of the Blood Angels. Next up was the Terminators, and even though they have no backpacks (hooray!) they still took a fair bit of time to do. Because of real life commitments my painting time was concentrated to the last week of May, which meant some serious hours spent at the desk! I had painted the Terminator Captain previously, so I at least had the colour scheme more or less nailed down. The Terminator squad in Codex: Angels of Death was my reference image, and I tried to emulate it as best I could. The banner was printed out in black and white and painted over with my regular paints. Even though it’s quite a simple design it really adds to the overall look of the squad. Bring back (back) banners I say! The Sergeant has a small shield on his sword arm, and since I could not find any photos of the Studio model from that angle, I decided to put a yellow chapter icon on there to match the one on the right-side pauldron. It worked out pretty well I think!

• Terminator Squad, 5, 1x Assault Cannon, 1x Chainfist, 4x Stom Bolter, 3x Power Fist, 1x Power Sword, 358
• Techmarine, 1, Bolt Pistol, Frag Grenades, Power Axe, Servo-Arm, 50

Month 6 (July)

This month I only had to finish the remaining five models from the Tactical squad, and as I had done a bit of work on them during last month I was off to a good start. I had the colour scheme worked out, so it was just a matter of getting it done. The banner for this squad was fairly easy to paint in comparison to previous months, so that also saved some time. After I had finished the Space Marines I decided to paint up my 3D printed copy of Doctor Spork’s lovely 2nd edition style cathedral. This iconic piece of gothic terrain can be seen in so many GW publications from that era, and I really wanted to use it as a backdrop for my finished army. I decided to try out a sponge technique on the cathedral, and though it was a bit fiddly at times it worked out well in the end. With that done, it was just a matter of lining up my models and taking an army photo! Painting Blood Angels in the bright style of the 90’s was a lot tougher than I had anticipated, but I’m really proud of what I have achieved in this year’s challenge. Seeing the entire force fully painted in glorious red and assembled on the tabletop gave me a huge dose of 90’s nostalgia! As always, thanks to Dr. The Viking and Wachtmeister for running the challenge! It’s been fun taking part in this endeavour once more.

• Tactical Squad (Combat Squad), 5, Bolter, Bolt Pistol, Frag Grenades, 1x Missile Launcher, 1x Flamer, Veteran Sergeant, 1x Chainsword

Finished Army