Ok, I think it’s time for a challenge. And some fun. A… fullenge. Nah, let’s not call it that. But we will be doing a fun challenge here on Heresy & Heroes and it’s starting now. We’re calling it Heresy Vs Heroes, and aside from wishing I’d had the foresight to name the blog Heretics & Heroes solely for the purpose of this idea, it’s going to pit my painting skills against that of one other painter every other month. 

How does it work?

Every other month, an invited painter and I will be painting up some toy soldiers. One character/hero each. Here’s the rules:

• Both competitors will have one month to paint one mini

• The guest will get to choose whether they want to paint a bad guy (Heresy) or a good guy (Hero)

• I (that is me, John) will paint the opposite (so if they choose “Hero”, I’ll paint a “Heresy”… why didn’t I name the site better?)

• The guest will also decide which game system we’re working with – 40k, AoS, Horus Heresy

• The guest will also, if so desired, be able to add one additional stipulation of their choice, and it can be anything

Miniatures Available:

• Heresy: Any “Chaotic” hero/leader/character

• Hero: For AoS, any GA:Order hero/character. For 40k/HH, any Imperial/Loyalist hero/character 

And how will we be determining a winner? Well, at the end of the month, we’ll both post a poll on twitter, and the mini that gets the most votes, is the winner. It’s all for fun and a bit of a challenge. You’ll be able to follow along with the challenge as we’ll both be using the hashtag #HeresyVsHero for WiPs, the Polls and the Results. You with me so far? Good.

And first up to bat, we have…

Garfy from Tale of Painters

I’ve known Garfy for years. He was actually the first person to drive me up to Warhammer World from London when we headed to a Forge World Open Day many (many many) moons ago. He has a tremendously clean style of painting that I’ve always admired, and he’s a top notch photographer too (a fact that puts me at an immediate disadvantage). He’s known for his Ultramarines, Dark Angels and Tyranids, but he’s turned his talented hands to many different miniatures over the years, and is currently working his way through a fantastic Slaves to Darkness army. Let’s find out how he wants this challenge to pan out…

Hi Garfy! How are things?

Hi John, things are good all things considered, I feel like my decades of introverted hobbies has been the perfect training ground to surviving a year of lockdown. Certainly got plenty of models painted. 

Tell me a bit about Tale of Painters

Tale of Painters is an unofficial Warhammer hobby magazine-style blog with high quality photography, showcase posts, reviews and painting tutorials all for free. Nothing is hidden behind a paywall. It’s run by my good friend Stahly and I’ve been contributing weekly since it debuted 10 years ago in 2011. 

Right. Down to Business. Will you be painting “Heresy” or “Heroes”?

I’m going to go for Heresy! And no! I’m not painting Dark Angels. 

And what system are we going with?

I’m going to choose Age of Sigmar.

Ok, Any further stipulations?

I think it’d be cool to see our final finished models pictured on terrain so the stipulation is scenic photography is allowed for the twitter poll. 

Any pre-match predictions?

Apart from predicting this is going to be a lot fun, I’m going to predict that my AOS herectical leader might end up in my fledging Daemon army. Predicting what you’ll do is pretty tricky as you have a wide array of skills so I’m going to predict you’ll totally surprise me.

Thanks for all of that, Garfy. No pressure there then! 😉 Also, I need to make some terrain… So, now we’ve met my dastardly competitor, let’s see the miniatures we’re going to be going with:

I’m going to be putting in a shift on the mighty hero that is the Stormcast Eternals Lord Ordinator, while Garfy is going to be getting along with his devious Infernal Enrapturess. Both awesome minis, full of character and definitely a good vs evil vibe. Our one month starts now!

To keep up with our efforts, you can follow me on Twitter at @HeresyHeroes and Garfy can be found at @Garfytwit – follow us for WiPs and of course the polls at the end of the month. Stay tuned for more here, and until next time, Onwards!