Goonhammer Hobby Round-Up: October 2025

It's spoOoky season! Let's see how many of our painters got in the spirit of the season, or just painted a bunch of Space Marines again. They just painted a bunch of Space Marines again, didn't they?

SRM

Black Templars Invader ATV. Credit: SRM

After getting back from the Challenger's Cup, I learned that sitting in my backfield, blasting away, then jumping onto objectives in the late game just wasn't working out. I needed more of those quick, cheap units to make early trades, nab objectives, and actually play the mission. It turns out the Invader ATV is actually the perfect unit for this, and after a few test games using my Ultramarines one, I painted another up for my Templars. The curse of having multiple Marine armies is painting two of everything, apparently. This one came together relatively quickly, although I was smarter when I painted my Ultramarines one, as that army has more weathering involved. I only weather vehicles and up for my Templars, so I consigned myself to edge highlighting the tires on this thing, which is a task I would not recommend. My finer highlight brush also started crapping out at this stage, but I fortunately had another great highlight from when we were putting together the Goonhammer X Artis Opus set; one that I had been too afraid to use beyond our early testing since it was too nice. I got to put that to work next, after retiring my trusty old Scharff brush.

Black Templars Captain with Jump Pack and Relic Shield. Credit: SRM

I was part of the team reviewing the new Jump Pack Captain model, and I gave him a little Templar flair. The kit's shoulder pads are weirdly specific so I had to use the ones from there instead of supplying my own more Templar-flavored ones, but I was still able to give him a headswap and reliquary doodad for flavor's sake. It's a pleasant model to paint, but big Space Marine shields are kind of a pain in the ass given their banding, which requires careful highlighting if you don't want to get into the gutter between the central field and the reinforced edge. Surely I wouldn't be painting more of those this month, surely.

Ultramarines Assault Terminators with Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields. Credit: SRM

Goddammit.

I also got to review the new Terminator Assault Squad with the team, and had a generally great time returning to painting blue. I haven't worked on my Ultramarines proper since 2021, so I had to go back and review my old notes to bring myself back up to speed. These new Terminators are wonderful models, and I even left most of the doodads off them. I was happy enough with the amount of detail they had, and I figure if I do some for my Templars, they can use more of that Imperial bling. I also used the new Ultramarines accessories and decals here, but that kit has the hot dogs/buns problem where there's only 5 Terminator pads in the box, so if you want to dress up a bunch of Terminators with specific iconography - say, a Crux Terminatus box's worth - it's going to cost you. Still, I'm very happy with how these came out, and I'm excited to paint Ultramarines again for the first time in years.

As for what's next, I already mentioned Crux Terminatus and my excitement for Ultramarines, so expect some combination of those factors come November. That said, my old wrist injury is acting up and I've got trips at the end of October and in November to factor in, so my hobby might be sadly taking a bit of a backseat until December. Still, I'm sure I'll paint at least one tiny bald screaming man between now and Thanksgiving; they're certainly not in short supply.

Bair

I've been in a real hobby rut the last couple months which was bound to change at some point and it just so happened to in the last week of October. At the start of the month though our friendly neighbourhood Cronch asked a few folks on the site to paint up and share thoughts about Roknauts which are massive nostalgia hits of Warhammer Squats as they were when originally made, just modernised a bit in scale and sculpt. I painted up one of the unit leaders and the resin was very clean. It's really nice getting to paint up an odd one off figure like this every now and then that I don't feel any kind of draw to doing a full army or even skirmish-sized warband of. I don't often paint eyes but this guy needed it to be done and oh man has he seen some shit.

Rökthane Toothcutter Schiltron - Credit Bair

Next up was, easily, the stupidest project I've ever taken on. GREATHELM has really taken off in our discord server, for good reason, and so I asked "What is the most Goonhammer reskin for this game that could exist?" the first ideas were something around Gregbot destroying Greg in some capacity and then Rob came in with the obvious answer: Goonhammer Historicals banner image as a game. So I bought myself a sprue of Normans for the Noble Defenders and my first ever Rubicon tank kit for the obviously Cowardly, Perfidious, Tank. Yes the M10 is a tank destroyer, no I don't care.

Historical Banner - credit Bair

Soggy asked if anyone had stuff that they painted in October for this roundup and I realised that I only had ten models painted. Pathetic. Naturally I turned my head to the shelf full of built and primed Medieval stuff and decided to batch paint it. All of it. Well, almost all of it.

A tidy little batch of thirty-eight Victrix Sergeants (plus the two in wagons), First Corps Wagons and Cannon all with some crew, and four command stands from a variety of sources: First Corps, Medbury Minis (metal cast from Alternative Miniatures), and of course the Wargames Illustrated Jan Zizka. Planning on using these guys as Hussites in both Saga and Never Mind the Billhooks. Only another sixteen handgunners, eight mounted crossbowmen, four foot knights, and movement trays for the latter game to be made and painted. Next month, however, will be focused on some form of 40k army, probably, we'll see.

With these 56 models this month, that brings me up to a total 391 minis painted in the year of our Lord 2025.

Rockfish

I had vacation away from home and my usual health issues so I didn't manage a ton this month but I did get some more mechs...

...and some cultists.

Chaos Cultists. Credit: Rockfish

Rocco

It's been so long since I've had a model worthy of sharing in the monthly round up. Its also been so kong since I've painted a model to my own standard of sharing broadly! My local community (Long Island Wargames) has been running monthly RTT's and that really put the fire in my belly to get back on the hobby horse. Then, Suboden Khan was announced and released and I couldn't get my hands on him fast enough.

Suboden Khan of the Brotherhood of the Tidal Storm, Credit: Rocco Gest

I gotta show both sides, Credit: Rocco Gest

In conforming with my army theme I took some Idoneth bita and gave him a crest and replaced the blade on his power lance with an Idoneth thrall blade (or something. These bits have been floating in my bits box for years). I also did some sicko shit and cut Asterion Moloc's head out of his terminator torso, so that this guy could have a cool greek helmet. That's all I've got for this month. Hopefully I will be back here soon with more crab marines.

"Contemptor" Kevin Stillman

I only managed to get through four models in October, despite only traveling for the LVO for the first six days of said month. And three of them can fit into one picture. But first, by way of explanation:

The middle to end of October presented us with a whole host of brand new Ultramarines models. We're getting a big box of Terminators, a new Terminator Calgar to lead them, new Victrix Guard, and more! But it's been awhile since I've painted my Ultramarines, and I needed to get back into the practice. Furthermore, I'm slowly updating my Ultramarines to a brighter style that I can achieve via the airbrush versus the Artis Opus style drybrush I used during and a bit after the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The first model I finished during October was my Contemptor Dreadnought, so I guess you could say this is something of a self-portrait.

Contemptor Kevin. Credit: Contemptor Kevin Stillman

After finishing this guy, to the extent that I could while awaiting the new Ultramarines transfer sheet, I set my sights on something bigger. First though, I needed to paint some basing detail: a spare Primaris Company Champion I had lying about.

Credit: Kevin Stillman

That guy, however, was just basing detail for the big guy, an Acastus Knight Porphyrion.

Credit: Kevin Stillman

Credit: Kevin Stillman

This resin monster was a challenge to assemble and pose, given that I had never actually assembled a full resin Knight like this before and made certain errors with the legs. However, after a mountain of superglue, epoxy, and brass rods, it was assembled and painted into this gorgeous shelf queen you see before you.

The last model I painted in October was a present for my friend Dan "FromTheShire" Gates for use at the Warhammer 40K Grand Narrative. A Blood Angels Fellblade. After spending a month painting blue, gold, and white, it was a joy to paint a deep, vibrant red and black.

The Friend from Afar. Credit: Kevin Stillman

The Friend from Afar. Credit: Kevin Stillman

Now onto more Ultramarines!

Soggy

October was a bit of a wild one for me at work and other IRL commitments. Perhaps due to, or aggravated by the stop-start time I did have for hobby felt a bit cursed - continually dropping, losing parts for or forgetting to paint another small detail on a unit of Vanguard Veterans I am honestly glad to see the back of.

Salamanders Vanguard Veterans. Credit - Soggy

I do love the style of the Mk II jump pack, but this experience has put me off them for a little while. When I eventually do, I did magnatise my Centurion's backpack to act as a stand in Master of Descent for some hardened Istvaan survivors.

I did also squeak in a small hobby distraction unit from the Horus Heresy Legacies PDF (Legends for 40K folk) - a mounted Forge Lord. I think my favourite thing about him is that he has one less point of intelligence compared to the exact same unit on foot. As someone who rode for over a decade, I'm not sure what this says about those who ride motorcycles.

White Scars Mounted Forge Lord. Credit - Soggy

Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don't forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.

Tags: goonhammer hobby round-up