Slow Grow Challenge: Final Team Mantic Check-In

Slow Grow Challenge: Final Check-In with Team Mantic

The Kings of War Slow Grow Challenge is officially wrapping up.

Over the past six months, we’ve been building and painting our way toward new Kings of War armies, one milestone at a time. Along the way, we’ve shared progress from Team Mantic, spotlighted community projects from around the world, and watched a load of new armies come to life.

A huge “thank you” to everyone who took part, shared updates, encouraged other hobbyists, or followed along with the blog series. Seeing so many people getting models painted and armies built has been truly awesome.

For one last time, let’s check in with the Team Mantic challengers and see where they ended up.

Tobias - Xirkaali

TW: I’m very happy to say that I ended the challenge with close to 3,000 points of Xirkaali painted!

Tobias's full Slow Grow army - an impressive achievement!

Overall, I’m really pleased with how the army looks. The orange and green really pops, and while the individual models might not win any high-end painting competitions, I think the army makes for a good spectacle on the table and will turn heads at a tournament or casual game.

Tobias's Shaoquan

In terms of favourite units, my Lionsnarl Cavalry are definitely up there. I took a punt by painting the lions as if they were reanimated jade dragons, but I think they look rather cool, and they should be a bit different from other people’s interpretations of the models.

Tobias's Lionsnarl Cavalry

The Gokluu was also great fun to paint. It was nice to work with some more varied colours compared to the rest of the army, although I’m still not totally convinced by how his face turned out! I might go back and touch it up at some point.

Tobias's Gokluu Dragon

I also really enjoyed the Yan Warrior Monks. They were some of the easiest models I’ve had the pleasure to build and batch paint. They don’t need too many colours, the sculpts give you really clear definition between the different parts of the model, and they take washes very nicely. That meant I could get good contrast with very little highlighting.

Tobias's Yan Warrior Monks

Back at the start of the challenge, I said I wanted to slow down a little and add more detail than usual. In the end, I did find it very easy to slip back into old habits. The detail on the Xirkaali models is so crisp that I didn’t always feel I needed to go to town on them, even though I definitely could have added more if I wanted to. I think that’s a real strength of the range, though. It works well whether you want to paint quickly or spend more time on the details.

Tobias's Khon-Bukhan Mortar plus crew

The main thing I learned is that painting with orange is an absolute treat, and that I still really enjoy churning out an army fairly quickly.

Tobias's Matriarch

My advice to anyone starting a new Kings of War army would be to paint little and often. If you can do 30 minutes to an hour each day, it really helps. Whether you’re aiming for near perfection on every model or trying to get units finished at speed, that regular progress is great for motivation. Life can always throw curveballs, but it’s much easier to aim for 30 minutes and end up doing more than to set yourself a huge target and feel disappointed when you don’t hit it.

As for my next hobby project, I’ve been on a mission to collect and paint everything we release for Halo: Flashpoint. I only have one model left from the current range, then I’ll be ready and waiting for the Marines, Grunts and Jackals to arrive!

Dan - Xirkaali

DM: My first 1,000 points came together at a good pace and is all fully painted to a tabletop standard with jungle basing and even some simple and fun conversions, for example,  Plainstalkers on Lionsnarl mounts for my ranged cavalry. It's a fully playable Ambush army, I’m really pleased with the colour scheme, and I actually found the deadline great for keeping things moving.

Dan's first 1000 points

But just as I was hitting my stride…surprise! Life got unexpectedly busy after the halfway mark, and while my paintbrush has been taking a rest, I was able to keep on building. There’s now a large Gokluu, a converted Wildfang-mounted Hwathca, Siege Master, plus several regiments of Yan infantry and Xirkaali Spearwardens awaiting their turn on the painting bench.

The remainder of Dan's army - waiting for their date with a paint brush!

I’m looking forward to completing the army at a more leisurely pace through the rest of 2026. Thanks to everyone out there for following along with the blog and building armies of your own – the Slow Grow has felt like a real shared adventure!

Alex - Trident Realms

AG: I’ve been painting away quite regularly throughout Stage Four, and have made some good progress on my Trident Realm army. The batch I’ve been working on would take me past the 2,000-point threshold and, although I really tried to get it all finished in time for this blog, I wasn’t quite able to get there in time.

Most of it is very close. Everything has been base coated and washed, some units are waiting for highlights, and a few are fully painted and just need to be properly based.

Alex's painting desk - the rest of the army is almost done!

I can show off a couple of finished new units today: one of my two Knuckers, and my Depth Horror Eternal. I’m really happy with how the army’s colour scheme looks on these larger models.

Alex's first Knucker (everyone knows Knuckers are best in pairs!)

I’ll continue hobbying away to get those remaining WIP units finished and based. The thought of seeing the whole army ranked up together is a great motivator! Though I must admit, I’ll likely be finishing things off at a more relaxed pace.

One of the most interesting things about running this challenge has been seeing how differently people approach their hobby. Some people really enjoyed having deadlines to aim for, whereas others told me they prefer a more casual rhythm. Some found hitting the six-week milestones a stretch, while others breezed past the targets and ended up painting far more than 2,000 points. I think it’s great that we have this diversity of styles and approaches within our hobby.

The pace we set for the challenge looked quite sensible on paper but, in hindsight, I think it was slightly faster than my own natural hobby speed. That’s been a useful lesson. I think the sweet spot for army building is to find what works for you – an approach that ensures you do actually get things done, while still keeping the process relaxed and enjoyable in its own right. The Slow Grow came close to that for me, but was maybe just a little quicker than what would have been comfortable.

Alex's Depth Horror Eternal

So, I haven’t quite hit the final target on time. But I came close, and honestly, I’m pleased with that. I moved house shortly after the challenge began, which was a fairly major setback in hobby terms, so getting this far still feels like a win. I’m very happy with my colour scheme, I’ve really enjoyed painting the Trident Realm miniatures, and I now have an almost finished army that is just waiting for me to get it across the line. Overall, I count the challenge as a success!

Ross - Ogres

RC: As readers may remember, I’m a board-gaming veteran but a newbie when it comes to miniature wargaming. The main thing that excited me about the challenge was just dipping my toe into the Kings of War waters for the first time, and in that sense, I feel like it’s “goal achieved”.

I am a bit sad that I wasn’t able to get more done – obviously I’ve been settling into my new role as Mantic’s crowdfunding manager this year, and the 6-month challenge period saw me launching not one but two crowdfunding projects: DreadBall All Stars and The Ghost in the Shell Tabletop Roleplaying Game. Those have been pretty major endeavours, and I ended up not quite being able to put as much energy into building and painting my Ogres as I would have liked.

Such is life! But I’m really happy to have painted my first Company for Kings of War Champions, and with Alex’s help I’ve also worked on expanding that to a 1,000 point list for Kings of War’s Ambush mode. I’ve built and primed the extra miniatures I need (only nine more models – aren’t Ogres great?! haha), and I’ll look forward to continuing my Pannithor journey when life calms down a little.

Ross's next batch of Ogres - built, primed and ready for some paint!

Ultimately, this challenge has taken me from someone who’d basically never picked up a paintbrush before, to someone who now has his own little collection of paints, brushes, and hobby essentials, and who has painted his first miniatures – a process which I genuinely enjoyed. I’ve crossed the threshold and am excited to see where the hobby takes me next!

Thank You For Joining the Challenge

And with that, the 2026 Kings of War Slow Grow Challenge comes to an end.

Congratulations to Tobias, who absolutely smashed the target, and a massive “thank you” again to everyone who joined in. Whether you painted 500 points, 2,000 points or far more than that, we sincerely hope the challenge helped you to make progress and enjoy the journey.

Now, are you looking for an excuse to get your army on the table? We have just the thing! The Siege of Samarik summer campaign runs until the end of Sunday, 30th August, so this coming weekend is the perfect time to play some games and have your say in the future of Pannithor.

The challenge may be over, but there’s always more building, painting and gaming to be done – that’s the beauty of this hobby. Onwards and upwards!