Time for a nerd vacation

I'm taking off Thursday to go to Evolution 2012, which is sort of a work related thing for me, but pay no attention to that. What's important is that there is a GW central store in Ottawa and I have a credit card but what's MORE important, is that I'm taking a detour through Madison WI, to visit Justin (of Justin's Gaming Blog) and Rachel. Our plan is to drink and play games for 7 consecutive days, including figuring out the 6th edition of Warhammer 40K. Words cannot describe the anticipation.

This is what I'm packing plus some underwear to cushion the minis. LET THE GAMES BEGIN!

Space Wolves Grey...

In an effort to minimize the amount of work I need to put into painting tanks and other large-surfaced vehicles, I am taking a shortcut by Alex's recommendation. I am priming the vehicles grey, which will replace the grey basecoat, leaving only the other color basecoats, black inking, dark grey drybrushing, light grey drybrushing, details, brown inking, and highlights... did I mention this will save me time?

As an unexpected side effect, the grey primer looks uncannily similar to bare plastic...leaving me with a) little clue over what's been primed and what's not, and b) making my models look like I painted the details directly over plastic. The embarrassment.

(From the left, painted, primed, unprimed. Can't see the difference? Me neither...)

In fact, if it wasn't for the brass plate on the door, you could not tell which is which from the pictures.

The final product, not entirely a complete disaster:

Markings and symbols to come. I really hope I am in fact saving time and not spending extra time mending for not having a solid basecoat.

Space Vikings

Without giving much though into the theme for my Space Wolves army, I set out to put together some models. I read a nice post from Space-Wolves-Grey on how to convert fantasy Chaos Warriors into Space Wolves, and found that the look would highlight my HQ/independent character models. The look sets in really well with the idea of Space Vikings (which is not really all that different from regular Space Wolves), and this has compelled me to buy random Chaos bits from eBay to accentuate my regular models. I think it's coming out quite nicely.

(Roose the Black Wolf and Buliwyf)

(Erik the Red and Halga the Bear)

Unfortunately, I have now learned this are not the best builds for Wolf Lords, and while they would do nicely as Rune Priests, I will probably add a few more caped vikings with power fists to the unit and make them Wolf Guard, which can then split up to lead a squad of Grey Hunters each. They look like they would enjoy some front line action in any case...

WHAT HAVE I DONE?!?

I...finally gave in. I acquired a small army (2500pt or so) of Space Wolves, my first incursion into GW. I have to say, I never liked the idea of painting forty-plus of the same model, so Space Wolves with their custom heroes seem a better choice for me.

Despite getting this army from an ebay auction, most of the models were disassembled on their original spruces, which means I will get to assemble them as I choose. All together, I have:

-4x 10 man Grey Hunters (and meltagun bits!)
-1x 10 man Wolf Guard on power armour
-2x 5 man Wolf Guard Terminators
-1x 3 man Thunderwolf Cav.
-1x 8 man Wolf Scouts
-1x 5 man Long Fangs
-1 Forge World Space Wolves Venerable Dreadnought

My favorite part, the Space Wolves Warjack (for some reason they call them "Dreadnoughts" in the codex. Weird):

Now, all I need to do is choose some colors, maybe a theme (something along the lines of Space Vikings), and assemble and paint forty-some models. We will call this my summer project.

Oh, and I need to learn how to play this game...

Painting Cav

If there is a painting hell, a place where we pay for our sins as modelers, for me, it would entail painting cav, day and night. Painting cav is the bastard child of painting infantry and painting large models. They have so much surface to cover, and there are so many of them!

Cygnar's Storm Lances are a great unit, specially with the addition of Kat Laddermore, if one can afford 12/16 points. I love fielding mine, but they have been half-painted for over a year now. No amount of work I put on them seems to be enough. I started with Kat, and it felt like forever to get her done, including basing.

Then I started working on the cav models, one color at a time. It was so dreadful I had to finish one, to get a sense of accomplishment. Then the next, then the next. Today I finally have the min unit painted, although I will wait to finish all five before I do washes and highlights. Let's not even mention basing yet.

One thing that made painting easier was to work on the rider separately. It helps get the details done correctly, without half the model always being in the way. Gluing the rider to a temporary base helps out. Like a lot.

I hope to get them finished some day...

eHaley and Thorn

Thorn is Victoria Haley's favorite warjack, and arguably the best arc node in the game. Thorn was my first character 'jack and has never disappointed in a game. I waited all this time to upload pictures of Thorn because I had never painted any of the Haleys, simply because I have never played them. Not until now.

Spring is the season to re-paint

Nothing motivates you to paint your infantry like a tournament, and with lock and load approaching, this is the perfect time to update the look of some of the units making it to the tables.

First off, the Stormblades. This unit has probably made the most appearances on my lists (bar perhaps the Precursor Knights), and yet, it had the most obsolete paint scheme of all. I inherited my Stormblades when I purchased a second hand battlebox, when I was inducted into Warmachine. Half of them were painted Cygnar blue and gold, and I simply finished painting the rest of them. Later on when I painted the Thunderhead, I settled into my personal color scheme for Cygnar: cygnar blue highlight, dwarf bronze metals, golden yellow emblems, and tons of white to complement the blue.

Now, finally a match to the rest of the Storm Knights:

Lastly, the Arcane Tempest Gun Mages. I have no one to blame for this one but myself. This was the first "new" unit I ever purchased and the first one I painted  (and a good reference to how much I have improved as a painter). Due to some wrong information I received from an old player, I painted them Ultramarines blue, thinking it was the same color as Cygnar blue. In fact, my entire battlebox was painted Ultramarines blue for a long time.

Sadly, this was not the last of an ongoing list of bad painting decisions. When I painted eCaine, I wanted his colors to reflect his status as a rogue warcaster, so I opted for Shadow Gray instead of Cygnar blue. Then, of course, his battlegroup (one defender and two hunters) needed to match. By now, all my ranged 'jacks are shadow gray, and so are a few Gun Mage solos. Accordingly, I updated the ATGM to match:

Currently, my army is composed of cygnar blue and white storm-nouns, and shadow gray gun mages (and a custom white and green Morrowan army!). This is mostly fine, since my lists rarely involve both of these types of unit together, but it does happen, and it makes me regret not sticking to one color scheme from the beginning. Hindsight is 20:20...