13th Space Wolf Company

When I started playing with the idea of putting together a Space Wolves army, there were two things I wanted to accomplish; the first, staying the fuck away from the hideous "baby blue" Space Wolves Grey color, the second, making my army stand apart from other Space Wolves in Da Momma's Boyz club, here in Pullman.

I came across the solution to both by painting my army after the 13th Great Company, the lost (and later found) company of Space Wolves. The 13th Company is characterized by retaining the "pre-heresy" grey colors of the original astartes assigned to Leman Russ. In addition, the 13th company spent decades lost in the Eye of Terror, and over the years had to scavenge replacement parts for their equipment from traitor legions they fought. Perfect since I am using warriors of chaos bits on my models.

Progress is slow, but for now, here is the test transport: 

Next on my list: Land Raider, Drop Pod, Aegis Defense Line+Quad Gun. And of course, the entire rest of the army.

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.