Since last year, Games Workshop have released the Venerable Dreadnought kit, which means that I don’t need to purchase a Forgeworld dread in order to get the head I want.  I’m actually sorely tempted to base it on Bjorn the Fellhanded – although as GW no longer sell the old model it could well be destined for a new release between now and September.

I think that in comparison to what I did last time (lots of armour cladding), I’ll go for a more simplistic design with runes and norse style knotwork.  I’m also thinking of going for a non-symetrical design, to add a bit of flavour to the whole thing.  I also need to think about what enemy I wish to have as last time the Chaos Space Marine looked truly crap.  Thinking about it, I may actually start with the base rather than the model

On that note, I’m going to have to have a rummage around and start purchasing the components I want.

Useful Links:

New ForgeWorld Space Wolves Dreadnought – looks ace and I like the simple banding around the various details.

It is still my intention to paint something for entry into Golden Demon this year, however due to time restrictions I’m not sure what I’m going to be able to do.  I had started to tidy up some Empire Outriders/Pistoleers so that’s still a possibility.

Anyway that’s just a small update of things – hopefully I’ll be getting back into painting fairly soon.

From the above photo I have deepened the shadows further, which has defined the areas further.  I need to push the highlights closer to pure Space Wolf Grey as well which will make the contrast difference between the highlight and shadow significant.  I also think that for future models I will darken the red by adding more Dark Flesh to the mixture.  This should provide a greater contrast for the highlights and also bring the model more ‘earthly’ than it currently is.

Oh, as I’m aware that this is a test piece I’ve actually purchased a spare set of legs, a torso and a head so that I could remake this model

I’ve now started painting the red on the Terminator.  I’m using a recipe that was shown in White Dwarf a few issues back when Space Hulk was re-released.  The biggest drawback with this is that it is taking quite a while to actually paint.  Now in fairness the terminator has a lot of red on it – both wolf claws, a knee pad and a whole shoulder pad.  The overall effect is really smooth though, so it’s worth the time investment.

Although this miniature has consumed upwards of 8 hours time so far, I currently believe that painting power armoured marines will take less time providing I paint them in batches of between 4 and 6.  Many of the issues I’ve come across so far have been technique issues as well – how thin to make the paint, what area to cover to achieve a smooth blend, neatness etc – all of which will improve with practice.  I’ll also mix up a bottle of the base red colour I use which will also save some more time.

I have however managed to get some painting squeezed into this last week and a half, so I’m thankfully not having large gaps in my hobby again.  I’ve managed to undercoat a Wolf Guard Terminiator with pair of Wolf Claws as I though that this would allow me to practice one of every item that my marines would have – wolf pelts, lightening weapons, face, armour, etc.  Overall I’m fairly happy with the progress that I’m making, modern terminators are really large models so it’s taking quite a while.  The basing technique that I’ve chosen looks absolutly fantastic and genuinly looks like this Wolf Guard is stood on top slate.

I have however come across a rather annoying item in my armour colour – I use Fenris Grey in the first three phases of painting the armour, this paint is one of Games Workshops Foundation Paint range which have a really good coverage.  The biggest drawback with this range is that as soon as you add water the paint seems to separate into a multitude of hues, Fenris Grey for example ends up with a rich purple sat on top of a mid/light grey.  The real problem comes in that you end up constantly mixing the colour up – normally with your expensive W&N brush in order to maintain a consistent colour ending up on your model.  I need to do some investigation to see if the addition of a flow retarder or similar will slow down the speed of this separation.  The armour on this miniature is far from complete and although it only requires four colours in total, in order to achieve a smooth transition is going to take quite a bit of time for each miniature.  However I’m sure that with a bit of practice I’ll be churning out armour in more of a production line style than this first one.  Justing rethinking I’m probably closer to finishing the armour than I thought as each progressive layer actually covers less area than the one before.

One thing that has just gone through my mind is to expand the Sky Claws by 5 more marines.  I also am thinking to try and replace the meltagun I’ve kitted one of them out, with a flamer (a BS of 3 means a meltagun might not be the best weapon).

I have made a few in-roads into my army however.  The scouts are assembled, although they require extensive conversion and filling – the regular scouts (the ones with bolters) are bloody horrific to assemble.  The legs and torso’s don’t really tie up correctly which limits the assembly possibilities.

Currently I’m assembling the pack of 14 Blood Claws – the chainswords make them a bit more time consuming to put together than Grey Hunters sadly.

As a slight variation I putchased an ‘Aegis Defense’ boxed set – the one that has the quad-linked autocanons and lots of barriers.  The actual molding on these pieces are fantastic – probably the best that I’ve come across on a GW kit.  Should be good practice for airbrushing and some of the weathering techniques within the ForgeWorld masterclass book before I attempt them on a tank.

Pretty much nothing else to say.  I have two days off at the end of this week, so am hopeful that I might get my Blood Claws assembled and perhaps the Long Fangs.  I’ll then go back and bulk out the packs using some of the spare models that I’ve got to give me a greater variety of options.  The current aim is to have an assembled 1000 point army ready to play with for Christmas.

Once they’re all based and ready I’ll go through and add any extra conversions and tweaks, such as fur on the scout cloaks, sand and talus on the bases etc.  The aim at that point is to make the all of the models gel together as units.

Of course I do have to assemble 3 more tanks and paint 4 of them (with a possible two more being repainted).  I reckon the tanks will most likely be my Christmas project!

I’m also currently wondering if I need the Iron Priest or not.  Originally it fitted in with the background fluff of Egil Iron Wolf, but that doesn’t make any difference anymore.  More Wolf Guard might be good – I could have a Lone Wolf, but then that’d end up being quite dull (they’re so good that most armies will have one).

All of the torso’s have been tidied up and gaps filled with green stuff.  The Skyclaws (5) are ready to glue onto their bases (more on that shortly) as is the smaller pack of Grey Hunters (5).  The larger pack of Grey Hunters (8) just need the shoulder pads glued on a few and appropriate heads selected and fitted.  This leaves the large pack of Blood Claws (14) which need a few more legs tidied up and then arms, shoulder pads and heads.  The scouts (10) need to be tidied up and assembled.  Finally the long fangs require quite a bit more work assembling than I originally thought.  So tonight I will be able to base up 18 models and have a futher 30 to so.  So 40% ish of the troop element of the army done.

On the subject of bases (I said in the last paragarh) I’ve worked out what I’m actually going to do.  After seeing a article on the internet I’ve baked a slab of Super Sculpy to about 4mm thick (rolled out with a beer bottle) which I’m snapping off small pieces with a pair of pliers.  I didn’t kneed it very thoroughly, which results in quite nice fracture lines when you snap it – almost simulating slate.  Now some people’s reaction might be “why don’t you just use slate” the answer is quite simple – I can bake Sculpy to have a flat bottom and relativly flat top – which glues onto a base much more successfully than slate does.  It’s lighter, easier to drill/cut/finish and finally more secure when you fix a model to it (which is actually the most important point).  I’m gluing the Sculpy to the base with superglue and putting a small pin into the foot of the marine and through the base (folded over underneath).  This results in a very firm and secure fixing – easily able to sustain being transported around in a case.  Another really nice effect is that the slab of Sculpy has a curved (i.e. not snapped) edge, which will give quite a cool effect when snow flocked.

Sadly I can’t see me making as much progress on my army again as this spurt of activity was due to having the house to myself for a whole weekend (a once a year occurance at best).  However I belive that I’ve broken the back of the task – at least from an assembly point of view.  This might sound peculiar, but the time consuming bit is sorting out the torso’s as they require gluing together, tidying up when dry and then filling – so two long-ish drying times before they can be used.  The Long Fang weapons are multipart and sadly look like they’re going to require quite a bit of green stuff to put together the Lascannons and Heavy Bolters.  The scouts are largely fixed posed (sadly), but this makes the assembly slightly more straight forward.  Blood Claws are pretty straight forward, a matter of gluing all of the bits together (probably an evenings work at a guess).

Now I normally have some kind of moan or gripe on my posts and this one is sadly no exception.  What has baffled me is the selection of regular bolters available on the new Wolf Pack sprues.  You get a total of 4 bolters on each sprue pair (of which you get two in each box).  Of these 4, two are molded on arms which point out in some direction (one up and one out), the other two are like the other tactical marines in that you get a pair of arms and the gun glues on.  What baffles me is the lack of variety that this gives you.  The ones that are the same as tactical arms do have some flexibility, but the arms with the guns attached have no change in them at all – resulting in you having to fix them in the direction the arm has been made in – in one case straight upwards :s  What I don’t understand is why they didn’t have all of the guns detached and arms separate.  The same actually goes for the selection of pistols on the sprue – you have a total of 6 plasma pistols in a box – why there is no pack that can have that many?  Why did GW not just have the arms and pistols separate.  It would have made the whole thing much more straight forward, both the production and construction aspects.  Plus you could have used pistol arms with bolters and had lots of potential.

The other thing that is starting to get my goat a little is that most legs put the emphasis into the left-hand shoulder being put in front – which means the bolter is held in the marine’s right hand and supported by the left – this is logical and it’s easy to put this natural motion into a marine to make it look dynamic and action packed.  However the vast majority of the new Space Wolf heads have pony tails or similar flowing to the left of their face – sounds good until you try and glue the bloody thing into place “Oh my marine is looking to the right, but the gun isn’t”.  The basic dynamism of the marine seems to have been forgotten when creating many of the heads.  I also want to know who the hell thought that a Space Wolf with flowing locks like a Bretonian Knight would be suitable?  It looks bloody rediculous by anybodies standard.

I don’t want to do Ragnar’s as to be honest it’s been done to death and is the GW standard army.  Logan Grimnar’s force would require dozens of Wolf Guard and finally Erik Moraki’s army should be stealthy and small – so hobson’s choice leaves Bjorn Stormwolf’s army.

The military actions of Bjorn Stormwolf’s Great Company are typified by noise, intimidation, and splendour.  Bjorn is a hairy, red-faced mountain of muscle to whom calm and introspection are foreign concepts.  He has taken the Thunderwolf as his symbol, for he too is a creature of might and ferocity over stealth.

Bjorn fills a silence with his booming voice ust as completely as he fills his ornate suit of Terminator armour.  He has been know to interrupt  Imperial dignitaries with a loud belch (or worse) if they begin to bore him.  Bjorn’s spectacular assaults reflect his impatient and aggressive nature, and invariably include lots of heavy weapons, bikes and Vindicators – essentially anything that makes a great deal of noise.  The Great Wolf always employs Bjorn for frontal assaults rather than stealth missions favoured by Erik Morkai, which the Stormwolf dismissively refers to as ‘whelp-work’

So with the exception of a large block of scouts my army isn’t too far off a suitable army.  The other thing that is nice is that I like is that it means that I can have a good bit of fun with converting Wolf Guard in terminator armour.  The conversion of Stormwolf himself should also be an exciting challenge as well.