Flying time

November 27, 2009 in General

I can’t believe that there has been 10 days since my last post, it’s true that the closer to the festive period you get the faster the time seems to fly past.

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.

Tags:
No Comments »

Almost there

November 16, 2009 in General

Well the weekend went quite well, especially considering I didn’t actually do lots in the way of modelling.  I did however get all 14 Blood Claws assembled & based and also finished off the Scouts and based those as well (yes two dozen bases).  So all I have left to do is the 6 Long Fangs, 2 Wolf Guard and 1 Battle Leader, plus Wolf Guard for the Sky Claws (I’m excluding the various metal ‘priest’ models I have).  By using various old marine components I had around I’ve actually managed to do it without using any of the bodies that were in the Battle Force boxed set, giving me 20 marines with which I can play with to fill out existing packs and to build a new one or two.  I think that my next step will be to assemble my Razorback.  I’ll then likely do the Long Fangs then the Wolf Guard and begin to convert and customise all of the models from there on.

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).

No Comments »

Another GD2010 idea

November 11, 2009 in Golden Demon 2010

This idea is probably the first that I actually feel genuine enthusiasm towards.  As I may have mentioned, I feel that a lot of the recent diorama’s that have won at Golden Demon have been small and don’t have much in the way of ‘battle’ in them – they are however brilliant on technical and painting levels.  The category allows you to use a 1 ft cube (or 30cm for those who prefer metric) and I personally think that it’s a shame not to use every available bit of this.

So whilst I’ve been looking on the internet, I’ve always had in the back of my mind that it would be nice to have something suitable for this maximum sized cube – and I now think I’ve got it.  Basically it’s a Tomb King dungeon scene, where a party of intreped adventurers have broken into a tomb complex, battled their way past various traps and found that the treasures are actually protected by all manner of undead gribblies.

The concept is that the piece will be a two-level cross-section.  The walls will be embossed in some manner, allowing for all of the various Tomb King murals to be incorporated into the piece.  Painting the environment will be pretty straight forward as all of the sandstone can be done using an airbrush, which should create quite a bit of depth and atmosphere.  There will be an upper level that will contain the ‘outside frontage’, which will lead into a small chamber via a hallway (including devilish traps), at the end of the chamber will be a spiral staircase (because all good dungeons have one) which will then lead down into the lower level and then into a final large chamber with Tomb King and sarcophagus.  One thing that I want to do is to make the last chamber appear untouched by the ravages of time as if preserved by some magical statis field – hopefully I can incorporate water fountains in this as well.  The top level needs to look decrepit, plaster falling off the walls, cobwebs, long dead bodies etc – similar to how ancient egyptian tombs look now (well without bodies).

I will need to investigate a good way of making realistic sand as real sand is too coarse to just glue on and expect it to look right.  I have had some thoughts about the walls as well.  If I get a piece of plasticard and glue on thin wire in the shape of the required embossing (sealing the edges with PVA glue or putty), I could then pour a thin layer of super fine plaster of paris over it.  When this has set I can then grease patches where I want the plaster to fall off (poking a hole through so I know where to bash) and then pour a layer of regular plaster.  Finally once set sand the back off and fix to some plasticard or similar to make a solid wall.  I can poke and gouge the areas that are greased which should flop off as it it had in real life.  I also think that I could get a mini sand blaster and spray the outer layer to weather it (you can get one for around £30).

I think that this could be ‘the one’, in which case I’ll start planning out the construction.  In principal, two 1ft squares of mdf and four corner spacers will be the starting point.

Userful Links:

Inner Lower Chamber
Outside Idea 1
Outside Idea 2
Chamber Idea 2

No Comments »

Possible GD2010 Project

November 9, 2009 in Golden Demon 2010

I may be mad, but I’ve had a bit of a thought for a GD2010 project – a scratch build Thunderhawk Gunship.  Although you can actually purchase a Forgeworld model and GW have produced a metal one in the past (yes I remember that one – it came in a velvet lined oak box), it is still a fantastically impressive piece.  I’d likely make it in some kind of diorama carrying some vehicles or dropping off troops.

One of the really nice things about what is in essence a Space Marine vehicle is that it doesn’t need billions of rivets like a Imperial Guard vehicle would.  Although it would be a large project, the most complicated pieces are the two jet engines.  All of the weapons can be purchased from existing plastic kits.

Useful Links
http://www.grafstar.com/wh40k/resources.html – Contains some very rough plans (useful for scale)
http://www.ironhands.com/thawk.htm – A 2001 home grown one, using various plastic toys

No Comments »

so the socialising begins

November 8, 2009 in General

I can’t believe that almost two weeks have passed since any kind of post.  In my defense I’ve not actually done much in the way of modelling due to other commitments – yes mostly social :)   I always find at this time of year that November seems to be more busy than December as many of the people who I know tend to have family commitments so cram as much into November as possible.

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.

No Comments »

Eighteen Done

October 27, 2009 in General

It took me less time than I originally thought and I now have eighteen nicely based marines.  Five Skyclaws, a pack of five Grey Hunters and another pack of eight Grey Hunters.  Overall I’m very happy with how they’ve come out, the bases add 2 to 3 mm onto the height of each marine and because it’s not a consistent thickness makes them all seem slightly different heights (they’re not clones of each other after all).  My next task is to assemble the ten scouts that I have as these require arms, bodies and legs to be matched and if I move them then I’m going to end up muddling them all up.  I’m tempted to add more onto the bases with these, such as tree trunks and similar, but not sure yet.  I’ll probably do the massive fourteen strong pack of Blood Claws after that.  I can then concentrate on the Long Fangs and Wolf Guard (yes, I’d forgotten about the Wolf Guard Battle Leader and his friends).

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).

No Comments »

A lot of work done – but still a lot to do!

October 26, 2009 in General

I must admit that I’ve had a fantastic weekend modelling and getting my Space Wolves army together.  It’s not been constant (which is a good thing as my brain would likely have melted) and I’ve got a chunk of the army ready.

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.

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags:
No Comments »

A slight change of direction

October 23, 2009 in General

I’ve been having a serious think about how to go about ‘labelling’ up my Space Wolf army and have decided to (sadly) take a change.  I really would like to do an army themed around Egil Iron Wolf’s Great Company, however the standard decal sheet doesn’t have his company symbol on it.  I could create my own decal sheet, but to be honest I’ve spent more than enough cash on my army already and would rather spend time assembling my army in preference to creating decal sheets on the computer.  The standard decal sheet gives a number of different company symbols for shoulder pads – you have “The Wolf that Stalks Between Star” (Great Wolf) – “Blackmane Wolf” (Ragnar’s company) – “Thunderwolf” (Bjorn Stormwolf) – “Deathwolf Moraki” (Erik Moraki’s company) – (Logan Grimnar’s company)

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.

Tags: , ,
No Comments »

Techmarine – what a beast!

October 21, 2009 in General

The handful of bits I ordered over the weekend from Games Workshop arrived yesterday, but due to various reasons I didn’t actually get a chance to open them until tonight.  The techmarine and his servitor retinue are actually quite nice models, though quite fiddly.  To make him suitably Space Wolfy is going to be a bit of a challenge, but not horrific (I hope), numerous wolf skins and pelts are going to be needed, along with using some arms from the Wolf Pack sprues.  One thing that I have realised is that this model is actually 3 or 4mm taller than a regular power armoured marine – the same height as a terminator.

Overall including the Battle Force that I’m getting tomorrow I will only be needing 1 more razorback and a plastic jump pack to have well over a 2,000 point army (17 power armoured marines and two drop pods worth) – the bits for it anyway, I still need to put them together!  It looks like I’ve only got a handful of things that I *have* to do this weekend, so potentially have 2 whole days and 3 evenings which I can use to construct an army – mwu hahaha.  One thing that has dawned on me is that I can actually put out all of my army on the dining room table as nobody is going to be wanting to need it, it should mean that I get a much clearer idea of where I am throughout the weekend.

I have also chanced across quite a clever article on how to make the main weapon of the Razorback magnetised, so that it can be swaped out should I want to.  I’m going to try and make fairly large portions of my vehicles magnetised as it will ultimately give me more flexibility with which to chop and change should the need arise.

Tags:
No Comments »

A nice wolf colour scheme

October 20, 2009 in General

I may have already ranted about this in the past, but I fundimentally dislike many of the colour schemes used for Space Wolves.  The standard Games Workshop scheme is far too ‘baby blue’ for what are essentially savage space marines.  Grey is a popular alternative (I even used it for my 2009 Golden Demon entry), but I find that it limits painting other areas on a miniature – for example rocks on the base or grey hair, highlighting pure grey is also a bugger as the paint becomes quite chalky unless special care is taken.

I’ve done a bit of research on this in the past, but have never found anything that for me looks right along with being relativly straight forward to paint.  However ‘Countersunk81′ on the Cool Mini or Not forums recently posted up a classic Sergeant mini with what I think is quite a good ‘middle of the road’ colour scheme.  Being nosey, I asked how he painted the armour which he explains in his reply.  However to repeat it here for convienience, it’s basically a variant on the Games Workshop scheme recently shown in an issue of White Dwarf…

Read the rest of this entry →

Tags:
No Comments »

← Previous Entries
Next Entries →