Another day at the office

aka very little done.

The weekend brought 12 hour shifts and so little has been added to my company apart from I've painted up the first of my actual long fangs and decided on a shoulder design for them. No picture as yet, want to get all of them together. Having seen the contents of the new space wolf box set (2 packs, 1 scout, 1 drop pod) due out later in october i may go for one of those, sell the scouts and spares and sit on the rest of my long fangs till then.

I've managed to get a few of my skyclaws basecoated in grey, again will probably finish those off with bits from the pack sprues. Also done the first lick of paint in drop pod no 1, just the doors, stanchions, thrusters, weapons, emblems, harnesses to go. Found a nice colour scheme on someone elses blog page (http://weemen.blogspot.com/2009/01/relictors-drop-pod.html ) and will be using the black doors on my drop pods.

Drawn up a plan for the company too which completely overloads a standard set up and points but lets me choose from what I have for the game in hand i.e. more antipersonnel for orcs, heavy armour piercers and ap for nids, etc. I figure this gives me about 100 figures - a full company and plenty of armour options. Only thing i haven't got yet is a dreadnought in there but with so much other mobile artillery its debatable whether i need it or not.

Long Fang Sergeant

Had difficulty getting the light right to photograph this guy, maybe should be on photo lessons not painting ones :)
Anyway, I originally saw this conversion on an Army for sale on ebay by GMM Studios and it made me chuckle so I squirreled the parts away to make my own version and just never put it together. But I got distracted by a girl...story of my life. This time in a painting way. I dropped off my competition piece at the local store and she was painting diamonds on her shoulder pads with varying degrees of success.
So when I came home I decided to see if there was an easy way and yes there was, cut them in with the modelling drill and then black line the grooves - great for those of us who don't have steady hands.
The rest of the figure was fairly easy - its not the actual missile launcher arm as I'd used that for something else but the hand glued onto another one. The gun arm had to be pinned at the wrist and gun to get the pose to hold as its a biker arm cut to position, standard hand and the position was just to weighty to get the gun to sit in place while glue dried. Followed up with my standard wolf colours and tada....one wolf either frightened of his own gun or blasting the lock off a door at close range. They're wolves - lets go for option 2.
All I want to do now is learn how to paint those fantastic glowing plasma guns I keep seeing.

Wolf Pack Herald 2

And after a few days painting this is it - the finished article. Not the best in the world but good for me :)

After trying shadow blue i went back to adeptus grey and having coated all the armour in base coat I attacked him with some black ink and a fine brush - for the first time ever I did some black lining. I was amazed at how the figure changed its look straight away, actually started to look more proffessional and didn't take as long as i thought it would.

Then I systematically attacked all the detail pieces, drilled rivet holes in the side on wolfs head and just started layering up everything but the armour in base tones and highlights.

Once that was done I glued on the arms and started layering shades of greys, then drybrshing fortress grey and finally adding some white highlights.

I did the same to the powerpack then started on with a simple greenstuff cloak. Only about my fourth proper attempt to use this and I was hampered by having left my moulding tools at home, this being done surrepticiously on my desk at work. Surprisingly a pair of tweezers worked well for me and gave me a too layered cloak - I wanted cloth overlain with furs closer to the top. After the paint job it has more of the look of hide with fur and skin. I wasn't happy with the painting on the cloak as it didn't have the cloth look I wanted but decided to go with the result as bare hides are probably more in keeping with wolves anyway.

Once that was done and painted I mounted up the powerpack and rolled out the fine detail brush to touch up the few areas I had managed to knock with the cloak colours.

And so finally my competition piece. Like I said, not the best but will do for me.

Wolf Pack Herald

Finally its here :) The first of the figures from the new wolf pack box.
Well, two of them actually although technically one is my sons. He's decided to enter the Space Wolf painting comp too, all he needs is to convince the GW manager to have an under 14's section too. He's gone for using the new Wolf Claws for his whereas I went with the nice big axe for the pose it creates.
Not sure if he has a finished article in mind. I went in knowing which pieces I wanted from the sprue pics and having handled them earlier in the week. The intention is to create the first of my new Wolf Guard and have him as a Skald (storyteller/history keeper). Thats where the Empire wizard parts come in. One of the arm sets from THAT sprue (yes the one with the flaming sword) have some nice scroll work round the edges so the intention is to trim them down and use a bit of green stuff to mold in the missing sections and have it billowing out behind him.
On the photo from the top you can see our collected parts. Below that are the ones I'm using. Then undercoated and legs based followed by what mine looks like after it's first layer of colour. Still not happy with the shadow grey, may go back to using adeptus, codex and forest grey in layers, it gives a nicer finish to it I think than the bluer shades.

A day off

Life always has a habit of getting in the way.
This time its the complete lack of the arrival of my guns for the Prometheus conversion. So instead spent most of the day painting the bathroom and hallway. As enthralling as that was I suspect no one is interested in the grey and white paint scheme or close up photo's.
In the end I finished up rescuing one of my ebay dreadnoughts. The small picture at the top is the Prometheus and the dreadnought as they were bought. One dash of undercoat and then an attack of codex grey.
I didn't bother doing any individualisations on the dread as its been painted up for my son's Ghostrider chapter. His marines are in grey with yellow pads and black greaves with flames. So after sticking on some plasticard Iron plates to represent extra armour and rebuilding the missing Leg plates with the same I added on the chapter flames around the weapons and legs.
Not my best but he was happy, and so was I - he traded me a drop pod for it so I can remount my Bloodclaws :)

These on the other hand are his Black Reach orc's I painted for him on another bored day. The kopta was no problems but teh Nobz looked boring so out with the bitz box. Some chaos spikes, old school power axe, lightning claw, Tau weaponry and a knife in the back later and they looked more the part than before.
I had intended to paint up all his defkopta's in the same scheme but he's decided he's selling his orcs to fund other projects so I'm just going to sit and twiddle my thumbs till my gun's arrive.
Or I make enough money on ebay to buy a conversion set.

Prometheus Stage Two

With the new rules promoting a rethink on slots and uses I decided that the Prometheus would be Egil's personal one. He's described as charging in with a Landraider adorned with shields from his home village so something distinctive should fit the bill nicely.

As to distinctive, I started with the shields then looked at the ragnar literature which describes many of the thirteenth with scenes of battle and home on their armour. So I've decided to extend this onto Egil's Raider.

One side has a dragon boat across the door, the other a navigational chart. Both sides have shields and pictures of mountains in the two insets. On the top there is a Thor's Hammer to one side, on the other a stone circle and a dragon - all suitably nordic/fenrisian in origin.

Just the guns, the sponsons, the shading, the tracks, the rust, the Company markers to go.

These are some of the Space Wolf models built previously and may or may not stay on for the new force.

I particularly liked the terminator with green stuff furs and spear. With the last codex not specifying a crozium, just a power weapon, fora wolf priest this was going to be him.

A lot of them are now part painted where I had to stop for other projects or replaced some parts as my army morphed.

Finally at the end is the Tempest. With the Forgeworld rules being updated comes the news I can now field these as a squadron of 3. Might look into putting hand in pocket as I'm not altogether happy with th eplasticard finish for the extra armour.

Space Wolf new codex.

Okay been back and had a second read, and a third, fourth etc. In fact myself and the other local Space Wolf player have been sat pulling apart the codex trying to work out all the pro's and cons.
Yet again we've been stung with Terminator point costs - 63 points to create a wolf guard terminator with hammer and shield - and no teleport. And the Wolf guard is now down to maximum of 10, so unless you sacrifice more slots its going to be a bit sticky converting your old force to the new.
Also gone is the ability to take the second special weapon in each squad, Grey Hunters and Blood Claws are down to one power fist/weapon, one flamer/melta/plasma and one plasma pistol unless you get to a squad size of 10 then you can have a second assault weapon. As Wolf Guard Leaders no longer get heavy weapons you need to assign a WG terminator to a squad to carry any form of heavy artillery which stops you having a Rhino or Razorback transport for that squad. Landraider sales are obviously slumping :)
Iron priests are now restricted to three thralls, or 4 cyberenhanced fenrisian wolves but teh choice of what to take for elites is getting harder with changes in the Forgeworld rules too.
On the plus side Bikes are now down to 25 points and the assault troops have a seperate listing at 18 points apiece and you can now take 10, again with only one power weapon etc. The wolf cavalry look nice at 50 points apiec, base toughness 5 and 2 wounds with 4 attacks. As for Long Fangs, well 200 points or so will get you 5 long fangs with Lascannons and a Pack Leader with a plasma gun.
The description of each company has more detail than before, I was particularly interested in the one for Egil. As with my thoughts they describe his comapnay as a mechanised beast, Egil himself being as much metal as man, using fast moving transports to cut off an enemy whilst egil's personal Landraider carrying the shields of his former life charges in from the fore. Time to start getting some templates and wooden shields on the Prometheus I feel.

On the happy side, the updated Forge World rules means that the Prometheus is now an elites choice, so its one landraider as a vehicle option, one as a wolf guard vehicle, one as a heavy support and loading my LongFangs back into a Razorback for that extra heavy weapon. And no I don't keep track of my points cost - I just pick and choose for the game.

Iron Wolf Razorback

Well here is the first of the finished razorbacks, Aesir, ready to be loaded up with keen blood hungry wolves.

Seen here alongside the rest of my force, apart from my predator, it can be seen how far I have to go to get it finished. Add on the new box of Wolf Pack, Njal Stormcaller and a box of wolf terminators and theres plenty of work to keep me busy through till next year. And before then the new Skaven come out to...

The top armament is a scratch built version of the Forgeworl multi-melta option. Not in CSW, but a legitimate upgrade and now with the updated rules on their download page, a free one.

The dozer blade is from a Leman Russ adorned with a cow/demon skull from the ogres range. The cam netting is a laundry tablet bag held on with some florists wire, which also made up the aerials.

Theres also a generous load of plasticard on here although even with drybrushing its not come out that well. Both sides of the body and panels at the front have been infilled with some to give the effect of extra armour. If I can find a way that works for me I might go back at a later date and run some rust or weathering damage along the edges to make it more distinctive.

Finally, as this was going to be a wolf guard vehicle it has wolf plates on each front quarter as well as wolf's head badges on the front armour plates. These are made from cut down skaven emblems and look the part with a lick of paint.

All I need to do now is hijack the codex for 30 minutes and draw up my new lists and I can actually get the Crew together and based to match the snow effect.

Return of the Alpha Legion

This is the full company I ran in the local competition. As can be seen the basing's not great except for a few pieces but it's coming together slowly.

I wanted a mostly marine force rather than something that fielded hordes of demons so demon lords, summoned demons and defilers were straight out. I have an avid dislike of the chaos dreadnought models and can't be bothered painting all the detail on the obliterators, plus the cost of fielding them is prohibitive.

To start I decided on a Lord rather than a sorceror so I could have some up close oomph, helped along with the Mark of Nurgle and a Plaguebringer demon weapon. As this is meant to be two handed, th eLightning claws dripping green stuff did nicely. Some more green stuff to make scales down his shoulder andadd some random chaosness and voila ! Swamp thing.

To him i added a squad of terminators as a personal guard, kitted out with lightning claws and a reaper cannon, it gives some nice thumping ability and the Mark of Nurgle (out with some subtle green stuff) adds some extra staying power. On the charge I get 16 Lightning claw and powerfist attacks and 3+d3 Plaguebringer attacks.

Next up is my second set of terminators, this time kitted out as tankbusters. 2 combimelta's, 2 chain fists, powerfist, reaper cannon and mark of Nurgle goes nicely. Last time I played they pulled down a fortified bunker with bare hands.

Then the troops. Two squads in Rhino's to run forward and seize the objectives, one with the mark of Nurgle, the other followers of Slaanesh for that speed boost. One of the Rhino's I equipped with a Havoc Launcher, but mounted it up like a whirlwind's. As the chaos troops don't have that option it looks nice and distinctive on field. The third squad are just that, nothing special, for holding whichever objectives are close in.

Finally for some random heavy support a Chaos Dreadnought. Based on the black reach dreadnought body he had Kroot food and bones hung on him, insignia filed off, mark of Tzeentch stuck over the sarcophagus, Terminator prize spikes and marine and Nid's heads attached. I ditched the normal base and put him on a flyer base covered in green stuff to give some contours then mounted a pile of marine heads with a power sword in front of him, an aquila being crushed beneath his feet and finally a half buried marine behind, face, chest and power fist reaching for the stars in eternal death. Topped off with some snow it came out quite well.

Finally the Landraider - originally this was going to be a Prometheus and I was having a third set of terminators but I decided Ireally need something distinctive as a centre piece and this became it. Another ebay rescue case I ended up making the guns fixed rather than pivoting, stole the heavy bolters off one of my razorbacks and scratch built it a multimelta, rebuilt a sponson top with greenstuff and plasticard, used a meltagun shield on the pintle mounted bolter to give a bit of authenticity then went to town with green stuff and skaven parts and icons. The green stuff just made some spore like pustules around the vents, nothing major. The skaven however, they got everywhere. Ratheads on the lascannons rather than the usual demon heads, ratogre hands coming out of the hull, rat skulls on the rear and sides, giant rat skull on the hull top, clan moulder minirat pointing the way on the lights, banners hanging off the lascannons, plague rat scrolls hanging on the mech door around the melta gun damage, rat heads and trophies hanging off the back and front, topped off with clan markings and the skeletal hand of the Death of Rats pointing down the vehicle.

Didn't win the painting competiton I entered it into, but I did have the fun of watching my terminator lord having a punching match with a Hive Tyrant and his bodyguard. Twice I rolled and injured myself with the glorious daemon weapon and still managed to take them down although the disgusting ball of slime got in a lucky last blow killing him too. Was a great way of tieing up his HQ while my other troops started to pick off his carnifex's. Unfortuneately when his genestealers dropped in from reserve and struck from the rear there wasn't much left to do but die heroically.

Mechanised Space Wolf army

Well with the new codex my old set up has fallen by the wayside so its time to figure out a new format.

With Four HQ's I need one as the Iron Wolf himself, and this time I'm thinking of adding Njal Stormcaller and leading the other two slots open, although the temptation to throw in a damocles with its orbital strike capacity is very tempting.

With the Wolf guard go my Prometheus but what to do with the other slots. A dreadnought, iron priest, scouts or the new lone wolf options. Not being able to take a dread as a hq could be a pain and the lone wolves do look good but the option of an iron priest with cybernetically enhanced wolves is too good an opportunity to pass up. As a mechanised company I can see the scouts making way for a dreadnought and my six snow cloaked snipers saying hello to ebay.

With the troops it was two grey hunters in razorbacks and a squad of blood claws. This will probably stay the same although with the loss of the long fangs it gives me a spare razorback so may add another pack of grey hunters. A multimelta, extra armoured razorback is probably in keepin with these boys fantasies.

Fast attack is my skyclaws, and a pack of bikes. The new wolf packs cavalry looks good but not in keeping. Besides teh temptation would be to spend half the months food money and mount Canis on Azrhog's wyvern and do a counts as play. On top of these is a Landspeeder Tempest, drawbacks can only field one not a squad of three, good points - can fire its assault cannon and twin linked missile system if its not moving and has increased armour so not susceptible to small arms fire - thankyou Forgeworld, although mine is scratch built the rules are there to be used.

Finally due to the LAndraider shuffle pushing my long fangs off I'm left with a Landraider Helios - whirlwind launcher and two sets of las cannons every turn :), redeemer loaded with Blood Claws and a rune priest and a Predator Annihalator should give me enough ranged fire power to take down most armour and hammer troops moving in and out of cover.

so we end up with

Wolf lord, Njal Stormcaller, Rune Priest, Damocles/Battle Leader/Ragnar
Wolf Guard with Landraider, Dreadnought, Iron Priest with Wolves
Grey hunters * 3, (Razorback with las cannons, with lascannon and plasma guns, with multimelta and extra armour), Blood Claws mounted in a Redeemer
Tempest, Bikes, Skyclaws
Predator, Helios, (Redeemer)

Hopefully thats enough long and short range firepower to hurt anything it comes across

Iron Wolf Predator

Well here it is, after months of wanting one I finally got one from ebay....arrived in one jiffy bag in more pieces than I think it come soff the sprue in. The tracks were glued in place - not even touching the wheels, the whole top cover had to be ripped off skimmed and refitted, the internal wall was just left somewhere random so was gutted out, both las cannons were rattling loose and the whole thing had me chomping at the bit.

But an hour or so's tender restoration got it looking more tank like and less like the Wolf scrap yard. The only thing i forgot to do which will bug me forever is file down the mould lines on the las cannons on the sponsons - d'oh.

Once it had been undercoated I started by painting inside the sponsons with black and yellow shades, tipped off with some rust. Then was teh shadow grey, dry brushed with space wolf grey, bubonic brown overlaid with golden yellow, and white topped with red or green for the lights and sensors. The metal work on the lascannons and tracks was done as Tin Bitz brushed with bolt gun metal. Then i painted up the sponson cannons and filed the sponsons flat so that I could glue them in place to prevent further breakages. I normally like them free moving but with the damage already having been done i didn't feel too bad.

Last of all was teh two wolves heads on the fornt armour. These are actually Skaven Horned Rat shield bosses with teh horns cut off and dome of head rounded off. They work really well as wolves heads and with a stack of them lying around I suspect the theme will be carried out throughout the army.

All thats left is to run on some snow and weathering and take another look at how the rust on the engines comes across.

Iron Wolf Prometheus

Well after reading the new codex i have a few choices to make, no longer can each bodyguard group take a landraider. Grrr, limited to 1 per Wolf Guard. Now as teh Prometheus is a dedicated Transport option for a command group and Wolves don't have one it then becomes by default the Wolf Guard transport. With 2 other Landraiders now being knocked back to being Heavy Support choices I need to decide which to keep on - Predator, Long Fangs, Landraider Helius, Landraider Redeemer. The predator gives me lots of lascannons, the Helios a choice of las cannons and whirlwind missiles, the redeemer the assault cannon and flamers whilst the Long Fangs give me alsorts of concentrated goodies and with losing the Wolf Guard Heavy Weapon options its a tough choice.

Regardless, this poor heap in front of you is on its way to becoming my Commanders Prometheus command vehicle. No real need with wolves for improved teleport etc but 4 twin linked heavy bolters is always nice :) I bought it from ebay in a variety of shades with all the top hatch/gun ports missing , the sponsons incorrectly fitted, top part pulling away and painted in green and brown stripes.

So far I've removed the incorrect parts of each sponson and will be replacing them when my twin linked heavy bolters turn up. The top slots have either been covered up or filled - a gunner and a hellfire did well there. The top gun turret slot has been filled in with a sensor array made from gun covers and hellfire missiles which doesn't look too bad.

Paint wise its part way through the first coat of shadow grey. Although I prefer my wolves in a preheresy style grey for the armour, I 've always stuck with shadow grey on the vehicles. I've gone for a white helmet and kept the Mechanicum pad for the gunner to mark him out as an Iron Priest, I may add some furs with Green stuff at a later date.

Alpha Legion

Okay, I know this is meant to be my Iron Wolf pages but these where an interim project that helped me develop my conversion skills, test a few paint ideas and learn a few things about basing. I worked on a 1500 pt army after buying the Terminator Lord doombringer set - 15 terminators and one lord - then playing around with it and trying to get it in under total. Lots of work, blending in my existing wolf 13th company then booting them out followed by hijacking my Space Wolf Prometheus project to create a centre piece for the local painting competition.

Nearly gave me a divorce getting finished in time but it looks cool. I went for the colour scheme used in th egood old days and on the cover of the Legion book and adapted it slightly, then tried to give each squad some individualism depending on whether or not they had a chaos mark and if so who. The Landraider stands out because its my Commanders personal transport. Along with his bodyguard he has teh mark of nurgle and I wanted a vehicle that reflected this. A touch of greenstuff gave me some spores coming out of the vents but I wanted something more, then I started collecting Skaven. The grim hand of clan pestilens fell across the tarnished metal and all of a sudden a monster was born - rat heads to replace the lascannon heads, demon heads on the bolters, skeletal rat hand down the side and all sorts of skaven symbols and accessories to make it really stand out.

I didn't win, but the landraider got the most commenst on the day - mostly good too which for a beginner was quite nice.

This is weird....

After years of callining the INET nerds for online goofing here I've finally joined them - for that really worthwhile pursuit of.....plastic models. Well, thats what the wife calls them. To me they're the bane of my life demanding painting time, upgrades and spare cash at every available opportunity.

But really, I 've wanted for the last year, since getting back into 4oK and warhammer to show off some of my stuff, share ideas and get comments back. Also be able to post and track how my armies have come along and progressed as times have changed so with the advent of a new rulebook now seems the perfect moment to start taking photo's and recreating my Wolf Company.

I've always liked the idea of having a mechanised company and so the leap to being the Iron Wolf company didn't seem to huge to take, I just to work out how to create the badge on everything....in the meantime I'll be strimming some rat sprues and gearing up for the Space Wolf painting competition at my local shop