A little help from the cat

I've been painting in the kitchen lately to be able to spend some time with the wife and not retreated into my man cave of a basement.  One week left before the tournament and way too many miniatures to paint seeing I'm traveling 4 days this week.  The cat has been jealous of my time, and decides to jump up on my shoulders while I paint.  Not so easy to pull off! 

In progress 5 more thunderwolves, 14 power armor marines, 2 rhinos and 2 razorbacks!

Thunderwolf Lords Done

Just finished up my thunderwolf lords.  Both have magnetized arms, unfortunately the Canis Wolfborne version has a shoulder magnet a little too far out.  It makes him look like a linebacker with real broad shoulders!  Hope you like them both.  The second one was based off of a sculpt from http://www.mrdandy.com/wargamma/  I really like what he did with the different poses.  I have a full squad of them mid way through the painting line.

Next up on the docket is my drop pod!  Only 8 days to go until the tournament.

How-To: Fenrisian Wolves

Hey all, I had a bunch of people ask how I went about making these wolves so I'll post my tutorial.  Here's the quick & dirty method.  Should be up on the Space Wolves blog soon too! http://space-wolves-grey.blogspot.com/

The challenge for me was the goblin wolves only contained two poses and looked too "happy".  They didn't have that feral beast about them.  I found the chaos warhound box as a great substitute.  Not only are they reasonably priced, they have all unique poses.  Here is how I went about making them in a fairly easy manner.

First, it was hacking off any chaos bits.  Horns were chopped off along the top of the back, and any scales on the flanks were shaved down.  I also clipped some of the bottom teeth and trimmed off any horns on the legs/ankles.  I put on the tail, but shaved it down to a simple cylinder without any spikes.

I then added greenstuff to the back and top of the hindquarters as well as rolled it around the tail.  Fur was achieved by starting towards the front of the model and working towards the tail pulling with a sculpting tool.  Remember, keep the tool wet (yes, I've ingested my fair share of greenstuff). 

Then I plugged the two spots for the old "ears/horns" and rolled a small triangle for an ear.  Using the pointed end of the citadel sculpting tool I made the interior of the ear.  Some of the warhounds had stunted noses, which required a small dot to be added at the end.

 My painted ones are in the previous post, enjoy!

Working now on finishing up my 2 Lords on Thunderwolves and starting up the drop pod.

WOOF! Fenrisian Wolves Done

Slow weekend of painting, but I did manage to get my last 12 Fenrisian Wolves painted.  I also did the fur colors for my two Thunderwolf Lords.  I should be able to make some good progress on them tonight during some Monday night football! There should be a tutorial up soon on the  furry wolves.

Finished Grey Hunters

Here's some final shots of the latest batch of finished grey hunters.  Next project will be tackling painting the fenrisian wolves and the two wolf lords on thunderwolves.  I'm hoping I can get the army to at least a playable level by September 25th, we have a local tournament then. Nothing like a little pressure!

Assembly Line Blues

Note to self, never again assembly line 25 highly detailed miniatures... ever ever again.  That was painful.  I usually work in the 10 or less mode, and I think I'll return to that.

On Friday I set a goal to paint 20 Grey Hunters, Assemble a Wolf Lord and sculpt fur on 10 Fenrisian Wolves.  Well I was an overachiever this weekend.  25 Grey Hunters done (minus snow, which will be added tonight), 2 Wolf Lords assembled and magnatized and 12 Fenrisian Wolves done along with an article that will be posted on the Space Wolves Blog http://space-wolves-grey.blogspot.com/  later in the week.

Here's a shot of Russ's finest ready for snow tonight.  Nicely done shots later once I break out the camera & booth.

One thing I noticed is my hobby area is too messy, a situation many of us gamers get ourselves into.  Add that to the fact the cat likes to jump up in the area I'm working and it's a danger zone.  Rather then doing the right thing and cleaning it up I went the painful route and painted in the not-lighting-optimal area which is my kitchen.  Not smart.  A back ache and eye strain weekend later, I'm ready to go back to my usual workstation.

Ginger(hair) Recipe & Wolf Updates

The weekend of hobby marathon has been progressing great and I'm making huge strides on my Space Wolves.  I decided to tackle an extra lot of grey hunters.  In progress of 25 and started an additional 5 to catch up to my batch last night.  Combined with the 10 behind my paint, that would complete my 40 grey hunters needed for my 1850 list.

While paining up the bunch at my local battle bunker (Downers Grove, IL) I figured I'd mix up some hair color a bit and in honor of one of the employees there... figure out how to paint some gingers!  Here's my attempt at the hair color.  The photo turned out a bit more orange that it is in person.  Started with Vomit Brown, washed with Gryphonne Sepia, then line highlighted with Iyanden Darksun, then a final real light wash of Baal Red.  Voila!  Two Gingers, the one with the mohawk is now named Dave.

For my two wolf lords on Thunderwolves, I figured it'd be best to magnetize the arms.  Was a little bit of a process to make sure everything went together right, especially since I didn't have the patience to let the green stuff dry before letting the magnets set.  After it's all said and done, here are the two lords.  Had to hack up Canis Wolfborn a little to make sure both arms fit.  Now I can swap arms as I chose.  The second wolf is from a great miniatures company http://www.mrdandy.com/wargamma-battle-wolves/

Tonight I'll work on a couple additional long fangs along with sculpting additional fenrisian wolves. I'll be putting a tutorial on the wolves, stay tuned.

 

Hobby Marathon Challenge

The wife is traveling on business this weekend, and I'm actually home for a change... which means the hobby apocalypse is upon me!

I'm going to try and provide updates through the weekend to keep myself motivated.  Here are my goals:

* Put together (along with a detailed "how to") 10 more fenrisian wolves
* Paint 20 grey hunters
* Assemble / convert one thunderwolf wolf lord magnatized for multiple weapon options

We have a tournament on the 25th of September I'd love to have my wolves ready... will be a challenge to have them ready in time!