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.

 

Back to the Wolves

Last week I had the chance to actually get a game in, imagine that.  Had the opportunity to play an 1850 game with my Space Wolves.  I'm a firm believer that unpainted miniatures don't do as well in the game as painted ones.

My gamer ADD has me flipping back and forth between projects, so I think it's time to settle in to get the core of my Space Wolves done before I jump on an Adepticon project, the Empire, or another 40k army.

Even though it hurts, I'm trying the mass painting method.  I usually stick to around 5 models at a time (or 10 if they're exceptionally simple).  Here's my try at 25 grey hunters.  The yellow looks exceptionally bright since the grey has just been inked and not highlighted yet!

Once I get these guys done, it'll be on to the Thunderwolves.  That is if I can survive the monotony of painting 25 at once!

Back from the Honeymoon! Space Wolves

Just got back from getting married and spending time in Greece & Spain for the honeymoon.  Got a bunch of painting done this weekend.  Unfortunately I didn't get to set up my lightbox so the photo's didn't turn out right.  Will get that fixed ASAP.  Wanted to show some progress.  First batch of Fenrisian Wolves are painted and my first 10 Grey Hunters.  Made some major progress on the Thunderwolves too! 

Now Monday - Friday more traveling :(

Fenrisian Wolves - Green Stuff

I had the chance to get my first practice game in with the Space Wolves on Saturday, they look so sad in their various stages of paint.  My opponent didn't even know about the Fenrisian Wolves.  So sad, they're such a great part of the flavor of Space Wolves.  Even if they're not the most effective, I'm determined to make them work.

The plastic chaos warhound unit seems to be the best fit.  I like the dynamic poses and the fact that their are more then two variants (unlike the goblin wolves).  I trimmed all of the horns, scales and tails and worked on some greenstuff to make them more "wolflike".  I also added some ears.  Here are my first 7.  The camera battery was dying so I didn't have the time to set up my photobooth.  Sorry about the shots!  Now about 10 or so more to go.