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!

Templar are Back!

Wow, I can't believe it has been since Adepticon since I've played in any formal day of gaming.  Luckily I'm getting a three game tournament in on Saturday in the Chicago area Adeptus Windy City series.  I think it's time to bring out my old faithful Black Templars and see how the old codex can do against all these new fancy ones!

Here's what I'm thinking for 2k...

HQ: Emperor's Champion with "Accept any Challenge" for the reroll gooodness for the army
HQ: Chaplain with melta bombs and 3 cenobite servitors to attach to the terminators on foot

Elite: 10 Assault Terminators, 6 Lightning Claws, 4 Thunder hammer / SS all with Furious Charge

Troop: 15 man Crusader Squad (9 initiates, 6 neophytes), meltagun, powerfist in Land Raider Crusader with smoke launchers
Troop: 14 man Crusader Squad (9 initiates, 5 neophytes), meltagun, powerfist in Land Raider Crusader with smoke launchers (champion's ride)
Troop: 5 man Crusader Squad with Lascannon and boltguns
Troop: 5 man Crusader Squad with Lascannon and boltguns

Heavy: Vindicator (expensive at 125, but needed)

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!

Empire Progress, Knight Conversion

Got my first 20 spearmen done... 30 to go!  Hopefully this big block of 50 will pay off!  Still a little work to do on the standard bearer, but overall I'm happy with the quality.  This is definitely a speed painting army.  The banner decal I purchased off an old site "Imperial Forge".  Nice decals and will help speed up things.  Unfortunately it looks like they're no longer in business.

I'd like to use some of the old empire set for the second through 5th ranks.  I love the spears at attention to flush out the back ranks.  I picked up some extra empire heads to do some simple head swaps.  The question is will these old plastics mix in with the current state troops?

Finally I figured I could use some knights with great weapons.  Now that they're back to being +2 and with empire already having low/average initiative, the extra strength after the charge may come in handy.  Not a big fan of the knights of the white wolf though.  I figured the new plastic greatswords would be a great kitbash.  After piecing this together, I think it could use a slightly longer torso.  The greatsword torso sits a little shorter due to the legs adding a portion of the torso.  Thoughts on if this will work or if I'll need to add some plastic card?

Just started churning out my old metal greatswords.  Should have the unit finished this week!

Empire State of Mind

Damn... hobby ADD strikes again.  I've been bitten by the Warhammer bug.  It's been 8 years since I've dabbled with Fantasy, and I think I'll give it another shot.  The challenege is painting en masse - I'm used to the individual nature of 40k painting. 

Here's my stab at the empire.  I wanted to keep a dirty feel - not too bright on the colors.  I saw a long time ago the city of Boghaffen; purple and dirty white.  Either that or Ostermark (purple and white?)

Using mainly foundation paints - foundation purple and dhneb stone were the base colors.  Quick highlight of white (on dhneb stone) and mixed in a little light purple then washed a black wash on the purple and devlan mud on the white.  Chainmail on the metal parts with a little burnished gold trim, and foundation red for accents.  Hit them both with a black wash.  Picked up the red with some blood red accents.  Flesh was simple.  Foundation Tallarn flesh with bleached bone highlights then washed with ogryn flesh wash.  Finally trimed off the black and did a little calthan brown on some hair.  Parchment & Skulls were bleached bone, white highlight and mud washed.

Simply done!  The purple photographed really dark - but that is the look I'm going with.  Thoughts?