Space Wolf HQs - Progress

Over the last few days i've been working on my Wolf Lord and Rune Priest.  I've decided that all of my HQ units will have different coloured armour to that of the regular rank and file and decided on red for Captains / Wolf Lords etc, Purple for the Psykers and Black for the Chaplains. 

These two have taken me a long while to do, a lot longer than other models and at the moment i'm not really that happy as they don't look any better than some of my others!

The red I've used is from the White Dwarf paint scheme in the Space Hulk edition.
Started off with a basecoat of 3:1 blood red to dwarf flesh,
followed up by a devlan mud wash. 
Continuing that, two thin layers of blood red,

then a layer of blood red and vomit brown in a 2:1 mix to highlight

followed by a wash of baal red
then finally highlighted with a mix of 1:1:1 blood red, vomit brown and bleached bone.

For the face, I used a painting scheme that I found from awesome paintjob - how to paint space marine faces - http://bursleylb.tripod.com/id13.html

Basically, it uses a base of dwarf flesh,

wash of leviathan purple,

relayer with dwarf flesh

highlight with dwarf flesh : elf flesh (1:1)

highlight with elf flesh

highlight with elf flesh : bleached bone (1:1)

Rune priest.

With him (he's still not finished) I used a guess for the armour.

Started with a base coat of warlock purple : chaos black : regal blue (1:1:1)

layered with warlock purple

highlighted with warlock purple : skull white (3:1, 2:1),

washed with thraka green

continued to highlight, mixing in more skull white each time through (1:1, 1:2, 1:3)

washed again with leviathan purple then thraka green.

I tried an experiment with some directional lighting around his eyes.  I wanted to get the feeling that they were glowing with ethereal energies just prior to him casting a spell.  I used skull white for the eyeballs, ice blue and enchanted blue in glazes and kind of stippled it around the eye sockets / nose  and upper cheekbones.

In both, the wolf pelts were base coated scorched brown and chaos black respectively. 

I then drybrushed detail into each coat.

Wolf lord has -

mix of scorched brown / vomit brown (1:1)

vomit brown

gryphonne sepia wash

vomit brown / bleached bone

bleached bone

skull white (very little)

devlan mud wash

Rune priest has -

codex grey / chaos black (1:1)

codex grey

badab black wash

codex grey / skull white (1:1)

skull white (tips only)

badab black wash.

So it's taken me a long time to get through these two, and I think for the amount of time i've spent on them, the results aren't all that great.

Can anyone give me some advice on how I could speed this up or any other ideas that could help me out with painting? 

Any thoughts more than welcome!!

Space Wolves - Wolf Guard Progress

Work has been pretty hectic of late, which means little time for modelling / painting.  A few things arrived this week - ironclad dread, scout bikers and some more forgeworld stuff.  Also managed to pick up a chapel of sanctuary - interestingly it needed no painting, unlike most GW stuff. It's actually pretty nice, with some plastic stain glass windows.

Anyway, I have been working on my Space Wolves "wing" of my army this week.  In particular the Wolf Guard retinue that tag along with my Wolf Lord.  I'm reasonably happy with how they have turned out.  The bulk of painting has been done on two of the Guard, just some touching up to finish off.  Will try to get the Lord done this weekend as well for a Sunday blog update!!

Heavy Flamer and Frost Axe Wolf Guard.

I tried a different technique with the Frost Axe from a White Dwarf - November 2009 edition I think - the one with the Beastman on the cover.  It's an attempt at a "crystalline" weapon.  I thought that the Frost Axe could have a mirror-like ice finish to it.  More pics below.

As you can see, he isn't quite finished, but is looking alright.

The Heavy Flamer guy I didn't take as much time on, especially his power sword which I think I may redo.

Also managed to do some more modding of my "primarch".  Which after a bit of deliberation with Exarch Sammy J - I think he may be integral in the new background fluff that I've been considering.

The wings are from a Bretonnian Pegasus Knight.  Makes him look pretty formidable I think.  Thanks again to Exarch Sammy J for the idea. 

Before I sign off, one last pic of the Forgeworld dreaddie that I got this week. I'm going to modify him a bit to become my death company dreadnought with Blood Talons.

Assault Terminator Conversion

I managed to polish up a few terminators over the last few days.  I used forgeworld black templar shields and wanted them to have something a little different to a thunder hammer, so one of my friends suggested that I could make a "Thunder Lance" - having the same rules as a thunder hammer.  The result is below, a very easy conversion, but I hope it looks fairly effective.

An assault cannon term for my regular footstompers

Librarian Conversion

Recently bought an Empire General kit, mainly for the purpose of getting the raven for one of my rune priests, but as it turned out, I gleaned a few extra parts for my librarian that I have been thinking of doing.

My inspiration for the hand design came from Migsula's phenomenal Crescent Guard Librarian http://www.pbase.com/migsula/image/56544363 .  Just an amazing piece of work that entire army!

So anyway, I've nabbed the cape and sword from the empire general kit, the torso and legs from the new death company kit.  Still need to work on the very poor, impoverished psychic hood - but a little green stuff should sort that out.

Comments more than welcome!!

Assault Squad with no Jump Packs

Anyone have any thoughts on running an assault squad without jump packs?  I thought that the 35 point discount on a transport could make that very worthwhile.  I think that after I made my decision to go codex marines over black templars, my initiates outfitted with assault gear could be used as non-jump pack assault marines.  Free rhinos or drop pods sound pretty attractive!

Assault marine - I put some damage effects on his chainsword.  Pretty crappy though.  Anyone have some pointers on how to make a chainsword look really weathered?

Still deciding on whether or not to give this guy a power sword.....

Black Templars ditched for Codex Marines

Over the last few days I've really been thinking about what units I find to be the "coolest" space marines.  After reading a little on Stelek's Sternguard (http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/218863.page) and playing some Dawn of War on PC - I've decided to abandon my Black Templars and run with a generic codex list.  So many cool things, Sternguard, Librarians, Thunderfire Cannons - just awesome. 

So as a result, I've decided to remould my Templar "wing" of my army into a normal codex marine one.  I'll have to make a few units of Sternguard at least, i've decided that I'll use the Dark Angel veterans for this purpose.  Below are a few images of some i've nearly finished.

I'm making markings on the rear of the shoulder pads as to which squad they belong to.

Also experimented on purple purity seals, rather than the red for something different.

The Sternguard Sargeant with Power Sword and Combi-Melta

More Progress

Work has resumed, so there has been precious little time to get blogging.  However, I have managed to finish up 2 terminators and 5 marines.  Will post images of them soon.

I've also decided to ditch the Black Templar army that I have and change it for a regular codex army.  Reason being is that I wanted to have a few more librarians that I could convert, as well as a few squads of Sternguard.  This does mean i'll have to rejig the fluff - but ah well... I have a few ideas rattling around amongst the cobwebs up there so, we'll see how it goes.

Stay tuned!

First Foray with Greenstuff

Today I tried a little experiment after getting some motivation from various sites, especially scibor miniatures.

Anyway, I tried making a variant of a primarch for my army.  I know that the fluff at present says that the primarch is dead - but bugger it, why not - either that or he could stand as my chapter master.  I also thought that due to the immense amount of stuff I still have to paint, maybe I should go back to the triumvirate idea instead of the 4 armies.  Hmmm.. that will still require some deliberation....

But, I digress, my first tap at greenstuffing was interesting at best.  I became very frustrated at times as I didn't have much in the way of sculpting tools other than the old finger forks and my scalpel.  As a result - some of the pieces I may have to redo, particularly his "collar" but you'll see that in the pictures.

So what of rules for the primarch?  Well after trolling around some forums and basing that with the knowledge I have garnered from the Horus Heresy novels and other stuff, the general consensus is that primarchs should be somewhere in between a Space Marine and a Daemon Prince.

Some argue that primarchs should be much more powerful, as Sanguinius managed to kick the seven shades of shinola out of a bloodthirster, others believe otherwise.

Still, what I reckon is that they should be tougher than a Chapter Master and below a Daemon Prince.  However, they should have skills / rules that can affect your army as a whole.

As GW have the DIY legions - I decided that the Knights could be the 11th Legion.

Their Primarch - Magnar Darrius


Points: 325 (i figured this was ok - as the Sanguinor is 275 and it also has eternal warrior a better WS and Initiative and a better invulnerable save)

WS: 7 BS: 3 S:5 T:5 W:4 I:6 A:4(5) LD:10 Sv: 2+

Unit Type: Infantry

Wargear:

• Artificer Armour
• Force Sword - "Emperor's Judgement"
• Lightning Claw - "Terra's Wrath"
• Frag and Krak Grenades
• Iron Halo
• Ceremonial Mask- Gives - Psychic Hood Rules

Psychic Powers: 
Magnar evaded the taint of chaos by being an Untouchable - a Psychic Null.  His presence is nigh intolerable for  psykers as he nullifies all warp energies within reach.  Due to these skills, he has the following abilities, which he may use all of once each turn.

• Negative Warp Blast - Negative warp energies blast into the minds of opponents.  Shooting attack with the following profile: Range-12", Strength-4, AP-2, Assault 4.
• Null Zone - at start of the KOR's shooting phase if Magnar passes psychic test - All enemy units within 24" of Magnar must re-roll successful invulnerable saves. 
• Pariah - Daemons and Psykers find it nigh intolerable to be near Magnar due to the negative warp energies dancing around him.  As a result, any Daemon or Psyker within 12" of Magnar takes a -2 penalty to their leadership.  This psychic power is a passive ability that is always active.

Special Rules:

• Independent Character
• Weapon Master:  Magnar spurns all forms of ranged weaponry and has solely focussed his skills on his hand to hand arsenal.  He has seen many years of service and favours his force blade and lightning claw and manages to wield them with such skill that he gains the bonus attack (included in profile) not normally possible without a pair of lightning claws.
• Final Word: Magnar can forgo his normal attacks for a single close combat attack with his force sword resolved at strength 10. This attack cannot be re-rolled due to his Preferred enemy rule if it fails to hit true.
• Courage My Brothers: Magnar and unit he is attached to are Fearless
• Awesome Presence - Magnar is an imposing figure on the battlefield who spurs on his charges to fight and instills fear into the enemies of the Emperor.  While Magnar is on the field - all friendly units can use his LD for morale and pinning tests - enemy units within 6" suffer -1 Ld. 
• Withering Gaze -  Units assaulting Magnar must make a leadership test or fall back.
• Follow My Lead: Friendly units within 6" of Magnar have +1 attack
• Mentor of Warriors: Magnar and the unit he is attached to have the Preferred Enemy special rule.
• Fallen Saviour / SNAFU: If Magnar is incapacitated, all friendly units gain rage and furious charge universal special rules. Additionally, when Magnar goes down, lie his body face down.  If, by the end of the game there are no friendly units within 6" of his body then the Knights of Revelation automatically forfeit the game as they fail to retrieve their fallen leader's body.

Here is a brief comparison between Magnar and a regular marine.  I had to do a far bit of chopping and cutting and greenstuffing, but he turned out ok I think.  C and C welcome.

Progress

Just to keep me motivated, here is some of my progress so far....

above - sargeant with plasma pistol / power weapon.

Castellan Vardis with combi-melta and power sword

Flamer bearing Initiate. 

Plasma gun toting initiate.  Added some blood red to the shoulder pad.

All are about 60% done.  Lots of highlighting and fine tuning to go, but coming along ok I think.

Blood Angel HQs, Sanguinary Guard and Death Comp

Here's my commander - my version that i'm going to use the Dante rules for.  I just love the new Sanguinary Guard and Death Comp kits - unreal detail and just all round awesome. 

The idea is that Dante has an honour guard of Sanguinary guard units, some of which I will post below.

Don't think I got the best angle photo for this Honour Guard.  He is positioned as if about to turn and fire off his plasma pistol.

Another Honour Guard.  Behind him is a Sargeant of an assault squad.  I must admit that I don't really like the musculature on the legs of the Sanguinary Guard - and some of them are in the "touch down" pose.  For my liking, they aren't aggressive enough, so I decided to use a few Death Company legs on my Sanguinary Guard.

These two are Death Company.  I think I'll remove the guy on the left off his base and add a rod and elevate him so that he's looking like he's flying.- I tried to get the position that he is lifting off into the air.  The other guy is getting ready his powerfist, hidden behind his bolter.

Sanguinary Guard this time.  I decided not to use any Death Masks, even though I really like them - as I wanted my Dante model to look unique.  On reflection, I should have tried to make the Dante model a "true-scale" marine to make him larger and more imposing than the rest.  Still may do this in the future.

This is another sergeant of an assault squad.  He uses wolf guard claws, which normally look pretty gay - as if they're a dj, scratching some decks - see the SW codex if you don't know what I mean.  I repositioned the body and head of this guy to make it look like he was jetting off into the air.  I think it makes a better use of the arms, rather than a ridiculous "wolverine-esque" pose.

Blood Angels

Only really just started putting these guys together.  Have decided that the entire company will just have jump-packs.  Although it's exceptionally tempting to make some Sternguard Vets, I may just have to let them go.

Exception will be terminators.  I'm going to use the Space Hulk ones - give me a good excuse to paint them.

Have been playing around with variations on colour schemes and have decided that the following would look ok.  Just not sure as to what one should be death company or normal troop.

Proposed Death Company Colours.

Proposed Normal Troop Colours.

Proposed Term Colours.

I painted a couple of assault marines roughly to see what the colours may look like.  See what you reckon - Any suggestions more than welcome!!

hard to see from this angle, but you get the basic idea.

I like this one a lot better.  The colours are pretty striking i think. 

Wolf Guard, Grey Hunters, Blood Claws and Long Fangs

For these units, I wanted to accomplish a certain number of things.

First, the Wolf Guard and Grey Hunters were to be crotchety, battle hardened bastards that had seen some serious service.

Second, the Blood Claws were to be young, ballsy and look like they have a few screws loose.

 

Wolf Guards (Left) - looking haggard as hell - I used a flagellant head for this guy (right) - punk looking - attached to blood claws.

Blood claw (left) with modified chainsword.  Grey Hunter (right) -  again, used a flagellant head - makes him look a little older and battle hardened.

Thirdly, the Long Fangs were to look very "casual" whilst spotting out new targets to blow the proverbial out of.

 

Had fun converting these guys.  The heavy bolter took ages.  The ammo clip does all fit together and hook up with the backpack.  I had to decimate the other heavy bolter that came in the devastator kit to complete it, however.  The plasma cannon guy is on a running set of legs.

The Long Fang Sarge is the guy with the powerfist.  I felt that the head was appropriate as it has a number of "service studs" in the forehead.  Had to muck around to get the other guy to actually hold the plasma cannon where he is.  Probably a little ridiculous, but fun all the same to think that this old bastard can lug a plasma cannon around like a pistol.

The spotter with the lascannon was more difficult to pose than I first thought.  I had to massacre a few arms to find one that would be on the correct angle to allow the arm rest of the lascannon to rest against his shoulderpad.  As it turned out, I had to slice up 3 arms to create the arm with the gun.  Each of which provided a different angle so the weapon could be placed in position.

These two are fairly vanilla.  I wanted the guy with the rocket launcher to look as it he had just destroyed a vehicle or something and was admiring his handiwork.

Should be good to paint - probably take me a month! haha!