Thunder and Lightning

Here we have my latest (actually, it's a bonus two for the post of one today).

One Wolf Guard - Terminator Armour - Storm Shield - Thunder Hammer. I really do enjoy the Space Wolf troops. They might be a pain and take forever to do (about eight hours on this guy) because there are so many extra bits and pieces that I want to do well, but still, I really love them!

This is the guy climbing a rock that I quite liked the pose of when I built him. I was concerned about some of the green-stuff and angles, but in the end the paint hid all! As always, I'm not a huge fan of the photo as it makes things just not quite the right colours, too bright and it shows a lot of the line-work that blends so much better at a bit of a distance!

The storm shield is supposed to have some sort of energy field that reasons why it is so effective, so I painted it as though it used similar technology to the other power weapons in the army, with bluey-white lightning.

And there's nothing much to see from the back...

More lightning crackling on the hammer head and you can see the power field emanating from the back of the shield from the emitters there.

And, of course, there is lava down underneath =)

Here he is on the table with the rest of the army faintly visible behind him...

And a whole army shot to show the progress (or lack thereof) since last time.

Oh, and in between the more advanced troops I've been slogging through the Grey Hunter troops as well. Here's a guy with bolt pistol and axe (I actually painted him before the thunder hammer guy). Seven of Nine (haha) in his squad. Number eight is now on my painting table and I'll get onto him as soon as I finish blogging.

Squad 2 pack marking there.

Yikes the axe doesn't look quite so obviously blotchy like that in normal lighting! Honest!

Well there you go, another update to keep me motivated.

Speaking of motivation, my brother has done a bit of painting too... http://pauls40k.blogspot.com.au/

Space Wolf Wolf Guard with Assault Cannon and Frost Sword

Well, over three days of child naps and then some I decided to go back on my original plan of painting complete squads and just paint whatever I felt like. What I felt like was one of my favourite minis I put together. 

Here is my Space Wolf Wolf Guard in Terminator Armour with an Assault Cannon and Frost Sword.

He's using his sword to brace as he lays down heavy fire...

Here's a view of the cannon. I put some greenish wires in just for a bit of extra colour, although it's not as if there's not already enough going on!

From the back you can see the shells and belt feed to the gun. I quite like the bulk of it all.

The stripes on the frost weapon are my first attempt at a sort of blended swordy type thing rather than an electricity power weapon effect, hopefully to help me tell them apart.

And, of course, when a frost weapon meets lava, the frost sword wins, hopefully it looks a little like the lava is solidifying or at least crusting over near the sword.

Unfortunately these shots were taken under pretty harsh light, so they're a bit harsh and bright. My two, so far, terminator armoured marines.

And another angle...

The sword looks a little better blended from a distance. (I hope!)

So who knows what will be next, but I had a blast painting him, it's so over the top, the size of the gun, the massive armour, the lava... great fun!

Rok Kjel Wolfguard

Here's the leader of my second Grey Hunter squad, name of Rok Kjel. He's a Wolfguard like Etako with a powerfist and a storm bolter. He's got the pack marking for the second squad on his knee.

My favorite part are the crosshairs on his bionic eye targeting thing, a yellow cross on the red orb. It was tiny and fiddly and you can barely see it, but I like it as a bit of fun =) 

Here's the side with the standard wolf on lava insignia...

And the back, nothing particularly exciting.

You can see the Wolf Guard pack marking on his shoulder pad, though the wolf fur pelt thing covers most of it. I did the shell casings in a bronzy kind of colour just because I thought it looked cool. 

And from the top ou can sort of make out his name on the scroll, though it's a bit tricky from this angle, it looked right in the camera window!

And you can sort of make out the lava on the base of Skodi from this angle, but not really =)

Sorry I didn't touch-up the photos this time so there's a range of funny shades and brightnesses going on here. Usually I edit the picture a little to de-blue it and sharpen it a bit when I use the milk-bottle lamp to make it look more like it does under normal conditions.

Etako Ironfist

Well, well, well, what do we have here... some sort of LotR and 40k crossover?

Here's my squad leader for my first pack. He's a wolf guard named Etako. He has one eye and a powerfist. The similarities kinda end there. No axe, instead a combi-melta. Small difference there.

I have a few power armoured wolf guards that I'll use for pack leaders. I had the choice of termie or power armour for them. I do have some in terminator armour, but I like the idea that I can fit Etako and 9 other marines in the squad into a drop-pod or other transport. Also it means that the squad can follow up attacks, I can't remember what that rule is called, where terminators are too slow to do so.

Anyway, without further ado...

No helmet as I needed to show that he had one eye! Also helps keep the "special characters" a little more distinct as all of my normal marines (except for the banner bearer) have helmets.

You can see the left shoulder has the same symbol on it as he's still part of Skodi's army and that's his symbol. I also did the rims of the shoulderpads in bronze instead of the usual silvery/grey.

You can also see that he's on a raised rocky bit to give him a bit of extra height. That and the back banner thing easily differentiate him as different from the other troops.

 The Wolf Guard pack marking that he belongs to is partly covered here, but you can see enough of it. It's yellow with three black triangles, it ends up sort of making an "M" shape. Also here you can see a parchment I added to him. It contains the three rules that everyone he leads must follow. Not sure what the three rules are yet. Something along the lines of "if you're dead, the wounds had better be to your front" "the only good xeno is a dead xeno" "save the big one for me" etc.

And here's his squad. You can see I've put some lava on his base to help match the general lava wolf theme. Oh, and on his knee-pad I've put the pack markings that are on the shoulders of the other guys.

How did I get time to paint him? The lad had a 2 and a bit hour nap the other day when my wife was looking after him so I got a fair bit done then. Since then a few 15-20 minute sessions did each other bit.

Tempted to do a terminator next when I should be working on finishing the other squad members...

Space Wolves Army

Haven't used the computer in a while, hence the lack of posting! 


Baby is still only letting us sleep a little at night and keeps me busy all day long, except for Mondays which are filled with getting uni stuff done!


As a result, I haven't done anything for aaaaaaaages miniatures wise.


Here's a picture I took a long time ago...

It's my whole army (except for the scouts)!


Clicky for the bigger version...


A: First command group. Wolf Lord plus four Wolf Guard Terminators.
B: Second command group. Wolf Guard Battle Leader plus three Wolf Guard Terminators.
C: First Grey Hunter pack of 9 plus a Wolf Guard in Power Armour to lead them.
D: Second Grey Hunter pack of 9 plus a Wolf Guard in Power Armour to lead them.
E: Third Grey Hunter pack of 6.
F: Fourth Grey Hunter pack of 6 with a Wolf Guard in Power Armour to lead them.
G: Lone Wolf with Wolf companion.
H: First Long Fangs group with pack leader.
I: Second Long Fangs group with pack leader.
J: Venerable Dreadnought and Droppod.


And, of course, there's also a scout squad with Wolf Guard to add to that.


A link to more details from a previous post: http://simbattleboard.blogspot.com/2011/06/final-army-list-and-cyclone-missile.html


Really sorry for the lack of progress, but life has just been waaaaaay too busy to get anything done bar survival. Things will get better =)

Another combi-melta conversion and a scout group.

Well, I had my scout group sitting there and couldn't resist putting it together in the end!


For this group I wanted:


Wolf Guard Pack Leader with combi-melta and Thunder Hammer.


Melta, Mark of the Wulfen, Power Weapon and Plasma Pistol. A fully tooled up and ready to cause havok group. Also I loved the idea of them being really individuals that happen to be working together at this moment rather than a completely uniform group.


So I needed another combi-melta and decided to make it in a different way to the last one.


Here you can see where I cut this time. For this combi-melta conversion I was going to use a storm bolter and a melta gun. I cut the barrel off, the tubing underneath and with my fairly dull hobby knife I slowly pushed and sawed through the side bit as shown in red below.

Then it was a simple matter of filing and cutting down one side of a storm bolter and then adding on the metal bits from the melta.

And here's a top view. I also glued another boltgun tip to the exising storm bolter tip to extend the barrel a little. I think they look cooler that way =)

And here they are with the Wolf Guard. To help him be a scout guard I used a scout torso on him. This didn't perfectly fit with the rest of the power armour, so I had to add a few other bits to hide the join. The front banner will have something freehanded on it when it's painted. 

And the big back shield indicates that he has had other jobs in the past...

So here are my motley group of scouts. They aren't very "wolfed up" and I'm not sure if I'll accessorise them or not yet (let alone use them in a game). I didn't enjoy putting them together as much, the torsos just didn't really easily fit, nor did the arms. I think the newer kits are much more clever.

Here's melta-boy (with metal under his base to balance the heavy gun), wolfen dude (with power armour torso for the wolf fur on his back and wolf helmet) and the wolf guard you've already seen.

And here we have power sword (hard to tell from this angle, but it's the big sword from the space wolf kit), plasma pistol guy (just cut the plasma pistol from a space wolf and swapped it with the default bolt pistol) and the one I like to call Norm the normal scout (but with a space wolf scout head).

Next time I'll show you the full army pic =)

Wolf Guard Terminators

Over the last few days I've been gluing away a little at a time until the last shoulderpad went on a few minutes ago. 


I'll still put a bit of work into putting on some purity seals and miscellaneous bits to cover any gaps.


I'm most impressed with the new guys because they were almost as-is with only a tiny bit of greenstuff on the leader and the cyclone missile launcher. I'm amazed at how clever the design is to allow so many bits and pieces to be mixed and matched to create such a variety of models with what you get in the box.


The pictures were taken with an excessive white balance to try and show detail on unpainted models, so excuse the washing out, but otherwise they're just black and grey blobs =)


Here's Mr. Assault Cannon.

And Mr. Storm Bolter and Power Fist.

With his friend Mr. Storm Bolter and Wolf Claw.

Mr. Cyclone Missile Launcher.

Mr. Storm Bolter and Thunder Hammer. I had some fun with this guy, the bolter was on a bit of a tilt, so I tilted his head as well. Kinda reminds me of my dog =)

Mr. Storm Bolter and Power Sword, or Frost Blade, not sure what I'll go with. If I can paint a good frost sword I'll do that. 

Mr. Chainfist and Shield (Lone Wolf). I was thinking today of some back story for him. He was one of the Wolf Guard of Skodi's (the Wolf Lord) predecessor. His Lord and the other guard were killed and now he's out for revenge, not resting until he's avenged each one (hence the special Lone Wolf rules). I'll be putting a parchment/bannery type thing on his back with the names of his ex-pack and a cross or skull next to each name that he's avenged.

And Skodi the Wolf Lord. You can see that I've done a tiny bit of work on his cape, still not sure what colour to make it. 

Mr. Mountain Climber. Thunder Hammer and Shield. I'm still happy with this pose, I really like it =)

Lastly my other leader, the Wolf Guard Battle Leader with the twin axes. Cyclone missile aside (which really was hardly any work) this was the only guy in the box I did any significant work on. The right hand axe is an axe head on a thunder hammer haft, you can clearly see the colour change =) There is a severe shortage of workable right hands in the terminator box, except for the sword (which I'd already used) so I had to use a marine one instead. It's not quite right if you look closely, but that will be easily fixed with a dangly wolf tail or something. The small shield thing on his right shoulder covers the only greenstuffing I really had to do to get the arm bent so far out.


Hopefully he looks menacing =) 

Now I just need names and sagas for them all =) Oh, and a bazillion hours of painting time. Next up, though, I'll be putting together my other minis, devastators (Long Fangs), Grey Hunters and Scouts. Can't paint for a while, the weather has been waaaaaay too cold to use spray paint!

Final Army List and Cyclone Missile Launcher Conversion.

Well, have been on a little holiday, so sorry about the absence of recent posts.
On the plus side I got my next (and last) delivery of miniatures!


Last because GW have decided to try and force us to continue paying exorbitant prices for our miniatures (about 200% of overseas costs) by restricting sales to Australia from overseas.


I'm sure some eBay shenanigans will ensue, but in the meantime I'm all set anyway.


On the negative, my brother needs to save up for a new computer, so his army will be stalled for a while =(


Still, now I have an army list that I will share for your amusement. Why amusement? Because it's to look nice put together and to enjoy painting etc. rather than for any actual combat effectiveness.


I know I haven't done the backstory I keep promising, but suffice it to say that these guys are expert subterranean fighters and hence don't use tanks and heavy vehicles. They will use drop pods to get to the right places on a planet to head underground.


So I've sort of split the army into two divisions.


First Division: Skodi leads...


Wolf Lord in terminator armour with dual claws (Skodi, you've already seen in action).


4 Wolf Guard Terminators as his bodyguard - 
Hammer and Shield, Storm Bolter and Wolf Claw, Storm Bolter and Power Fist, Assault Cannon and Frost Sword.


Pack 1 - 9 Grey Hunters plus a Wolf Guard Pack Leader in Power Armor, combi-melta and powerfist. Pack has a melta, a power weapon, a wolf standard and a mark of the wulfen.


Pack 2 - 6 Grey Hunters, one with plasma gun.


Pack 3 - 4 Long Fangs (2 missile launchers, 2 lascannons) and a pack leader.


Second Division: to be announced leads...


Wolf Guard Battle Leader in terminator armour with dual frost axes.


3 Wolf Guard Terminators as his bodyguard -
Storm Bolter and Thunder Hammer, Storm Bolter and Frost Sword, Storm Bolter and Powerfist with Cyclone missile launcher.

Pack 1 - 9 Grey Hunters plus a Wolf Guard Pack Leader in Power Armor, storm bolter and thunder hammer. Pack has a melta, a power weapon, a wolf standard and a mark of the wulfen.

Pack 2 - 6 Grey Hunters, one with plasma gun.

Pack 3 - 4 Long Fangs (2 missile launchers, 2 plasma cannons) and a pack leader.

Auxiliary Elites:

Loki the Venerable Dreadnought, Heavy Flamer and Multi-melta.

Lone Wolf in terminator armour with chainfist, shield and wolf companion.

"Extra" wolf guard with combi-plasma and thunder hammer (for bringing squads up to number if needed).

Scouts, 5 with a Wolf Guard Pack Leader in power armour, combi-melta and thunder hammer. Scouts have a Melta, Power Weapon, Plasma Pistol and mark of the wulfen.

Roughly 2200 points all up, depending on extras like sagas and meltabombs etc.

The first Division is 905 points, second is 765.

From this I can mix and match squads and elites to field all sorts of different armies.

Have started putting together the next five terminators (how could I refuse!)

I didn't have a cyclone missile launcher, but had a leftover missile launcher from the drop pod, so with a bit of greenstuff I'll save myself some more money...

Here's the Wolf Guard Battle Leader. I wanted him striding purposefully forward with axes slightly wide, kinda like the Dwarf Champion from LotR SBG. I had to do some cutting and pasting of axe bits to get it to work and will need to greenstuff some bits where the arms attach to get the pose right, as you can see by the blu-tac.

Here's a powerfist and storm bolter guy. I want to keep each wolf guard unique, so they've all got a different weapon load-out. This is sort of the traditional terminator look.

Here is the power sword guy, raised as though ready to strike down and the thunder hammer guy in just a sort of interesting pose, at least I thought so. I've also tried to keep all of them fairly open, not covering their chests and looking as though they're really not caring about any laser shots or boltgun shells pinging from their armour as they stride forward or launch their attacks. 

And here's the cyclone missile launcher guy. I'll take a side on shot later, but basically I've got him so that he looks quite dynamic from the front, from the side you can see that his body leans forward, with the missile pod to the rear in such a way that the center of gravity is still above his feet. Like he's leaning forward under the weight of the missiles a bit.


Oh, and the three terminators accompanying the new leader have termie helmets, the other four are bare-headed. Just another way to distinguish them a little. I figured the missile launcher guy needed the face protection for the exhaust! Also that these terminators are slightly less senior ranked than the ones accompanying the Wolf Lord. Or something.

A wedge of greenstuff under the missile pod, when painted, will hopefully not look too out of place.

Back view. I plan on adding purity seals or wolf tails or something to cover up any joining mishaps.

Anyway, there you go, a bit of kit bashing to make a cyclone missile launcher from bits I had lying around!


As always, progress will depend on the sleeping habits of a four and a half month old (which is mainly very little sleep still).