Space Wolves Escalation Force Update (October)

We're nearing the end of October, so I wanted to sneak in a force update post for the month.  The escalation league itself is dead, as they are wont to do, but I'm pushing ahead on my goal.  Still not sure if I'll push for 3000 points for the Narrative track, or 2000 for the GT for 2013 WGC.  The GT is obviously easier, but I do always have a lot of fun at the Narrative, and get to hang out with the same group of cool people the whole weekend.

My goals for October didn't quite pan out;  I had planned to add a 500 point section to my force, but barring a last minute push to finish my bastion, I'm going to be adding a total of 345 points.  I had to go back and retrofit some models, adding a lascannon to my older dreadnought, as well as doing a bit of work to bring his look into line with the rest of my force.  I also spent some time turning my Wolf Lord's wolf claw into a power fist, something that I've been needing to do since 6th edition came out.

For actual units, I was at least able to get the four Long Fangs from my current series of tutorials painted up, so there's that.

I'm still happy with my progress;  I've got a 1250 point tournament coming up on Nov. 4, and for the first time since I started playing 40k in the mid 90's, I'll actually be playing with a fully painted (by me) army.  It's small (at 19 models), but potent.  If I am able to crank out another dreadnought lascannon arm and paint my bastion, I'll be shifting Bjorn down to a regular dread, and picking up the bastion for the tournament.

Well, that's it for me!  November should be a good month here at the blog;  I'll be finishing up the Long Fang tutorial, as well as showing the final results for my bastion and of course an army update toward the end of the month.  Plus you'll start to see some WIPs from me on my projects for the 2013 painting competition scene.  I hope everyone has a safe and fun Halloween.  For my part, I'll be binging on store-bought candy and watching old slasher flicks!

Brandon

Space Wolves Escalation Force (or how I finally got my army painted)

With 6th edition in full swing, my local group has an escalation league starting on August 1st, and running for 3 months.  The guy running it is working on missions for the campaign, as well as a map of the Austin area, modified to be more "grimdark" of course. ;)


Being that I'm such a slow painter, the wolves will be a good fit for me, as I already have a few expensive HQ's painted up, so the force will be focusing on a tactic I'm enjoying right now, that of putting multiple hard-hitting characters on the board, and using them to eliminate enemy leadership quickly and efficiently.  The downside is that at 1500 points (the final value in the last month of the escalation) my army will total 28 models, 11 of which are Imperial Guard infantry.


The first 500 points (my force for the month of August) is a pretty simple 8 models, but still manages to hit pretty hard.  


Thunderwolf Lord w/ Runic Armor, Storm Shield, Wolf Claw, Wolf Tooth Necklace, Wolf Tail Talisman - This guy packs a decent punch, and will spell death for most characters or units I see at the 500 point level.





Rune Priest w/ stock gear, 1 Divination power & 1 Biomancy power - Used mostly as a support character, he beefs up my Grey Hunters' leadership, as well as augmenting their firepower, or the resilience of one my units.  That's the hope anyway; the warp is a fickle benefactor at the best of times. ;)

1 Thunderwolf Cavalry w/ Stormshield - My Wolf Lord's trusty bodyguard, or is it the other way around?  The save afforded by Runic Armor often sees my lord leading from the front, as my narrative supports.









5 Grey Hunters w/ a Plasma Gun & Mark of the Wolven - five of the Great Company's finest, given the honor of making initial planetfall with Bran Solfang himself.


While I have the 2 HQ units painted already, I'm still finishing up the Grey Hunters and the TWC, so look for finished photos of those in the near future, as well as updates on the course of the war effort!

Modelling Tutorial: Making Studded Armor

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Today I've got an article I made some time back, and posted on a few forums, but is no less relevant today than it was back then.


Studded shoulders can help mark a particular model as a veteran, or even give your forces a bit of the "pre-Heresy" touch.  But who wants to pay upwards of $3 for one pauldron from a bits site?  Making your own is pretty easy if you've got a bit of time, and for the price of one, you can outfit almost an entire chapter of marines.  Let's get to it!


First, the tools:

1) a file
2) a straight needle
3) a pin vise, as well as a 1/32" bit
4) your super glue of choice
5) a standard Space Marine Shoulderpad
6) Glass Micro Beads, 1mm


The micro beads are the trick to the whole project.  I found mine on Etsy for about $3, including shipping, for the bag shown above.  Obviously, there's really no chance of me using the entire bag in my lifetime.


A link to point you in the right direction for micro beads.

Step 1: File the trim from the shoulderpad.  Depending on how coarse your file is, you may want to go back and sand lightly with a finer grain, to smooth the pad out.

Step 2: Using the straight needle, poke guide holes in the pad.  You might already have a few studded pads in the army you want to match, or you can create your own design.

Step 3: Use your pin vise to drill into your guide holes. Not clean through, but just 1/3rd to half-way in, as if you were making an impact crater from a bolter. If you find a hole doesn't line up with the others, redrill where it looks right; you can come back at the end and clean it up with a bit of greenstuff. (liquid greenstuff works great for this!)

Step 4: Lay some micro beads on your worktable. Lick your finger and lightly touch a glass bead.  Squeeze your super glue until there is glue on the tip, touch the microbead lightly to the glue, and place it in one of the holes.  Once you get used to the method, you can do more than one bead at a time, instead of going one by one.


After that, you're done!  For the finished shot below, I repeated step 1 on another shoulderpad to create a pair of Corvus pattern pauldrons for this suit of mk VI armor.

This is simply one application for the studs;  you can use them to stud other areas of armor, creating mk V armor, or even help create a custom suit, like I've done with the Rune Priest below.

Completed Rune Priest

One deadline down, and one baby step closer to a painted army- the Rune Priest is complete.  Technically he's Wyglaf Stormweaver, Master of Runes and advisor to the Wolf Lord Bran Solfang, but my wife and I call him "Dave Spritz" or "The Weatherman", on account of his typical allotment of psychic powers.


If you'd like to vote on him at CMON, the link is http://www.coolminiornot.com/299894

One more easily handled deadline this week, and then I get to go enjoy myself at a local 40k tournament.  After that, it's on to some really cool projects, so stay tuned as I go to work on this year's competition pieces.

Rune Priest WIP, Part 2

I'm back with progress on my Rune Priest.  The paint has been going on pretty quickly, and I feel good about the improvements I've made to my speed over the past several months.  I think I'm on track for my Feb 29 completion date. :)


I've deviated from what I've done in the past with the bronze verdigris, in that the larger areas, namely the wolf heads on the backpack and the shaft of the Runic Staff, were done by starting with my deepest verdigris and sponging on the layers up to the cleanest bronze.  The smaller areas were done in my traditional method.  Which do you like better? 

WIP Log

Today, I've got  pics of a few things on my work table.  First up, I finished the first 5 of the Sniper Scout Squad.  I've got 5 more on the work bench, and that will more or less finish up the army.  (I have a trio of Landspeeders to paint for the army, but that won't happen until early summer)

Next up is a little something I'm working on for myself.  I hang out in the SW forum on the Bolter and Chainsword, so when the painting vows came around again I put this in, in the hopes that I'd be motivated to get another model done for my own army.

So far, the armor is done, the base is ready for snow and I've based the animal pelts, cables, and armor joints.  I'm keeping him simple for an HQ unit, since he spends so much time sitting in a Land Raider.