Vlya Fenrika

Space Wolves should be grey, not blue.

And batshit units can stay away from the table.

But this lot fit the bill.

These fellows are suitbaly wolfed up with an adequate sprinkling of bits from the wolf bitz sprue.

These are intended as lone wolves to sprinkle amongst the iggies on Devos IV to provide a bit of powered armoured ferocity in case of challenges and so on.

Which is why they all have different heraldry

Equally, if they bunch up, that's quite a punchy, crunchy bit for a 'gaurd army (sly wink)

For the All Father !  For Russ ! 

You can clearly see the lone wolf badges on the heavy bolter armed wolf brother.

 

No idea who these are

As you can see, the brick of scrutiny is empty today

On the table

There's more of the weird pilgrims on the left, some space wolf scouts without heads (I ordered them before Chrimbo and hope they rock up soon) then the servants of chaos boxed set (an expansion set for BSFortress)  then a couple of rows of the 1980s Copplestone castings mad max types and then a Blood Pact detachment with a couple of three missile launchers. 

Christmas Post 7 A whole lot of WiP

So you've seen a whole lot of nearly finished stuff;  There's a thing that Aussies call an 'eskie' (probably short for 'Eskimo', some of the ex-convicts having stolen some of the other letters), mine arrive full of frozen dog food.  This is not an accident, I do buy them deliberately.  

The lids, once the dog food is in the freezer, make for handy trays to move little men around on, and I have a never ending supply of them.  So the these are Grenadiers who just need a tidy up before they've done. 

The weird looking fellas in the corner are zealots from this Kickstarter. 

Blue Krieg for the Field Arty - I used Fenris Grey (its blue) but obviously didn't mix it mixily enough as it started to dry all shiny and quite the wrong shade of blue.  It was a disaster.  Out with the Shadow Grey (its blue) to try to rescue the paint job.  

Grey Kreig (they're grey - it's in the feckin' name GW !) will need the mustard facings next.  And the random Space Wolf will also be grey, because that's what colour space wolves are.

So that's how I do stuff in the winter - trying to do stuff by the warm mood lighting of the living room, which then always needs correcting when looked at by the light of day.  C'est La Vie. 

Loyalist interlude

When Santa gives you wolves, howl.

The lack of focus is supposed to imply a sense of movement.  I'd be delighted to know if you think it works.  I may dirty up the soles of his feet, but that's about it.  He's not that Blue IRL.

Back to my more usual verbosity on Friday.

Deathwatch Kill team

OK, so on the Brick of Scrutiny now are the Deathwatch Kill team figures.  They're here so we can talk about painting. 

Red.  Blarrgh !  I know a lot of people grumble about painting red.  Here are some red ones.

Ultrasmurfs.

Now the green team.

There he is, looking for Alpharius within the ranks of the deathwatch.

Lighter colours.  Yellow.

Metal.

More yellow, he actually looks slightly better from the back.

Hell's Spangle.  I was feeling quite pleased with my progress here and thought to myself "I'll look at Karitas' Whitescar biker as a point of reference."  I won't do that again.

And my fluffy ffaves, the grey team.

So what you're looking at here are ten unfinished Space Marine figures.  I get so far, and then run into the law of diminishing returns.  By the time I get them to this stage, I've burnt through my mojo.  One of the reasons they are in their Chapter colours with black arms is that the variety of colourschemes are what maintains interest.

But I get 'em to here and then the steps required to finish them seem just beyond reach.  Picking out those final levels of detail is something I tend not do.  Long time readers may remember me talking about not enjoying painting (hence contracting it out), having neither the time nor inclination to practice in order to get to a level I'm happy with.

Now let's avoid a load of bollox where we blow smoke up someone's arse about their minis deserving a better paintjob than the one I'm currently putting out.  Two girls of primary school age eat money.  I need to improve my painting because contracting out painting is expensive.  There are a certain bits out there which I'm still getting help with, but I need to improve my painting to a point where these guys can look finished.

One thing which will need to improve is paint discipline - applying it where I want it, currently it goes a little bit further which means touching up.  Sometimes the touching up goes too far and needs touching up.  Better paint discipline in the first place would be a good start - go back up the picts and look at where the lenses are.  see ?

But I have a plan.

My Space Wolf Army...

Will be grey, not blue.

Will not have Fundawolf cavalry; cause they are silly.

Adeptus Astartes likely to be in the vicinity of Devos IV

The Blood Angels were the Adeptus Astartes contribution to the war against WAAAARGH Burkett 800 years ago.  There are Blood Angel artefacts in the Xyphonica Basilica of the Emperor Restored.  Mauven 158, another world in the Dynorwic cluster, saw a Blood Angel strike force deploy to hunt down a detachment of the Emperor’s Children three years ago.  The Long War does not only persist in the minds of those traitor astartes in the Eye of Terror, it is remembered by the descendants of their foes as well.  The ancient fight between the Blood Angels and the Emperor's Children continues - And Eidolon escaped Mauven 158.

PVP's Blood Angels.  4000 point here.  Karitas has some too.

Rune Priests, following their own arcane predictions, have led possibly more than one Great Hunt into the Dynorwic Cluster, ready to respond to further casting of the runes.  Wolf Scouts are not a common sight, naturally, but they are at large on many worlds, sniffing out the situation and following up on leads and sightings, building up a larger and more comprehensive picture than many other of the agencies involved.  The Rune Priests have seen that failure on Devos IV could jeopardise the whole Dynorwic cluster, the attentions of a Deamon Prince from the Horus Heresy make this a fight they will take on.  The presence of Lone Wolves on Devos IV already is no accident.

One of Karitas' Rune Priests.  Gregarious fellows, Rune Priests - they have lots of friends

The Brothers of the Lostwithial, a splinter of a Black Templar Crusade, have come directly to Devos IV in order to fulfil an oath to Inquisitor Blingnor of the OH.  They have already managed to alienate many of the senior command teams at the front line, even if their incessant rituals are indulged at High Command. The mysterious Adeptus Astartes of ‘One Force’, who have previously ‘punished’ Black Templar formations for over enthusiasm (when the Brothers get carried away dispensing the Emperor's Justice in population centres) are possibly shadowing the Brothers.  Only time will tell. 

Andy BG's mysterious One Force, 

Through various agencies (possibly radicals in the OH), the Relictors have learned the fate of the War Griffons Canis Fidelis, now the Khornate Belligera Rex.  Securing any of the Aroctech from a debased  titan could possibly advance their schemes quite some way.   If your purpose is to understand how the warp can effect the laws of nature, the fundamental laws of the universe, then something like a titan, even a small one, amounts to a substantial sample.  Even if it has to be picked up off a battlefield by a thousand men with buckets.

Siph's Relictors - just the middle bits.

The Brothers of the Lostwithial may be already in situ, but their force is likely already depleted by the actions they have already undertaken on Deovs IV.   They view the Blood Angels as heretical.  The view the Relictors as heretical.  When they meet the Sons of Russ, the chances are they won’t take to them either.   Relationships between the other Astartes factions remain a matter of conjecture.  For the time being. 

My vast collection of Black Templars.  Gonna need some more....

And if something attracts four disparate Chapters, then it is almost certain to attract others...

The punisher of errant Astartes. 

Wolftime ! If you're an IG player with a couple of hundred points for an allied unit that does compliment...

So, you will have noticed these fellows loping alongside the DKK Chimera in the Apoc game.

Sadly, for reasons beyond human control, Karitas was unable to make the Apoc game. His beautifully finished Space Wolf army would have looked great on the table and more importantly, might have saved the Corbanian's from having to walk everywhere for the rest of the war...  But it looked like there would be no Space Wolves on the table.  Humm.  I could fix that, I thought to myself.

I had a sprue of Space Wolf bits that I had accidentally bought whilst searching for the wolf standard for the Flektarn Iggies.   And I have a box of tic tac spaze murheens handy for another project that is way down someone else's backburner.

Still with me ?   I've got some IG in my collection and had been thinking about how to introduce allies that complimented the IG strengths.  So, basically, what an IG army needs is couple of powered armour wearing close combat specialists.  But I have to do this fluffily.  One way might be an Inquisitor with a Black Templar honour guard.

But slightly more gritty and less dangerous to the Iggies themselves might be lone wolves.  In case you didn't know, these are the last men standing from their 'pack' and as such are on a troll slayer like death quest.  So you get an independent character who can have powered armour or tactical dreadnought armour, with a statline and weapon options that give an Iggy player the chop and bang of a Spaze Murheen.  So a handful of lone wolves (or in this case, loan wolves, n'cest pas ?) have a place in any iggy player's army case.

Once together, they were sprayed with Tamyia's German Grey, then Humbrol sea grey and finally directionally with humbrol mid grey. The other bits and pieces (guns, furs, pultrons etc) were done and then the powered armour was weathered with the AK interactive set I'd used on the Commissar's Panzer.

So here are a few more shots of them, one Long Fang, one Wolf Guard and four Grey Hunters.

We have two power swords and a power axe, with sundry plasma and bolt pistols and power shield.  Lots of wolfie talismans which get you the crown of command some limited protection from pskyers.

And in addition to the Long Fang's Heavy Bolter, there is also a plasma gun and a token bolter.

I may go back and weather them a bit more.  They really should have their bases coloured in.  And there are one or two mould lines that I've not made a particularly good job of.  But on the whole I'm quite pleased with them.  It's just one more thing that makes SM armies popular I suppose, Powered Armour is easier to paint than people in clothes.