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After having been on Dakka for a while and exploring the different functions, I've decided to hop on the bandwagon and start a P&M blog. Hopefully, this blog will serve as inspiration to myself to complete my army and perhaps be of entertaining read to the community. Since this is my first army, I'm setting the goal as a basic 1500 points which I can game properly with at the very least. I've already planned my army list and have bought and assembled most of the models. However, the army list might be prone to changes with increased gaming experience. Also, I hope to include, in this blog, my thoughts and rationale of why I model and paint my models the way I do.

For some background, this army was started a few years back when I wanted to collect a 40K army, but my enthusiasm quickly waned and I stopped. But this time, with the new codex and all, I've decided that I want to be really serious about it. Hence most of this models are assembled with the older Space Wolves plastic. Some of them have already been painted with base colours. For those I'll be added highlighting and details. Others are assembled and some are not even assembled yet. The Great Company I had chosen back then was the Ravening Jaw, which in earlier times was also known as the Great Devourer. I chose it since I'd always liked the Tyranids and had one foot in to collect a Tyranid army, buying the models but then leaving them to collect dust on my shelf. Well, second army. Space Wolves first. I didn't quite fancy how the new fluff of the codex listed the Ravening Jaw as being accompanied by Thunderwolf Calvary and Fenrisian Wolves, but I've since gotten over that. To keep in line with the fluff, I'll probably add some Thunderwolf Calvary to the army one day... if nice plastic models are released...

Anyway, without further ado, here's the list of what I've painted so far, which I'd posted in previous threads.

Blood Claws Pack Thorgrim. Thorgrim is the name of the Wolf Guard which I'll be converting in due course. Hence their a 9-man pack for the moment. The faces of the bare heads still look pretty horrible to me and perhaps I shall touch up on them once I've painted more of the army. For the moment, I'm glad that this pack is done and I can list them as completed. The freehand Great Company insignia was hard to paint! But I've since gotten more comfortable painting those.



Grey Hunters Pack Skagi. Again, Skagi is the name of the Wolf Guard which I'll be converting in due course. With the Blood Claws pack, I was still experimenting with highlighting and all, but with this pack, I've more or less decided on where the highlights go, so their highlighting is more standardised that those of the Blood Claws pack.



And Grey Hunters Pack Skagi's rhino transport. As the first tank I painted, I had so much frustration trying to edge highlighting. I eventually gave up and stuck to drybrushing. I'm still uncertain of what to do for the next tank; still in the experimentation phase. I'm quite happy with how the freehand turned out on the rhino side door and top hatch, given that it was my first attempt. My confidence has been boosted and I'm looking forward to trying more freehand on future tanks. The chipping turned out alright though it took me a few tries to create a colour mix that I'm comfortable with. In my mind, Marine tanks have ceramite armour and not metal, hence it's too odd to paint metal chips as Games Workshop does. The chipping still doesn't give a crack ceramite look, but for a first try, I'm satisfied enough. I am however dissatisfied with the snow effect. However, I'll leave that for the moment and focus on painting more of the army first. I'll do something differently for the next tank I paint and experiment on it.


And now, for the latest model that I'm painting. Since I've included a wolf totem for Grey Hunters Pack Skagi in my army list, I've to create a corresponding model. In my opinion, I can't convince myself that my Space Wolves would carry nice cloth banners to battle. I want them more gritty, dark and savage (now highly inspired by Prospero Burns). Unfortunately, the new Space Wolves plastic kit comes with a cloth banner which I won't be using, so I've to create my own banner. A wolf pelt on a banner top seems the way to go and that's what I did.


As you can see, I'm almost all done with the wolf standard. All that's left are the claws and the banner pole. After this is done, I'll be set to paint more Grey Hunters.

If you got this far, thanks for reading through all my rambling. Feel free to respond, comment, critique, encourage, etc.

Alright. I'm done with the wolf standard chap. I wanted to paint the wolf skin to resemble a grey wolf which has a very distinctive face. Hopefully I've gotten it to look vaguely similar.

Front view.


Side view.


Rear view.


And now that I've painted 2 troop choices, I think that it's time to paint some heavy support for the guys so that they won't die a too horrible death on the battlefield. I remember that I have some half painted Long Fangs lying about, and after some searching, brought them out into the light again after who knows how long. And as you can see, they're 2nd Ed metal Long Fangs. I attribute the broken arms to my friend who accidentally drop them... the pain of metal models... Some repair work is necessary before painting resumes on these chaps.


And since I'm running a 5-man Long Fangs pack, I need at least 2 more Long Fangs with missile launcher - the most cost effective heavy weapon for Long Fangs and also in scarce supply. Not willing to shell out money to buy more box sets for a measly missile launcher, especially when I have another pack of Long Fangs to go, I decided to do some small conversion work. With a little effort, voila, a left-handed missile launcher-toting Long Fang. My friend says that it's too unrealistic to carry and shoot a missile launcher with one hand. But I say that my Long Fangs are tough enough to shoot their missile launchers as they would a bolter. That's true grit!





Now this pack should make for some fun painting.

How did you paint them? I'm starting a SW army and would LOVE to know how you did it. Great job!


Raen

Thanks, Raen.

For the armour, I started with a black undercoat over which I painted shadow grey. I then blacklined, followed by a 3:1 shadow grey:space wolves grey highlight, and another highlight with pure space wolves grey. Since these are normal troopers, I didn't want to spend too much time on them. I've only just started painting, so I'm still experimenting as I go along.

All the best for your Space Wolves army!

Pieced together another left-handed missile launcher-toting Long Fang for the pack. This time, I kept the left hand separate for ease of painting, something I didn't do for the previous Long Fang which I think I'll come to regret when it's time to paint the face.


With this, the 5-man Long Fang pack is ready for painting. I'm going to keep the bases unpainted first while I experiment with snow effects. The old 'paint sand white to mimic snow' bases look pretty bad in my eyes now and I'm hoping to create some more realistic snow bases.

By the way, a group shot of the pack.


While the 2nd Ed. models are nice and characterful, I don't quite like metal miniatures given the weight and ease of damage. Further, given how disparate the weapons look compared compared to my left-handed missile launchers, I'm tempted to relegate the 2nd Ed. models to storage when I've created more Long Fangs. But, well, we shall see.

Nice models you have there. Nice and clean.
I used snow bases for my nids. I found that if you put modelling snow on the white painted snow, and then apply some clear coat in patches here and there on the snow, the base get more "living" and real. The clear coat looks like slush or half melted snow.

Thanks for the tip, a94marbo! And just to clarify, regarding the clear coat that you mentioned, is it gloss varnish or matt varnish or something else altogether?

I realise that I didn't post up the 1500 points army that I'm painting up. So here it is, somewhat belated.

Rune Priest Ekgard
3 Wolf Guard pack leaders: Horek, Skrond and Thorgrim
9 Grey Hunters of pack Horek in rhino
9 Grey Hunters of pack Skrond in rhino
9 Grey Hunters of pack Skagi in rhino
9 Blood Claws of pack Thorgrim in rhino
2 Land Speeder Tornados
5 Long Fangs of pack Karj in razorback
5 Long Fangs of pack Bjorn in razorback

At the moment, I've only gotten Grey Hunters pack Skagi with rhino, Blood Claws pack Thorgrim painted up. And I'm currently working on Long Fangs pack Karj. So as you can see, I'm still quite a long way from completion.

A mini update after the Christmas celebrations. Worked on the pack leader today. Re-did the studs on the armour and touched up on a few other parts of the armour. Highlighted the beard and repainted the face. It looks better than the few other faces that I've painted before, and the eyes aren't that bad, but still a bit off, unfortunately. Now just need to touch up on a few mistakes and finish up the shoulder pads. And sadly, I accidentally knocked him over and the left arm broke off. Sigh. Such carelessness.

Front view.


Rear view.

Your wolf standard and pacck markings on the grey hunters have got to be my favourite! Nice work all 'round.

Thanks, NTFH. I'm glad you like them

Another mini update. With all the broken arms, I went to buy some super glue to stick them together before I paint on, since I'm not use to painting the parts separately. Too small and fiddly. Before gluing the arms on one of my Long Fangs, I decided to paint his face first since the missile launcher may be in the way once it's stuck on. And I'm glad that there's only one eye to paint. So difficult to get symmetrical and balanced eyes. And I realised that I mistook the ear for hair and painted it all grey. Oh well, might as well carry on with the mistake and highlight it as hair too. Haha.

Nice work. I love the dude holding the missile launcher 1 handed. great an charachterful conversion.

It might be quite a difficult conversion but if yo extended the launch tube on the rocket launcher you could model a shoulder harness, that way it would look alot more feasible but still pretty badass....

Thanks for the comments and suggestions.

@ Perkustin: Since I've not had much experience with green stuff, this is probably my limit so far. It's not quite that realistic, but it's a simple enough conversion that I can pull off. Maybe I'll try your suggestion for the second Long Fangs pack since I don't like them to all have the same pose.

A great looking first army. I really like the chipping effect on the rhino. Keep up the good work.

Thanks, littleboyblues! Your Patior Angelica has been a great inspiration to me. I love all the freehand murals on it. So beautiful.

Finished up the 3 existing Long Fangs with the exception of the shoulder pads which I'll do as a squad.



Started work on the 4th Long Fang, but my fraying brush gave me no end of frustration; couldn't paint very neatly. Looks like I'll have to get a new brush before I can carry on painting. While looking at the model, I was wondering what colour to paint the missile launcher. So far, I've painted the normal missile launchers black and metal, but the converted hunter killer missile launcher seems to be more armoured and demands being painted as so. I wonder if that will be too boring, having most of the missile launcher painted in the same colour as the marine armour. Any opinions on this?

With real life in the way after the holiday season, painting time has been pushed to near non-existent levels. I did manage to squeeze out a little painting time, but progress has been really slow. I'm happy with how the skull turned out. Devlan mud is such a useful wash!

Feel free to comment and critique.

Very nice, crisp and sharp highlighting.

Hunter killer conversions are nicely done.

Thanks! I try to be as neat as possible and it took about 6 hours to get that far from a black undercoat. Hopefully I'll be able to paint faster as I paint more models. Otherwise it'd take me forever to paint up an army.

Looks like I'll be echoing some things already said, but your stuff looks great man. Very clean. Props on the free hand work. Haven't tried any myself yet, my lack of experience holds me back in that regard. But then, that's how I felt about green stuff, now I can't seem to do without it. Hopefully I'll get my own blog up soon. Once again, great job!

Thanks, Wolfpack of One. Every encouragement is much appreciated!

This is the first army I'm painting up, so every model I paint is an experiment and a new lesson in painting. So go wild and experiment! All the best for your blog and army painting.

Posted this a while back to get some critique in the other section but realised that I'd forgotten to post it here. So here it goes.