All I Need Now is an Apocalypse Game!

Well, they are finally finished. I can now field 7 squads of Long Fangs. I have three full squads of 5 missles, a squad of 5 lascannons, a squad of 5 plasma, a squad of 5 heavy bolters, and a squad of four multi-meltas (still looking for a good deal for the last one on eBay).

Plate-full of Long Fang Lovin'!

So I had my ups and downs the last couple of days. Monday afternoon I got an incredible amount of work done. I finished up the leather highlights, and I did a lot of accent colors including the tubes on the guns. I did a majority of the in red so that it would break up all the blue on the model. I also did a couple in bright green to be a bit different.

Then on Tuesday, I lost my steam as I started painting shoulder pads. I was painting my two least favorite colors, yellow and white. To get these anywhere near presentable I had to do two shades of Astronomican Grey and then two layers of Skull White to get the white. For the yellow it took two layers of Iyander Darksun and two layers of Sunburst yellow. So 27 dudes each with two shoulder pads and four layers per shoulder pad I painted about 200 shoulder pads (some of the models already had a first coat of Astronomican or Iyander).

Long Fangs and Why I am Scumbag Steve

Back when I first started collecting my Space Wolf army, one of the first unit I bought was the old metal-plastic Long Fang pack. I had been reading the Ragnar books from the Black Library and they had some cool descriptions of Long Fangs.

One thing I thought was really cool was the fact that I could almost build two full squads from one box. Somewhere along the way I decided I wanted to have one squad of each heavy weapon. I know Long Fangs can split fire, but with only a maximum of five dudes (at the time), most of the time, the first casualty was the Pack Leader, and then I was only shooting at one target at a time, and Lascannons and Heavy Bolters didn't make much sense to me.

So flash forward to the new Codex, and Long Fangs are now very viable. So much so, that 5x missile launchers is almost a 2+ choice. Now I usually take 8-10 missiles, because there really isn't another choice that can do the same job. But I've always had my eye out for some deals on more missile launchers seeing as I only have 7 guys with missiles.

So the opportunity arose and I snatched up 8 more missiles. So I have becomes Scumbag Steve, because I can now field 15 Long Fangs.

I am such a d-bag.

Anywho, here are some WIP pics. Half of these guys already had their bases done and the base-coat applied. The other half, started from scratched. So far the bases are done, the base coats, high lights and wash applied to the army. The leather has been painted. The silver has been painted washed and highlighted.

I still have quite a bit to do, and as I have noticed in the past, doing 27 minis at a time makes every step time consuming. But I am hoping to have these guys finished by the end of the week.

Audio Book Review: Dead in the Water

Man, I can't tell you how much I love me a good Commissar Cain story! It is good to know that in the grim darkness of the far future, there is a dude like Cain around to make sure that the Emperor's will be done.

Just kidding, he's still looking out for number 1.

In this story, Cain finds himself assigned to a backwater river world (see what I did there?) with a low-level, technologically backwards insurgency against the imperium, but due to the logistical nightmare that is the planet, it's possible that the conflict could simmer for decades. Which sounds just right to Cain.

Book Review: Knight Errant

I finished Knight Errant a few nights ago (no pun intended). This is part of the Knights of Bretonnia anthology by Anthony Reynolds.

The first story in the book is centers on Calard, a young noble of Bastonne and his half-brother Bertelis. Their father, the duke is in failing health and these two are sent out for their first taste of battle. But after they engage in the battle they were expecting, they are thrust into the battle of their lives (at least until the next book begins, I'm sure).

One of the things I really liked about these characters is how Calard's step-mother despises him, and she seems to have turned Calard's father against him, but the two brothers are inseparable and save each others lives countless times. It was something I really thought was nice. Too many times, we've seen one brother who is trying to depose of the other.

The story is well done, with battles that are very well done and there was two twists at the end. One that I figured out pretty early in the story, and one that took me completely off-guard and enjoyed it thoroughly.

I give this book four lances of chivalric knights out of five.

Intermission

So I am out of town for training Sunday night through Thursday night. That means very little hobby will be done.

I am setting up a couple of posts so that I will have something posted, but it will not be "current".

First thing first. I finally received my Dwarf Berserkers from Avatars of War. They were only 6 weeks late in shipping them.

Finished Wolves

Well after quite a few hours of green stuffing, the painting of the Fenrisian Wolves went very quickly. I thought on this post I go through how I painted them with pictures. I already went over this a bit on Wednesday's post, but here it goes again.

I started out with a Chaos Black prime (applied with a air brush). I don't have a picture of this, but just imagine one of the wolves completly black.

The first coat is Bleached Bone. I tried to make them different from wolf to wolf.

State of My Army Address

As a Teacher, the summer time is where I usually get a lot of my hobby done. That's not to say that I don't get any done during the school year, but I do go through bouts of wanting to veg-out when I get home from work.

With that in mind, I am trying to set down on (metaphorical) paper, what I want to get accomplished for my Space Wolves army.

1) Finish up my Fenrisian wolves.
2) Cyber-up a couple of my Fenrisian wolves (probably at the same time as 1).
3) Paint my Long Fangs (I have a bunch that need some painting).
4) Assemble a Land Speeder.
5) Assemble a Land Raider Redeemer.
6) Paint all my vehicles (which includes about 5 Rhino/Razorbacks, 4 Drop pods, 2 Land Speeders and a Land Raider Redeemer).
7) Re-do my Dreadnoughts to make their arms more swap-able.
8) Paint my Forgeworld Dreadnought.
7) Paint my Sky Claws.
8) Scratch Build my Swift Claws snowmobiles.

I have realized that I probably have a great company's worth of Space Wolves. I really cant wait to get them all painted a and figure out how many points I have. I'm guessing around 5k.

I doubt I'll get this done before the summer is over, but it does feel nice to have this all down so I can see what I need to accomplish. I will probably put this list up on a side bar as I did with my Dwarf army so that I can see it and keep track of it so I can scratch off stuff when I finish it up, for some reason I get a real sense of accomplishment when I scratch things off a list.

WIP Wolves

The Fenrisian Wolves are coming along. I have finished a test mini, and I am pretty pleased with it.

As with the scouts, batch-painting 20 wolves is kinda mind-numbing. There isn't a lot to them, but each step takes quite a long while. I start with a pretty basic base. Just GW sand and PVA glue. One thing I did differently this time is to go over the sand with a second layer of really thing PVA, and that has done a really good job of keeping the sand down while I dry-brush the rest of the base.

In the Dog House

As I mentioned last week, I have finally started my Fenrisian Wolves. I got these guys for Christmas, opened up one of the boxes, put together 10 of the wolves, and started prepping them. I cut off spikes and whatnot. Then I think I got a little intimidated with the idea of green stuffing all of these guys. Then I sort of lost interest in the hobby for a couple months.

Anywho, I am back on my hobby kick, and after finishing the last three projects, I am still on a roll, so I plunged into this project.

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Birthday America!

See you tomorrow.

Finished Wulfen

Well, after another looooooooooong wait, I finally finished the Wulfen. I think these guys turned out pretty well. I'm a little iffy on some of the teeth. I am kinda against painting eyes and teeth on minis, as I am of the of the belief that from the prospective distance of an arms length away, you wouldn't be able to see "the whites of their eyes." Same thing with teeth. Plus, I'm thinking that Wulfen wouldn't be using Crest White Strips, but whatever.

Also there was the bright colors, but I discussed that last time.

Anywho, here they are.