Wulfen Update

Well I promised Wulfen for Monday, but that didn't happen. That's mainly because of Pathfinder. I bought three figures for the Pathfinder campaign I'm in on Friday, and had them painted up for them for the game we played on Sunday (I'll post pics of them on Friday). So this left me very little time to do anything for the Wulfen.

All I really got done with them is their shoulder pads. I went over the Iyander Darksun and Mechrite Red to brighten those colors up, and I thought I should have more done to post an update.

Anywho. I put a couple of hours into the Wulfen today. Pretty much the only thing I have left to do on them are the actual wolf heads, the wolf tails, and any purity seals that are on the armor.

So here they are.

Book Review: Nagash the Unbroken

So this is the second book of the Nagash series from the Black Library's Time of Legends books. I read the first book, Nagash the Sorcerer and I didn't like it too much.

This second book, however was excellent. Unlike the first book, this book did not have five million plot lines like the first one. This one had just two plot lines. One follows Queen Neferata of Lahmia. Her brother (and husband) brought back some of Nagash's books from the final battle from the first book. He also brings back Arkhan the black with him.

This plot line follows how the books are deciphered and the results of that research has repercussions throughout the rest of the Old World.

The second story arc follows Nagash after his defeat in the last book. Nagash is barely clinging to life (or unlife?) and claws and stumbles his way to a large mountain with a very large deposit of Warpstone. Oddly enough, the Warpstone does NOT have what a normal person would call, a desirable effect.

Completed Wolf Scouts

So after months and months of procrastination, the Wolf Scouts are finally done. I'm not sure why I waited so long, but I am very happy to finally finish them, I think they look great.

More D&D

I got quite a bit done in the past couple of days. Firstly, I finished up my Wolf Scouts, but they are going to get their own post on Friday,

Secondly (and thirdly for that matter), I finished up the two D&D minis I was working on. First up is Gazer, the gnomish oracle. The guy that is playing Gazer has been teaching himself how to draw for a while now, and gave me some art of what he imagined for his character.

Interlude: Pathfinder & Wolves

So I've got a great wife. She is almost as big of a nerd as I am. She likes to play MMO's with me, she painted herself a Necron army (although she refuses to play against my Space Wolves until they get a new codex, and I can't blame her), and she joins in when I go to play D&D and Pathfinder.

Well over the summer, me and my teacher friends are playing a Pathfinder module, Curse of the Crimson Throne. One of the things I have started doing is painting miniatures of each of the PCs for our games, I did it for the last D&D adventure, and I'm also going to do it for CotCT.

Now my wife's character is a courtesan by day and rogue by night (or would the courtesan "work" at night, nevermind). She found a mini from Reaper, but of course the FLGS didn't have it in stock. Now my wife isn't exactly the most patient of people, so she had to have a mini, so she bought this one.

Stealthy Wolves

Well I've put quite a bit of time into my Wolf Scouts this week. One thing I have noticed is that it takes a long friggin' time to paint 15 dudes assembly line style. But when you think about it, I figure I have spent about 5 hours on these guys so far, but that is only about 20 minutes per model.

I really like the pants on these scouts. Before they had blue pants, and blue shoulders with black carapace armor. I thought it was odd to have blue shoulders, but black chests, and I thought it was too much blue. Now I have gone with the khaki pants, and blue carapace armor.

I still have quite a bit of work to do yet. I haven't done the hair on anyone, and a few of the guys will need teeth done. Then I'll have to do highlights on the armor and some of the leather.

Interesting bit of trivia (at least for me) is that 9 out of the 15 guys have had head swaps and 4 out of 15 have had weapon swaps.

Anywho, without further adieu, here they are (also, I was trying to get a bit fancy with my photo-fu).

A Space Wolf Update? Oh My!

After a long time without painting anything Wolfie, I am back to painting my Space Wolves. I haven't done a whole lot yet, but it is a start.

First thing first, I have started working on my Wulfen. These guys have been primed, base coated, and high lighted. In addition, they all have completed bases. All I have done with them today is to wash them in Asurmen Blue. Tomorrow I plan on going over the red and yellow (god I hate yellow).

The two things I love most about the Wulfen are the heads from Maxmini. these really make these guys bestial. The second thing is the chain axes. I want those to represent the fact that these dudes do rending attacks. I know in the book it says they attack with their teeth and claws to get the rending, but this is how I am going to represent it. It is also another thing that lets the minis stand out from the crowd.

Book Review: Age of Darkness

This book here combines two of the greatest things ever, short stories and the Horus Heresy!

The first story is Rules of Engagement by Graham McNeill. In this story we read about Captain Ventanus of the Ultramarines. He has been charged by his primarch to learn all he can about how to fight Space Marines. This is a pretty story and has a great ending.

Next up is Liar's Due by James Swallow. This is one of the best stories in the book, a small agricultural planet learns that the Emperor is dead and Horus has won. Hijinks ensue! Great read!

Forgotten Sons by Nick Kyme tells the story of two very different Space Marines as they attempt to bargain for the loyalty of the planet Bastion. This story was a bit odd. It felt a bit out of character to me. It felt as as Mr. Kyme was trying to squeeze a square peg into a round hole.

Blue Man Group

So the Crimson Fists squad is finally done. They took a long time, but it isn't because I didn't enjoy painting them. The colors were a nice change of pace. The dark blue and red were really a nice contrast that made the marines very colorful and therefore fun to paint as well as visually appealing.

Audio Book Review: Raven's Flight

I've been sitting on this review for a while now, but with Age of Darkness out, I figured I better get this one posted.

Raven's Flight gives us yet another view of the Dropsite Massacre. This time, the immediate aftermath from the point of the Raven Guard. The story takes on two points of view. One from Marcus Valerius an Imperial Army. His family has faithfully served the Imperium and the Raven Guard for generations. But he has been plagued by dreams of death for the past seven days. This coincidently (not really) enough is the same time that the Raven Guard fleet should have translated into the Istavaan system. He believes it is a sign that Corax is in trouble.

Book Review: Battle of the Fang

One of the best things about having the nook is that when things go up for pre-order on the Black Library website, you are able to download the ebook. That means I have bought and read Battle of the Fang before it is even available in paperback.

But that of course really has no effect on how good the book is.

The book is awesome! It really feels like the last book in the trilogy that started with A Thousand Suns and Prospero Burns, but this book takes place in M32, a thousand years after the Horus Heresy. I am tempted to say that this book is better than Prospero Burns, but I think that would be a bad comparison. Prospero Burns has a "grand feel" to it. It is full of intrigue and diplomocy, and only at the end, do we see the true combat.

Vote for Pedro!

This is just an update on my Crimson Fists squad. I put a lot of work into them this weekend and they are almost done. Pretty much all I have left are the backpacks, and I should be able to knock them out (barring Pedro's bakcpack which has quite a bit of detail) pretty quickly. The sad news is I am going on holiday for a week starting tomorrow, and I don't think the wife will be too keen with me packing up the paints as we head down to South Padre for a week. So they will have to wait until I get back.

With that said, here are the WiP shots.

I'm a Weener!

The gentle-person over at Gone To Ground had a contest and guess who won?! Me! Upon reflection, I feel kinda bad I didn't advertise the contest here, but a) I didn't want anyone else to enter the contest, b) I'm increadibly lazy, and c) G2G pops up on my "My Blogs List" on the right hand side. Anywho...

I will shortly be the proud owner of Skeld, the Lone Wolf. I haven't really used Lone Wolves much, but I certainly am putting plans in the works now.

The thing I'm really worried about now, is if this guy will make the rest of my Space Pup army look like crap.

I want to thank Dave over at Gone to Ground for running this contest, and I hope that anyone that reads this, heads over to his blog to check it out. Good stuff there.

Lest We Forget

God of our fathers, known of old—
Lord of our far-flung battle line—
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine—
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

The tumult and the shouting dies—
The Captains and the Kings depart—
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

Far-called our navies melt away—
On dune and headland sinks the fire—
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe—
Such boastings as the Gentiles use,
Or lesser breeds without the Law—
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget—lest we forget!

For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard—
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding calls not Thee to guard.
For frantic boast and foolish word,
Thy Mercy on Thy People, Lord!
Amen.

Thunderwolf Delema

So I have been waiting, and waiting, and still waiting for some Thunderwolf miniatures from GW. Here we are, almost 2 years into the Space Wolf codex and I am pretty sure all we are missing from the miniature range are Thunderwolves and Fenrisian wolves. The latter is not much of a big deal, as I think you convert them pretty easily from chaos warhounds as seen here.

This came to the fore, in my mind, recently with the announcement of yet another wave of releases for the Dark Eldar. Now I know that the DEldar players have waited over a decade for a new codex (although I am pretty sure that there are few people that actually bought an army when the 3rd ed. codex came out and kept them until the new one was released). And I know that 99.99% of the miniature range was remade so there are a ton of miniatures to do as opposed to the Space Wolves. I don't begrude the DEldar players anything. I just wish GW would get off their butts and give the Space Wolf Players one of the two kits we are missing to make out line complete (and for the record, I want the Thunderwolves, not the Fenrisian wolves).