An Accidental Hiatus

So over the last few days a variety of things happened that stopped me updating, including but not limited to a need to re-install Windows 11. Anyway today I managed to put paint to model again for the first time since last week, and I used it to both add the names to the bases of the Space Wolf characters, and to finish the Venerable Dreadnought - Játgeirr the Teller of Tales!

Dirtied down and covered in bling, the Venerable Dreadnought is ready for violence!

Side view showing personal heraldry and the multi-melta

Notably no Adeptus Mechanicus symbols on the power plant!

A wolf skin and the old storm shield used by Játgeirr before being interred. The scrollwork on the power fist says FENRIS

The named ones - L-R: Játgeirr, Grímur One-Arm, Lady Valda, Old Armann 

The Wolf Guard (and a Long Fang) Pack Leaders: Fastulfr, Hjordis, Eyyindur and Ragnheithur

In the background of 40K, Dreadnoughts are frequently used by Space Marine Chapters as repositories of Chapter knowledge and ancient lore, with the Marines interred inside the armoured sarcophagi sometimes being many centuries or even thousands of years old, and recalling things long forgotten. So with Játgeirr's name I wanted to lean into that a bit, hence the "Teller of Tales" sobriquet. I imagine him standing in the feast hall in the Fang loudly declaiming sagas of centuries past, the heroic tales of mythic figures who to him are as real as the warriors around him. I just hope this helps him roll well on the tabletop!

Painting Points:
Today: 5
This Week: 5
2025: 354 

Respect Your Elders...

...Or else! I have started working on the Venerable Dreadnought, doing a couple of layers of drybrushed highlights to the armour plate, and getting the gold and bone elements to a point where they can be highlighted and detailed. I suspect much of the work on it will be on the right arm, which has got quite a lot of detail on it in the form of the wolf skin, shield, and so on. I also managed to get the latest ISS Vanguard lander finished as well, which is great! Oh, and I've started on the Parliamentarian cavalry. They're meant to be for Second Newbury (1644), and with three units I'm probably going to try to make them at least slightly resemble some of the regiments of horse that were at that battle - obviously Cromwell's lot, then maybe Waller's and Sir John Norwich's. Not sure how quite yet, a little research required here I think.

A lander - this is not a great photo sadly but the big blue canopy is pretty cool. That said I'm actually tempted to redo it to the gold canopy... I'll see what the commissioner wants

A better photo thankfully. It's a funky little ship!

Looking at this made me realise I'd missed a bit on the other side which I have now fixed. Success?

The reason I might change the colour of the canopy to gold is because the engine glow is blue as well...

The dreadnought! Stompy and angry

Warlord Games' Parliamentarian cavalry - the buff coats and plate are basically the same across both armies and all cavalry regiments! The sashes tended to change colour and I'm going to do these ones with orange sashes

So a lot of work in progress, and one completed mini. Not a bad outcome for the day.

Painting Points:
Today: 1
This Week: 4
2025: 349

Long Fang Time

Yesterday saw my painting time replaced by surprise dog-sitting time, which was (as always) lovely. Our friends' dog is an absolute delight. Today, however, I cracked on with the last two Long Fangs and finished them, which is a great step forwards in the whole force - I "just" have the Grey Hunters, Blood Claws, and Rune Priest to do now. Oh, and the Dreadnought. 

Two lascannons give the pack some good anti-armour punch, with the high Ballistic Skill of the Long Fangs allowing just two to have a decent chance of knocking out most vehicles they'll face

The giant rifle aesthetic is pretty good, I must admit

Bulky battery packs and pack markings

I'm already dreading trying to cut a transfer to fit the pauldron of the Long Fang on the right...

 With them complete, the whole pack is done: 

The Iron Priest is attached to the Long Fangs because I think it makes sense for them to be together - the Long Fangs giving fire support and the Iron Priest able to survey the battlefield and move to repair whatever needs repairing as and when required

I also took delivery of another commission today - this time 36 English Civil War Parliamentarian cavalry troopers - which I'll be working on alongside the existing ISS Vanguard stuff and, of course, the Space Wolves. Tomorrow I should have another finished boardgame piece from that commission, an interesting work in progress block of the first 12 roundheads, and some work on the Venerable Dreadnought. 

Painting Points:
Today: 2
This Week: 3
2025: 348

Steady As She Goes

Another day, another Long Fang. I have also brought the last two Long Fangs up to a point where I can probably finish them off tomorrow, and did more work on the commission ships - again, I should probably be able to finish at least one tomorrow. So not a bad start to the week, really!

I really like the grimacing grill on the helmet of the Mk VII armour plate

Simple but effective pack marking - I particularly like the starkness of the black and white against the blue-grey armour

The massive power pack for the plasma cannon is not a subtle piece of gear

What self-respecting veteran Space Wolf doesn't have some fur on their armour, eh?

With almost the entire Long Fang pack done, I think I'll probably do the Venerable Dreadnought next - who knows, I might even keep focus on the whole lot of them!

Painting Points:
Today: 1
This Week: 1
2025: 346

Another Ship And A Wolf

With tomorrow going to be intensely busy - P and I will be at Bedworth Pride - I took the chance to settle in and finish at least one of the Long Fangs, and the next commission spaceship. Having got the Long Fangs all to a certain point I'm finding it much more satisfying to focus on them one at a time, which is something I used to do before I got really good at batch painting. It does at least mean I can put a little more effort into things like eyes, and hopefully I'll still be able to hit my target number of figures painted by P's birthday in July.

A grizzled old greybeard, who now I have photographed and blown up to about four times his actual size, I can see I need to sort his mouth out... grrr!

The pack marking for the Long Fang squad is on the face of it simpler than the others, but you try getting a consistent diagonal line running half-way up a curved shoulder pad

A simple power pack because I don't truck with flashy lights

Mind you if I'm complaining about the pack markings, I should definitely be complaining about the Great Company of the Sun Wolf's marking...

 

A nice, simple, quite Mass Effect sort of scheme for this little lander - I went for a clean finish and a coat of matt varnish to protect it from handling as it's a boardgame piece

Engines ahead full! Blue contrast over white with a gloss varnish really looks great and I'm going to apply it to as many of the landers as I can for a consistent link between them

I am assuming the down-up-down-up cheat code is actually some kind of name in an alien glyph language

The cockpit is a nice gold colour to hearken back to astronaut helmet visors

With the first of the four Long Fangs with heavy weapons completed, and another commission ship done, I feel a lot better about this week. It may not have been the most productive week but it's another step towards getting through the whole Pile of Opportunity, and it's always nice to complete things that people are paying you to do!

Painting Points:
Today: 2
This Week: 4
2025: 345

What's Painting Without Mistakes

While I was happily working on the details and highlights of the Long Fangs, and going back and forth into the commission ships, I realised something odd about the Iron Priest and the Long Fang Sergeant. The Sergeant's armour seemed a bit... lighter. I picked them up and compared them and realised, to my horror, that the Long Fang Sergeant had not just had one highlight of blue-grey, but two or maybe even three! So I'm going to have to go back into the Iron Priest and the Rune Priest as well as the Long Fangs and add some more highlights to their armour. Pants. Oh well. That rather took the wind out of my sails for painting today, but it wasn't a total loss:

With the Long Fangs now pretty close to about a third done, they may well get finished off in the next few days. The commission spaceship will definitely be done tomorrow, and then I can move on to another one. 

I might actually step away from the Space Wolves for a while. They haven't really captured my desire to paint them so once the Long Fangs are done and the various Priests have had their extra highlights, I'll probably put them on the back burner for a bit and move onto something else. Not entirely sure what, though.

Back At It

I essentially took yesterday off from painting, but today saw me pick up the paintbrush again. I highlighted the Long Fang's armour plate, then applied a base of Khorne Red to relevant areas and blocked in the gold too. Then, to make things a little different, I did some of the white on the next couple of commission pieces from the ISS Vanguard ships:

 Not a huge amount of work, but enough to shake the cobwebs off and move in the right direction, anyway. This weekend is likely to be hugely busy so I'm hoping to use some of tomorrow to get at least one more of the commission ships done, and the Long Fangs to about the half way mark or so.

A Brief Pause And Some Musing

Today has been exhausting for a variety of reasons so I have not put paintbrush to miniature at all. I have, however, thought about the new game Guards of Traitor's Toll. I happen to have a bunch of medieval and renaissance styled civilians and, thanks to backing a Kickstarter from Dunkledorf Miniatures some time ago, some really good guards as well. I also have a load of Warhammer Fantasy cardboard buildings.

That means I really only need some more civilians and guards from Dunkledorf and a copy of the actual game itself and then I can play some games... oh no, a new project looms!

She might possibly find a home in games of Guards of Traitor's Toll, for example

 

Iron Priest! Not To Be Confused With Judas Priest

Well, I finally did it, I finally finished one (1) Space Wolf. The Iron Priest, to be specific. With that one done, and the first of the ISS Vanguard commission done, I can safely say that I am making progress on both fronts. Even if the progress is slow, progress is progress. I've got three more of the commission ships on my painting table now, and the rest of the Wolves are making various growly faces at me (at least the ones who don't have helmets on) so I'll try and make some more headway on those the rest of this week.

There was a lot of detail on this figure, but I solved a lot of the problem by applying my usual tabletop standard to it of "cabling's black, black doesn't really need highlights"

Even now it's finished I'm not totally sure it was the right idea to paint the arm of the servo-arm in grey, but it does make it look different to the other Techmarines and Adeptus Mechanicus servo-arms I've done, and perhaps helps cement the idea that the Space Wolves' Iron Priests are rather closer to Fenris than Mars

The Sun Company's emblem should, in fact, have a howling wolf's head over the sun, but that is a real pain to paint, so once the whole force is done I'll get some transfers and do the whole lot all at once

The only reason there's no wolves on Fenris is because the Space Wolves keep killing them to make fur loincloths

 

Unfortunately the photo doesn't really do the orange justice! It's much more vibrant in reality

The stark white of the name stands out really nicely against the orange and black of the hull

As it's a playing piece it got a nice coat of matt varnish

And gloss varnish on the drive ports (which, again, the photo doesn't really pick up)

I'm nearing the self-imposed deadline between P and I where I have to have painted 300 models from my backlog before P's birthday on the 17th, which, according to my Pile of Opportunity spreadsheet, is a mere 23 models away! Which means I have 44 days left to paint 23 figures. The rest of the Space Wolves come to 20 (19 Marines and a Dreadnought), so I'm tantalisingly close. Woo!

Painting Points: 
Today: 2
This Week: 2
2025: 343

Tortoising It

It's a bit like flooring it, but when your top speed is about 2mph or something like that. Which may be slandering tortoises, I don't actually know how fast they are. Anyway! Tonight I made some significant progress on the Space Wolf Iron Priest, and am about half way done with one of the commission pieces, the Faust:

I really like how the orange has turned out on the spaceship, and am looking forwards to doing things like adding the cockpit glass, engine glow, and the like. As for the Iron Priest, it just needs a few details sorting out like a highlight on the bolter, the Cult Mechanicus emblems finishing off, and so on. The most detailed bit is actually the loincloth and belt area, which needs some care and attention I think. Both should be done tomorrow.

The Curse Of The Wulfen

Yesterday I ended up in hospital as a result of a viral infection that was exacerbated, I think, by heat exhaustion. So I didn't do any painting - these poor Space Wolves must be cursed!

Today I've been wiped out, sleeping more than anything else, but I did manage to pick up some old Ral Partha wolves that I got many many years ago and give them some TLC to bring them up to scratch. I first painted them around the turn of the Millenium, probably in 1999 or 2000, which is now - distressingly - a quarter of a century ago. I also finished off the random Space Marine Scout, turning him into a Flesh Eater because why not.

Ral Partha wolves, originally for a 5th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Undead army I think

These were originally painted at a friend's house - I remember sitting at the table in their kitchen drybrushing them - so it must have been 1999. I was 12 or 13 at the time

All I did today was touch up the faces and give them shiny new bases

This was a Scout from Miniature of the Month a while back that my friend C sent me

Flesh Eaters! Because subtlety is for losers

A nice simple paintjob - washes and some basic layer highlights

It had originally been painted with a speed paint by C, and it has caused the paint I put on top to act very strangely - you can see this in what looks like chipped paint on the base of the right pauldron! I ended up trying to seal it all with a matt varnish

Assuming I feel well enough, tomorrow I really really want to make headway on at least one (1) Space Wolf and some of the commission stuff.  

Painting Points:
Today: 3
This Week: 15
2025: 341 

Dabbling In Oddities

A while ago C sent me a load of sprues and some random unpainted figures, two of which - a Votan ranger type and a Primaris Scout - I thought I'd have a little play around with. I did some basecoats and gave them a coat of Agrax Earthshade to prep them for some highlighting and details, and then (at last!) restarted work on the commission spaceships. Nothing huge - I just put the main basecoat block of orange onto one of the ISS Vanguard landers, the Faust. 

 Tomorrow I think I'll finish off the two random miniatures, and try and finish off the Faust and make more progress on the other landers. I'd really like to get the commission stuff done in the next few days, but that might not happen.

Hobbits In Space

Ages ago (perhaps not all that long ago really, but it seems it) I got a sprue of four Wargames Atlantic not-Ratlings off the front of, I think, Miniature Wargames. I didn't really know what to do with them but they will go nicely in the group of stuff I'm painting for C. I decided to do them in browns, and make them look like some kind of corporate security team. Farmer Maggot Foods PLC or something. I also cranked out an old 3rd Edition Obliterator, which I did up as an Iron Warrior sort. Hopefully it'll make a scary antagonist in Five Parsecs From Home or similar.

A little group of ummm hobbit security? Local shirrifs in a space colony, perhaps

Such a simple scheme - browns and khakis! These are absolutely just a very basic tabletop finish but they look good regardless

Obliterator! The left arm is from a very old late 1990s plastic Chaos Warrior, as the original was long since lost - I got the original figure and its one arm from a school friend back in about 2001!

Arm o' missiles!

I don't mind doing hazard stripes on the odd mini, but doing them on a whole army - absolutely not

They do look good though, I won't deny that

With them done I really should get back to that commission and the Space Wolves...!

Painting Points: 
Today: 5
This Week: 12
2025: 338