What Happened To Those Space Wolves Again?

Well, today I managed to semi-sort the internet AND I moved downstairs to where it was marginally cooler, so I was able to crack on with some painting of my own things to get myself back to a headspace where I can work on commissions. So that involved finishing off the Necron Immortals and the Pariahs, and looking at the Space Wolves and going "mmm, not in the mood at the moment". What I was in the mood for, apparently, was a repaint/fix-up of some medieval peasant types I bought way back in the very late 1990s, and which I think I can now repurpose for stuff like Mordheim: Empire In Flames, Guards of Traitors Toll, or even just basic RPG games.

The last five Immortals for the squad. These Necrons are tough and mean and carry Gauss Blasters rather than the Warrior's Gauss Flayers. 24" range, S5, AP4, Assault 2  - brutal weapons that'll turn anyone wearing anything lighter than Power Armour to mince

They're pretty brutal looking from the rear honestly - wide and intimidating

Pariahs - eventually there'll be another five. These are technically meant to be Lychguard in modern parlance but pah, fie upon that, I say

They're bulkier than the Warriors but slimmer than the Immortals and I deliberately painted them to have a little more in common with the Necron Lord I have

And from robot skeletons from the depths of time and space to random medieval types. I thought these were Redoubt Enterprises, but I can't see them in their catalogue. Then I thought maybe they were Gripping Beast, but also no. I'm at a loss! I remember buying them as a very young teenager at, I think, Warfare in Reading. Although it may have been Salute! or possibly even Attack! in Devizes... All I can now remember is painting them in these colours (not as neatly) sitting at my then best friend's kitchen table in about 1999. Anyone who happens to know who made these, please let me know. 

L-R: A wealthy sort, a stallholder, a leper, and a drunk in the stocks

I particularly like the colours young me chose, all those years ago - all I did here was clean them up and paint them a bit more carefully

Tomorrow I'll crack on with the commissions, and maybe some more peasants and civilians. I'm rapidly coming up on the 300 miniatures painted from the Pile of Opportunity before July the 17th, which I honestly wasn't sure I'd do, so I'm very pleased with that. Just four more to do!

Painting Points:
Today: 4
This Week: 4 (+ those 10 Necrons above that I finished last week that I didn't get a chance to post about)
2025: 368
 

Rally The Horse

I spent a bit of time today working on the English Civil War commission, blocking out the horses and starting on the saddlecloths. I need to finish those, then do the leather, trousers, sashes, and details on the standard bearer and musician before whacking them all with Agrax Earthshade and then picking out the metal. I'm hoping to do this by the end of the weekend and then make headway on the other two units.

In other news, I also dug out the last remaining Necrons - five more Immortals and five Pariahs - undercoated them and started painting their metal basecoat. I need to do a bit of work on the barrels of the heavy gauss blasters carried by the Immortals, but I reckon I can get the Immortals and Pariahs finished up tomorrow.

 Also, not this coming weekend but the one after, I'm going to Death Unto Darkness, the 40K LARP, as my Sister of Battle Superior. A friend of mine, M, gave me a 3D-printed bolt pistol a while ago and I've given it some paint to match my chainsword, and a name, because you have to name your wargear.

I'm looking forwards to pointing this at people and yelling "SANCTIC BOLT" at them like the huge nerd I am.

 

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.

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.

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

Undercoating, Base Coating...

... my goodness, a lot of coating has been going on today. I undercoated most of the commission pieces, except for one ship which I need to mask before doing so, and both (now assembled) drop pods. Then I went through all the Space Wolves and gave them their base coats of metal and blue-grey, before whacking a Nuln Oil wash over them all. While I was doing that I also slapped on some Ironbreaker to one of the drop pods, trying to identify which bits need to be metal and which need to be painted green and bone.

The next step with the Space Wolves will be to give them their highlight layer of The Fang, before starting to work on the details (and there's a lot of details). Once I get to the detail section I'll probably work on no more than four or five at a time, and I may well focus on them one at a time too - it depends how I'm feeling on any given day, and how much progress I make on the commission too.

Dreadnought for scale

 The drop pods are big, and I suspect will greedily eat up all my remaining Ironbreaker and at least a pot of Nuln Oil, but they should be relatively quick to paint (I hope). The internal sections that aren't metal will be a standard olive drab, the external sections will be green, bone, and heat-resistant black. Then I'm going to dirty the bejeezus out of them because these things are fired from orbiting space craft like a shell and then scream into the atmosphere of a planet to slam into the ground at the sort of speed that would kill a normal person and disgorge, in their case, Dreadnoughts. They're not going to look very pristine after all that, frankly.

Drop Pod Assault

Tonight I only had time for a little bit of hobbying, so I cleaned up one of the two 3D-printed Dreadnought Drop Pods I picked up last weekend and built it. It's a really simple little kit and it went together very nicely indeed. Then I slapped on some more blue-grey, finishing the main base coat for the Long Fangs and starting on the Grey Hunters:

The doors go down...

...and up!

In the foreground you can see a commission that I got today

 On top of the Space Wolves I'm going to be working on some miniatures from the board game ISS Vanguard that I have been commissioned to do. So things will progress slowly for the next little while, but slowly wins the race and all that.

Tomorrow I'm going to wash and assemble the next drop pod, and undercoat those and the commission pieces as well as do more basecoating on the Space Wolves.