Wolves, Angels, and Marines

170044APR10
Hope everyone remembered yesterday, being the 16th of April. Especially my fellow Hokies.
Right, moving on to the stuff you came to see. I have a few random pictures for you, to show I have not been idle with the hobby and haven't just been sitting around making lists.
The first is a Grey Hunter armed with a plasma gun.

The effect on the coils is achieved by making the coils white, then washing it with severely watered down Ice Blue. Having successfully done it with just the coils, now I've got to figure out how to do some directional lighting (time to visit HuronBH's tutorials, mayhap). This brings the total number of Grey Hunters done to 6; another 14 to go, plus 9 Blood Claws, 5 Wolf Guard, Logan, and a Rhino. (Argh . . .)
Next up is a Risen Angels Assault Terminator.

This was mostly trial-and-error on the color scheme applied to a Terminator. You may notice the helmet, however, uses the technique I mentioned before: Mithril Silver with 3 Gryphone Sepia washes to get a fine highlighted gold effect. You can see a hint of the chapter emblem there (went back to the single-winged sword), that's free-handed rather than using the old method of cutting off a wing from a Dark Angels transfer. Best part is he didn't take too long, either.
Lastly, I admit to having caved: I started building up my Blood Angels' "Descent of Angels" list. I started with 5 of my 10 Death Company Marines.

Note the fellow in the middle, in the process of leaving the ground. So much for not doing Blood Angels . . . well, let's face it, they're awesome.

On Wolves and Vampires

121141APR10
No, I'm not talking about yet another incredibly bad vampire movie.
For anyone concerned that I may have been neglecting my Space Wolves in favor of everything else, including my still list-less Imperial Guard army, fear not. The Space Puppies too well fit my play style and too well appease my love of the 40k lore to be ignored and are still my primary army. They've now gone through a much-needed expansion that now allows me to start mixing up my lists somewhat.
Anyone who has played against me or has at least seen my lists knows I'm not a big fan of named characters. Not because I don't like their rules or their stats or their model (generally), but rather because I vastly prefer to create my own characters with their own backgrounds, then make their own histories and legends on the "battlefield." Unfortunately, that deprives me of some of the edge of any army I play. With my Wolves I have finally decided to change that outlook, and so I picked up Logan Grimnar and a box of Terminators. Logan will be my next masterclass, so don't expect him to be painted anytime soon (I have to practice painting Terminators in general, then Space Wolves Terminators in particular, before I even consider that).

The fellow next to him is my take on Arjac Rockfist, the upgrade character for the Wolf Guard. There's not much different from a straight-up Wolf Guard Terminator, other than his base. The head is different; I wanted to get it as close to the picture of him in the codex as I could without spending hours with green stuff and a hobby knife, so I took the closest looking head I could find and removed the hair (he's bald with a beard in the codex). The hammer on his back comes from a Space Marines Assault Terminator sergeant's thunder hammer with the skulls removed (vaguely resembling the anvil on his back). I also removed the cabling connecting his hammer to his arm, as it would be awfully difficult to throw it at anything if it's attached to his armor with a short cable.
In terms of Logan's usefulness, it's more for his personal power and some of his special rules rather than some desire to make a "Loganwing" army. First of all, that would supplant my desires to make a Deathwing army at some point in the future. Second, I don't have a huge desire to see that man Wolf Guard Terminators on the field at once. What I do see myself doing is using Logan and his Wolf Guard Terminators in conjunction with Morkai and his jump pack-equipped Wolf Guard. In fact, to my mind having access to Wolf Guard as Troops doesn't scream "make lots of Terminators!" Wolf Guard are by far the most flexible units in the Space Wolves codex; why would I sacrifice that just so I can have that many Terminators? They're also expensive in points, which tells me that they're a supplement to the primary Troops of the Wolves, Grey Hunters and Blood Claws.
That's just my opinion, of course, feel free to agree or disagree as you see fit.
In the painting department, I've (finally) finished a Grey Hunters Pack. It's not the whole pack--I normally run 10 Grey Hunters rather than 5--but it is now codex-legal. They're shown here coming out of my second Drop Pod (which, typically, they do).

The fellow with the power fist was something of an experiment in alternative paint schemes. The nozzles on his backpack are actually Boltgun Metal rather than the gold that everyone else has (a surprisingly great look, very complementary to the Space Wolves color palette), and there are a few gold areas on his armor I used a different technique to achieve. Normally I basecoat with Khemri Brown, then put Shining Gold on top of them. This time I used a method described on GW's site last week I believe: Mithril Silver base with 3 Gryphone Sepia washes. The result was spectacular (belatedly I realize the picture above doesn't show the results, as I only did that to the gold on his power fist), and will likely see that becoming a more common method of painting large areas of gold for me.
Changing tracks here, it is becoming increasingly tempting to at least pick up some Blood Angels models and paint them up. I'm particularly in love with the Sanguinor and the Sanguinary Guard. I see that was a slippery slope, though; if I pick those up I'm going to have to make a Blood Angels army. If I do it will likely be another 1,000 point "experimental" list, and I believe it would feature lots of jump packs. To me that's one of the key parts of the Blood Angels' imagery, Angels of Death descending from the heavens on wings of fire, destroying the enemies of the Imperium in the fury of hand-to-hand combat (too florid, you think?).
If I get a hold of a Blood Angels codex (which is increasingly likely), I'll write up a list and post to show you what I mean and what I see as a "proper" Blood Angels list. Don't worry, I don't see them ever supplanting the Space Wolves as my favored army (giving their codex a read-through the other day didn't inspire that "I have to make this army!" feeling I got from reading Codex: Space Wolves the first time).

WIPs and Blood Angel thoughts

072051MAR10
I have now empirically proven that a great way to get funny looks (which I would advise against) is to interrupt the Commanding General in the middle of his address with a hearty "Oorrah!" Unless, of course, you want to irritate all of the colonels and sergeants major around you.
Reflex reactions may save your life one day, but they can also leave you feeling mighty uncomfortable on another.
Anyhow, Gamer's Lounge has put up their second podcast, go listen. Apparently Jay and Bill read this drivel because they mention my last post in it. Grand stuff, though I must point out that I'm not making a Traitor Guard list; that's Cathal at 4 Ones (http://4-ones.blogspot.com/). I hate pointing out errors in an otherwise delightful podcast, but I'd rather not be known as a Traitor player. The irony is that I have yet to play a game against either of those two. One of these days I'll have to take care of that; they'll probably wreck me, but that's immaterial to the notion of the amount of fun to be had.
As the post's title points out, I have some works-in-progress for you. The first is one of the new Space Marine Venerable Dreadnoughts. This kit is, without a doubt, one of the most awesome kits I have ever messed with (that may not be saying much, but whatever), and even if you don't play Space Marines or 40k, you may want to get one just because it is awesome. I have left the arms unglued so I can swap them out as necessary.

You ever see that great picture of a bomber (a B-52 if memory serves) with its payload laid out in front of it and a football-esque caption? That's what I think of. "The Xenos have won the toss, and have elected to receive."
Next up is my codex chapter's (the Keepers) Captain. He's not done, but should look all manner of awesome when he is. (He's also taken two days to get to this point, so it won't be anytime soon.)

His cloak is something of an exercise in blending, and his shoulder pad (and eventually the banner) is one in free-handing.

Finally, some finished works. The first are a bunch of Space Wolves; the fuzzy-ish one on the left is a Long Fang (and dear God what a pain his shoulder pad was), the ones other two are Grey Hunters. Difficult though they may be, I am rather pleased with how they turned out.

The fellow on the far right has proven himself in the Kill Teams scenario in the new Battle Missions book. Great book.
Finally, we have a Fantasy Imperial Marksman. Note the Outrider's cloak, I think it gives him a rather romantic (or, perhaps, elitist) look.

On a completely separate note, I stopped by GW Sugarland earlier today (to pick up their last Venerable Dreadnought), and found an absolutely delightful surprise: the black box containing the Blood Angels preview. Those sprues are amazing, and just based on those I feel compelled to make a Blood Angels (or, more likely a Blood Angels successor chapter) army. What cinches it, however, is what I found in the codex itself, specifically the Blood Angels army list: the Furioso Dreadnought, an Elites-choice psyker (yes, psyker); the regular Dreadnought playing Heavy Support; and, best of all, a Troops choice dreadnought whose name I can't remember at the moment. That means you can field up to twelve (!) dreadnoughts per army. Alas, there is no choice for an HQ dreadnought (like the Wolves have), but you can bet, without any shadow of doubt, I will be making a Blood Angels army consisting of a mass of dreadnoughts, properly upgraded, likely in Drop Pods (if I can convince myself to make and paint more of the blasted things), with the final points filled up with HQ choices. Will it be a successful list? Probably not, but let's face it, a mass of dreadnoughts would be ridiculously fun to play with and an awesome sight on the field.
That's all for now. Old Booj, Out.

The Keepers chapter is back

101417FEB10
What does Square Enix have against Cid? In FF12, he was, from what I saw, the #2 villain, and arguably the reason all the badness was going on. In FF13, he's a Fal'Cie goon/spy-type (or something like that; I don't speak Japanese well enough to know for sure).
But this isn't Booj's Adventures in Final Fantasy, so returning to the correct topic . . .
As promised, I have finished the first of my Space Marines army rebuild. The scheme is an update of my original paint scheme, being both simpler and much better looking. As a bonus, it's now harder to mistake them for Dark Angels. Of course, originally the "Risen Angels" were a Dark Angels successor chapter, but with the new paint scheme comes with a new background. They're an Imperial Fists successor chapter now called the Keepers.

Compare to the original:

On another note, I mentioned an expansion to 1850 for my Space Wolves. To commemorate, I painted my Rune Priest:

I've also thought up a truly evil scheme: 15 Blood Claws with a power weapon, 2 flamers, and one with the Mark of the Wulfen, a Wolf Guard with power weapon attached, all mounted in a Land Raider Crusader. Smash!
Speaking of Blood Claws . . .

It may not be WYSIWYG, but is anyone seriously going to complain?

More pictures

012331FEB10
You ever get a song stuck in your head that you wish you had never heard before? 'Cause I bet if I went to a Random-Song-No-One-Has-Ever-Heard-Of-Stuck-In-Your-Head competition, I'd get at least the bronze medal.
But you didn't want to read about that.
I think I've worked out fairly nasty lists for 40k at 1850 pts, both for my Wolves and my Guard (not it's not completely mechanized). I've also figured out a 2250 pt Empire list, but it's going to be a helluva long time before that's ready. On the other hand, my Warriors of Chaos only require a few things here and there to bring up to that point level, so they may be seen on the field again (now under the thrall of all four Dark Gods as opposed to just the one).
I also grabbed some Lord of the Rings Dwarves, so perhaps Gimli will be seen on the field at some point in the near future.
I also come with pictures.

These are the last two of my Wolf Guard. Note the Chaos Marauder sword the one on the right is wielding. Kinda ironic how the Chaos bits work so nicely with the Space Puppies.

My first Grey Hunter. Those shoulder pads are a bitch.

This is a better view of the shoulder pad.

Switching tracks here, this is the command group for my Empire Swordsmen. I have just over half of the block painted and hope to finish off the rest of the unit in the near future. These guys were done before I started working on a solution for the contrast in skin tones, so at least everyone else should start looking better.
All for now.

Time for a list

261141JAN10
Apparently being the battalion S-3 means I have to actually work now. Someone needs to increase our budget so I can get paid . . .
Anyway, being bored before class tonight has driven me to post my Space Wolves list for all the world to see and despair (or not . . .).

HQ
Erik Morkai (Wolf Lord): 2 wolf claws, runic armour, wolftooth necklace, Belt of Russ, jump pack, melta bombs, Saga of the Warrior Born: 260
Arok Thundercaller (Rune Priest): Master of Runes, runic armour, wolf tail talisman, Saga of the Beastslayer: 185

Elites
5 Wolf Guard: 4 power weapons, 1 power fist, melta bombs, jump packs: 300
Lone Wolf: thunder hammer, storm shield: 80
Wolf Scouts: meltagun, melta bombs: 110

Troops
10 Grey Hunters: 2 meltaguns, power fist, Drop Pod: 215
10 Grey Hunters: 2 meltaguns, power fist, Drop Pod: 215

Heavy Support
Vindicator "Mjollnir": siege shield, storm bolter: 135

Total points: 1500

The Plan: this is what I call a knife-fighter list. Inspired by Morkai's description in the Codex as being particularly aggressive and violent, it is designed to get close and beat the snot out of the enemy. As a result, nothing has a range greater than 24", but just about everything is very powerful. To offset the lack of tankbuster weapons, I loaded up with meltaguns and melta bombs.

What I've Learned: this list's biggest weakness is its lack of Troops choices, making it weak in objective games. Definitely going to need more. Morkai and his Wolf Guard are absolutely monstrous in close combat, but extreme care is needed to get there before too many of them die off and render the squad combat-ineffective (jump, run into terrain, repeat until close). Otherwise everything performs exactly as designed. I tend to break even with this particular list (smaller games tend to go far worse).

Future Plans: I'm definitely going to need more Troops choices, some Blood Claws in a Drop Pod (with Arok attached to them so they don't go running off) and move a Grey Hunters Pack into a Rhino. A pack of Long Fangs would be very helpful to deal with enemy armor, as well as to hold enemies off of objectives. Replacing the Lone Wolf with a Venerable Dreadnought (for bigger games, anyway) would be no bad thing, either. Some Fast Attack choices are certainly called for; I'm leaning towards Land Speeders with multi-meltas.

Yo

241443JAN10
Decided to give this blogging nonsense a go.
I thought a good way to kick this off would be with some images of my current hobby projects. Right now, I have one 40k army and one Fantasy army I'm working on concurrently, with one of each on the back-burner. Both are 1500 points, and won't be expanded until what I have is done (to avoid the hell of a mess I experienced with my Imperial Guard). The pictures are easier to see if you right-click and open in a new window/tab.
First up are the Space Wolves, depicting Erik Morkai's Great Company:

Erik Morkai, Wolf Lord

Wolf Guard (3/5)

Wolf Scouts

Vindicator, front and rear

Drop Pod, outside and inside

That's pretty much all I've got on the Wolves so far; I'll post more when more are painted.
Next up are a couple models from my Empire army, the Army of Brewheim, commanded by the erstwhile (and often severely intoxicated) Baron Otto von Bierstein:


Aurig Stehlenhand

State Troop (Swordsman) Standard Bearer

That's it for now. More to come whenever my productivity wakes up again.