Space Wolves: Fenrisian Wolves pt.1

Another day, another wolf - and this is the first from my test batch of new bases for my Space Wolves in 8th edition.

Seeing the greys against the base is a big moment. I'm delighted that the colour choices have worked out here! Especially as I'm now 62 bases into the project and hadn't done a test run. With hindsight, trying a single base and a model first would probably have been the smarter idea ... right?

Blood Rage: Fenrir

As part of the soon-to-conclude wolf project, I completed Fenrir from Blood Rage. Easily the largest wolf of the set, this is a lovely sculpt and packed with menace.

After over-committing to a proper basing scheme with the original Zombicide: Black Plague bases, an error on my part, these will all be plain black. Which is just as well, because there's about another 100 to finish up. Not to mention the other tabletop games in the queue ...

Played around with a lot of greys just to let the blue glow pop out. Hopefully that comes across in the photos.

Warhammer 40k: Sector Imperialis bases

Prepping for the new, and rather excellent looking Primaris Space Marines, I've started building out a new basing scheme and finished the first set of 58x 32mm bases! Phew.

If you're interested in repeating the scheme:

• Basecoated with Gunmetal Metal, Brassy Brass, Beasty Brown and Martian Earth on the four main areas
• Metals shaded with Army Painter Dark Wash
• Brassy Brass then corroded with Nihilakh Oxide
• Drybrushing Orange Fire over Martian Earth, and Plague Brown over Beasty Brown
• Higlights picked out with Chainmail Silver over Gunmetal Metal and Bright Bronze over Brassy Brass

If you were wondering where the missing two bases from the set of 60 have gone, they were prototypes for refining the scheme and you can find them on my Inquisitor and Daemonhunter.

Just another 20x 40mm, 40x 25mm and a few 50mm and 60mm bases and ... well, anyway ... there's few to do before it's all done. Why so many? I'm keen to get them finished up while the scheme's familiar to me - and frankly it's too warm to do detailed work on individual figures.

Warhammer 40k: Ordo Malleus Daemonhunter

With 8th edition here, there's a fresh sense of urgency about clearing the desk of the in-progress models, so here's my 90-minute paintjob for June - a Daemonhunterof the Ordo Malleus.

It's only now I realise how much I dislike the pose on the model. The Inquisitor figure from a while back is far superior, and benefits from not having the ridiculous leaning forward. At some point I should learn how to convert models, or at least how to cut the back out of knees.

Guild Ball Morticians: Scalpel

Life delays have taken a toll but hopefully it's back to normal now. All is well, just no time to sit down and photograph anything. And indeed, no desk until the other week.

Couple of quick paintjobs done in the last month to keep the momentum going - so it's still moving forward, albeit slowly. Here's Scalpel from my Guild Ball Morticians coming in around 90 minutes.

She felt very utilitarian, so everything is shades of brown and leather. "Brown and leather" may be the name of my first glam metal album.

Wolves, wolves, wolves

Crossing a couple of games here, but it would feel a little repetitive making multiple posts on the same topic.

I'm painting wolves. Lots of wolves. Many wolves.

Doing inventory over Christmas on what needed painting and realised I had wolves from several different games - Zombicide: Black Plague, Conan, Warhammer 40,000 and Blood Rage. It occurred to me that if I painted them in two groups - grey and brown, it could give nice variation on the game boards. This is the first batch of the greys for Zombicide and Conan.

It's not a complex formula. Undercoated black, airbrushed grey, then a lighter grey, then heavy washes, then pick out a few details and add eyes. Done! Been a while since I just bashed out tabletop quality units, and after the brain melting complexity of the Hasslefree figures, it was a welcome change of pace - throwing the painting into automatic and just getting something wrapped up.

Red Box: Hostrom Hammersmite

More free time, and more Red Box! This time it's Hostrom Hammersmite.

I wanted to develop a theme through my little set of figures where each of them is quite muted but has a a different colour on fabrics. So the previous one, Ullr, was blue and this is red ... so something different next. My hope is that when they're all in the same group it will look quite nice - but let's see how that goes.

Only a few on the Red Box pile to go now. Which is just as well, as my brain can't handle this detail for too long - something simpler required next!

Red Box: Ullr the Red

Still working through the Salute 2016 backlog and finishing up my Nordic-themed purchases from the super lovely Hasslefree - they were selling the Red Box Games range of Norsemen.

Detail on these feels a little beyond me at times. The faces are so intricate and I'm just not there yet for picking out all the features, which is occasionally frustrating - but we got there. This is another without a basing theme as I'm not sure where I want these to go yet.

Warhammer 40k: Space Ork Raiders

This weekend saw the ever enjoyable Salute happen, and a friend of mine flew over from Holland to attend. As he was the brain behind the 90-Minute Miniature Challenge, it seemed a perfect opportunity for us to go head-to-head for our April challenge to see how we do!

Guesses as to who painted which one are welcome. The figure is one of the original RTB02 Space Ork Raiders. I picked up a box of them last year and thought this was a nice step up from recent efforts. Big, chunky features and packed with character.

We were both surprised that around 70 minutes we had all the main detail in place - so it was a case of going back and picking up highlights to push up some contrast. Far more controlled than my recent mad dashes to meet the time limit.

They're not based, as my Ork army is in limbo while I decide what to do with them in 8th edition, and his is going back to Holland for some nefarious purpose.

The Wicken King

Another model from my Salute 2016 pile that demanded attention. Broken Toad's lovely Wicken King bust.

This is the first bust I've ever painted, so there's been a struggle trying to understand how to play with shadows on something of this size. When it's a 28mm figure, my brain goes "yep, that's fine, more shadow!" but on a larger piece there are natural shadows too - and that needs more thinking.

I wanted it to look like he's wearing some sort of horrific skin mask over his actual face. Lot of things I'm happy with, including the mix of textures and colours but still room for improvement especially in understanding the concept of volume.

Colonel Hogan

Fresh from Admiral Almos, his firm right hand (oooh, matron) was painted as my March #90MMC figure, and another attempt to do the green/blue uniform but stronger highlights.

He gets a pet too, another of the Colony 87 models, and again I've tried to pair the animal with the person, so it's sitting to attention and literally at his right hand. Clumsy metaphors with miniatures is becoming a specialty it seems.

Admiral Almos

I'm still playing catch-up, but this was my 90-minute miniature challenge (#90MMC) for February - the wonderfully detailed, and super small, Admiral Almos from Hasslefree's Grymm command squad. He's finally based, so here are the photos!

The base and creature were already painted, but have been sat waiting patiently for him to be finished for a while now. I wanted to capture the "where the hell's my pet tiger?" look in the eyes and positioning. Hopefully that comes across in the pictures.

On review I spent too long on the face, trying to get the expression right. This really is a tiny figure and I was determined to bring out the character. It didn't leave me long to finish the rest, but the military uniform was blue and then green highlights with red shading to try and emulate a shiny, pearlescent uniform texture - I had Babylon 5 in mind at the time and wish I'd made the cuffs and trim a red instead of a leather brown. Successful? Not quite, but one for the future to play with when not working inside 90 minutes.

Funny how the ambitious ideas pop up when you're already up against the clock!

Warhammer 40k: Inquisitor with combi-weapon

That was a long five weeks of work, colds, terrible family news, colds, house painting and more colds. Normal service is resumed! Now where was I?

Oh yes, painting that Inquisitor. Having changed jobs at the start of the year, I now find myself within 10 minutes' walking of a GW so have made a habit of trying to get down at least one lunchbreak per week and have a little paint. This is the result of February and early March. The lighting in the shop isn't great - it's designed for product promotion in a dark shop - not painting, and I've only been able to chip away in 30 minute sessions, but I'm happy.

This fellow has a few notable points. It's a sculpt I owned when it originally came out, probably early 90s I guess? He came with a kick-ass Ordo Malleus character. too, so when when both of them were available again through the made-to-order scheme on Games Workshop's site, it was like the mothership calling me home and I was powerless to resist.

The red was fun and the highlights are just yellow glazes to the point of re-visiting the GW Red Period, which I can afford to do as none of my armies would ever use red like this. The base is one of the Sector Imperialis bases, and I'm playing with colours and options - so it's a little unfinished, because they'll be used for all my Space Wolves, and I want to find a scheme that suits all my Imperial forces.

He was rushed in for the local GW painting competition but was beaten into third place by a really well painted Ultramarine, and a reasonably painted Belisarius Cawl - but how superb is that sculpt?

It is, I think, the first figure painted entirely somewhere not my home. Literally stepping outside my comfort zone on this one. Interesting experience. While I'm unlikely to do a full figure end-to-end as the poor lighting bugs me on fine detail and colour choices, I will continue to chip away at larger projects in this way during lunchbreaks.

So that's it! Back into the swing now hopefully. More to follow in the coming weeks now I'm back on track.