Grey Hunters of Egil Ironwolf’s Company Painted

Creating a Great Hunt army as I am gives me a little more licence than usual to vary paint and plumb into more fluff. I have to do this, I get awfully bored painting the same scheme over and over.

It also allows me to experiment with new things, that might be army wide changes.. or can look just fine for a solo unit.

For these guys, I went with a slightly flatter, darker blue, and decided that the warriors of Egil Ironwolf’s company would eschew gold as a weak metal, instead going with bronze, as a metal created by men using the knowledge of machines and the mysteries of the Iron Wolf.

I know, I’m weird, whatcha gonna do?

BUT.. if it turns out I like the bronze,, (and I kinda do, though it needs work) I might roll this out across al my Grey hunters, and use the gold only for characters and Wolf guard

I also tried a new snow, mixing in a few other things so it looks and stays, well, wetter.

Have a look.. (pictures came out a tad dark.. working on that)

I know that to probably anyone else this force will just look like it “doesn't match” or has been painted badly or inconsistently. I’ll have to deal with that, because doing it this way is keeping me sane, and letting me enjoy trying to find ways to vary units within the fluff and keep the interest alive.

Lastly, I tired out another “new thing”.. the Vanus temple recently posted a how to for the 360 shots.. I had to give it a go.. click the link to be transported :)

Okay, that’s it for now, let me know what you think of the adjusted colours.. one squad, or roll em out.. likewise the snow.

Cheers all, thanks for reading!

Space Wolves Contemptor Dreadnought

A birthday gift from my significant other, this contemptor will most often and likely be fielded as Bjorn the Fell-Handed. Hence the claw and plasma cannon. I also have designs on cooking up my own apoc formation as a bjorn-led “tac Squad of the ancients” type deal, so I can field my .. now five.. Dreads as a single apoc formation.

I know there are similar formations already extant, but they needed a “tweak” for me to fit with the wolves’ style.

Anyway, pictures follow, thanks for reading and your thoughts and comments are always welcome.

Space Wolf Allies

What? oh, C’mon.. the chance to add a few new models? of course I am thinking about allies.

I started with models I already had.

Imperial Guard

I have a fairly large guard army, and the cheapness of the stuff.. for the firepower you get.. it’s just wrong. example, two veteran units, primaris Psyker and two vendattas… sure you could bump those up to three and still be inside the forge org for allies.. but wait..In the heavy slot you could add three leman russ MBT’s.. or three Hydras… and a psyker battle squad in the elite slot.. wow.

Add some cheap enginseers to help out your vehicles and backfield shooters…

And we haven't even discussed artillery. this codex is the ultimate for power gamer mining outside of the GK it’ presents an awful lot of options.

But.

My guard are painted in desert colours.

And my wolves have snow bases.

that, right there.. I can’t do that. Maybe somewhere down the line I’ll add some vostroyans or vallhallans.. or model up some housecarls.. but nope, wont be using guard right now.

Grey Knights

No.

I have an old Inquisition army, that’s how this blog started and why it’s called what it is, a radical inquisitor… but I cant bring myself to play from the fromagerie that is the GK codex.. and I know that sounds rich coming from a guy with wolves and guard.. but there it is..

also, GK aren't battle brothers with wolves.

Maybe later.

Space Marines

Here’s a nice option, and one of the two I intend to explore.

Battle brothers, check, able to still model them as Space Wolves and therefore keep using the models in the core army.. check..

So..

Fast, Scoring, T5, shooty and survivable in assault.. awesome. also opens up the stormtalon, a much needed anti air unit for the Space Wolves.. space marine captain with relic blade, sgt with fist, MM attack bike and a Meltagun and flamer in the squad..

I still have a spare vanilla biker so I can still run the unit as swiftclaw if I swap him out for a special.

Only question is whether to use Khan.. with the cap added to the squad and the talon escorting that’s a decent blob to come in from outflank…

Blood Angels

More battle brothers.

 

Let’s first consider a cheap option I already have the models for. I mean sure, we can talk about death company in stormravens modelled as wulfen, and we might have to go there.. but for now, lets look at:

Assault squads, x2 5 man, melta or flamer, led by a libby.

can still model them as wolves, can still use them as sky claws and rune priest..

and two of my favourite words.. fast.. scoring…

sure I could run a single squad and combat squad them.. I could do that twice and get twenty of these blokes on the boards.. but this is a decent start..

Also.. I could run a Baal pred…… assault cannons are going to rule this edition, I can feel it :)

 

Heres the quick libby conversion I put together wile considering this.

Deathwing

The last viable option in my mind, and still a bit out there as Dark Angels aren't battle brothers..

 

Worthy of consideration I believe because cheap, scoring hammernators are going to be everywhere this edition, and one of the best counters.. is more cheap, scoring hammernators.. :)

This one doesn't open up much though, and while the scoring part is nice, wolf guard are still a viable option. Its a nice idea, but I like speeeed….

So the Space marine and Blood angel codices will be the ones I explore..

I haven't included templars not least because I don't know the codex well, but moreover because I feel the above offers better options than anything that codex could offer.

so let me know your thoughts, am I derranged? am I heading for trouble modelling my allies the same as my core army? should I consider GK codex options?

What units should I consider acquiring and modelling next? a Space Wolves Baal pred? more bikers? Wulfen in a stormraven?

I’m just full of questions today, huh? :)

StormTalon Conversion

Seems the internet is full of those, cos apparently, like me, not many people like the “stubbyness” of the original.

I used a little plasticard and putty, but mostly the original parts in the kit. All I did, was alter the stuff I didn't like.

for me, the tail was too short, so I took the tail section of the end of the fuselage and rebuilt it as an add-on to the end, rather than being above and below it. if you have one, you can see the three tail section pieces in their new position.

I repositioned the weapons as the original was way too nose heavy.. the guns went back into the body more, with the carriage rebuilt and the feet moved off, away from being placed on the ball jointed gun. *ahem*

The rocket pods went under the wing.. as they wouldn't be direct fire anyway I figured that they'd be on a slightly vectoring wingtip wouldn't matter..  the vehicle got a space wolf pilot and icon too. stay tuned for my thoughts on allies to see why ;)

So there you have it, my take on the StormTalon I prefer the lines Ive adjusted it to here, but I’ sure there are lots of opinions out there, so please feel free to share.

While you ponder, here are some more pics.

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The Titan is assembled

This thing is big.

Not an easy build either. If you don't have at least a jewellers saw and a dremmel, you aren't even going to get the resin vents off. you don't get ANY spares of stuff like the million pistons you have to cut to fit.. so do the longest ones first.. that way if you screw up you can cut them for the shorter positions.

I pretty much had to pin every leg joint with brass rod, and use epoxy glue for the major joints, superglue for some of the smaller stuff.

it’s pretty rock solid now though :)

Getting any expression of character into the legs is a challenge, as it doesn't hold together itself. what I did was pose it, then draw outlines of the components, dry fitting over and over until I had it so it looked right, then worked through gluing and pinning joints.

anyway, a guided tour on video follows, along with more pics, and some shots form the build.

What's next is to prime, gap fill, snag and re-prime, then paint it up loyalist colours (legio gryphonicus) then add some spiky bits and conversions and re-paint it chaosy. :)

I know, right? :)

And here’s the pics..

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Assault Group Miniature WW2 German - Painted

Easing back in to hobby after a break, even if it’s only a couple of weeks, is always easiest I find, If I do a single miniature, and do that in a day.

Fortuitous then that the mini I mentioned in a previous post from the Assault group facebook givaway arrived yesterday.

This is the first WW2    figure I’ve ever painted, and I really enjoyed it. He painted up very quickly and his details are well sculpted, it’s a real painters miniature. now I can’t speak for the rest of the line, but if the others are as good as this, I may well be building my Germans with a few more of these figs.

The mini arrived free from major casting errors with very minimal flash and he sits on a traditional tab-between the legs style base, which I used to glue him to a GW plastic disc, as I want my Germans to have common basing, but will be getting them from  different manufacturers.

I’ve tried to paint him to resemble a late war Afrika corps veteran, hence the cap colour and the mismatched trousers and tunic, He’s clearly got about this guy cos he’s carrying a Russian SMG too, although research tells me these were quite widely used by the Germans, even in some cases being retrofitted to 9mm!

I don't expect my historical accuracy to be high, I’m no expert here and as I say it’s my first historical for this period, well ever.

I’m not sure where to go for my next guys, I intend to pick up a few form a couple of ranges and compare them so that you guys can get my newbies eye view on what the models are like. I think Bolt action are my next port of call, but for fairness I’ll go with a metal mini there too, rather than their plastics.

If anyone has any comments on my paintjob, the historical accuracy (or lack thereof) or recommendations for other companies to try, please don't hesitate to leave a comment.

And as always, thanks for reading!