A Better Day

Well it felt better, I will ultimately leave it to you as to whether it looks any better
 

Or indeed any different at all :)
How I feel – well I feel like I got the gold a bit warmer, and a bit more contrasty- which it needed. I feel like there is more range and contrast in the greys of his armour. His face also is more varied, the osl worked better and the mini, to me, feels more “together”
Ultimately that’s what I’m after.
Things I’m still shaky on – well I used blood. I don't normally do that, well, ever, but a space wolf with a chainsword, it kinda felt like I had to. I tried not to overdo it.
I’d like still to have a little more variance in the red shoulder pad colour. and well the 3d chapter badges are a bit rough for my liking, but I’m going to live with them.
other issues- overall his face is maybe too dark and the “bone” on the skulls came out a tad rough.
But I count it an improvement on the last one, and if I can get the whole army to this kind of standard, I’ll be happy enough. this guy took about 8-10 hours. I can live with that too.
I’d be very interested in your comments on how you all think this compares with the last guy, and whether it’s all in my head or not :)
Next up is a bike test, then a batch paint of grey hunters, I think I can manage 4 at a time to this kind of level. let’s see eh? :)

We can all have bad days, right?

Right?
Well here’s one of mine.
 

With the first wolf I painted, the guy a few posts back built out of non-wolf bitz, I took my time, and though I wasn't ecstatic about his paint, I thought there was something there to build on.
I went in this time with the intention of trying out the airbrush for speeding up some sections of the army paint. well it sped things up, but I’m not happy.
I know some of the things I did wrong, – I over highlighted with the airbrush for one and had to fix that, I didn't make my NMM gold warm enough, and there are other things.
Upshot is I'm not too keen on the job I did. Luckily this wasn't a core member of the army, it was another test model that I’ll maybe use as a lone wolf. I also used him to test some battle damage Ideas on, rather than the indiscriminate sponge technique I’ve used until now.
So hopefully this weekend I’ll get another stab at some Wolves. though I’m out of “test” figures, so I need to make sure I get it a bit better than this last fellow.
The basing works okay though, for snow.

A Gentleman’s Generosity

I won something!
I didn't enter thinking to win, or wanting the prize. If B.Smoove had posted saying he wanted a banner I'd still have sent him the same stuff. I love working on images on the computer. I even Teach it as part of my day job.
The fact is though, B.Smoove DID put it up as a competition and I was lucky enough to be chosen to receive an amazing prize. the competition was stiff, and some of the other entries were simply wonderful, so I'm quite surprised and honoured that my effort adorns his site now.
I’m also surprised and honoured that I have the above loot sat by my desk.
Yes.
That is a Stormlord kit.
It leaves me with the question.. what to do with it.
You see, I could paint is to match my desert IG, build it with a big gun and call it done.
But there's a part of me that wants to build it as a Stormlord, and paint it in space wolf colours, and fill it with blood claws :)
I’d love to hear your thoughts on which of my forces should receive this mighty gift.

SteppenWolves

Get yer motor running…
or something.

It’s been another week of hard work at my job, leaving little time for the hobby, and a lot of that has been taken up by Killzone stuff, which you can see over at Big Jim’s blog. but it’s coming on very well and if you want to see what we’ve been up to he’s intending on having a mini launch of the current test rules on the 7th, pop that in your blog diary :)
I was also fortunate enough to be regarded among the stunning banner entries at B.Smoove's Blog and am incredibly proud that my Photoshop efforts now adorn his site.. I am assured some form of prize is on it’s way to me, though I did not in truth enter for the loot, I will however humbly accept it and chart its development on these pages.
Now, to the picture above. I wanted to expand my wolves to 1500 as that seems a sound number for most games, my original 1k force being too small for most opponents. I figured the most fun and cost effective way to do this was to purchase a Ravenwing battleforce.
I love in your face armies and the ideas of space wolves, being Norse in origin, having a thing for bikes just resonated with me, those Scandinavians do like their choppers.
the guy who received the most conversion was my Rune Preist. I think i will call him Sven Steppenenwulf :)

The birds will be painted as ravens, and his robes will be a very dark blue. at least, that's my current thought.
The attack bike looked odd without a base, so i built one-

out of two bike bases and some plasticard.
The rest of the gang are fairly vanilla. I didn't use as many wolf bits as I could, or maybe even should, as I have it in my mind that they get more customised as they get older, and progress, so my long fangs should be positively dripping in pelts, but my claws less so.





as you can see there are some clues to their wolfyness, but the rest will be done with paint.
The landspeeder is likewise fairly vanilla in it’s build. It does sport a flamer conversion though, thanks for a sentinel kit.

In keeping with Sven Bloodhowl’s Great Company I am using flamer and melta wherever possible.
I’ve started some paint tests, relying on the airbrush fairly heavily. I’ll post an update once more progress has been made on that front :)
Thanks for reading, :)