So much for restraint

I’d promised myself I’d offload my Ultramarines before I started this Lupine project, but I’ve failed.
These arrived today, and form the core of my 1000 point wolf force. well, let’s be honest, first 1000 points..

The current plan is something like this -
HQ: Wolf Guard Battle Leader in Terminator Armour 
   1 Wolf Guard Battle Leader in Terminator Armour (Unit Type: Infantry; Terminator Armour; Thunder Hammer; Storm Shield; Acute Senses; And They Shall Know No Fear; Counter-attack; Independent Character)
Troops: Grey Hunters Pack 
   5 Grey Hunters Pack (Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol x5; Bolter x4; Close Combat Weapon x4; Meltagun; Power Weapon; Acute Senses; And They Shall Know No Fear; Counter-attack; Razorback)
      1 Razorback (Unit Type: Vehicle (Tank); Transport Capacity: 6 models; Access Points: 3; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Lascannon and TL Plasmagun)

Troops: Grey Hunters Pack 
   5 Grey Hunters Pack (Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Bolt Pistol x5; Bolter x4; Close Combat Weapon x4; Meltagun; Power Weapon; Acute Senses; And They Shall Know No Fear; Counter-attack; Razorback)
      1 Razorback (Unit Type: Vehicle (Tank); Transport Capacity: 6 models; Access Points: 3; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Lascannon and TL Plasmagun)
Elite: Wolf Guard Pack 
   1 Wolf Guard Pack 
      1 Wolf Guard in Power Armour (Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Combi-Meltagun x1; Power Weapon x1; Acute Senses; And They Shall Know No Fear; Counter-attack)
      1 Wolf Guard in Power Armour (Unit Type: Infantry; Frag Grenades; Krak Grenades; Power Armour; Combi-Meltagun x1; Power Weapon x1; Acute Senses; And They Shall Know No Fear; Counter-attack)
      1 Wolf Guard in Terminator Armour (Unit Type: Infantry; Terminator Armour; Power Fist; Assault Cannon; Acute Senses; And They Shall Know No Fear; Counter-attack)
      1 Wolf Guard in Terminator Armour (Unit Type: Infantry; Terminator Armour; Power Weapon; Storm Bolter; Acute Senses; And They Shall Know No Fear; Counter-attack)
      1 Wolf Guard in Terminator Armour (Unit Type: Infantry; Terminator Armour; Power Weapon; Power Fist; Acute Senses; And They Shall Know No Fear; Counter-attack)
      1 Wolf Guard in Terminator Armour (Unit Type: Infantry; Terminator Armour; Power Weapon; Storm Bolter; Acute Senses; And They Shall Know No Fear; Counter-attack)
      1 Land Raider Crusader (Unit Type: Vehicle (Tank); Transport Capacity: 16 models; Access Points: 3; Frag Assault Launchers; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Multi-Melta; 2x Hurricane Bolters; Twin Linked Assault Cannon; Assault Vehicle; Power of the Machine Spirit)
The two WG in PA go with the Grey Hunters, the rest pile in the Raider with the boss, three vehicles, lots of shooty and offensive power and no, not many units for a thousand points. and yeah I know I could make a lot more competetive list with no Termies or raider, lots of long fangs, some more Razor spam, but I’m not about competetive, I’m about fun, and this looks like fun to play and great fun to model.
the journey to 1500/2k probably involved another raider and some bikes – maybe dreads, but the point is to keep the model count low. I considered Loganwing, but hunters in razors seemed more viable.
I’ll post shots as I build and paint these fellows over the coming weeks.

Miniature Photography, Massive Voodoo style

So my bulbs arrived :)
I now have lovely cold daylight all over my painting area, even in the dead of night. It’s amazing, I mean – I’ve used daylight bulbs for years, but these fluorescents are sooo bright compared to the old incandescent bulbs.
I’ve taken some pictures with the photo set up suggested by Roman at Massive Voodoo, Its incredibly simple.
Here’s how it looks (photographed from my phone)
 
You see I use my painting desk, and use the two cheap Ikea lamps with good anglepoise arms, and those shiny new bulbs. the glowy white thing is the (also cheap) ikea plastic bin suggested by Roman. The camera, obviously is on a tripod, and set to a 2 second delay (so that my clumsy paws can’t shake the camera, as I wont be touching it when the shutter goes off)

In this closer view you can see some of the interior. I set my white balance manually, and in hindsight that might not have been the perfect thing to do. with the lights this close the white paper I used was a little bright, and the pictures are a tiny bit warm, – shocking as the scene is so cold.
Dave, who commented on my previous post is right to observe that the contrast shift in my current background image is too severe, I’ll print a new one when I’m next able.
anyway, enough procrastination, here are some of the shots taken now that this set up is in effect -
(BIIG pictures all the way this post, as we are celebrating the imagery)
 
Using the same miniatures as other recent experiments, hopefully you can see the difference.
In this guy, some of the details are much clearer, unfortunately some of the rougher areas are also much much clearer :)
    
Chalk this one up as a win however – a lot of the work I’d done on him that just wasn't visible at all in previous photos can be seen now (also, mistakes too :p)

And again, the work is clearer. Whether this is a good thing or not remains to be seen :)
so there we have my photo experiments, I think they've improved, at least to the point where you can see more clearly what I’m trying to do with these more recent figures. I leave you to judge the levels of success for yourselves now that you can see :)
Thanks again for reading!

The road to better photography, and a Wolf!

Always open with a picture they say, though I rarely do

Since this post is largely about pictures though, it seems appropriate. Apropos, here is the home made Space Wolf you saw a few weeks ago.
There are, as always some things I am pleased with, and some that need a great deal of work. I’m very happy with the way my sculpted parts have come together, I’m pleased with the final colour, and I’m happy with his face.
The grey paint I used, well, lets say i need to learn my way round the sombre grey. it was difficult to find the right dilution and as such I had some separation and chalkiness, sadly this is visible on the finished model. but as a “test model” for a small, (hopefully) well painted wolf force I think it’s passable. Oh and that “tattooed leather” needs some rethinking :)
Again, I eschewed metallics totally, and I think the gold came out well. I used oils for the blade and weapon, and wasn't able to be as neat as usual due to the thickness of the paint and the small surface areas, but I think the results here, though rough, show the potential of continuing with this method.
Props must go to  to Eingestellt von Androsch at Tower of Heroes whose painting I admire and from whom I totally stole the idea of contra-coloured shadows for this fig :)
Here are some more pictures -


On the subject of photography, I’m now very happy with the diffuse nature of the light provided by my Ikea bin, so many thanks to Roman at Massive Voodoo for that and many other amazing tips in his tutorial section.
as you can see from these pictures my remaining issue is with the quality of light.
  
This first one has the best colour reproduction, but is far too dark.

much better with a lamp on, but a bit one-sided, and very “yellow”

With two lamps we are approaching the right amount of illumination, but the warm light is terrible.
To that end I have some much colder bulbs on order, which should be close to daylight. once they arrive, I should have cracked the photos *crosses fingers*
Thank you all for reading, I look forward to reading your comments!

Games day figure

Not mine, but a friends. which of course means I’ve had it sat here for nearly a year and hadn’t painted it for him.
I’ve rectified that now.
 

I’m still having a devilish difficult time photographing these more complex pieces so as to do justice to them. tomorrow I’m off to Ikea for a dustbin, like Roman suggests to see if that helps any.
I painted him with no metallics at all and have him mounted on a simple rock outcrop. i deliberately left his slottatab intact so that if the owner decides to sell him, the new owner will have a totally intact games day mini to do what he wants with.
This is another figure that taught me a lot, especially about light sources and reflections,, now I know it wont win a demon, not even close, but if each one of these guys helps me to improve I will feel better :) There's a lot on him I’m proud of, and some thing I know could be better. Like I said the photos really dont do justice. I’ll work on that.
In other news, my order of paints from SnM stuff arrived today, I must say Sean there was very helpful and the stuff arrived really promptly. I think I just found a new supplier :) Anyway with those here, I feel about ready to take on that wolf I’ve built, so expect to see him in a few days.
Thanks for reading, and for being patient with me while I paint some, frankly, odd stuff. for this blog at least.

A Lupine Diversion

In the continuing interest of revitalising my painting and modelling with new and random models, I had the yen to tackle another chapter, and the space wolves caught my interest.
Now having no space wolves bit (except 1 single bolt pistol arm i got as part of a bitz purchase) I was a bit stuck. pun intended.
SO I decided to have a go at improvising something wolfish. here’s the result.


I present him as a “green” so you can easily see what bits have been added and from where. I’m going to paint this guy and leave him based for play rather than socket him, as I’ve been looking for a low model count army for some time that I can go to town on with paint. Wolves might be it.
I’d run this guy as a frost weapon wielding lone wolf point filler if that were the case I think, but as I keep reminding myself I said I’d try to offload my blood axes and ultras before I allowed myself to start on a new army.
Anyway, paint soon :)
Thanks for reading!