With a meet-up (now long) planned for the end of October, I had decided that this 1000pt Space Wolves army should be finished for then. Firstly, I would get everything built and ready for painting by the end of September, and then spend three weeks getting them painted.
Before going any further, I needed to make some tweaks to my initial list. I initially had three HQ choices, but decided to remove the Wolf Lord. I made a start on both the Gravis and Phobos options, but couldn’t decide on how best to work on their conversions so dropped them so I could hit my build deadline. The Aggressors met the same fate for the same reasons.
I replaced these two units with another unit of Intercessors and a squad of Inceptors. The Inceptors are a decent swap for the Aggressors - a respectable damage output, similar toughness, and greater mobility.
So, it’s the end of September. How have I done?
Everything is built! Having a couple of weeks of crappy weather has meant that I’ve had plenty of time to spruce everything up, adding extra runes and fangs and knives to everyone. I even had time to build the Wolf Guard Battle Leader from Tooth And Claw since he is the only model that doesn’t need wolfing up, and an extra (spare?) Intercessor.
I got three test marines sprayed as well, on a rare nice day earlier this month, and I’ll be trying out my Infiltrator colour scheme on them. I’m thinking black armour with Space Wolves grey shoulders and helmet, so I’m interested to see how they turn out.
Not only that but I also managed today, just before the rain came, to get everything bar the HQ units, Inceptors and spare Intercessor primed. The initial grey layer only, but that is at least a start. Although it looks like I’ll be needing a new can in the near future.
I also had time, thanks to the weather, to put another model together...
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In lieu of doing any painting this past couple of months, I've been slowly putting together my Primaris Space Wolves army. Built from a combination of sources: Dark Imperium, Shadowspear, Tooth And Claw, the Warhammer Conquest magazine, the ETB marines, plus a judicious amount of bits and bobs, and fangs and runes, culled from the Space Wolves upgrade sprue and Terminators box. And Ulrik the Slayer's head. #wh40k #spacewolves #hobby2019 https://www.instagram.com/p/B11_4uiAIPF/?igshid=1cfor92otjek4
Njal paced the long halls of The Fury of Russ. He was starting to grow impatient at being stuck within the confines of the vessel. He was also unsettled by Sigurd Fuþarksson’s current state of mind.
The young Rune Priest had become increasingly insistent about his visions of Leman Russ. Since the events of Jamisahra Rex he was convinced that he had a direct line of communication with the lost primarch - that He was with him whenever he took to the field of battle, guiding his hand and granting him strength.
The High Rune Priest of the chapter had taken it upon himself to keep an eye on the skald. Whilst Sigurd’s studies had grown his power and mastery, the marked increase in his martial prowess was staggering. The ghostly forms of Freki and Geri, Russ’ own wolf companions, had regularly appeared at his side to tear into the enemy. He had become a whirling force of nature in combat, parrying and dodging incoming enemy attacks with supernatural awareness, and delivering brutal retribution. Blood Claws and wolf packs, those that were barely removed from Fenris, seemed drawn to the raw power of their home planet flowing through him. Maybe...
Njal shook his head.
There was no time to entertain these thoughts. They were fast approaching the Vigilus system and, in preparation for what lay in wait, he had gathered a task force of some of the most experienced warriors that the Blackmane Great Company had to offer. In addition Ulrik, the ancient warrior-mentor, had made it clear that he was to accompany them. He wanted to bear witness to Sigurd’s new power first hand.
Sigurd sat cross legged on a wolf pelt in the middle of the communal quarters; a low, flickering light from the hearth cast dancing shadows around the room. He removed three of the rune stones from the pouch on his belt, and placed them face down on the wooden floor. A small pack of eager young marines had gathered behind him this time, and craned their necks to watch as he flipped the stones over in turn.
The Blood Claws started chattering excitedly. A toothy grin crept across Sigurd’s face as he placed the stones back in his pouch, and drew again.
"So - I hope to finish 2019 with a minimum of a finished 1000pt Kharadron army (already in the works), and a finished 1000pt Space Wolves army (mostly assembled)”
My round-up of 2018 wisely avoided seeing how well I had stuck to my hobby resolutions for the year. But I can’t help looking back on the sparse targets I’d set myself for this year.
The Kharadron Overlords
Despite playing a couple more games with these early on in the year, they took a definite back seat for 2019. I’d hardly added more paint to them over the course of the year, but enjoyed watching their points cost tumble. My 1000pt army quickly became a 900pt army, but this in turn means I’ll need to build more models to add to it! All I need now is a new book, and maybe a new character model...
The perfect time to start a new army then! Although with Contrast, I’m hoping to do a quick job on the Sylvaneth and get stuck straight back into the duardin.
The Space Wolves
I did nearly finish my 1000pts of Space Wolves, just a completely different 1000pts to the one I had started.
Inspired by a time limit, and wanting to complete an army with Contrast, I started on my all-Primaris Space Wolves army. And very nearly completed them. After I finally finish up my Secret Santa project for this year, I will be straight back on these.
And with an upcoming book in the Psychic Awakening series (surely, Saga Of The Beast?), it’s looking like a bumper year for my two main armies.
The final part of my hobby year that amused me the most was my Instagram Top Nine - a popular round-up by my follow hobbyists to showcase their best received models of the year. I think I broke it.
‘Top Nine’ indeed - must try harder next year!
And with any luck, it’ll feature a completed 1000pt Primaris Space Wolves army, a completed 1000pt Sylvaneth army, and then hopefully my Kharadron, some more (smol) Space Wolves, and then who knows what else...?
It’s been one of those months. The post-meet hobby slump.
I mean, it’s not just been lack of hobby - the month has been a bit of a blur, with an exceptionally stressful week in the middle where I sat my first exam for about 15 years.
BUT: there was a meet-up weekend at the end of October, and I did play a couple of games with what is essentially a new army.
And I also started another new army.
But first, the games.
First up was an all wraith-construct Eldar army. We drew cards to determine mission, deployment zone etc, which meant we ended up with the deployment zones that met at the middle of the table, nullifying my Infiltrators ability to set up further forward. A good start. The rest of the battle was fairly even - a pair of Intercessors got locked in an eternal combat with a Wraithblade with Ghostaxe and shield. My Redemptor successfully avoided getting shredded by Wraithcannons, but got comprehensively speared by the Wraithseer. My Infiltrators did some work when I brought them in from reserve, but got shredded by dual sword wielding Wraithblades. In the end, I edged to victory by managing to topple the Wraithseer (the warlord).
It was a bit of an odd weekend. Everyone was mostly playing Age of Sigmar, and since I hadn’t really touched my Kharadron since their very first outing, I decided to leave them at home and concentrate on getting used to my new Primaris marines.
The main learning points from this match were: bolt rifles are good, but I need more higher strength weapons. It was incredibly difficult to wound these elite units, but I was doing okay through strength of numbers. Speaking of strength of numbers, I was enjoying rolling a lot of dice for the Reivers in close combat. 2 attacks base, +1 for Shock Assault, +1 for combat blades and the a further +1 because they were accompanied by the Lieutenant with Wulfen Stone. Only S4, but 26 attacks hitting on a 2+ can cause problems, but more on that later.
The second battle was an... interesting lineup. There was a Ad Mech/Knights player who wanted a game, but 2000pts. So I needed an ally, someone with shared interests such as a love of close combat, and not being a fan of psykers.
Khorne daemons it is, then.
This was a great fight, and another victory purely because we had more units that could hold objectives. The poor Redemptor got skewered again, this time on the end of a Cerastus Knight lance. Skarbrand did some work, cutting through a pair of Armiger Knights.
The Reivers and Lieutenant found their limit, however. A lot of attacks, and hitting on 2+ on the charge is all well and good, but with absolutely no AP whatsoever, charging into characters with a 2+ and a 3+ save meant that they just bounced off. They can be effective, but I need to choose their targets very carefully.
The idea after that weekend was to work through and finish off the rest of the army, but sadly they are still packed away in their army case. I was inspired, however, by how quickly I had got them to this stage, and how quickly I could potentially get an army ready to play with. So I decided to do the same with an AoS army - one I could Contrast up and get to the table while I slowly worked away at my Kharadron.
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Primed-aris. Now I've got three weeks to paint these up in time for a weekend of play. #hobby2019 #wh40k #paintingwarhammer #contrastpaints #spacewolves https://www.instagram.com/p/B3LBQsLn8hn/?igshid=j3a9gudu8stb
It’s been an odd month, not just for hobbying, but in general. It seems to have flown by incredibly quickly. There was a long weekend away, a week of long days at work for an audit. My mum is attempting to move house, and I’ve been helping out there. The Women’s World Cup kicked off, so I’ve been watching that in the evenings. It was nice to indulge in other things!
I did manage to get some bits done here and there, but at such a slow rate it never felt like it was anything to comment on.
The main thing is - Contrast. After being tempted by it before, I decided to take the plunge. So I’ve started to put together a 1000 point pure Primaris Space Wolves army, with the intention of quickly painting it with Contrast paints. This means that I can have a completed army under my belt which I can break out for events and meetups, and then I can turn my attention to projects - the Kharadron, Titans, Death Guard, and so on - without being the guy who always turns up with their grey plastic army.
Since this army will be, for the most part, separate from my other Space Wolves, I decided they needed to be from a different Great Company. I think the most Wolfy Primaris units available are the Reivers and the new Vanguard marines - shock troops and infiltrators - and this seemed a good fit with The Sons Of Morkai, a Scout-heavy company.
My 1000pts battalion will consist of a Wolf Lord either in Gravis or Phobos armour, a Wolf Guard Battle Leader in Phobos armour, and a Primaris Rune Priest as the HQ choices. The Troops slots would be one unit of five Intercessors, and two five-man units of the new Infiltrators, and they’d be backed up by a squad each of Reivers and Aggressors, and some Hellblasters as an anti-armour option.
I hit up eBay for the new Vanguard marines and characters, and the Hellblasters from the Dark Imperium box. The rest of the marines I made up from a combination of the Tooth And Claw box, the Fangs Of Ulfrich Kill Team, and bits from the Warhammer Conquest magazine. Whilst I’ve got the majority of the models built, and poses sorted out, they still need to be Space Wolf-ed up (head and weapon swaps, wolf tails and rune talismans added, and so on).
This gave me a chance to experiment with the painting.
L-R: The Fang with zenithal Grey Seer; Mechanicus Standard Grey with zenithal Grey Seer; just Grey Seer
Because of the cheap first issue of Warhammer Conquest I had a couple of sets of the Easy-To-Build Intercessors knocking about to do some tests on. Contrast sold out pretty fast, but I managed to get hold of enough to get started with from the FLGS - Grey Seer spray, Space Wolves Grey, Cygor Brown and Apothecary White. Not a particularly colourful start, but certainly enough to get going. I got them undercoated in a few different ways (above), and put one thick coat on.
As people have been saying, it can be a bit blotchy on untextured surfaces if you’re not careful. The sergeant on the left was the third of the three that I painted, and came out the best - I’m not sure if that’s the undercoat, or if I had adjusted to the new paint. The brown is also very heavily pigmented - the hair does not look good, and would probably need a bit of medium to soften it up.
I tried a second coat of grey on the two blotchier marines.
Of course, they got a bit darker, but in this instance the middle marine looks much, much better. The effect was decent enough, and very quick for good tabletop-ready results, but it still looked just a bit weak with only one colour on. I popped back to the shop the following week to see if they had restocked, and managed to pick up a couple more pots (although still no Black Templar, which has absolutely flown off the shelves).
And with just a bit more colour they look fantastic. A bit of Darkoath Flesh on the sergeant’s face has had a magical effect. His golden chest plate is a Leadbelcher base, with Nazdreg Yellow over the top, which has impressed me no end. I painted the boltguns of the outer two marines with Leadbelcher, and the middle one with the new Iron Warriors metal paint (which I hope will help me with my Kharadron), and then coated them with Basilicanum Grey, and they look excellent. I like the Iron Warriors for the dark metal-and-black bolters I have in mind for my Infiltrators - it would be interesting to see what it looks like with Black Templar over the top of it. And the Blood Angels Red bolter casing on the right really makes it pop.
So, I am suddenly all on board with Contrast. A spray undercoat, followed by picking out all the metal (even the gold) with Leadbelcher, and then the paints on top of that - sounds like a dream. I think the lighter blue-grey of the single coat looks more like what I’m after, I just need to get bit more practice to stop the pooling. And I’m still undecided on how to undercoat them - The Fang looks good, but is now out of production (I managed to order another two cans, but they are in delivery limbo, thanks UPS), so I’m leaning towards one of the other two.
I just need to get hold of some Black Templar, finish putting the marines together, and then it’s full steam ahead!
The big news item for me to come out of Warhammer Fest a couple of weekends back was one that has arrived both a little too late, and also one I’m incredibly excited for.
I’ve literally just started painting my Space Wolves, and part way through my Kharadron, so if I started using this new paint on those, it might not quite fit. But there are many projects I am looking forward to using it on, and this is being aimed at people with lots of grey plastic, and not necessarily having the time to get them painted to a reasonable standard. Perfect for me!
I have some Death Guard, some Genestealer Cults, maybe some Fallen. Blood Bowl teams. It would make working through Imperial Assault Stormtroopers much more palatable. And although I might not use them to paint my ‘normal’ Space Wolves, I could certainly get my Primaris contingent ready for the table with them.
