WIP Wednesday: Fenrisian Wolves

The storm has come and gone from Chickhammer Manor, and thankfully we didn't take any damage. However, with two days off from work and only a short power outage, I was able to dedicate my "stay indoors" time to getting some painting done.

So I started working on the fur of my Fenrisian wolves. I wanted a variety to their coloration, so I did several different shades. Some are old paint colors, some are new. I honestly couldn't tell you which is which now.

Overall, though, I am not very happy with how their fur has turned out. They just look... blah. I thought painting their fur would go similarly to how I painted the beards on my Dwarfs, but they didn't end up looking as good. I'm not sure what to do about it. I even briefly considered stripping them and starting over.

How have you gone about painting fur? Any tips would be appreciated.

Halloween Steampunk Witch

Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year. Unfortunately, I live in the path of this Frankenstorm, so this year's celebrations will be rather muted. However, due to the storm, not much has been going on except hanging out inside and staying dry. That has given me plenty of time to work on a few painting projects.

  First up on the painting block is a fabulous Reaper model I picked up a couple weeks ago- a Steampunk Witch. I started her a little while back, but got distracted by Space Wolves before I finished her.

 I still have to base her. If the power holds out (not looking terribly likely, though) I'll do the basing soon. I have an especially fun skeleton base I got from the NOVA swag bag that I might try out for her. It'll also give me a chance to try out some of the water effects things I've been meaning to get around to.

Coming up next I have my 2012 Daemonette for my Daemonette Project and a pile of Fenrisian Wolves. If you're in the path of this storm, stay dry, stay safe, and good luck.

The Daemonette Project 2011

When I auctioned off my Chaos Daemon army last month, I did not include the twenty 3rd edition metal Daemonettes I used in the army. I am rather fond of these sculpts, and they aren't easy to come by, so I was loathe to sell them off.

I also wasn't terribly excited about them sitting around collecting dust either. But, I think I found a good way to use them without needing an entire army. They were among the first models I painted when I got started in the hobby, and on inspecting them, I realized how much my skills have improved since I painted them.

I decided it would be an interesting little project to paint one up every year, to see how my painting skills have changed. I went through my set, and picked out the one I thought was the best. The rest, I removed from their bases and dropped into a tub of Power Dissolver to strip the paint off.

Without further adieu, I present Daemonette 2011:

 

Once the remaining 19 are cleaned off, I'll prime one of them and paint her up as Daemonette 2012. I can't decide whether or not to paint the next one in a similar color scheme or a different one. There are some pros and cons for both. Cons certainly include not having half the paints I used in the original one, because of the GW paint switch up. Which method do you think would be best for this project?

*Update* 2012 Daemonette is finished!

Space Wolf Venerable Dreadnought

I took a little time off hobbying last week since my in-laws were visiting, but now I'm back at the table. I last left off with scraping the Grey Hunters into submission for some Heresy style conversions. They were getting tedious.

Then, I got a little careless with the hobby knife, and probably would have had to take a day or two off anyway, because I sliced my thumb up pretty badly. Watch out for those sharp knives, everybody.

Anywho, I decided to start back up with one my favorite goodies from my Space Wolf haul- the Forgeworld Space Wolf Venerable Dreadnought. This model is absolutely splendid. It also does me the lovely favor of already being in the Heresy style, so I didn't need to mess with it at all. I just clipped off the flash, scraped up the lines, and put this beauty together.

It's delightfully Wolfy- I particularly fancy his pelt belt. He's equipped with twin linked auto cannons. I was going to magnetize them in case I wanted to change them up later, but the magnets I had on hand were a bit too small to hold the arms well. I don't foresee wanting to change his weapons so it's not the end of the world.

This weekend I'll be getting a lot of wolfy work done. I hope to have all the Fenrisian Wolves, Thunderwolf Cavalry, and my Grey Hunters all finished up and at least partially converted.

Warhammer Pumpkin Carving Patterns!

I love some Halloween. I love it so much that I decided to spend some time making a few pumpkin carving patterns dedicated to my favorite hobby- Warhammer! They're nothing super fancy (my graphic design skills are severely lacking) but they're printable!

I'm sure you're shocked that I chose to carve a Space Wolf one. Some of the patterns are nicer than others, but my design skills are homegrown.

Space Wolves! Aroo!

Tyranids

Orks

Eye of Horus

Ultramarines

Chaos Star

Blood Angels

Here are the links to the PDF downloads for each one:

Space Wolf
Ork
Tyranid
Eye of Horus
Ultramarines
Chaos Star
Blood Angels

If I have time, I will also be doing some more later. If you have any requests, let me know and I'll see what I can do about making one.

Hordes Two-Player Battle Box Set

Over the weekend, Casey and I bought the new Hordes starter set. We have a few friends who are interested in getting into wargaming, and we thought Hordes might be a good way to ease them into the hobby. It's low model count, relatively inexpensive to start, and something we can start quickly.

However, I've never played Hordes before and Casey hasn't played in so long that he no longer has any of the models. So, the logical place for us to begin was to buy their new starter set. The set itself truly is a great way to start playing the game with someone. It costs $100, which is pretty reasonable if you're splitting the cost between you and a friend.

It includes two factions, Circle Orboros, which are mostly werewolves (woohoo!), and Legion of Everblight, which has beasts that look sort of like a cross between a Tyranid and a rhinoceros. There are 20 models total, 9 for Orboros and 11 for Everblight. It comes with a mini rulebook (along similar lines to the GW ones), an introduction pamphlet (a sort of Start Here guide), the game cards for each model, dice, and something they've called a "ruler" but is less helpful for measuring than a wet noodle.

My mighty faction!

Casey and I were able to build our respective factions in an afternoon. He said Everblight went together with no problems whatsoever. I didn't have as easy of a time with the Orboros ones. The pieces that did fit, fit together beautifully. But the pieces that didn't weren't even close. I had to do quite a bit of work to get the models to go together with minimal gaps. Even after all that, I'm still going to spend some time with the liquid green stuff to get them looking seamless.

My halberds and Casey's spears were all bent in funky ways so we had to heat up some water to reposition them. Not a big deal, though, because the models still went together quickly, and they didn't have much in the way of flash. Mold lines also cleaned up quickly. As I said, we built them in an afternoon. We had planned to play a game, but we got distracted by dinner and video games.

I really love this Warpwolf.

I'm looking forward to trying out the game. The Orboros models are gorgeously detailed and I'm looking forward to painting them. All in all, this is really great starter set for a good price. It actually includes everything you need to start playing (unlike certain starter sets we know) and you can go from buying the box to playing the game in a single day.