WIP Wednesday: Grey Hunters, Now With Heads

Finally, I've finished scraping up the Grey Hunters. They are ready to have their conversion work done- the part I am most excited/worried about. I'm really looking forward to doing it but also pretty nervous about how they'll turn out.

I thought it would be best to have their legs, torsos, and heads together to do the greenstuff work. I'll probably do the legs on all of them first, let them cure, and then do the torsos. Hopefully that way I will ruin less of what I've already done as I go along.

The MKV guys are still laying down on the job, though.

Thankfully, there's very little work I need to do to their heads. It hadn't occurred to me before starting this project, but Space Wolves are some bullheaded dudes who don't often wear their helmets. That means 90% of the heads in their kits are bare! I only have a very small number of helmets I need to convert to the Heresy style.

They still don't have arms, but they can certainly make up for that by biting their enemies to death in the meantime. Arms will go on after the body conversions and after I figure out how to rework the weapons into the MKIV and MKV styles. One hurdle at a time.

And now for kicks, a shot of what I have built so far in the army:

Not a huge force, but nothing to shake a stick at either. I've reached the point in the army where I really need to start painting them before I build anything else, but thankfully half the army is comprised of wolves who look just the same now as they did 10,000 years ago.

I'm somewhat surprised by the number of extra bits I have left over after putting these together. The number of heads alone is shocking. I also ended up with quite a few extra torsos. If I'm creative, I could probably get another ten or so marines out of what I have laying around.

I've gotten started on a few of the conversions, but they've got a ways to go still. I'm hoping to have them completed by the new year, but we'll see. I don't honestly know how much time each marine will take and I've got a lot on my plate between now and then.

Hammer in the New Year Tournament

Good news, everyone!

I'm running a 40k tournament to ring in 2013 called "Hammer in the New Year". This will be my first time putting on a tournament and I'm very excited to do it. When I floated the idea, I wasn't sure if there would be a big enough response, but my club quickly proved me wrong.

Forgive my atrocious drawing skills.

It'll be 1750 points on January 12th, 2013 at Game Parlor in Chantilly, VA. If you're interested in playing, please sign up on this forum post, which includes all the pertinent info. Spots are already filling up, which I am very pleased to see.

And, if you have any advice for a tournament newbie, I'd be happy to have it!

WIP Wednesday: Scraping all the Space Wolves

I thought I'd have another Space Wolf update a little sooner, but I vastly over estimated my ability to scrape the Grey Hunter bits into a proper shape for Heresy armor conversions. Conversely, I underestimated how many times I would nearly cut a fingertip off (and subsequently had to take a few short breaks). This has been my most lengthy (and dangerous) hobby project to date.

MKIV on the right, MKV on the left.

But! Progress is being made. I split the pile of Wolves into two camps- one for MKIV armor conversions and one for MKV. I decided that since the Space Wolves were sent to deal with Magnus just before the Heresy warfare really broke out, they'd have been able to get their hands on some of that shiny new MKV armor. It will also make for a more visually interesting army.

The legs of all 50 Grey Hunters and 6 Thunderwolf riders are scraped and shaped appropriately for green stuffing. About half of the MKIV armor torsos are scraped up and ready, too. I had to put the torsos together before trying to scrape the mold lines and reshaping them for my plans. The chest pieces were too small to scrape on their own without nicking myself with the hobby knife.

I'm setting aside the MKV guys for a bit to concentrate on the MKIV. It's helping to make the conversion task feel a little more manageable. I think part of why I haven't been feeling too much in the hobby groove lately is because of the sheer size of this project. It's daunting. Although, to be honest, the large part of why I haven't been working on them is that I've been cheating on Warhammer with quilting.

Alas, I've had to give up my sewing machine for two weeks to have it serviced, so that may have helped push me back into the Warhammering mood. Hopefully torsos will be finished by the end of the week. Then I can start working on the green stuff parts to make them look like they should. If I'm really quick, I can get to scraping the MKV ones before my sewing machine comes home.

Warhamm-iversary

Today is my wedding anniversary, and when my husband and I exchanged gifts, it turned out we both got each other Warhammer gifts. Not sure what that says about us, really.

I was super spoiled with this lovely Vindicator to add to my Space Wolf army, since they are severely lacking in the vehicular department thus far. I gave Casey a copy of the shiny new Chaos Space Marines codex and a set of their physic cards.

Just for kicks, here's a list Casey and I came up with for the "Traditional" Warhammer wedding anniversary gifts. Paper is for chumps. Toy soldiers are for winners.

1st- Grot
2nd- Scout squad
3rd- Tech marine
4th- Apothecary
5th- Librarian
6th- Tactical squad
7th- Chaplain
8th- Sternguard squad
9th- Captain
10th- Rhino
15th- Razorback
20th- Stormtalon
25th- Vindicator
30th- Predator
35th- Landraider
40th- Stormraven
45th- Thunderhawk
50th- Titan

If you're ever in a bind about what gift to get that power wargaming couple in your life, hopefully this guide will see you through.