WIP Wed: Wolfy Aegis Defense Line

Hobby time has been scarcer lately than usual, but I managed to get some paint onto my Aegis Defense Line. I spent a while about two weeks ago wolfing it up, but I'm just getting to painting it.

I used some spare storm shields I had to give it a little more flair. While the Sons of Russ do love the Emperor very much, I'm not crazy about the Aquila. I used some of the wolf skull bits to cover the head of the eagle, but you can still clearly see the wings, so it's a nice mesh of the two I think.

I think I'm going to do the wings in gold and the skulls in skull colors. The rivets will be bronze. I still have to highlight and wash the red. That red is ye old Mechrite Red. I just can't get the color I want with the current set of Citadel paints. I gambled on my pot lasting me through the whole army, but now it's clear that it won't. I've been having a hard time finding another one, so I might have to figure something else out for the Grey Hunters.

And, also just for kicks, here's my WIP Rune Priest. He made a magical reappearance after having been missing for a couple weeks. I had almost given up hope and replaced him. Now his armor is nearly finished, and I got started on his cloak.

There seems to be too much grey going on in the army. I thought I'd give him a white fur pelt instead of grey. I considered brown, but I seem to not do well with the brown furs, so I figured I'd try white. It may not be obvious from the photo, but his bolt pistol is an official MK IV one from FW. He's the very first of my crew to be properly equipped with Heresy weaponry.

On somewhat related note, things are getting a little crazy around here soon. Starting next week, I'm going to be doing a lot more hours at work and commuting further, and then beginning in May I'm going back to school. This will likely grind my hobby time to a full halt while I adjust. Updates here will be less frequent than usual. However, I will definitely still be on Twitter, with any army progress I can manage.

As I'm trying to play as many games as I can, I think my hobby updates will be less often, but more substantial. Hopefully, things will even out again in a couple months after I've gotten used to the new schedule.

Testing the Space Wolf Waters

Recently, I played my first two 40k games in quite a while. The wolves are finally in a place where there are enough finished and based that I can get some games in regularly while working on the remaining models. I also borrowed a couple of Casey's vanilla Marines to proxy things and pad out the list where necessary.

I wanted to get a full 1850 points together, but last week, I was in NJ to go attend the post-Wrestlemanina Monday Night Raw (which was great, if you're into that sort of thing) and this past weekend I was at a wedding, so I haven't had much hobby time. I managed a 1500 game and then a 1750. The 1500 at first probably for the best, I'm rusty on the 6th rules and entirely new to the Wolves.

The 1500 point game went my way, but I got walloped in the 1750. Good news, though, is I'm getting a better feel for the army and for how I need to play them. Obviously, they're very different from my old Daemons. As a close combat heavy army, though, I have to say, overwatch can bite my bum. Probably nothing to new to you who have been playing regularly.

I'm still testing things out and working my way toward a solid 1850 point list for NOVA. I am very pleased with how the squad of Long Fangs has performed hanging out by the Aegis Defense Line and manning the quad gun. Split fire is rad, rad, rad. Hopefully I'll get a chance soon to test it out with a list that has fliers, rather than the tank-heavy IG list I've been playing against.

I ran the Thunderwolf Cav for the first time but unfortunately they got chewed up before I could really test their might out against anything. Same with the Fenrisian wolves, but I ran a small unit of five instead of the ten I plan to run in the end. I've not been excited by the Rhino, so I'll likely drop that. I need to get my hands on another drop pod so I can try using 3 of them, which has been part of the ultimate plan for a while now.

Hopefully I can get my hands on another opponent for next week. I don't want to just get as many practice games as possible, I also want them to be against many different armies.

A Big Box Of Guns

Seems I've run out of excuses to lollygag on the Grey Hunter conversions. Their guns arrived, and quite timely, too. I ordered them with the expectation that they'd take 3-4 weeks to arrive, and they got here in less than two. Nice job, Forgeworld.

Turns out, I made a small error and didn't get any heavy bolters. Oops! I think I panicked a little after I added everything to my cart and it totaled nearly £200. I took some things out and accidentally axed the set of heavy bolters. I'll have to order some soon.

I did, however, get two Special Weapons packs (2 each of missile launcher, flamer, and meltagun), two sets of Umbra bolters, a set of Umbra Ferrox bolters, and the MKIV power weapons set which is basically a whole ton of goodies I can mix and match into the army, including torsos, chainswords, and a thunder hammer all to match the MKIV armor. It cost me all of my hobby money for the month, but totally worth it.

I am very happy with the power weapons set especially. My favorite is definitely the heavy chainsword, which is just a giant, two handed chainsword. As there are no rules for it in any codex that I'm aware of, I'm definitely going to model someone with it as their regular CCW because why the hell not? It's awesome. I'm also pleased to see that without much hassle, I can convert the chainswords from the Grey Hunters box into some appropriate looking MKIV ones.

Just need to clip some of the teeth off the back.

It's great that I can use the ones that are decked out with wolfy bits. That is part of what gives the army the character I like so much. It also means I'll get good results without too much work, definitely a bonus.

Having all the weapons, though, means it's time to sit down and finish up (or, um, start) the green stuff work on the torsos and legs. I've been working on other things to this point, but now it's time to really give them a go. Hopefully I will have a little more hobby time soon, I have plenty of things to work on when I do.

And The Winner Is...

The random number generating gods have chosen: Druff! Congratulations! Please send an email to ashley (at) chickhammer.com. Let me know your country and what email address you'd like your gift voucher sent to.

I had a fun time running the contest. Thank you to all who entered. I really enjoyed reading your responses.

Happy gaming!

100th Post Giveaway!

Welcome my 100th post! Look at that, talking to you a hundred times. I can't believe it's been that many already. It wasn't even a year ago that I split this page off on its own. I started the blog as a way to keep track of my hobby progress, but it unexpectedly turned into a way of connecting with all of you.

Break out the party hats.

Between here and Twitter, I've connected with an amazing array of wargamers. I've been incredibly inspired by all of you. Your own work, advice, and encouragement have been so amazing. I couldn't have grown so much as a painter and hobbyist in the past year without your help and support. That's why I've decided to do a small giveaway in thanks.

But, that's why you're here, isn't it? I invoked the magic words: free stuff! I'll keep you in suspense no longer. Here's the deal: I'm going to give away a $25 Games Workshop gift voucher. All you need to do to enter is leave a comment (using Disqus, please) on this post saying what you might like to buy with it if you win. One entry per person. The contest will be open for one week, starting right now and ending on April 9, 2013 at 11:59 PM, EST. The winner will be randomly selected and announced on April 10.

Now, of course, there's a little fine print regarding the voucher. This giveaway is open to everybody, everywhere. I checked with GW and the email voucher can only be used on the website it was purchased from. That means, if I buy a voucher on the US site, but the winner lives in the UK, the winner would have to spend it on US site, pay for shipping from the US, and then wait for the post office gremlins to slog it all the way across the ocean. That's a pain in the butt for everyone.

So, if you enter, you agree to a) give me your email address so I can email you the voucher in the first place and b) tell me what country you live in so I can buy the right one for you. Unfortunately, it also means that the $25 number is only an approximation if you're outside the US, as native currencies are used on each country's site. GW only lets you choose fixed amounts from a list, so I will send the winner whichever one is closest to the equivalent of $25 USD and you'll get that one. It might be a little more, it might be a little less.

Sound good? All right! So, tell me, my warmonger friends, what would you buy if you win $25 gift voucher?

*Edit* You don't need to leave your email/country in the comment. I'll ask the winner for that after the contest ends.

Guest on Noobhammer Podcast

Obviously the hot topic we began with was the new Tau releases. I'm not super excited about them, but there's definitely a lot to say. We also discussed our current hobby projects, including a bit about the ice bases I'm using for my Space Wolf army.

I unexpectedly had to dip out in the middle (Hubs found a stray dog and we had to figure out what to do with him), but I had a fun time chatting about the hobby. The discussion carried on with some interesting Fantasy stuff after I left.

Head on over to their page to listen to Episode 31: An Easter Miracle.

Mark of the Wulfen Pack Complete

These guys were so fun to paint that I whipped through them very quickly. I also planned ahead and made a set of bases for them before they were painted, so they're ready for action.

After my initial excitement over them, though, I have to say these models are quite the mixed bag. The sculpts are nice, and so perfectly what I had in mind for Mark of the Wulfen. On the other hand, the material they're cast in is utter rubbish and parts of the models appear to have been melted. To be honest, it looks as though someone put a flame to parts of the models.

Their hands in particular suffered and several fingers are deformed. There were also a few places on each model that looked like hot plastic had dripped on it after it was taken out of the mold. That wouldn't have been too hard to fix if the plastic wasn't, frankly, complete shit. It's very, very hard and a little prone to chipping, especially if you're scraping flash off like you might any other plastic model. I had to retouch part of one of their legs with some green stuff for that very reason, a whole section chipped right off.

I'm quite torn over them. While I am pleased with the sculpts themselves, I cannot in good conscience recommend them because of the quality of casting. There were a lot more bubbles in them than I initially saw (many more became apparently after priming, I had to go back for more touch-ups) and the mold lines were far too difficult to remove. I would say if you really like them, purchase with caution.

Now, I don't have any squads to stick these guys into just yet. But, I just did a Forgeworld order for all the Heresy weapons I need, so the Grey Hunters will be coming along soon. Thunderwolves and Fenrisian Wolves are slow going. I'm getting a little bored with their fur, so I've only been finishing 1-2 at a time. I have 150 days left until they need to be done, so I should probably start a tighter schedule.

Now, be sure to stay tuned. There will be a special announcement in the next couple of days!