Space Wolves

Most Recent: Dec 29th
In this shot you can see that there are nine models on the left and a bunch on the right. There are also a number of models on the far left [off the cutting board]. This is how I organized the models for doing faces. The models on the left side of the cutting board are members of Battle Group Iza. They are separate because they will have blue on the left side of their faces/helmets. The models to the far left are helmeted figures that will not be worked on at this stage.

Past Work Station Pictures:

ARMY LIST

So, as you can see from the above army list this army is very mechanized. While the new rules for 40K hurt the rhino dumping army this army is more about tactical flexibility on the battle field. I have always played a type of game [except with the Tau] where I will win based on my ability to out maneuver my opponent. The ability to bring to bear unit where I want them rather than where my opponent wants them.

ARMY BACKGROUND

This is still very unfinished but does have unit designations and names for the veterans and HQ. A more detailed and extensive background will follow as the army takes shape. This page is also where I will direct you once models are finished being painted.

May 17, 2006
I have fleshed out the two Grey Hunter squads, giving each 10 men to draw from. In the addition I added a number of special weapons options including a meltagun, power weapons and a power fist. It is always hard to match colours even though I am the one that painted the originals. I suspect that they are very close with some tonal differences to be noticed up close. More pictures of the additional models can be found here.

March 21, 2006
I have added a Wolf Guard in terminator armour to the army. He will be tasked with leading any of the battle groups that needs his expert attention. His pictures can be found here.

January 3, 2005
FINISHED! I really must apologize for the lack of updates. The reason is 2 fold: I was pushing very hard on the models to get them done and my PC lap top has not been connected to the net until now. I have done 60 hours since last I updated and this was enough for me to finish the army. I re-aggravated my old finger injury doing the line work on the models, same as before with the Tau. Obviously hours and hours of that kind of work is not for me. I was very careful, learning from my past injury and I am sure this time I will be fine. Pictures of the finished units can be found here.
Parting thoughts on the army and the BLOG. First off the BLOG...it was cool that so many of you were interested in how the army was progressing. It was a lot of work, well a lot more than I usually do, for the site. I wished that I would have been more inclined to do actual WiP blow by blow shots but it was just too daunting for such a large project. I suspect that I will not be doing another army for a very long time and so in the end I am very glad to have this record for myself.
This army was been a real labour of love and hate. The build and sculpting was very fun and went so quickly that I had high hopes of a speedy army. Alas, I had to slow it down for physiological reasons and to maintain painting quality and consistency. The high points were Skoll and Futhark. These two models turned out way better than I could have imagined. Airbrushing turned out to be pretty painless and worked very well for adding depth to the painting and saving me a fair amount of time. Finishing the faces on the troops was a real boost since I saw real progress that day. Last night was a major high point since I finished just after dinner. It was a long go but in the end I am happy with the force I have created. There really were not that many low points, but those that I had were major. Re-injuring myself doing the troops and injuring another finger doing the vehicles were real low points for me. Getting sick at the end was not that much fun nor was the damn cold weather outside. Seeing the troops take so long to come together was a trial but in the end the consistency of paint is very high due to doing all of them at once.
This is the last post for this BLOG. I look forward to painting models for the new Gallery VII. Thanks you all for your questions, support, comments and criticism.

December 29, 2004
I am getting very close now. As I suspected the models look much better today with the faces done. I did everything I set out to do plus a few odds and ends. I also base coated the clips of all the bolt weapons. Pictures of the models after today can be found here.
Tomorrow I have a huge day. I will do the bolters, finish the hand guards for the chain swords and then do the armour outlining. I am usually pretty good at estimating time and this will push what I can do in a day that is for sure. That will leave the gold and the bases for Friday. I would like to do the gold now but the wolf icons on the backpacks take a lot of abuse [rubbing] during painting. That means they get done last.

December 28, 2004
Happy Holidays to everyone. I had a great Christmas with my Parents even though I got sick. I have a nasty cold that was 'given' to be while I was in Orlando.
Pictures finally! Stage 4 and 5 troop pictures can be found here. Tomorrow I'll do the diamonds, powerfist fingers, hair and flesh. I think after tomorrow they will actually look pretty good. Then the items remaining are: metallic golds, armour outlining, bolt weapons chain sword hand guards, misc. bits and bases. After tomorrow I'll have a better idea of what I'll do on each day until I am finished.

December 22, 2004
Ok, so I am done for the day but I am sorry to say I don't have any pictures. I finished the fur on all the models and it sure does help to move the look of the army along. I also went with white swords, knees and right shoulder icon for the last Grey Hunter squad. While they look far from done it will only take a few more days to finish.
I am leaving for Christmas tomorrow afternoon. I will try my hardest to get a few pictures done but I have a lot of work to do before I leave. If I don't type again until I get back then I wish you all the best of the season.

December 22, 2004
Hello everyone. I am back from Orlando and man did I have a great time. The Hotel was one of the best I have been in and the food was great. The Universal Studios Theme Parks are amazing with some fantastic roller coasters and 3D rides. The movie, Meet the Fockers, is very funny. If you liked the first one you'll love this one. I spent yesterday recovering from the trip by braving the Christmas rush to get presents for friends and family. Now I am going to set about painting some more Space Wolf troops in an attempt to finish the army in the first week of January. I will post progress tonight and some tomorrow but then I am away for a few days for Christmas. Check back in a bit for pictures.

December 15, 2004
Some more pictures of the WiP troops. Got a little side tracked from yesterdays desired work for today but I still put in 10 hours. I did finish the purity seals and the chain swords for 3 of the 4 squads. Each squad has a different colour and each has swirls on the blade. I also did the knees of those models with knees in the same colour as the sword. I did all the teeth and bone bits so that means the wolf tooth necklaces are also done.

December 14, 2004
Ok, so here are those pictures. I am now done one part of the models, the eyes for the helmeted marines. I will make sure I finish the aqua diamond shaped gems and the purity seals tomorrow. I will also do the chain swords, each squad will get a different pattern. After that I'll do the fur and then start on the armour.

December 14, 2004
Well, this will be the first two post day in some time. I am about half way through the metallics for all the models. Once I am done that I will snap pics and update again. I decided that I will be doing all the models at once. For those of you that paint armies you know that the gratification of completing a unit is important. It is what keeps you going through the repetition. I am no different but I feel that in this case I will be better suited to suppress the need for gratification until the very end.
A few people have asked about my music. They are interested in what I listen to while I paint day in and day out. Well, I have a very eclectic taste in music and it ranges from House music to classical and country. I listen to a fair bit of the top 40 rock as well. Right now Loreena McKennitt is playing [a masterful Canadian singer]. I have many different play lists on my computer with 3ish days of music in total. Sometimes I have no music at all, just silence. Check back in a few hours for pictures.

December 13, 2004
I didn't do too much yesterday or today really. I don't know if I am sick but I sure don't feel all that hot. I did do some more base colours for the troops as well as finally airbrushing the final 5 models. Tomorrow will see a fair amount of progress since I hope to log 10 hours. Once all the models have the black and browns done I'll snap a few shots of Stage 1.
I totally rearranged my office today. Lots of work but I really like the way it turned out. Until tomorrow.

December 11, 2004
I tried to get the scouts based last night for an update yesterday but my endurance gave out and I had to postpone it until today. The good news is now I have lots of pictures again. You can see pictures of Rune Priest Futhark, Battle Group Tiwaz [scouts], wolf guard Tyr and wolf guard Vidar in their respective link in Army Background. They can also be found in Gallery VI.
I have received the two backpacks from GW and will now be able to airbrush the final five models. This will mean that after that I will be doing 100% troop work with a brush.
I am debating on doing all the troops at once or in groups of 10...I think I will base coat all of them and then see what I feel like from there. As for early WiP pics of the troops they are coming, just really nothing to show yet.

December 9, 2004
I will have pictures of the scouts the wolf guard and the rune priest late tomorrow. They are looking good. The contrast of the black against the light grey of the rest of the army is going to be striking.
I started base coating the black and browns on the troops today as a break from the scouts. It is going faster than I thought but it is still taking a bit of time. I will try to have early stage WiP pictures of them tomorrow as well.
Still no backpacks from GW...I ordered them Nov 25th but it seems like so much longer ago. I hope to have them tomorrow but if not it is not the end of the world.
On a side note not related to painting at all I will be taking a cool weekend trip to Orlando next weekend. My girlfriend is a Focker and she and the rest of her family are off to Universal Studios to have fun and promo the new movie, Meet the Fockers. Gonna be a blast and as such I will be out of the loop so to speak for a few days. It is my goal to have the army done before I go but I may be a day or two short.

December 8, 2004
Hey there. Not too much to report. I am well into the black armoured models [scouts, Rune Priest and Wolf Guard]. I hope to have them done Friday and then I'll start on the troops. They already look good and I can really see where they will end up. I am in deadline mode and so I will post as often as I feel I can but the pressure is on. The troops are so nice as compared to the vehicles. I guess that figures are more my thing and it took 6 tanks to impress that on me. I did update the work station picture above.

December 7, 2004
The rest of the vehicles are done and can be found here.
The crew of the vehicles felt so good to do. I think I have done my last tank for a few weeks at least. It was good to try out the paint scheme I have envisioned myself using on the troops. Will look really good when done that is for sure. I'll have another work station picture tomorrow since it is now littered with guys.

December 7, 2004
Ok, I finally have pictures of the vehicles for you. The command rhino, speeder and dread are still not done but I have included a shot of each as well. The five finished vehicles can be found here and the three WiP pics can be found here.
I will be finishing the three remaining vehicles including crew today and starting on the troops. I hope to have the army done in 10 days...we shall see.
Oh, and I promise to have a shot of my desk tomorrow.

December 6, 2004
Sorry for the lack of posts folks. I decided to give myself the weekend off and I just didn't feel like posting. I see from the number of e-mails I received that many of you are enjoying the daily progress reports. I will endeavour to keep that up while I am doing the troops.
I am done the vehicles except for the decals. I am going to try the advice of the site visitor but I'll do it in a few weeks. I am pretty tired of vehicles right now.
I am charging my camera batteries right now and hope to have pictures up tonight. I will be finishing the dreadnought base tonight as well as trying to do the gunner for the command rhino and the two crew for the speeder. If I don't post the pictures tonight it will happen early tomorrow morning.

December 3, 2004
Well, I stopped painting shortly after the update on the 2nd. I am now done the highlighting and exhausts of the vehicles and will do the detailing tomorrow. Since I have many distractions on the weekend I hope to have them done by Monday.
Now that all the line work is done I am very happy with them. This army is going to look very solid when I get done. :) I think that once I am done the vehicles I'll do the rune priest as a reward. Then I'll get to business with the troops.

December 2, 2004
Ok, so the optics are done as are the view ports. I have the predators sprayed with another layer of dulcote and pictures of them can be found here.
I am now doing the line work for the other three vehicles. That will be done today as well I'd like to get the exhausts done and some of the small skulls. Tomorrow should see me finish all the vehicles [minus the three marines].

December 1, 2004
Man it sure takes a while to do stuff with vehicles. I did all the red for the guns and the grey as well as a grey/green blend for the ammo hoppers. I have the sponsons on the predators but still have to do the optics. Tomorrow morning will see me do all the optics and then I'll snap some pictures of the predators.
I chose a base colour for the wolf head icons. I went with dark grey and will work it up with white. The tone is so different from the grey on the tanks that it looks good. After the optics will see me finish the line work and then hopefully start on those icons.

December 1, 2004
I am done the line and edge work on the two predators. I am now working on the sponsons and other weapons pods for the vehicles.
On a related note the game table that the army will play on is now done. It was made by Gale Force 9 and can be seen here.

December 1, 2004
December already. This month has been a real blur. OK, so I now have a plan of attack for today. I will do the lines on the predators then I will paint the details on the sponsons. I really don't like to have models without all the pieces together. It has been a constant irritation and today I am going to fix it. Then I will tackle the three rhinos.
I received a very cool mail from a visitor about applying decals. His advice is as follows,
'If you want to use GW transfers there is a method to follow to keep the edges from showing or from being glossy. What you do is apply a acrylic gloss coat to your miniature or tank. Do this at the very end. After drying trim the decals to the color edge soak as usual and apply. Immediately apply a decal setting solution, this will allow you to work the decal or let it conform to curves etc. Allow to dry. You can add another coat of acrylic gloss. After drying apply your favorite dulcote. One other use for the gloss coat is that you can do more easier recessed washes.'
Very cool indeed. This fellow has been painting figures for 20 years so he obviously knows what he is doing. Thanks for the advice.

November 30, 2004
Some pictures! So, I have a couple of shots of the dread [Brother Gungner] and speeder as well as some of the rhino and weapons. I also have a shot of my thumb after I am done doing line work. It is a good way for me to show you how I make sure my lines are straight and neat.

November 30, 2004
Some musings as they apply to this part of the army. I am doing a combination of drybrush and 2/0 line highlighting to good effect. I am using a thinned down paint for the fine detail line work but a thick one for the drybrushing. Now, the reason I mention this is that I accidentally did a pass or two with the drybrush using the thinned down paint. Doesn't work very well. I was able to make it work but it is far better to use thicker paint when you use the large drybrushes. Not too often that I encourage the use of thick paint. :)
So, now a rhino, all the sponsons, the predator turrets and the dread are done. I will do the speeder next and then put up the pictures.

November 30, 2004
Damn, but the tanks are looking good. They look very real and that is after only one highlight on the edges. I may do another in parts but I am not sure since it looks so developed now. I used a 80/20 Space wolf Grey/Ivory. I will get pictures up tonight no matter what.

November 29, 2004
Not as many pictures as I had hoped. I am not having a lot of success with the pictures when they are not on my photo table. The grey armour is usually over exposed and this is just not worth putting up. I do have a shot of the marines before they were sprayed with Dulcote here. I also have 2 shots of the vehicles at the end of today. You can see that I did the top doors of the 'command' rhino in red. The airbrush made short work of such a large area to blend. I have done the solid tonal contrast of lighter grey on the armour where it was needed and that means that tomorrow is the brutal line highlight day. It is brutal because it will be boring and take all day at least. On an up note I did about 5 minutes of dry brushing yesterday to try out those large brushes and they work great. Simply amazing!

November 28, 2004
Well the weekend is almost over and the army is ready for the week ahead. I finished all the airbrush on the marines including grime on the lower armour areas. I sprayed them with the Dulcote to fix the paint and they darkened up a fair bit. They still look good but they are more like a 80/20 Space Wolf/Shadow Grey when I thought they would be a 90/10. I also sprayed the grime wash on the vehicles and it looks good. I tested the dry brushes out and man do they ever rock. Just amazing. I put on the metallic silver for the weapons as well as did all the weapons housings in a Cadmium Red Base. Tomorrow I will put up pics of the marines prior to varnish spray and after varnish spray. Tomorrow I will finish the metals, and the exhausts and do the drybrushing.

November 26, 2004
I have started the 3rd layer on the marines. I am doing them in batches of six since the time it is taking is causing the airbrush to clog. I have done 12 so far and they look great. The final layer is 100% Space Wolf Grey which should darken to about 90/10 Space Wolf Grey/Shadow Grey once I varnish them.
I am by no means a great airbrush artist, in fact I consider myself barely adequate at the skill. I have however, started to refine the skill as it directly pertains to miniature painting. I am amazed at how fast the learning curve is once you really start to apply yourself. I have now combined the smoothness of the airbrush with the optivisor to give myself an astounding level of control. The optivisor allows me to see the paint as it hits the model and this in turn allows me to control the flow and the application much better. I am now able to paint areas as small as the cuff on a space marines arm. I think if my compressor was better I'd be able to do the fingers as well. All in all I am very happy with the experience and am excited to see the final product.
Some of you have asked why I am 'forsaking' brush painting on this project. I will be using the brush soon enough, but the airbrush allows me to put a level of depth into each model that I would not have time for otherwise. The armour on the 12 finished marines looks just like I imagine them looking in my mind. They don't look flat but instead look like real armour plates.
I have also decided to apply a brown/purple wash to the lower areas of the marines once I am done this final armour layer. This will be done with the airbush as well. I will also do this to the vehicles. This should yield a very real, in the trenches look to the armour.

November 25, 2004
I decided that I wanted the infantry to be lighter than the vehicles so the second coat was not as exacting as I thought it would be. It will be the third coat that will take the time. I will do that tomorrow. I finished the second coat and pictures can be found here.
I have been asked how thin is the paint I am using? Well, it is thin, about 1:6 paint to water. And that is AFTER I have already diluted it down for brush work base coats. I was able to do every marine without a paint clog in the tip and I do not use flo aid [an airbrush extender]. If you find you are clogging up after a few marines or even after 10 your paint is too thick.

November 25, 2004
The first base coat of Shadow Grey is done for all but 5 of the marines. I left 5 out since I will need to wait to paint two of them until I get their backpacks. Better to do five so that the two stragglers don't stand out. I have put a pictures of those large flat sables and my airbrush here. The first base coat for the marines can be seen here. Now on to the exacting task of the second layer for each marine. This will take a lot longer than the first coat, in fact I doubt I'll finish the second coat today.
Now, I just had a question [this very minute] from someone regarding airbrushing on decals. What you do is cut out the decal you want airbrushed from the sheet of tacky stencil paper. If the decal is say 10mm a side then the piece of sheet used should be at least 80mmx80mm to minimize the risk of overspray. Now that the shape is cut out you take the sheet that you cut it from [with the negative image in it] and stick it to your vehicle. Wait a moment for it to adhere and then airbrush the decal on. This is actually the way it was done in WWII. From there you can paint detail over top of the airbrushed symbol. Once you are done airbrushing the symbol you remove the tacky sheet and go to another vehicle with it.

November 25, 2004
So, I didn't rally do that much yesterday. I put up two new workstation pictures and you can see the vehicles as they are now here. Today I sprayed a layer of Dulcote over the Purity Seal and the models are nice and flat. They are ready to be drubrushed. Gasp, yes drybrushed! Historical painters use No.6 and up flat sable brushes to weather the edges of the armour. I went and purchased a No.6 and a No.10 W&N Series 505 for this purpose. These brushes have massive handles and are pretty expensive, I'll try to get a picture of them at some point. I also picked up extra tacky airbrush stencil paper so I can airbrush on the decals. I am sure that everyone who has painted a vehicle dislikes the visible raised edges and the shine of a decal. This will eliminate that and make the symbols look more natural.
I am done blacking in all the areas on the troops missed by the primer. So, I will be airbrushing the marines next. Should have pics of them today.
I have not decided if I am going to apply an airbrush wash of brown to parts of the vehicles. This is done to increase the weathered look...we shall see.
On a side note to those of you that paint a lot I went to physio today. It was for a strain in my little finger, damn but painting is hard on me...Anyway, he did some forced stretches on my fingers [ouch!]was was surprised by my lack of flexibility. He suggested stretching each finger a few times a day to keep them limber. Now I know that sounds odd but the activity of painting is very constrained and limiting. Better to keep it loose and healthy every day rather than risk an acute injury or worse a chronic injury.

November 24, 2004
Not a lot of progress on the army today. But after the steady work I felt like doing something else. I went and picked up the new space marine commander figure as well as the leather bound 3.5 D&D Players Handbook. The handbook is damn nice and a must if you consider yourself a serious D&Der.
As for the space marine commander, well GW is going the right direction that is for sure. Very good kit. The army will see progress tomorrow.

November 24, 2004
I am now done the black work. I also base coated the exhaust pipes and view ports as well as applying a light brown wash around each bolt.
Since it warmed up to 0c I took the opportunity to prime all the marines and put a layer of Purity Seal on the vehicles. I'll need to wait awhile for the seal to cure before I apply a layer of Dulcote. In this time I will likely black in all the marines where the primer didn't reach. I hope to have pictures of where I am with the vehicles late today but it will depend on the Purity Seal. The reason why I wait is because if you Dulcote on top of Purity Seal immediately proceeding spraying the model will take on a satin finish. Once this happens I have been hard pressed to flatten it our no matter how long I let it cure. I spray a test piece of plastic card [with Purity Seal] and then apply Dulcote after about eight hours. If it flattens then I can spray the vehicles with Dulcote, if not then I wait until the next day.
Time permitting I'll also airbrush the base coat on the marines.

November 23, 2004
I am still painting the black on the vehicles, takes awhile. I did add a green/purple wash for shadow at the plate joins and indentions. Really helps to give the model more depth. The tracks also got the same wash to weather them. After the black I have a tonne of options, I think that I will do view ports, and exhausts next. The view ports will be done with Jade Green and the exhausts will be based with Burnt Umber [Vallejo 941] and then highlighted by adding Space Wolf Grey, thinning and centerweight highlighting. This will result in a burnt/weathered metal look.

November 23, 2004
Well, after a late night of playing The Third Age [great LoTR RPG for the XBox] with my girlfriend I am ready to get back to the army.
I did the base on the tracks and also did all the black painting on the dread last night. Today should see some pretty serious movement on the vehicle front. I will weather the tracks and any other metal areas first then I'll move on to blackening the overspray areas. I should then be ready for the edge highlight. I will likely do two layer of edging but one might suffice. I am following, in an adapted way, the advice of Tony Greenland in his Panzer Modelling book.
For the vehicles I used Shadow Grey [Citadel Colours] as the base on a black prime. I then did a 80% coverage with a mix of Shadow and Space Wolf Grey [60/40]. This helps to lighten the overall vehicle in anticipation of the next highlight. The next layer was 40/60, Shadow and Space Wolf. The last layer was 100% Space Wolf. This dramatic jump can be done with an airbrush for good center weight highlighting but would not be possible with a paint brush.

November 22, 2004
So, I am done another layer with the airbrush. 2 hours again for all 6 vehicles, dread and speeder. I have also varnished them with Dulcote in preparation for tomorrow. I wish I would have thought to snap a picture prior to varnishing since it darkens the work some. I took three shots of the tanks [2 tanks in each], two shots of the dread and two for the speeder. They can be found here. Once I get the edge highlights on I will be much happier with the look.
Later tonight I will wash all the marines and let them dry in anticipation of priming this week sometime. I will also be airbrushing a base coat and likely a number of other layers as well. It works so well for giving seamless blends without really taking that much time.

November 22, 2004
I have now finished the second highlight on the vehicles. They now are really looking good. It took 2 hours to do all the vehicles. One more coat to go and then it is on to details and edge highlighting. In today's shot of my building and spraying station [sorry it is a bit out of focus] you can see two very important items. A nitrile glove and a tensor bandage. The glove [any kind of skin tight glove will do]is for my left hand to prevent fingerprints from forming as I hold the model. The paint goes on thin, kind of like a liquid powder and so finger prints can be seen easily. The tensor is to tightly wrap my right hand and wrist. Airbrushing is hard on your hands, many artists use an airbrushing glove to relieve strain. I don't have one since I don't airbrush enough and the bandage works just fine. It also allows for a steadier trigger manipulation resulting in more consistent coverage.

I have been asked by a few people what kind of airbrush I use. It is a Testors A470. It is a good solid beginners dual action airbrush with spring loaded tips for easy of use. I use the acrylic general purpose brush [black tip] for most of the work. I also use a simple oil free compressor. It does not have a reservoir tank and while I make due I think that a better compressor would greatly improve my skill.

I will be moving on to the final airbrush layer momentarily. I will have pics up in the next 3-4 hours.

November 22, 2004
Well, lots of pictures today. I finished building everyone and find that I am 2 backpacks short. I used an extra plastic one for the command rhino and I bitzed one while trying to get parts for Skoll...lesson learned, don't cut it so close with parts. I'll order them from GW today and will have them by the time I get around to painting the last Grey Hunter pack.
The Blood Claw that I thought I was missing turned up out of the mess around my building area. He had fallen off at some point. By the time I found him I had already built up another marine that is way more full of character. The replacement for the missing Blood Claw is here.
Wolf Guard Tyr is done being sculpted on and can be found in his entry in the Army Background link above.
Wolf Guard Vidar is done and can be found in the Army Background link above.
Pictures of each of the Blood Claw packs as well as the Grey Hunter packs can also be found in the Army Background link above.
A picture of my favorite Grey Hunter and some other models with some sculpting added can be found here.

November 21, 2004
Hey, no post yesterday...Today should see at least one more update after this one. Yesterday and most of today I have been building and sculpting on the squads. Wolf Guard Leader Tyr is finished and I hope to have pics tonight. He looks like a mad barbarian! I now have a favorite Grey Hunter model and he will be up soon. I also have a Grey Hunter with Conan hair and a prominent brow. It is Arnold the Hunter. :) Converting with bolters sure is a pain. I am needing to use extra CC sprues to make the bolters wieldable in one hand and to give them CC weapons.
The metal wolf backpacks are taking a long time to clean and remove flash. I also broke everyone in packs and found that I was missing a Blood Claw. This necessitated a full build and a base sculpt. He looks pretty cool and will have a fair bit of sculpting on him. So far at least each model is slightly converted with a repositioned arm. Some have both arms done and some have multiple reposes for each arm and some have sculpted detail as well. Still no progress on the vehicles, I really want to finish the builds of the troops!

November 19, 2004
Still no pictures of the vehicles since I got into finishing what I started yesterday. I do however have lots of pictures. Rune Priest Futhark is at the final green stage. Brother Gungner's [Dread] base is done. All the bases for all the foot models are now done. Wolf Guard leader Tyr is at an almost finished sculpting stage. Wolf Guard leader Vidar is also done but I didn't get any pics of him. I'll try to do that tomorrow.
I will try to get the rest of the plate work done for the vehicles this weekend as well as finish Tyr and do some builds for the rest of the squads. Since Futhark, the 2 Wolf guard and the 6 scouts are all black I will paint them in a group. The rest of the army will be done in 2x10 an 1x11 groups.

November 18, 2004
I woke up with a tight neck from doing the airbrushing. This was due to improper ergonomics since I don't know where everything should be for airbrushing. It is important when doing an army to listen to your body and respond immediately. My original finger injury came from pushing too hard on the Tau. It just means that I am doing other things today. I have built the rune priest and he looks fantastic. Just have to do the sculpting and finish the base. While doing the priest I was drilling into the top of his head and my pin drill bit broke. This resulted in the broken end of the drill slipping over and driving through my nail into the nailbed. I am sure that most of you have drilled into your fingers, I know I have, but this was pretty special. Bled pretty good and still throbs. First blood for the army in true Space Wolf style. More base sculpting today and whatever else I can find to build and sculpt. Hope to have pics of Futhark the rune priest later today.

November 17, 2004
After I stopped airbrushing I started the builds for the remaining models [2 Grey Hunter squads and a Blood Claw squad]. I also sculpted 14 of the 40 bases, sculpted a couple of pelts, built the Blood Claw Wolf Guard Vidar, and attached the scouts to their sculpted bases. Steady work is needed to keep the ball rolling and the variety is a very good thing. More pictures tomorrow.

November 17, 2004
Well, all the plate work might have been a bit ambitious for one day. I have the base coat and second layer done on all the vehicles including the dread and speeder. They should all be done tomorrow if all goes well.
I had to stop and switch to sculpting bases since the dual action of pushing and pulling back with my index finger was becoming a strain. It is just an activity I am not used to and so 8 hours was enough for one day. Pictures of the vehicles can be found here.
You can also see my painting station [above] as of yesterday. I'll try to snap a shot every day or so for interests sake.

November 16, 2004
A bunch more WiP shots are up as are finished shots of Skoll. I am very happy with the final outcome and can't wait for more models to shape up.
I am now doing the tedious task of painting the parts of the vehicles that the primer didn't hit. After that I will be building more models and sculpting bases. Tomorrow I think that I will fire up the airbrush and do all the plate work on the vehicles.

November 16, 2004
Those early pictures of Skoll are now up. They are on his page past the Greens. He will be done today and I will have finished pics up here as well as in Gallery VI. All the characters, wolfguard and veterans [scouts] will have black armour.

November 15, 2004
Not much to report from yesterday. Did a bit more painting on Skoll and added a small amount of green stuff fur under the head of the wolf head on his shoulder. The section below the wolf's ear was just too straight and looked obvious. I added some fur and now it blends into the rest of the model better.
I will finish his beard and then take a few WiP shots of Skoll. I will be focusing all my attention on him today so by the end of the day he should have come along pretty far.

November 13, 2004
Hello, well not a lot going on with the army today. I got to bed at 2am and got up late then I had real life stuff to attend to. Tonight is an SCA feast so this will be the only update for today. I was able to prime all the vehicles and Skoll as well as put down some base colours for him. I will have some progress shots tomorrow of Skoll.
I have already had a number of requests to sell the scouts and lord Skoll. I am sorry to say that they are not for sale. With regards to those that wanted copies, I don't do copy work so if you want me to do scouts that is fine but they will look different. Same goes for the Battle Leader Skoll, I will do another large space wolf but he will not look the same.

November 12, 2004
I guess I was wrong when I said I'd be done for the day. I washed Skoll with hot soapy water and a tooth brush and his eyebrows came off. Oh well, I just re-sculpted his brow and forehead and he looks even better. Made him look angry and brooding. I doubt I'll get new pics of his face up prior to painting but we shall see.

November 12, 2004
Wolf Guard Battle Leader Skoll Hurgan is now built and sculpted and is in the army background. That is it from me today. I will likely paint Skoll tomorrow as it is just too much to resist.

November 12, 2004
Pictures of Battle Group Tiwaz [verteran scouts] are now up in the army background. Also, builds of the vehicles are here. Both of these sets of pictures are bare plastic and greens. Just showing the progress to date.
Pictures of Wolf Guard Battle Leader Skoll Hurgan, the largest wolf brother since Russ, will be up after I have lunch.

November 11, 2004
The lord is coming along nicely. I was going to have his frost blade be a long sword but decided to change that for a double headed axe. Just looks meaner. He has the pre heresy roman style shoulders as seen in some of the art for the Horus Heresy game. While he is young for a battle leader he is not without facial hair. A triple braided beard with a long mustache complement his top knot and bald head. I am off to bed after nearly 12 hours of building and such. Tomorrow I'll have pics of the scouts and vehicles for sure. The lord if all goes well.

November 11, 2004
Well the scouts are almost sculpted. On fellow still needs hair and then I am done. Pictures will be on the site tomorrow. I have gotten about 40% done the lord as well. He is a giant of a man, about 50% larger than a normal space marine. I wanted him to be very imposing and man is he ever. WiP pics might be up tomorrow depending on my inclination to show in-progress sculpting work. Finished pics should be up on Saturday.
Many thanks to the fellow in Sweden that pointed out that the name of the Rune Priest was female. He has been renamed Futhark.

November 11, 2004
Now I begin the army in earnest. I am done building the vehicles, a blood claw squad and the scouts. I am currently sculpting on the scouts and hope to have them done today. I also have all the parts needed to complete the build of the army with the GW bitz coming late last week. I thought I had 2 tubes of green stuff in the freezer but found that I only had one. This means I will need to order some more since all the bases for the army will be sculpted and I don't know if a single tube is enough. Pictures and comments up to and including the 11th of November can be found here.
More pictures of Veteran Brother Mjolnir [Venerable Dreadnought] can be found in the Army Background section.

November 1, 2004
I have made a few changes to the army list. Basically it is the same but I decided to use Mjolnir [2001 GD Silver model] as the venerable dread. He has different weapons than the dread in the first list and so I was able to free up a few more points for minor changes.
I now have all the Forgeworld parts and the boxes of tanks and troops. I am still waiting on the bitz from GW. If anyone from GW CDN mail order reads this you might want to suggest the option of FedEx shipping [to higher powers] since the 2 weeks + it takes to get parts is way too long. I will do some building of vehicles in the coming days in my breaks from the Emperor vs Horus diorama. I plan on doing a conversion for the multimelta of the speeder first off. I trimmed off the flash tags for the reinforced armour from Forgeworld. I must say that the 3 tags on the top of the door reinforcement caused the top of that section to crater pretty bad. I find that when I pay as much as I do for Forgeworld gear I'd like it to be a bit more polished and refined. That is not to say that I can't trim flash tags but those three were a real pain. Also, the Space Wolf icon pack had some issues. The large icon at the top of the wolf head with the crossed swords is difficult to remove from the backing. There is very thin resin to thick resin under the flash tag preventing the tag from being cut off at all. If you do cut it it caves in the top of the symbol. So, each tag must be ground down with exceptional care being given to the areas of very thin resin. I hope to have some pictures tomorrow of vehicles and the cratered tops of the door armour.

October 23, 2004
While I won't be doing any work for a bit on the models I am already thinking of how I will make the project happen. I am going to do sculpted stone bases with snow for the army. I will likely do all the bases at once as it will go faster that way. Once the bases are done I will likely clean and assemble all the foot models and vehicles. The three rhinos and razorback have extra armour [reinforced] from Forgeworld and I will add it at this time. While I love Forgeworld, I have built and used enough to know that I should expect some difficulties with fit. I can hope...
This assembly is a very tedious process especially when 2000pts is done all at once. I am thinking that it will take about two days. For the sake of time I am sealing up the rhinos and razorback. This will allow me to spend more time on the outside. The next step will be to sculpt detail on the vehicles so they look more Space Wolfish. I will add furs and skulls as well as Space Wolf icons from Forgeworld. By the time I am done this I will be itching to paint so I will leave the sculpting and conversion of troops for later and do the vehicles.
For the vehicles I will have approx 5 pre-made blends of grey up to Space Wolf grey ready to use. They will be thinned down for use with the airbrush and won't be usable on the troops. I will then airbrush all the vehicles [transports, tanks, speeder and dreads], apply glazes and washes, edge highlight and then weather. Once this is done I will do the detail work like icons, view ports and the like. Not sure how long this will take but I expect it to go pretty quickly thanks in part to the airbrush.
After the vehicles are done I will make up 5 blends of grey that are a bit thicker for painting the troops with. Then it is time to sculpt and convert the troops. All the wolf guard except one will be sculpted as will the wolf lord. The scouts will be made from Blood Claw and Catachan parts and transformed into elite Space Wolves with sculpted details. I will add some detail to the rank and file but for the most part they will be stock troops. Once I am done all the sculpting and converting I will paint them in groups of 10. The scouts and wolfguard will all be done at the same time since they will have the most furs and detail. Once I am done the troops I will do the two characters as a treat. It all looks pretty easy but I expect some snags along the way. Not sure where...

October 22, 2004
So it begins. I hope to post daily once I start work on the army. I will try to have pictures of where I am at the end of each day and maybe some mid day shots as well.
I have ordered and received the bulk of the army from my local RT store. It was a very large box of stock that is for sure. I will have a picture of it when I get the rest of the stuff I ordered. I have a bunch of Forgeworld stuff coming from the Warstore and metal bits coming from GW. Each model will have a wolf head pack and metal shoulder markings for unit designation. They will also have the mark of the rampant wolf for Ragnar's great company.