My Little Tank

Well, I thought it was high time I actually put online an update for my much-neglected Space Wolves army.

It's been rather quiet on the Fenris front for a little while now - what with Blood Bowl tournaments and various other projects going on - with very little happening in the way of painting.  I have 1500 points-worth hovering between basecoated and finished (at a ratio of about 80-20 respectively) at the moment, but I'm probably going to ignore the basecoated miniatures for a while (as they're gameable) and concentrate on the few models which haven't even been undercoated yet.

I played a game last week which I managed to lose in spectacular fashion and it highlighted a couple of important points for me.

Mainly, I am no tactician.  I was playing against an Imperial Guard army, so in my close-combat hubris I decided to simply charge in and attack any units that came into range.  Space Wolves?  Against Guard?  In combat?  Easy, I thought...

Ignoring the fact that I would attack last, I stupidly charged my Terminators armed with chainfists into a squad armed with lots of power weapons and led by Straken.

Needless to say, I got slapped around the battlefield in a comprehensive yet entertaining manner.

It really was a brilliant game, though I was wiped out to the man.  It taught me that having a crackling, electrically-charged fist that size of a camel does not automatically guarantee victory in combat.

This was however just one of my mistakes.  The main one I think was not being able to get my close combat army (some of my squads didn't even have guns!) into the heart of the enemy's rather effective gun line quickly enough.

So, here is one way to solve the problem:

MY LITTLE TANK

I've always wanted a Land Raider, so I thought it was about time I bought one for my Great Howling.  As you can see from the pictures, I've added a few touches to make it a beast of Fenris, the main of which are the furs slung across the hull.

Of course, as you can see, I've done it the hard way and have assembled the model in its entirety before actually painting it, but though it'll make it harder when it comes to all the fiddly bits, I think the trade off is worth it in the fact that I needed to see the model as a whole before I was comfortable adding the large amounts of 'green'.

I've added a few bits from the Space Wolves Pack sprues that I have scattered around my house, as you can see in the close-up below:

Here's a closer look at the furs that I greened in.  It's a very simple method of laying a relatively thick skin over the area of the furs and then scoring roughly and quickly with a knife.

One final cheeky touch is on the assault ramp.  I really wanted to highlight the 'friendly' rivalry between the Lion and the Wolf, so this blob, after a little tidying, will be painted as a Dark Angels banner for my Wolf Guard to wipe their filth-caked feet on after a hard day's slaughter...

And that's the easy bit done.  The tough bit is to actually get the beast painted...

Hope you like it so far!

Blood Bowl-tastic...

Just a quick Sunday afternoon update...

Here is a Human team I've recently painted, this time simply to gaming standard...

Hopefully, some Space Wolves news soon...

Green Glade Hackers - Old School!

Well, now that my shiny new Wood Elf team is finished and already playing their first games, I thought it was high time for a quick post to say farewell to the original Green Glade Hackers.

Cheers guys, you lost me a lot of games - but in all fairness, I did get a lot of you killed.  Many times.

So I suppose we're even?

Oh well, I'll miss you all anyway!

The Green Glade Hackers - Redux

Blimey.  It's been a very long time indeed since I last managed to put in a proper blog, but for the last six months I've been knee-deep in bits of Dark Eldar and Wood Elf kits - as well as the odd Space Wolves Long Fangs squad.

Sadly for the Space Wolves, they didn't really get much of a look in (I promise, promise, promise I'll get some more of them painted soon...) as almost all of my hobby time was spent re-designing my Wood Elf Blood Bowl team in gloriously un-chippable plastic.

And finally, they're finished - rather conveniently (just) in time for this year's NAF Championship at Warhammer World, Lenton...

I've had a metal Wood Elf team for over a year now, most of which has been Green Stuff'd and converted quite nicely.  I used the standard GW mini's and, their having only two designs of linemen, I was quite eager to make them all to stand out as individual characters.  That said, I set to work with the Green Stuff and, despite having never used it before, the results were really quite nice.

The problem I found though was that after spending a great deal of time trying to give the team a paint-job that lived up to the character of the conversions, it was very frustrating having to touch up the numerous chips and scratches accrued every few games (being Wood Elves, they spend quite a lot of time being knocked onto their faces...) - this, even after three coats of varnish!

So, to cut a rather pointlessly long story short, I decided to re-make the team in plastic and give them similar conversions, although slightly more reserved... For example, ditching the billowing black cloak and gigantic dagger of 'The Auburn Assassin' and replacing it with a simple mask over his mouth.  The reason for this one in particular is that I have been asked on several occassions 'what does the Assassin do?'  The point is, there was often confusion with people who hadn't seen much of the Wood Elves in Blood Bowl as to whether my linemen were simply that or whether they were 'specialist' players.

Anyway, I started the conversions at the beginning of November last year using a box of Wood Elf Glade Guard, two boxes of Dark Eldar Wyches and one Lelith Hesperax blister.  After playing the BB computer game, I really liked the idea of having female Wardancers.  In fact, I decided to do a mixed team (although as many people will tell you, all Wood Elves are girls anyway...).

The conversions were finished by about Christmas, meaning that I have spent the last five months painting the sixteen-elf team.

And so, without further preamble...

THE GREEN GLADE HACKERS!!!

As you can see, I decided to base these miniatures  for use in competitions. It was all done very cheaply using an A4 sheet of 4mm plasticard, a Sainsbury's chopping board and a very handy mate with a 25mm hole-cutter...)

My lovely coaching staff are converted with Green Stuff from Greebo Miniature's fantastic Silvanian Elf range.  If you're interested in seeing more awesome mini's, their address is www.greebo.it.  They are a great company with wonderful miniatures and brilliant customer service.  I promise, they have in no way sponsored me to say that!

Another first for me is my use of modelled counters, rather than the cardboard ones from the Blood Bowl boxed game.  These were all made really easily using spare parts from the Wood Elf Glade Guard box.

Here we have my two Wardancers.  It is unfortunate that the thrower in the centre is out of focus as I hold her to be the best model in the team!  As you can see, the Wardancers are Lelith Hesperax (l) and a Dark Eldar Hekatrix (r) with minimal conversion.

In the middle row, you can see two of the four catchers I made, all of which are identifiable by their hoods.  At the front is 'Athelan the Wild' while in the back row you can see 'Thoroughly Dubious Duran' and 'Bloody Luckless Luthien' (middle and far right).

Here at the front is the toned-down 'Auburn Assassin', while in the back row you can just make our another heavily Green-Stuff'd version of 'Clooney the Bear'.

And there you have it.  As you can see, these Wood Elves are not as armour-light as the usual miniatures.  I liked the idea of leaving on a few of the armour plates and spiky bits of the Dark Eldar Wyches - although not too much as they are only an AV7 team.

The one survivor of the previous team is the Treeman, 'The Outrageous Girth'.  Having only completed him in October, I saw no reason to do him again as he stands (firm) really well with the new team.

I hope you like the all-new Hackers, I'd love to hear what you think!