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!