As I looked out of the window this morning and saw a layer of freshly-fallen snow on the ground, I couldn't help but think it was a good omen for my Fenrisian warriors as they prepared to fight their first ever battle.
The last four weeks has seen me spending hour upon hour painting the basecoats on my army - at the moment a humble 1500-odd points' worth - and I thankfully managed to finish them a day before battle.
They weren't pretty, they weren't finished, but they were ready to fight.
In the end, my opponent and I agreed on a 1200 point battle which meant that I had to take a fairly bare-bones force in order to boost the number of models on the field - one special weapon and one heavy weapon in total, the rest mainly boltguns.
I did however manage to field a Wolf Guard pack with Jump Packs and twin Wolf Claws which weighed in at a massive 350-odd points for the five models.
We played a fairly basic scenario with five objectives to capture. No bells and whistles for our first battle, just a straight fight with a clear mission.
And my enemy? None other than our fellow battle brothers, the Blood Angels!
My Wolf Guard squad worked against me numbers-wise as my twenty-nine models were faced with around forty Space Marines across the board. Given that I had a combat-geared army, the sheer number of bolters bearing down upon me was a great concern!
To cut a long blog short, we lost in then end - 3 victory points to 2. It was a close call, but the weight of numbers and some shocking tactical decisions on my part led to something of a massacre.
My enemy fielded a small unit of just four Death Company, and they were complete monsters in combat! Things started well for me when I charged my Wolf Guard into combat with one of his Assault squads and completely massacred them in one round! I was quite impressed, but he answered by cutting through a nine-man pack of Blood Claws like they weren't even there!
I wasted one of my Assault Cannon-armed Terminators by putting him with a pack of Grey Hunters and spending the entire game guarding one of the objectives - the only thing that came into range of my one heavy weapon was an empty Rhino - which of course he destroyed. Still, this warrior had no real effect on the game whatsoever.
Njal performed well, but I managed to lose the game with him in the last turn by forgetting to use the Chain Lightning result on the Lord Of Tempests table on the one Assault Marine that was holding one of the objectives. If I had managed to kill him with it, the game would have been a draw!!
Still, it was a fantastic game which flowed really well considering neither of us have played 40K in ten years (and therefore never with these rules), and I can't wait for my next battle.
Now to finish those paint jobs...
Saturday, 27 November 2010
Sunday, 7 November 2010
Not Quite Dead...
Just a quick update for today.
Having spent the last thirty-six hours in bed suffering from lots of shivering, vomiting (and various other inconveniences) - not to mention a severe case of Too Much Information - I have now lost two nights of painting.
Still, no need to panic yet. I'm back on my feet - almost fighting fit - and ready for a nice relaxing afternoon of catching up.
It's not the end of the world, as hopefully my years as an amateur film producer will give me the ability to shift around a few things on the schedule and get right back on track. Note the word 'hopefully' there...
Sorry there's nothing more exciting to report at the moment, but I really have to get back to the brushes!
Hopefully I'll be back soon with a more promising update.
Having spent the last thirty-six hours in bed suffering from lots of shivering, vomiting (and various other inconveniences) - not to mention a severe case of Too Much Information - I have now lost two nights of painting.
Still, no need to panic yet. I'm back on my feet - almost fighting fit - and ready for a nice relaxing afternoon of catching up.
It's not the end of the world, as hopefully my years as an amateur film producer will give me the ability to shift around a few things on the schedule and get right back on track. Note the word 'hopefully' there...
Sorry there's nothing more exciting to report at the moment, but I really have to get back to the brushes!
Hopefully I'll be back soon with a more promising update.
Wednesday, 3 November 2010
The Glory So Far...
For the last few days, I've been throwing myself into basecoating my Space Wolves army in preparation for their (and my) first battle on the 27th November.
And what better place to cut their teeth than Warhammer World, in the heart of Games Workshop's HQ?
We really are looking forward to our first battle, despite the main fight being with the rulebook! It's been over ten years since either me or my opponent have played 40K, so obviously we've never played with this current rule set. I think I might have to bookmark the important sections of the rulebook, like how to use a Range Ruler* and what the difference is between a chainsword and a lascannon...
*(As a complete aside, a friend of mine recently mentioned that the Games Workshop Range Rulers are not the most accurate measuring devices sometimes. He took two of them and placed them next to each other, and by the time he got from the base to the tip, there was about half an inch difference between the measurements on them!!)
In all seriousness though, I don't think it'll take us long to pick it up again, especially as our armies don't have much in the way of complicated weaponry or rules. We'll probably only have one tank on the battlefield - and that's a Rhino, if you want to call it a tank...!
But before that, I have quite a tight painting schedule to stick to. So far, I've painted the black areas and most of the metallics...
And what better place to cut their teeth than Warhammer World, in the heart of Games Workshop's HQ?
We really are looking forward to our first battle, despite the main fight being with the rulebook! It's been over ten years since either me or my opponent have played 40K, so obviously we've never played with this current rule set. I think I might have to bookmark the important sections of the rulebook, like how to use a Range Ruler* and what the difference is between a chainsword and a lascannon...
*(As a complete aside, a friend of mine recently mentioned that the Games Workshop Range Rulers are not the most accurate measuring devices sometimes. He took two of them and placed them next to each other, and by the time he got from the base to the tip, there was about half an inch difference between the measurements on them!!)
In all seriousness though, I don't think it'll take us long to pick it up again, especially as our armies don't have much in the way of complicated weaponry or rules. We'll probably only have one tank on the battlefield - and that's a Rhino, if you want to call it a tank...!
But before that, I have quite a tight painting schedule to stick to. So far, I've painted the black areas and most of the metallics...
Alright, they don't look like much at the moment (if you read my previous posts, I'm sure you can see the problems I had with the spray gun - meaning hand-painting most of the armour is now on the cards), but I'm pretty confident they'll look good when they're done.
As I said, I have a fairly tight schedule, and here it is...
(DRUM ROLL...)
Wednesday 3rd: Finish metallics
Thursday 4th: Fur, gun straps
Friday 5th: Animal skins & tongues
Saturday 6th-Monday 8th: Bone, stone and parchment
Tuesday 9th: Hair and faces
Thursday 11th: Plasma & power weapons.
Friday 12th-Monday 15th: Reds (AWAY)
Tuesday 16th: Yellows and Purity Seals
Wednesday 17th: Crux Terminatus, Scout trousers, gravel bases
Thursday 18th: Paint bases
Friday 19th-Thursday 25th: Power armour and any extra bits.
I'm pretty sure this list covers most of what I need to do, but there will inevitably be the odd bits and pieces that I haven't accounted for.
The only unknown element is how long the armour will take to paint. I've given myself just short of a week, but on thirty-four models, that's still nearly six a night, so I might get a bit pressed towards the end. The best thing I can try and do is to claw back some time on the smaller, easier bits and then maybe I can get a day or two extra.
Of course, that's not even taking into consideration the Drop Pod...
Friday, 29 October 2010
Citadel Spray Gun: FAIL.
Hmmm, I'm rather disappointed at the moment with the performance of my spray gun. I attempted this morning to blast my entire Space Wolves army with their Power Armour basecoat, and the results are patchy (quite literally) to say the least.
Now, I know of a lot of people who have had issues with the spray gun, but having used it a few times myself, I always thought that it was okay - you just needed a bit of jiggery-pokery with some of the bits, but then it'd work fine.
So, naturally, when I absolutely needed it to work, it didn't.
The paint flow was very haphazard, sometimes really thick, sometimes like water and sometimes just air. I was using Games Workshop's own propellant (trying two separate cans) and varying the 'paint thickness' nozzle position, but couldn't get a consistant result, even after changing the paint thickness both ways.
Unfortunately, this has left me with a part-basecoated army (luckily more done than not...), and I must now paint in the rest of the armour by hand as I don't want to use up the last of my colour mix on something that may well not work.
Still, it's not the end of the world as what I did manage to do has saved me a good many days of painting by hand - it just means that the process hasn't saved as much time as it could have done.
Also, in the gun's favour, it was extremely cold and windy outside, and I imagine the low temperature would have had a massive effect on the propellant flow - after all, the can will begin to freeze on the outside in balmy summer weather!
I will still attempt to use the gun when I come to paint my Drop Pod, but I must now put that to the very bottom of my list, lest I should run out of paint for the main force!!
For now, I'm going to put the Power Armour on the back-burner, as I will inevitably need to touch it up after I finish the rest of the basecoat. I'll paint in everything else and then sort the armour last - it just means that until the very final brush stroke, these Wolves are going to look a MESS!
Anyway, if anyone has any tips on using the gun, or could recomend a similar tool, please let me know!
Now, I know of a lot of people who have had issues with the spray gun, but having used it a few times myself, I always thought that it was okay - you just needed a bit of jiggery-pokery with some of the bits, but then it'd work fine.
So, naturally, when I absolutely needed it to work, it didn't.
The paint flow was very haphazard, sometimes really thick, sometimes like water and sometimes just air. I was using Games Workshop's own propellant (trying two separate cans) and varying the 'paint thickness' nozzle position, but couldn't get a consistant result, even after changing the paint thickness both ways.
Unfortunately, this has left me with a part-basecoated army (luckily more done than not...), and I must now paint in the rest of the armour by hand as I don't want to use up the last of my colour mix on something that may well not work.
Still, it's not the end of the world as what I did manage to do has saved me a good many days of painting by hand - it just means that the process hasn't saved as much time as it could have done.
Also, in the gun's favour, it was extremely cold and windy outside, and I imagine the low temperature would have had a massive effect on the propellant flow - after all, the can will begin to freeze on the outside in balmy summer weather!
I will still attempt to use the gun when I come to paint my Drop Pod, but I must now put that to the very bottom of my list, lest I should run out of paint for the main force!!
For now, I'm going to put the Power Armour on the back-burner, as I will inevitably need to touch it up after I finish the rest of the basecoat. I'll paint in everything else and then sort the armour last - it just means that until the very final brush stroke, these Wolves are going to look a MESS!
Anyway, if anyone has any tips on using the gun, or could recomend a similar tool, please let me know!
Thursday, 28 October 2010
The Wolves At The Door...
I write this with the heady smell of polystyrene cement still lingering in the air, mixed with the accrid tinge of Chaos Black spray. Safe to say, my head hurts!
It has been well worth it though, as the last couple of days of hard work, cutting and filing, gluing and spraying, means that I now have about 1500pts of Space Wolves ready to be painted - not forgetting the 350pts already under my belt.
All that remains before the fine brushwork can begin is a liberal blast from the Citadel Spray Gun - which in the space of five minutes should finish eighty percent of the basecoats! Hurrah!
Mind you, it's after that that the hard work will begin. I only have a few weeks to get these lupine maniacs up to scratch - well, to gaming standard - so I'll be burning the brush at both ends come the weekend...
But anyway, I'm going to remain optimistic - because the goal is easily achievable, with a bit of discipline, that is!
Anyway, here are some pictures of The Great Howling before the Chaos Black spray went on:
It has been well worth it though, as the last couple of days of hard work, cutting and filing, gluing and spraying, means that I now have about 1500pts of Space Wolves ready to be painted - not forgetting the 350pts already under my belt.
All that remains before the fine brushwork can begin is a liberal blast from the Citadel Spray Gun - which in the space of five minutes should finish eighty percent of the basecoats! Hurrah!
Mind you, it's after that that the hard work will begin. I only have a few weeks to get these lupine maniacs up to scratch - well, to gaming standard - so I'll be burning the brush at both ends come the weekend...
But anyway, I'm going to remain optimistic - because the goal is easily achievable, with a bit of discipline, that is!
Anyway, here are some pictures of The Great Howling before the Chaos Black spray went on:
As you can see, I'm going to complete the spray coats on the Drop Pod before removing it from the sprue - and then I'm going to paint it is stages as I assemble it. This may take a little longer than is available, so I'm going to leave this one until last. It's a big model that only makes up 35pts of my army, so fun though it may be, I can certainly do without it...
Here are my Wolf Guard Terminators! (Thanks again for these, WiredWrong). You'll notice a couple of hastily-bashed Combi-Flamers in the pack. I did want to make all of the Storm Bolters into Combi's (Sven Bloodhowl's Great Company love their flame weapons, apparently), but there is a distinct lack of flame weapons in the Space Wolves boxes. I managed to cobble together two Combi-Flamers by hacking up the Heavy Flamer that comes with the Terminators.
The best thing about this unit is that you can split it up and have each of them accompany one of your other Wolf Packs (except for Scouts), so each of my five-man packs of Blood Claws and Grey Hunters will have a tooled-up Terminator leading them. Because or the army's lack of heavy weapons at the moment, those four Chainfists (2D6+Strength Armour Penetration) will really help to open up any tanks I come across. Hopefully. As with the Combi-weapons, two of the Chainfists have been converted using spare Chainswords.
These guys are the hardest-hitting pack in my army. Wolf Guard with twin Wolf Claws and Jump Packs. They are a staggering 70-odd points per model, so hopefully they'll live up to the cost. Their Wolf Claws, skills and Attacks mean that they should get four Attacks in the first round of combat, being able to re-roll either their To Hit or To Wound rolls. Oh, and they're Rending weapons as well.
The main bulk of the Howling is made of three five-man Grey Hunters packs and two five-man Blood Claws packs. The Grey Hunters should have all had a Plasma Gun, Wolf Standard and one member armed with a Plasma Pistol and Power Weapon / Power Fist...
...Like the chaps above.
However, as in the example above, I somehow got carried away gluing on Boltguns and completely forgot the Plasma for one of my packs. Still, I'll probably be grateful for that when the other two Plasma Guns get hot and melt their carriers! The only thing I'm not overly happy about is that the three Wolf Standards for the Grey Hunters are identical. It would have been nice to have them all different, but time just doesn't allow it. I may be tempted to chop a couple of them off after November and convert new ones for them...
And finally, the Wolf Scouts. I decided to go for a Heavy Bolter and Bolt Guns, again because the army lacks a great deal of punch with regards to firepower. I was tempted to add lots of icons and pelts and other wolf-y stuff to them, but in the end decided that they're meant to be a stealth unit and nothing gives you away quicker than the approaching sound of your wolf-tooth necklace rattling away...
And that's it, apart from the Blood Claws, which I've already shown, Njal and Lukas the Trickster (who may or may not be painted for this challenge... we'll see what time we get...).
If you're wondering where they are at the moment, they're frantically ringing round to see how many six-seater minicabs they'll need to get everyone back to the Fang. Njal says they're having trouble finding ones that'll accomodate their mead, spiced meats and severed Ork heads...
Monday, 25 October 2010
We're Still Here...
A friend of mine recently asked (rather sarcastically) whether or not I thought that, as my blog was called 'The Great Howling', I ought to mention my Space Wolves once in a while.
My initial response to him isn't really suitable for print, but it did make me wonder whether I shouldn't be focusing a bit more time on what is supposed to be my primary army project.
It's not that nothing's been happening with them, it's just that as they were always an 'ongoing concern', it has been very easy to push them aside in favour of working on something with a more immediate reward (for example, Blood Bowl teams, etc.).
However, since this year's Bunker Bowl tournament is now done and dusted and the new league doesn't start until next year (just you wait for my newly converted Wood Elf team!!!), I've decided that although I'm still going to be getting in regular games of everybody's favourite miniature-based sport, my painting time is going to be completely devoted to my neglected Space Wolves.
And it's because of this that I've accepted a challenge from my rather sarcastic friend - to get at least 1000pts of Space Wolves basecoated by the time I go and visit him in Nottingham so that we can play 40k against each other for the first time in over ten years.
Now, flying in the face of my 'finished-or-bust' philosophy, I must stress that I'm going to basecoat them. Let's be realistic - I'll never get them completely finished in time!
However, it does then leave it to me to work as hard and fast as I can to do more than their basecoats before November for the sake of my own pride.
So what does this entail, I hear you ask?
Well, so far, completed, I have:
My initial response to him isn't really suitable for print, but it did make me wonder whether I shouldn't be focusing a bit more time on what is supposed to be my primary army project.
It's not that nothing's been happening with them, it's just that as they were always an 'ongoing concern', it has been very easy to push them aside in favour of working on something with a more immediate reward (for example, Blood Bowl teams, etc.).
However, since this year's Bunker Bowl tournament is now done and dusted and the new league doesn't start until next year (just you wait for my newly converted Wood Elf team!!!), I've decided that although I'm still going to be getting in regular games of everybody's favourite miniature-based sport, my painting time is going to be completely devoted to my neglected Space Wolves.
And it's because of this that I've accepted a challenge from my rather sarcastic friend - to get at least 1000pts of Space Wolves basecoated by the time I go and visit him in Nottingham so that we can play 40k against each other for the first time in over ten years.
Now, flying in the face of my 'finished-or-bust' philosophy, I must stress that I'm going to basecoat them. Let's be realistic - I'll never get them completely finished in time!
However, it does then leave it to me to work as hard and fast as I can to do more than their basecoats before November for the sake of my own pride.
So what does this entail, I hear you ask?
Well, so far, completed, I have:
Njal Stormcaller...
Six Blood Claws...
Um...
Ummmm....
Well, okay, that's it - but Njal is over a quarter of the points of the whole army, so that's something!!
And the rest, well:
Another four Blood Claws...
Lukas the Trickster...
Ten Grey Hunters...
Five Grey Hunters or Blood Claws...
Five Wolf Guard with jump packs and Wolf Claws...
A Drop Pod...
Five Wolf Scouts...
Five Wolf Guard Terminators (in the post)...
I reckon that should easily break the 1000pt mark. Saying that, I may not include Lukas as I want to do a top-notch paint job on him, so I may either see what time I get after the main army is painted to a gaming standard, or simply wait until after the November game.
Whichever I decide, no doubt the next few days will be spent feverishly gluing fiddly plastic bits together before I blast them with my spray gun.
The challenge begins... NOW!!!
Oh, and as for the Wolf Guard Terminators that are in the post - I have to thank my sarcastic friend for those.
Cheers mate.
Friday, 22 October 2010
Picking the Bones
Well, I have to say that the Bunker Bowl tournament last weekend was absolutely fantastic. The Chelmsford Bunker really pulled out all the stops to make it a fun, friendly and exciting two days of Blood Bowl action.
As you will no doubt be aware if you read the last two posts, I had some fantastic games, albeit with some unfortunate results!
The thing is, that's what you can expect from Blood Bowl - nothing will ever go quite the way it's meant to. And that's what makes it one of the most entertaining games to play.
I just want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who took part in the tournament, especially the opponents I faced - but more so, I want to give a huge thanks to everyone who gave their time to plan and run the event. Awesome stuff!
Finally, although we may not have won many games, the Hackers and me did come away with the trophy for 'Best Painted Team', which for me (as an aspiring miniature painter) means far more than the coveted Bunker Bowl trophy itself.
But enough of Blood Bowl for a little while... My next post will bring news of an exciting new challenge:
As you will no doubt be aware if you read the last two posts, I had some fantastic games, albeit with some unfortunate results!
The thing is, that's what you can expect from Blood Bowl - nothing will ever go quite the way it's meant to. And that's what makes it one of the most entertaining games to play.
I just want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who took part in the tournament, especially the opponents I faced - but more so, I want to give a huge thanks to everyone who gave their time to plan and run the event. Awesome stuff!
Finally, although we may not have won many games, the Hackers and me did come away with the trophy for 'Best Painted Team', which for me (as an aspiring miniature painter) means far more than the coveted Bunker Bowl trophy itself.
But enough of Blood Bowl for a little while... My next post will bring news of an exciting new challenge:
The Space Wolves are mobilizing.
Reinforcements have arrived.
The Great Howling has begun...
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